Reverse Glass Painting for Summer

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reverse-glass-painting

reverse-glass-painting
There’s nothing more fun than a good summer craft session. I have heard for a while about “reverse glass painting” but hadn’t tried it for myself, and I loved the results I was seeing. One of my fave things to draw are cute girly girls, it has always been that way since I was myself a little girly girl. LOL. I decided to create some true summer vibes in this painting…BEACH PLEASE!

Supplies you need:
– Acrylic paints in various colors (including sea colors & skin tone color)
– Various-sized paint brushes
– 8×10 frame with glass
– 8×10 drawing of your choice; I drew a girl on a seascape, but you could do anything you wanted
– Hairdryer
– Paint palette

Follow along on the video below or my step by step directions as described below the vid!

Reverse Glass Painting DIY
1. Draw a design on an 8×10 piece of paper that you would like to transfer onto glass. If you aren’t super confident about your drawing skills, copy a coloring book page!
2. Using a black acrylic-based paint marker, place your pattern under the glass from your frame and trace the design. Let dry thoroughly.
3. Use your desired paint colors to fill in between your marker lines. Paint two to three coats, letting dry in between coats. If you want a looser, more transparent look, only do one coat of paint.
4. Let your paint dry thoroughly. If you need to, use a hair dryer to speed up the process.
5. Wipe down any paint from the edges of your frame and place back inside frame. Now wait for the compliments.

I made this project for my friends at Darby Smart. I create cute and snappy DIY videos for them in the app and there’s videos by all kinds of different creators that will get your ideas flowing. You can download the Darby app here.

Fall Shimmer Glitter Pumpkin Tutorial

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This pumpkin project is one of those that will last you from September to Thanksgiving!  The colors and glitter shimmer just scream fall and all it takes are some of your favorite puffy paint colors and a steady hand.

What you need for this project:
– Pumpkins (any size will do)
– Tulip 3D Fabric Paints (gold metallic, gold glitter, pomegranate, copper, and red glitter)
– Foam Brush
– Plate or palette
– Soft cloth

Start off by squeezing some of the Tulip 3D paint in metallic gold onto the pumpkin and stem. Rub it off with a soft cloth. This will give the entire pumpkin a pretty metallic sheen.

Now make a flower shape on top  of the pumpkin using your Tulip 3D Glitter paint.

In between each “petal” squeeze out another petal

Repeat this over the entire pumpkin. This will create a cool “scalloped” effect on the surface.

For added visual drama, I added vertical and horizontal paint strips inside each petal.

For the red mini pumpkin, I painted it with a coat of copper 3D paint mixed with pomegranate 3D paint. I love adding metallics to add sheen to my paint colors!

I then covered the surface with red glitter 3D paint leaves.  The funny thing is that this pumpkin actually looks like a pomegranate too me (which means my fiance will like it…he’s obsessed with pomegranates!)

Here’s some photos of them when they dried. They turned out so shimmery!

Don’t forget to glitter your stems so they match the rest of the pumpkin!

I love the way the glitter dries!

This is so easy and has an amazing impact on display.  I think the tone on tone effect really works here!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Quick and Easy Double Rainbow Shirt

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finished double rainbow shirt

I did a video yesterday with William, Pattie, and Scott based on the Double Rainbow video that’s been all over the net. Anyway, I wanted to share the magic of creation with you guys on a tutorial here on the blog as well. Haha. Here’s the video for you to view in all its glory…

Admittedly, the shirt in the video didn’t turn out the way I had wanted (I had to nail it on one shirt in one take, Wah Wahhhhhhh). I like the top rainbow, but the bottom rainbow got a little too squished. Below, I redid the shirt on a slightly smaller shirt (a cute baby t-shirt I will prob. give William’s niece Sophie), but the technique remains the same. So many of my DIY projects are trial and error. It’s a fun project even if it is a little messy and outside the lines a little…the fun is really in the experience and the creativity! It doesn’t get more creative than Double Rainbows!!!

And now onto the step by step photo tutorial…

inserting wax paper

1. Insert a sheet of wax or freezer paper inside the shirt. For the freezer paper, you may want to iron it into place so it doesn’t shift around during your project.

fold in half first

2. Fold shirt in half to make a crease and mark. Press firmly to make the crease. This crease will come in handy in a bit.

scribbles lined up

3. Line up your colors of fabric paint in ROYGBIV order. I used Scribbles 3D Paint for this project and tapped them a few times on the table to remove any air bubbles. I’ve always loved Scribbles since I was a kid!

paint half a rainbow

4. Now start painting your rainbows. I created half rainbow arches until they met the crease and I painted clouds on the side in black. For best results, make sure you don’t leave a big bead of paint at the center point. Try to keep your hand steady with an even flow of paint for the entire painting process as you use the different the paints.

press lightly

5. Now fold your shirt in half at the crease. Very lightly press in place. Don’t press on top of crease too much (this is what happened to my shirt in the video, it splooged in the center rainbow in the video). Pat gently all areas.

open up

6. Now here comes the fun/scary part…open up your design to reveal your pressed rainbow.

fixing mistakes

7. Do any necessary touch ups or corrections you want to do. Now wear and rock those rainbows out!

And because I just can’t resist, the Double Rainbow Song that has been stuck in my head for days!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Hipstamatic Lightbox

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Finished Lightbox

I’m guest blogging all this week at Curbly! Hop on over there and see my latest feature…a Hipstamatic Lightbox! I planned on doing a DIY for father’s day called “Pop Art” featuring a photo of my daddy, but it was way to involved for me to explain how to do it. I did complete it, I just didn’t have it in me to explain step by step how to do it. Writing step by steps for Photoshop is really hard and you have to be really thorough.

pop art

Hope you enjoy my Curbly post!!

Until next time Swellions!!

Alexa

Cool News!

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photo in a photo frame tutorial

All this week, I’ll be exclusively blogging over at one of my favorite DIY/Lifestyle sites…Curbly! I’ll be linking each day this week to the project here on my site, so you can still keep up with me and the DIY projects and inspiration posts I have going on there!

Today’s project is called Photo in a Photo Frame Tutorial. It features a photo of my beautiful friend Silvia. So hop on over and view the how to!!!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Graffiti Glam Earrings

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Graffiti Glam earrings

I’ve been going nuts as of late making these cute little rosettes. I blogged about them last week when I wrote about using the rosettes for rings.

I decided to up the ante and add a little bling to the rosettes and a little more grunge. I originally had wanted to keep the canvas white, but after making the rosette, I realized that the canvas was no longer white and had gotten a bit dirty with glueing and my hands. Anyway, that’s what gave me the idea to spray them.

So, here’s the instructions to make them. Scroll down to see more of my designs for earrings using this technique at the bottom of this post.

Graffiti Glam Earrings

Supplies
– White canvas or white fabric
– Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue
– Tulip® Fabric Spray Paint (I used black, orange, and fuchsia for mine)
– Fabric Fusion Adhesive
– Scissors
– Headpins
– Pliers
– Embellishments: Tulip® Glam-it-Up Crystals, Studs, various rhinestones, etc.

Instructions:
Steps 1

1. Cut a 1″ wide x 12″ long strip of canvas.
2. Apply Tacky Glue to top of strip and fold over.
3. Once folded, apply another bead of glue, then fold over, as seen in photos above.

steps 2

4.Start twisting the canvas around the glued center.
5. As you twist, glue as you wrap the canvas around. After a couple of twirls around, you will see the rosette starting to take shape.
6. Leave a tail of about an inch when you get close to the end of the canvas strip. Glue the tail in place at the back and secure. Let dry.

Steps 3

7. Spray the rosette with the Fabric Spray Paint. Just a couple pumps of each color will saturate the rose with color.
8. Flip over the rosette and spray the back as well. Also cut and spray 2 small cut out canvas circles.
9. Using Fabric Fusion, glue the embellishments into place as desired.
10. Using your pliers, create a double loop with your headpin (it will resemble an 8). Place under the cutout circle and glue in place with Fabric Fusion. Let dry.
11. Open earring wire and attach to looped headpin. And you’re finished!

Here’s me wearing my finished earrings…

Wearing Graffiti Glam Earrings

And here are some of my other designs…I actually think I may like them better than the ones I did above, but the cool thing is that once you learn a technique/process that you love, in general, your work does get better over time. I created one of these pairs using a plain red strip of fabric and the other was used with a strip of fabric from a tie dye shirt!

Blue earring detail

Red earring detail

Hope you enjoyed this fun tutorial!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Super Simple Fontalicious Wall Art

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super simple fontalicious wall art

If anyone asked me what my personal style was, I would say you could sum it up in the photo above. I LOVE fonts, bold&graphic art, stripes, and pops of color. I had been eying the wrapping paper the project is sitting on above for quite a while before I purchased it at Michaels. It would make fab wallpaper or shelf liner. Or you could do as I did and use it for a photography backdrop. I love it so much.

Anyway, to the project at hand. I wanted to create a project using these two plaques that I purchased at Target for $1.28 each a few months back. They weren’t my style, but I knew I could make other cool wall art of them. They are a hard/faux wood surface and you can find them just about anywhere. If you can’t find them at Target, I suggest looking at a TJ Maxx, Ross, or Marshalls. They have a lot of cheap surfaces that you can modify in different shapes and sizes.

wall art before

Here’s supplies instructions on how to make your own fontalicious wall art!

Super Simple Fontalicious Wall Art

Supplies
– wall plaques (I used ones approx. 8″x8″ so that I could print it out on my printer)
– Aleene’s Tacky Spray
– White cardstock
– Black spray paint
– ruler
– X-acto knife and mat
– Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator

Instructions

1. Spray paint plaque the same consistent color (I chose black) so that it covers image and leaves you with a clean slate for your project.

2. Measure your plaque size and make a document size in your Photoshop or Illustrator document that size. If you are doing this in Photoshop, make sure to set it up to be 300 dpi.

3. Find a font you like (I suggest a Sans Serif, it is easier and more linear looking) and type your letter…as you can see, I chose my initials. Duplicate that letter and flip upside down and place next to it, spacing apart as you desire. Use your align and spacing tools that come with your program if you need to. Keep copying and pasting these two letters to fill your document size. It’s ok if the fonts go off the page, I actually thought it looked stronger being cropped this way.

4. Pick one of the letters out and colorize it in your desired color. Print out your creation, making sure to either make a faint outline around the document page or adding crop marks to your printing settings. Let dry

5. Cut paper according to outline/crop marks. Spray back of print with Tacky Spray. Position and smooth out onto plaque. Now it’s ready for hanging.

Here’s a little detail of the finished art.
fontalicious wall art detail

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Refashioned Tie Dye T-shirt necklace

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tie dye t-shirt necklace

It’s not very often that I find time to make a cool tutorial I find online, but I knew when I saw this one on the ISLY blog for a Refashioned t-shirt Jersey Necklace, I just had to make it! Mine is a little different than hers, being that I used an extra large shirt instead of a XXL or XXXL men’s shirt. It is just longer and doesn’t wrap around as much.

Also, I used a tie dye shirt from work (it’s bright and colorful thanks to Tulip® One Step Fashion Dye™. It makes for a nice variation, I think, because the braid looks variegated. Check out her post…there are great photos and instructions…I struggle with sewing and the visuals really helped me understand the process!

I’m happy with how it turned out. Now, to find a shirt to go with it! That’s where I struggle, mixing and matching looks to create a whole outfit!

Anyway, here’s a closer detail…

detail

Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa