Baltic Tee Shirts Tutorial

 What you will need: 

Clear Blue Elmers Glue, 

Tempra paint ( I suggest 3 colors at a time),

Paint brushes,

White or light colored T-shirts,

Tarp or a garbage bag to paint over (paint stains wood tables),

Aprons for everyone involved,

A picture to trace if kids have trouble drawing free hand 

We did a few test pictures and placed them inside of the shirts to see how they would look before agreeing upon the final ones. Once you find the picture you want leave it in the shirt. Again these can be drawn free hand we only traced pictures because of how young one of the kids were.

 You pictures will either need to be traced at this point or free handed with the glue. One of the boys chose a skull, as you can see the paper is still under it from being traced and you can make out the lines just enough to see the drawing. It might be a good idea to leave the paper in the shirt while the glue dries so it does not run through to the back of the shirt and if you do the drawing free handed place paper in between. Leave it to completely dry for a few hours.

 When the glue is nice and dry you can remove the paper drawing from the inside of the shirts, don't worry about any paper that rips and gets stuck it will wash off. Cover your surface you will be using with a tarp or trash bag because the surface of what your working on will get really wet. Squeeze 1/2 teaspoon of each color of paint into small disposable cups and add 3 teaspoons of water, mix well.

 Place the aprons on your child or you so your clothes don't get paint on them. If you don't want your shirt colored on the back place a folded grocery sack into it but make sure you don't go over the edges. We wanted the back to have color too so we did not put a sack into the shirt.  Now your ready to Start Painting!

 When the shirt is done being painted leave it to dry! If you Don't let it dry before washing it the color will wash out to a really light color. Once it is dry you can wash it either by hand or in the washing machine separately until all the glue washes out. When your done washing the shirt dry it as you would any other shirt.
 Congradulations you have just made a Baltic shirt that is ready to be worn.

 This shirt sat and dried for 24 hours after being painted then was washed.

This shirt was washed right after being painted and did not hold the color very well!
If you look close you can see the skull.