T-Shirt painting

I happened to see a woman with a t-shirt on the other day that happened to have this quote on it..."Find Your Tribe; Love Them Hard".  There was also a feather on it.  I tried to get to her and ask where she was able to find this, but I was busy with a customer at the time and I couldn't get to her.  When I got home, I looked on the internet and couldn't find that shirt anywhere. There were others with this quote on it, but none that seemed to appeal to me.  

My mom always said, "Necessity is the mother of invention" so I decided to make my own!  I love it!  I used Sharpie Stained Fabric marker in black for the lettering.  I also used some feather stencils for the images.  The pigment was Liquitex Heavy Body Muted Grey.

This was a first for me, painting on clothing.  I was reluctant to risk ruining any of my tops, so I went into Goodwill and snatched this great tunic t-shirt for under $4.  There was a senior discount that day!!  Yikes.  My first for that, too.

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Pocket Journal

The first of many to come!  This is approximately 5.5 x 5.0.  Small.  I'm not accustomed to working so tiny, but this is fun.  The covers are painted and stenciled canvas, hand painted sticks were used for the spine and side closure with elastic.  Sari ribbons for embellishment.  The credit goes to Rae Massigiman who created this great online class.  I'm a fan.  My next pieces will have the same flavor, but a bit larger in size.  Perhaps serve as a small "watercolor journal" with watercolor paper, arches text wove and other mixed media papers to create on.

Handmade Bali Lanterns

My friend Chuck came by last week and we took the time to assemble our hand painted Bali Lantern.  This is a technique that we learned from the very talented Lisa Engelbrecht.  It's hard to believe she's no longer with us, but believe me, she was with the both of us in spirit last week.  Her DVD entitled Hand Lettering on Fabric; A Bali Lantern Workshop.  It's a great video.  Her enthusiasm and charm is such a warm and welcoming invitation to this project.

We started by painting our muslin fabric.  The size of the lantern is up to your own imagination, but I created mine 8.5 X 11 size, the same as the video instruction.  Because I messed up on one of my panels, my lantern is three sided.  I'll make more of these and post up. The next one will definitely be four sided!

My panel pieces don't have any embellishments.  Lisa's lanterns are full of gorgeous detailing and embellishing with ephemera, doo-dads and hand stitching.  Using gel pens, gold powder, metallic foils and more.  She even cuts windows out of her muslin panels for light to shine through.  I'll play with those things on my next go around!

Making the tassels is great fun and so easy.  Give me a holler if you have any questions on this project.  It's definitely worth the time and effort!