Photo by Alisa Burke, http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/

Painted Onesie Tutorial

Supplies:

* Blank Onesie
* Fabric Paint Cannon
* Tulip Soft Fabric Paint
* Tulip Slick Fabric Paint, in black for outlining
* Sponge brush
* Cardboard
* Stencils and Stamps

First I laid the onesie out on my piece of cardboard (beer box, haha) and traced around it. I cut that out and placed the onesie on it, careful not to stretch it out to much. I put a little squirt of soft paint into the cannon, added some water and shook it up really well. The more water you add the more subtle your background will be. I love how it gives it a watercolor affect. I quickly framed where I wanted the background to be with cardboard to protect the rest of the fabric. Then I used the cannon and lightly misted the area.

I picked up a pack of animal stencils at Michaels too, so cute. I just placed the stencil where I wanted it and used the sponge brush to dab a light amount of paint inside. Then I used the black paint and outlined the animal – I chose this black because of the nice point it has for application built in. The letters were done with large foam stamps, I used the same soft paint and sponge brush to apply paint to them.

And that’s it, Ta-da! SO easy. I waited 24 hours and washed them inside out to set the paint and make sure it didn’t bleed. The two above were test runs. I have a new little buddy who had a birthday and wanted to make him something special, I think it turned out pretty cute. Yay for babies!

I was worried for a little bit until I remembered why I started putting my work online in the first place. I do it for people to see, hopefully enjoy or at least find useful, and if I’m lucky enough they’ll share it within their own little network or community. Over the last few months Pinterest has referred four times as much traffic to my website than any other. That’s a whole lot of people that wouldn’t have seen my work otherwise. I understand the concern, especially from photographers. Pinterest’s Terms of Use are definitely sketchy. I might be eating my words one day, but for now I trust Pinterest – they haven’t done anything wrong as far as I can tell. And as an artist, I welcome you to pin my work – I would think that a lot of other artists feel the same way.

If you don’t want your images shared, Pinterest has made it easy to disable pinning from your site by adding meta name="pinterest" content="nopin" to your header. You can also go into Flickr and turn off sharing easily.

Most importantly – before I repin I always click through to learn more about an artist, find more information and make sure it’s linked correctly – what about you?

When done right, with the proper source link, Pinterest is an amazing tool and sharing platform. I’ve found great tutorials, discovered new artists and photographers and your pins keep me constantly inspired.

Some interesting reading on the subject:
- Pinterest, Inspiration, Copying and the Whole Ethics Thing on Craftypod
- Prying Control from Your Cold, Cramped Hands by Kim Werker

So, the past few nights I turned my big nice, cozy craftroom into half craft / half playroom. Our house isn’t the most child friendly and it’s really nice having another room that I can safely plop her on the ground to roam around. And really, just look at this face!! I’m happy to share.

Before:

After:

Sample usage: