Tie Dye Party Ideas
- Prepare for the party by purchasing supplies: you will need dyes, rubber bands, buckets and items to decorate such as t-shirts or aprons, which must be 100-percent cotton. Source these from craft or discount stores. Send out invitations to guests reminding them to come in old clothes since dye can splash and be messy. Make tie-dye invitations by tie dying old sheeting. Iron and cut out sections of cloth and mount them onto rectangles of card stock with spray glue.
- Have the child think what kind of effect she wants to create for her t-shirt before she starts. Show her how to add rubber bands to the shirt to create stripes. Coins or small plastic items such as bottle caps can be tied into the shirt to create circles of color. She may choose a single color of dye, or items can be double dipped to create two or more colors. More rubber bands can be added between dippings to add extra stripes or patterns. Remember the basics of color mixing -- dipping a shirt into yellow and then blue dye will make green. Triangles of cotton sheeting can be dyed in the same way to make a matching bandana.
- Preschoolers can enjoy a simple tie dye craft using baby wipes and colored markers. Scrunch the baby wipe into a long tube and add rubber bands along it to create stripes. Have the child color the wipe with the markers; since the wipes are moist the colors will blend together to create a tie-dye effect. Remove the bands and unfold to discover the pattern he has created.
Use coffee filters for another easy craft. Have the child use a medicine dropper to drip water colored with food color onto a coffee filter and watch as the color spreads out. Different colors will blend together. When the filter is dry, use it to make a butterfly clip. Scrunch it together in the center to make butterfly wings and glue it to a clothespin. Add a pipe cleaner body, curling the ends to make antennae. - Continue the colorful tie dye theme by using bright rainbow colors for party decorations. Cut tie dye sheeting into triangles and sew or glue them on to a length of ribbon to make tie dye bunting. Add food dye to party drinks and cake mix. Make a tie dye t-shirt cake by cutting a slab of sponge cake into a t-shirt shape. Cover it with white frosting. Use spray on food color or add circles of ready-mixed colored icing, dragging a toothpick through the colors to blend them together and create a tie-dye effect.
