You know those irritating little capsule sponges?

You know, you put them in water, and they “grow” into various animal shapes? And you stare at them afterward, thinking – now what? Too small to wash with and too flimsy to play with, they inevitably find themselves dumped in the garbage in short order.

Until now.

Little sponges make great stamps for painting t-shirts. The Arts and Crafts store didn’t have any fabric paint, but no worries! Did you know you can make regular acrylic paint into fabric paint by adding fabric medium? Just mix it in a 1:1 proportion and you’re good to go. (I count us fortunate that Arts & Crafts had fabric medium!) We also picked up a box of fabric markers for adding details like eyes and sunglasses.

So, now you can pick up some of those “amazing” capsules and “hatch” them with your kids, and after they dry you can paint shirts together! (Make sure to place something in between the layers of the shirt – I used cardboard – to keep it from bleeding through.) After the paint is dry, iron it thoroughly to set the paint. You’d probably like to protect your ironing board for this, as well. I now have three pale orange triceratops on mine.

Charlie picked the dinosaurs. Understandably, they are running away from the volcano.

Max, as always, went with the ocean.

So now, when you see those little capsules don’t just see 15 minutes of fun. See 15 minutes of fun plus enough stamps for a really cool shirt!