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Let Your Light Shine DIY TShirt Painting

Some days we could all use a little pick me up so we figured one way to spread the good vibes is by wearing a happy, cheerful t-shirt. You’ll love how easy it is to add some positivity to your day with DIY tshirt painting using colorful and long-lasting fabric paints.

Tshirt painting with "let your light shine" in bright letters with a light bulb next to jeans and accessories.

Let Your Light Shine T-Shirt Painting

My tween had a school assignment last Spring where she had to come up with a an encouraging slogan to share with her class. Her idea was “let your light shine”, which I thought was uplifting, fun and pretty relevant in these 2021 times. With her permission I adapted her idea and made it my own for this DIY painted tee.

I picked up a couple of 100% cotton tees from my local craft store, but you can buy these Gildan tees online or at plenty of other box stores. They actually come in handy because they are so comfy to wear but also inexpensive so you don’t mind experimenting with them for crafting. My same tween likes to cut the bottoms off and make them into crop tops, clever girl!

Additionally, these 100% cotton tees tend to make the best tshirt yarn so I’ll often pick up extra plain tshirts from the thrift store nearby. If you’re interested in making your own t-shirt yarn, check out our post here or skip the reading and watch our most popular YouTube video for how to make t-shirt yarn using the whole t-shirt.

YouTube video

Materials Needed:

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Materials needed for a tshirt painting including a shirt, paint, paint brush and masking tape.

A Few Helpful Tips

  • pre-wash t-shirt and dry the t-shirt without adding any fabric softeners
  • prevent paint from bleeding through the fabric by separating layers with a piece of cardboard wrapped with plastic or foil. 
  • remove the cardboard from the fabric before it’s completely dry to prevent it from sticking 
Adding a piece of cardboard inside the tshirt.

How to Make a “Let Your Light Shine” Painted Tshirt:

Using masking tape, mask off the area on the shirt where you want to place the design and then divide the sections into two, one on the right a smaller than the one on the left. 

Adding section on the tshirt with masking tape.

With a fine tip paintbrush, paint a large lightbulb on the left side using Bright Yellow fabric paint.

Painting a light bulb shape on the tshirt.

Paint another lightbulb shape in a smaller size in the center using the same Bright yellow and then fill in the smaller bulb using Glitter Clear Ice.

Painting a smaller light bulb on the tshirt.

Mix glitter paint with one small drop of black fabric paint and then using a fine tip paint brush, paint an outline of the base of the lightbulb.

Painted lightbulb.

With Baby Pink Deep paint, paint the word “SHINE” in large box letters and then add a border around each letter in Dark Rose.

Next, paint the word “LIGHT” in big box letters in Primary Blue and then add a border around each block letter in Apple Green.

With Lavender paint, paint the words “Let Your” above the word light. 

Painting the words "let your" on the tshirt.

Finishing

Now for the satisfying part: peel off the masking tape!

Removing the masking tape.

If you like, add rays of light in a mix of yellow and glitter fabric paint around the light bulb.

Painting rays of light around the light bulb.

Once done with the design, allow the paint to dry for 48-72 hours and then wash inside-out on a gentle cycle. We hope this inspires you to make your own positivity tee with fabric paint. Let us know in the comments below what would your painted t-shirt say?

Tshirt painting with "let your light shine" in bright letters with a light bulb.

We originally shared this project in DecoArt’s project gallery.

Woman wearing the finished "let your light shine" painted tshirt.

More Ways to Get Crafty with Paint!

Did you know you can paint on leather? It’s true! Check out our DIY pretty painted sandals for the full tutorial. Also, if you don’t have actual fabric paint, you can use a fabric medium to turn any acrylic paint into a fabric paint. Find out here with our tutorial for making a modern painted canvas fabric table runner.

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Woman wearing the finished "let your light shine" painted tshirt.

Let Your Light Shine DIY TShirt Painting

Jane and Sonja
Fabric paints make it so easy to add positivity to your day with DIY t-shirt painting.
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Materials
  

  • 100% Cotton tee in white, any size
  • DecoArt SoSoft Fabric Paint in Dark Rose, Baby Pink Deep, Green Apple, Primary Blue, Lavender, Bright Yellow, Lamp Black
  • DecoArt So Soft Fabric Glitter in Clear Ice
  • Paintbrushes fine point and 1” flat
  • Masking tape
  • Cardboard with plastic wrap or wax paper larger than the size of your design

Instructions
 

  • Using masking tape, mask off the area on the shirt where you want to place the design.
  • Divide the sections into two, one on the right a smaller than the one on the left.
  • With a fine tip paintbrush, paint a large lightbulb on the left side using Bright Yellow.
  • Paint another lightbulb shape in a smaller size in the center using Glitter Clear Ice.
  • Mix glitter paint with one small drop of black. Using a fine tip paint brush, paint an outline of the base of the lightbulb.
  • With Baby Pink Deep paint, paint the word “SHINE” in big box letters. Add a border around each letter in Dark Rose.
  • With Primary Blue paint, paint the word “LIGHT” in big box letters. Add a border around each block letter in Apple Green.
  • With Lavender paint, paint the words “Let Your” above the word light.
  • Peel off the masking tape.
  • Add rays of light in a mix of yellow and glitter paint around the light bulb.
Like this craft? Leave some stars!& mention @SustainMyCraftHabit or tag #sustainmycrafthabit on Instagram!
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