DIY // A MONSTER OF AN IDEA...

So after my ok success with the first round of t-shirt painting I decided to give it another go. Mainly becasue a) I enjoy it, b) this time Stan could join in, and c) I'm desperately trying to stop myself buying all the kiddo clothes I'd really like which is far too expensive for a girl on a freelance budget.

So here is what I did. I bought a very cheap (but organic, oh yes, a girl still gotta have some principles!) t-shirt I liked from H&M for approx a fiver. I already had the paint left over form my last attempt and so the project was definitely a winner in the budget area. While Stan napped I started the main bit of the design. I am such a control freak there was no way I was going to let him totally freestyle. I didn't plan it out, which maybe was a mistake but I had a rough idea in my head of what it might look like, and hey I just rolled with it.

I washed and ironed the t-shirt to get any residue of the manufacturing process off it and to make sure it wasn't going to shrink. I cut an old piece of cardboard the shape of the t-shirt and popped it inside so any paint wouldn't seep through onto the back. Then I painted on eyes and legs of the monster. I then waited for these to dry and then ironed them to 'set' them. I didn't want Stan to paint over the eyes so I cut out masking tape to protect them as well as a simple template for him to go crazy within. (I used newsprint, but any paper would do the trick.) Then I let him loose. Well, in the sense he's a control freak like his mother, so loose isn't that loose at all. In fact it was joyful controlled jabbing of paint brush in the selected area. That's my boy!

He did pretty well filling in the shape. I helped out on a few bits to tidy up any missed bits at the end, but really he did most of it. I waited for the paint to fully dry, which did take an hour or so and then ironed again over newsprint to set the paint. The good thing is if you were to get any paint elsewhere you just don't iron that bit and it should come out in the wash. I peeled off the eyes and template and was fairly happy with the result except I thought he looked odd without any facial features, or arms. Hmmmm, maybe planning my design would have been better! I decided to add some arms, and a nose in the green paint I already had and felt much better about it. In hindsight now I think I would have cut out a template in the masking tape for a simple nose and mouth, I reckon that would be great. The simple strong black and white works well for me, It would be easy to do lots of these and just use different coloured t-shirts, or baby bodies etc.

It washed up pretty well as you can see from the pic above and below. Although it is supposed to be a cheap option it is REALLY addictive! I already want to do another to see if I can improve on it as a character, which would totally defeat the idea of me saving money!
Oh well....

UPDATE: a chance to win one of five copies of 'The Girl with the Bird's Nest Hair' here.....go on, enter! You never know your luck!

T SHIRT PAINTING {part two}

Ok so I finally got round to posting up round two of my t-shirt painting. Part one is here. This time I used the black fabric paint and just some paint brushes. I had washed and then ironed the t-shirt to give a smooth surface to paint on, and also so it would not shrink any further and distort the final image. The paint went on pretty well and I wanted to be able to see the brush marks a bit so I was happy enough with the mark making it produced. I opted for a fairly simple image to begin with - I think the more graphic black and white images stand out and look less 'home made'!

I just drew it on freehand rather than try and trace anything. I learned from my previous mistake with the green paint and made sure there were more layers of newsprint underneath so the ink did not seep through. All in all I was quite happy with the end result. This one washed up much better and Stanley seemed happy to wear it, declaring "Meeow!" when he saw it!

If you do any t-shirt printing I'd love to see the end result. Please link back in the comments section so we can all see. Fun things to do on rainy and cold afternoons!

T-SHIRT PAINTING {part one}

Ok so really I would love to buy pretty much everything from Bobo choses, Mini Rodini, Gardener and the Gang and Nununu to name but a few!! But, I simply do not have the funds to do so at the moment. So instead, I thought I'd use my creative skills and make Stanley some more interesting t-shirts myself...

First up is the grey t-shirt and some bright green ink. I followed the very good instructions on my clever friends youtube channel here to create a Rorschach type image. (If you have time, watch his other clips, they are brilliant, inspiring and funny!)

Step one, iron the t-shirt with a firm crease down the middle and cut the newsprint to fit inside snuggly with a crease that matches up with the one on the t-shirt.

Then pour on the green fabric paint on one side only.

Fold the t-shirt in half and press down firmly.

Peel back to reveal your design!

It's quite addictive as you never know what exactly you are going to get. If I hadn't got other plans for the white one then I'd have ended up doing that one too! I think in trying to take pictures at the same time the ink seeped a bit too much into the paper and made taking it out tricky. I got some ink in a few places I didn't want, however nothing that I'm too worried about for a first attempt!

Then iron over the top of more newsprint to set the ink and then wash. Voila!

I'm a leeeeeeeeeetle bit disappointed that the ink has faded from the wash. Perhaps I didn't set it properly with the iron. I still like the effect, but I did love it more when it was super bright. Still it was a good experiment and one I intend on repeating. All together it cost me about £5 which is a bargain for a one off design! I think it looks like a set of lungs now, at first I thought butterfly, but now I look at it on him I'm thinking lungs....what do you see?!

I think this would be a really fun thing to do with kids a bit older as they would be able to pour the paint on themselves. Maybe next year with Stanley....

{part two with the white t-shirt and a different design is later this week...}