It's T-Shirt Time: BioColor Fabric Stenciling

Mom has been seeing lots of cool DIY screenprinting projects lately, but knew we're probably a bit on the young side to tackle that yet.  But our BioColor kit from Discount School Supply came with fabric medium and she thought that we might be able to swing something with that.  We had pretty good luck doing some fingerpainted stenciling a while back, so we decided to try something similar with BioColors and fabric.  The fabric medium is super easy to use -- just mix 1 part fabric medium with 4 parts BioColor.  We used DSS's Nancy Bottles for the mixing and roughly marked off five equal parts on the side with a permanent marker.

We took some of my plain t-shirts that I've almost outgrown and slipped them over a cardboard tray.  We also slid a piece of wax paper in between just to make sure no paint would seep through the top layer onto the back of the shirt.  Then mom taped down a plastic stencil on top, making sure to tape a large square around the stencil so that we didn't paint around the stencil, too.  We then used sponge rollers to roll paint over the stencil onto the shirt.  This worked pretty well, but the rollers soaked up a lot of the paint.  So we ended up using some paint brushes as well.

We let them dry for a few hours and then mom peeled the stencils off -- she suggests not letting them dry too long so that the stencils don't stick to the shirt.  Then we let the shirts dry overnight.  The next day, mom put them in the dryer by themselves for about 20 minutes.  Then we washed and dried them again.

We think they came out great!  Some of the images didn't show up well -- the ones with many little lines close together.  But I still know which one has ships on it and that's my favorite.  I was really into doing this even though I had a hard time not getting paint everywhere.  Once I dripped paint all over the side of one of my shirts though, I decided to follow mom's direction a bit more.  Cami didn't want anything to do with it, but she changed her tune once the shirts were all finished up.  That girl loves clothes.  We think some randomly dotted t-shirts with BioColor neon paint would be right up her alley for spring 2012.

Apparently you can also do some fabric stenciling using freezer paper -- check out the Artful Parent's posts on this.  Looks pretty snazzy.  

Yo:  We are now Discount School Supply affiliates and the links below to DSS are affiliate links.  If you click on any of these links (or the general DSS link on the right hand side of our blog) and make a purchase, we will receive a small percentage of the sale from DSS.  So do us a solid and help support our arts and crafts habit -- if you are going to buy something from DSS, do it through Not-So-SAHM!  Scroll down for links to purchase our BioColor favorites.

AND BioColor is now 15% off (so are several other paints at DSS) -- just use the code SBPAINT at checkout before April 30th!

mom's super exact marking

oops

before the dryer

all finished 

it's a little tight (and not in that like "man, that shirt is tight" way), but i think it's hipster

cam's hot pink chopper

accessorizing with new sandals and old mittens

Complete BioColor Paint Kit This kit is loaded with fun and value. BioColor kit includes the supplies to make 10 different classroom activities right away! Make stickers ornaments fabric paint projects shimmery metallic paint resist art projects marble paint crafts glitter paint reverse paint designs everyday easel paintings or table top painting and much more. The detailed video and brochure give you simple instructions for over 50 project ideas.

Nancy Paint Bottles Twist Tops 2 oz. - Set of 12 Twelve 2-ounce squeeze bottles with twist-top tips. Ideal for dispensing glue glitter paint and BioColor for most techniques. Bottles sold empty.

BioColor Fluorescent Color Painters 2 oz. - Set of 7 To save you time we've filled these 2-oz. bingo marker bottles with 7 fluorescent colors of non-toxic BioColor. bottles have soft sponge tips that control the paint flow. Perfect for making dots and lines-the possibilities are endless! Ideal for small hands that cannot yet handle brushes. No brushes necessary; all you need is your Bingo Bottle filled with Fluorescent BioColor and your imagination! When empty the bottles can be filled again by you!