Tag Archives: Color

Basic Crayon T-Shirt Art Tutorial

Five Finger T
Shirts

Art is a great fun activity for kids, but did you know that you could turn it into something even more creative? You can turn your child’s crayon art into an amazing t-shirt art.

This tutorial will teach you two ways to put a child’s crayon artwork onto a t-shirt. The first method is through the Color-on-Shirt Method:

Materials:

  • Pre-washed cotton t-shirt
  • Piece of Card board for inserting inside the shirt
  • Crayola crayons or Fabric crayons
  • Gentle brush
  • Wax paper
  • Flat iron

Directions:

  1. Pre-wash and dry the t-shirt to avoid sizing and shrinkage
  2. Place the card board inside the shirt and let your child color directly on the shirt fabric. (Let your child use fabric crayons; Crayola crayons will also do – there’s something in its wax formula that makes it work.)
  3. After your child’s crayon art is done, brush off the excess crayons you don’t want to include in the t-shirt design.
  4. Then, place a wax paper on to the artwork, shiny side down. Do not remove the card board inside the shirt, and then set the flat iron on to Cotton setting.
  5. Iron press on to the paper without moving the iron back-and-forth. Press firmly until all of the crayon design is pressed permanently on to the shirt, but being careful not to scorch the fabric.

Another way to make crayon art t-shirt is through the Transfer Method. For this method, you will use the following materials:

Materials:

  • Pre-washed synthetic blend t-shirt
  • Piece of Card board for inserting inside the shirt
  • Fabric crayons or Crayola crayons
  • Freezer paper or any type of white paper
  • Flat iron

Instructions:

  1. Let your child color a piece of freezer paper or any type of white paper. He or she would need to color heavily so that enough of the crayon will be transferred on to the t-shirt. (Remember that the artwork would be a mirror image of the shirt’s final design. Letterings would need to be done backwards.)
  2. Next, place a piece of card board inside the synthetic blend t-shirt
  3. Lay the colored-on paper on to the t-shirt, crayoned side down.
  4. Iron the design onto the back side of the crayoned paper, pressing firmly until the crayon artwork has been transferred completely onto the shirt. Resist the urge to lift the crayoned paper until you are sure that the design transfer is finished, else the t-shirt fabric will tend to shift and you could end up with a design that does not look exactly like what you intend.

In making any kind of t-shirt art, it’s wise to use medium or dark-colored crayons on light-colored t-shirts, and light-colored crayons on dark-colored shirts to make the design really stand out.

The author is a freelance writer who writes about emerging communication technologies.