This week, Myla and I decided to work on a little project that met all my requirements:  fun, quick, easy, and inexpensive.  We got a plain shirt at our local craft store for $3 (Myla chose white), and used Sharpie markers to draw some of her favorite things on it to wear on her first day of school.   We used a small sheet of foam core (you could use cardboard, too) in between the shirt so marker wouldn’t seep through to the other side, and started drawing.

I only drew what she asked me to, so while she drew the characters from Harry Potter, I drew the Basilisk and Finn from Adventure Time.

She asked me to draw the new big-eyed pink lemur she just got.

She’s a very social kid, and  sees it as an icebreaker; a way to find something in common with other kids when she first meets them.  I thought at first that she might choose to draw only things that other kids might recognize, but when I said, “do you think people will know who the basilisk is?”  and she said, “If they don’t, I’ll just have to tell them all about it.”  …Which made me smile.

She added Marceline, and I added the little ‘ello worm from Labyrinth.

And then Nightcrawler, Jake, Spiderman, and Robin from Teen Titans Go.  These aren’t her ONLY favorites, by any means, but I think it’s a good start!

On the back, she wrote “wands rule,” for some reason (I guess it may have something to do with her excitement for our upcoming trip to California, which will involve a trip to Harry Potter World at Universal Hollywood), and drew a Harry Potter, a pygmy puff with a wand, and a Cornish pixie.

And there you go!  Next step is to give it a quick iron to set the permanent marker, and then wash it inside-out on gentle.

Boom!  Ready to start school and meet some new friends!