written by marieann

I made this painted portrait for my bf’s mom a few years ago. She has a modern edgy style and she loved it. It’s much easier than it looks so I decided to give you a tutorial on how to do this.

Materials:
Posterboard
Paint

Tools:
Paintbrush
Computer w/Adobe Photoshop
Projector (either a teacher’s projector or a tv projector)
A good photograph of your subject that clearly shows the subject’s face

Instructions:
1. Open the image in Photoshop. Crop the photo so that it’s close on the subject’s face.
2. Go to Filter -> Artistic -> Blur.

3. Adjust the cutout settings until you get as blocky of image as you can while still clearly highlighting the features.

4. Click okay. Then go to Image -> Adjustments -> Color Balance

5. Adjust the color balance (you can do at the shadow, midtones, and highlight levels) until you like the color result that you have.

6. And your image is done! I only know how to use a tv projector so that’s how the instructions will proceed. But I think you could use a school teacher one too.

7. Connect your projector to your computer. Point the projector at the wall and move it around until your image fills the posterboard (tape the posterboard to the wall).

8. Trace the lines blocking the color splotches.

9. Paint — just like painting by numbers. Be sure to mix up a lot of a particular shade to be sure you have enough.

Here’s a WIP of me making the original painting…

written by admin

I made this bow for a birthday present for my boyfriend. I wrapped his present in regular paper then painted the bow with acrylics afterwards. This is really useful if you want to mail a present to someone because there’s no risk of the bow being smashed. This is one of the most realistic paintings I’ve ever done and I’m not a good enough painter to explain to you how to do it so if you can’t paint, have at it.

written by marieann

I had admired handbound journals I’ve seen around the internet for ages but I’ve always thought it was too difficult a craft to pick up. Thanks to this amazing tutorial, I learned I was wrong. I whipped up ten of these little books in a couple of days (one is not photographed). I paired plain papers with every cool paper I had been hoarding without a purpose in mind (like pages from old children’s books, maps, watercolor reprints, etc.). The covers are made from fabric so you are limited only by your stash.

I also made matching pen/cil holders for these like these.

written by marieann

I think this shirt is adorable! Give it to a friend to tell her how much you love her, in a funny way.

There are stenciling tutorials (that make it easy, here and here.

Click to download/print full pattern.

written by marieann

Caro and I went to the Tegan and Sara concert and Northern State was the opening band. This is the name of their new album and they were wearing t-shirts to advertise. We thought that it was a really amusing phrase so we made our own.

There are stenciling tutorials (that make it easy, here and here.

Click on the image to view/download the large image. Just print on regular paper to make the stencil.

written by marieann

My guy co-worker requested a Hello Kitty t-shirt. I knew he’d wear it to be ironic but I just couldn’t bear to make him a little girl Hello Kitty so I made it “manly” with the pirate take. It’s perfect for any gender who loves HK’s style but wants to be unique.  Also, this post marks our return to regular weekly tutorial posting — there are many more projects to come!

See my previous posts, here, for general stenciling tips and here, for bridge building instructions.

Click on the pattern to view/print the full size stencil (you may need to re-size larger to cover your shirt as you wish). Only cut out the solid lines and the full crossbones.

written by threadslinger

The month of June was quite possibly one of the most stressful months of my life. But, I did find some time to do some friend crafting. Friend crafting is the best, its when you get together with a bunch of fellow crafters and do an interactive craft. My best girl friends from college and I drew names and then painted pots for the person that we drew names for. (Most of the fun of this craft was guessing who the pot was for.) We also used modge podge and other things to switch it up, but it was a really neat project to do and super easy.

Materials needed

Paint (acrylic works fine)
Paint brushes
modge podge
magazines
lots of creativity

Directions

This craft doesn’t have a lot of “instructions” since it relies on you being creative, but I will give you a tip. You should paint your pot the base color first and allow that paint to dry before you do the decorating part. Also, make sure that you don’t leave any space unturned. You can leave sweet messages, like this one, in the pot for the person to see later and feel all warm inside.

written by marieann

I made this stencil from a photograph of one of my favorite spots in Honolulu. This hula girl was on the construction signs across from my work and I loved seeing her every day. See my previous posts, here, for general stenciling tips and here for bridge building instructions. She’s got a very detailed skirt but she’s really an easier stencil than most because she’s just one solid cutout.

Click on the pattern to view/print the full size stencil:

written by marieann

My boyfriend treated me to orchestra seats (center, fourth row) for the Mary Poppins musical on Broadway for Valentines’ Day. It was fantastic. I cried and laughed and really had a great time. He offered to buy me a shirt but they were so pricey. And not as cool as I could make. So, after some craftster inspiration, I made my own.

Materials
Acrylic paint
Fabric medium
T-shirt to paint on

Tools
Xacto knife
Packaging tape
Printer
Stencil brush (that is, the kind with very short bristles, shaped like a circle; it is made for this very purpose)
Very thin brush

Instructions/Tips for Stenciling:
1. These are the stencil patterns. Print them on regular paper. (Click to view the large size)

2. Put one layer of packaging tape over the entire design. This is so that the paper doesn’t tear and so that you can reuse the stencil without tearing. Some people stencil in different ways but this is my favorite way (that’s why I’m giving it as my tip, hehe).
3. Cut out the design (leaving bridges in the letters, as explained in this post). I find that its easiest to cut out small things by making very tiny straight lines. Don’t try to curve the Xacto blade as it doesn’t turn out very accurate or smooth. But if you just make a small straight cut every chance you have to do so, it’s easier.
4. Tape the stencil to the shirt. I don’t use sticky adhesive spray but that is because I do dry brush stenciling. I put a rolled up piece of tape under the island still attached between her body and outstretched carpet bag holding hand to be sure that piece also stayed flat.
5. Mix one half paint with one half fabric medium. Dip the brush lightly into the paint. THEN, and this is CRITICAL, stamp out the brush on something else until there is barely any paint at all left on the brush.

See my paint holder on the upper right, and on the lower left, my paint dobber? Seriously, dob nearly all the paint off, this is why it is called a dry brushing technique.

6. Stamp onto the shirt. Because you barely have any paint on your brush, you’ll have to dip it back into the paint multiple times. But this is the way that you ensure you don’t spill outside the stencil.

7. Do that everywhere. You’ll probably dip and stamp out at least 10 to 15 times to paint everything. Leave the stencil stuck to the shirt for about five minutes to let the paint set up a little bit more before you remove the stencil.

8. Use your small paint brush to fill in any bridges or to smooth any rough edges.

9. This final tip is from other people and I have decided to start trying it. After the shirt is completely dry, layer a towel on top of the design and iron it. This will ensure that the paint stays attached and vibrant longer. I don’t usually have that problem with shirts unless they’ve been washed dozens of times but it’s definitely worth the extra effort.

written by marieann

I am so into chocolate and teal these days. I found this awesome skinny dresser on the street near my house and I had to have it (I love NYC for awesome free finds). I took it home and after a couple of months of slowly working on this and planning, I refinished it. I am very happy with it and learned some very important lessons. This dresser is pretty self-explanatory but I have some tips on how to make it (and things NOT to do).

Supplies
Furniture to refinish
1 quart of interior paint (I chose semi-gloss, but more on the choice of paint later)
Scrapbook papers
1 qt of ACRYLIC polyurethane (do not get the plain kind because that has an amber tint to it and will change the color of your paint/papers)

Tools
Fine grade sand paper/block
Paint brush
Allene’s glue (or some other TACKY glue)
Circle cutter (in the scrapbooking section of stores)

Instructions
1. If you have any pulls or hardware on the furniture, remove all of them.

2. Sand the piece with a soft grain paper. I have a few hints here. First, if you are painting with a darker color, your wood does NOT have to be completely raw again (assuming you’re dealing with a pre-painted piece of furniture; if you are painting over a piece that had previously been stained you DO have to sand it totally clean). Also, do NOT use a really coarse sandpaper as it will put mini scratches into your wood.

3. Wipe the whole thing down with a wet rag (or those awesome little sawdust picker upers).

4. Paint it! This is probably obvious but in case it’s not, paint with the grain of the wood and also be sure that you smooth everything. You do NOT want bubbles of paint (check the edges of drawers, etc. because paint tends to pool there). DOUBLE coat it.

5. Here’s the fun part. Cut out lots of different shapes from your scrapbook paper. Glue them to your furniture using Allene’s glue. Be sure that you press all the edges down. It is normal that your paper might have very tiny ripples in it because of the moisture in the glue. This will go away.

6. After everything is dried solid (I would wait over night), coat everything in THREE layers of the polyurethane. Be sure to read the directions and also do it in a ventilated area.

7. After you let it dry very hard over night, screw back in the pulls.

8. An alternative fixture note: I had originally planned to paint the shapes onto my furniture after the chocolate house paint dried. However, I found that my acrylic paints didn’t stick to the chocolate paint. Because I used semi-gloss paint, it just slid off. This looked horrible and this is why I chose the paper (which ultimately I liked much better). If you would like to paint on your details then you must use a matt house paint. This is fine because you can buy the acrylic polyurethane in gloss and make that effect if you like it.