DIY Birthday Shirt + Why I Love My Cricut Explore Air 2

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

Slowly but surely I’m getting back into crafting. Literally carving out time to do something I love but stopped making time for. I’d say I’m not naturally crafty but I enjoy the process of learning different ways to craft and I definitely enjoy the end results. The lessons learned along the way can be frustrating but when a certain project lights up your kid’s eyes, you know it was all worth it. The DIY birthday shirt I’m sharing today did just that for my newly minted 7 year old. This project is also the one that made me fall in love with the Cricut Explore Air 2.

My 7 loves all things about being 7. She’s the kid that made me start celebrating half birthdays. She’s the kid that started to count the months and then the days up to her birthday at 3 years old. She is really into her birthday and you know what? I’m not mad about it. She is the daughter of the mom who considers her own birthday a global holiday. Yes I do.

The Project: DIY Birthday Shirt for the Seven Year Old Mermaid

This girl loves mermaids, unicorns, glitter and sparkles. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said a birthday shirt and a new doll. The shirt, easy peasy. We took a trip to Joann’s Fabric to grab some fabric and some heat and bond. She was so excited to pick out the fabric. No surprise the one she picked had mermaids all over it. I went ahead and picked out a complementary metallic fabric to be a part of the design. This leads me to why you should:

Fall In Love With The Cricut Explore Air 2

1. You can literally create any tshirt design you want. We went with the word “SEVEN” because well she is 7 and she wants everyone to know.
2. The Explore Air 2 works with so many types of materials, fabric included. I used the fabric blade and fabric mat to cut out the word seven and the mermaid tale.
3. Design Space makes it easy to layout your design and then cut it out on the Air 2.
4. The Explore Air 2 does the heavy lifting. I had to tweak the setting for the metallic fabric but it still cut out the letter V like a champ. More on that later.
5. Possibly the number one reason I love the machine is because has made me want to spend time crafting more. It has literally given me the OK to learn new styles and reminded me that crafting is also something I did to decompress.

Project “Seven” DIY Birthday Shirt Mermaid In Action

Supplies

• T-Shirt
• Fabric
• Heat & Bond
• Ruler
• Cricut Explore Air 2
• Cricut EasyPress
• Design Space

Action

I’ve learned with my last few projects to gather all my materials, set up my Explore Air 2 with the mat and material I am using before I even start the design.

First I cut my fabric to size and then I applied the heat and bond using my Cricut Easypress (another machine I love). I realized I need to place the fabric vertical on the mat in order to get the mermaids to face the right way for cutting.

I opened up Design Space, started a new project using the t-shirt template and typed out the word seven. I knew I wanted a block style text so I searched in the fonts tab until I found one I liked. The font I went with is Eagle Bold.

I also search for a mermaid tale in design space. I found the one I liked, added it to the design and then customized by removing the layers I didn’t need. The final design only required 1 layer.

I measure the tshirt to make sure the font size for the word and the size of the mermaid tail would be a good fit.

Because I had to turn my fabric vertical, I placed the letters for the word on 2 separate lines. The V would go on a separate mat for cutting since it was going to be a different material. I attached the other letters and the tail. Then hit “Make It”.

This is when the Explore Air 2 takes over. My first mat was already loaded with the material. I turned the dial to fabric and hit hit the go button. In a few minutes, I had the first part of the design. I repeated the process for the letter V.

Then it was time to iron on the design on the t-shirt. I used a ruler to line everything up, got my EasyPress ready and started the press process. It took a few minutes to press every thing part on to the shirt. I do need to secure the design with a basic stitch.

Confession: I am so rusty with the sewing machine, so that part has been on hold for uhmmmm. But my girl has worn her shirt a few times and the design has not budged. The stitch will happen I promise.

Checkout these cute holiday napkins using the Cricut EasyPress.

You can follow this design, customize it with your own words and details and give your child a custom gift made just for them made with the Cricut Explore Air 2, some fabric and a lot of love.

Happy Making!