Tutorial: Martha Stewart Paint DIY Fabric Printing

About a month ago I got a package in the mail. I eagerly ripped it open to discover some major loot inside. I mean, major, major loot.

I was given this glorious box of Martha Stewart / Plaid [the makers of Mod Podge!] craft supplies with one directive - make a Mother's Day craft, then blog about it. So after thinking about it for a little while, I decided to do some DIY fabric printing.

My mom spent a good chunk of her childhood in Florida, and it's a state that holds a special place in her heart. So I thought I'd make a beachy little travel kit to use when she goes down there.

If you don't want to make a travel kit, you can still use to following method print on all kinds of things to make a special gift for Mom this Mother's Day. Make a tote bag or a phone case. Don't sew? Then buy a pre-made tea towel or set of napkins and print on those!

[Also, sidenote, this paint actually works on ALL surfaces. Which is pretty awesome. Fabric, glass, ceramic, wood, whatever.]

So for my fabric, first I chose these aptly nautical stencils.

Then I upcapped the bottle of stencil adhesive. I'd never thought to use an adhesive on the back of stencils before.

Following the directions, I sprayed a little on the back of the stencil I was going to use...

...then tamped it down onto a 20" x 24" piece of canvas.

Ummm kind of amazing! The stencil was totally stuck in place and the adhesive prevented any paint bleed. I used one of the included sea sponges to dab on some Satin paint in Carnation.

Then I peeled up the stencil...

...and voila! A pink shell!

I made staggered rows all the way up. Note that it was ok to overlap the stencil over the still-wet previous row of shells, as long as I didn't directly touch that area everything was fine. I had to reapply the adhesive about once every four repetitions.

Pink shells!

Oh, this is like level one crafter knowledge, but make sure you put something down under your project, otherwise you might see this when you lift it up. Luckily it wiped away with windex and paper towels.

Next I added a layer of sea fans in Surf satin paint.

At some point I switch to a utility brush because it was faster.

Next up was a layer of starfish in Jonquil...

...followed by a layer of sand dollars in Sea Lavender. [This layer is a little hard to see.]

Then I used this awesome tutorial on the Purl Bee to make a zippered dopp kit from my new custom printed fabric!

But I wasn't finished. There were still goodies in the box I wanted to try. Like this spray paint kit. This thing was pretty cool. You could use any of the Martha Stewart paints, mix them with a special medium and load them into a sprayer to turn them into spray paint.

I followed the mix directions with the Satin paint in Carnation and sprayed two small squares of canvas to make a little zippered pouch.

It gave them a nice subtle pink dusting.

Then I cracked open the roll of stencil film and the stencil cutting heat tool. I decided I wanted to paint the state of Florida on the front of the pouch. So I printed a picture from the internet to trace, then used the heat tool to cut through the stencil film all around the outline.

It cut through it like butter! Then I used the above stenciling method to paint Florida with Satin paint in Rasberry Ice.

I also added a layer of Glitter paint in Sterling. Cause why not?

Then I hand painted a little red heart with the Satin paint in Habanero and used this great tutorial from design*sponge to make a zippered pouch [I just scaled it down].

Even though the surprise is kinda ruined now - because guess what, my mom reads my blog - I think she'll still like her new beachy Florida travel kit. And even if she doesn't, she still has to pretend she does, right? :]

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Full disclosure about this post here.