Kids go through phases as they get older, right? I remember Luke was obsessed with the Little Einstein’s (lovingly referred to as “Pat Pat” in our home) for a solid six months. In fact, that’s likely how I made it through Reagan’s first few crazy months of life. Thank heaven for a DVR!
Reagan has been stuck on horses and ponies since first catching a glimpse of My Little Ponies last summer and if you’ve had the opportunity to be in our home recently, you’d know that she’s still as focused on horses as ever. She can totally catch you off guard with her perfectly high-pitched horse whinny and girl has her pony prance down. After thinking about it for a bit, it seemed crazy to me that my girl didn’t already have her own equine-related tee, but today that changes! This Painted Pony Tee that I put together for her was fast and painless and it’ll be super easy for you to recreate!
Before we get started, I feel like you *need* to know about the awesome machine I used to create this shirt: the brand spankin’ new Cricut Explore. I’m in crafty love!
Now, not only can you use your Cricut cartridges from machines past, but there’s also an entire online Design Space where you can easily pick and choose what images you’d like to work with for a super low and affordable price. Best part? It’ll cut anything from vellum to fabric to leather and even chipboard! Say what?! The machine and software are both super simple to navigate, so there isn’t a huge learning curve associated with it. I literally received my machine one day and was easily creatign this project the next.
MATERIALS:
Cricut Explore
horse design (choose your favorite from Cricut Design Space)
polka dot design (available on Cricut Design Space)
plain tee fabric paints (I like these from DecoArt)
two foam paint brushes
vinyl
one sheet of card stock
cardboard to place inside shirt
DIRECTIONS:
1. Place the cardboard inside the pre-washed, clean tee. I actually used one that we already had on hand that had a small stain on it where I was placing the horse. Love when I get to save a few bucks re-purposing things!
2. Cut your chosen horse pony design out of the vinyl with your Cricut Explore. I won’t blame you if you marvel at how quickly and quietly it cuts. 😉 3. Carefully remove the actual horse shape from your vinyl and use the remaining vinyl as a stencil. Place it wherever you’d like on the shirt. I really liked the idea of having it off-centered and wrapped around the back.
4. Sponge the base color of your horse on to the shirt. Be careful not to stray off the vinyl stencil. Allow the paint to fully dry before continuing on to the next step. Leave the vinyl stencil in place while the paint dries.
5. Cut the polka dot stencil from the card stock with the Cricut Explore. Lay the stencil over the dried horse and carefully sponge the color you’ve chosen for the polka dots directly on top. Still make sure you don’t stray off of the vinyl stencil. Allow for the paint to completely dry. I let mine sit over night to make sure it was completely ready for wearing.
6. Carefully peel away the vinyl stencil when everything is dry. I’d recommend washing before wearing; just follow the care instructions on the back of the paint bottles. My Reagan was absolutely thrilled when her shirt was ready to go and although I may be hearing more super high-pitched whinnies for the foreseeable future, the smile on her face is absolutely worth it.
