How to Make “Jesus Loves Me” Shirts With Kids

July 1, 2011 By

Back in the Spring, I made these “Jesus {hearts} me” shirts with my whole preschool class, and they were a huge hit! The kids were so proud of them because they actually painted every part of the shirt even though they were only 2 or 3 years old. These shirts would be great to make at Sunday School, or even as a Vacation Bible School Shirt! Also, today is First Friday, so that means I’m hosting our First Friday link-up! If you have a blog post (or several) you’d like to share with all of us this month, please scroll to the bottom of this post. 🙂

 
 
Jesus Loves Me Handprint Shirts

Good news! I now have a full at-home VBS program for Catholic kids… Summer With The Sacred Heart! This vacation bible school program is chock full of fun crafts and activities for all kids ages preschool through teens. Get your program now!

At Home VBS

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Catholic Liturgical Monthly Membership

Perfect for families! Each month you gain access to printable activity pages, crafts, home altar pieces, and more.
 
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Materials Needed to Craft Jesus Loves Me Shirts:

  • White T-Shirts (I found ours at the Dollar Tree)
  • Acrylic Paints (Don’t waste your money on fabric paint- it won’t matter)
  • Letter Stencils (I actually substituted foam letter stickers for stencils because I couldn’t find any actual stencils in the right size)
  • Foam brushes or stencil brushes
  • Cardboard (for inside the shirts)
Prep Work: Glue your stencils together in the words “Jesus” and another that says “me”. Again, I used foam letter stickers instead. I did this by cutting a square around each sticker and removing the middle like this:
 
Foam Stencil
 
Also, put a piece of cardboard inside each shirt. This keeps the paint from bleeding through to the other side of the shirt and also makes a nice, flat work area out of the front of the shirt.
 
I then glued a poster board “shield” around them because the kids I was working with were very small, and I wanted them to have a bigger target to work with.
 
 
 Back of Stencil
Jesus Stencil Back
 
Front of Stencil on Shirt
Jesus Stencil
 
I have a few classroom assistants, so I had one of them go around allowing the kids to stencil Jesus, another go around having them stencil “me”, and I went around stamping their hand-prints into heart shapes.
 
Jesus Shirts
 
We used 3 different colors of acrylic paints in class, but if you have older kids you could actually stencil each letter a different color. Also, upside-down hand-prints make a nicer heart shape, but you do what you can with little kids. 😉
 
Jesus Loves Me Handprint Shirt
 
We ended up having a little trouble with our “Me” stencil, so I quickly went back over the letters with one of the foam brushes in a darker color.
 
Jesus Loves Me Handprint Shirts
 
 
Jesus Loves Me Handprint Shirts
 
That’s it! Let them dry and wash as normal. Acrylic paint is not going to wash out of clothes, so it’s perfect for this project. Your only motivation for buying fabric paint is that it might dry a little softer than stiff acrylic paint, but even that totally depends on the brand you get.
 
Jesus Loves Me Handprint Shirts
 
 
My entire class wore their shirts to the end-of-the-year ceremony, and they were adorable! Can you guess which song we performed for the group? 😉 When my 2/3 year-olds sing Jesus Loves Me, I have them point to themselves each time they say “Me” in the song, and this is a big hit!
 
Jesus Loves Me Handprint Shirts
 
 
 
Again, I think these would be an absolutely great craft to make for VBS! Then the kids could wear them all week! 🙂
Jesus Loves Me Handprint Shirts
Ok, now it’s your turn to share your links! Feel free to share any blog post that you think would interest Catholic mothers or those working with children. Also, feel free to share more than one, and don’t forget about your archives! I love to see the things you all link up! Just link back here so others know where to join in on the fun. 🙂
 
Summer With the Sacred Heart
 
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Filed Under: Jesus, Summer

Comments

  1. Amy says
    June 10, 2013 at 11:30 pm

    Hi, I found your pin for your Jesus Loves Me t-shirts on Pinterest. I was going to make them as a craft for VBS. I had a couple of questions for you. I was going to buy the acrylic paints as you suggested. They have the 2 oz bottles on sale. I was trying to figure out how much paint to buy and what kind of paintbrushes. Did you paint their hands or have them dip them into the paint. Thanks for your help!

    • Lacy says
      June 12, 2013 at 8:36 pm

      You can go either way. When I dip hands, I usually use paper plates. Stencil brushes are probably ideal- they make foam versions of those now that are nice.

  2. Lori says
    January 23, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    Where did you locate foam sticker on a sheet

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