Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Painted Tiles: Alice in Wonderland

First I'm using paint chips, now I'm using tiles. I really never shut off my brain, so when I was wondering through the hardware store, naturally I thought I could find some awesome crafty finds. I really enjoy using my enamel paints, so I'm always looking for new ways to incorporate them into projects, and until I moseyed on down the tile aisle it had never crossed my mind. These tiles are a steal at 16 cents a piece, and come in a white and off white color.

"What are you going to do with a bunch of painted tiles?"

Well, obviously, you could still use it to tile something if you wanted. This little Alice in Wonderland would be great in a series of tiles, and you could definitely use it to tile a border in a child's room, or if you didn't already have the best playhouse ever, you quickly could. You could also attach a hook to the back with some epoxy and use it as wall art, or even frame it. Have a friend that really likes tea? Make some more Mad Hatter/Tea Party themed tiles and glue either cork or foam to the back and voila! Coasters.

My image is Alice falling down the rabbit hole. I made it by placing contact paper on my tile, cutting out the silhouette with an Xacto knife and applying my paint first in one direction (Left to Right) and then the other (up and down). I let it dry in between coats to get full coverage. I forgot to go back with my Xacto knife and score the paint around the edges of my silhouette, so when I pulled off the contact paper, it removed some of the paint on one edge, leaving a rough edge. I actually think this looks better since she is "falling through space" so I didn't go back and touch up the edges. If you decide to try out using contact paper or other stencils, I would recommend either removing the paper while the paint is still wet to avoid this issue, or going back after the paint is dry and cutting around the edges again with your knife.

Then, do as you see fit with your tile. I will be posting another project I made for my husband with this method shortly. It can definitely fit any theme, and you don't need to be able to draw if you just use silhouettes that you can print out and fit onto a tile to trace around.



2 comments:

  1. Where can I find the silhouettes? Your tile is lovely.

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    1. I made my silhouettes out of illustrations I found online. I just printed out some images and cut them out of paper, then just traced around the outlines to create silhouettes.

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