Quoth the Raven...(Poetic stencil how-to)

I was having a time deciding what the heck to do next.  I came around to my favorite poem, "The Raven." But how can I apply that to a t-shirt? Something came to me about words in a stencil. Alas another use for the fabulous Tee Juice fine line pen!
I found a basic outline of a raven and printed it out on regular paper. I cut out the raven shape and decided where to put it. I decided on back left upper shoulder area with the bird facing towards the center of my body. I copied the part of the poem where the raven shows up making sure I overlapped the edges of the stencil like so.

I made sure I continued the wording even through the legs so it didn't look like I jumped around.

And here's what it looked like after I lifted the stencil...


Since I overlapped the edges it kept the shape of the stencil better than just starting at the edge.



close up

So if you have a favorite poem, why not copy it onto your own t-shirt?

Birds on a Sleeve

OK. So I started this thing, I better continue with it.

I was looking up raven images since I heart Edgar Allen Poe's narrative poem, "The Raven" (you'll be seeing more raven inspired stuff later) and came across this one...

I liked the image of the birds on the tree and knew it was something I could replicate somewhat easily.  Now where the heck to put this thing.  Sleeve was the first thing that popped into my head. Or perhaps it was just because I put the skull iron-on the other sleeve the day before...maybe...
I took the print out and slid it under the sleeve, making sure the birds faced forward.  I remember from somewhere about tattoos and imagery displayed on the body should face forward if on the side or towards the center if on the front or back. And so I digress...
Anywho, the next question was what the heck to put this on the shirt with. Oh I know! My Tee Juice pen! Basically it's a fine tipped felt tip style pen that's easy to draw with on fabric and then heat set with an iron once everything is dry. (My only caution is to test it on some scrap fabric first because it just takes a light touch for the pen to work. If you hold it in one spot for too long the ink will run throughout the fibers making a big blob of ink.)
I slid the original image under the sleeve and traced.  If you have a hard time seeing the image you can use a lightbox or tape the image and tshirt up to a sunny window. I was mainly interested in getting the birds traced and the main branches. The rest I kinda improvised.  Anywho, here's the end result....

I think I'll do this on another shirt I like it so much! Woo hoo!