{Craft Time} DIY Permanent Marker Tie Dye

So we all know how Pinterest-obsessed I am {sigh}. When I started seeing tutorials for using permanent markers to do your own tie dye designs, I thought it'd be amazing to try on a shirt for the Little One. 

The idea behind this craft is to use permanent markers to make a design on fabric {shirt, socks, scarf, pillow cover, etc, etc...} and then apply rubbing alcohol to the design to make the ink spread, bleed, and become a colorful tie dye design. This project will not allow for precise designs since the ink spreads so much with the alcohol, so choosing to do wavy lines or abstract flowers is your best bet. 

After reading over several different instructional posts, I decided on the spray bottle method. You can also use a dropper to apply the alcohol but if the kids are joining in on this craft, I think the spray bottles are a better choice.

So I gathered up the following supplies and got to crafting:
- shirt {or fabric of your choice}
- permanent markers {I used the BIC Mark-it Permanent Markers, because they're not as smelly as Sharpie}
- rubbing alcohol
- small spray bottle
- wax or parchment paper

1. Insert a piece of wax or parchment paper inside the shirt to avoid the ink spreading to the back.

2. Draw your design with the permanent markers.

3. Pour rubbing alcohol into small spray bottle. {I found mine in the travel section at Target}

4. Spray design with rubbing alcohol. 
*I found that it's good to start out with just spraying a little bit and add more if you want the design to keep spreading. If you just do a small amount of spraying, it doesn't look like it's going to do anything at first. But if you look closely, you'll see the edges start to spread. The more you saturate the ink, the further it will spread and blur the design. It just depends on your personal preference.

5. Wait . . .below is a time lapse of how the design spreads the longer you wait. As you can see, just 30 seconds after spraying, you can the ink start to bleed. 

6. After the shirt has dried, usually overnight, throw it in the dryer for about 20 minutes. The heat will set the design so that it won't fade when washed. You can also use an iron to set the design, but who wants to drag out the iron when you can let the dryer do all the work ;)  I then washed the shirt before Little One wore it just to be on the safe side to avoid skin irritation {and to get the alcohol smell out}.

This was a really fun craft that I think would be great for kids to join in on. Little One didn't help me with this one since I wanted to test out the spray bottle method and see what kind of results it would give. I absolutely love the way it turned out and this will be a great addition to Little One's summer wardrobe. I'd be curious to see what kind of results you could get from doing this on a canvas bag . . . that might be the next project :) 

Let me know if you've tried the permanent marker tie dye before and how you liked it. Leave a comment below telling me what your favorite summer craft is and maybe I'll try it and share on the blog :)

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