Sporty Ties in Time for Father's Day: Tutorial

Here are a couple of ties I stamped up pretty quickly with my new "Sporty Accessories" for my father (baseball) and stepfather (golf) for Father's Day. Aren't they fun?! I bought these at Ross for $7 and $8 each (if you don't have Ross in your area, it is a name brand for less store like Marshall's or Steinmart, elsewhere priced at $25-$35) Use Staz-On ink or Palette Ink for fast drying and a crisp image! (If you click on the closeup, I accidentally used Memento on a few of the clubs, (the blurrier ones) when opened the pads look the same LOL!)

Tips for selecting ties to stamp:

1. Look at the texture of the fabric and consider how well it will pick up the details of your stamp image. The champagne tie above is silky smooth, you see every line of the golf club.

2. Choosing a darker color helps minimize the appearance of mistakes or a less than crisp image. The dark red tie has a slightly nubby texture to it, but the dark color keeps your eye from minding any "skips" in the baseball images (on a lighter color like the golf tie, you would see that and the image would appear fuzzy.)

3. Find a tie with a pattern that still allows some areas to stamp in. If you pick a solid tie, trying to create a pattern like this will really show if you make any mistakes. (Here I just followed the diagonal lines to make the rows, the bat, hockey stick and club are all natural matches for a new set of stripes! piece of cake!) I used a gridline block to make a pattern from the

4. If you do go with a solid tie, collage stamp several images randomly to create a "background". Then you can go back fill in areas that have too much space later.

5. If you go with a printed tie, choose one that has color in it to match your ink, this will make your stamped images look like part of the original pattern. In the golf tie, the thin black stripes go nicely with the thin black lines of the stamps clubs, and it really makes this nice, subtle pattern. (my DH was really impressed when he saw the finished tie how sophisticated and professional-looking it turned out!)

Hope this inspires you to try some ties! (I also made some sporty boxers! Wouldn't these "Sporty Accessories" make fun underwear for your little athletes?) They came out as nicely as I imagined they might, and at $8 a piece it was the worth the risk of trying a new article of clothing as my stamping canvas! I'm really excited to be able to make more of them for sports enthusiasts, and proud to present these two to the dads in my life! Talk about a one of kind, personalized gift!

Have a great day!