Rhinestone Team Shirt

Remember how I said I was addicted to rhinestones?  Well, here is the post I've been waiting to show you.  With the help of my mother and her fancy digital cutting machine I made this adorable swim team T-shirt!  Isn't it so cute?  I wore it to a swim meet not long ago and caught lots of ladies eyeing it!

I thought I would share how I made it.  Here's the list of supplies you will need:

• T-shirt
• Hotfix rhinestones (I used Sillhoette  brand)
• Heat transfer tape 
• Rhinestone template material
• Backing board
• Iron

I got all my supplies online.  There are lots of suppliers to choose from.  Just make sure your rhinestones are hotfix stones.  This means they have a heat activated glue on the back of them.

My mother has a Klick-n-Kut digital cutter but you can also use the Silouette to make your design. Silouette sells a rhinestone kit that has all the supplies you need to get started and create a couple projects.  Create your design and cut out your design on the template material.  It will look like this:

Notice only part of the design is there because the alligator will be a different color rhinestone so it is cut separately.  The template material is placed on the backing board.  Now is the fun part.  Dump your rhinestones on the template and smooth them around until each hole has a rhinestone in it.

Clear off any extra rhinestones.  Lay your heat transfer tape over the design pushing firmly so it will pick up all the rhinestones.  (Sorry about the design change.  I made two shirts and didn't take enough pictures!!  You'll get the idea though!)

 Lift the transfer tape, pulling up all the rhinestones.  If some don't come up just lay the transfer tape back down and press until they stick.  You can see some of mine didn't come up.

Repeat this process for each color rhinestone.  When you have all your rhinestones on your transfer tape place it on your t-shirt.

Follow the directions on the rhinestone package for ironing.  Mine said to place a cloth over the transfer tape, iron, cool, turn inside out and iron again.  After it cools pull the transfer tape off.

And there you have it, cute rhinestone shirts!

The best part is you can use the templates over and over again!

Go Gators!!