Label/Journaling | Lil Blue Boo

Process: Frida Kahlo Button Art

September 5, 2011 By Ashley 62 Comments

8 hours of labor, 6 tubes of industrial glue, and over 2,000 buttons:

I put together a time lapse video of the entire process as well as close up photos of button detail. Hope you enjoy it! It was fun to make!

Process: Frida Kahlo Button Art Time Lapse from Ashley Hackshaw on Vimeo.

Are you a Frida fan? Here are some other related posts:

Filed Under: Home Decor, Painting Tagged With: art, button, DIY, frida kahlo, home decor

Artwork and Journaling

July 12, 2011 By Lisa 1 Comment

Filed Under:

Frida Folk Art Tee (with download)

August 10, 2010 By Ashley 9 Comments

Frida was on this weekend….I can’t even count the number of times I’ve watched that movie. I made this easy tee for Boo using the Frida Folk Art I painted a while back (see painting tutorial here). I wanted the t-shirt image to resemble a Mexican retablo and I love how it turned out!

Below is my image that you are welcome to download and make something for yourself! If your browser has trouble loading it just click the link below:
FridaFolkArt

The easiest way to transfer the image to fabric is to print it out onto transfer paper using your inkjet printer. I use Dharma Trading’s Super Soft Transfer Paper. I always get questions about what type of ink I use: regular everyday printer ink!

I ironed the transfer onto a plain white shirt:

The finished transfer:

Using this amazing Alexander Henry Mini Calaveras fabric…..

…I cut 3/4″ strips for a ruffle.

To create the ruffle I sewed straight down the middle of the fabric…..

….while gently holding my thread spool to create some tension. The strips ruffle right up.

The finished ruffle:

I pinned the ruffle around the Frida image and sewed it onto the shirt:

The finished image and ruffle:

Check out my other transfer tutorials for more details:
Pirate Matryoshka
Vintage Harvest Crate Labels/Patches
The Candy Dress

If you haven’t read the book Frida, I highly recommend it….or at least rent the movie. She’s one of my favorite artists. I was able to see many of her paintings in person in London at the Tate in June 2005. Among those included in the exhibition: The Bus, My Dress Hangs There, The Broken Column, and The Two Fridas. I spent 6 hours in the exhibition and didn’t want it to end.

Here are a few pages from my art journals:

Lyrics from the song Burn it Blue, sung by Lila Downs in the movie Frida. The words are stamped onto a collage I made from rice paper and a skeleton photo.

The above quote is from one of Frida’s journals: “I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return.”

Filed Under: Children's Clothes, Downloads, Things I've Made, Transfers

My Work Space (Updated Photos!)

March 19, 2010 By Ashley 30 Comments

I always love seeing where people work. It always gives a little more insight into their personality I think. After a little organization I took some updated photos of where I work everyday. Below is my smaller studio where I do small sewing projects and painting. All my non-knit fabric is stored on one side of the studio with my sewing machine. My large easel has a painting that will probably never be finished!

This side of my smaller studio is where I paint smaller paintings. You can see some close up photos in the last post I did on my studio.

Order or chaos? Who knows…..

Journals, mixed media books, gel mediums and solvents:

Finished paintings I just don’t know what to do with yet:

My second studio is a casita (guest house) outside but while Boo is young I’ve moved into our dining room so I can work and play with her at the same time. As you walk in our house, you see through a niche cutout (past the golf weather vane I took from my childhood home), my larger sewing studio/dining room:

Here is where I sew Lil Blue Boo dresses. From my chair I can see up into the living room and keep tabs on Boo!

A large rack of yummy finished dresses:

I have a dining room table and a conference room table I borrowed from my husband’s office. One is the sewing/cutting table…..the other is a shipping area. I can’t wait to reclaim my dining room at the end of this summer!

A big box of thread:

Bins of scrap knits too small to fold (every once in a while I sort them by color….but it doesn’t last long):

Our butler’s pantry is stocked with knits and wine……unlikely combo, right?!

Reclaimed knit waiting to be picked:

Stacks of new and thrifted tees as well as knit yardage:

And here is what is all looks like after a day of work:

Right now the casita is a storage room for canvases, fabric, baby stuff to sort through…..and paintings that will never have a place like this one:

I have a lot of work to do next fall cleaning out for my move! There’s my tour! Any insights?

Filed Under: Life, Work Spaces

The World Traveler: Vintage Travel Patches (Tutorial)

February 19, 2010 By Ashley 12 Comments

I’ve was blessed as a young girl to be able to travel with my family, though I always felt like we could have been in a National Lampoon movie with all our adventures. Most of our trips revolved around golf courses with my dad and sister’s golf. One of my most vivid memories growing up is my brother saying “what a tourist trap” about every place we went. We all loved the “tourist traps” though and I would collect little things from each place for my art journals. My one regret: the Loch Ness Monster Visitor Center in Scotland. Picture this: my sad, longing face pressed against the car window as my dad sped straight through the town of Loch Ness because he and my sister were late for a tee time (I was 20 years old).

Anyways, in the spirit of the world traveler, I made patches to resemble those vintage luggage stickers that covered suitcases long ago……

…..and covered this little “Tourist Trap” dress in them. My favorite part of the dress is the “touristy” knit print for the skirt…..Clark Griswold would be proud!

I can’t get enough of these clipart book/CD sets. The one I used for this project is “Old-Time Label Art” and it is full of vintage travel labels, crate labels, etc…..all high resolution and royalty-free:

First, I printed out the images on transfer paper. (I’ve said it before, but I am now officially hooked on Dharma Trading’s Super Soft Transfer Paper.) Just make sure to print your images in reverse! Note: the fine lines you see in the bottom images are from my dying ink-jet printer….RIP printer.

Then I ironed the images onto a plain white knit. Note: The secret to the transfer process is ironing on a hard surface….using all of your body weight (i.e. don’t use an ironing board!)

I cut out each image and used fusible web to create an “iron-on” patch (you can actually IRON on top of this brand of transfer paper!).

I stitched around each patch to secure to the dress.

Before sewing the dress together I washed all the pieces again to lightly fray the edges of the patches to give them more of a vintage feel.

The main part of the dress was a travel shirt that read “Havana Cuba.”

Patches from all over the world!

Even one that reads “See America First”……which we plan to do as a family this summer in the west!

Filed Under: Applique, Children's Clothes, Collecting, LBB Clothing, Recycled, Sewing, Things I've Made, Tutorial

Distressed Folk Art Painting (A Tutorial)

September 4, 2009 By Ashley 18 Comments

This tutorial was featured on U-Create last week. I had the hardest time narrowing down what type of tutorial I wanted to put together for my “guest appearance” but I had recently gauged interest on my blog by posting a painting I had done using the same process as I outline below and thought this would be the perfect opportunity!

So here it is:

How To Make a Distressed Folk Art Painting*

*If you’ve ever been scared to paint before, here is your chance….anyone can do this. Acrylic paint is VERY forgiving. If you mess up, just paint over it!

I love Mexican Folk Art and I was inspired by this Frida-themed fabric for my painting:

I’m a little obsessed with Frida Kahlo. (I was lucky enough to see most of her works in person at the Tate in London a few years ago. They had to kick me out at closing! Did you know Madonna owns Frida’s famous “My Birth” painting? I wonder where she hangs that?) Frida and her intellectual circle brought Mexican folk art to the forefront in the early 1900′s. Frida surrounded herself with paper-mache figures, traditional weavings, brightly colored embroidery, ribbons etc.

I’ve worked bright colors and paper mache into my own painting process to reflect the Mexican folk art theme. You can use the following steps to make your own.

Materials needed:

Canvas

Newsprint or phone book pages

Matte medium or glue

White gesso or white acrylic paint

Acrylic paint in several colors

Crackle finish kit (any brand)

Acrylic gloss varnish

Sandpaper or an electric sander

Step 1: I took a small 5 x 7 canvas and covered it with matte medium (I prefer Liquitex Matte Medium …I save my 40% off art store coupons JUST for this stuff!). You could also substitute watered down glue for this step. Once the canvas was covered with a generous amount of medium I took small sections of old phone book pages and adhered them using the excess medium. You may have to add more medium as you go. It is similar to making a paper-mache layer (you can use newsprint as well, I just prefer the way the small font looks from the phone book pages).

*I use matte medium to make my art journal pages as well. It leaves a matte stiff texture when dry.

Step 2: Once the paper layer was completely dry, I used white gesso to cover the canvas and make it an opaque white. This prepares the surfaces for paint.

I let this layer dry completely.

Step 3: I don’t use any fancy kind of paint. I actually prefer the small bottles of acrylic craft paints like the one shown below because they run about $1 a bottle and you can get so many colors (I am lazy when it comes to mixing custom colors).

I painted my entire canvas a base color of “Patina.”

Step 4: I sketched my Frida image on to the canvas. If you aren’t comfortable drawing your image you can always print one out and trace it using graphite paper.

Step 5: I blocked my colors in using the craft paints. I use a generous amount of paint in this step and did several coats (you will be sanding the layers down later in the process so you want to make sure to get enough paint on the canvas).

Step 6: I took a regular wall stencil and used it to draw some “flourishes” around the canvas. I even drew them onto the sides by wrapping the stencil around. Then I blocked these shapes in with paint.

Step 7: I took a small paint brush and painted little dots around all the shapes to add some more detail (again using a generous amount of paint).

Let your painting dry for a while to ensure your layers are completely dry. This may take several hours.

Step 8: I took my small mouse sander (you can do this by hand with a sanding block as well) and carefully sanded off portions of the painting. Places where your paper layer has wrinkles will sand off easily and give a very random “wear” to your painting.

I sanded the edges as well paying attention to where an old painting would get the most wear.

Here is what my painting looked like at this stage:

Step 9: Take some dark brown paint and water it down a little to make a thin glaze (I use Golden Fluid Acrylics because they thin well and are a nice glaze layer, but any paint will work).

Spread the brown glaze layer making sure to get it into the places where the paper is showing through. The paper layer will soak this glaze up and turn a brownish color. Take a cloth or paper towel and wipe off the excess paint. If it dries too fast just wet your canvas a little and try to wipe it off again. Let this layer dry.

Step 10: You can get a small “fragile” cracklekit like the one below at your art or craft supply. It is two step process and you can follow the directions on the bottle…..

…..but basically you are going to cover your canvas with a thin layer of the “step 1″ bottle, let it dry until it is clear and then repeat with the “step 2″ bottle. As it dries, tiny hairline “crackle” will begin to form.

Step 11: Once the crackle layer is dry, I sanded the painting again to give it some extra distressing. Wipe any dust off with a damp cloth or paper towel.

Step 12: I spread another layer of brown glaze making sure to work it into the cracks and then wiped off the excess. You may want to do this several times until you achieve the “aging” effect you like.

Step 13: The last thing I did was brush a thin gloss layer over the top for a slight sheen. I like the Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish shown below because it dries almost instantly and isn’t too shiny.
Here is the finished painting: old and decrepit-looking. Now it looks like it has an interesting past life!