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I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! We are just a week away from ringing in the New Year. If you received screen printing supplies for Christmas, let’s put them to use and make some customized items for your New Year’s celebration!
I have teamed up with the talented Lettered by Stephanie to bring you 3 FREE hand-lettered cut files that you can use to follow along in this tutorial. Using her designs, I made 3 different items for our New Year’s party: shirts, koozies, and napkins.
3 Items to Screen Print for Your New Year’s Party
DIY Screen Printing on a T-shirt
Using a blank t-shirt, I started with the “2020 Best Year Ever” design on my 10×14” Speedball screen. I attached the screen to my press, but you can do this project without the press too. Once the design is attached and the area around the vinyl is taped off with painter’s tape, you are ready to screen print!
I chose Speedball opaque silver fabric ink on my black shirt. Squeegee the ink over the top of the screen, making sure the entire design is covered with a couple thin coats of ink. Lift your screen to reveal your design! Repeat this process with any additional shirts.
Finally, remove the vinyl from the back of your screen and wash the screen with water. Allow your shirt to dry completely, then you’ll want to heat press in order to set the ink. Applying heat to the dry ink makes it permanent on your shirt and keeps it from fading in the wash. Read here for more tips on heat setting fabric ink.
Screen Printing Custom Koozies
For the Blank Koozies, I put the “Cheers to the New Year” design on my 10×14” hinged Speedball Frame. I cut 2 of this design sized to 3″ wide. Putting 2 designs on one screen, I was able to speed up the process printing two Koozies at a time. You can purchase blank can holders at wholesale prices here.
Before you tape around the design, tape a piece of paper to the board. Then, line up 2 Koozies under the screen – adjusting the Koozies until the design is centered. Carefully lift your screen and trace the Koozies on the paper. This will give you a template to place the Koozies in the correct spot each time.
Tape off the area around your design with painter’s tape and you’re ready to start screen printing! Squeegee the Speedball opaque silver fabric ink over one design at a time, pressing firmly. Lift your screen to reveal your screen printed Koozies!
TIP: You can tape the Koozies to the board of your hinged frame. This will allow you to lift the screen to check the ink coverage. If you need to add more ink, you can lower the screen to apply a 2nd coat.
Once your Koozies have dried completely, you’ll want to heat set the ink using your heat press, Easy Press 2 or iron. Here are tips on various ways to heat set the ink.
Screen Printing on Paper Napkins
One of my favorite items to screen print for parties are disposable napkins. The personalization options are endless with your Cricut or Silhouette machine. This is a great project for a New Year’s Eve party, wedding, or birthday party.
I used the “Hello New Year” design sized at 4” wide to screen print on black napkins. For napkins, you’ll want to use acrylic ink. I used Speedball Acrylic Ink in Silver for this project.
Similar to the Koozies, I cut the design twice so I could speed up the process and print 2 napkins at a time. I lined up the napkins under my design on the Speedball hinge frame. Then, I traced them on a piece of paper – creating a template to easily line them up each time.
Squeegee the acrylic ink over your design just as you would with fabric ink. The acrylic ink is a little thinner in consistency. I found that it only took one pull of the ink to fully coat the napkins. Going over the design too many times will cause some of the ink to bleed under your vinyl.
Lay your napkins flat to dry. With acrylic ink, there is no need to heat set them. Once they air dry, they are ready for your party!
Supplies Used in This Tutorial
- Speedball 10×14 Hinge Frame
- Speedball 10×14 Screen Printing Frame
- Speedball Fabric Ink in Silver
- Speedball Acrylic Ink in Silver
- Squeegee
- Transfer Tape
- Painter’s Tape
- Cricut Maker
- Oracal 651 Vinyl
- Cricut Easy Press 2 or Heat Press
- Blank T-Shirts
- Blank Koozies
- Blank Napkins
- 3 Free New Year's Cut Files
- Paper and Pencil
Download FREE New Year’s Designs to Cut on Your Cricut or Silhouette
After you enter your email address, you will be prompted to save the ZIP file to your computer or device. Unzip the fie and you’ll see various file types. If you are a Cricut user, you’ll want to use the SVG files. If you are a Silhouette user, the DXF files are for you.
If you love the convenience of pre-made cut files, you should join Stephanie's SVG Club. For $10/month, you get 8-12 new SVGs sent to you each month!
Want to learn how to hand letter your own designs? Stephanie’s got a course and book that will teach you the techniques to create your own lettering style. Purchase her digital course and book, “You Can Hand Letter”
Happy New Year! I hope 2020 is your best year ever!
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