I know I’ve been talking it up for a while now. But believe you me, this post was worth the wait. Or at least I think it is.

You probably don’t know it but my best friend, May (not her real name) is a very talented designer and illustrator. Very talented. So talented, in fact, that she may or may not do illustrations for the magazine favored by dentists the world over that rhymes with Bighlights.

May is also friends in real life with the beloved DesignMom. They went to college together and are such good friends that DesignMom hired May to do all of her kid’s birth announcements.

For years May has helped me become a better crafter. We’re not talking about the pretty little scrapbooks and pre-made items like that. May is pretty clever and comes up with her own projects. All of which are amazing.

A few years ago when everybody we knew started having kids and we were attending a few baby showers every month, May came up with The Best Baby Shower Gift in the History of the World. Since May is moving away to Reno, I was afraid this talent of hers would move with her. I begged her to show me her ways. She agreed, and this “How-To” post was born.

Let’s turn the time over to my bestest friend, May:

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How To Win the Baby Shower Gift Competition (yes, they’re judging you…)

I like to give unique gifts. If you’ve got lots of cash laying around, there are TONS of great things to buy out there (ever visited designmom? Totally awesome). Alas, I am poor. But I’m not going to let it stop me from being fabulous… And in the spirit of cheap-skates everywhere I now impart my crafting knowledge to you so you can also win that baby shower & amaze your friends, the church ladies, and the mom-to-be with your crafty skillz.

Lots of stores sell awesome onesies with band names for lots of money (Cinder Block, or that embarrassing store in the mall where the goth kids go….Hot Topic, etc.). But if you are willing to spend some time on images.google.com, and can work Photoshop, you can make some rockin’ onesies for only a few bucks. And even if you can’t work Photoshop, I’m going to give you some FREE designs here to cut & paste into your program of choice.

A quick lesson on copyright laws –

Most the stuff you find on the internet is not free game. Someone owns the rights to the images. You can’t just take Jordan Catalano’s picture & start selling millions of onesies dedicated to his hotness, no matter what the market demands. I’m just sayin’, you can’t sell these puppies…

Supplies & My Lengthy Explanation of Said Supplies:

Onesies – I’ve gotten totally awesome onesies at thrift stores before (vintage stripes, hand stiched necklines, etc.) Don’t pay more than $.50/each for them, and obviously wash them well before ironing on…

The “Circo” brand at Target sells a 5-pack for around $10 which are pretty great. I don’t personally like the “Gerber” onesies because they’re just surged on the edges & look slightly ghetto. Ross sells cute striped onesies in a 5-pack for about $8 too. If you’re really into making onesis, you can get them in bulk (and cool colors) from Anvil (for kids T’s) or American Apparel (a tad pricey, but GREAT quality).

Iron On Paper* – My favorite is the Epson brand (it’s cheapest at amazon). But I have an Epson printer. I’ve also had good luck with Office Depot’s generic brand. As long as you follow the directions, they’re all pretty good. And most babies are only wearing them for a few months anyway…

* These directions are for regular iron-on paper, to be used with white or light colored fabric. If you want to do black or dark colors, you’ll need to get different paper & follow the directions.

Ink Jet Printer – I’m pretty sure you need to print them via ink jet. Check your iron on directions to see for sure.

Photoshop – These directions are for Photoshop CS, but you can lay it out in whatever program you want. Just be sure to flip the image so that it prints backwards before you print.

Iron

Wooden Cutting Board

Designing Your Onesie

This is my favorite part. I like to start at images.google.com and type in random 80’s bands, famous body builders, tattoo designs, politicians, etc. (I mean, doesn’t every baby need a shirt with Whitney Houston on it that says, “Crack Is Whack”? Crack IS whack….) Look for medium to large sized files if you can. I am going to look up Jordan Catalano.

-Open Photoshop.

-Once you find your dreamy picture of Jordan, click on the link at the top of images.google.com that says, “See full-size image”.

-Move your mouse a’top the image & right-click. Choose “Copy Image”.

-In Photoshop select File, New File, “OK” (it should automatically be the same size as the image you just copied. Thank you Photoshop!)

-Select Edit, Paste.

-I use the brush tool to white out the background & clean up the image, but it’s up to you.

-If you have a smallish image, change the canvas size to the size you want your image to be (3”x3” is good for a onesie). Go to Image, Canvas Size, (fill in the size you want). Then go to edit, transform, scale to make it fit the canvas size. Hold the “Shift” button while you scale the image to keep the proportions correct.

-If you have a largish image, go to Image, Image Size & cut it down to 3”wide x whatever” tall.

-If the image is bitmapped or grainy- you can add some cool filters. My favorite is the halftone screen:

-Select Image, Mode, Grayscale to make the image black & white.

-Select Filter, Sketch, Halftone pattern & select how far you want to push the pattern. (I usually come back with the brush tool now & take out all the extra dots that showed up in the plain white background when the halftone pattern was applied.)

-Add type, if you want to add some snarky comment. (Of course this is not required. Jordan can stand on his own. We are adding some Tragic Love Friday text. You know, because we can.)

-Select the color you want the type to be from the “Swatches” window -Select the “T” (type) tool.

-When you click the type tool onto your image, the top bar of the photoshop screen will show the type choices & sizes you have. Go at LEAST 20pt size. And go crazy…

-You may need to make your canvas size larger to fit the type. Go back to Image, Canvas Size, and add the inch that you need (and where you’d like it to be added on the image).

-In Photoshop CS you can edit the type after you’ve clicked off it, but it’s a little tricky. It may try to add new type on a different layer. Click DIRECTLY on top of what you’ve already put in & you can select it to change the font & font size.

-Once type is set & happy, flatten the image. Go to the “Layers” window & select the little arrow right underneath the red “x”. Select “Flatten Image”.

-Now we need to flip it so it will print backwards. Go to Select, Select All. Then go to Edit, Transform, Flip Horizontal.

-I try to fill up a whole page with designs before I print so that I don’t waste my valuable iron-on paper printing one little 3” design. I can get up to 10 designs on a page (if some are small).

-To do this, change your canvas size to just slightly smaller than the iron on paper size. Go to Image, Canvas Size, & change to 8×10”.

-Now you can either copy & paste the current design, or start all over & make new ones to add!. Hooray for photoshop!!!

-To copy the same design, use the dotted-square select tool (AKA Rectangular Marquee Tool) from the toolbar & select your image.

-Go to Edit, Copy.

-Go to Edit, Paste.

-Choose the arrow tool (AKA “Move Tool”, right next to the dotted square select tool) to move the pasted image to it’s new home (it usually pastes the new image DIRECTLY on top of the old image, so you have to move it to see that it’s there). Now you are ready to print!!!

-Follow the printing directions that came with your paper (to see how to load it, etc). Just make sure you print on the right side (otherwise it will make a mess on your iron & you will say bad words).

-Once everything is printed, heat up your iron nice & hot. NO STEAM! Lay your onesie out on your handy-dandy cutting board.

-Cut out the designs, leaving a little extra border of plain iron-on paper around all them (otherwise it can smear when you’re ironing) You only need to leave 1/8 – 1/16th of an inch.

-Be careful where you place it, make sure it’s in the middle of the onesie. I know that’s obvious, but it’s amazing how many of mine end up kind of skewed.

-Keep the iron moving so you don’t singe the image or fabric, but make sure it’s TOTALLY ADHERED to the fabric before you stop applying heat. And don’t be afraid to press down hard! It will take longer than you’re expecting. Don’t get scared.

-Make sure it’s totally cooled before you peel the paper off. If the paper is sticking to the image STOP & iron it again. That means it wasn’t ironed on all the way.

-Now peel off the paper.

-Stand back & admire your cute, crafty self. YOU ROCK! This is the big payoff!!!

(Our very awesome Tragic Love Friday inspired design. Which will be hand-delivered to the lovely Frema this week at BlogHer.)

-Prepare to amaze friends & family. I like to get little cotton pants to go with the onesies & make it a complete outfit. I’ve done striped pants with a jolly-roger pirate onesie for a pirate-themed outfit, a flaming AC/DC onesie with bright orange pants, or little baby jeans with random band onesies (as per the mom-to-be’s obsession, be it Battlestar Galactica or Rhett Miller). And since they’re so cheap to make, you can give away 5 at a time without breaking the bank. Hooray!!!

(Some of the stash that May and Isabel put together in preparing for this post.)

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As promised I have a few of May’s designs that she is happy to share with you. They are reversed and ready for your added snarky comments or left as-is.

(For more of May’s FREE designs, visit my flickr page.)

(The King is convinced I should make one of these and send it to Rhett. I don’t know what he would think of it. The word “stalker” comes to mind.)

I can’t wait to see what you come up with.