Shawn Mosch

Back to School Shirt with Cricut and Siser

It is that time of year when everyone starts to think about back to school shopping. You can make this time of year more fun with a back to school shirt with Cricut and Siser. Make sure to read all the way to the end of this post. I have partnered with Siser for a contest and you could win a prize pack from them!

By the way, this post contains Affiliate Links to companies I have partnered with, such as Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. You can think of affiliate links like tipping your waitress, only it does not cost you anything extra! Thank you for shopping with my links!

Materials needed for Back to School Shirt with Cricut and Siser

a shirt
HTV/iron on vinyl – colors listed below
- Florescent Red Siser StripFlock Pro
- Fluorescent Green Siser StripFlock Pro
- Lemon Siser EasyWeed
- Cobalt Blue Siser EasyWeed
- Sky Blue Siser EasyWeed
- Orange Siser EasyWeed
- White Siser EasyWeed
- Charcoal Siser EasyWeed

I prefer to use Siser brand vinyl for my iron on projects. I feel that is the best quality brand of iron on vinyl out there, and it weeds the easiest. For permanent vinyl I like StarCraft vinyl. People have asked me why not Cricut brand, since I use a Cricut machine. Personally I just do not like the way the Cricut vinyl cuts or weeds. I think you should find the brand you love and work with that product. Test things out for yourself. Sometimes it is just a personal preference like how some people would rather have Pepsi products over Coke products.

So once you find your brand of vinyl, where should you buy it? If your favorite brand is sold at the local craft store, then you are lucky in the fact that you can pretty much garantee that you can run to the store and pick up vinyl when ever you need it.

For me, Siser was not always sold in the stores, as it is now, so I had to get it from online retailers. Again, this is where you can either go with your personal preference of stores or go where the best deal is. One day the best price might be at one store, and then the next week it might be from a different retailer. We all do this when we sometimes pick up toliet paper at the grocery store, but then we also get it at Target when it is on sale.

I also love that I can order large rolls or small sheets when ordering Siser online. This can give you a larger variety of choices and allow to to save money on larger orders. To make sure you are getting the best price for your vinyl, make sure to check out my Vinyl Buyers Guide. Because of that, I will always share all of the different resource I am connected to and you can choose which one is best for you!

When I first started this site, I had not even heard of MyCraftSource, and now I am an influencer for them! Since all of their inflencers have a special coupon code, that means when you shop at My Craft Source you can get an extra 5% off your order just by using coupon code ShawnMosch at checkout!

Heat Transfer Warehouse is another supplier that I love, and they are actually somewhat close to me. Their headquarters are in North Dakota and I am in Minnesota. They even have their own line of vinyl, and they are partnering with other companies to really bring you a wide variety of products.

You may have noticed that there are a lot of retailers that only ship to places in the United States. This is because shipping prices can really add up. I want to be able to help my followers find their products no matter where they live and that is why I was happy to find some retailers that ship world wide! That is where the next two compnaies come in as options.

Let me introduce you to Expressions Vinyl. When you go to their site, make sure to check out the rewards program. This way you can earn points as you purchase products! Then those points can be redeemed on future purchases.

Another retailer that I work with is Vinyl and Tulle. Use coupon code SHAWNMOSCH to save 10% off your order!

I cannot forget my Canadian followers! Madame Blanks is located in Winnipeg Use coupon code SHAWN10 to save 10% off your order of StarCraft products! If you click on the link and it does not work, just know that the owners are taking a little break but hope to have everything back up and running soon! In the meantime, you could follow them on social media!

a heat source (I like to use a Heat Press)
parchment paper or a light towel
weeding tool
Cricut Design Space software
Cricut cutting mat (I use the green mat)
Roaring into Pre-K image
cardboard shirt cut out (optional)

Back to School Shirt Designs

First, choose a Back to School shirt design that you want to cut with your Cricut. You can find images and sayings in Cricut Design Space, or from various websites that provide svg files, or you can even design your own image. If you would like to use the same image I did, you can purchase it HERE.

Choosing Colors

Once you have your image picked out you can change the colors of the image to match the vinyl you want to use. If you want to change any of the colors, just click on the part of the design that you want to change the color of. For example, in the image below I have click on the word INTO. You can tell it is selected because there is a small selection window around just the word INTO. Also, when you look at the layers panel to the right, you can see that the letters for the word INTO all have a darker color to the backgroun of their line on the layers panel. This is how you can tell which pieces you have selected.

TIP: If you are having a hard time picking parts of the design by clicking on the image, try clicking on the line of the layers panel to select things instead. If you hold down your shift key on your keyboard, that allows you to select multiple layers at the same time.

Depending on your image, you might have to UnGroup the layers first before you can select one layer at a time.

I knew I wanted to use some really bright colors for this project, so I looked through all of my Siser vinyl to find the best colors. Take a close look at the word ROARING and the dinosaur for this project. I cut these from the Siser StripFlock Pro product. Can you see the slight texture in them as compared to the rest of the vinyl? They seems to stand out even more, and they are soft to the touch.

Once you have all of your colors set, I like to select everything in the design and group it together. This allows me to adjust the size of all of the pieces and parts at the same time. The group button is in the upper right side of the screen, at the top of the layers panel.

Cut with the Cricut

Now it is time to cut all of the layers. Since you have the shirt set up by colors, each color will automatically go to a different cutting mat. All you have to do is load the mats in the right order. Don’t forget to mirror your image. I put a big blue arrow on the image below to show you where the Mirror button is.

This is really important when using HTV/iron on vinyl. You will be cutting through the back side of the vinyl, so you need to mirror the image for things to come out correctly when pressing.

Once all of your layers are cut and weeded, lay them out on your shirt so you can determine the spacing and positioning of everything. Then start with the largest background piece. For this, I pressed the charcoal gray background of the dinosaur first. This made it so much easier to position and place the rest of the layers.

Make sure to check out my shirt tutorials from the links below, including
Making a Shirt with your Cricut
Layering Vinyl on a Shirt
Multi Colored Layered Vinyl on a Shirt
Print than Cut Image on a Shirt

All HTV/iron on vinyl projects

Enter The Contest!

Also make sure to enter the contest we have going on with Siser! Once the winner is picked, Siser will contact you to ship you some free vinyl! Then you can show me your back to school shirt with Cricut and Siser.

a Rafflecopter giveaway