Spooky Spider Hands Mommy & Me Shirts

It’s September 30th, one day away from October, which means Halloween is close enough to get excited about. And I am. I’m busting out my TuTu Cute Halloween Wreath this weekend and putting up some spooktacular decorations. I couldn’t wait until the weekend to get into the the spooky spirit, though. I had a need to craft, and after looking for Halloween shirts for both Kendall and I, I came up with the perfect idea…well, as “perfect” an idea as one that involves black, permanent fabric paint and a 2 year old can be.

I started with 2 free/inexpensive shirts, one for me from Target (Liz Lange Maternity) on sale for $6, and one Kendall’s been wearing all summer (a hand me down from Carter’s). The only other supplies I needed were a tube of dimensional white fabric paint and a small bottle of soft, flat black fabric paint. I got them both from Hobby Lobby for less than $5. I had a cheap paint brush laying around.

I freehanded spider webs on both the shirts with the white paint. I positioned Kendall’s off to the side to strategically cover up some berry stains. I centered mine directly over where my belly is by putting the shirt on and drawing a cross that intersected directly over my belly button lightly with a pencil. The webs were really easy to draw, just draw intersecting lines in a circle (or half circle if it’s on the side), like you were cutting a pie. Then connect those line with perpendicular lines that slightly curve toward the center.

I let the shirts dry overnight, after I carefully inserted a paper folder inside both the shirts to keep the paint from seeping through to the other side of the shirt, something I should have done BEFORE I started painting.

The next day was the hard part. I stripped Kendall down, poured some black paint on a paper plate, and laid out the shirts, paint, paint brush and a wet rag <VERY important. Also important? That barrier of some sort inside the shirts to keep the black paint from seeping through.

I took one of Kendall’s hands and painted his whole palm and all his fingers except his thumb with a heavy coat of the black paint, all while gripping his wrist so tightly he might have lost feeling, and while reminding him over and over again how important it was that he be still. He was actually pretty good.

I carefully laid his painted hand on the spider web, creating half of the spider. Then I repainted his hand, turned the shirt around, and positioned it back over the original hand print so that the palm overlapped but the fingers went the opposite direction. Later, after the child is cleaned and locked away, you can go back over the spider with your paint brush to fill in any blank spots. (I intended to take pictures of this step, but…. black paint, toddler, one adult, you get the picture.)

*Note- this is when a wet rag will really come in handy. You’re most likely going to get black paint all over your hands, and you’ll need to remember to wipe at least one, or a few fingers before you turn the shirt around. If not, you’ll end up with a black smudge from your thumb on the shoulder like I did. That’s why Kendall’s shirt has 2 spiders.

My other tip would be to wash hands in between shirts unless you have another adult there to hold your kid back while you switch out shirts. The paint did wash off really easily since we didn’t let it sit on our hands too long.

For the finishing touch, I just went back with my white dimensional paint and added a smiley face to the spiders.

That’s it! Super easy Spooky Spider Handprint Shirts.

The results…

Eeek! There's a spider on me!

I guess taking my own picture makes me go cross eyed.

Up close with my 28 week belly

Kendall loves the shirts. Despite the death grip I inflicted on him, he actually had a pretty good time making them and I didn’t even end up with any black toddler handprints on my walls.

If the baby were here, I’d totally do this on a onesie, but I’d put the spider web across the butt and do a teeny tiny baby hands spider. Then I’d pair it with a pair of Halloween Baby Legs. Guess I’ll file that idea away for next year.

Happy Halloween Crafting!

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