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Elf Inspired Shirts with the New Cricut Explore Air 2

October 31, 2016 by Wifeeclectic 22 Comments

 

I haven’t always loved the movie Elf, but it has grown on me a little each year. There is just something about Buddy the Elf that is so charming and fun. My kids love Elf and this year they have been requested Elf inspired t-shirts. We pulled each of our kids favorite quotes from the movie for a fun shirt! If you are a visual learner, you can watch a video of making shirts with heat transfer vinyl here.

You will need:

  • A shirt
  • A Cricut Explore (I have the new Cricut Explore Air 2 and I LOVE it)
  • Black Heat Transfer
  • Green Heat Transfer
  • Yellow Heat Transfer
  • Red Heat Transfer
  • an iron

 

To make these shirts, head over to the Explore site and select the great big blue, Create a New Project button. Save the image below to your computer and then hit the upload images button and upload the feet you found. Select whether the image is a simple image, moderately complex image or complex image. This image, especially since you are just tracing the feet would be considered a simple image. Simple images are the easiest to trace so look for an image with high contrast colors.Β Insert them into design space and move them around until you have them where you like them.

 

Type the words into a text box on design space. I’m a Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins is in a font called Extreme and I Just Like To Smile, Smiling’s My Favorite is in Open Sans for the green words and Zoo Day for SMILE.

If you don’t want everything on your mat to be one color, make your images different colors and your Cricut will know that you plan on cutting them out of different colors and place them on different mats when you hit cut. I changed the color on on the word smile and the elf legs so my machine would know I was going to cut them in a different color from the rest of the design. When you have you design looking the way you want it. Hit Cut.

Make sure to check the mirror image box since we are cutting out heat transfer. If you don’t mirror the image when you go to iron on your images, the words will be backwards. Heat Transfer goes onto your mat with the shiny side down. Set your machine to iron-on and then hit the go button.

For this project you will need red, green, black and yellow heat transfer. Cut the entire Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins shirt out of the red, as well as the word smile. Cut the remaining words out of the green. You will cut the feet for the smile shirt twice, once in black and once in yellow.

Weed off the excess heat transfer by pulling a corner of the heat transfer. Take special care around the dots of I’s and other small items.

Once your heat transfer is weeded, place it down on the shirt like you want it. You will iron the yellow feet down first for the smile shirt. Set your iron to the cotton setting on your iron (or about 305 degrees) Preheat the area of the shirt you want to place your vinyl for about 3 seconds then place the heat transfer on the blanket with the right side facing up. Using medium pressure, iron the entire image for about 30 seconds, directly onto the carrier sheet, without any steam. After you finish, I like to flip my Β shirt inside out and iron for another 10 seconds from the back. Peel the carrier sheet off. If any parts of the image pull up when removing the carrier sheet, stop peeling and iron for a few more seconds in that spot.

After the words and yellow feet are ironed down on your Smile shirt. cut the legs off of the black feet and place the shoes over top of the yellow shoes. Place a piece of parchment paper over top of the entire design and iron it again.

The Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins shirt doesn’t require any layering, so it can all be ironed on at ones. Make sure as you put the separate pieces on that every piece of vinyl is actually touching the shirt and not the plastic of another piece of it will be ironed to the plastic and not the shirt.

After the shirts are ironed they are ready to wear immediately! When you wash them, flip them inside out and they will last a long time.

 

My girls love their cute new Elf shirts and they were so easy to make for them! This was one of the first projects I used my new Cricut Explore Air 2 for and I loved the ease of the machine. The precision cuts of the machine are absolutely fantastic. Everything I have made, even teeny tiny items have all weeded fantastic. The machine is so quite I have actually used it with my two year old sleeping in the same room without waking her up. That is HUGE for me since nap time is craft time. I am thrilled by all of the different material that this machine can be used to cut, from vellum to leather, the Cricut can cut more than 100+ materials. Cricut just came out with faux leather. Can’t wait to see what people are going to do with that! The Cricut Explore Air 2 is up to two times faster than other machines,

The best part of this machine? It is super user friendly. It is easy to figure it out and it is incredibly easy to teach someone how to use. This is the machine I would recommend to anyone hands down. Cricut also has an iPad app and embedded bluetooth in the machine, so you can create on the go, no need to be sitting at your computer. This machine is my absolute favorite and the color is fabulous. If you want to see everything that is included in the box, you can watch my unboxing of the Cricut Explore Air 2 here.Β 

Who would you make these fun shirts for?

Cricut
Black Iron On
Red Iron On
Green Heat Transfer
Yellow Iron On
Cricut Tools

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Filed Under: Christmas, Cricut, Fashion, Geek Blogging, Holidays, Tutorials Tagged With: Arts and Crafts, Christmas, Cricut, Fashion, Shop this post

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jena Proctor says

    October 31, 2016 at 3:33 pm

    These are super cute! I love the little elf feet. I always wanted to be more crafty, but its not in the cards for me!

    Reply
  2. Logan Cantrell says

    October 31, 2016 at 5:13 pm

    These are so adorable! I love the little elf shoes. It makes me want to invest in a cricut!

    Reply
  3. Kecia says

    October 31, 2016 at 6:14 pm

    I need to pull my machine out and start making more shirts for my boys. I love the customized shirts like your Elf ones here. They are so cute and perfect for the holidays.

    Reply
  4. Karen Morse says

    October 31, 2016 at 11:19 pm

    Ahhh-dorable!! Those elf feet! I cant stand it! You are so seriously creative and original! What a way to make this elf the coolest!

    Reply
  5. Kimberly Stroh says

    November 1, 2016 at 1:35 am

    THESE are adorable! You could make these as a family and watch Elf. I can't wait for Christmas crafts.

    Reply
  6. OurFamilyWorld says

    November 1, 2016 at 3:51 am

    How creative! Those elf inspired shirts are adorable. I am getting so excited for Christmas.

    Reply
  7. Terri Steffes says

    November 1, 2016 at 2:51 pm

    I'm like you, Elf wasn't always my favorite but each year, I find myself liking it more and more. I am seriously considering making these for my daughter and her husband for their christmas pjs. I'll make their tops and just buy some bottoms. Thanks for the inspiration.

    Reply
  8. Roxanne Ferber says

    November 1, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    These are so adorable! After seeing the process I am grateful I can buy shirts already made. πŸ˜‰

    Reply
  9. Krystel Seijo says

    November 1, 2016 at 7:06 pm

    I love the movie Elf. I think I make my girlfriend watch it like 3 times during the holiday season. This is such a cute idea and I can't wait to do it with my nieces and nephews. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  10. Heather says

    November 1, 2016 at 8:32 pm

    One of these days I am going to get a machine that will make all these cool things! We love the movie Elf – so excited for the Christmas season!

    Reply
  11. Karina Pacheco says

    November 1, 2016 at 9:11 pm

    How fun! DIY are always fun, it makes for a fun family moment. I try and have craft night at least once a week. You guys did great!

    Reply
  12. Wow Di says

    November 1, 2016 at 9:13 pm

    Oh my goodness, this is adorable! Like you I wasn't sold on ELF initially but it's grown on me. This would be a perfect technique for seasonal shirts! Thanks for the inspo!

    Reply
  13. Dawn McAlexander says

    November 1, 2016 at 9:48 pm

    I am a huge fan of the movie Elf! I watch it every year at Christmas. These would be some lovely T Shirts for me!

    Reply
  14. Tabitha says

    November 1, 2016 at 10:34 pm

    Elf is one of my fave movies! I love these shirts and the possibilities are endless with that cricut! So fun!

    Reply
  15. Theresa Pickett says

    November 1, 2016 at 11:14 pm

    These are so cute! I love that you made them yourself. I was so surprised. I actually thought they were store bought from the first photo.

    Reply
  16. CourtneyLynne says

    November 1, 2016 at 11:20 pm

    Omg how cute are these shirts?!?! I so need to make one for my daughter. She would look adorable!

    Reply
  17. Tanya @ Moms Small Victories says

    November 2, 2016 at 2:20 am

    These shirts are so adorable though I think I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't seen Elf. Oh this makes me want a Cricut machine.

    Reply
  18. Taylor Mobley says

    November 2, 2016 at 5:05 am

    I love these! My family did something like this last year for our family christmas shirts. πŸ™‚ It was so much fun and we all looked fantastic!

    Reply
  19. Angela Campos says

    November 2, 2016 at 4:54 pm

    These are so cute! Elf is a family favorite movie to watch, so I love the sayings πŸ™‚ I pinned this to make!

    Reply
  20. Hil'Lesha O'Nan says

    November 3, 2016 at 3:56 am

    How adorable! I've heard that you can do much with a Cricut, but I don't think I have seen a post like this one before. It makes me want to buy one… soon! πŸ™‚

    Reply
  21. Whitney S. says

    November 3, 2016 at 4:14 am

    Your girls are so adorable, and I just love their smiles. The "I'm a Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins" is my favorite!

    Reply
  22. Caro @ The Caro Diaries says

    November 5, 2016 at 6:46 am

    OH MY GOODNESS!! These are ADORABLE! I need one of my own! I love ELF.. definitely one of my favorite Christmas movies!

    Reply

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Welcome to Housewife Eclectic

Debra Hawkins - Housewife EclecticHi, I'm Debra. I am a craftaholic photographer married to a web-programming amateur chef with two sassy littles keeping it interesting. It gets crazy around here. Read More…

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