Ideas for Tie Dye: Family Tie Dye Water Gun Fight

Our family LOVES interactive games, and after spending more time together at home this past year and a half, we have come up with some awesome new games to play as a family. Some of our favorites are capture the flag, water balloon fights, and the most fun of all, an annual family tie dye water gun fight! We wear white shirts and fill squirt guns with tie dye water and battle each other. We can always tell who wins based on what colors are the most prevalent on everyone’s shirts, and the shirts become a fun tie-dyed souvenir from the day. Not just for a family battle, this activity is perfect if you’re looking for tie dye party activities, unique ideas for tie dye, and different tie dye t-shirt ideas. I’m sharing all the instructions for this squirt gun tie dye game today, including ways to go all out with your team themes. Customizing our clothes and gear are easier than ever now with the Cricut Joy and Cricut Smart Materials, which make it simple to add special personalization. Iron-on, vinyl, paper… the #DIY possibilities are endless! I’ve been a Cricut fan for a long time, and I can tell you that the Cricut Joy and the Smart Materials are game changers! More on that below, along with the easy tie dye ideas for an epic backyard tie dye water battle.

Disclosures: This is a sponsored post. The opinions are my own. This post also contains some affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase using the links, I may receive a commission. This does not cost you anything additional.

If you haven’t seen the Cricut Joy yet, you will be amazed when you try it. Its compact size makes it easier to grab when you need to make something quickly (or carry with you for some on-the-go DIY). It can cut over 50 types of materials and draws (just like my larger Cricut machine). While you can use specially sized Cricut Joy mats, when you use Cricut Smart Materials and the settings on your Cricut Design Studio app, you don’t even need a mat! The setting and Smart Materials allow you to cut vinyl, stickers, paper, and iron-on without a mat! My family is so excited about how quickly and easy we can create with it for our summer projects. For our tie dye water gun fight, we used the Smart Vinyl and Smart Iron-On. Here’s what we used, and what you’ll need to recreate this fun family idea.

What you need for customized tie dye party ideas:

• Cricut Joy
• Cricut Joy Smart Vinyl (in your favorite colors)
• Cricut Joy Transfer Tape
• Cricut Joy Smart Iron-On (in your favorite colors)
• Cricut Starter Tool Set
• Cricut EasyPress
• Cricut EasyPress Mat
• White t-shirts
• White bandanas
• Water guns
• Tie dye paint kit (with at least as many colors as you have participants)

Optional accessories that I recommend for the Cricut Joy:

• Cricut Joy Tote
• Cricut Joy Standard Grip Mat
• Cricut Joy Pens

How to customize your family’s gear for a tie dye water gun fight:

Once you connect your new Cricut Joy with your Cricut Design Studio app, you can create quick and easy projects right from your smartphone! For our family tie dye party, we decided to customize shirts, bandanas, and squirt guns with team names.

Each family member chose a special team name. My husband chose “Team Horns” (after his college mascot), our oldest chose “Team Pew Pew,” our youngest was “Team Tiger” (of course), and I was (surprise) “Team Fab.” We used Smart Vinyl in different colors to cut our team names in different fonts to label our squirt guns.

After labeling our squirt guns with vinyl, we cut our team names into Smart Iron-On to make customized white shirts and white bandanas. We all wore white clothes since the goal of the party is to come up with cool tie dye shirts as the result of our game.

Ideas for tie dye – how to play a family squirt gun tie dye game:

• How to determine a winner. In order to see who wins the game, each family member should choose a different color of tie dye to use in their squirt gun. This way, after the battle you can easily tell which color got onto the most shirts!
  • Extra design tip: If your shirts or bandanas get completely covered in paint, remove the vinyl after they dry to reveal your team name in white underneath the paint for a cool effect.

• Set some ground rules. To avoid tantrums or paint getting in places you don’t want, be sure to set some ground rules for the game, including things like starting/pausing, time limits, the physical game boundaries, and avoiding shooting near the face.

• This is a messy game! Only wear clothes that you don’t mind getting tie dye paint on. Even though the plan for the game is to create cool tie dye t-shirts, you’re generally going to get a lot of paint on the rest of your clothes and body, too. But the mess is honestly part of the fun, so embrace it!

• Hose off. After the game, remove your shirts and bandanas and allow them to dry on a trash bag or other plastic covered surface per your tie dye kit directions. Change into swim clothes and keep the party going by hosing off in the backyard for some water fun while you clean the extra tie dye off your body.

What kind of family fun can you create with your Cricut Joy this summer?