Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Easy Character Shirt
T U T O R I A L


(excuse the "just got out of the pool" hair and "it's 110* outside" Koolaid mustache!)



SUPPLIES YOU'LL NEED:

SOLID T-SHIRT
($3-5 at Target/Walmart)

1 pack of fabric paint pens 
(use your Michael's Coupon!)

8.5"x11" Transparency Film/paper 
(yes. You can still get transparency paper. Office Max. $.10 per sheet) 

Any coin

Piece of cardboard or newspaper
(I'll explain later)



SOooo... now you're ready to make a shirt. You've gathered all the supplies above, they're all sitting there on your counter... staring at you... telling you that you'll totally fail at this project because you're not creative... well... neeeener neeeener. You're going to kick this projects BUTT!

Ready? Okay! (why did I just say that in my elementary school cheerleading voice!?)

Step 1:

Make sure your shirt is pretty wrinkle-free. Place cardboard or full newspaper inside shirt. This will stop any paint from bleeding from the front of the shirt to the back.

Step 2:

Go to Google Images and find your child's favorite character. You'll want to search for a coloring page of that character. For example, search Google Images for "Sophia the First coloring page". Pick one that doesn't matter if it get's "mirror-imaged". (So, no text, etc.)

*Exception: If you know how to horizontally flip an image, this won't be an issue and you can choose an image with text, etc.

Open this coloring page. Print it on to your transparency. Must NOT use a laser printer. Needs to be an "ink" printer.

NOTE: There needs to be like NO time passing between the image coming out of your printer and step #3. The longer you wait to do step #3, the more the ink will dry to the transparency. 

Step 3:

Take transparency and carefully place it on the front of the shirt, ink side down. Hold it in place, being very careful not to  move it around, as it will be a huge, smeared mess!

Rubbing the image on the shirt with a coin works the best.

Step 4:

Once you feel your image has been completely rubbed on to the shirt, remove the transparency sheet.

You'll notice that the image is very light, but it's visible. (darkness may vary from printer to printer)

This is the step that I like to do by myself, without the kids' help.

Take the black paint pen (or even a black Sharpie) and go over the image. You can do this. It's tracing. Chill out.


Step 5:

Once the black outlines have completely dried (like, completely)... it's time to cover the kitchen with plastic and hand the kids a paint pen! Voila! Just set your shirt somewhere to dry once they're done coloring it!




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