HOW TO PRESERVE YOUR FAVORITE T-SHIRT FOR ALL ETERNITY

Pin It Happy New Year everyone!  As usual, my happy slumber was disturbed by the stupid fireworks at midnight.  I can't remember the last time I made it past midnight to ring in the New Year.  Just don't know what all the hype is about....

Today I did something that I've been wanting to do for ages.  I have this T-shirt that I love, love, love.  And the only reason I love it is because I love the floral print that is on it.  It's not that it's one of those comfy T's that you want to lay around the house in.  No, I love these blue pansies screen printed on it.

When I was doing my twice yearly closet clean out, I almost put it in the pile to be donated.  Then I thought how much I'd miss those pansies.  So I did the smart thing and preserved it forever.  I guess I could have cut the T-shirt out and framed part of it but how much fun would that really be.  I looked at that shirt for a bit and then told myself "Self,  you can SO paint that on canvas!"  So I did.

When my Mom passed away in October of 2010, I inherited all of her paint supplies.  My Mom had dabbled with paints for as long as I can remember.  I never realized how talented she was until I opened up this box of art supplies.  The woman had everything!  I've been eyeing her paints and paint brushes since the day I got  them, knowing that one day I would dive in and use them.  Today was the day!

Here's my inspiration.  T-shirt from JC Penney's.  Definitely not designer wear by any means but I liked it when I bought it.

  Here is my canvas that I started with.  This happens to be one of my Mom's canvases  that she had in her stash.  Not sure if it was the last thing she did or if it was something she started early on but never finished.  I'm using it because I'm too lazy and cheap to go out and buy a new one.  Plus I thought it would be fun to include her in some way.  I think this may have been something she painted over because if you look hard you can see the faint outlines of trees and mountains.  There is also some cool texture she put in it. At first I was thinking how could I scrape that crap off but then I got to liking it so I opted to leave it.

She painted her canvas with a blue-greenish color - entirely too teal for my house so I painted over it.  No telling how many paintings lie beneath all this paint at this point!

Without thinking too much about it, I just used some beige-y latex paint that I had found in the oops section of Home Depot.  I talk about how much I love the oops paint here.  I haven't been over to HD lately because quite frankly, I'm running out of room to store these glorious little pots of color.

 If you want to consider this a tutorial on how to plagiarize someone else's artistic ability, knock yourself out.  I, however am not posting this so you can replicate it stroke by stroke.  For goodness sakes,  just throw some paint on the canvas.  I can give you a bit of advice though......DON'T OVER THINK IT!  Start with the image - loosely draw it on the canvas with whatever you want to use.  I just used some blue paint.  Then just go from there.  A dab here, a stroke there - this is not brain surgery folks.  Stop every so often and walk to the other side of the room and squint at it.  How does it make you feel?  Does it give you a headache or are you starting to feel all Van Gogh-ish?  Give yourself some credit....if I can do this, anyone can do this!

I didn't take my own advice and kept adding more and changing this and wiping down that until I had to really make myself stop!  No, it's not identical to my happy shirt but I'm digging it.

Paint is still wet here - I don't use glossy paint.

And since Betty Quinn (momma) started it, I felt it only right for her to add her signature to the masterpiece!

So feel free to email me and commission me to paint your favorite shirt!  Send a pic and I'll let you know how many thousands of dollars I'll have to charge you.  No Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, though.  There are SOME things you just don't mess with!

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