Shamrock Eraser Stamped T-shirts

I love making cute t-shirts for the kids to wear for the holidays.  My inspiration for this project came from something I had pinned on my St. Patty’s Day Pinterest Board.  The inspiration came from Cutesy Crafts – Eraser Stamped St. Patrick’s Day Shirts.  I modified the instructions somewhat from the original directions.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• White T-shirt
• Acrylic paint (I had two shades of green and a white)
• Pencil with a fresh eraser
• Black Fabric marker
• Cardboard (for stencil)
• Heart cookie cutter (for stencil)
• Scissors
• Pen
• Duct tape

First I cut up an empty cereal box and used to the two large front and back panels to trace my stencil.  I used a heart cookie cutter to make the leaves of the shamrock and then added a stem.  Once I had the shape traced I cut it out.  Since I was making two shirts I traced the first stencil onto my remaining piece of cardboard and cut out a second stencil.

I rolled up pieces of duct tape and stuck each petal and the stem down to the shirt.

Next I put the shirts on the table, flattened them and inserted old newspaper in the middle to keep the paint from bleeding through.

After the stencils were adhered I got the paint out and showed the kids how to stamp with the eraser.  Boo Boo did awesome at this – Buddy wanted me to help which was ok.

After the kids stamped around their stencils I took the shirts away to dry (this took a few hours as some spots were a bit super saturated).

After the shirts dried I pulled the stencil off and traced the inside of the shamrock shape on the t-shirt with a black fabric marker.

Viola!  An awesome handcrafted St. Patrick’s day t-shirt that cost me roughly $1.25 to make (I found the t-shirts at Dollar Tree – $1 a piece, acrylic paint was $0.69 a tube but only cost pennies for this usage, other materials free as I already had on hand).  I also think they would be even cuter with the kids names on them – we will see if I find time to add them.

I think we will do this again with stars this summer with the kids cousins for their 4th of July t-shirts we make every year.