Back-to-School Foam Stamped Shirts

This is an easy way to personalize back-to-school t-shirts! 

Materials

• Blank t-shirts
• Self-adhesive foam
• Scissors
• Fabric paint
• Tray
• A piece of word or cardboard to stick your shapes to (creating a stamp)

• Card-board t-shirt insert (or just a sheet of cardboard from the recycle!)
• Brushes
• Cotton swabs

We always find a smock helpful too:

Directions

• Don your smock.

• Insert your piece of cardboard into your shirt.  This will prevent the fabric paint from leaking onto the back and also “gluing” the two layers of the shirt together.

• Draw and cut out your foam shapes, peeling off the adhesive and attaching them to your wood or cardboard.  For the initial try, we used simple shapes just to get the hang of it to make a night shirt.  However, once you understand the concept, you can create more sophisticated shapes.  (We moved onto our goal- a city scape.)

• We then experimented with two different methods for applying the paint:

Dipping 

• Squirt your paint into your tray and dip your stamp into it.  We wiped off any excess paint between the shapes with a cotton swab and then applied the stamp to our shirt.  We repeated this process, making rows of the pattern created by the stamp.

Brushing the Paint On (this was our preferred method as it afforded a bit more control!)

• Allow your shirt to dry overnight and enjoy!  Here is our practice night shirt and our city scape for school. Wouldn’t it be fun to use your city scape shirt for a starting point for drawing yourself as a superhero flying overhead or add a photo transfer of you dressed in a superhero costume!

• P.S.  We figured out that there was an adult shirt in the pile and the city scape seems like it will last for next year too!

Purpose

• Exploring various ways to make a stamp.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you wear a smock and use a craft tray or table cloth to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors with care and adult supervision.