So, I did buy an NFT, of course, because how could I not when suddenly everyone was talking about it like crazy. Luckily I did it before rocks sold for millions, so I just paid a $35 gas fee for my $75 NFT.
If you’re used to buying art on Etsy, $35 might seem a lot, but trust me, it’s nothing for an Ethereum veteran. And well, the NFT I bought, I didn’t just buy it for artistic value — which surely it has, I just can’t judge it. I got it because it promised to give me access to community resources that detail how to launch an NFT project, how to manage NFT giveaways, and more. Useful things to know if you work in marketing.
So, I picked the Banana I liked most. As you can see, it has some candy in its mouth (I have a sweet tooth) and a chopstick in its bun. It also featured a very nice green background — one of my favorite colors so. That was the one. I connected my MetaMask to Opensea and clicked buy. A few minutes later, I was the proud owner of a Banana NFT.
Did I feel very different from before? Nah. I was wondering, what should I do now instead of just bragging about owning this NFT to people on Social Media.
Art is to be enjoyed — not just on a screen. I figured I should turn my NFT into a T-Shirt. And here’s how I did it.
Buy an NFT, this should be obvious, but of course, you could technically also just screenshot someone else’s NFT. Will they find out? I don’t know, but you probably feel better when it’s your own 😉Figure out what kind of Shirt you want. Do you want to print it on the front, maybe just as a small icon over the breast pocket or a full-blown pattern?For just printing the image as it is on a T-Shirt, simply find some print shop in your area or online, then you can easily get that done. You didn’t need me to tell you that, did you?Anyway, we’re here for the more fancy stuff. Just printing it as is on your T-Shirt is nice, but also basic. We’re going for bad bitch, not basic bitch with this. So moving on to the challenging part:
Create a Design/Pattern
Are you a designer? Yeah, me neither. Luckily, we don’t have to be to put together a pattern with our NFT-inspo. A few tools you can use to create a pattern (outside of Adobe Illustrator because…not a designer).
Creative options: endlessDifficulty: a lil’ challenging
If you have to create visual content and aren’t a designer, Canva is your best bet on making yourself look a lot more skilled than you are. Trust me; I do it all the time. The tool is great for putting together graphics for social media, presentations, birthday cards and works to put together a pattern. I’d rate it a bit more on the challenging side because if you want to use your own NFT, you might have to insert it various times and figure out at which angles to put it. On the bright side, Canva offers many other elements you can throw into your own pattern to spice it up and make it even more non-fungible.
For a great video on how to create a pattern with Canva:
https://medium.com/media/ee260529f15166b2016eef456a52be4f/href
Patternico & Patternninja
Creative Options: DecentDifficulty: Medium
I’m putting these two together because they are very similar in what they offer. Both of them give you the option to create your custom pattern starting with a clean sheet. You can upload SVG files, pick background colors and add various icons into the mix.
They will also show you a “default” pattern so you can first try and play around to get the hang of it before starting. You pick the size of the Canvas you work on, and the pattern is then replicated across the whole screen. Awesome options to create any custom pattern, but not for someone impatient like me. So what did I end up using?
Repper App
Creative Options: limited
Difficulty: idiot-proof
Repper App is a pattern maker that makes it super easy to create seamless geometric patterns from an image. The best part, you can try it for free. With all the gas I spend on Ethereum, I have to save somewhere.
So, I uploaded my Banana NFT image, picked some different effects until I found one I liked, and ended up with this:
It would make for a fun bathroom tile as well, but that’s maybe something for next time.
T-Shirt printer goes brrr…
This time, I just wanted a T-Shirt. With an exported version of the pattern that just featured 4 Bananas, I went to find a print shop that’d let me print a pattern all over a shirt. It turned out, one of the few in the UK where you can get an allover pattern is Contrado. And no, they didn’t pay me for endorsing them (yet).
Contrado Design your own T-Shirt
All I had to do, was pick a size, upload my image, and then pick how it’d be replicated across the whole of the shirt, front and back, to make sure it’s seamless. 10 minutes later, I clicked the order button and started waiting for the delivery of my shirt.
2 days later, I had a very Non-Fungible, Unique T-Shirt. The print quality is impressively good, and I definitely enjoy my NFT a lot more than had it just been a screensaver.
The end result
What should I try next? An NFT-Dress? Maybe a bathroom tile or shower curtain? Would you eat from a plate with your NFT printed all over? For guys, I think NFT-ies could be cute as well. 👔
What better way to flex that you’re a BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club) member than to wear a tie with your ape all over to VC meetings. Or socks…NFT-Fashion to the moon.
If you end up printing your NFT on anything, let me know. I would love to see the digital assets making it into the offline world.
In the meantime, I will be on the lookout for other NFTs that I’d like to add to my collection. Or maybe YOLO more Gas on some Ethereum DeFi experiments.
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How to turn your NFT into an NFT-Shirt was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
