Lilly Pulitzer "Navy Bloomers" inspired tutorial

Lately I've been crafting more often since I'm trying to get items done for my dorm room. I love monograms and decided that I would paint myself a monogrammed canvas! Luckily for you guys, I actually took pictures and made a tutorial for this! I loathe long introductions and therefore, let's begin!

Navy Bloomers (sorry I couldn't find the major print I worked off of!)

Materials needed:

• Paint in Navy, Hot pink, Light pink, Green, and White (these are the traditional Lilly colors but you can use whatever colors for your liking)
• Canvas
• Paintbrush, one thick and one thin
• Paint pen, pink
• Modge Podge
• Glitter,  hot pink
• Ribbon, pink

 

First off, after painting the entire canvas navy, add these little shapes randomly along the canvas. Basically, I just drew a bunch of little cirlces and then added the lines connecting them. Just eyeball where you want to put these designs. Lilly patterns are spontaneous so don't worry!

 



Next, add imperfect circles in the same hot pink used to make the weird shapes (I don't know what else to call them!)

 

 

 





 

Now add these fern like shapes. I made a V-shape and then added alternating lines above it to keep with the V-shape. I topped it with a single line to make a point. This is still in the hot pink color.

 

 

Get the lighter pink and add more imperfect circles (which will later become flowers). The second shape you'll add is a fan like shape. It's very circular in style. Draw some in both colors of pink.

 

 

Outline the fern and fan shapes with the green paint.

 

 

 

With the white paint, add contour lines on the light pink flowers. I added two lines to each flower but you could do it however you like! With the dark pink flowers, add contour lines with the light pink paint.

 

With the white paint, add a center dot to each of the flowers. On the giant odd shaped items, fill the circlular parts of it with white paint. (I missed one shape, I know! I eventually fill it in so just ignore it for now)

 







I know it's hard to tell, but add a single green dot on top of the small white dots you added on the flowers.

 

 

On the ferns, fill in the empty space between your lines with white paint.

 

 

Now with your green paint, add stems to all the flowers, ferns, and fan shapes. Try to make them all connect to at least one other shape. Don't connect any to the oddly shaped ones though

 

 

Start adding leaves to your stems and extra stems to fill up all the empty space.

 

 

Now outline everything but the little balls on the odd-shaped shape with white paint!

 

 

This is where the mongramming begins! I was not as good with taking pictures on these parts though. I added a rectangle in the middle of my canvas. I grabbed a picture frame that was the right size for this and traced the shape in the middle of the canvas. I filled it in with white paint. It took 3 or 4 coats for it to cover the main part of the canvas nicely.

 

 

Outline the rectangle with a pink paint pen. It took 3 or 4 lines to get the line thick enough for my liking.

 

 

I didn't take pictures of the next part of this. Sorry! I drew the monogram I wanted with a pencil. Once I was satisfied, (with my oh so boring two letter monogram) I painted over it with Modge Podge. I then sprinkled glitter on it. I had to do this step quite a few times to get the coverage I wanted. Lastly, I added a glitter ribbon to the back and I was done!

 

 

 

I think it came out really nice! I'm beyond satisfied with it! In the next few days, I'll have another post up! I think it's a winner!

 

Whoops....sorry

I just finished a new craft and I just realized I didn't make a step by step tutorial for it! I feel beyond guilty. The only positive is that a new craft will finally be posted.

I've been obsessing over Lilly Pulitzer prints lately. They're so bright and colorful and inspiring! One of my favorite prints is Chiquita Bonita. It's so whimsical!

      

Gorgeous right?! So the print looks simple enough and after learning that the artists at Lilly hand paint these designs I figured I could try it! Now, the only tip I can give on this project for you Lilly artists is that you have to commit to it. When you're starting off, the pattern looks like it's practically doomed. But the more layers and accents you add the better it gets! I wish I would've taken pictures along the way but oh well. 

I painted my hairbrush because I didn't have any canvases. I figured it'd be okay to personalize it anyways.

 

I'm so proud of it! I'll try to explain my process but it could be hard to follow. I'm a terrible blogger, I know. 

My brush was a pink color so I had to paint the back of it white. After that, I grabbed the light blue color and began drawing the large seashells in random areas. Make sure to add the dots within the seashells! 

After that I painted the green conch shells. I drew a spiral and then drew contour lines to help define the shape. These were all placed directly near the blue large shells are were of roughly equal size. 

The light pink shells came next. I tried to make them slightly smaller but not much smaller since the navy shells were the smallest. 

The starfish were next. I drew a five point star and then dotted the inside. You don't want to fill it in completely! There should be some white poking through. 

Now time for the yellow shells! I started by drawing a triangle then lines underneath it with varying thickness. The lines are more like little rectangles. I finished the shell by adding another triangle. 

Now the navy shells. These are both the 

typical shells and the conch shells. These need to be the smallest in size.

Finally, fill in the white areas with navy dots, or swirls of green and yellow. Basically, do it to your personal taste and what is aesthetically pleasing to you.

Hopefully that somewhat made sense! If not, I'm sure I'll do another tutorial of some Lilly inspired prints! 

Canvas Painting: For Beginners

So, I'm only saying this tutorial is for beginners because I'm a beginner and this method (whether right or wrong) is really working for me. My first attempt at these canvas paintings was the one I made for my mom on Mother's Day.

 

Not too shabby for a beginner! The canvas I bought for this project came with two so I figured I'd make another one and show you my process for doing them. 

Supplies: 

Canvas (whatever size fits your needs)

Paint in various colors

Thin Paint Brushes

Foam Paint Brush 

Pencil

Eraser

Ruler 

So first off, paint the canvas which ever color you decide. I choose this light lavender color. Personally, I like lighter backgrounds compared to dark but it's all a personal preference. The way I painted my canvas was by squirting a small amount of paint and using the foam brush to spread it out. It was quick and easy. 

        

      After the paint dried, I went ahead and made margins on the canvas horizontally (as seen above.) 

I then made vertical margins. I made these margins by measuring out an inch from the top and the sides. I marked dots all the way down and across so I could "connect the dots" and keep as straight of a line as possible. 

The next step I took was to write out my plan for the quote on a separate piece of paper. (I totally forgot to take a picture of this so I'm sorry!) Basically figure out the fonts you want to use along with spacing and decorative elements. I STRONGLY advise planning on a separate paper because then you'll be less likely to erase on the actual canvas which could just thin the paint out. 

Once you've planned it out transfer it onto the canvas! I generally just eye ball how big to make my letters but if it makes you more comfortable to measure and divide it out, that'd be great too! After that's done, get to painting! For me, thinner brushes are easier to work with. I'd rather do more layers than have it out on too thick with a bigger brush. 

If you find you make painting mistakes a long the way, you can get the base color and try to paint over the mistake. It does blend in well when covering MINOR mistakes. 

By the end of all this you'll have something beautiful to enjoy! Mine are far from perfect but I love it nonetheless. I hope this helps you at least start your canvas painting journey!