Heart Blotto T-shirts and {The Heart Project}

Remember our Heart Blotto Valentines? We made some lovely ones in this post last week! Well, now we have created some Beautiful Heart Blotto T-shirts based on this same idea! Take a look.

To create some of your own Heart Blotto T-shirts you need:

Fabric paint (we used.... Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint )

paper in heart shapes

plenty of newspaper

a t-shirt or two

First,  cut the size of heart you want from some fairly sturdy paper.  Fold the heart in half and get your fabric paint and newspaper ready.  Also have your t-shirt(s) ready with a piece of cardboard or newspaper (or cardboard) inside the shirt so the paint won't leak to the other side.

Paint on one side of the heart with the fabric paint.  

Then close up the painted paper heart so that it transfers to the other side. Rub the paper.  You may want to put newspaper on top just in case the paint squirts out. (I forgot to take a picture of the paper folded....so here it is before it is folded!)

Then open up the heart and you have a beautiful Heart Blotto. If there is too much paint (as you can see there is!)  print one heart on  a piece of newspaper so some will transfer off.

Now take the heart and carefully flip it to where you want it on your t-shirt!

Then take a piece of clean newspaper and put it on top while smoothing over the painted heart blotto.

***Our newspaper had paint on it so we got mess around the heart....oops! Carefully remove the painted heart from the shirt too!

Since we had this (oops!), I improvised and painted around the heart! C loved it ! This was a good lesson in how mistakes can makes things more beautiful or how they can force you to be more creative! Here is C's shirt again.

Here is my shirt without the Lovely design around it.

Which heart design do you prefer? 

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NEWS FLASH: the heart project

Speaking of Hearts.... my friend Jamie from hands on: as we grow is having a fundraiser for the American Heart Association called The Heart Project with 70  bloggers (including me) involved.  Bloggers from around the world have submitted over 100 Creative "Heart" projects for a book called: the heart book.  It is available in e-book format as well as in print form to purchase.  The proceeds of this book will go directly to The American Heart Association.

You can make a $5.00 donation to The American Heart Association and receive the heart book (ebook). The ebook includes links to the projects that you see on the pages of the book.  For every book purchased this month, CraftProjectIdeas.com will be donating $1.00 (up to $500.00) on behalf  of The American Heart Association.

You can also purchase the soft cover book for $20.00 (+shipping).  The soft cover book is full of beautiful color images and is 8.5" x 8.5".  For every book purchased $5.00 will be donated to The American Heart Association.

US $20.00

Order the Printed Version

This book will only be available through the month of February!

Preview of the book:

If you would like to simply make a donation to The American Heart Association, without purchasing the book feel free to do so here:

Check out Hands On: As We Grow here for more information about this project!

Including: Information about Fundraiser Auctions from Sponsors, Special Giveaways, and a list of all The Contributing Heart Project Bloggers!

Native American Concho Belts

We are on a kick of making wearable art lately.  We made crowns,  Native American Feather Headbands, and now Native American Concho belts.  The fascinating thing about these belts is that the metal discs, which are called conchos, were originally hammered from real silver dollars!!!  You learn something every day!  These conchos not only were part of belts,  but also were used as a decoration on clothing and for hair decoration! We used simple materials to create our own concho belts: craft foam, permanent markers, and ribbon... or you could use yarn too.  Here is beautiful concho belt  from Sedonaindianjewelry.com.  Check out some beautiful Native American Concho Belts by checking out my Google image search for them here.

Here you can see one of C's Native American Headbands while she is designing her craft foam conchos for her belt.  You could pre-cut the foam shapes or have children cut their own shapes.  I wanted the focus to be on designing the conchos, so I pre-cut them and punched the holes on the sides.  If you don't have craft foam, you could use construction paper too.  I had C look at a paper with Native American Designs found here for ideas,  but she also chose some of her own too.  We used permanent markers on the craft foam so the image wouldn't rub off.

After the designs were finished,  C strung them on some thin ribbon.  It was good practice sewing to get the conchos going all the right way.  Definitely a good skill to practice fine motor skills!  Here is C's finished concho belt....ready to wear!  When I did this with my elementary art students they couldn't wait to wear them....C didn't want to wear hers.  Go figure!!!  Either way it turned out cute and it inspired her to create more concho belts!

Here is my finished concho belt!

I absolutely LOVE Native American Art!!!

What Native American Art Inspires you?

I love Dream Catchers, Totem Poles, Pouches, Beadwork, Pottery, and more.....(I could go on!)