PitterAndGlink: DIY Rainbow Quote Shirt + Free Cut File

This post is sponsored by Expressions Vinyl and contains affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Pitter & Glink! Hey, y'all! Today I am teaming up with Expressions Vinyl to show you how to make a bright, fun hand-lettered rainbow quote shirt using heat transfer vinyl and your Silhouette Cameo or Cricut. And, y'all, we're not just using regular HTV. We're using fluorescent HTV! This bright heat transfer vinyl just screams rainbow, so what better to use to create a rainbow quote shirt? As usual, I'm giving you the FREE hand-lettered cut file a little later in the post so that you can create your own rainbow shirt.

Have you ever heard the term "rainbow baby"? It's the name given to a baby born after a miscarriage or infant loss because that baby is the rainbow after the storm. If you follow me on social media, you know that my husband and I welcomed a baby boy into our home in October through adoption. He's our rainbow baby, so when I knew I was going to create something with fluorescent heat transfer vinyl, I thought what better thing to make than a t-shirt for my rainbow baby. I love that the quote can apply to rainbow babies or just be a source of encouragement to anyone going through a hard time. Let me show you how to make one of these shirts yourself.

First of all, you'll need a few supplies. I'm going to link to the supplies using affiliate links. This is just a fancy way of saying that if you decide to purchase something using one of my links, a small part of the purchase price will go toward supporting my blog at no extra charge to you. (Thanks!) Supplies:

T-shirt (Mine came from Hobby Lobby.)
EasyWeed Heat Transfer Vinyl: Black
Fluorescent Heat Transfer Vinyl: Fluorescent Coral, Fluorescent Orange, Fluorescent Yellow, Fluorescent Green, Fluorescent Raspberry, Fluorescent Pink
Holographic Heat Transfer Vinyl: Aqua
Silhouette Cameo or Cricut
Weeding Tool
Iron or Heat Press
Multi-Use Paper

First, you'll need to download the FREE hand-lettered rainbow cut file. Click here to download the FREE SVG cut file. Click here to download the FREE Silhouette Studio file. Please note that all freebies shared on Pitter & Glink are for personal use only.

This tutorial pertains to the Silhouette Studio file. (If you choose to use the SVG file, you will need to create an offset of the design.) So once you open the file in Silhouette studio, open the replicate tool and mirror your design since you're going to be cutting heat transfer vinyl.

After you mirror the design, ungroup it and move the colorful layer of the design off of the page so that you're only left with the black part of the design (the offset). It's not necessary, but I always put a box around my design before cutting so that I won't waste HTV. (This is called a weeding box.)

Next use your Cameo to cut the design from heat transfer vinyl. Use the settings for EasyWeed HTV from the Expressions Vinyl website and always do a test cut first.

Once you've cut the offset, it's time to cut the rainbow letters. Ungroup the rainbow part of the design. Arrange letters, words and shapes together that are the same color. Use your Cameo to cut each color from its corresponding fluorescent HTV. (I cut "storm" from holographic vinyl because I didn't have any fluorescent blue.) And, yes, I HIGHLY suggest using fluorescent HTV because the colors are sooooo bright! We're talking NEON, and they just scream rainbow to me.

Once all your vinyl is cut, it's time to weed the designs, which is really easy when using EasyWeed vinyl. I love to use a weeding tool for this because it makes removing all the tiny little pieces of vinyl from around your design a breeze.

Once your designs are weeded, it's time to iron them on. First, iron the black offset part of the design on your tee. Refer to the heat settings chart on the Expressions Vinyl website for this step.

Then it's time to add the rainbow of colors to this rainbow design! Carefully layer all the colorful vinyl on top of the black offset. Then iron it on. It's helpful to have some multi-use paper for this step to cover parts of the design that need protecting while you're ironing other sections.

And that's how you create a colorful, rainbow quote shirt.

I can't wait for our little rainbow baby to wear this shirt!

I love that this design can also just be an encouraging message to anyone having a hard time. So if you have a friend who is struggling through some storms, whip up a shirt, tote bag or mug with this design to encourage him or her. And don't forget to check out Expressions Vinyl for all your adhesive and heat transfer vinyl needs! Follow them on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with all their latest deals. Happy crafting!