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I keep seeing it and have wanted to make my own version for a while and I finally got around to doing it and I really love how it turned out.
Of course, as usually happens when I get started on a project, it kind of started to spiral out of control. I thought, if I am making a "Bee Kind" shirt I should just use the same design and switch out kind for happy and also make a "Bee Happy" design. Then I thought, why stop there. Pretty soon I had 5 different "Bee..." designs. I could have kept going too, but instead I just included a blank bee that you can add your own word to it.
Another thing I did with this shirt that I am really happy with, is that instead of using iron on I used Infusible Ink. I haven't loved the Cricut Infusible Ink shirts for myself, I have made a few for my daughter, but they seem to run a little small so if you use them you probably need to size up. Also, white shirts are not my favorite and those are the only Cricut ones I have used. They do have gray shirts as well and I have heard good things about those ones but never tried them.
Anyway, although Cricut only recommends and guarantees results on their Infusible Ink compatible blanks you can use other blanks as long as they have a high percentage of polyester. Infusible Ink will not work on cotton shirts, it may look like it worked at first but it will wash out because the ink will only stay on the polyester fibers. You want something that is at least 50% polyester but the higher the percentage the better. The higher percentage will make the colors more vibrant, the lower the percentage the more of a sort of vintage/faded look you will get.
A couple weeks ago I made a shirt for my husband for Father's Day using a shirt I picked up from Walmart. It was a brand I hadn't used before but I got it because it was the color and size I wanted, and it was super cheap, less than $4.00. As I was pressing the design onto it I checked the blend and saw it was 65% polyester/35% cotton. I decided I needed to test it with Infusible Ink to see how it worked. They had a few lighter colors in addition to white that I thought would be fun to try.
When I decided to finally make this Bee Kind shirt I thought it would be the perfect opportunity. They had a light golden yellow color and I paired it with black Infusible Ink, because it was a blend the black was not as vibrant but it was exactly the vintage/faded look I was hoping for.
I was so happy with the results of the Infusible Ink on the 65/35 blend shirts that I got a few more to try. I am going to play around a little bit with the different color of shirts, and colors and prints of Infusible Ink to see what works and what doesn't and I will share the results here after I do.
How to Make a Bee Kind T-Shirt with Infusible Ink
You will need:
- Cricut Maker or Explore
- Infusible Ink Transfer Sheet
- EasyPress 2 (12x10)
- EasyPress mat
- T-Shirt with high percentage polyester (I used 65/35 George brand men's shirts from Walmart)
- white cardstock
- butcher paper (included in the roll of infusible ink)
- lint roller
Instructions:
Open the Bee Shirts Design Space file.
Choose the design you want to use if using one of the designs I made, or add a word to the bottom of the blank design. I used the font Easton to type the word in all caps, place it at the bottom of the hexagon, then align to center everything and attach.
Cut out your design from the transfer sheet, placing it on the mat plastic side down and don't forget to mirror your design.
Weed the design.
Follow the instructions in the Heat Guide to press the design onto your shirt.
You will want to make sure you use a lint roller to clean the front of the shirt, put a piece of cardstock inside of your shirt so the ink does not bleed through, and cover the whole design with butcher paper before you press.
After you press the design carefully pull up the transfer sheet.
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