# How to make a custom t-shirt wall mural/todo list using IdeaPaint, a vinyl cutter and sign vinyl



## Rodney

*PREFACE*

I think I first came across *IdeaPaint* from a link posted on Twitter. It's a pretty neat product...

IdeaPaint is basically a special type of paint that you can paint on just about any flat surface. Once dried, *the surface automagically turns into a dry erase board!* You can paint walls, tables, desks...you name it!

This past Christmas, they had a sale on their 3 square foot "Lil Bit Kit" packs, so I bought a few for friends and snagged a couple for myself to play with.

After figuring out which type of sign vinyl would work best for this type of wall application (with the help of some great T-ShirtForums members), I got to work on my wall mural idea.

*Disclaimer:* _I'm not an artist or a painter. I don't play one on TV  What you see here is my attempt at making a fun t-shirt mural for my wall _

*How I made a t-shirt mural with ideapaint, a vinyl cutter and some sign vinyl*

*What's needed:*



Some *IdeaPaint* - my mural was small-ish, so I used their Lil Bit Kit. Bigger murals mean mo' paint.
A *vinyl cutter/plotter* - I used a Roland GX-24, but any vinyl cutter should work. If you don't have a cutter, you can outsource the cutting part to someone that does.
Some *sign vinyl* - Oracal 651 (matte) was recommended by forum members, but other brands may work as well.
*Application tape* - different people have their favorites, but I had R-Tape AT60 Clear Choice on hand, so I used that. 
A *wall* - a _flat_ wall surface is preferred, but mine has texture, which can make erasing in crevices a bit of a challenge.
*STEP 1* - *find a graphic for the t-shirt outline (or draw one)*

My first step was finding just the right "t-shirt frame" for my mural. As I mention in the disclaimer, I'm not an artist, so I decided to scour istockphoto.com for a t-shirt template to use.

After a bit of searching, I picked this one: T-shirt design template set | Royalty Free Stock Vector Art Illustration | iStockphoto.com - I particularly liked the details like the wrinkles in the sleeve.

*STEP 2 - get the t-shirt graphic ready for cutting*

I brought the eps file I bought and downloaded from istockphoto into CorelDraw X4 and removed the light blue shading and background so just the black outline of the t-shirt remained.










Then I imported the black outlined t-shirt into Roland CutStudio to get it ready for cutting with the vinyl cutter. With the CutStudio plugin for CorelDraw, this was accomplished with a quick clickety click.

*STEP 3 - figure out how big you want your t-shirt wall mural*

The amount of open wall space in my office is pretty limited, so I found and measured out a small area that I thought would be perfect for the t-shirt dry erase board. If I had more space, I might have gone for a ceiling to floor type mural, but you take what you can get 










So to get the vinyl decal t-shirt outline the size I needed, I just typed 20 into Roland CutStudio under the properties for the imported graphic like so.

*STEP 4 - cut it up!*

I got the Roland GX-24 ready to cut with a quick test cut on the Oracal 651 black sign vinyl.










Then I cut out the full graphic and quickly weeded around the edges.










Then I weeded the excess vinyl from the center of the t-shirt. _TIP: Hang on to that big vinyl piece in the middle_!










*STEP 5 - get the wall ready to be muralized (is that a word?)*

If you followed my tip above, then you have a nice big solid vinyl t-shirt outline. 

Take that big solid t-shirt outline and place it on the wall where you want the mural to go. The Oracal 651 vinyl is pretty easy to remove from a wall surface, so you can line it up, remove it, realign it, re-apply it as necessary without much worry.










Once you have everything straight and placed where you want the whiteboard to be, you can take a pencil and draw a nice outline around the vinyl. 

This pencil outline will be like the lines in your coloring book. Stay inside the lines when it comes to painting time 










Keep on tracing all the way around. It doesn't have to be perfect, since the vinyl outline will be covering the pencil marks (ideally  - if not, just erase them later).










*STEP 6 - Get your paint on!*

Pull out your box of IdeaPaint. Here's my "lil' bit of ideapaint box"










Open it up and survey the contents:










Pour this into that:










Mix things up a bit:










Pour the paint into the tray:










*Then paint away! *(maybe try to stay in the lines you drew a bit better than did )










*STEP 7 - Back away from the wall and WAIT!*

After you paint, you need to let your IdeaPaint cure (cure = dry) for 7 days.










Keep waiting...

*STEP 8 - Put your t-shirt vinyl frame around your new whiteboard mural!*

To make applying the vinyl decal to the wall easier, you'll want to use some type of application tape. The application tape is sticky on one side, so it can stick to the vinyl. 

The R-Tape AT60 Clear Choice I had on hand was only 10" wide, so I had to use two strips of it side by side on the vinyl to get it to fit.










When you peel off the application tape, only the vinyl decal remains on the wall looking pretty:










*STEP 9 - Get some dry erase markers*

I think I found this 16 color pack at my local Target, but you can find dry erase markers in almost any arts and crafts store, drug store, or grocery store.










*STEP 10 - Have Fun!*





















*BUSINESS TIP:* For those of you with vinyl cutters and vinyl print/cutters like the Roland Versacamm, maybe you could offer to sell your customers vinyl wall decals combined with some IdeaPaint as a kit so they can create their own wall murals with the "frames" you create (or that they suggest).

Feel free to leave your tips, comments and feedback below!


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## sunnydayz

Wow that is awesome Rodney  Makes me want to go play with your kids and color hehe. Great tutorial, I may have to try one of these in my house since Ava constantly wants to color my walls  Great idea hehe with the idea paint


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## ashamutt

AWESOME TUTORIAL RODNEY!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share!!!


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## lizziemaxine

This is absolutely fabulous. I love it.


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## theflowerboxx

Good tutorial, maybe I'm missing something but why not just use dry erase vinyl?


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## Rodney

theflowerboxx said:


> Good tutorial, maybe I'm missing something but why not just use dry erase vinyl?


Now you tell me 

I guess I didn't use dry erase vinyl for a couple of reasons: 1) I didn't know it existed. 2) I wanted to play around with IdeaPaint to see if I could pull it off.

It didn't come out perfect, but I think it opens up a lot of neat possibilities.


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## theflowerboxx

Rodney said:


> Now you tell me
> 
> I guess I didn't use dry erase vinyl for a couple of reasons: 1) I didn't know it existed. 2) I wanted to play around with IdeaPaint to see if I could pull it off.
> 
> It didn't come out perfect, but I think it opens up a lot of neat possibilities.


 Dry Erase Vinyl from Avery Graphics


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## lizziemaxine

From one of the forum sponsors
FDC 4305 Promotional Dry Erase Sign Vinyl Film - 15"x10 yds (Click For Colors)


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## selzler

theflowerboxx said:


> Good tutorial, maybe I'm missing something but why not just use dry erase vinyl?


Some people love extra work, and have a fun project. Thats like why rework on old house when buying new is faster and cheaper. Except when you like a challange.


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## theflowerboxx

selzler said:


> Some people love extra work, and have a fun project. Thats like why rework on old house when buying new is faster and cheaper. Except when you like a challange.


 I realize that, that's why I said "maybe I'm missing something".


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## Rodney

Thanks for the links to the dry erase vinyl. I may try out some of that too and do a comparison to see which works better on my bumpy walls 

I did kind of like painting though. Has anybody else here tried the dry erase vinyl or ideapaint?


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## jiarby

My wife teaches graphic design and screen printing at a high school... I'll made a couple of these using 3651 & dryerase laminate mounted to 2x3 gatorboard... Then the kids can doodle an idea before hitting the PC with it. 


It would be great for a kids room or classroom door.


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## pukingdeserthobo

haha looks great


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## Boomerbabe

How fun!! Love the idea, drawing on the walls like when we were kids with no repercussions. Thanks, Rodney.


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## JavaJess

Very cool! I'd love to do that but right now we are trying to sell our house, not sure if the next owners would want a tshirt on their wall.  lol


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## Swagger11

That was awesome Rodney!


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## Rodney

JavaJess said:


> Very cool! I'd love to do that but right now we are trying to sell our house, not sure if the next owners would want a tshirt on their wall.  lol


You could just paint one of the walls white with ideapaint and then surprise them with an erasable wall


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## thatcampguy

Rodney,

What a great idea. This has massive potential for selling, and design work.

Thanks


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## JoshEllsworth

Nice - I may have to do a wall in the office

There is a dry erase overlaminate as well!


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## Girlzndollz

Rodney, ur so funny! 

1. Ur paint job, crack me up, stay in ur lines bettr than I did.. hehe... ps: your paint job was way good, but that was funny.
2. Great thinking putting this with a vinyl application. Question for you:

I had the same thought seeing the bumpy wall, regarding a big piece of dry erase vinyl going over it. Seems paint might be better in that type of app, but not sure. How did the black vinyl, the Oracle (now thinking of the Matrix) how did that go on the wall? Did it adhere to the bumps well?

Thanks to you, Flowerboxx and Josh for the great info. Without your tutorial starting the whole discussion, alot of us wouldn't have known about dry erase vinyl, which for a smooth wall, if it isn't ideal for a bumpy wall, for a smooth wall THAT IS AWESOME!! 

Can take a piece of dry erase vinyl and customize a vinyl overlay for specifically made for specialized situations.

I know the generic dry erase calendars Do Not fit the various situations we want to use them for, so we cross off titles, add columns, etc. 

Using a big white dry erase is no fun because we either accidentally erase the customized columns we add in or eventually have to erase and redo the whole blank board. 

With this combined vinyl and dry erase vinyl application, a base off dry erase coupled with "customized" personalized overlay is perfect to solve all those trouble we ourselves run into trying to keep our lives and work organized in the dry erase world!!!!!

YAY, thank you! Have a great night all. Having an insomniac night myself, a migraine and a nap earlier killed my schedule.  Now I'm thinking about dry erase boards instead of counting sheep!


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## Girlzndollz

PS: forgot, and I loved the little graphics
I heart tsf
the number 5 (design theme!)
and I heart the product lol... cute!


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## Rodney

JoshEllworth said:


> There is a dry erase overlaminate as well!


What's an "overlaminate"? Is that the same as "vinyl"?



girlzndollz said:


> How did the black vinyl, the Oracle (now thinking of the Matrix) how did that go on the wall? Did it adhere to the bumps well?


The vinyl conformed to the bumps in the wall pretty well. No problems there.


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## CottonCombed

this post is AWEESOME thank you Rodney


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