Tool for making Tutu's

I haven't posted in a long while. . . Life happened and all of a sudden, it's been months. . Well, I thought I would share a small hack for making tutus.

There are numerous videos about how to make the tutus themselves, so I won't go into that. But I found myself frustrated with using a chair or my leg to keep the weaved headbands still. So, I came up with this concoction.

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a 1/2" x 36" poplar square sticks. It was a while ago but I think it was like $2. They look like this. . .

I cut a piece just about 10" and then the remaining length I just cut in half, well, I eyeballed it and failed miserably, but intended to cut it in half lol. I found 4 spare nails in my random hardware collection and did this. . . 

Pardon my awful workmanship, but I just nailed this directly into my work table. . If you don't have a work table to do that on, I suppose you could just nail it into a small 2x4 and clamp it on to your work space. The middle piece acts as a stopper when in use. I wanted to be able to "Put it away" somehow so I made sure to only have one nail in each. When I'm done, I just turn the side pieces down. Like this. . .

This has made tutu making so easy for me. It holds the elastic or headband in place so I can walk away and leave it where it is for a minute and then come back and pick up where I left off. The piece that I cut at 10" is a nice size for a small child tutu. I made a few adult ones and just added a small stopper and another leg to the right so I could do bigger ones. Like this. .

When I'm done, it folds away perfectly. Like this. . .

So, that's it. Super cheap and easy!

Playing with physics

So, here is a fun little project I did this week.

(Please forgive my lighting. I have yet to set up a proper place to photograph my products.) 

My intentions here were to make this sign so that theoretically, if you were to move the gear under the 'T' to make it straight, it would correct the other letters as well.

I cut out the letters, robot, and gears with my silhouette. The letters are vinyl, but I stenciled the robot and gears on either side of the name.

I also played with letter shading to create that 3d effect.

With this concept, there are so many things you can come up with to make a fun and unique sign or name plaque. With all the sign makers out there, find a way to make yours stand out. It doesn't have to be realistic either. But, sometimes just adding some dimension goes a long way with a project.

Thanks for reading!

Enhancing letters

Have you ever been working on a project with text and/or image, such as a wood sign, and just when you think you are finished, you look at it and think it needs something else but can't figure out what? Sometimes, just shading the letters or image a little bit can bump the project to finished status.

Shading is simple, just remember to go darker to create a shadow. Realistic shadows are going to be gray of sorts. But sometimes it's cool to add a color for a little something extra. I will include pictures of each letter of the alphabet to give different effects. I will show just a plain letter, and then the letter with an enhancement below to give you some ideas. Keep this in mind: it's art. . . It doesn't have to be realistic. It will also be different from artist to artist to give your product something to stand out from the rest. 

I cut my letters from vinyl using my silhouette cameo. It's just a basic font on a basic piece of card stock paper for the purpose of this tutorial. The shading is done with just a tiny bit of acrylic paint and small brush. I played a little with color. 

ABC- Shaded very simple. Just to raise it from the surface a little bit. The 'C' is a little more messy than the 'A' is. It still has the same effect but adds just a tiny bit of character. In order for this to be most effective, shade all parts you would see if there was a 3d letter sitting in front of you. If you look at the 'A', notice all surfaces on the right side are shaded, and all surfaces on the top side are shaded. 

DEF- Just playing here. Still has that raised look but isn't so realistic looking. Just fun. I'm not too thrilled with the 'D' but that's how it turned out on a whim lol. 

GHI- Not realistic but has that 3d feel to it. The dark outline of the 'shadow' makes it look almost sketched. Good for a project that would be given to kids or teachers? 

JKL- Not realistic but still brings it out of the page a little. Adds just enough color to not be overbearing. 

MNO- So, I got a little carried away with these ones lol. I added white paint to the letters themselves and played with shading my blues and yellows together. I personally like a lot of texture on my projects. I love to blend colors and make it so the viewer wants to touch it. That's what happened here lol. I had somewhat of a space/sky background in mind. 

PQR- Not so much raised off the paper but it helps break up the light background from the light letter. 

STU-Sometimes I get bored with straight up vinyl. So, I added a tiny bit of paint and smudged it with my finger to break up the white. What's also fun is adding just a tiny bit of another color. Yellow, which is blues compliment, would be fun here. 

VWX-Same as pqr concept. Just helping separate the white letters and lighter background. Kind of has a rustic feel to it. 

YZ- I dabbed the brush here. I think it looks like it would feel fuzzy. I like to create surfaces that look like they would feel like something if you touched it but it all feels the same. 

See, adding some color and shading to letters can make them pop out. There are endless possibilities here. Play and have fun with it! You will be surprised with what you can accomplish and how different it will look with a small personal touch. 

Also, you can use this method like a reverse stencil. Just make sure to put color around the whole thing, or at least enough to tell what the letter is and remove the vinyl after ;) 

Staining wood with acrylic paint

When you go to buy wood stain for a project, the colors to choose from are pretty much the same no matter which store you go to. I don't know about you, but I am bored with the traditional wood colors: Oak. Chestnut. Beach. Blah blah blah. . Sure, you can paint wood any color you want, but you lose the gorgeous wood grain. I wanted both the grain, and the color. So, I started playing and figured out a way to make my own stain. . And this is how it came out.

 I didn't think about blogging when I made this, so I apologize for not having pictures of each step, but I used two colors here to create a cool night sky effect in the background and used a stencil to make the image and letters. The base stain was a lime green and then I added streaks of dark blue.

Here is a close up of the grain and a textured moon. 

You can create any color stain you would like to using this method. But, before you begin, please read the whole process because there are some hidden tips that wouldn't make sense if I wrote them right here. 

Supplies  

1. Acrylic paint 

2. Water

3. Mixing container

4. Paint brush - The size depends on your project. You don't want to use a tiny brush. For this particular project, I used a size 8 rounded artist brush 

5. Rag to wipe excess stain (if need be) 

6. Wood project to stain- I recommend some scrap wood to do sample tests on 

As with anything you purchase, you get what you pay for. A better quality paint will give you better quality results. I highly recommend spending the few bucks to get professional grade artist paint. A tiny bit of professional acrylic paint will get you a LONG way. Utilize your hobby store coupons to buy good paint and invest in a good paint brush(es). 

Making your stain

        It is important that you make enough to cover your whole project with the same "batch". If you run out, it will be hard to get the same mixture to cover the remainder of your project evenly with the rest of it. 

Grab your paint, mixing container with water in it, and your brush. 

Add a small amount of paint to your water. Acrylic paints vary in viscosity so just use your judgement. The more paint you use, the more opaque the stain will be and the less grain you will see. A good mix, from my experience, is a mix of about 15% paint and 85% water. 

Mix it thoroughly in your water by dabbing your brush to the bottom of the container. This will ensure you get any chunks of paint off your brush and mixed well.

Instead of brushing on and wiping off, use your brush to "paint" it on and work the stain into the wood. I am going to do a small test on my scrap and see how it looks.

My lighting is kind of off in this picture but from here, I think it looks pretty good. There are a bunch of really small cracks starting to show up. I didn't see them before but I kind of like it!

If you like how your test looks, continue on to finish your project.

A few little things to keep in mind. . .

~ The whole thing doesn't have to be one color! Use a stencil and "stain" images or designs into the background.
~If you do layer your stains. Start with lighter colors first.
~ A technique I use- I stain the whole thing and then paint an opaque border with the paint I used to make the stain.
~ Let it dry completely before adding any vinyl

I hope this helps you broaden your horizons! 

Making screen prints with vinyl

Here is a step by step tutorial on how I make my own screen stencils. Just a quick warning, they aren't pretty and they aren't going to last forever but they are awesome for smaller jobs and CHEAP. The best thing I find these useful for is to screen print my logo on my items.

Before you start getting out your supplies and all, I just want to say that I have only made small stencils with this method. The ones I have been making are about 5"x6" in size. My logo screen is about 2"x3". Not saying bigger ones can't be made like this, but I haven't done it. Also, these aren't going to be your picture perfect images. The lines won't be as crisp as you would get with applying vinyl. It looks really cool though. Definitely gives your images character.

List of supplies: 

*Sheer 

      -I bought a $10 sheer curtain at Target. I had tried tulle, but that failed miserably because the holes are way too big. Whatever sheer you get, just make sure it's not too stretchy. You can make a ton of stencils with one curtain. 

*Heat transfer vinyl

      -I made some with 631 and 651 vinyl but I personally prefer the heat transfer. I have found it adheres much stronger to the sheer and won't come off easily when you rinse off the stencil. 

*Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

*Popsicle sticks

     -I bought a box of 1000 of these bad boys at Hobby Lobby for around $10. These are used to basically make the 'frame' of the stencil. If you don't have popsicle sticks or an alternative, you CAN theoretically just make the stencil with no frame and tape it to whatever it is you are stenciling. I prefer to have the popsicle sticks because when it's time to print, all you have to do is press on the frame and it will keep the screen as close to your surface as possible. 

*Iron and ironing board OR a heat press if you're fancy. 

*Cutting machine or just be really good at cutting heat transfer vinyl by hand. I for one need the machine. 

*Small squeegee or flat edge to scrape the ink over the stencil. Some people use an old credit card or gift card that is no longer active. 

*Piece of scrap fabric to place between the iron and the htv. 

Creating your design-

       *Whatever method you use to cut with, make sure you add at least an inch or so border on all four sides of the design so you have plenty of vinyl on the sides. This is important. 

       *Normally when cutting htv, you need to mirror your image. DO NOT MIRROR when making these stencils with HTV. However, if you would like to use regular adhesive vinyl, you WILL need to mirror the image. So, HTV=no mirror, Adhesive=mirror. 

       *Be selective in your designs for these stencils. You don't want something that is very difficult to weed with a ton of really small pieces. You can get some pretty small detail in these prints but you don't want something that is ridiculously detailed. Use your judgment and play around with it. These are cheap, so don't be afraid to experiment with it. You want a square or rectangle over all though.  

       *Cut the design, and weed the areas you want the ink/paint to go through. You should end up with something like this (note-I already ironed it to the sheer in this photo. I will go over that later, this is just so you have a reference to what the image should look like with the border that you need): 

                       

*Once you have cut out and weeded your design, cut a piece of sheer that is slightly bigger than your design and iron it if it's wrinkled. It doesn't have to be cut perfectly, no one will be judging how nicely your sheer is cut lol but you do want it flat with no creases. The only thing you do want to be aware of is the direction of the sheer fibers. You want to get them pretty straight and squared up with your design. This is important because if you put the HTV at an angle, you will stretch the design when you scrape the ink across and it will distort the image. 

*Now you want to grab that piece of scrap fabric and turn on your heat source (if it's not on already). Put your sheer on the ironing board and make sure it's smooth but don't pull it hard to flatten it. Place the vinyl side of your image onto the sheer (plastic side up) and make sure the sheer hasn't buckled underneath, place your scrap fabric on top of that. 

*Very gently, set the iron on top of the scrap fabric. I start from the bottom and do one, gentle, upward pass with my iron on the hottest setting. I wait a second or two and gently peel off the plastic. The vinyl should stick to the sheer. Peel slowly and carefully. To make sure there is a secure bond, I put the scrap fabric back on the image and iron it again. Remove the scrap fabric and you should have a nice adhesion. Your settings will be different than mine so you may have to adjust accordingly. 

*Let it cool completely before moving onto the next step. 

*Once your HTV has cooled, you can either trim up the edges of the stencil and use it as so. Or, you can create a 'frame' with Popsicle sticks to the sides to stabilize the stencil. That will be the next step.

*Adding Popsicle sticks. When you add these, you want to make sure the vinyl is on the bottom side of your stencil. Just put a line of hot glue on the Popsicle stick and attach the stick to all four edges as shown below:

        -As you can see, the corners buckle a little bit. I take a few sticks and cut them at angles to create braces to get rid of that and completely flatten the stencil. Like this:

*After you add the braces to the corners, your stencil should be nice and tight. Then I just trim the sheer from the edge and your stencil is ready to go.

*If you don't want to add the sticks to the sides, you can still use the stencil. But you will want to tape all for sides really well to your project. That would work if you are transferring your image onto a shirt or piece of fabric. There are a lot of videos on how to do the actual screen printing. Like how to secure your fabric and such.

I make journals and sketchbooks. So I put my design onto paper that I will be covering the book with. Here is a picture of that process.

 I just used craft paint here. You don't want paint that is too runny (this one was just a test and ran a little bit but you get the idea). Screen printing ink works best, but play around and find a medium that you are comfortable with. I recommend doing some test images to begin. It takes a little bit to get your technique down so the paint doesn't bleed underneath. Just practice and play. If you notice the paint gets spread over the whole thing. That's why the inch or so border is important.

*When you are finished rinse the stencil right away. You want to be gentle when washing these off. Don't be afraid of it, but don't be rough.  I just rinse under water and gently rub the paint away. Hold the screen up to the light and make sure there isn't any paint stuck in between the fibers of the sheer. Pay attention to the edges of the vinyl. Paint likes to hide there. Especially if it comes to a point. After I rinse them, I lay them on a junky towel or rag on a flat surface and pat it dry as best I can and then just let it air dry the rest of the way. Once you get the hang of it, you can do several items with the same stencil without rinsing it in between. I would practice on scrap doing multiple prints with the same stencil though.

So, there it is. These stencils have worked great for me. They are cheap and easy, and as long as you take care of them, they should last a while and save you time, vinyl, and money.