Gift a Hand-painted Watermelon Umbrella!

This umbrella design is inspired from an umbrella i had seen online. I painted a red umbrella to a simple watermelon design, as a gift for a friend.

Its quite simple and happily stands out in the crowd :)

This instructable is about painting the watermelon design. You can make your own designs with the same logic.

Step 1: Things You Need -

1. A red umbrella (or it's a long journey of painting the whole umbrella red before starting).
2. Pencil.
3. Scale.
4. Fabric paint - black,LIGHT green and white.
5. Paint brush. (size is upto you)
6. Painters masking tape (optional).
7. Hard surface (optional) as base to place the fabric on while painting the umbrella.

Step 2: The Green Stripe -

• Always have a rough idea of what you want your final product to look like and plan accordingly.
• That's not what i did, and i ended up using the DARK green paint instead of the LIGHT green.
• Please be smarter than me :)

The design is -

• Thicker green stripe.
• Thinner white stripe.
• 5 seeds on each face.

i decided to give the green stripe a thickness of 2.5cm, so i drew a line to mark that.

METHOD 1- Use of painters masking tape

• Stick the masking tape along the line such as to create boundary to prevent paint spreading.
• Take care to avoid any bubbles/unstuck corners as these may lead to spread of paint to other areas.
• Paint the exposed area with LIGHT green fabric paint.
• Longer strokes and one directional strokes for better texture.
• do this on all faces of the umbrella and let it dry.
• Once dried, pull out the tape.

NOTE

1. I didn't use the painters masking tape, instead used the normal scotch tape - DISASTER. Lets paint seep in under the tape.
2. To remove painters tape - (if you have problems)

Use a hairdryer! Hold the hairdryer just 7-10 cms away from the tape. The heat will soften the adhesive as you gently pull it off. This technique will work on almost any kind of tape or label.

Step 3: The White Stripe -

METHOD 2 -TRUST YOURSELF!

• As i mentioned earlier i didn't have a painters masking tape with me at that time, i decided to do the old school manner :)
• Draw another line with required distance from the green stripe. I had taken 1cm.
• I used a thinner brush to do this as it reduces the chances of mistakes.
• i have to admit i got neater lines trusting myself than with the "scotch tape".
• Do this on all faces.

NOTE-

1. If you want to use method 1 - cover the green stripe neatly with the tape and one stripe of tape over the second line drawn, exposing only the white stripe area.
2. follow same steps as earlier.

Step 4: Seeds -

OPTIONAL -

Iron press the inside of the umbrella with slight heat to straighten the crumbles on it.

1. Make a template of the seeds that fit on each face as desired. i used a thick sheet of paper for this.
2. Place the template on each face and draw the outlines of the seeds.
3. Paint inside the shape drawn with black fabric paint to get the seeds.
4. repeat on all faces.

Step 5: Realization -

• As you see the whole while i used DARK green for the bigger stripe. It's only when a friend mentioned that it looks more black than green i realized i was wrong.
• I just coated the DARK green layer with the LIGHT green paint using method 2 to fix the mistake.

TADA!

You now have a watermelon umbrella!

It's that time of the year again :) I hope more and more people make gifts for their loved ones than buy one. A handmade gift feels so much more personal and shows how much you love and care about a person that you spent time in making something.

Wishing you all the merriest of the holiday season and a prosperous new year :)