Custom Birthday Girl Shirt Using Ink Effects

A few weekends ago we celebrated Miss E’s big 2nd birthday (I’m still in denial) and I threw her a very girly train party. It was a blast. For her party I made her a custom “Birthday Girl” shirt that screamed ‘Girly’ to the fullest. She loves her pink and sparkles. Today, I’m going to show you how you can easily make your own custom birthday girl shirt, using DecoArt’s Ink Effects. I’m serious, it is SO simple. You will be addicted :)

 Supplies Needed: 

– Basic white tee (I picked mine up at Fred Meyer on sale for $2.99!)

– Piece of white paper (Coloring book pages, printer paper, anything will work)

– Hot pink Ink Effectsby DecoArt

– Paint brush

– Iron

– Jewels

Start by printing out your design onto a piece of basic printer paper. Or you can also paint directly onto the paper if you have a steady hand. Just remember that the image will need to be the mirror image of what you want to appear on the shirt. Then paint the design using the Ink Effects. The package says that the paint works best on materials with less than 40% cotton. This one has about 90% and it still worked great. However, there is a spray you can buy to put on the fabric before ironing it down that helps the adhesion.

The color that appears on the paper is not necessarily the final color. The Hot Pink that I used looked more fuchsia on the paper and when I ironed it on it was a true hot pink.

Let the ink dry for at least an hour or two. Now if you thought it was easy up until this point, it gets even easier. Simply cut out the shape of the design and lay it flat onto the shirt.

Iron over the image, putting pressure onto the design and making sure that all corners have been covered. I spent about 60 seconds going over the design.

Peel off your paper and your design will be transferred! SO easy. What I like about using the Ink Effects is that it doesn’t leave the plastic feeling that transfer paper has. It is really soft and blends right into the fabric. The only issue I had was that I saw a few iron marks on my design, but they weren’t as noticeable once the I put the jewels on.

I topped the design off by added some fun jewels along the edges and a few pink bows. Every birthday girl needs some bling!

The party turned out great and my daughter loved her sparkly shirt. If your kids have a birthday coming up, give this technique a try! Its so easy and can be done in an afternoon.

NOTE: After washing the shirt the ink did fade a little bit, but nothing too extreme