Amazing project that also instills a HUGE sense of prideApr 03 '00 Write an essay on this topic.End product: A t-shirt for your child displaying his or her own artwork! Things you need to complete this project: -- Absolute and complete ADULT assistance and supervision -- A computer -- A scanner -- A light-colored, preferably pre-washed clean t-shirt -- Some transfer paper (appropriate for your printer) -- A printer (color printers are best) -- An iron It started out as just a fun project, kind of a "let's see if we can really do this" type of thing. What it turned into was a new addition to our repertoire of way cool things to do. Here's the basic concept, step-by-step: 1) get some of your child's artwork or have them draw something 2) scan the picture 3) print the picture onto the transfer paper 4) iron the transfer onto the child's shirt Here are the tidbits of info I can pass on to you after years of practice: -- DON'T do it all yourself. Yes, it might come out a bit better and the whole process may go a bit faster, but excuse me... what was the POINT of the project? The point for me is this: do something WITH my children that ends up having a fantastic added bonus at the end (see last section for bonus). -- I saved the scanned picture as a jpg and insert it into a Word document. This way I can combine more than one picture onto a transfer sheet and I can also shrink pictures if needed (don't enlarge... they don't retain artistic integrity). -- I don't add words because I like to keep the concept of the shirt just being my child's artwork. -- The transfer paper is available at office supplies stores and computer stores. There are lots of different kinds and brands so read the boxes. I have found, however, that it doesn't have to be an exact match for your type of printer. There's some leeway. -- I don't go by the timing directions on the transfer sheets other than as a guideline. I experiment to see how many seconds of ironing works best. -- Don't let the transfer cool before removing the backing because it's really hard to pull it off the shirt then. -- If your picture is really large, you can do it on two transfer sheets and try to line them up onto the shirt, ironing on one at a time. -- If your picture is small, put several pictures on one sheet of paper, then cut them out before ironing them on. That way you can "place" them where you want on the shirt regardless of how you printed them onto the paper. -- If you're adding more than one picture to a t-shirt, cover up ones you've already ironed-on with a washcloth so the iron doesn't stick to them while you're ironing on the new pictures. But mostly try not to iron over any already finished transfers. -- And along those lines, I put a large bath towel under the t-shirt to protect the transfers on the back of the shirt when I'm ironing on the front of it and vice-versa. -- Occasionally think "theme". The first shirt my son and I ever made was a collage of pictures drawn during his "spaceship" phase. The shirt had pictures all over it (on the sleeves, by the collar, on the front, on the back, etc) that were nothing but different spaceships he'd drawn. It looked like a huge scene from a Star Wars movie or something. -- BRAG, BRAG, BRAG! You have created not only a t-shirt art project, but two proud people. Proud mom (or dad) and proud kid. Tell anyone and everyone: "This is my son's artwork. He made all these pictures and we ironed them onto this shirt." The bonus I was talking about is that your child will beam with pride. Really! There's nothing like walking around in a t-shirt that displays your own artwork. It's a simple concept with HUGE rewards.  |
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