A Follow-up from Teresa (Crafty Tips)

When I posted the blog-style birthday tribute for my mom last Tuesday (check it out HERE), I got an overwhelmingly lovely response from the comments and e-mails I received, and it turns out that you all think my mom is as cool as I think she is (though I’m not surprised, I had a feeling you were smart people, you GPP readers).   I decided to get a follow-up from her —  specifically, I wanted to get some more details on some of her crafty projects, and hopefully make them accessible to all of you.  After all, Christmas is really soon and a lot of her ideas and projects would translate brilliantly into handmade, cost-effective gifts.

So, instead of me trying to summarize her response, I decided just to directly quote her here, copy-and-paste-from-the-e-mail-she-sent-me style, and I have also augmented some of her responses with clarification and elaboration of my own (in italics) per her request.  Hope these tips help!

First, I want to start with a project that I actually forgot to mention in the previous post, but which I love all the same.  If you’re an HGTV fan, you may be familiar with David Bromstad, the first winner of HGTV’s Design Star, and also the host of Color Splash: Miami.  This interior designer, who is also an accomplished painter and muralist, loves to create original art for each room project he works on, and they often take on an abstract style.  Here’s an example of one of his paintings (found here):

by David Bromstad

Using a similar technique, my mom created her own version:

By Teresa Hyke Foster

And here’s a some close-up:

David Bromstad inspired painting, close-up

Yeah, I like hers more.

So, here’s a step-by-step directly from her to help you achieve a similar effect (my comments in italics):

“The David Bromstad- inspired painting is done just by lightly wetting the canvas (with a spray bottle of water), dripping craft acrylic paint — from the little bottles, not the tubes — onto the canvas, and then using a spray bottle to spray the wet paint (no brush is needed, and DO NOT use oil paint as you will have a hot mess).  The paint will start dripping.  Add more paint, and allow to drip until the desired effect is achieved.  Very simple!”

Thanks, mom!

About the Preservation Hall painting, my mom says: “I wanted to paint you and Josh a picture that would remind you of your honeymoon and your love of NOLA. With Preservation Hall, I Googled a publicity photo, printed it out, and drew the design on the canvas and painted it. If transferring a picture is out of someone’s ability, then a picture could be blown up and transferred by using graphite paper and tracing over the design.”

(Oooh, graphite paper.  That’d be the option I would have to take.)

And here’s a picture, just to remind you:

Preservation Hall painting

And… last but not least the Statue of Liberty pillow:

Statue of Liberty pillow

This is an example of me assuming a project was done one way, when really it was a bit more complicated (albeit still totally accessible to the less artistic like myself).

Here’s what Teresa says about it: “When I painted the Statue of Liberty pillow, I Googled Peter Maxx (my family has one of his prints in their home). I drew a black and white version on paper with a black sharpie, then transferred the design with a vanishing pen to the fabric (when the ink gets wet, the marks vanish — those can be found here for under $3). I held the design that I had drawn with a sharpie up to the light (I taped it to the kitchen window and transferred the design to the fabric with the vanishing pen). If you have a light box that would work also (who has a light box, mom?).  Then I just painted the picture (with black silk screen paint), let it dry over night, heat set it with an iron, and then sewed the pillow. You could also use regular black fabric paint.”

(Doesn’t she make it sound so easy?)

Hope these tips help and inspire you!  If you have any more questions for Teresa/my mom, let me know and I’ll pass those on to her and try to get them answered!

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