Custom monster jam bike tutorial

Today is Bobby's 3rd birthday!  His big gift from mom and dad: a custom monster jam bike.

We've been telling him for a while that if he gave up his sucker he could have a big boy bike.  He had his heart set on this Monster Jam bike he saw online once.  But as much as he wanted that bike, it wasn't worth giving up his precious suckie.

So we decided that age three was the cutoff, and hence tonight we'll be flying suckie off into the sky.  And enjoying cake and ice cream and presents to ease the hurt!  Think it'll work?  I have a feeling life as we know it is over...

Anyway.  We did not buy Bob the exact bike that he wanted.  But we did turn it into a monster jam bike.

Here's how I added custom decals to the bike...

I found a font I liked and installed it.  I love urbanfonts.com -- they have a huge free selection.  Just open the downloaded file and click install and that's it!  (at least that's how it is on a mac, not sure about pc.)

Then I arranged my text for printing.  I use Adobe Photoshop Elements because that's easiest for me, but lots of other software works, too.  I found some skull and flame clip art online which I also resized and arranged and printed.

Next I sent my husband out to make photocopies of the pages.  Ink jet printouts won't work for this; you need heat based toner.

Now I stick clear packing tape onto the text and graphics, and go over with my scissor handle to completely adhere.

Then I dip the tape in water and rub off the paper, and voila! my image is left on the tape.

Wipe as much water off the tape with your fingers as you can, then lay it out sticky side up to dry for a bit (I made the mistake of trying to stick the tape when it was still too wet and it got all crinkly when it finished drying.)

You could use a little spray adhesive if the tape isn't sticky enough at this point, but I got better results without it.

Stuck on my decals, and done!  It looks pretty much perfect.

Now I just hope Bobbert doesn't remember his dream bike too keenly.  But I think this will do the trick regardless.

method via lilblueboo.com packing tape image transfer tutorial