No Longer Entirely Gray Hoodie

 I made a hoodie for the kiddo last October; I made it clear when I wrote the post that I thought it should be decorated.  I asked him how he'd like it decorated.  I asked many times.  He never had any ideas.

I finally got tired of it hanging in here, waiting, and decided to decorate it fast, with vaguely 1990s inspiration, and simple cardboard shapes

 I looked at a few tutorials online to see how other people were using cardboard to make stamps.  The idea of gluing two layers of cardboard together for strength, and gluing a rolled-up bit of cardboard to the back for a handle, were things I don't think I would have thought of, an I really wouldn't've thought about peeling off a layer to reveal the corrugation for more texture.

I made a basic square stamp and did that as the first layer in green and immediately regretted it.  I couldn't undo it, either, so I forged ahead, stamping blotchy green squares in various places that seemed balanced.  It helped a bit when I got a better feel for how much paint to apply.

Then I did a layer of medium bright blue with the corrugated square, and I felt like I could see the potential of the tools in better hands than mine.  Then I did the dark blue with the corrugated stamp and it all suddenly looked so much better.

 I used a vitamin bottle lid to stamp the orange circles, and the yellow triangles were empty Saba cardboard thread spools hot glued together.

I had prepared all of those before starting the painting process, but still wanted something small and purple at the end.  A small bottle of doll accessory hair gel with a star shaped cap caught my eye, and I quickly noticed that the flat surfaces of the star were separate pieces; I pried them out with a straight pin and had a star shaped outline to use (with some of the inner structures close enough to the opening that I knew they'd pick up some paint, too)

 I would have stamped more of the squares, but I didn't have much of the green paint left--adding the fabric medium did increase the amount a bit--so I worked within that limit.  I was able to be unrestrained with the circles and stars, so that filled in a lot of space.

I did this project withe the hoodie laid open and flat, so the sleeves weren't in the best positions to be decorated, or moved out of the way when paint was still wet.  This resulted in some areas that could have been decorated more, but it's fine.  (I didn't even try to decorate the hood.)

I showed it to the kiddo and he said that he did have an idea, but he never remembered to tell me.  When I asked for details, to try to figure out if his idea could be incorporated with this (I'm all for adding more and more layers of decoration), he said he couldn't actually remember his idea.  We exchanged sarcastic looks over that.

...although...what he did mention, I might be able to work with...  Some other time.  I'm just glad to have this out of the room.  And I might consider cardboard stamping fabric projects again in the future (if I remember.)