See how to use your Cricut vinyl cutting machine and a beginner’s Screen Printing with Vinyl kit to create your own t-shirts. Discover tips and tricks learned from my first time trying to fun wearable craft.
DISCLOSURE: I was compensated with a product sample by Pigskins and Pigtails, but the opinions are all mine and not that of the company! In addition, some of the links in this post contain affiliate links, which come at no cost to you. Know that I only promote products I personally use and stand behind. To learn more about my affiliates, please review my disclosure policy.
You may remember when I launched my 50 Before Fifty list of 50 (hopefully) doable tasks I can achieve before I turned 50 years old, 7 years later.
I’m about a year into this inspiring list and thanks to Jennifer of Pigskins and Pigtails, I can now say that I’ve tried DIY Screen Printing, using her awesome beginner’s kits and thorough instructional book!
Here are a few tips and tricks I learned during my first DIY Screen Printing with Vinyl Experience:
- Follow the experts. I have been following Jennifer for YEARS and have always been inspired by her screen printing techniques that turned into a full blown product, system and instructional channel. She’s the master of teaching crafters how to use their vinyl cutters, like a Cricut Maker, to create your own stencil on a screen and use fabric screen printing ink to add designs on items, like a t-shirt. While you’ll often find full step by step instructions to new crafting techniques on my blog, I can’t really do better than what is outlined in Jennifer’s kit and instruction books so I highly recommend going with that approach! With this Speedball Screen Printing with Vinyl kit, I was able to follow along with each step and created four t-shirts with my first screen, even though I had plenty of ink to create more!
- Start small to gain confidence! In addition to the kit with the larger screen to create my custom pieces, she also included one of her seasonal mini kits which we did first. This smaller kit included a design already adhered to the screen, which allowed us to focus more on the ink application process than prepping a screen. Jennifer shares she will be releasing seasonal designs that help build that same beginner’s confidence.
- You can cut down the transfer tape. The kit comes with 3 large square sheets of transfer tape but I found that a bit cumbersome to try and apply evening over my vinyl for the transferring step, so in the future I think I’ll be cutting it in half and applying half at time.
- Use more ink than you think you need. I was worried about running out of ink to complete the multiple prints I wanted to achieve but several times had to go back and add more ink to the screen to ensure good coverage. If you DO happen to put on too much ink, you can scrap any extra back into the jar! Note: Jennifer shares she gets her Speedball Screen Printing Ink from Amazon!
- Don’t forget the painter’s tape. While the kit is pretty inclusive, with materials to create at least 2 different designs, you’ll also need painter’s tape and parchment paper (if you’re doing a fabric surface you plan to wear) in addition to your vinyl cutter and heat press or an iron to press any wearables after they fully dry. Painter’s tape specifically is needed to cover any exposed mesh of the screen so the ink doesn’t make accidental marks where it’s not intended.
- Pay attention to blocks of solid color. While my design of a Knights school mascot look might look pretty basic as it’s mostly a large block shape, the large block of color is something I realize I should’ve paid more attention to to ensure full coverage on each swipe of the ink. Some of my earlier prints had some soft spots where I didn’t apply enough ink. This is just part of the learning experience! It also makes the print look a little weathered, which I didn’t mind!
- Practice practice practice. While I’m happy to report that even my first print worked well enough, I’m sure this is a craft where even more attempts will bring more perfected results. Jennifer’s “The Complete Playbook for Screen Printing with Vinyl” instructional book includes 100 colorful pages that not only helps the beginner’s setup of the screen printing experiences but moves through advanced techniques, like creating a multiple color design with more than one screen, sizing recommendations for prints on all different surfaces and tips to fix common mistakes. Her book is available in both the printed version I have (which honestly is a favorite as I had it laid out and open as I completed some steps) and a digital copy that’s at the ready whenever you want to read up on this fun fabric crafting technique.
- Clean up right away! I know many crafters like to follow a “craft now, clean later” approach but that really isn’t an option with this craft as you don’t want ink to sit in the screen longer than it has to. You can easily clean up the screen using soap, water and a soft toothbrush. Staining of the wood frame is common but the screen itself was easy to clean up in my laundry room sink.
Special thank you to Jennifer for her awesome screen printing kit and all the additional goodies sent over to help me cross this fun technique off my list and get me inspired to make more!
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