Faux-tie-dye acrylic paint shirt

I’ve been waiting all winter to do tie-dye with Nico, but he’s only 2.5 yo, so I wasn’t sure I wanted to use permanent dyes that could stain his sensitive skin. So I thought about using acrylic craft paint instead. I knew he probably wouldn’t understand the whole dipping process, so I diluted the paint with water (a squirt to cover the bottom of the bottle to 1/4 cup of water ratio) and put it in squirt bottles. We used the colors of the rainbow  After doing the whole elastic tying thing (he picked where to do it on his shirt) we set a plastic canvas type thing on the grass and put his shirt down on it. I made him strip down to his diaper since it will stain clothes and he wanted to wear his water boots.

He asked for the color he wanted and he sprayed away. After he did the front and back of his shirt, he wanted to do more…

First, we washed the plastic sheeting, he liked that!

Then he did Alex and my shirt as well (cleaning between each shirt). We let them dry in the sun as is, for the rest of the afternoon and the next afternoon as well, just to be safe. We didn’t have much time in the sun left the day we did them. Alex took off all the elastics, only to realize you really need to move the shirts around more to make sure it was well covered, live and learn! It was all our first time doing tie-dye so I think we did ok. Then we wash them in cold water with salt & laundry soap (threw in a shot of vinegar in there too) and hoped for the best…

Here are the results:

I think they turned out ok for a first try

Here are a few other fabulous ideas how to use tie-dye to get great results!

Hands On as we Grow’s Tie-Dyed Pillowcase Gift Wrap

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas’ Tie-Dye Crafts

Happy Whimsical Hearts’ Tie-Dye Marker Style

 Mama Pea Pod’s DIY Tie-Dyed T-Shirts

The Chocolate Muffin Tree’s Kool-Aid Tie-Dye T-Shirts

Family Your Way’s Classic Tie-Dye Camp Crafts with a Twist

Putty’s World’s 40 Ideas for Kid-Design T-Shirts

Check out tomorrow’s post to see what else we did with the bottles of spray paint…

If you do this, we’d LOVE to see a photo of it. Email it
to us or post it on our Facebook page. We’d love to do a Facebook album, a Pinterest board and a page of your creations

If you like what you see, follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with what we’re up to!

(551)