Learn How To Screen Print Tee Shirts At Home

A lot of people ask me how I line up my screens on the press. I always explain for manual screen printing in situations where you do not have access to pin registration systems, it is often handy to draw crosshairs directly onto the pallet.

When you make a cross hair use a medium tip black Sharpie and make the lines bold so you can see them through the emulsion on a new screen. Your pallet will have to be somewhat clean so you may see the black lines easily. You shouldn’t let too much shirt felt and spray tack build up on the pallet anyway. A clean, smooth pallet will give better results especially with halftones.

Square the lines off with the edges using a right angle drafting tool like a T square. It’s nice when it hangs off the pallet on one side of the T square so you can do it pretty quick. Putt the T square flush to one edge and make sure the ruler guide is long enough to cross the pallet at least from side to side.

I make a center line and several cross hairs at different levels so I can line them up with different parts of the design on the screen. To make your center line go all the way from end to end lengthwise, measure the center with a ruler and make marks down the length. Then use a long straight edge so you can “connect the dots” sort to speak.

You can also make a “center line” to the left of the actual center line to get your crest print, (over the heart), set up too. The position of that line may depend on where your shop likes to position that print.

I like to have a clean pallet and a fresh set of crosshairs when I’m starting a new print run. Simple things like this can make the job a little easier.

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YouTube has been promising to change the layouts of the channel pages to a new and “better” layout. The new channel design is just one of many changes that have been happening to YouTube. Some people seem to embrace the change while others try to fight it claiming some sort of investment in the YouTube community.

I understand why Google is making changes to YouTube and everyone has a right to make some money. But the new channel designs seem to be an obvious move to homogenize the ordinary free user. It takes away a lot of the creative control that we currently enjoy with the old channel design. We will even lose the ability to feature any of our videos on our own page. It looks like the videos are reduced to a scrolling list or a full grid. No longer is there an option to choose 9 videos to feature on the channel page.

For businesses especially, this is a drawback. I will no longer be able to have any videos get special attention by being visible when people visit my channel page. Promotional videos as well as one’s that are lagging in views will not be able to be listed on my channel page. To me, that is a great disadvantage.

This whole new channel design reminds me of the New Coke and Classic Coke debate. To me the old design is YouTube. It is classic and fine the way it is. After all YouTube is an internet icon. And as groundbreaking as YouTube has been over the years, it would seem a shame to lose the design we have all come to know and love.

I’d like to see them offer the new channel design as an option. We shall see, YouTube has delayed the full implementation of the channel across the site for some time now. I can only wonder why.

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There are several questions I get asked often. So, I thought as many other websites do, I would add a F.A.Q. page. The Frequently Asked Questions page will address many of the things that are often asked when starting out in screen printing.

I am currently working on putting it together and I expect to have it live in a few days. I will probably add to it too. I’m sure there will be more questions in the future that I will realize are being asked more than a few times. Please feel free to suggest questions for the F.A.Q. page.

I think this will help people find some quick and useful information on the website. I am always thinking about ways to make it easier to find the information you want quickly and that also may mean some restructuring as the site develops. I learn as I go as we do with many things.

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Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about screen printing. I answer all questions and I reply to all comments on YouTube. Whether you submit your question through YouTube or the Contact Us form on the website, your question will be answered within about 3 days.

Depending on the amount of questions I receive each day, normally questions are answered the day after they were submitted. Sometimes work loads at the screen shop prevent me from getting to the questions as soon as I would like but rest assured, I will reply.

Many questions can be answered just by stopping by the website and taking a look around. Now that there is a site search engine, you will be able to search the entire Catspit site and The Catspit Blog. This makes finding answers to your screen printing questions on the website a lot easier.

If you have questions concerning a custom order or a price quote, please use the Contact Us form. When inquiring about custom orders, please be as specific as possible and include your phone number. I will give you a call to discuss your print project and give you a personalized quote.

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I have added the story of how Catspit Productions got its name and logo to the About Us page on the website. I thought it would be a good idea to explain the whole skull and crossbones thing just to make sure there is no confusion.

I know the name and logo won’t be agreeable with everyone and who knows, it may hurt me starting out. But the name and logo are personal and close to me. It is very much an expression of my inner creativity as well as a literal symbol for me. It’s all about being who I am  and being comfortable with that. I would hope that everyone understands and doesn’t take it the wrong way. After all, it is most often our own life experiences that brings meaning to art, movies, literature and everything else we encounter in our lives.

So check it out. Find out where the Catspit name and logo came from.

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Catspit Productions now offers a catalogue accessible through the website. You can look at a wide variety of products available for sale as blanks or printed with your custom logo.

On the Custom Orders page you will find the link for the catalogue. Please browse the products at your convenience and contact me if you have any questions about placing orders with us for custom printed shirts or other garments. Catspit Productions does print work in the local Phoenix area as well as through the internet.

For personal service and a non gimmicky style of doing business, please consider doing business with Catspit Productions. Get in touch with me. We can talk about what you want or need. I only want to sell you what you want to buy. I’ll never try to push you or harass you into any sale.

Thanks for visiting the blog. Make sure to explore the website with the new search function.

Finally, I have figured out how to add a site search function to the website. I was able to use Google custom search engine to enable a search engine that will search the Catspit website and help you find the information you are looking for.

The site search is provided by Google so I had to make some compromises on the appearance in that it is a very wide page. This is so that all of the search results may be displayed without cutting off anything.

Also there will be a big green empty space below the search bar. That is where the results will display. I was unable to make it expand the page to fit the results automatically.

Please try it out. I will add a site search button or link to the homage but it is available in the navigation bar.

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As a screen printer during these unpredictable economic times you may find yourself working on a lot of price quotes. This may sound surprising but it’s always the case, even during good times. Why? In the printed garment industry there is often a lot of pricing and talk about printing shirts but not all of those price quotes or discussions will result in an actual print job.

It is very important to entertain every prospective customer. Be friendly and courteous to everyone who calls you asking a question. Offer the potential client as much time and information as you can afford. The bottom line is you will never be able to read someone’s mind and know if they will actually place an order. Besides, it may be your product or services that help the customer make the final decision to do business with you.

If 90% of your prospective clients fail to order each week, that means you are still landing 10% of all potential jobs. Yes, it can be a lot of sales work for you to do but it is worth it. With marketing and sales, it is all about the numbers. The more potential clients you speak with, the more opportunity you have to do business.

And don’t be afraid of small jobs. You never know where any print job will lead. For that matter, you never know where a phone call about printed shirts will go either. So keep on quoting prices.

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Two brand new screen printing articles have been added to the website. As I can gather and put together information for the website, I will add new articles. It takes time to come up with ideas for articles that are general enough but specific technically. They also have to educate easily and be easily read.

You can find the new article “Detail And Halftones Using Higher Mesh Counts” in the Printing Articles section under Printing Methods.

The second new article is called “Understanding Emulsion” and is under the More… tab in the Printing Articles section.

These are two great new articles about screen printing. They add much needed information. Make sure to check them out!

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