April 20, 2009
Finding the perfect bridesmaids gift is easy -- the biggest problem you're likely to face is the agonizing decision between all the great options. Coming by a decent groomsmans gift, though, is a little trickier. Save yourself the shopping hassle with this cool project from from Lisa Tse of Inkbox Design Boutique. Her fun groomsman T-shirts are inexpensive and easy to make. Bonus: She also has a great technique for packaging the finished product.
Materials
Blank, light-colored T-shirts Iron-on transfer paper and an iron (or a local copy store!) 3" x 12" clear, plastic mailing tubes (available at Icon Plastics) Festive paper (optional) Ribbon Step 1: Use the word-processing program on your computer to play around with fonts. Choose a style you like -- simple, fancy, formal or fun. You can use the same font for all your shirts or mix them up. Step 2: Size your graphics, measuring how wide across the chest you’d like the word to extend. A good maximum width for a single word is 8". If you're using the same font for all the shirts, size the longest word or phrase first (here, it's best man) and use that size for all the shirts to keep things consistent. Step 3: Reverse your graphic horizontally to make it a mirror image. Make the font whatever color you want it to be on your shirt. Save your files separately as PDFs, TIFFs or JPEGs. Step 4: Print the files out onto iron-on transfer paper. Then, follow the instructions that come with the paper to iron the transfers onto the shirts. Place the graphic about 4 1/2" to 6" under the top of the neckline. You can also take the files and your blank T-shirts to your nearby Kinkos or local copy store, where they can make a transfer of your artwork and iron it on your shirt for about $10. Be sure to let them know exactly where you'd like the graphic placed. Step 5: You can use the mailing tubes exactly as they come to package your T-shirts, or you can wrap them in cool paper. To measure the paper, lay a tube on top of it. Use a triangle to draw straight lines on the paper along each side of the tube. Cut along the lines, using a craft knife and a straight edge for precision. Step 6: Once the paper is cut to the exact width of the tube, line one edge of it with double-sided tape and attach it to the tube. Roll the paper around the tube and tape the loose edge to the tube, overlapping about an inch. Step 7: Roll the T-shirt, place it inside the tube, add the end caps and adorn with a ribbon. 2 comments | post a comment
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To measure the paper, lay a tube on top of it. Use a triangle to draw straight lines on the paper along each side of the tube.
on September 07, 2010 at 09:51 PM
Very cool. However, I'd love to see a guy wrap the shirts like that!
on July 17, 2009 at 11:05 AM