Celebrating Weight Loss

If you coach or oversee a cheerleading or dance team, creating personalized, team t-shirts together can be a great team building activity. Not only will the girls have a great time making the shirts, but they will then have matching shirts to wear for warm-ups and when attending school on game days.

Here are some instructions to help you and your team members create fun, stenciled t-shirts together:

Look for white or light-colored t-shirts online.

You can typically get better deals on t-shirts online than through storefront retailers. This will be important when you're buying for such a big group. White is the easiest color to stencil on, but you can use a lighter color like pale yellow or pink if you'd prefer something more colorful. 

Ask the girls for their sizes ahead of time so you can purchase shirts you know will fit. Don't be afraid to get a little creative with your shirt purchasing options, either! While standard, scoop-neck t-shirts are certainly fine, you can find unique off-the-shoulder shirts for sale that may be more in line with what your team members would like to wear.

Create a stencil.

You can purchase plain stencil plastic sheets at any craft supply store. Use a program like Paint to create a simple image to put on the girls' shirts. This could be the image of someone jumping into the air or doing a spin. Print this image onto as many sheets of stencil paper as you have team members. Then, use a sharp knife to cut out the image, resulting in a blank area over which the team members can stencil. (If you have older teens on the team, you could let them do this themselves -- but it's usually better for you, as the adult, to handle the sharp knife.)

Have the kids stencil.

Provide stencil paint, stencil brushes, and the stencil plastic you made in the step above. Have each team member tape the stencil to their shirt using masking tape. Then, show them how to apply the stencil paint by dipping the brush in the paint, dabbing it a few times, and then using up-and-down dabbing motions inside the stencil area.

Have the team members allow their shirts to dry for about an hour, and then help them remove the stencils. They should all have matching images on their shirts! They can add their names or the team name with puff paint if they desire.