Be YOU tiful Glitter Shirt

When I was young, I was really concerned with what others thought of me. I think most kids are. I was kind of a nerdy kid who loved Star Trek, Disney and all sorts of geekery. I was honestly kind of scared to be me. My mom would come home from the store with shirts she thought I would love and I did love them, but I would beg her to take them back.

It took me a long time, but I finally figured out how to be me and not care what other people think. I am currently sitting at my desk surrounded my Doctor Who memorabilia and I absolutely love it. If there is one less I hope to teach my daughters it is, it is OK to be you. It is more fun to be you. You will ALWAYS be happier when you are being you. I encourage my daughters to try new things and I try to listen. It did take my daughter a couple year to convince me she likes soccer better than dance, but I am trying. I want them to be themselves and be happy, which is why I made my daughter this shirt, to help her remember to just be herself and because we both love a little bit of purple glitter. I mean, who doesn’t?

 

I used my Cricut to make this shirt, but it would be easy to use any cutting machine.

You will need:

• a white shirt
• purple glitter heat transfer
• black heat transfer
• an iron
• a way to cut the vinyl

 

I knew for my sure that I wanted a blocky font for the Be You part and a script type font for the tiful part of the shirt. I also made sure to capitalize all of YOU. The font I used for the Be You was Base Camp. For the word Be I made the capital “B” come out to about an inch high. The word you was a little bit bigger with the letters measuring 1.5 inches tall. The “tiful” is a font called All Mixed Up and the letters are about three quarters of an inch high.

Make sure to mirror the words when you are cutting to they will be the right way when ironed on. After you cut the words, weed out the negative part and then you are ready to apply it to your shirt. Place the carrier sheet, vinyl side down onto the shirt and then iron straight onto the plastic carrier sheet, making sure all of the areas of the word get high heat for 30 seconds. Start to peel the plastic off the shirt and if any letters pull up, make sure they are covered with the plastic and iron that part again. Wash the shirt inside out to help preserve the letters.

I feel so lucky every day to have this fantastic kid who knows how to be crazy and to be herself. I hope that I can continue fostering her open and happy attitude every day. I hope she learns from my mistakes and stays true to herself throughout junior high and high school. Every day I want her to remember these things.

 

• Don’t listen to the haters. They don’t know you and honestly some of them are just jealous.
• Like what you like. It is OK to like silly music or fun TV shows. Other people don’t have to like them just because you do, but it is OK to carry and R2D2 backpack if that is what you want.
• It is OK to like different things from your parents. Just because your mom was a dancer doesn’t mean you have to be. Pick what you love!
• Your mom will always stick up for you! If you feel like nobody else understands you, your mom will always do her best to understand you and support you in whatever you want to do.

Part of letting my daughter be herself is letting her pack her own lunch. I have just started buying Dole Fruitocracy for my daughter’s lunches and she has been loving them. Dole’s whole stand behind the Fruitocracy product is that it should be straight up authentic and unique, just like the kids who eat it. I love their tagline.“Straight Up Fruit, Straight Up You.” All of their fruit pouches are all natural fruit which I love. They are in a fun pouch and taste delicious which she loves!

Fruitocracy has partnered with the Nickelodeon show Make It Pop to give one lucky kids the opportunity to go to LA and see the tape of a Nickelodeon show. They want kids to know that it is OK to be themselves and be happy! Go here to enter.

How do you “Express Your Inner Pop”?