Make Something Fun!

Check & Mate T-Shirt Design

Remember when I said I like crafting? I decided to make a t-shirt inspired by Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood!

The Graphic

First I designed the graphic in Canva (canva.com). It's a great FREE tool that lets you access fonts, graphics, upload your own, and let's you play around. It's not as controllable as Illustrator, but for free, it's fantastic! And on top of it, you can make as many graphics and download as many times as you want, no limits!

Once I downloaded the PNG I put it into Pixelmator (like Photoshop) and removed the background so I would just have the black text and images.

From there I uploaded it into the Cricut Design Space and adjusted it to the size I wanted.

Production

I went to JoAnn Fabric and found black iron-on vinyl with gold glitter and a blank pink 100% cotton shirt and I was sold! I knew I wanted something that would be close—or as close as I could get—to match the cover of Check & Mate. I thought the gold glitter made it extra fancy and it catches the sun really nicely.

From there I cut it out on my Cricut Maker 3 (thanks hubby for the Christmas gift!) and spent over an hour weeding the cutout! Note: Cricut cutters are great at cutting details but with glitter, some details are just too thin or too small. It's okay though, I persevered! After that it was a mere minute (between the iron heating up and pressing) and the shirt was done! I let the shirt cool completely before the terrifying peeling of the transfer sheet. It's nerve wracking! 

Final Results

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with myself for the final result. The shirt is comfortable and had the look I was going for.

If I were to make this again, the only thing I would change would be making the swirls a little thicker and changing the font of "Venice, Italy" and "Featuring" as the super thin strokes of the font did not make the cut (get it?!). But hey, as with any project you're going to see all the mistakes you made and no one else will even notice. As they say in the musical Chicago, "How can they see with sequence in their eyes?"

What will you make today?

Materials & Tools

• 100% Cotton T-Shirt
• Glitter Iron-On Vinyl
• Cricut Maker 3
• Cricut Easy Press 2
• Weeding Pick
• Canva

Did you know many libraries have a "Library of Things" where you can borrow anything from musical instruments, crafting tools, and equipment for free? Go ask your local library if they have what you need!