Fall Leaves T-Shirt

Last updated on October 26th, 2015 at 05:05 am

Fall Leaves Painted T-Shirt

This adorable shirt, painted with a fall leaves motif, can be made for either a boy or a girl. So colorful and vibrant they are definitely going to love it, and easy to do with foam stamps and fabric paint. Go even further and add their name for a personalized touch.

by Amanda Formaro

What You Need:

• t-shirt
• cardboard, enough to fill inside of shirt
• 2-3 leaf shaped foam stamps, at least 1 large and 1 small
• child face foam stamp
• paint brush
• fabric paint: peach (or flesh color), pink, light blue, brown, red, orange, yellow, sage green>OR
  acrylic paint in same colors and textile medium

What you do

Lay shirt flat on work surface. Insert cardboard inside the shirt.

If you are using fabric paint, continue to the next step. If you don’t have fabric paint, textile medium can be added to acrylic paint to create the same effect. Mix together 1 part textile medium to 2 parts acrylic paint.

Using child-face stamp first, paint the stamp (face – flesh, girl’s hair – brown, boy’s cap – light blue). Use a generous amount of paint, without it dripping off the stamp.

Carefully press the stamp onto the shirt, around or below elbow height. Don’t press too hard, just enough pressure to be sure that all the paint goes onto the shirt. Carefully remove the stamp by lifting straight up into the air. Use pink paint to carefully dab on the cheeks.

Hint: If using a black shirt like we did, some lighter colors will not show up as well as they would on a white shirt. You can use a paint brush to carefully touch up the face or hair if you like.

For the leaves, begin with orange. Paint the entire leaf stamp and press onto shirt. Start by the child-face stamp and work your way down. You will need to reapply the paint for each leaf impression. Create a pile of leaves by overlapping the stamp.

One you have a sizable pile of leaves, change colors to yellow. Stamp several yellow leaves into the pile, then do the same with red paint.

Once you are satisfied with the leaf pile, take a small leaf stamp and paint it green. Add a few small green leaves to the pile, then create the look of falling leaves by stamping small leaves up above the pile, up to the shoulder of the shirt. If you have a second small leaf stamp, repeat this process with yellow.

Allow to dry completely, overnight is best.

Caring for your shirt: For the longest life of your design, we recommend washing inside out in cold water. Drying takes its toll on paint, so for the longest life, hang to dry. Amanda Formaro is the entrepreneurial mother of four children. She is also the Chief Editor and Craft Expert of FamilyCorner.com Magazine.