How to Make Hip Hop T-Shirts
In today's economy, it's hard to buy a T-shirt to support each one of your favorite artists. A great way to display your musical tastes and to save money is to make your own T-shirt at home using iron-on transfers. This is a fun do-it-yourself project for creating your own wardrobe or for making presents.
Instructions
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Use iron-on transfers to make your own T-shirts
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Use the Microsoft.com search engine to find free clip art that displays your favorite artist. You can also go to your favorite artist's webpage or MySpace page to see if they have any pictures that you can download for free. ClipartGuide.com has a hip hop section, along with links to hip hop pictures. Hip hop artists, such as Jay Z, Eminem and Usher, have webpages with clip art for you to sample.
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2
Transfer your clip art or picture to a word processing software program. If you like, add text to your clip art or picture using your "word art" or text box tools. Think about the lettering used on many hip hop artists' albums. Many artists use graffiti-like text with big block letters that look as if they were spray painted onto the cover. Using the "word art," attempt to recreate that look with your computer.
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Once you have the clip art the way you want it, create a mirror image of it by flipping it in the program. You may also be able to select the "mirror image" option when you hit the print function of the program.
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Print a test run of the clip art onto the iron-on transfer paper and practice ironing it on an old T-shirt or rag to make sure you can iron it on and still see it. Also use the rag to test how long you can press down on the transfer paper without burning the rag.
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Once you are ready to print your iron-on transfer for your new T-shirt, print your clip art and cut the excess paper off the edges, leaving about 1/4 inch of blank paper around the clip art. Iron your image onto your T-shirt.
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Tips & Warnings
Be sure to consider your T-shirt color and the background color of the clip art. If the background of the clip art and the T-shirt are the same color, you will not be able to see your image.
Remember to only use clip art and pictures that are legal to download. You want to save money, not break the law.
