Gymnastics Shirts Using Heat Transfer Vinyl

My kids love it when I make them stuff. But between being a busy mom, a shop owner, and trying to run a household, I don't exactly have time. So I am LOVING my new Silhouette Cameo and heat transfer vinyl.

I used blank t-shirts I picked up at JoAnn's craft store (on sale of course) and some Silhouette brand heat transfer vinyl. I used images I bought from the Silhouette online store and put the kids names on them before cutting out the vinyl.

I am not a big fan of this brand of vinyl so I will be trying others (it was a pain to iron on and while the directions said 45 seconds it took way longer than that).



However the kids LOVED them!!!! Like OMG loved them! They now have personalized gymnastics shirts to wear for each of their classes. My son is already requesting more .... a boy on the rings.... on the p-bars... on the floor.... on the rope... etc

UPDATE: these were such a big hit at gymnastics that the mom of a little girl in my daughter's class requested one... how could I say no?! ;-)

Tutorial: Chanukah Paintings - A Craft Kids Can Help With

Continuing with my theme to jazz up my home for the holiday but still make something I could use year after year, something that the kids could help with, and something that could be a keepsake as the kids grow up......

Chanukah Paintings. Simple, easy, fun and most of all, fairly cheap! For this craft we used:

• Two 8x8 Stretched Canvas (found at JoAnn's for 50% off)
• Various shades of blue acrylic craft paint
• Various shades of pink acrylic craft paint
• Various shades of purple acrylic craft paint
• One bottle of white acrylic craft paint
• One bottle of black acrylic craft paint
• Removable Vinyl (you can also use contact paper) and transfer paper
  
• Silhouette Cameo Die Cut Machine (you can use an exacto knife)
  
• And a few paint brushes of various sizes

You'll want to lay out the colors by family.... all the blues in one box, all the pinks in another, etc. For this project I choose blues/pinks/purples/white as they will blend together nicely and not get all muddy brown looking.

Step 1: Cut your design from vinyl or contact paper using the Silhouette Die Cut Machine (or a die cutting machine of your choice. Or you can use a scissor and exact knife instead (tracing your picture onto the contact paper).

For the two pictures above, I used shapes that I purchased at the Silhouette online store and resized them in Silhouette Studio to make sure they fit my canvas.

Step 2: Using the transfer paper (or a wing and a prayer if you don't have any) transfer your vinyl on to the unpainted canvas. It won't stick great but it's enough for what you need to do. Remove your transfer paper so the design in vinyl is all that you see on the canvas.

Step 3: Assemble kids and make sure they are geared up with smocks, brushes, etc.

Now painting with kids isn't for the faint of heart and it can make your heart race if you are not fast enough to catch them as they run off through your house with paint still on their hands as they touch everything in site. So I highly suggest laying our a large sheet of plastic (I like the tacky and cheap table cloths that you find that has plastic on one side and fabric on the other).

Step 4: Give each child some of each paint and let them know their goal is to cover the ENTIRE canvas in paint... making sure they paint over the vinyl design.

Once it is completely covered, let the canvas dry and clean everything up.

Step 5: When the picture is dry, you can now peel off the vinyl design leaving the negative spaced unpainted. This will now show your design. You can use the black paint to write in the child's name/date and maybe even a title.

Step 6: Display on a table top easel or use some pretty craft ribbon to hang!

Happy Holidays!