NW Kid Chaser

First: Find a pale colored or white clothing item (Do you still have a shirt left over from the great spaghetti sauce incident of 2012? No problem:White shirts with small stains work great for this project! Warning: Items made with less than 60% cotton won't hold they dye.)

Next: Soak your items for 20 minutes in a soda ash/water mixture.

Then: Take your damp (not soaked) item and choose your pattern. There's the classic spiral, the polka-dot, the stripes, and the free-for-all. Here's a great tutorial on how to create each fabulous effect: Tie Dye Basics.

Finally: Using ketchup bottles filled with liquid dye - squirt on your color combinations. (Neighbor Toni tells me that the fabric dyes at the Art Dept. are top of the line!)

The clothing should then sit in a plastic bag for about 24 hours. Once set, rinse the item in cold water until all the extra dye is released (and the water runs clear). Then throw it all into the washer for washing.  (Be careful this first time with your choice of other items in the washer. However, after that - you can wash with your regular clothes without incident.)

Every piece of clothing turns out an original and there is no 'wrong' way to mix your colors.

Hooray tie-dye!
Hooray neighborhood fun!

2) Using a yard stick and a template I made from cardboard, I traced a grid of blocks and hearts onto the canvas with a standard pencil.

3) I purchased a rainbow of basic craft paints and let my sons finger-paint in the various sections. I’d let them get creative with one color and a few days later (when the first had dried), we’d have another finger-paint session with a new color.

4) Little by little, the canvas filled until finally all the white had been covered and it was ready for the world (or at least those who enter our basement) to enjoy.

5) Taking a few blocks from the old toy box, we then named our creation. Looking closely at the finger smudges of paint created by my sons - I couldn't think of a title any more appropriate.