mandala baby body suits

When my friends over at iLoveToCreate asked if I would decorate some baby body suits with their Tulip Fabric Markers, I couldn't resist the challenge! I currently have a whole bunch of expecting mamas in my life and in my opinion, a one of a kind baby body suit or t-shirt makes the best gift.

I thought it would be fun to create mandala body suits as gift for my prego friends so I grabbed my fabric markers and got busy drawing a variety of tiny mandalas.

Decorating a Baby bodysuit With Tulip Fabric Markers from Alisa Burke on Vimeo.

I like to start drawing a mandala by lightly tracing a circle in pencil- sometimes I use a compass but most of the time I use a bowl!

Next, I added a piece of cardboard to the inside of the bodysuit to make it easier to draw.

Then, using the pencil circle as my template, I began building a simple mandala design.

I wanted to keep my designs looking more like black line drawings but I couldn't resist adding a few pops of neon color!

I also couldn't resist getting messy with the process! I grabbed some Tulip Fabric Spray Paint  and added a layer of light color and then added my mandala drawings over the top.

The cool thing about the Tulip Fabric Makers is that you simply let then dry for 24 hours and then they are washable. SO EASY!

This is such a fun way to personalize a baby gift or you could even make it a baby shower activity.

a peek

I am here at CHA and as promised I am taking all of you inside! First I wanted to share some work that I did months ago for the iLoveToCreate booth. On top of doing demos for iLoveToCreate this weekend, back in the fall they also asked me to create two "racing themed" outfits for their racing themed booth (one using only fabric markers and one using only dimensional paint). Though I can quickly and easily come up with all kinds of creative ideas, I have to admit the racing theme was challenging at first but FINALLY after thought and planning I finally came up with two outfits that turned out really cool! And what was even more cool was seeing them on styled mannequins on display in the booth! Here is a peek-

I used Tulip fabric markers to completely alter a canvas motorcycle jacket with lots and lots and LOTS of doodles and drawings.

Here is the jacket in the midst of creation in my studio. TIME CONSUMING to say the least!

And here it is all finished in the booth!

The second outfit was made completely with dimensional paint. I used a plain white button up shirt and TOTALLY covered the entire surface with dimensional paint.

This was probably the messiest, most challenging project I have tackled in a while! Here it is halfway through creation. (sorry for the bad photo!)

I added all kinds of dimensional details like lines, dots and checkers.

I added patches to the sleeves made with dimensional paint.

I used a jersey mini skirt and covered the ENTIRE surface with black and white checkers.

And here it is in the booth!

While these are obviously more "novelty" outfits and I can't imagine wearing them- it is really fun to see just how far one product or supply will go in a project. More to come!