SYTYC Week One - I'm Through

So I made it through Dollar Store week at So You Think You're Crafty.  Woo-hoo!  My project, if you didn't guess it, was the Tootsie Pop tote bag.

This was a cool technique and I'm going to do up a tutorial on it when I have a little more time.

This week at SYTYC is Thrift Store Crafts.  Time to vote again!  The poll is in the sidebar on the right side.  Maybe you'll vote for me.  Pin It

So You Think You're Crafty - Dollar Store Week

Hey everyone!  The voting is live at So You Think You're Crafty!  The theme this week is Dollar Store Crafts.  Be sure to go vote for you favorite--maybe it will be mine.

Also, don't forget that we have a giveaway going on.  You can win three cans of Simply Spray Upholstery Fabric Paint--it's a great prize!  Just leave a comment on this post by Friday April 13, 2012.

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Simply Spray Upholstery Spray Coffee Table Bench Project and Giveaway

Good morning!  Welcome to Monday.  I'm sure, like me, you're delighted to be here {eyes rolling}.

Well, even if Monday is not my favorite day, I've got a good post for you today.  I was contacted by Randi at Simply Spray who sent me some of their Upholstery Fabric Paint to try out.**  Have you heard of this stuff?  You can spray paint upholstery!  I didn't really believe it either, but I'm here to tell you this stuff works.  Check out the Simply Spray Facebook page  or their website for all sorts of stuff you can do with it.

Before we get into the tutorial, I'm going to tell you about the giveaway.  Simply Spray is going to send three (3) cans of Upholstery Fabric Paint in the color of your choice to one lucky winner.  All you need to do is leave a comment on this post letting me know what you want to paint.  That's it.  I'm not going to make you do things like tweet and facebook, etc., etc.  Just leave a comment.  You can enter once through Friday, April 13, 2012 at midnight, MST.  A winner will be chosen on Saturday, April 14, 2012 and contacted via email so be sure to leave me contact information!

When Randi first contacted me, I have to say that I didn't have any furniture in need of painting.  However, I did have this coffee table I was thinking of getting rid of.

It occurred to me that it was the perfect size to fit at the end of my bed and it was sturdy enough to be converted into a bench.  Instead of covering up some old upholstery, I thought, why not use the paint to create an upholstery design of my own?

I started with a plain piece of duck cloth.  Duck cloth is like canvas, but a bit lighter weight.  I laid it out on an old sheet and sprayed away.  I actually think the spraying would have worked better if I could have hung the fabric and held the can upright, but all-in-all, I got by okay.  I took two cans of paint to get the coverage and the depth of color I wanted on this piece of cloth that measured about 60 x 30.  That seemed like a lot of paint to me, but the paint does soak into the fabric.

Once dry, I laid on my a stencil and used Simply Spray Stencil Paint (this was also provided to me by the folks at Simply Spray) to add on the design .  This product is quite thick and comes out fast.  I wish I had practiced with it first.  I'm not great with stencils to begin with so I should have known better than to dive right in.  So the product worked great, but there was some operator error. 

I'll spare you a lesson on upholstering the cushion.  You can find dozens of them out there in blogland.  What I think is important for you to know and what I was really interested about with this product is that the fabric stays soft and supple AFTER it is sprayed.  It does not get hard and crunchy like it would if you used a normal paint.  The hand of the fabric does not feel plastic-y or coated in any way.  I was impressed with that.

So, what are the cons of this product?  I think if you were spraying a sofa, it would be a bit spendy as you would need a lot of paint.  Otherwise, Simply Spray Upholstery Fabric Paint does exactly what it is advertised to do and it does it well.  So, before you donate that perfectly good footstool or side chair, give this product a shot.

And don't forget to leave a comment to try to win three (3) cans of the color of your choice.  You can't beat that with a stick!

**In other words, if I'm not making this abundantly clear, this is a sponsored post! Pin It

Craft Fail? Art Gallery Tote Bag

Well, I'm just not sure that this project worked out.  I had these amateur paintings that I had bought at thrift stores.  I had the idea of making a tote bag out of them.  This is side A:

One side of my Art Gallery Tote Bag turned out fine.

Not too bad.  But this is side B:

The other side, not so much.

There's the problem.  Apparently, the older the canvas, the more likely the paint is to crack and flake off.  Or, perhaps, it was the type of paint.  I'm no expert on these things.  Anyhow, it all happened when I inside-outed the bag at the very end.

Still, I think the idea is a sound one and I'm not giving up on the concept just yet.  In a nutshell, here's what I did.  I started with a thrift store painting that was on a stretched canvas.

I loved this canvas when I saw it at Goodwill.  I thought it would be great on a tote bag.

I pulled the canvas off the stretcher and squared it up, I then sewed it to my tote bag fabric.  I used a plain duck cloth.

At this point, things are still going pretty smoothly.

When you are sewing through this, you want to use an appropriate needle.  I used a Jeans Needle because, essentially, I was sewing through two layers of canvas so I needed something heavy duty.

Use an appropriate needle.

I sewed around the painting using one of the decorative stitches on my machine.  A zigzag stitch would work just as well.

Sewing the canvas to the tote bag fabric.

I do still like the idea of this project so I might give it another chance.  Nothing ventured nothing gained. 

Any ideas what I could do differently to prevent the cracking? Pin It