Gift a Hand-painted Watermelon Umbrella!
Intro: 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 -
- A red umbrella (or it's a long journey of painting the whole umbrella red before starting).
- Pencil.
- Scale.
- Fabric paint - black,LIGHT green and white.
- Paint brush. (size is upto you)
- Painters masking tape (optional).
- 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
- I didn't use the painters masking tape, instead used the normal scotch tape - DISASTER. Lets paint seep in under the tape.
- 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-
- 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.
- 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.
- Make a template of the seeds that fit on each face as desired. i used a thick sheet of paper for this.
- Place the template on each face and draw the outlines of the seeds.
- Paint inside the shape drawn with black fabric paint to get the seeds.
- 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 :)
2 Comments
mole1 8 years ago
Oh! I really want to do this!
Ashwin e i 8 years ago
I hope you do :) Merry christmas :)