Faux Mexican Embroidery Tank

Good Morning Beautiful Ones, 

Like as promised I will do my best to post everyday.

As you read from my previous post I follow a lot of crafty bloggers. 

Well now I am trying out their DIY projects that peak my fancy. 

Today I will be featuring the Glittery Fabulous Crafty Chica

Kathy Cano-Murillo. This women has no idea how much she has been a pillar in my foundation for like almost 8 years. Just to give you a little back story to why that is, I will tell you how I found her.

Born and raised in the multi cultural spicy Bay Area, California it was hard finding myself on the Oregon coast with it's lack of visible cultural. I am a brown Latina (and proud of it!) so I am use to (especially from Caucasians) people wondering what I am or choosing my enthincity. Well this feeling of lack and loneliness was weighing heavy on my heart on the Oregon coast and to top it off the Latino community was barely visible. Okay let's be serious it wasn't there and the lack of acceptance there had those of Latino heritage to claim native heritage because that was the brown norm. While in the library with a heavy heart I found Crafty Chica and her glittery self brought so much delight my hubby wanted to get everything she has written. The library didn't carry everything but we could special order it. That's right if your local library doesn't have a book you want they can check if it's in the system. If it is they can borrow it from another library. How cool is that!

I have to say thou the Oregon Coast lacked a variety of cultural presence their library rocked! My hubby and I use to check out like 20 books at a time. The day I found Kathy (Crafty Chica) she came in two packages. 

1. In the awesome Mark Montano Big Ass Book on Crafts. This is a great series and for all those crafters out there a must read. www.markmontanoblogs.blogspot.com

2. The second is Kathy's book Artful sewing.

It was so funny because I thumb through library books but don't really get into them until I get home. I has no clue that one would lead to the other. I immediately found Kathy's contribution in Mark's book and said I would have to look her up next library visit. Then I discovered I had one of her books, score! 

There will be future post from this book so check back soon to see. Also please go out and get this book. Sewing for me is a wing and a prayer , but Kathy's direction can walk you through a successful project. 

The Crafty Chica has a huge smile filled with all this love and light. You will hear/read/see it in everything she does. It was that spirit that reminded me of all the beautiful, strong and crafty women I grew up with. Her books gave me a feeling of home, especially her fictional books. Every character remind me of a family member , so in a nutshell she brought my family to me all the way to the Oregon Coast.

Here are all the books she has written to date according to her webiste. www.craftychica.com

The library is great but I had to have these for my own library and No you can't borrow any! Just kidding but I treat books like my children. You can't borrow them either. 

Okay let me get to the project at hand and thank you for your patients with my long windedness! 

This is Crafty Chica's version

please go to her blog and see all the instructions she gives. 

Here are the steps I took to come up with my tank. 

I try to use the things I have instead of going out to buy any.

Awesome lesson I learned from The Crafty Chica's online course call the Crafty Hustle. 

It makes so much sense and you never realize how much stuff you have on hand. Especially crafters be it a hobby or professional we have a lot of supplies.

Just following that simple of rule to create from on hand before I buy has kept my crafting flow going. 

Ha you though I was going to say save money, I am a crafter that create everyday who is always in Joann's or Michaels. Okay you get the picture now back to the Faux Mexican Embroidery tank.

I have issues with puff pant, I love it but my heavy hands really pours it on. I use stencile first then accent free hand.

I use Scribbles paints by ilovetocreate , they are my go to for all my fabric painting.

That is just some , rest in storage until we move. 

I carefully remove stencile while wet because it is tricky when it dries , at least for me.

I will be honest I was very torn here. I loved the simple look but it didn't have the embroidery feel to it.

So I added some more

Not to shabby. I feel I would have made a shirt a lot closer to Kathy's version if I used a shirt. Which I just found a bag of plain white Tshirts. So I will not chalk this up as a fail. Plus like I always say when you follow someone else's tutorial you add your own flair. 

I had a lot of fun doing this and I know you will to. 

Now go to Kathy's website www.craftychica.com and catch the craft bug if you don't already have it.

Surrounding you with love and light 

Plus the encouragement to be your own kind of beautiful.

The Crafty Owl Mami 

AuroraSara