I remember the year they introduced the wordle shirt. That shirt WAS Guiding. It was perfect. I remember thinking… finally there is a piece of clothing that is cool. I would wear mine to camp, to the gym… even to school!

My guiding friends and I on the Ontario Adventure Trip to Ecuador in 2009

A few years later… I am now the DC for Cornwallis District in the south end of Halifax and I still wear my wordle shirt as often as I can.

The problem is… it, like all my other GGC paraphernalia, has shrunk.

So what’s a girl to do but make her own.

This weekend was our District’s Brownie and Guide Sleepover Extravaganza and between swimming, zumba and yoga we managed to find time for the Guides to learn how to silk screen.

What you need:

A silk screen, silk screen fabric paint, a squeegee, card stock, pencils, scissors and t-shirts.

Here’s how we did it:

1. Each girl got a strip of card stalk to write a word that to her, was synonymous with Guiding.
2. The girls then cut out their words to make individual stencils.
3. The leaders then took all the words and tried to fit them onto the silk screen.
4. While the girls played Apples to Apples, we tapped all the words down and filled in all the gaps with scrap card stalk.
5. Once the screen was ready, we got the girls to put their names on their white t-shirts and to put a piece of cardboard in the middle of their shirts. (This ensured that the paint did not bleed through.)

Then it was Go Time!

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6. We carefully put the screen down on the t-shirt to make sure it was where we wanted the design to end up and got all the girls to help press down the screen and hold the t-shirt so it didn’t move.

7. One leader put a line of paint along the top and a line of paint along the bottom. Then the other leader pushed and pulled the squeegee all over the screen to make sure the paint covered the whole surface.

8. Once it was all painted, we took off the excess paint (you want to make sure there is as little as possible left on the screen) and got ready to lift. Half the girls held down the t-shirt while the other half lifted the screen straight off the t-shirt…

…and voila, we had our very own wordle shirt.

We then went and repeated the screening process on all the other t-shirts. The parents were impressed and the girls LOVED their new shirts.

Here are some helpful tips:

After the first shirt is done, be really careful putting the screen down- you only get once chance!

Once all the shirts are done, you can take a paint brush and fix up the shirts as you wish. Sometimes the half printed letters give it a vintage feel, other times you can’t read the word. Make your own judgement call.

We let the t-shirts sit for the rest of the day and by the time the parents came to pick them up, they were dry!

I told all the parents to wait another 24 hours to make sure the paint was FULLY dry and then to wash them inside out the first time.

For Guiders wanting to try this…

This took us a good two hours to do with the Guides plus time for them to sit and dry. I would recommend this craft as a slumber party/camp craft for Guide-age girls but Rangers and Pathfinders might be able to get it done in a meeting.

Photo: Paula Sand

Total cost: $50 for the screen, paint and squeegee that all can be used again and $3 per t-shirt.

Craft ranking: 5 out of 5.

By guest blogger Paula and originally appeared on The Sanderson Post.

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What’s New with Girl Guides? Cookie Day in Canada 2013 is April 20 (and 21 in select locations) across Canada. Cookie lovers: don’t forget to check out our Cookie Finder Map to find a location near you! Cookie sellers (Guiders): don’t forget to add your unit cookie sales event to our interactive cookie drive map.