I was dye-ing to make this kit: Tie-dye Party behind-the-scenes

Hey, scrapbookers, crafters, wild-at-heart souls,

This mid-week Sweet Steals I am featuring Tie-dye Party! This kit was a labor of love, including some of my own tie-dye shirts to create backgrounds and textures in the kit and bundle. That’s in addition to my usual illustrations and word art/lettering.

It’s always fun to look back at older kits, and this one still makes me happy! From tie-dyeing shirts, to drawing illustrations, to making patterns, it’s a really groovy collection and a different kind of design process for me.

Dyeing shirts

This kit was inspired by some tie-dye shirts I made with a friend. I had the tie-dye kit for a few years (a Christmas gift from my parents), but it took me so long to get around to it (it’s messy, it’s time-consuming, it can be tedious…). But I had a hoard of white shirts waiting for a splash of color.

I loved the results of my shirts. I tried different tying patterns and color combinations. I loved the colors…and I think that’s where the inspiration mainly came from!

Sketching

Once I decided to make this kit, I hopped into Procreate to sketch my ideas. Then, I took these sketches into Adobe Illustrator to vectorize them. In the final kit, you’ll see a couple of things stayed sketchy; I like the include some of both so things aren’t too perfect.

Patterns and backgrounds

I drew some of what I call “Spongebob” flowers for this kit. They obviously had to make a few appearances in the paper patterns.

I also included full background tie-dye images. These were photographed with the help of my girlfriend. We used the light from my apartment’s balcony window. After photographing, I sampled the images for the kit’s color palette!

A meta moment

So, scrapbooking pictures with a kit that you made inspired by your own shirts (and using pictures of said shirts!)… it’s a little meta.

What will you scrapbook with Tie-dye Party?

Want to see more behind the scenes? I try to post on my Instagram story as I’m sketching, and I plan to continue this blog series. Let me know what you want to see more of in the comments below!

Comments

One response to “I was dye-ing to make this kit: Tie-dye Party behind-the-scenes”

  1. Brenda Hollingsworth Avatar
    Brenda Hollingsworth

    I, too, have taken to calling them Spongebob flowers. Too funny!

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