Young House Love

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Making A Homemade Painted Fabric Background

Clara turned three on Tuesday (Threesday?) so we’ve spent the last few days marveling at this wonderful little lady before us and wondering where the heck the time went.

Clara36Months

And just like we did for her two previous birthdays, we marked the end of another 12 months by customizing the fabric backdrop for her photo project. You might remember that this tradition started on her first birthday, when we used my handwriting to create a pattern that we printed on fabric using Spoonflower (here’s how we did that).

Year One

Spoonflower came to the rescue again last year, but we took advantage of Clara’s artistic abilities and converted one of her scribbles into the fabric that time (here’s how we did that).

Year Two

Last year’s fabric turned out a bit fainter than we would’ve preferred, so this year we knew we wanted to (a) involve Clara again and (b) make sure it came out bold and colorful. So we decided to just unleash Clara on the fabric itself…

Fabric 9 Almost Done

Since it promised to be a messy project (if all went as hoped!) we headed to the new house where there were lots of big, not-too-precious spaces (like the deck) and taped down a drop cloth. Then we taped the cotton fabric down right in the middle of it.

Fabric 2 Taping Down Fabric

For the paints we went with these little pots of Crayola Kids’ Paint (from Target) because it’s what Clara’s used to and it’s washable and non-toxic. We contemplated using some sort of fabric paint so her masterpiece could be preserved, but ultimately these kid-friendly paints were better suited to the free reign we were able to give our budding 3-year-old.

Fabric 3 Paints

She chose pink first and basically just went to town pouring it right out of the bottle and smearing it with a foam brush.

Fabric 4 Starting To Paint

She even added some hand prints and footprints. They’re our favorite.

Fabric 7 Hand Down

It took about 30 minutes or so for her to fill the whole two yards of fabric with paint splotches. Right as we were wrapping up we got the idea to let her paint her shirt, right where we typically would photoshop the circle with her age on it. We figured why not give into the theme, right?

Fabric 11 Painting Shirt

So with the paint still wet and Clara still a mess, we dragged the whole drop cloth over to the side of the house where we could tape it up to create a spot to shoot her photo.

Fabric 12 John Taping

Despite being dangerously close to losing all light (and losing the patience of a girl who was so far doing a very good job listening) we managed to snag this shot at the start of a jump. Jumping is kind of her default motion these days, so it was perfect. You can read how we add the number to her shirt in photoshop here.

Clara36Months

We also caught a bunch of pretty hilarious outtakes, which you can browse over on Young House Life today. Sherry calls this her Stomp The Yard pose.

36Months Dance

And with that folks, we’re calling it a wrap on her monthly pictures. I know it would be fun to keep them going, but we think she has started to outgrow enjoying them (read: it’s becoming more challenging to convince her it’ll be more exciting than doing whatever else she’s doing). So rather than force it, we’ll use this as a natural stopping point – although we’d still love to break out a new fabric for each birthday – and maybe even for her half birthday – depending how she feels.

MonthlysSmall

The 25 pictures above are the ones that we took between age 1 and age 3, and the 52 weekly photos that we snapped during her first year are below. You can see all 77 of them at full size over here.

ClaraPics 52 Grid

Oh and speaking of photo traditions – Clara’s also lucky enough to have spent all of her birthdays (including her actual birth date) with three of her grandparents. Our favorite thing about studying those photos is noticing than each adult re-wears the same shirt at least once.

  FourYears

Is anyone else out there making their own fabric? Wrapping up a photo project? Letting your kid loose with little pots of paint? Happy weekend everyone!

Comments

  3. Julie says

    That was a really cute idea on how to create the fabric for the photo. I love the part in the video when she said she already used all the pink so now she’s gonna use all the blue. Go big or go home! That should be Clara’s motto. lol

    Reply

  4. Rita says

    Hey guys, just wondering if you plan on doing a video tour of Clara at your old house, sorta like what you did with the first one?

    Thanks,
    Rita

    Reply

  5. Rita says

    More clarification, sorry, I am talking about the video so she would remember her first house and where you sang, “who’s that baby in the mirror”. lol

    Reply

  6. Trude says

    Aww it’s the end of an era! Happy birthday bean! :) Love the self-painting idea, it’s the perfect way to cap everything off. And how perfect it wound up being 77.

    Reply

  7. Amanda says

    Love this photo spin, sad it’ll be the last but its definitely the best option especially if Clara isn’t enjoying it! It’ll be something she can look forward to each year on her birthday, and I’m sure she will!

    I’m with a bunch of other people — Nonna looks AMAZING! Love her hair & her shirt, and she needs to be holding Clara for the next two birthdays. :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I’ve made her a quilt, a table runner, a birthday flag banner, and even a beanbag ottoman! It’s lots of fun to have stash of fabric with sweet memories attached to it :)

      xo
      s

  13. Ann says

    Happy Birthday beautiful girl! I still can’t figure out who she resembles the most. I’ve been readng your blog way before Clara was born and I just want to say you have the nicest family!

    Reply

  14. Abby @ Just a Girl and Her Blog says

    Happy Birthday to little Miss Clara! I love that you guys were so creative and consistent with this photo project! What a great memory for you and one that she can look back on too! They grow too fast, right?! Crazy! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

    ~Abby =)

    Reply

  17. Ann carmichael says

    If you want to try to preserve the painted fabric, try ironing it with a pressing cloth between the iron and the fabric at the hottest setting possible. The heat can set the paint. Good luck

    Reply

  19. Autumn Beach says

    Happy birthday, Clara! How awesome is this photo project in its entirety?? I SO regret not doing this for my kids. My “baby” will be three in a couple months, and her brother is five! Alas, I just couldn’t get my act together. Oh well. Thanks so much for sharing these pics. Clara is ADORABLE. And so well-spoken! I know you will have a wonderful weekend celebrating that sweet girl. Can’t wait for the party deets!

    Reply

  22. martha at MarthaLeoneDesign.com says

    Hi: What a meaningful thing to do in celebration of your daughter. Paint was a big part of my childrens’ young years. We love it!!! Now that they are older, they paint furniture with me from time to time. Now that they are 12 and 13, they are learning valuable lessons: how to use what you already have, how to run a small business, how to appreciate hidden potential in things that are seemingly “ugly”. I’m hoping and praying these valuable lessons stay with they into their adulthood. Thanks so much for sharing this story!

    Reply

  23. Cathi S. says

    How wonderful and sweet. Those pics would make a great quilt or two that will surely bring her to tears on either graduation or wedding day. Love seeing parents who love and cherish their children. We did and they are now 29 and 27. We squeezed out every drop of available joy like pressing grapes into wine. We have no regrets and I’m sure you won’t either!

    Reply

  24. Krystle @ Color Transformed Family says

    I think this was a great final to Clara’s monthly pictures. Her painting turned out adorable and I’m sure she had lots of fun doing it.
    Like everyone else I agree Sherry’s mom looks amazing. I think it would be cool if you guys did a Q&A session with your parents sometime. With questions like if they read the blog? Fondest memories of you guys. Their favorite part of the blog. And other fun stuff.

    Reply

  25. Rosie says

    I really, really hope that you guys take a piece of that fabric (since its not exactly a permanent piece of art) and either stretch it canvas style or frame it and put it up in the playroom/Clara’s room or somewhere equally great. It would be so great as art… and then you’d get to keep it even though its not really usable in a project that might ever need washing or cleaning.

    Reply

  26. Michael says

    Happy birthday Clara!
    Kids are awesome they can learn anything, they are very creative and their imagination have no limitation.
    they will learn anything that you would teach them.
    pointing your kids towards arts and painting and creativity is most amazing rather than just sitting them in front of a tv or a stupid cartoon show!
    Much love!

    Reply

  27. Amie says

    I’m guessing you’ve answered this question in the past (probably more than once….my apologies!), but what do you do with the fabric after the photo shoot? Happy weekend!

    Reply

  28. Amanda says

    Oh my gosh – Month 26! There are no words for how amazingly adorable that is! I would have that one printed HUGE on my wall! Way cute!

    Reply

  30. Lydia says

    Hey Guys,
    1) I love your ideas in capturing Clara’s birthdays, months, life, etc. Very cool.
    2) I noticed in a previous post that Clara isn’t inundated with toys? (Which I LOVE) So…What are you “toy parameters”? My hubs and I have set several, but seem to never get through to the granparents. How do you politely handle kid clutter when others are involved?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      She definitely has a bunch in baskets in her room, in the living room, and also has big things like her dollhouse and her play kitchen and her train board. Generally if she has a bunch of stuff already we’ll do a sweet “books only please!” request when people ask (they usually do, just to see what she needs/wants) or we’ll ask for an experience for her (ex: a membership to the children’s museum, which we know she loves). Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

  32. Catherine says

    Oh my gosh, I have been following for a little while but didn’t know about this tradition. Seeing the grid of all those photos with the different fabrics is just gorgeous!! I so wish I had thought to do something like that. Too late now that my two are 10 and 7. Maybe we will start a tradition of decorating t-shirts for their birthdays now. I did start a tradition when my daughter was two of, first just her, and then the both of them holding up an ‘love you Daddy’ sign for a Father’s Day photo every year. I have made my own fabric though. Through Spoonflower and using stamps. I love doing it.

    Reply

  33. Lena says

    I can’t believe she’s already 3 years old. It’s amazing how fast time flies. My little one turned 5 months on Tuesday. She and my full time job are the reason I never have time to read your blog as often as I used too. I pop on whenever I can to see what’s going on. From reading this post it sounds like you bought a new home!? Ill have to look back for that post :)

    Happy Birthday Clara, you’re a wonderful artist!

    Reply

  36. Meg says

    Silly question – how do you guys get the photos on a grid like in your post? I’m doing a similar thing for tracking my daughters months/age and I’d like to get the photos in a grid to compare :) Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We use photoshop, which is a program that allows you to create grids and cut and paste things. There’s free online software called Gimp that might help if you don’t have access to Photoshop. Good luck Meg!

      xo
      s

  37. Darlynn says

    Time will fly…my baby is graduating from high school next week…I still remember when she was 3, she had a desk right next to mine where she did her “work”…I will so miss her when she goes to college…please cherish every minute you have with her.

    Reply

  38. rachel says

    well, I’m not doing any of those art or photo projects, right now. But I am wearing the same shirt I wore yesterday!

    Reply

  39. Meryl @ Expat Travels says

    Ahh this is just the coolest idea. Maybe for number 2… Our girl Mila just celebrated her 3rd birthday last Thursday (the 16th). Happy birthday to Clara!
    I’m curious, what do you do with all that pretty fabric afterwards?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I’ve made her a quilt, a table runnner, a beanbag and even a birthday banner with them. It’s fun to think up things to use them for :)

      xo
      s

  43. Kristine says

    I’ve never liked Mondays, but I just caught myself thinking “oh my gosh, tomorrow is Monday and there will be a new posts on young house love again!”
    So thank you, for making my Mondays a little better :)

    Reply

  44. Sweet Melissa says

    OMG! Love this!! You all are wonderful parents!! The backdrops are precious and she did such a great job with this year’s! We have a tradition in our home as well. I have taken at least one photo of each of my three boys each day of the first years of their lives. We have created photo books and have spent many hours looking at the pictures on my computer. It is amazing to watch them change on the screen. You will never regret taking the time to do this for your sweet girl!

    I love your blog and love that you are in my hometown :) I’d love to run some of my own ideas by you all if you have the time. I am a new business owner, http://www.sweetmelissasfragrancefactory.com. You can read about my store at sweetmelissasfragrancefactory.wordpress.com. We are currently selling our home and building a new one and have three little boys ages three and under. Aside from the fantastic DIY renovating you all do, we have a lot in common :)

    Reply

  45. Jen Keane says

    Are you familiar with fabric medium? Not sure about its kid-friendly qualities (and I guess they might vary between brands), and unfortunately, it’s not much use after the fact for this project, but if you’re ever having Clara paint on fabric again for something else, it might be worth investigating. It basically allows you to turn non-fabric paints into fabric paints, just by mixing the medium in in the right ratio. It doesn’t change the colour of the paint, just makes it stick better to fabric, lets the fabric be more flexible afterwards, and washable too (some fabric mediums require you to heat-set the paint, others don’t, check the brand).

    I used it extensively when making a weeping angel costume (Dr. Who fan here!), because I needed to paint onto material to make it look like stone, but I still wanted to be able to wash it afterwards, and it was very easy to use. No nasty smell either, which is always a plus :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Great tip! We used fabric medium for a few book projects! It seemed to work well, although I’m not sure it’s non-toxic and it would have added an extra element to the project (mixing that in before she could use the paint). I should look into that next time though! Maybe they make a kid-friendly one that she could use!

      xo
      s

    • Jen Keane says

      I’m still catching up with the book, I just ordered it a short while ago. A friend put me on to your blog after I bought my house, and I recently read it from start to finish (ordering the book after I got to the blog posts about it!), so I’ve got a ton of ideas for my house, and watching you guys go through everything has given me lots of confidence to try things. I’ve just finished project number one – turning some off-the-rack Ikea shelves into a set of custom built-ins, with lighting and a pop of colour :)

  47. Cara says

    I am a preschool teacher and for Mother’s Day I had the kids dye scarves for their mommas! We used eyedroppers and cotton scarves I found online along with some RIT dye to create some very special and unique scarves. I don’t think any of the mothers were bummed about the non-handprint related project…

    I think this summer, we will have to embark on a project similar to Clara’s for picnics and parachute play.

    Reply

  50. Sara says

    Happy 3rd Clara! I went into labor and gave birth to my baby boy on the 15th. Almost birthday buddies! (And we are in Richmond too.)

    Reply

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