Spray Paint

I decided to get down with my bad self and use spray paint for my latest craft!

A little bit if a backstory:

When I was in college I had the pleasure (?) of running for student government Vice President, because I liked being involved and my friend who wanted to be president needed a running mate. 

For part if our campaign we wanted to make tshirts and we wanted them to be customized and our poor college selves needed to do it cheaply. I go the idea that maybe we could use spray paint and a stencil to get the look we wanted. 

3 years later I happened to find myself and my dodgeball team in need of fun, customized shirts for spirit week. So I thought about it and proposed the spray painting idea to my team and they loved it!  Instead of spending $20/shirt we ended up spending $10. 

First thin you need to do is fine the design you want and enlarge it so it fits the size of your shirt. After doing it print it out. This is the stencil. 

Next, grab an exacto knife and either a movie or good music (this part is a bit time consuming) and carefully cut out the letters. Reminder that with letters with an inner cut out (like O) you need to make sure and not cut everything out otherwise you'll just have a giant circle - I made this mistake a few times, thank goodness for tape. 

Next, grab your shirt and spray paint and head to a well ventilated area (it was nice out so I used my front lawn). Put a piece of cardboard in your shirt so the paint wont bleed through. Place your stencil on top of your shirt and cover excess areas with cardboard or paper towels. If you use paper towels, it is much more helpful to tuck them under the stencil. 

Then take your can of spray paint and hold it directly over the stencil - if you hold it at an angle it is much more likely to get under the stencil. Spray your paint using even motions and thin layers. After you have covered the area remove the stencil. 

Once you have removes the stencil I recommend hanging the shirt up to dry - if you used too much paint and it looks like it will drip then leave the card board in it an let it lay flat to dry. 

Let it sit over night and then ta-da! Your own customized shirt!!

It's not perfect, but I think that's part of the charm. We also were able to put our nicknames on the back

Ready for Spirit Week!