Scarfs are one of my goto things to snazz up my summertime wardrobe! These DIY Watercolor Headscarves are quickly becoming a favorite of mine, thanks to the unlimited rainbow of color that you can make
Materials
Decide On Your Design
The first step is to decide on a design for your new scarf! Since we are doing a watercolor effect, you will want to create a design with that in mind!
Here is our free printable if you would like to use our flower design!
Start Cutting!
Once you have your design settled, you will start cutting out all the pieces of your bleeding tissue paper in your desired colors! Use either the template provided or another template to help you cut similar pieces.
Continue to cut out all of the colors.
PRO TIP: If you use different variations in the same color family, it will help you
Time to start styling!
Once you have your colors all set out, you can start to envision how your scarf is going to look. I like to have primary colors that are my pops of colors, so in this case, my pinks and greens are my primary colors. Then I have my secondary color that will help tie everything together. For this, I used multiple shades of blue.
With your secondary colors, I use the scrunching technique to help give it the watercolor effect. Take each strip of paper and crumple it in your palm. This will give the colors it more dimension when you start to add the water.
Get Your Space Ready!
Now it’s time to prep your workspace. This craft can get a little messy since we are working with bleeding tissue paper. You will thank me later!
Take your plastic drop cloth and lay it out on your work surface. Then take your scarf and lay this down.
PRO TIP: If your scarf has been folded, iron out the creases before you get started!
Lets Make Something Pretty!
Now it’s time to get started pulling everything together!
Start by laying everything out once to give yourself an idea of the layout that you want. Once you have laid everything out, then take off the tissue paper and start over!
Before you lay out your design, give your scarf a light mist (DO NOT SOAK) over with water to help your tissue paper stick to the scarf and to help the magic start!
Spray as you go!
While you are laying down your design, you will want to spray a little water as you go. You will start to see the colors start to bleed onto your scarf!
Go through and layout all of your primary color pieces in the spot that you want. Continue to lightly mist each piece.
Now add more color!
Once you have your bigger color pieces down, now you will want to start to layout your secondary colors or
Keep Misting!
Now that you have all of your pieces down, you will continue to mist until each piece of paper is saturated. You should be seeing your color begin to transfer.
Its a waiting game…
Once you have saturated your scarf and paper, now its time to wait. The longer you let this sit, the more pronounced the colors will be. I typically wait at least 5 minutes before moving on.
You can check out the photos below to see the difference in waiting a few minutes!
Almost there!
All that is left to do is remove the tissue paper from your scarf by peeling off the tissue and discarding it.
I do recommend using a glove of some sort or you will get what I loving refer to as”Craft Hand!” Don’t worry this dye will come off your skin with a few washes!
Final Step!
Once it is dry, run over your scarf with a hot iron to seal in the colors!
And you are all done! Now you can enjoy your sweet new scarf!
Check us out demonstrating this cute craft on Charlotte today!!
XOXO
Cory