I love Family Fun magazine! It never fails to have awesome ideas that really do end up being awesome! Recognize the issue above? When I saw this spray shirt idea, I knew it would be a winner with the boys- Cooper loves to spray with a spray bottle. I have some step by step pics of what we did here, but you can also click thru to the Family Fun site on Reverse Stenciling for instructions!
The idea with these fun play shirts is to use a Con-Tact paper stencil and then spray your shirt with color. The area covered in Con-Tact paper ends up being visible when you're done...
I found some free clip art on-line of what each of the boys wanted- a spider for Cooper, a bike for Ryder and a deer for Taron. I taped them to the Con-Tact paper and then cut it out! Peel off the backing and stick the design where you want it on your shirt... then let the kids spray away!
Obviously, we used fabric dye- Stephen was helping me gather the stuff for this and it was what he brought home! If I had it to do over again, I think I'd try the fabric paint- probably less mess!
Family Fun recommended cardboard inside of the shirts, but I think next time I'll try something more rounded, like a five-gallon bucket or milk jug to get an even spritzed look over the whole shirt.
Make sure the Con-Tact stencil is stuck on good, especially the edges. Then be careful not to spray too much or it will seep under no matter what! (Like in the example above that I wasn't watching Cooper close enough!)
I wanted the whole shirt to look a little splashed, so I tried to spray a bit all over. Then peel off the Con-Tact stencil and let them dry! Because we used dye, we did rinse them in cold water, but I'm not sure that would have been totally necessary either.
All the while, Cooper was trying to spray me with the bottles (of course!), Taron was having a hay day turning his whole shirt colorful and playing in the dye, and Ryder was sloshing around with the hose!
Taron actually totally got into this project- he really enjoyed trying to get the right color (and making his hands look like he was the Beast from X-Men) :)
And there you have it- new play shirts that the kids will love helping to make! I took these pics after they had been washed and dried and they held up really well... They turned out pretty cute and, more than anything, the boys love wearing them!
Ryder's bike is driving away on his side and Cooper's spider looks a bit like it's crawling out of his armpit!
