How To Paint A Shirt With Impressionist: Puffy Paint Decorating Ideas

Here is an arts and crafts activity that will be loved by people of all ages.  Using dimension paint for shirt painting is easy for kids because all they have to do is squeese the bottles and paint comes out.  Painting with dimensional paint is similar to decorating a cake with frosting tips, so if you have done that you can do this.  Some people prefer to iron on a special design paint over it exactly, which is something I did do for a Home Economics project in eighth grade.  However, I have had a new shirt and some fabric painting sitting around for awhile, so I decided to try something quick and easy.  Today I decided to make impressionistic roses with stems on my pink tank top.  This is a fun project that allows you to be creative and just have fun.  So get out your dimensional fabric paint and design a new shirt as a present for a friend, or find an old shirt with stains and cover these up!

For this project I used a plain pink t-shirt that I bought brand new over a year ago. However, you can also used old stained t-shirts that had once been destined for the refuse bin. The lovely thing about fabric paint is you can create a design to cover up all of those appauling stains on shirts you do not wear anymore, which means now you will have new pieces added to your wardrobe. This is a fun activity for kids that are prone to spill food on their clothes because it allows parents to recycle clothes rather than buying new outfits constantly.  Painted flowers do a great job of covering up chocolate milk stains!

Decorating a shirt with three dimensional paint is the same as decorating a cake with a frosting tips. I simply went around in a circle and made four pink impressionistic roses to start off my design. This was a very random painting and I decided to add things as I went along. It is fun to just act like a kid and paint your shirt randomly, which is something that us adults should really indulge in. You know when I was a kid I was always trying to act more grown up, and now that I am an adult I like to find simple and relaxing activities. Also, I plan on painting shirts when I hang out with my niece, so I decided to experiment to become reacquainted with this medium.

In this step I used the blue fabric paint to randomly space out where I would put the blue roses. Of course these are impressionistic, so I just made a circular squiggly patterns to mimic the look of the real flowers. Roses are one of my favorite flowers, so I love clothing that reminds me of these heavenly delights. Make sure to stay within the dimensions of the cardboard inside the shirt, which will help to keep painting from seeping through to the back.

The fun thing about sparkly paint is that it adds even more dimension to puffy paint.  The three dimensional paint already stands out on the shirt, but the iridescent sparkles help it to capture the light.  The yellow was a bright and fun color to add to this shirt.

In this step I have used the purple puffy paint to add roses to the unfilled spaces. Remember this is a random design, so I am basically just spreading out the roses and filling in the gaps as I go along.

Fill in the rest of the unused space with the white fabric paint to create creamy colored roses.  The iridescent look of the roses will capture the eye.

In this final step I am painting the stems and leaves on the roses.  Some of the roses will be free floating, and others will be connected. Now your impressionist rose shirt is ready to wear.  However, allow the paint to completely dry before wearing this shirt because you do not want to get paint all over.  Also, make sure to following the laundering directions on the back of the paint box, which usually call for turning the shirt or other item of clothing inside out to wash.  Grab a box of fabric paint and allow your imagination to run wild.  The kids could even make dad his very own manly t-shirt for Father's Day.