Our Story
It started around our family table.
A simple activity with our grandkids became something we knew we wanted to share with other families.
It Started With Grandparents Camp
For as long as I can remember, some of our favorite family memories have come from simply doing things together.
When our children were growing up, my husband and I were always involved in their activities—church camps, youth camps, sports, family adventures, crafts, and anything else that gave us a reason to spend time together. We learned early on that it usually wasn’t the biggest or most elaborate activity that became the memory. It was the time spent side by side—talking, laughing, creating, and just being together.
When we became grandparents, we wanted to continue that tradition in a special way.
We started something in our family that we call Grandparents Camp. Once a year, all of our grandchildren who are three years old and older come spend a week with us filled with activities, adventures, and plenty of fun. Once they’re old enough to join in, it becomes something they can look forward to coming back to year after year.
No matter what we have planned during the day, I’ve always loved having some kind of hands-on craft or creative activity waiting for us in the evening.
A Simple Idea at the Kitchen Table
While planning one of those camps, we started thinking about something different the kids could make.
Somewhere in the middle of that conversation, we had a simple thought:
“What if we created a black-and-white design on a T-shirt and let the kids color it themselves with fabric markers?”
They wouldn’t just make a picture and set it aside.
They could wear what they created.
We thought it sounded fun, so we created a few designs and tried it with our grandsons.
Then We Saw Their Reaction
Their reaction was more than we expected.
They loved choosing colors and watching their shirts come to life. They were completely engaged in the process, but what really stayed with us was what happened afterward.
They were proud of their shirts.
They wanted to wear them.
They showed them to people and talked about how they had colored them themselves.
Watching their excitement made us realize we had created something much more meaningful than another craft project.
We had created an experience.
That simple evening around our table became the beginning of Get MarkerMade.
The Shirt Was Never the Most Important Part
“The shirt has never really been the most important part to me. The time together is.”
— Stephanie
Why MarkerMade Exists
I started thinking about other parents and grandparents looking for ways to connect with their children. I thought about church groups, camps, teams, classrooms, birthdays, and all the places where kids gather and memories are made. What started as something created for our own grandchildren suddenly felt like something worth sharing with other families.
And that is still at the heart of MarkerMade today.
Of course, we want kids to have fun coloring their shirts. We want them to be excited about choosing their colors, making something that feels completely their own, and proudly wearing the finished result.
Life moves quickly. Children grow up. Grandchildren somehow grow even faster. And sometimes the simplest moments—a few markers spread across a kitchen table, little hands working on a picture, conversations happening while everyone colors—become the memories we treasure most.
Our faith and our family have always reminded us how important that time together really is.
I believe those moments are a gift.
From Our Family to Yours
Get MarkerMade has already been a tremendous blessing in our family, and one of the things I look forward to most is hearing about the memories other families create with theirs.
If one of our shirts gives a parent, grandparent, family, team, or group a reason to sit down together, create something, laugh a little, and walk away with both a shirt and a memory, then we’ve done exactly what we hoped to do.
From our family to yours, thank you for letting MarkerMade be a small part of your story.
— Stephanie