DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Groovy Grandma Apron
with pencil lead stencil templates

The girls had a hoot making this Groovy Grandma apron for grandma Gloria's birthday this year.  I think I'll have to iron it before I give it to her -- I'm just looking at the photo as I type up these instructions and realize it's a tad creased.  *grin*   You can make a gardening or cooking apron (depending on which stencils you use).

As most regular visitors to the site know, I tend not to do crafts that require the purchase of a lot of supplies.  The exception to this rule is when the girls are doing crafts as gifts.  We still try to keep the supplies to a minimum (for example, in this project we made our own 'pencil lead stencil' templates instead of buying stencils) -- sometimes our grand gift plans don't work out quite as expected so we try to keep things inexpensive (we've had a few projects end up with the trash collectors instead of the intended recipients *laugh*).

We purchased the plain apron ($8 Canadian) and a set of 6 fabric markers ($15 Canadian) at our local craft store.  We used the markers (and the pencil lead templates) to make this apron for grandma, shoes for ourselves and a purse for our cousin and they're now safely squirreled away in the craft supply drawer for future projects (they'll likely dry out within 6 months or so whether we use them again or not).  Other projects I'm pondering using them for in the next little bit are a pillow case for Kaitlyn and a friend at a sleepover party and some Christmas napkins for "I'm not sure who yet".

• Turn the template OVER.  You should be able to faintly see the black lines through the paper. 
   
• On a hard surface, color roughly everywhere you can see the template outline through the paper.
   
• And now you have a "pencil lead template"!

• Lay the "pencil lead template" on the apron where you want the image to show up.
   
• Again, on a hard surface, draw a firm single pencil line over the template.  When you lift the paper, the pencil lead you colored on the back will be transferred onto the apron as a light image.

• Use your fabric markers to trace over top of the stencil lines.
   
• Feel free to color in any areas you want after you transfer all of your images to the apron.
   
• You can add hand-drawn dots, swirls, hearts, flowers, etc to make things fancier as well.  (little daisies on the teapot, for example, are quite nice!)