decorate-a-shirt-with-palm-trees

THE SHIMMERY

4 PALMS SHIRT

Metallic Paint and Rhinestones Make These Palm Trees Glimmer

What You’ll Need

• #565 Lumiere Metallic Bronze paint

•#562 Lumiere Metallic Olive paint
•repositionable stencil adhesive
•card stock
•dressmaker marking pencil
•Exacto knife
•shirt
•clear #3 hot fix rhinestones
•topaz #3 hot fix rhinestones
•pressing cloth
•iron

Where We Bought It/What We Paid

Paint (2) - JoAnn’s $8.00

Stencil Adhesive - JoAnn’s $7.00

Dressmaker pencil - JoAnn’s $2.50 Shirt - Kohl’s $14.00

Rhinestones - eBay - Sweetpeas Beads and Treasures

Costs listed do not include everyday household items like glue, tools, or items costing less than $1.00 per project.

DIRECTIONS

Download the free 4 palms template.pdf. Wash and dry your purchased shirt according to label directions before you start.

1. With a dressmaker’s marking pencil, mark the vertical center (see red center line) of the shirt with a line from top to bottom.
2.Also mark the horizontal placement. The first horizontal line should be approximately 4 to 5” down from the neck depending on your size. The lower horizontal line should be approximately 4” below the armholes. The yellow area indicates roughly where your finished design should be placed. Try the shirt on and make adjustments if needed.
3.Print out the palm tree template on card stock. Complete instructions are included on the template pages.
4.Using an Exacto knife, create a stencil out of the template by cutting out out the areas to be painted.
5.Spray the back of the stencil with Stencil Spray Adhesive.
6.Slip a hard surface inside the area of the shirt where you will be working. Match up the stencil guide lines with the ones on the shirt and press into position. Be sure all the tiny corners of the palms fronds adhere to the shirt.
7.With a small brush, and the Bronze paint, dab at the trunk of the tree, always working from the outside of the border in. Don’t worry about getting paint on the stencil.
8.Using the Olive color, paint the palm fronds in the same way.
9.The paint will dry very quickly. When it no longer feels wet, remove the stencil. If there are any edges missing paint, touch them up with the brush and let the shirt dry.
10.With the hard surface still inside the shirt, position Topaz rhinestones at the base of the palms and clear stones in the fronds. We used three stones at the base of the trees and varied the clear rhinestones in the fronds, but experiment if you like, with more. Hot-Fix stones give you the advantage of seeing your design before it becomes permanent.
11.Once you’re happy with your design, carefully cover the stones with a pressing cloth. Be sure none of the stones are moved in the process. With the iron set on cotton and steam turned off, hold down the iron without moving it for 45 seconds. Let cool and repeat. Turn the shirt inside out and press the iron to the wrong side of the image and hold for 30 seconds. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before handling.

Wash on gentle cycle with cool water. Dry on low heat.

TIPS & SHORTCUTS

Tweezers are helpful when working with smaller stones.

For a subtle almost pastel look, you can mix the Lumiere paint with water. You can also mix different colors together to create a custom color.

Lumiere paint can be purchased in a large container or in a variety pack of small bottles with several colors to choose from. Follow instructions on paint containers.