Brightly colored T-shirts
Items from nature (leaves, flowers, rocks, etc)
Sturdy Paper (Optional)
Bleach
Spray Bottle
Bucket of cold water
Nature Shirt
Lay T-shirt flat on hard surface preferably outside. Find natural items (Leaves and flowers are great, but be creative!) and lay them on the shirt as desired. It may be necessary to hold the items in place with small stones. Take spray bottle filled with bleach and lightly spray the shirt over the items, taking care to spray evenly. Watch the shirt closely, it will start to change colors within 30 seconds; do not let it sit for more than 1 minute! When the color has changed noticeably, carefully remove the items from the shirt (Do not let bleach spill onto the covered areas!) and plunge it into a bucket of cold water! Let it stand in the water for a minute, then remove. I wash the shirts at this point, but that is optional. When the shirt dries, you will have a funky shirt with shadows of natural items!
Team Shirt
This is a great idea for sandlot teams or little leagues with little budgets. Follow the same instructions as the nature shirt, except use sturdy paper (heck, we even used lined notebook paper once with fabulous results!) and cut out the names of the players and a symbol for their team and use that for each shirt. Be creative and make the letters of their names curve-these are cool shirts-not the stiff and boring jerseys of their competitors! Most important-get the children to help design the shirt-just have adults spray the bleach! One word of caution-when purchasing a number of T-shirts make sure they are from the same dye lot. Also, check with local vendors and see if they have overstock on unwanted colors they would be willing to donate to your team; you might be surprised!
We use these shirts after camping and hiking to remember the time we spent together and the things we found. These are also great for family reunions!
These shirts look professionally manufactured, and kids love to make them!