How to Make Your Own Shirts With Paint

Children love to paint and decorate just about anything, but your kids will be thrilled to pieces by painting their own shirts. You can engage children even as young as preschool age with this easy and fun craft activity.

Things You'll Need

• T-shirt, any color
• Newspapers
• Scissors
• Paper plates
• Plastic garbage bag
• Sponges
• Paintbrush
• Permanent marker
• Tempera paints
• Colored, textured and glitter fabric paints (optional)

Instructions

1. Protect a flat working area with newspapers, and have your children wear old clothing that you don't mind them getting permanent paints on. This is a messy activity.

2. Draw some simple shapes on sponges with a permanent marker. Stars, squares, circles and triangles work best. Cut the shapes out with scissors and set them aside.

3. Place a shirt on the working surface right side up and spread it out flat. Lift the hem of the front of the shirt, and spread a plastic garbage bag out under it to keep paint from seeping through to the back of the shirt.

4. Pour a little puddle of each different tempera paint into a paper plate for each child. Show the youngsters how to dip a sponge shape in paint and transfer the design by pressing it gently onto the front of the shirt. When they're done painting shapes on their shirts, have them use paintbrushes to add their names if they're able to. Let the tempera paints dry thoroughly.

5. Ask the children to further embellish and decorate their shirts with tubed fabric paints if you wish. They'll love the effects they can create with textured and glitter paints. Allow everything to air-dry completely. Ask everyone to model the new shirts that they made with paints.