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In a previous post I mentioned that I recently became certified as an instructor to teach jewelry classes for Michaels.  It's going well, but not getting off to quite the start I wanted. Normally, Michaels has a dress code for its employees of a black shirt and khaki pants, but they're letting it slide on Fridays in favor of a red, white, and blue theme from now until July 4th. We're encouraged to jazz up our patriotic colors by decorating our shirts.  How does this relate to my jewelry class?  I designed my t-shirt to be a walking advertisement.

This is one of 2 shirts that I created using my new cricut machine. (Yes, I bought a cricut.  I've only been eyeing them for the better part of a year...so this just gave me the perfect excuse.  That and a price-match to a competitor's sale ad.)  The other shirt is red and reads, "Yeah.  I made it.  Take a jewelry class and you can too."  For the beaded section I installed 2 metal eyelets in the back of the shirt.  I strung up the beads just like I would to make a bracelet, and used 2 bars from a toggle style clasp to finish the ends. So now, I can take the beads off to wash the shirt, or swap the same "bracelet" back and forth between my 2 shirts in a matter of seconds. (Insert gloating over my genius here.)

Now, if you've ever heard of the cricut, and actually know what it does, you're probably wondering how I made the lettering for my shirt with it.  Instead of scrapbook paper, I put a piece of freezer paper on the cutting mat with the paper side up and the waxy side facing the mat.  I cut out the words with the cricut and used the negative image as a stencil. Peel the freezer paper off the cutting mat, and iron the paper on the shirt. See this tutorial for step-by-step instructions. (My only suggestion is to sort-of disregard her note about setting the paint with an iron at the end.  You only have to do this if the instructions on your fabric paint TELL you to do this. Not all paints will need it.) Three coats of white fabric paint later...finished shirt!  Hopefully it will encourage more people to become my students, instead of just customers. Even if it doesn't, that's a pretty awesome looking shirt.  : )