This weekend I was at one of my favorite stores, the Dollar Tree, and saw that they had a bunch of youth t-shirts in stock. The shirts happen to be a blend shirt, cotton and polyester, which is best for crafting. You can find the same shirts at Michael's or Walmart for $4 a piece, and at the dollar tree they are of course, just a dollar. Today they had light pink and blue... Perfect for the girls!
My girls love to color, like most children do, and they love to display their art for everyone to see. So, we got out the sharpies and crayons and put our artwork on the plain t-shirts that I had just bought. Making the t-shirts is a pretty simple process as described below.
I had the girls look through some coloring books to pick out a design for their shirts. I didn't have white t-shirts this time, so I couldn't see the coloring books design through the shirt. So, I just eyeballed it. I laid the shirt on the table, front side up, and slipped a piece of paper inside of it to keep the marker from bleeding through to the back. Then I pushed all the wrinkles out, making sure there was a smooth surface to draw on. Once the t-shirts was flat, I drew the design on with a black permanent marker. I would suggest using a sharpie, as the marker I used was not, and the ink ran out quickly.

Once the design was laid out with the permanent marker, the t-shirt was ready to be colored. I had a box full of crayons, both the Crazy Art brand and Crayola. In order to create a nice filled in color, you need to apply some pressure when coloring. Having tried both crayons brands, the Crayola worked much better than the Crazy Art crayon. The Crazy Art colors got clumpy and didn't adhere well to the t-shirt. The Crayola crayons covered the t-shirt evenly and smoothly.

When I was happy with the design and considered it complete, I used an iron to set the colors to the t-shirt. I made sure there was no water in the iron. I turned it on the highest temperature for dry ironing. I found some white sheets of paper to iron with. I placed the t-shirt, design up on the ironing board, and the laid the paper on top of the design. I ironed the shirt with a few strokes over the entire design. I checked the paper to see if crayon transferred to the paper. The paper was covered with color. I removed that paper and put a clean sheet of paper on top and then ironed again. I repeated that sequence until no color transferred to the paper.
That is it! The t-shirt was finished!
The shirt can be washed in the washing machine. It is best to air dry, though I have put my shirts in the dryer also.


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Disney's Frozen Ice Castle Hand Painted Mural

 

This is another Frozen mural that I painted for my other daughter's room. Her room is a lot bigger and so I was able to make a more complex mural. The girls play with the removable wall characters from Frozen and place them all over the mural and other walls.

Disney's Frozen Themed Hand Painted Wall Mural

My 2 year old daughter is in love with Disney’s smash hit movie, Frozen. So, naturally her choice for a theme in her room was Frozen. It is a tiny room, so I wanted to be sure not to clutter it with too much décor. With changing her light fixture to a cute mini chandelier, found on craigslist which I painted antique white, and painting her wall with a cute mural, my daughter’s room is now her Frozen wonderland.

Here is how I made the Frozen themed hand painted wall mural:

Materials:

• Valspar Silver Leaf Interior Eggshell Paint
• Snowflake stamps (I bought small ones from Michael’s and the larger ones from Oriental Trading Company)
• Colorplace Interior Satin Accent Base Interior Paint from Walmart
• Craft paints: Apple barrel plaid paints in white, brilliant blue, English navy and cranberry. Craft smart paint in sailing sky

• Paper towels
• Wet wipes
• Paper plates
• 4 oz Disposable Glad Containers
• Plastic cup of water to clean brushes
• Brushes (for acrylic paint are best) 

Steps:

1. I painted the walls (2 coats) with Valspar Silver Leaf eggshell paint. I let that dry for 48 hours. It’s not necessary to leave it that long, but I prefer to make sure it’s completely dry.
2. Next, I lightly sketched the outlines of the trees on the wall with a pencil. I chose to make simple tall thin trees, similar to those shown in the credits of the movie.
3. I mixed six shades of blue, ranging from almost white to midnight. I mixed them in disposable containers making sure there would be enough for the trees and the snowflake leaves. I used the ColorPlace accent satin base paint and tinted it with the craft paints to make the colors I wanted.
4. I decided to make each tree different shades of blue. The base paint (ColorPlace accent paint) is a very thin paint, which is perfect for making more transparent designs. I kept my brushes moist and the paint thin, to keep the painting light and airy. If the paint on the brush seemed to runny, I would dab it with a paper towel. I decided to shade the trees with a little darker hue along one side, but a solid color would also look great.
5. For the leaves I used the various stamps with the lightest and darkest blues and 2 in between blues. I started with the midnight blue and did one color at a time, darkest to lightest. I put a thin layer of paint on a paper plate, dipped the stamp, and then applied it to the wall, making a design like leaves on trees.

This is a worthwhile Do It Yourself (DIY) project for your little princess. If you have any question, please ask.

Also seen on www.sparkinfused.com