How to Make a Cute Kiss-Kiss in Korean T-Shirt

I wanted to make something cute for my toddler for Valentine’s Day. It had to be easy, quick, and something he could wear any time of the year.

Well, one of the cutest words in Korean is “ppo-ppo” (뽀뽀), which means “kiss” or “kiss-kiss” in Korean. I think it may technically be slang, but who cares? It’s adorable when a little kid says it!

So I decided to put this saying on a t-shirt using my super handy dandy Silhouette Cameo! It’s easy to make and you can do it too!

Don’t worry if you don’t have a Silhouette Cameo though. You can use freezer paper instead! The difference is that with the Silhouette, we’re printing the design right onto a sheet that will get ironed on to the fabric; whereas, with freezer paper, we’re making a stencil to fill in with fabric paint. The stencil won’t have as much detail as the Silhouette print but it’s MUCH easier and cheaper to do and it’ll still be adorable!

What You’ll Need:

• the ppo-ppo design

  

• alternative ppo-ppo design (better for stenciling)

  

• a blank t-shirt or whatever fabric you want to put the design on to
• iron and ironing board
• printer
• Printable heat transfer material (I used the one for light colored fabrics) OR
  • freezer paper and
  • fabric paint and
  • brush
  • cardboard
• Silhouette Cameo (or an exacto knife)

Directions using a Silhouette Cameo:

1. Download the “ppo-ppo” design.
2. Pull the design right into a “New Design” in Silhouette Studio. You will have to shrink it down by dragging the page margins in.
3. Then I added an offset (the black border) around the letters by referring to this Youtube tutorial.
4. Load the printable heat transfer material sheet into your printer. (You might want to print on a regular sheet of paper first to see if everything looks okay – size, within registration marks, etc.)
5. Send the job, with the registration marks, to your regular printer from within the Silhouette software.
6. Feed the printed heat transfer material sheet into your Silhouette Cameo to cut the design.
7. Peel the excess transfer material from the sheet. Now, you’re left with only the design on the film backing.
8. Place the design face down on the fabric. So the grid pattern on the film backing should be face up.
9. Set the iron to “cotton” and press down on the transfer material for 30-45 seconds.
10. Once it’s cooled down, peel the backing off.

*Wash inside out in cold water and use low heat to dry.

Special Note: It doesn’t matter in this case because the design looks the same from the front or the back. However, if you went rogue and are doing some other design, make sure you flip your design so that the mirror image is cut out. If you don’t, you’ll end up ironing on your design backwards!

If you’re kind-of new to using a Silhouette Cameo, check out this video. I use my Silhouette so infrequently that I forget and reference Youtube videos all the time!

Directions using freezer paper:

1. Download the “ppo-ppo” design.
2. Change the sizing to whatever size you’d like on the fabric. Or you could just print it as is on 8.5″x11″ paper.
3. Print the design.
4. Lay freezer paper, shiny side down, on top of the design.
5. Trace the design on the freezer paper.
6. Cut out the design. Now you have the stencil.
7. Lay the stencil on top of your fabric. And then lay a piece of fabric over that (I use a pillow case).
8. Set the iron to “cotton” and iron the freezer paper stencil on to the fabric. Remove the overlaying fabric (i.e. pillow case) to check if the stencil has adhered. Go over it again if it hasn’t.
9. After the stencil is all ironed down, slip a piece of cardboard underneath the fabric you’ll be painting because you don’t want the paint seeping through to the other side of the shirt.
10. Using fabric paint, fill in the design and wait for it to dry.
11. Peel off the stencil when everything is completely dry.

*Wash inside out in cold water and use low heat to dry.

Here are two fantastic videos I reference for these types of projects. One video uses only freezer paper and the other video uses a combo of cutting software (I think she used a Cricut) and freezer paper.

Let me know how it goes in the comments!