Hand Print T-shirts {A Tutorial}

One of my favorite holidays is Independence Day. I LOVE IT! I go all out each year, and start planning weeks (sometimes months) ahead of time. I usually get the kids a new patriotic outfit each year. But this year,  I thought it would be fun to make 4th of July T-shirts with my kids.

While I was visiting my brother last week, we gathered all the kids to make shirts. This was a great activity for them. They all got pretty creative with their own shirts. 

It was the perfect activity to fill up an afternoon.

Here's what you'll need:

T-shirt

Red paint

Blue paint

Fabric Medium
Sponge brushes

Potato

Masking tape

Cardboard to fit inside the shirt

First thing, make a potato stamp. If you've never made a potato stamp, they are super easy!

Simply cut the potato in half.
Draw your shape on the cut side of the potato.

Cut around your shape.

Ta-da! Potato stamp!

Prepping the paint:

Did you know that you make any paint in to a fabric paint? All you have to do is add fabric medium. It helps  the paint to set softer, more flexible against the fibers. It also won't crack as much (if at all)  in the wash. 

Simply mix 2 parts paint to 1 part medium, until well blended. 

Next, place the cardboard inside of the shirt. The cardboard should cover all areas that you want to paint. I then did a dry run with placement of the kid's hand, then made stripes with the masking tape with their hand still in place. 

Painted each little hand

And press firmly into the open space on the shirt.
Make sure to press the middle of the hand and the fingers well.

Gently lift hand from the shirt.

For my shirt, I wanted to use each of my kids' hands; and I wanted them to make a heart. My boy was in a little bit of a hurry, so the middle of his palm didn't quite get pressed down as much as it should have.

 Next, we used the potato stamps to add stars,

And, painted between the tape stripes with a sponge brush.

 I also did a thinner line of paint along the top and bottom of the first and last stripes.

Here's my nieces' and nephews' shirts:

 And, here are mine and my kids' shirts:

Hope ya'll have a great holiday!