Plaid Simply Screen Christmas Shirts

If you’re anything like me, you have a whole section on Pinterest with quotes and printables that inspire you and that you wish you could incorporate into your crafting or style. The “Keep Calm” signs are some of my favorites and I often wish that I could take some of those sayings and add them onto a shirt or some other item. However, I don’t necessarily want to seek out a screen printing company and pay $30+ for a t-shirt that may be just a seasonal thing. I was so excited to find out you could do these at home with Simply Screen by Plaid.

I had the pleasure of reviewing the Simply Screen Custom Silk Screen Print by Plaid. I can honestly say that this has easily become one of my favorite crafting tools after how wonderfully it worked for me this weekend. I was skeptical at first when reading the instructions. The whole process seems a little daunting and I was very afraid I was going to mess it all up and ruin my t-shirts that I had just purchased. But after reading through the instructions carefully and reading some reviews on other crafting sites, I had no issues with it whatsoever. Want to see how it all works?! Let’s take a looksy, shall we?

What you need:
Simply Screen Custom Silk Screen by Plaid–sold exclusively at Hobby Lobby
Item to Screen print (I used two Old Navy $4 tee shirts and a child’s apron from JoAnn’s)
Piece of glass (not with the kit–I used a piece from a picture frame)
Paper Towel
Scissors
Painters Tape or other heavy tape
Printer/printer paper

1. Start out by printing off your image from your printer. I did not have 10 lb. card stock as the directions suggested, so I used regular printer paper, which was 20 lb,. and it worked out fine. I made my image in Picnik and printed it out in black and white. I will say that the less colors your image has the better. This image was the only one I made that used any color on it.

2. After you have your image printed out, trim it down.

3. Go into a room that is dimly lit and remove one of the silk screen sheets from the package (there are 3 sizes to choose from to match the size of your print). Peel off the white backing on the screen and stick your image face down onto the sticky side of the blue screen. It’s not super sticky, but you’ll notice a little tack to it.

4. Take the scraper that comes with the kit and use it to help smooth out any wrinkles between the printer paper and the screen to make sure that it sticks well.

5. The cool thing about this kit is that the box it comes in actually is also used to burn the image, as well. So don’t destroy the box. Follow the instructions on the box to put the light bulb into the top and plug it in. From there, place your image screen-side down in the bottom of the box. It helps with you use a little scotch tape to hold the whole thing down so the sides don’t curl up while the image is being burned into the screen. I also followed the tips of other bloggers and placed a piece of glass over top of the image to print it from lifting/separating.

6. After I was all set up, I pulled the box top over my image and screen print and turned the light on for 25 minutes to start burning the image onto the screen. Set the timer for 25 minutes and stick with that exact amount of time.

7. When your timer goes off, turn off the light in the box and prepare your plastic tub to be filled about 1/3 full with tepid water. Pull your image out of the box and place the blue screen into the water filled tub to soak for about 30 seconds.

8. After soaking, take the sponge that comes with the kit and gently scrub at the screen print to remove the burnt part and reveal your image. This isn’t a quick process. Take your time and be sure to get it all off so it doesn’t mess up your screen print.

9. After you have successfully scrubbed your screen print and your image is clearly shown, use paper towels to dry off your screen.

10. Now the fun part starts! You get to actually screen print your shirt (or other item!). Take your screen and place it on your pre-washed shirt being sure to line it up evenly. Then use painters tape (or in my case packing tape because I ran out of painters tape) to hold the image in place and to ensure that excess paint doesn’t get on the item your screen printing.

Overall Review: