Tutorial: Welcoming welcome mat

One of our best-selling in-store items is our spray-paint range. We stock Ironlak as well as MTN Australia brands, Ballarat has a rapidly growing street-art and graff scene and it's been wonderful meeting so many talented artists working in our town.
The paint range is high-pigment artists quality paint and comes in a fantastic range of shades in high and low-pressure cans and differing finishes, we also stock a range of caps for different spraying purposes. As well as for street-art painting the paint is fantastic for fun little DIY projects as it covers so well and comes in never-ending shades of awesome colours!
This weekend I fancied up our boring old black welcome mat, to inspire you to explore the magical world of spary-painting I have composed a little tutorial showing you some basic and effective stenciling techniques.

1. I like to keep it simple and use a word-processing program to select a font style and size. 2. Print your letters out and lay over the top a layer of transparent stencil paper. I like to use the acetate transparency paper you use in an over-head projector, it's cheap and it's see-though quality helps with 'registration' (lining up layers) in more complex projects. Also being shiny it doesn't get soggy like paper. 3. Using spray adhesive fix your letters in place, this stops them shifting and helps get a nice crisp line. 4. Always wear a mask when using spay paint, then shake the crap out of your can for way longer than you feel necessary. This mixes the pigment in well and stops you getting clogged cans. I used a 'NY Fat' cap which comes with the Ironlak cans and is designed for filling large areas. Spray on your drop-sheet or scrap of paper to get the can started, this helps eliminate getting yucky spatters or thin paint on your work. Spray an even layer of paint over your mat, it will be fairly absorbent so build up thin layers of paint to avoid runs and drips. 5. When dry, (on a nice day 10-15 mins should do the trick!) peel off your letters (and save for another project?), pop in the doorway and welcome your visitors with style!

Rugging up

Ask anyone in Ballarat and they will tell you how unpredictable the weather in this town can be. this time last week we were sweltering, several days later we almost got flooded and today, on the 3rd day of Autumn, we are still at a steady drizzle.
It looks like I was just in time to re-vamp the street furniture outside our little shop. Over the summer we have been loving this piece of street-art, but after a bit of... ahem... unsavoury defacing I thought it was time for a tidy up!

 

Remember last winter, I had a blast wrapping the city in some snuggly blankets? Well this tree stayed wrapped up warm until it was time for the council to put up Christmas decorations and became known as the 'Ballarat Banket Tree'! How cool is that?

 With Autumn making it's self so clearly felt I thought I would show you how we go about getting cozy over here at Red Brick.
What you will need....
Some cozy blankets. It's a big ask to knit or crochet on this kind of scale so I keep my eye open in our local op-shops, often these colourful handmade blankets can end up in the dog-blanket boxes! I love giving these bright rugs a new lease of life. Unlike my own crochet, acrylic is best in this case, retaining it's vibrancy and shape well.

 If you have plenty of time on your hands you can sew or crochet the blankets on but I find cable ties to be seriously handy! They are really tough so withstand attempts to remove them but can also be cut with scissors so aren't permanent and can be removed if said 'rugging' offends!

Here is me in cable-tie action on our main street!

Looks like I was just in time as look at the lake that grew around it a few days later!
Have a really awesome weekend!
x Steph