Creative Tuesday ~ Make: Doodle Artwork Tea Towels
Lately, I’ve been on this tangent, trying to incorporate as many beautifully kid-crafted things into my home decor as possible. I sincerely believe that our homes become more lovely when we welcome the work of our children into them and we also encourage our budding artists to express themselves creatively.
The idea that I’m sharing with you today was inspired by our very own Jill who sent me an email awhile ago saying she loved crafts made from kids’ artwork. So today we’re doing just that, transferring children’s dreamy doodles onto tea towels and I think the results are lovely enough to give out as gifts.
Ready to make some? Great!
Here’s what you will need:
Freezer Paper
Iron and Ironing Board
Solid Colored Tea Towel
Fabric Paint
Paintbrush
Scissors
Markers
Step 1:
With the wax side facing down have your little doodler sketch something. The simpler the better so if your artist tends to add lost of detail, ask them to just draw a few basic shapes like a star or hearts or even squares and triangles. You can have them doodle several little sketches and then choose the one that would most easily cut-out since you will be making a stencil out of your Freezer Paper.
Cut-out Your Stencil and Iron it On Cutting-out the stencil: once the artwork is complete, cut it out with some sharp scissors to form your stencil.
Note: If the doodled design is too detailed for your cutting-hand to follow with scissors, you can just cut around the basic gist of the design and don’t worry if you overlap on a line. As long as you can follow the basic design, you’ll see your finished result will be such a likeness to the sketch it will turn out beautifully. To form the hollowed out lines once you cut along the lines of a sketch, first cut along the line all the way around. Once you’ve cut the basic shape out along the lines, cut again doing your best to remove the actual line. This ”hollowed-out” area will be the place where you will apply paint. As an alternative, you can cut around the lines using the lines as a guide then “hollow-out” above or below the first cut. You can see in my stencil below that some lines are still visible and I just used them as a basic guide. Iron on your stencil: using the dry setting on your iron, iron the stencil wax side down. Be sure to press well along the edges to ensure a good seal for your stencil.
Step 4:
Pour a little fabric paint in a shallow container and have your little crafter paint onto the stencil. Be sure to place a newspaper or paper bag under the fabric (then remove promptly when finished painting) so that it doesn’t leak through onto anything. Paint all inside the hollowed-out part of the stencil until you’ve covered the stencil openings and you’e finished.
There you have it! A beautiful doodle made into a beautiful towel!
Thanks Caroline! I’m so excited to see you turn this idea into one even more kid focused! It’s a work of art!
These would make wonderful Mother’s Day gifts too.
Live Well
