How to: Make a Keepsake Silhouette Portrait

Here's a handmade and personalized gift for Grandparent's Day (the first Sunday after Labor Day -- for 2013, it's on September 8!), or you can save it for Mother's or Father's Day. Just snap a photo of your subject in profile, gather up the rest of the materials, and you can make and assemble this in minutes. Start a series by making a new image each year so you can see the growth of your child!

What You Need:
-Aleene's Tacky Dot Runner adhesive 

-photo frame
-photo of your subject in profile to fit your frame
(it doesn't need to be crisp or particularly high quality)
-artists tape
-craft knife and cutting mat
-black paper (tip: if you don't have any,
create and print out a sheet of black paper on your computer)
-decorative paper (for background--check out your
wrapping paper stash for good options)
-scrap paper (for banner--I found a colorful envelope
from a holiday card in the recycling bin)
-thin-tipped pen

Line up your photo on top of the black paper so the bottom edge aligns with one of the edges of the black paper. Tape both layers at the corners to the cutting mat.

Cutting through both layers, carefully trace the subject's profile (head and torso) with the blade of your craft knife. Exaggerate flyaway hairs for a playful flourish.

Gently separate the photo and the black silhouette beneath it from their respective backgrounds. Hold the black silhouette against different decorative background papers to see what works. Set aside the silhouette.

Carefully remove the glass from the frame and use it as a template to cut the decorative background paper to size.

Press the adhesive along the back of the silhouette, paying careful attention to the edges. (You can also use glue, but the dry adhesive roller is so tidy and contained!) Center and press it onto the background paper, aligning the bottom edges. 

Use the craft knife to cut a small banner from the scrap paper, and use the pen to write the child's name, initials, birthday, or the date or occasion of the photo. Press adhesive along the back of the banner and then place it at the bottom of the silhouette.

Reassemble the frame, placing your silhouette art in place of a photo. Timeless!

How to: Paint a Cityscape with Tape

Though my motivation was nursery decor (inspired particularly by my son's love for taxis and trucks -- hey, we live in Brooklyn!), this technique could easily be applied to any shapes that benefit from a grid-like treatment -- like robots, or alphabet tiles, or basic shapes. I was inspired by the geometry of the landscape where we live, but your cityscape could be urban or rural (or suburban, for that matter!). The tape technique works like any resist--I love the batik-like result, and the effect, as I mentioned, could be applied to any subject matter, to suit any room in the house!

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Altered Tie-Dye T-shirt Challenge Featuring Megan of Generation T

While most fringe T-shirts have the fringe tailing off the bottom, I went with horizontal fringe on this one. The side fringe gives nice movement and flow to the tee, and it's a great project for making a slightly-too-big T-shirt into a just-right T-shirt. Add a touch of ombre tie-dye, and it's a perfect summertime staple. Throw it over your bathing suit, and head beachward!

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Hand-Stamped T-shirt Totebag (with Fruit!)

Move over potato stamping! There are some other fruits and veggies that want in on the action. Printing with fruits and veggies is nothing new -- but when applied to a grocery or green market bag, you get a tote that forecasts what should go inside (apples, onions, peppers, celery, corn...). Not to mention, you can construct this sturdy bag from an old T-shirt without sewing--a single safety pin is the closest you'll get to any specialty tools. I worked out the bag particulars while I was in residency at a workshop up in NH (I've since discovered a great tutorial for a very similar technique by Lee Meredith over at Leethal.net, which I imagine works particularly well for larger T-shirts, where the bottom bunching can be redistributed between several gathers). And I was inspired to use an apple after seeing Kayte Terry's lovely apple-printed tote (I wish my apple had had a stem on it!).

What You Need:
-Plain old T-shirt (I used a kid's size 6-8 for this particular one)
-Tulip Dimensional Paint or Tulip Soft Fabric Paint Tubes
-Plastic lid to use as a paint palette
-Half an apple (or bell pepper, or onion, or...) to use as a stamp
-Fabric scissors
-Safety pin
-Scrap paper

Insert sheets of scrap paper between the layers of the T-shirt so the colors won't bleed through. Squeeze a fairly generous amount of fabric paint onto your paint palette. Place the apple half flat side into the paint and slide it around to make sure it's covered. Make a test print on a scrap piece of paper or the sleeve of the T-shirt (which will be cut off) before printing on your shirt.

Then print away, starting at the bottom of the tee and working your way up to the shoulders. I re-inked between each pressing of the apple.

Reapply fabric paint to your palette as needed. When the front of the T-shirt is complete, let it dry partially (about 30 mins), then flip it over (onto a protective surface, in case not all the glue is dry) and stamp the back!

Hang the T-shirt to let it dry completely (and decide whether the T-shirt wants to stay a T-shirt now that it's been revived with color!). 

If you choose to continue on to make the tote bag....

Cut off the sleeves of the T-shirt, just inside the shoulder seams. Then cut out the neckband in a gentle arc, going through both layers.

Cut off one of the T-shirt sleeve hems, just outside the seam (so that no stitching remains on the strip that you cut off), and cut through the loop to make a strip. Stretch it out, so it curls in on itself and becomes cord-like. Set it aside.

Use the tips of your scissors to snip a small hole through just the inside of the bottom hem of the T-shirt.

Attach the safety pin to one end of the cord and thread it through the hole in the hem.

Inch it through, making sure you hold onto the non-safety-pinned end so it doesn't get lost in the hem casing.

Pull both ends even, remove, the safety pin, and...

...pull tight the drawstring, so that the bottom hem gathers completely. Then tie it in a bow or a double knot.

Now here's to crumpling it up, stuffing it in your back pocket or purse, and hitting the farmer's market! See, now you can FILL it with fruits and veggies.

 Don't forget to share your collected loot!

And stay tuned: Another veggie-printed, no-sew tote bag tutorial is coming your way over on Generation T next week!

How to: Tie-Dye Your Life (Starting with Your Kids)

I always bring a craft project when I visit my niece, Dorothy. One time it was Embroidery Day, another it was Felt Cat Ear Day...this time it was Tie-Day Day! Our goal, which we nobly chose to accept: to tie-dye an entire wardrobe. As you can see, we got pretty darn close...

So, despite all my T-shirt proclivities, I have to confess I actually have never tie-dyed in my adult life. I don't know what made me think that it would be so hard, but honestly, the only thing that could have made this easier was a nice picnic table outside to craft on (and that's just me asking for a luxurious upgrade). 

The takeway: Tie-dye. Is. So. Easy. 

I would go so far as to say it's foolproof! Next time you have a family reunion, skip ordering the printed T-shirts: Set up a tie-dye station for all the siblings and cousins--by morning, you'll have a full set of T-shirts perfect for a very colorful family portrait!

What You Need:
-Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye Kit (color: "Vibrant" -- includes rubber bands, bottles, dyes, two pairs of plastic gloves, and an instruction/inspiration sheet)
-Cotton things to dye: We picked T-shirts (in two sizes, for the two cousins), tights, and socks
-plastic table cloth or plastic garbage bag to cover your work surface
-paper towels
-plastic cling wrap or zip-lock bags

Note: If you're working with new T-shirts, pre-wash and dry them to make sure any shrinking that's going to happen has happened!

To start with, my niece picked the "Swirl" design from the instruction sheet that comes with the kit. Following the instructions, she pinched the fabric at the center of the T-shirt and twisted the T-shirt until she had a round little, swirled T-shirt "biscuit."

We wrapped the T-shirt swirl with 3 rubber bands (also included in the kit), and dampened it under running water, squeezing out the excess water. We cut open a plastic garbage bag to protect the floor and, armed with plenty of paper towels, we ended up preparing 4 T-shirts, 1 pair of tights, and 1 pair of socks to try out 5 different tie-dye styles that were described in the kit (we even did our own variation on one -- diagonal stripes!).

The powder dye comes already in the squeeze bottles; we filled the rest of the bottle with water up to the thick black line, put the top on tightly, and shook each bottle until the dye was mixed.

Dorothy squeezed the dyes onto the T-shirt segments (delineated by the rubber bands) one color and one segment at a time.

We wrapped each project in plastic cling wrap to sit overnight. Dorothy tie-dyed 2 kid-sized T-shirts and the pair of socks, I tackled the tights and a toddler-sized T-shirt, and Uncle Luke even got in on the action with another toddler-sized T-shirt. Note: The package says you can get up to 9 garments, but if you're crafting with kids, make sure to estimate for fewer, since they tend to be a bit generous when squeezing out the dye (in addition to our 7 garments, we had the most beautiful paper towels!).

We let the dye soak in overnight (6-8 hours minimum), but we had a busy day, so we left them wrapped up for longer. We unwrapped each project over the sink, and rinsed and squeezed out as much excess dye as possible. Then we peeled off the rubber bands, and gently shook out our masterpieces!

Dorothy was so excited/giddy/proud of the results of her T-shirt that she photo-bombed the picture! Since we had a whole batch of garments with the same color scheme, we tossed them all in the washing machine and dryer together to finish the process. After her cousin, Niko, woke up from his nap, it was time to try on the matching Swirl design tie-dye T-shirts!

Because we were running low on dye by the time I did the tights, they're a little more pastel-colored in the back than the T-shirts, but the violet sunbursts on the front are perfect little rosettes (says Dorothy).

And because it didn't make sense to layer the socks over the tights (though she was tempted!) or layer the second T-shirts, we're saving the Bullseye T-shirt the Diagonal Stripes T-shirt and the Stripes Socks tie-dyes from our tie-dye extravaganza for tomorrow's coordinating cousin outfits.

Did I mention tie-dye is great for obscuring grass stains? An added bonus, for sure! There's definitely more tie-dye to come this summer -- and quite likely in my size this time.