DIY Disney's Crush the Turtle T-shirt

I think Crush is my favorite character in Finding Nemo (although I'm in love with Dory too). And I LOVE seeing Turtle Talk With Crush when we are in Epcot. I think I may even like it more than the kids! I'm always the first to suggest it. And when I saw this excellent turtle design in the Silhouette shop, I knew a t-shirt was in order!

I started with a 2T-3T shirt I happened to have on hand. We get a lot of hand-me-down clothes and I like to use them for these sorts of projects. It helps to make them feel new. It also makes this a very budget-friendly project. Since I had all the materials on hand already, making this was completely, 100% free to me!

I cut out this Turtle Tribal design from Silhouette stencil vinyl using my Silhouette Portrait machine. I sized the design to be about 6.5" wide and 3.875" high. This is an intricate design, so be very careful transferring it to the t-shirt. Make sure all those tiny dots are on there nice and tight! Once I had the design transferred, I painted the design with black fabric paint.

I then cut out the word "dude" using the Jungle Fever font. I had planned on putting it right below the turtle, but I'll let you in on a little secret: I smudged some paint on the shirt while I was rushing to finish it (haste makes waste!) - so I decided to cover it up with the "dude"! I'm really happy with the result. It's a little unexpected; kinda like Crush!

I was also toyed with the idea of writing "dude" or "squirt" on this one. I like the idea of both, so I'm thinking I might do another for Minnie to wear with "squirt" written on the back, the way you would see it on a jersey. We'll see what happens with that idea! Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!