Another indoor activity for this week: screen printing t-shirts.
Here’s the sitch. 1) We were sent a Yudu screen printing machine in December to test out. Here it is February and we hadn’t tried it out yet. 2) Three and 1/2 years ago, I ordered 10 orange t-shirts to be decorated and given out as party favors at Ralph’s 8th birthday celebration. Alas, they arrived as the party was ending. They have been sitting in my garage ever since. All of them are size youth small. 3) My brother Josh has been seeking out kid size t-shirts featuring the cool bands of his childhood. We love that idea. These 3 factors came together for a great day-off activity on Monday.
We took an early U2 album cover and used Photoshop to make it a black and white bitmap image, then printed it out on a transparency.
We burned it into our screen in the Yudu machine, and then printed it onto the t-shirts. We tried different inks and different placements on the tees. And, because it’s hard to stop printing things once you get into the swing of it, we also tried the U2 print on different papers, one of Ben Blair’s tees, and a clipboard that was sitting on the counter.
When Ralph came running down the stairs with every blank t-shirt he owns in his arms, I knew it was time to shut it down — before everything we owned was covered in the October album cover. By the way, the Yudu is still in development — the manufacturer is working out kinks and making sure the directions are clear, etc. So if you were hoping to buy one, so sorry, but you’ll have to wait. [ Edit: turns out I'm totally wrong. Yudu is now available for sale. Great news! You can find more info here or here. Also. I couldn't find a link, but I here they are on sale at Jo Ann's. ] That said, we highly recommend this machine. We loved our experiment with it. Years ago, we actually tried to set up a screen printing space in our basement utility room, but dealing with the emulsion chemicals and figuring out a good light to make the exposure is tricky. The Yudu solves both of those problems.
Overall, lots of fun. And since we don’t need a whole bunch of matching orange t-shirts, when we were finished, we dropped them off at some of our neighbors homes — neighbors with 8 year old fans of U2 in the house.
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
I think I saw your sister post on these before. They look great. Please post again when they are available.
You know I’d pretty much sell my soul for one of these, they look fab! Pity they’re not available for sale yet – I hope the budget can stretch to one once they ae launched!
Super cool! My soon is garbage/recycle truck OBSESSED. We have yet to find a cool shirt with one on it. Guess we could make our own if we ever got our hands on one of those machines.
Man, we want one of those!!
I’ve been following this machine since Jordan posted it on her site and it’s available now on the HSN site. It’s $279 and it’s a basic starter set, I’m pretty sure the HSN site did the world launch of it first and they’re offering free shipping too!
I am loving the mental image I have of Ralph gathering everything he owns to put the October cover on it. That kid is the most awesome!!!
Scout loves her shirt… I’m thinking a night of kid rock band in all matching U2 tees? We gotta unlock all the songs… hopefully there are some good U2 ones on there to play.
this looks great, i would totally get one.
Will you let us know when they become available?
I am so excited to hear your thoughts on this. I just today saw one advertised in the Jo-Ann flyer for $199. I was wondering about it and then cam across your blog on it. Thanks so much for your insight.
This is so very, very cool. I’m not sure I would ever buy a screen printed shirt again. OH! The possibilities! I WANT ONE!
Coolest thing ever!! I had a high school job in a screen printing shop and loved it! This would be so fun to have in my house.
I’m dying to get one of these. I saw it on your sister’s blog a few months back. Do you have an idea of when they will be on the market?
thanks for this post, I’ve never heard of this little gadget, guess it’s meant to replace a gocco?
Have you tried washing any of the shirts yet? Curious how well the ink holds up…
Wondering how it compares to the Gocco I already have… have you used a gocco?
ooo, do tell when these become available to the public–I’ve been wanting to fiddle around with one of these for a while.
That is incredibly cool. It seems more worth it than a Gocco, since the print area is larger? If you ever experiment with 2+ colors, I think we’d all love to see the results.
I saw these screen printers for sale this week at Joann’s so they are currently on the market. But what I’ve found with so many of the products of Provo Craft, and others, is that next week there’ll be a new and upgraded model. While the novelty of owning one is great, you wonder if you should wait to see what’s around the corner.
Well I hope when they are available to purchase, you will notify you blog friends. I want one!
Great design choice, by the way. And orange is my fav. color.
They are on sale right now at Joann fabrics for $199 and all accessories are 40% off.
Also, check out http://www.yuduforums.com for more info on it, experiences, etc.
I totally agree with you that it’s hard to stop printing once you get going…I love my Yudu!
how do you get sent something like this to test? I’d love to be part of that kind of thing.
Design Mom!
Thank you for testing out the yudu and reporting on it. The photos are beautiful and I’m glad your kids had so much fun with it.
Right now the machines are available at Joanns and HSN. This month they will also be in Michaels stores. Since the machine has just launched, the machines are harder to find but will be showing up in lots of retails stores soon.
You can find it online with some independent resellers as well.
Good luck and happy yudu-ing!
It was kind of hard to use at first, but now I’m totally digging it. I just saw it at http://www.yudustyle.com for something like $244.
I bought mine at Jo-Ann’s for $199, then I tried to get other accesories to start. There were none. I’ve been going to the store about 1-2 a week for 2 months. Tonight I’m breaking it out, finally. We’ll see how it goes. I do wish that the accesories were more afforable
Do you know how many images can be used for one screen?
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I bought one from JoAnn’s when they were $199 and have been searching for about a month to find supplies. I went into Michael’s over the weekend and they were demonstrating one. I asked about supplies and was so happy to hear they had some. I can’t wait to try mine out.
My son is a marine currently in Afganistan due to return in June I want to celebrate his return by making 40 t-shirts on the yudu of his favorite design (a rottweiler)for family members to greet him when he returns. There are 3 colors, black, brown and white. I tried to make a black transparency with photoshop but didn’t get a true black. Anyone have a step by step in getting a true black transparency and also how to create multicolors?
I just saw one for $178 at a website called http://www.scrapbooktoolkit.com. Anyone have any experience with that site? are they legit?
Hello my name is montanez and i just got the yudu and im having trouble printing my image off the com onto the transparency screen i cant figure out if its my printer or the yudu paper.I have an Artisan 810 printer and idk if thats the problem But if any 1 can help me with this i would really appreciate it thanks again . montanezreed@yahoo.com
not sure if you’ve found a solution but here: http://www.fixya.com/support/t1667802-epson_artisan_800_wont_print is something that worked for me. I was about to go out and get a new printer and then tried this and it really did work. Hope it works for you!
We have one. We had not had any success in getting the emusion to stick to the screen. I have gotten the screen wet, but soaking and just wet enough with a napkin like the video says, but nothing seems to be working. Any suggestions?
yeah i had that same problem letting the emulsion stick to the screen. the video says wait 20 min to dry but thats bs. what you need to do is put it in the dryer bed past the 20 minutes and when its done take a blow dryer or let it air dry out side. you want it to be dry all over before you peel it. if you take it out when the instructions say to, it will peel or some will stick and the rest wont.
Can I print on coffee mugs with the yudu machine?
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