We’ve been celebrating the red, white and blue lately, haven’t we? With Flag Day behind us and Fourth of July on the horizon, the patriotic decorations and craft supplies are up for grabs at your favorite store right now. For July 4, I love seeing how people of all ages incorporate the stars and stripes into their outfits for the holiday. You can definitely find cute options at clothing stores or online, but it’s much more fun to make it yourself!
“Spray paint T-shirts?! You’re not using REAL spray paint, are you?!” Not at all! For these T-shirts, you will use spray paint for fabric – and I rely on Tulip’s fabric spray paint. These small bottles are designed to work with fabric and be washed time and time again. Paired with freezer paper stencils you make yourself, it doesn’t take long to make shirts for the whole family to wear.
Materials
- Plain white T-shirts
- Tulip fabric spray paint in red and sapphire
- Reynolds freezer paper
- Star-shaped cookie cutter
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Iron and ironing board
Instructions
Start out by tracing around your star cookie cutter on the non-glossy side of the freezer paper. You can make as many stars as you like for your shirt and use whichever size cookie cutter looks best to you. Cut the stars out.
Place the stars on your shirt and quickly run your iron back and forth over them to adhere to the shirt. Let the shirt cool before moving on to the spray paint.
Find a safe space for your child to paint the shirt (outside is a GREAT idea!). If you don’t paint in the neck of the shirt, slip a paper grocery bag into the shirt to protect this area. I started with my red paint. You can create many different effects with this fabric spray paint; moving across the shirt back and forth makes the bottle act like a traditional can of spray paint. Pumping the nozzle quickly gives you a splatter paint effect. There are lots of approaches to try!
Add your sapphire paint next. When you’ve added all the paint you want for the shirt’s design, let it dry. Per the manufacturer’s information, the paint dries in four hours and can be washed after 72 hours.
Remove the freezer paper stencils to reveal your design!
