One more Halloween craft to get you in the mood for summer!
Halloween t-shirts don't get any cuter than this! Make one for yourself! You won't regret it.
You will need:
- Plain t-shirts in any color except white (Gray and black work best.) JoAnn's, Micheal's, and Walmart all sell plain tees for around $3 each.
- White or glow-in-the-dark fabric paint
- Black fabric paint (tube works best)
- Cardboard, cut to fit inside shirt (to prevent leakage)
- Plastic bag
- Plastic plate
- Clothespins (optional)
How to:
- Insert cardboard into plastic bag and place inside t-shirt. If desired, secure with clothespins to prevent tee from moving around.*
- Generously pour white paint on to plastic plate.
- Have child place one bare foot into paint, making sure paint covers entire bottom of foot, including toes.
- Have child step onto t-shirt, making sure the heel of foot is pointing towards the collar of shirt (toes are pointing down). **
- Carefully remove child's foot. (Not from his leg, just from the t-shirt.) Repeat as many times as you wish, applying new paint each time. (In our case, we did three to four prints per shirt.)
- Add eyes and mouth with black paint.
- Let shirt dry completely before removing insert or wearing.
Thoughts:
This is one of my favorite crafts that we have done. Originally I made a "sample tee" for myself for our annual Halloween party so that the kids could see what the finished project would look like and I am so glad that I did. While Elliott will outgrow his shirt, I'll always have his little footprints on my shirt forever.
Notes:
*Couple of things that I have learned since doing this: It seems like a small thing, but make sure to place your cardboard insert inside of a plastic b
ag before placing it in your shirt. The fabric paint leaks through the top layer of the shirt. The plastic bag will prevent the cardboard from softening up and sticking to the paint. We still have stiff cardboard on the inside of our shirts that no amount of washing will remove. We have since made more shirts similar to this one and the plastic bag really helps.
**Also, I sent these supplies to my nephews so they could make their own shirts and my sister found this to be a very messy craft, which kind of shocked me. Of course, my sister is kind of messy, so nothing like that should be a total surprise, but, we got to talking (for two hours, on a Monday, drinking our morning coffee, neglecting our children) and I found that she just let her kids step in the paint and then
walk, uh,
casually stroll, over to the shirts. (Well,
helloooo!) I, meanwhile, had a child going through a huge Mama's Boy phase (Who am I kidding? He's still going through it.) and had him sitting in my lap while he placed his foot in the paint. Point being, force your child (use threats) to sit in your lap for the painting part and you should be able to avoid a mess and you'll be able to choose where your child's foot lands on the tee.
Could these two perfect angels ever be messy? According to my sister, the answer is yes!
One more note:
My friend, Missy, not a huge fan of ghosts, gave me an alternative idea for this t-shirt making spiders with hands instead. We'll be stealing that idea this year, so keep an eye out for that later on in the year. (Or next May, whichever comes first...)
