At Plaid HQ, we aren't afraid to get a little messy, especially if there is paint involved! To celebrate the warmer weather, we hosted a SPLATTER party to revamp our wardrobe, or even just disguise some paint-splatters that's already gotten on our clothes over time! A splatter party is a super fun way to relieve stress and access your creative side. Plus, you'll end up with some super cute clothing items when you're done. Read on to learn exactly what we did to prep and execute an awesome splatter party.
First, we found a good space to host our flying paints. Originally, we planned on hosting our paint-flinging rendesvous outside on the Plaid lawn, but some crazy Georgia weather impeded those plans. So we went with the next best thing, clearing out an empty space in our warehouse! Sure, we were bummed we couldn't throw paint about in the the sun, but what better way to brighten up a rainy day than an artsy (almost strangely athletic) party!
Because of the size of our gathering, we made sure to lay out plenty of large peices of canvas fabric and craft paper to protect our warehouse floors. What we found later was the canvas ended up being a pretty cool artistic piece itself. In fact, after we were done splattering our clothes, we used what leftover paint we had to finish-off the partially splattered canvas. And, we must admit, the group effort looked pretty cool in the end. We're all excited to see where we end up hanging it in the Plaid offices!
Paint prep was next. We used our Fabric Creations paint for this splatter project. We love this paint for anything with Fabric because it dries soft and washes soft--it looks and feels like it was a part of the fabric pattern originally! FolkArt Multisurface paint would also work for this project, as it will also hold to fabric that's been in the wash, but again, we recommend the Fabric Creations first. ;)
We picked out the whole range of Fabric Creations paints, and also set up on our crafting table a bunch of styrofoam bowls, plastic spoons, a few tubs of water, and many many paint brushes of all shapes and sizes. The tubs of water had a dual-purpose--we used them both for washing the brushes at the end of the party, and also for diluting the paints.
The Fabric Creations paints certainly do not need to be diluted with water whenver you use them, but we find for the optimum "splatter effect" a few teaspoons of water mixed into your paint will allow the brushes to fling the paint further, as the thinner paint flies through the air better. It's up to you how much water you add. More water means a little less control over the direction of your splatters, we've found. But, less control in this scenario is kind of fun! You want to make sure you don't use too much water, though, as naturally it will dilute the color a bit. This is especially important if you are splattering on darker fabric, which will absorb the more diluted colors into it more than light fabric will.
Once you've mixed up your paint to the desired consistency, load up whatever brush you want, lay out your piece-to-be-splattered on your protective canvas, and splatter away! The most fun part of this party for many of us was experimenting with the different types of brushes and splatter effects. While we imagine this project is fun alone too, we LOVED doing it in a group setting. We could be inspired by and learn from each other's use of our paint brushes, exchange techniques and colors, and of course combine forces on splattering the canvas underneath at the end.
Overall, we give the splatter party trend and A+, and we definitely can't wait to have another one!
Do you think you'll host a platter party too? Who will you invite, and where will you host it? Let us know in the comments!
