HIKING DIY: Silkscreen Bandanas & Shirts

This Sunday I leave on a venture I never imagined: I'm going to spend a weekend at Glen Canyon National Park (Lake Powell). I'm not at all an outdoor kind of chica, but some blogging friends of mine entered a contest to win this trip - we called ourselves The Latina Blogstars, we wrote an essay - and we won one of the spots! You can read all about it here on my blog! Every time I get nervous for a big project or event - I craft it out, that's the only way I can relax and chill my vibe. So in this case, I decided to silkscreen T-shirts and bandanas for our team members!

This is a great idea for family camping trips, hiking excursions with friends, even vacations or parties. And it's super easy, I'll show you how I got this look.

Supplies:

Tulip ScreenIt

Tulip Black Soft Paint

Aleene's Repositionable Spray

Pre-washed cotton shirts and bandanas

Printed 8x10 portraits of who you want to be in the silkscreen

Image program like Photoshop Elements, printer

Marker

NOTE: I'm sure there is a more refined way of doing this, but this is what worked for me!

Print out the pictures, just use greyscale, low quality, you just need the shape of the face. Use the black marker to draw the features. You will only be working with black and white, so think big and bold. To make it easier, color in the areas with black marker, it will make it easier when you scan in the image.

 Scan in the image to your computer and blacken the areas as dark as you can, and whiten the white areas.

 Once you do that to all the pictures, arrange them and add your phrases. Save at 300 dpi and print it out on a sheet of standard copier paper.

Next you'll need to use the Tulip ScreenIt to burn your screen - I suggest watching the videos. If you follow these directions, your screen will burn beautifully and crisp, just like this!

 Once your screen is burned, slip your shirt over the base and add a bit of Repositionable Spray and press on the screen. Rub with your hands to make sure it's secure.

 Squeeze a line of paint at the top and use the little squeegee to drag down the paint. Remove the screen.

Here is one of my shirts. I made a shirt and two bandanas for each of our team members. Now we can wear them happily as we hike our way through Glen Canyon!