I am excited to announce that I was chosen to be a part of The Crafter’s Workshop design team for the next year! They create amazing stencils and I’m looking forward to working with them and creating some fun projects. Here is the very first one!
I love to doodle (I know…big surprise!). However, I know that freehand doodling can be a bit intimidating for some of you. It is often hard to decide where to start and what to draw. So today I thought I would show you how to add some doodling to a plain white t-shirt with the help of a stencil.
I started off by washing and ironing a simple white t-shirt. I then added a piece of cardboard to the inside of the shirt to catch any bleeding. Using this Celtic Hearts Bits stencil (TCW2032) and neon pink Tumble Dye spray, I added the base design to my shirt. These Tumble Dye paints
come in a variety of colors, including a whole line of neons, so you can pick your favorite.
I started with the middle design and then added two more, one on each side, all along the bottom of the t-shirt. As you can see in the picture, the bottle sputtered a bit but I think that just adds to the handmade quality of the project!
My next step was to take a black Stained by Sharpie fabric marker
and start to fill in some of the sections that had been left by spraying the pink fabric paint through the stencil. I recommend you keep it simple with a few swirls, dots and lines and build from there.
You can get as fancy as you want with the doodling as you go along. I outlined the stencil design and added a few scallops and dots to create a mandala feel to the piece. If you are not sure about how much you want to add, remember that less is better. You can always add more later.
To create some interest around the neck of the t-shirt, I added some of the neon pink spray and then used the stencil as a guide to draw a swirl and diamond shape pattern. I connected the pattern with dots to create a pretty necklace design.
The final step is to heat set your t-shirt. I use either an iron or sometimes I just toss the shirt into the dryer. I love the way this came out and I’m looking forward to wearing it this season!
I hope this gives you some ideas of how to use your stencils as a doodling tool. If you have a favorite stencil that you think would work with this process, leave me a comment below.
I link up at these parties!