Elmo and Cookie Monster Baseball Caps and T-Shirts

In the writing of one of my recent articles, I came across a tutorial on how to make some professional looking, washer and low dryer safe, Elmo and Cookie Monster Baseball caps. I have taken the formula that Amanda, on her "Crafts by Amanda" blog, has shared with us, and made it my own.

This how to article will show you, not only how to make Elmo and Cookie Monster caps, but also Elmo and Cookie monster T-shirts. With prices on plain shirts and caps at Hobby Lobby available in a wide array of colors, especially when you include discount coupons, you can make some truly spectacular shirts and hats. I will also include some "do nots" that I have learned in my process.

The first step in any good craft project is to gather your materials.

In this case you will need:
A Silhouette, or Cricut paper cutter. I personally prefer the Silhouette because of its versatility with fonts, and no reliance on thirty to fifty dollar cartridges.
Adhesive backed vinyl. I use this as a stencil for my noses, eyes, pupils, and mouths for my hats and shirts.
Fabric paint in the colors you need. Black, White, and Orange.
A dedicated brush for each color of fabric paint (I found it very difficult to wash out of the brushes).
Red and Blue hats and T-Shirts.

Find a coloring page of both Elmo and Cookie Monster on the web. There is a virtual buffet of 'coloring pages' available to use. My best luck was with this particular Elmo Coloring Page found on allkidsnetwork.com which gave me bold lines for cutting out templates on my Silhouette.

Cut out stencils for the nose, eyes, and mouth and size them for the hat and shirt. Then the rest is simple, just paint the stenciled area.

Let them dry as well as possible, and you have great looking Elmo shirts, and Cookie Monster baseball caps for kids of any age. Next I need to find a good way to make Oscar the Grouch, because he is my favorite!

Do NOT: Use puff paints for a textured look. They look good until they hit the washer, and then... well... mush. If you want to hand wash your hats and shirts, by all means, try it, but who has the time to hand wash and hang dry these days?

Do NOT: Find a blue or red feather boa, and think you can disassemble it to add depth to your shirts or hats. All you will do is make a mess, and get your wife mad at you!

Do: Turn the shirts in side out when you are washing them, and dry them on a line if possible. The fabric paint is made to stand up to washing, but to keep your shirt looking good for a long time, it helps, trust me.

Do: Let the white of the eyes dry at least a day before doing the pupils so your color does not run.