Wednesday, July 4, 2012

4th of July T-Shirts



It occurred to me at 9:00 pm on July 3rd that the kiddos didn't have festive shirts to wear for the Fourth.  I recalled a project that I did with my friends for St.Patrick's Day and whipped out 4th of July shirts.  I was even in bed by 11 pm!  Per a request, here is how I made the t-shirts.

Painted T-Shirt Instructions
Luckily I had plain t-shirts on hand, in the right sizes!  Every once in awhile my shopping ahead pays off! 

1) Iron the shirt fronts so they are nice and smooth

2) Cut your design onto freezer paper.  Yes freezer paper, like the kind they wrap your meat in at the butchers!  You can buy a huge roll of it in the saran/foil/baggie aisle and it's not expensive! I actually used my Cricut to cut the design, but you can just use scissors and free-hand a design.

3) Iron the freezer paper design onto the shirt.  The shiny side down.  Make sure to seal the edges with the iron real well to prevent bleed throughs.  

4) Place a piece of cardboard (like a cereal box) inside the shirt.

5) I used acrylic paint.  You can use a paintbrush, a q-tip, a pencil eraser, fingers - whatever method you want to get the paint on the t-shirt!  When we the kids did their St.Paddy's shirts we had them use pencil erasers and dot the design.  Just be sure if you are not filling in the spaces with paint entirely, that you do the edges with lots of dots so you can tell what the design is once the freezer paper is removed.

I added glitter to Elizabeth's star while the paint was still wet.  Only a little bit stayed on, but it gave her's a little extra bling!

6) Let it dry! Pull off the freezer paper and go to a parade! Ok, you don't have to go to a parade, that was just our plan!  

My friend who inspired this idea would probably recommend that you wash the t-shirt ahead of time.  After the paint is dry I think she said to toss it in the dryer to really set the paint, but due to my time constrains I didn't do any of this! Sorry this is not a picture tutorial, but it is so ridiculously simple I am sure you can figure it out!  



1 comment:

Elizabeth is 15!!

  2) HOW OLD ARE YOU? 15 3) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? pink 4) WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND? Parker, Isabella & Julianna 5) WHAT DO YOU WAN...