How to Paint Fabric for Fun: Tips, Techniques, and Project Ideas

Someone hit the big 0-3 this week, and we’re pretty excited about it!

Birthday fabric painting

To celebrate this year, we followed the same tradition you may have seen over on Young House Love: letting Clara help design a custom “fabric” for her birthday photos. This year she painted directly onto two yards of white cotton, and the result was colorful, messy, and perfectly her.

Child painting on fabric

We also wanted to share some favorite outtakes from the shoot. In this one we asked her how old she was going to be — ignore the seven fingers.

Birthday outtake showing fingers

She gave us a classic Home Alone face for one of the shots, equally dramatic and adorable.

Home Alone pose

There was plenty of delight at the glorious mess she made on her shirt — bright splashes of paint everywhere.

Paint on shirt

And of course, she brought the swag.

Swag pose

One pose seems to be a mix of dancing and a dramatic exit — we’re still not sure exactly how it happened, but it made us laugh.

Dramatic dance pose

We also coaxed her into sitting down for a few calmer photos — at that point a little paint on the pants was no longer a concern.

Sitting photo with paint

Apparently, paint on the face was equally unbothering.

Paint on face

We realized a little too late that the photos would have looked cuter without Crocs, so we took a few barefoot shots at the end — simple and sweet.

Barefoot picture

Biased as we are, she still feels like the coolest kid on the planet.

Cool kid portrait

Happy third birthday, Beansie!