These plates are fast, fun, and very inexpensive. You can’t eat off them or put them through the dishwasher, but they look great in a plate holder.
Supplies Needed:
Glass Plates (Walmart $1.50)
Dimensional Fabric Paint
(Black, Blue, Brown, Pink)
Acrylic Craft Paint
(Flesh tones and hair colors)
Make-up Sponges
People are always telling us they can’t even draw a stick figure. We don’t believe it, but, just in case, we designed a whole population of rubber stamps made up of lots of stick people, their children, pets, and their toys.
If you don’t feel you can draw faces to fit your family, we are sure you can find somebody who looks like them in our Small Talk rubber stamp collection.
Make a guide for your painting.
We stamped all three family members and cut off their bodies. The dog will show up later on. We arranged Mom, Dad, and Baby in a nice triangle and centered them in a circle that we drew with a circle template. We enlarged the circle to match the inner, flat section of the plate - thereby enlarging the faces as well. You can do this on a copy machine or by scanning everything into the computer. We then made a circle to indicate the outside edge of the plate to show us where the type should go.
We created the type on the computer and used graphic software to curve it to match the plate (the “T” is actually there - but blocked by the reflection). You can print your type guide by hand on the same copy as the enlarged faces.
You can also trace your plate onto scrap paper and draw your faces by hand if you wish.
As we mentioned in the ceramics article, drawing nice lines with dimensional paint takes practice.
We suggest that you draw lines on a styrofoam plate until you feel comfortable with the right pressure and other details of handling the fabric paint. Always squeeze a little paint onto a paper towel to get rid of air bubbles before starting on your good plate.
Cut the inner circle from your guide copy and tape it to the back of your plate.
Begin tracing the lines you can see through the plate. Work from upper left to lower right and keep turning the plate as necessary so you don’t get your hand in the wet paint.
The dimensional fabric paint will need an hour or so to set up.
After outlining all the faces and the type in black, use the appropriate colors to add eyes and a smile.
Let dry thoroughly.
