Wednesday, July 04, 2012

4th of July

We made these shirts two years ago when my kids were 3 and 2, and I loved them!  When they were outgrown, I cut them up and made them into the world's longest throw pillow, which is now sitting on my entryway bench.  I've been walking past that throw pillow all week thinking that we needed to do the shirts again.  So I took shirts over to my friend Annette's house today for our kids to paint.



Super easy! Kids put left hand prints in blue fabric paint on the upper left of the shirt, and then took off running.  Mamas painted the red stripes with a foam brush.  I had intended to let the kids thumb print their red stripes on, but they were wiggly and wanted to get in the pool.  

Modeled!


Look! We got two nose-pickers in one picture! 


22 comments:

Becky said...

So cute! What kind of paint did you use? Are they washable?

Becky said...

So cute! What kind of paint did you use? Are they washable? Did you wash the shirts before you painted?

Erin said...

I can't honestly remember if I washed the shirts before I painted them or not! I used fabric paint, which is available at craft and fabric stores. Tulip brand has worked well for me in the past, and is what I buy most of the time. They wash and wear very well! I just pulled them out of bins to put back in their drawers for this summer and they are stained since the shirts are white and my kids are grubby, but the handprints look awesome!

AnnaMarie said...

So cute. All 10 cousins are going to do this as a craft at our family vacation this summer!

~*~SLR~*~ said...

Where did you find the plain white t-shirts? Such a cute idea! I want to get some friends together and make these!!

Erin said...

One year they came from Wal-Mart. One year they came from Old Navy. It's pretty easy to find plain white tank tops or tshirts in the summer.

The Lake Family said...

Do you think this would work and look good on red shirts??
I have 5 boys and white does not stay nice for long, haha!
I love this idea bt the way.

Unknown said...

These are so cute! I am going to pin this idea to my 4th of July board.

megan said...

Just made these with my kids....these are sooo cute....too bad my 2 yr old and 4 yr old did better with their handprints then I did with the lines hehe

monks32 said...

These are so darn cute and easy!! I usually buy patriotic outfits for my kids for the 4th, but I think we will make these this year. Going to do it w/ the cousins too. My kids LOVE projects, so I am going to attempt to do the finger print stripes. I think it would be so cute! Thanks for the idea!

christensenshelley said...

I made these with my kids and their friend. The last few weeks of Kindergarten they did a alphabet count down. for U they did USA day. These were perfect. Thank you!

Unknown said...

approximately how much paint did you buy for the shirts you made? I am making these with my family next week and there are about 35 of us:-) thanks! Just need an estimate amount per shirt is possible:-)

Erin said...

I have never made more than the 5 shirts you see at a time! They take very little paint, though. I still have nearly full bottles of the fabric paint I bought for these. I would be wiling to bet one bottle of fabric paint in each color would be sufficient, but if you're worried, get 2.

Lina - Fancy Frugal Life said...

so cute! I've shared on my fb page.

Lina

Kara @ Simplistically Sassy said...

Okay, I found this idea on Pintrest a while ago, and I LOVE it! I want to do it so badly, but I'm kind of a bum and don't want to run to Walmart to get everything to do them, lol. However, I will do them next year if not this year.
I just wrote a post about Quick and Easy 4th of July Tutorials, and knew it wouldn't be complete without this one! Here is the link if you'd like to check it out. http://www.simplisticallysassy.com/2013/07/last-minute-4th-of-july-treats.html

Jen Malphy said...

These are adorable! My two boys, ages 5 & 6, just made them to wear for the 4th of July parade tomorrow. I had them use their thumbprints for the stripes and they are super cute! Thank you so much for posting this.

K Quinn said...

WIsh I had seen these earlier. Very cute. Nose pickers and all.

Unknown said...

Did this with the grandkids they all wore them for the 4th. We did wash theshirts first my granddaughter wears hers every week to show everyone what she made

Unknown said...

Did you use s paint brush for the red stripes?

Erin said...

Yes, I used those black spongey paint brushes to paint the kids' hands for handprints and then used the tips of those brushes to sort of dab lines across for the stripes, if that makes sense.

Dianna said...

Could you show a picture of the pillow you made with old t-shirts and directions. Thanks!

Erin said...

Dianna, it's in the post linked above. Here you go: http://lookwhaterinmade.blogspot.com/2012/01/ufo-complete.html