Crafternoon Goodies…
So, Sunday was not all about cupcakes and magic bars. We were actually gathering because we had so much fun at Amanda’s baby shower this fall stenciling the onesies that we had decided we needed to do it again for ourselves come spring. Scheduling ended up being a bit problematic because I was sick on the original date. But Amanda, Hannah and Linsey were able to make it and there is talk of another gathering at a later date for some more stenciling fun.
Linsey went to some work to hook everyone up with a wholesale source for shirts and bags. There were no shirts in women’s plus sizes available so I got my shirts elsewhere, but I took advantage of the bags because one can never have too many bags, right? Especially when they are well under $10 each! :-) Hannah painted two shirts (no pictures as she took them home right away), Amanda painted three, and Linsey painted two onesies, a bag, and a tank top.
I, on the other hand went a little crazy. I had some stencils prepped and ready and had images ready for those that weren’t yet traced. And, since we gathered at my house I kept at it into the evening and even did another project on Monday. I turned out three tops (two tees and a tank, shown at the top of the post), and four bags. There were a few things I learned in the process as well…
The cupcake bag was a two-stencil process. Overall I’m quite happy with it, but it was prone to some bleeding of the black because the freezer paper did not adhere well to the already painted surface. I also found the bags in general to be a bit difficult to get a good adhesion to. The messenger bag was especially tough because the flap was multi-layered, but with the style of the bag having the frayed edges the slightly worn looking stripes turned out okay. In fact, the messenger bag is my favorite. It is a good thing too as it took a large chunk of my Monday to do. There was the layout on the computer and the designing of the icons I used to balance the monograms and then the painting was tedious because of how closely I spaced the stripes. But it was all worth it if you ask me!
I think my favorite part was seeing the image selection everyone made. Most of my imagery came from a sketchbook that I scanned in and then adapted to suit stenciling (little or no completely enclosed areas). I did use some clip-art for the tank top, but I even altered that and added in a bird from my sketchbook. The spindle and the metallic flower were made from photos I took. Amanda chose her imagery from some of my clip art books, Hannah recreated an old worn-out t-shirt and used a clip art image. Linsey took her inspiration from traditional stencils. It was a blast seeing everything come together and to discuss color options and such.
