Learn to Make Personalized T-Shirt Designs as Homemade Gifts

For just a couple of dollars, you can purchase blank shirts that you can add designs to and turn into personalized decorative t-shirts. You can then use these shirts as homemade gifts. Even better, homemade t-shirts can come in a wide variety of designs to suit every occasion. You can use the t-shirts as gifts for birthdays, for Christmas, or any other occasion. Here’s how you can make them.

• Prepare the design. Start by creating your own t-shirt design. If you have never made a t-shirt design before, stick to basic designs that involve large lines, shapes, and figures, and which do not require more than two or three colors. This way, you will only need to make a couple of silk screens or stamps, in case you do not have iron-on paper. You can create the design by hand, and then transfer and edit it on your computer by scanning the image and uploading it to your computer. You can also use text or sentences as the design for the shirt, or you can find free graphic designs from the Internet.
• Print on iron-on paper. The easiest way to make the personalized t-shirts is by using iron-on paper. All you need is to print the design from your computer to the iron-on paper sheets. Make sure that you are using printer that is compatible with iron-on paper. Afterwards, use an iron to transfer the design on the iron-on paper onto the T-shirt. Make sure that you use the appropriate heat settings as indicated on the iron-on paper instructions. After ironing on the design, you simply need to pull out the layer of film and the design will remain imprinted on the t-shirt.
• Create a silk screen. Another method for creating t-shirt designs is by making silk screens. Silk screens are especially useful if you are trying to make designs by the dozens or if you are making large batches of the t-shirts as homemade gifts. Simply buy a sheet of silk screen and then use a very sharp cutter to carve out the layer of green film to follow the design that you are making. Afterwards, use a solvent to attach the green film layer to the silk screen square. Allow to dry, and then use a squeegee to apply paint on top of the silk screen, with the t-shirt underneath. Allow the ink to dry before wrapping the gift.
• Create stamps. Finally, you can also create stamps. This is especially useful if you have very simple designs that will easily fit into a large stamp. You can make your own homemade stamps by buying rubber sheets and carving out the stamp design. Or you can also buy premade stamps and using these to imprint the shirt with designs. If you use premade stamps, however, your designs are limited to the stamp designs.

Make sure that you always use textile paint for silk screens or when using rubber stamps to personalize t-shirts. Ordinary acrylic paint is water based and will eventually wear off if used on t-shirts. With these steps, you should be able to make personalized shirts that can be given as gifts or giveaways.