Paint a Valentines Day T-Shirt: Holiday Project 2

Valentine's Day is another wonderful excuse to reach out long distance style and give our grandchildren a hug by sending a package of goodies. Painting a t-shirt for them to snuggle up in is the next best thing to having them snuggle in my arms.

This second in the series is a different take on my first paint-a-Valentine’s-Day-T-Shirt project. Primarily, the difference is that this t-shirt was already printed and appliqued with a design that I decided to embellish.

If you've seen the first project you already know that this craft could be used for anyone on any holiday. I’m hoping to plan more involved designs for this year’s various holidays--and get them done in plenty of time to mail them!

Of course, doing that requires staying on top of how fast the children are growing, but making those projections is not too hard when working with t-shirts. The hard part is deciding what design to use when there are so many fun possibilities!

In the first T-shirt project hub I used FabricMate Dye Markers for creating the twirling design. The pens are a great paint product, and I used them to randomly highlight some of these preprinted hearts with new colors (see photo detail to the right).

However, this shirt also had an appliqued pink heart in the center front that was calling out to me for a painted embellishment. After washing and drying it, though, the applique was a little loose and wrinkly for the dye pens to work well.

Realizing that the shiny fabric paint that comes in a squeeze bottle would be the right solution, I chose a very light pinkish beige to roughly fill in the hot pink heart and used a paint brush to put rough but fairly even strokes in the paint. I then piped an extra outline along the edges of the filled in area.

After that dried according to package directions I was pleased to find that the texture I was going for was indeed something that this tiny girl would enjoy patting with her tiny fingers. Adding the Q T Pi on an angle was easy, but I wish I had practiced more before painting it on the t-shirt.

Cutting out a heart that same size and fiddling around with the letters and pi symbol would have given me a finer design, but the way it turned out means that she will have even more texture to fiddle with. The color for the cutie-pie lettering was pulled from the preprinted aqua hearts on the shirt.

• Be sure to wash and dry the t-shirt using no fabric softener before starting your project.

• Consider the age and personality of the person you are making the t-shirt for so you can make the best decisions on color and style of the design.

• Experiment on an old t-shirt before you begin your project.

• Take a look at designs from printed fabrics, posters and framed art, craft books, and the web to help get your creative juices flowing. Don’t use another artist’s work, it’s unethical and illegal.

• Slide a sheet of card stock paper inside the shirt before beginning to draw and/or paint your design so that colors/paints/dyes do not bleed through to the opposite side.

• Let paints and/or dyes dry before adding colors or you may get unexpected blends of color.

• Designs can be drawn onto a shirt or created free hand. When placing the "Cutie-pie" begin by centering the T in the area, then adding the Q and Pi symbol on each side.

• Trust your creative instincts and have fun!

Oh yes! Take pictures so you can make your own "How To" hub and be sure to let me know so I can link it to one of mine in this little Valentine’s Day series on painted t-shirts. :)

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