How To Decorate T-Shirts with Your Budding Artists!

Family fun!

Decorating t-shirts is a project great for any age grandkids. This is a super easy way to let each budding artist do their own thing and enjoy the creative process!

Prep Tip For Decorating

Save up some cardboard from cereal boxes or packing boxes to fit inside the shirt so colors don’t bleed through.

"Nana, can I color the back too?"

"Sure!"

After coloring one side of the t-shirt you can flip it over and color the other side.

Stencil Shapes

The stencils we used to decorate were an old set I had from Tupperware days eons ago. Boy have I gotten a lot of mileage out of them!

Stencils were very helpful for the younger artists as they experimented with coloring. They learned to outline the shapes and then enjoyed filling them in. Alphabet stencils are helpful to do lettering for any age and a fun way to practice letters! You can pick stencils up in the school, toy or scrapbooking sections of your local stores.

Fabric Markers

Fabric markers are easy to use and share around the table, but I do wish I had bought more than one set (mine had 8 colors in the box). All of the kids wanted to decorate t-shirts at the same time and it was a challenge to share the popular colors!

After you are finished decorating, read and follow the marker instructions to set the colors. This helps keep the colors vibrant and from washing out.

Fashion Show!

Keep a camera handy because the fashion show is a great photo op!

You'll Need:

White t-shirts
Fabric markers
Cardboard or card stock
Stencils (optional)

Instructions:

Cut out a piece of cardboard or thick paper (like card stock) that fits inside the t-shirt and spreads the torso out flat. This will keep the markers from bleeding through to the back of the shirt.
Let your little artist decorate the front and back of the t-shirt with the fabric markers, using stencils if they would like some fun ideas.
Allow the t-shirt to dry completely and follow any other finishing instructions that your particular fabric markers suggest.
Now it’s time for a fashion show!

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