Fun DIY Halloween Shirt for Kids

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I work with a group of little ones, so I get to do a lot of arts and crafts. I think that my favorite crafts to do with my kids are handprint crafts. I love handprint crafts. There are a lot of creative things that you can make with little handprints. I recently had my kids make a super cute handprint and footprint craft for their dads, you can see it here. Their dads loved it and it was really fun to make. With Halloween around the corner, I wanted to do another fun activity with my kids. Without even thinking, as I was driving to the store last week, the perfect idea for a fun DIY Halloween shirt for kids popped in my head.

When the idea for this fun handprint craft popped in my head, I asked my 9-year-old daughter what she thought and she just looked at me. Then I asked my adult daughter what she thought and she said it was so ‘punny’! With that said, I knew that it would be perfect for my little ones. This handprint craft is simple, uses very few craft supplies but can get messy since you are working with white paint on a black shirt and with little hands.

Here is what you will need:

• Black T-shirt- I like to use Rabbit Skins or this brand, just make sure the shirt is not too thin so the paint does not bleed through
• White Acrylic Paint- My favorite to use is Marth Stewart or if I cannot find her paint then I use Apple Barrel, sadly for this project I was out of both
• Paint Pen or Sharpie- These paint markers worked great for me, but I did get desperate when the paint was too thick and pulled out the sharpies.
• Paintbrush- Since my kids do not like the bristly brush feeling of a paintbrush, I like to use this kind.
• WaterWipes and Paper Towels- Expect a mess, so make sure to have plenty of WaterWipes and paper towels ready! You don’t have to use WaterWipes, you could use wet paper towels, but I recently did a WaterWipes post that you can find here and I absolutely love them.

If you can find help while doing this handprint craft, then I encourage you to do so. I did this alone and survived but if I had help, I think there would have been less of a mess. The steps are simple:

• Paint your little ones’s palm and fingers
• Press their handprint upside down on the shirt, squish it down and carefully lift it up
• Do this to the remaining shirts
• Once all the shirts have the child’s handprint on it, wipe their hand clean
• After the handprint has dried, use a black paint pen or sharpie and color in the eyes and mouth of the ghost
• Using a sharpie or paint marker, put the child’s name somewhere on the ghost handprint
• At the top of the shirt, paint a thick white line that is long enough to write on
• After the strip of paint has dried, use a paint marker or sharpie and write ‘My Boo’s’

I am in love with this fun DIY Halloween shirt. I am not sure if I love it more because I love to see all of my kid’s handprints together on a shirt or because the Halloween shirt is ridiculously ‘punny’. Either way, this is perfect DIY Halloween shirt for daycares, friends, and play groups to make.

Here is another handprint shirt that is perfect for small groups of kids.