The other day we celebrated my niece's birthday. She's a crafty one, so I thought it would be fun to let all the kids make their own t-shirts. It was a little messy, but it was a real hit with the kids. I think freezer paper stenciling would be an awesome activity for birthday parties. Just cut some stencils ahead of time and purchase shirts for $3. It beats the little party favors that no one really wants at the end :)
I cut several kinds of stencils and let the kids pick. After searching around the internet for the best images of all the things they are into, I discovered something awesome. When looking for images, search for pumpkin stencils. Why? Because there are a lot to choose from AND they are all one-piece stencils. (That means there are no little pieces to fit into it like the circle in the middle of the letter "o" and all the little pieces you end up having to add on regular stencils.)
For example, here are some sweet ones I found that way. See? All one piece once you cut out the black. Love it.
If you've never done freezer paper stenciling, I have a video tutorial for it HERE that will answer all your questions. (Shortened version: Print out your image, use a craft knife to cut it out, iron it onto the shirt shiny side down, paint it, let it dry, remove the stencil, and heat set your paint by placing a thin cloth over it and ironing it for 30-40 seconds.)
If you do a party, you might want to iron the stencils down for the kids and then let them paint the shirt. To make things easier, I recommend using dark paint on light-colored shirts. If you use something light like yellow on navy blue, you'll need lots of coats. That can get tricky with kids. We used the Tulip soft fabric paint for all of the shirts.
After all the painting and fun, here are some of the shirts we made. My brother-in-law wanted this one. Hee, hee.
We made a lot of Avenger ones like this one I made my son last week.
We made a Star Wars-inspired one too.
We made a Star Wars-inspired one too.
We also did a robot.
And everyone was pretty excited about their new shirt at the end.
Craft on!
