Saturday, May 24, 2014

I'm the Director HTV

One of the teachers at my daughter's school asked me if I could make a t-shirt for the birthday of one of the other teachers.  The birthday teacher directs the fourth grade play, so she wanted it to say,"I'm the director, that's why," and maybe have a picture.  I suggested the clapboard from Movie Night.  She picked the fonts and colors, bought the shirt and I made it.

The shirt was a cotton/rayon blend so at first I had the iron set too low and the vinyl wouldn't stick.  Once I turned it up, it was fine.  The vinyl was all siser easyweed.

 
I love the way it came out!  'I'm', 'the', 'that's' and 'why' were cut from Cuttin Up Short Stack at 1.25 inches out of black.  'Director' was the Curtain Call font from Art Deco, with black layered over grey, at 1.5 inches.  The clapboard came from the digital Movie Night cart and was cut at 3.3 inches.  Remember to reverse any words so that they will read correctly.
 
Thanks for looking!

Thursday, May 22, 2014

DAB-Belle and the Beast

Now that the t-shirts are done, I'm back to working on my literally thousands of photos from two Disney trips.  I finally took pictures of the autograph book.  Here are Belle and the Beast from Dreams Come True:
 Belle's dress is Bazzill Bling for the yellow and DCWV glitter for the white, skin is CM Vanilla and her hair is CM Brown.  I added extra layers to her neckline and scallops in her skirt.  I cheated and drew in her eyes.  The page is 8x8 so I cut her at 7, I think.  Her earring is a rhinestone.
 I love the Beast!  His fur is cut from velvet/suede paper, which cut beautifully.  He's so soft and fuzzy, I made everybody feel him!  He's big, though, and filled the whole page, so while I had room for the autograph (Belle's, Beast doesn't sign), I didn't have room for a picture.  My album was getting pretty thick so this is not a flip page, like some of the others, so I just had to be content with no picture. 
Here's the double page spread together.  I cannot stress enough what a hit the homemade autograph book was, and well worth the time.  All of the characters took extra time with the kids looking at the books, and the girls liked to show them off while we waited in line.
 
Thanks for looking.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

HTV Field Trip Shirts Part 4

Here are the last of the shirts:
The moose came off Animal Kingdom.  When I originally tried to cut him at 6 in, it said he was too big, so I went down to 4.5 and he was tiny!  I recut him at 5.5.
In yesterday's post I mentioned how it can be hard to place the flock because the fuzz sticks to the plastic, making it opaque.  Here's an illustration of that.
So you can see that you can't even see the moose's ear through it and it's hard to see where to line it up.  But I love the look of the flock, so it's worth the challenge.
This snake came from Pet Shop.  I did a free hand on his tongue, because I didn't like the way the layers were designed for this project.  This was a second type of snake print vinyl that seemed a little thicker than the first, and has a little texture.  But it's shiny-sorry for the glare.
The bunny also came from Pet Shop.  The white is flocked.
Here's another picture showing the opacity of the plastic backing on the flock, compared to regular HTV.
Even the white was challenging to place.
The deer came from AK.  I freee hand cut a white accent for his tail, from flock.  His antlers are flocked as well.
For the teacher, we made an eagle, their school symbol.  I used the eagle off Wildlife and cut an extra head for the white, since they didn't have a layer for that.  The white is flock, so it's thicker, and you can see the line under the black where it ends.  Next time, I'll have to cut the white to go all the way under the black piece.
 
 
I absolutley love working with heat transfer vinyl.  The different materials are great.  I know the kids will love having the glitter and flock, and the jewelled eyes.  Thanks for looking!
 
 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Field Trip Shirts Part 3

Another five shirts, just five more to go after this!

The bear is from Animal Kingdom.  He's double fuzz-cinammon for his body and black for his little nose.  In the picture, it's hard to see the partial cut lines that separate his legs, but in person they are very clear.  The flock cut beautifully on the regular vinyl settings (3/3).
My plan was to choose animals naturally occuring in the area, but over the years the shirts have become a huge hit.  The first two times, I made them all myself but as the kids got older, they are more invested.  Several of the girls have come over to make their own.  I'm such a control freak, it's hard for me to let them pick, but I did.  So I have a chameleon, which doesn't live in the wild in New England. Ah, well!  We cut him off Pet Shop, skipping a few layers( like the branch he's posed on) and altering his tongue. I cut his head out of the red glitter and threw that away, keeping what I normally would have tossed, and cutting the tongue longer.
The turtle came from AK and ended up huge (another time I was sorry my AK doesn't work in my E2).  I cut around the top part of his shell to add the glitter layer.
The otters on Wildlife come as a pair, but all the other shirts have only one animal so I made a little alteration.  I placed my flock to only cover the one otter and a little of where they overlap, then free-hand cut off the extra.  Becuase so much of the fuzz sticks to the plastic after weeding, it's hard to see through to align the cuts and you can see along his head where there is extra black showing.
The last one for today is a very sparkly goldfish off AK, cut from orange siser easy weed and gold glitter.  She was super simple.  Again, we have an animal that doesn't live in the wild but she sure does sparkle!
 

 
 

Monday, May 19, 2014

Field Trip Shirts Part 2

Here are the next five shirts.  All were cut at 5 inches and I didn't bother revering the images as I didn't care which directions the animals were facing.

 The cardinal came from Winter Woodland and you can see I didn't do a great job lining it up, the yellow shows a bit.  I did a close up picture around the eye, so you could see the glitter.
 The rattlesnake came from Animal Kingdom and the vinyl is printed with the snake print.  This vinyl seems a little thinner, but it ironed on fine.  I added some black lines with a fabric marker as the snake print made it hard to see the partial cut lines in the design.  The tongue is glitter.
 The owl came from Animal Kingdom.
The raccoon is from Animal Kingdom and his black parts are flock.  I found the flock a little hard to line up in dark colors, as some of the fuzz sticks to the plastic and makes it more opaque, so itis harder to see where to line it up.  But the raccoon is so cute!
The squirrel came from Animal Kingdom and his tail is flock.
I bought this pack of iron-on stones on clearance and use it for the bigger eyes, like on the owl.  I also got a multipack of the Tulip brand rhinestones, which are smaller and can be used with the Tulip heat tool.  I have used that but mostly i just use the iron for those, too.

Monday, May 12, 2014

More HTV For A Field Trip

When I started making field trip t-shirts, there were just 12 kids in my daughter's class.  They were going to the planetarium-so basically I was just cutting a circle, and squiggles to go on top for each planet, really easy.  Now we are up to 19 kids.  This year they are studying vertebrates and I have gotten carried away!  There are so many great styles, colors and textures of heat transfer vinyl!  So each animal will have flock or a pattern or glitter, and they all have jewelled eyes.  I bought iron-on rhinestones with a 40% off coupon.

Here are the first five t-shirts.

 My daughter picked the bat, with pink eyes.  The black is nice, fuzzy flock.  He's cut off the Happy Hauntings cart at 3 inches.
 The frog came from an old favorite, Animal Kingdom, cut at 5.5 inches.  His spots are glitter.  I'm a little disappointed, because the AK cart does NOT work in the E2.  PC said they are aware of the problem and recommend using Cricut Craft Room, which to me seems like too many steps if I don't plan on altering a cut.  With the E2, I can see exactly where on the mat the cut will be and not waste any vinyl, but I still have the original E and it's been working all right.
 The bird came from AK, also at 5.5.  I goofed and didn't peel off that little extra piece of yellow from by his tail.  I cut an extra wing, then free handed the swirls of glitter.
 The fish came from Wildlife.  The glitter does not stick well to the regular vinyl and really needs to be peeled cold.  Even still, a bit of the glitter peeled off in the center, so the fish looks like he is mising a few scales!
The wolf came from Wildlife, at 5.5 inches.  He's grey and silver, with jewelled purple eyes and his nose and mouth are flocked.
 
 
Fourteen more to go!  Thanks for looking.