by Richelle Naegle

This tutorial will give you the quick and easy steps on how to use Cricut Iron-on material in your fabric projects.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I hope you are wearing something green! I sure am, so keep your pinchers to yourself. I’m safe because I made myself this fun shirt! I am 5’1″, so kind of short. I’ve got to face it…all of my friends are taller than me. I know this because they like to make fun of me or it. The truth of the matter is that I like to laugh and participate in the fun, even at my own expense. So, I was searching around Pinterest and found this super cute shirt that just fit my personality so well. I wasn’t about to pay $20.00 for it, so I thought why not make it myself?

I turned on my Explore cutter and got out a little heat transfer material, and with a simple green t-shirt, I was able to make this awesome result in just minutes.

Cricut is known for making quality Iron-on material, but truth be told they aren’t the only great brand out there. For this project, I actually used Silhouette heat transfer material, in addition to Cricut.

Steps for Heat Transfer Projects:

• First, you need to create the design for whatever you are making. I used Nate’s ABCs Cricut cartridge Font and the letters are out at 2.5″ tall, and the shamrock is just a .jpg image I had on my computer. So I loaded that one up and used it. There are a lot of great shamrocks and four-leaf clovers on various Cricut cartridges. I just wanted an outline of one.
• NOTE: This step is very important: Load your Iron-On material with the shiny side down, and cut all your images out in reverse otherwise they will be backward. For mine, I used Cricut Gold Iron-On material and the Silhouette Lime smooth heat transfer.
• You will need to “weed” all the excess pieces out of your letters and images. I suggest using a pick tool. Check out our Cricut tools. I think it works great and makes it easier to remove the excess material.
• Last you will want to iron on your shirt. Use the cotton heat setting and iron for about 10-15 seconds. Really it doesn’t take very long at all. Make sure you are ironing all over the image though, otherwise it will not adhere to your shirt. I let it cool down for a few seconds that plastic sheet gets a little hot. Then gently pull the clear carrier sheet away from your shirt, the iron-on material should remain on the shirt. If it’s coming up iron it a little bit more.

That’s it! It really is that simple to make, have you made your own shirts for a holiday or family event or just for fun? I would love to see what you have created post me a picture on Google+ or even on Facebook so I can see what you are making.

Happy creating!