Dollar Tree Christmas T-Shirt Craft Project

By: Stacy Verdick Case
On: December 10, 2022

This Dollar Tree Christmas T-Shirt Craft project is similar to the Halloween t-shirts we created. Except this time the wood cuts that we’re using are the dollar tree Christmas truck and wooden bauble ornaments. For this project I was even able to pick up the shirt at Dollar Tree! What!? $1.25 for a t-shirt? Yes please!

Okay, so they’re not that similar. On the halloween shirt we used bleach to create our images. That wouldn’t work for this project since I didn’t want the tree that was in the back of the truck in this woodcut. You could of course use the tree if you wanted but the tree has been done to death, so I wanted mine to be a little different.

Dollar Tree wood cut being used as a template

Because of this I had to outline the truck by hand. I used Jacquard fabric paints, which if you’ve seen my upholstery painting post then you know I love this stuff. It’s washable and it stays flexible without being sticky. Win – win – win in my opinion.

I outlined the truck in pearl white following the outline until I reached the back of the truck where the tree sticks out the back. At that point I left a gap until the rest of the outline was complete.

After I removed the woodcut, I used a popsicle stick to complete the bed of the pickup truck. You could use any straight edge you have handy.

Next I grabbed one of the woodcut bauble ornaments. They had a bunch of different kinds at my dollar tree but I liked this one with the vaguely automic look the stars.

I position the ornament so it looked like a giant ornament sticking out of the back of the truck. Again I outlined the woodcut but only the top so they illusion would be that the truck was covering the bottom.

I filled in the ornament completely with a pearl blue Jacquard fabric paint that I love. It’s one of my favorite colors.

Then I had to be patient. It was time to let everything dry. Once the whole thing was dry I gave the outline a second coat of paint because the white paint was struggling to cover the navy blue of the shirt.

For the bauble I used hot pink paint from Angelus leather paint to create the stars. I adore the two bright colors together on the dark blue shirt.

I used an embossing tool also from the dollar tree to make sure the points of the stars were nice and pointy. If you have a steadier hand than I, you could probably accomplish this with a brush but I know if I tried mine would be sloppy.

Okay, I know my lines aren’t as neat as they could be. If I do this project again I am going to use the embossing tool to do the whole image to ensure the lines are as crisp as possible.

In the end I love how the little truck turned out. It’s a fun holiday craft that’s easy for crafters of all ages and talents. Everyone could make their own special shirt this holiday season. Just find the woodcut at Dollar Tree that you like best and get to painting.