I can't even take credit for this cool summer craft. Josh actually came home the other day with T-shirts he bought for the kids. He said he found project on Pinterest he wanted to try with the kids. What?! I thought that was my job: scour Pinterest for hours, find amazing projects to do, go buy the supplies and never do them. But on a rainy Sunday early this summer, Josh pulled out the materials and got to work with the kids.
Here are the materials needed:
- Cotton T-shirt (dark colors work best)
- Oak tag & double sided tape or adhesive stencil paper
- Scissors / X-Acto blade
- Spray bottle
- Bleach slightly diluted with water (3:1)
- Cardboard
1. We had the kids draw simple images on oak tag.. Not too many details. Petra drew her standard dog & Beck found the symbol of his favorite DJ, deadmau5, online.
2. Next Josh & I cut out the image with X-Acto blades (a bit too sharp for the wee ones).
3. We then set the oak tag stencil or in Petra's case, the negative of the stencil, down on the T-shirt & secured with a bit of double sided tape to ensure it would lay flat against fabric.
4. We placed a piece of cardboard between the front layer to the T-shirt & the back so it would not soak through. We filled a spray bottle with 3 parts bleach, one part water and began to gently spray layers of bleach over the design. We were careful to set the nozzle on mist and not to drench the design all at once.
5. Once we saw the bleach begin to work, we pulled off stencil & washed the T-shirt in cold water & then into dryer to 'set' the design. The kids love the way they turned out & we're definitely doing more!
