Potato Stamping

 

When I filled my $5.00 bag with creative possibilities, I included a sheer blouse. Usually, sheer blouses make me think of baby boomer ladies; wearing blouses without camisoles. A white bra worn underneath a thin white shirt is VERY apparent. I also think of that trend in the 1990's, when it was cool to wear black bras underneath sheer black tops. Neither of these looks appeal to me. However, there was something about that blouse that spoke to me. It said, "You want this, this looks like something 'Aria' would wear."

Once the blouse was home with me, I had to decide what to do with it. I immediately envisioned skulls. However, I soon realized that the shirt was too pretty to destroy with paint; the paint would bleed on the it and be too heavy for the light fabric. I made the choice to get a cotton tank to wear underneath, and paint skulls on that, instead.



This past Friday, I was at the mall. As I walked into a clothing store I saw skulls staring back at me from all directions. The last thing that I want is to make something too trendy. So, rather than make a skull stamp that looked like a true artist's rendering of a skull, I decided to make a stamp of a more primitive skull. I looked through photos that I took of colonial graves and I found a skull on a stone that I liked. I made a stamp, in the shape of a skull, by carving a potato. I combined acrylic craft paint with fabric paint medium to use as the "ink." Then, I stamped away!

I did sandwich a newspaper between the layers of fabric, in case the paint bled through. Once the paint was dry, I heat set it with a warm iron. I really like that I used two different metallic paints (bronze and silver) and I layered the paints on some of the skulls. Each skull looks unique and slightly alien-like.

 

Here is the tank top paired with the blouse. I think this will be fun with a skirt or tweed trousers. The skulls make the blouse look a lot less stuffy. The blouse was, most certainly, intended to be worn with a camisole underneath. However, sometimes a girl just wants to have fun.

My next project will be a skirt. However, there are things that I wish to blog about, other than just crafts. I think that I might continue to blog my craft projects every few days, but also write about other things in between. I don't intend to have this blog be all about my crafts; it's just what I've been working on the most, as of late. However, I did just finish watching the final season of the show "The Adventures of Merlin," I have many thoughts about this. I'll keep that majority of those thoughts to myself, but I will write about the show.. among other things, next time. Until then~ Toodahloo!