teachers

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As a parent I often struggle to show gratitude during teacher appreciation week for the teachers of my kids. When they get a teacher whose sole desire is to teach my child despite the lower pay. I want to show my gratitude to him or her to the best of my ability.

It can get expensive. Although I do believe they deserve it. Good teachers are priceless in my humble opinion. So my wife and I devised a plan to satisfy our desire to show appreciation and not going broke in the process. With kids you need to keep the wallet a little fatter. (hopefully)

We figured out that together we can sit down at the computer and design a graphic t-shirts that shows our appreciation and gives them a unique shirt to add to their wardrobe.. This makes the gift unique because of the personal touch.. Just a fair warning in advance. This process can be just as nerve wracking and possibly longer than a shopping trip to the mall. So sit down and buckle up it will be fun.

Materials

The materials needed for this teacher appreciation tutorial are as follows.

1 Graphic design software: Of course you need the computer with a graphics design software program installed. I personally like and use Corel Draw. Its what I use at work and home. So I am most familiar with it. You can use what you know. There are several program available.  The one  considered by many top be the holy grail is Photo shop.   I don’t have that kind of money.  If you do go for it.  I have heard nothing but good.  But there are many other programs out there like Illustrator and paint shop pro. There are also some free programs out there like Gravit Designer, Vectr, SVG-Edit and Inkscape.

2 A good quality heat transfer vinyl or HTV will also be needed. There are many varieties out there. The 1st HTV that I use is cricut.

 

Siser is the first htv I ever used. I like how easy it is to weed and it is very durable. There are many varieties put out under the Siser label. The sky is the limit and your imagination. Another HTV out there is by craftables.  Its  another great product to work with and also very economical.

3 T-Shirt of course. Make sure you choose a good quality t-shirt blank to use. Blanks are fairly inexpensive so you can design a whole wardrobe. What I like about designing shirts is the sky is the limit. You can go from intricate designs to sayings that feature your child’s teachers personality. Or you can design something that would showcase your child’s personality that would make your teacher smile.

 

4 Vinyl Cutter. A cricut or silhouette cutter is needed to cut the vinyl. I personally like the Cricut. It does every thing and more. Im happy with it abd I think you will be also.

Designing for teacher appreciation

My gift for teacher appreciation week was going to be a unique take on 2 + 2 =4.  I wanted to place inside of a red heart the wording. 2 teach is 2 touch lives 4 ever.  You can see on the finished product how that turned out.  Here is another idea from this great blogger.    Another great gift idea for teachers is etching.  Read all about it here

 

Cutting time

Now that we have our design set in our computer. It is time to send it to the cutter. Make sure you position your design so you don’t waste vinyl that could be used for other projects. Also dont forget to cut your design in reverse so it will appear right on your shirt. Like I said before my preference is the Cricut. The cutting time can be fairly quick, but it all depends on the difficulty of your design. Sayings with standard fonts are always quicker. Cursive fonts take longer and add time to your weeding process. Weeding is the term used in removing the excess vinyl material from your design. The design pictured is a little more complex so it did take a little longer to cut and to weed.

 

Time to press your design. I personally own a heat press, so that’s what I use. The great thing is that most heat transfer vinyl can be applied with an ordinary household iron. Just be sure to follow the directions of the htv that you purchase. For example with Siser easy weed you press your design on medium pressure for 10-15 seconds at 305 degrees fahrenheit/105 degrees celsius. It is then a hot or cold peel. Congratulations, you are now on your way to saving money and making custom shirts..

If you have any questions or comments please ask below.

 

A unique thoughtful way to give  during teacher appreciation week gift to a someone who cares enough to teach your child as if it were her own.

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