We had some friends over today in our yard, kind of a rescheduling of events because it was raining last Thursday. We still got outside on Thursday, but we were unable to do this craft. We gathered leaves and then the kids assembled them, along with sticks and whatever else they wanted, on t-shirts. This yellow one is my son’s and it’s not the best color to use for this project but it’s the only one I had in his size, so shhh, don’t tell him 😉 Dark colors work best because after the child lays down their design an adult sprays bleach over the top. I also put a small cookie sheet inside to prevent the bleach from going through to the back.
After the area sprayed with bleach lightens, dunk the shirt in a bucket of water to stop the bleach from eating at the fabric. Just put it in the water gently and then wash right away in your washing machine or hang it up until you are able to wash it. Today there were a few that I put in the bucket and I think I squeezed them a little bit to get the water out when I was taking them ot of the bucket which made the bleach spread through the shirt and then the images of the leave were blurred. Learn from my mistake, don’t squeeze! Below is the test one that we did the other day which turned out well:
This was a good craft to do one at a time with the kids and it doesn’t take very long, so it’s easy to do while the they are playing in the yard with each other and they can take turns doing their shirts. We definitely felt a chill outside today, but the children were troopers and they had a nice time playing together. My next preparation for cold weather play is to look up large thermoses so we can tote cider or hot chocolate along for our friends when we play outside. I think we’re going to need it soon!
Thanks for a sharing such a cool craft with us.
I have to try this out !
You can also do it with a light colored shirt and put watered down dark fabric paint in the spray bottle 🙂 That way the kids can spray it.
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