She Said Yes!
MERRYYYY CHRSISTMAS from the studio!!!!!!
This past weekend I had a spontaneous DIY project request from dear dear friends of mine. The request was for a gift for him to propose to her with yours truly included in being part of the plotting.
THE CONCEPT of the PROPOSAL
He called me on Saturday night; ironically that phone call woke me up from K.O after a wedding I had just attended. He said I want to propose Monday,Christmas Eve are you free. She would love it if you would be there. So naturally, my answer was YES! I have known her for 6 years now, and she's been through the thick and thin, the negative and positive attributes of each season of my life. SO YES I want to be there when she says YES!
We put our heads together, and the concept went form an empty box to filling a gift box with something that she wants but can't find. The story behind that is that she gave me a gift in 2010 that I wanted but could not find. (it was a Derek Fisher #2 jersey in size small, sports fans out there would know how rare that is without costing a whole lot of money) THE POINT was to get the ecstatic can't stop laughing, crying, exaggeration, and excitement of FINALLY! (not that a ring wasn't enough, we wanted her to feel deeply loved and thought of). SO I asked him, "What does she want that she can't find anywhere?" The thing with her and I is that we tend not to get that wow factor surprise often. Usually we are the ones who are offering that rather than receiving it, or maybe its just in our personality to just be more conserved. BUT his and my goal was to get her to have a surprised outburst, the fullness of JOY!
His answer to my question was "She wants a Daisy Duck t-shirt, with a matching Donald Duck t-shirt for me, she can't find it anywhere. We looked everywhere, asked, and looked online, its rare, and she can't find it. Disney staff says they don't make Daisy Duck t-shirts due to low popularity." He asked me if I could make couples t-shirts to be part of the proposal. I was like YOU want this by MONDAY, its already Saturday night! But of course for her and what she's done for me, this is the least that I could do. Throughout the last few days we've been plotting texting, fibbing, and working.
Finally the day has come it's Christmas Eve today in just half an hour it will be Christmas Day. The proposal we planned was a 3 step gifting. 1) first tee for her, with a tag attached with 2) instructions of the proposal written out with painted embellishments (kind of like an extra large scrapbook like tee shirt tag) He got down on one knee and said what he had written to her, we were in a loud area, thus why I made a tag with the proposal written out so she could follow along if she couldn't hear or was flabbergasted. SHE SAID YES!!! and of course she thought that was the end bc she got both of what she has been waiting for, a Daisy Duck Tee and a ring! I signaled for 3)and a friend ran over with another box. It was the matching Donald Duck Tee. She could not stop laughing. The best part of the entire experience was that she was like where did you get this, she sniffed the shirt and goes it smells like someone painted it. (sorry it was a rushed job girl had no time to air it out). The other best part was how confused she looked at step two. I had lied and said that I got her a Christmas present, so while she was reading the tag, she was confused of the wording. So when she actually did follow the instructions and asked me if she should TURN AROUND and LOOOK DOWN! Yes, It was beautiful here in Los Angeles after the rain. I am so proud to have been part of his and her special day. I look forward to so much more.
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| SHE SAID YES |
PICTURES AND TIPS FOR DIY MATCHING COUPLE TEE SHIRTS
Due to time, I will admit I broke the unwritten code of illustrators, don't trace, always alter the image to be your own. BUT since its Disney Characters and its licensed, and I am not putting these tees up for resale, I just traced due to time constraints. I very much appreciated the painting process since it was too short noticed to do silkscreen. PLUS most silkscreen vendors may not do it because of licensing. I am very thankful for Disney coloring pages that any parent can Google and print for their kids. I chose a higher quality tee, I wanted to see how painting on fine cotton compared to normal cotton. IT MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE! Smoother finishes, and less of a weave for the color to set into. I chose: American Apparel Unisex Fine Jersey Crew Neck Tee. He wanted white and light blue/sky blue both in medium. This turn around for this project was very time constrained. This was great practice for unbelievably tight deadlines. 2 hand painted tee shirts in less than 24 hours+its the holidays so there is plenty other things to do too. These are tips that made the process go faster.
TIPS for prepping the tees: before drawing or painting your t-shirt, IRON IT, smooth out your working surface. the ink/paint will set that wrinkle in, and lastly use a cardboard box, not any other smooth surface to insert into the tee to help make a flat absorbent surface, and tape the excess material to the back to make the tee loosely taunt. The paint I used was acrylic paints. TIPS for painting: use several flower dishes, mix pure colors straight out of the tube to get graphic flat look, when mixing your colors look for a milky consistency in your paint as you add the water with a ketchup squeeze bottle. Take your time when you are mixing your colors, and it will make your painting speed up 20xs. Use good brushes, and keep the water clean for more pure colors.
Here are the results:
TIPS for Design and Layout: Think about the way couples walk and what it would look like. Make sure the colors match, or have consistency that would help the tees match. I chose red as my matching color, simple and symbolic. He asked me to stay traditional to the characters original looks. He also wanted a cross between vintage and graphic. So I chose 90's Disney Character Styling. I use to have a Mickey Mouse Tee with simple colors and warm black outlining. THINK AHEAD, the paint will fade as any normal laundry would when you wash it, so think about the brightness of your colors, and let the age count for the design. Since he did want a vintage graphic look, in the future, the shirts will stay classic as the colors may fade Think about the details and what matters. THIS was a BIG day for both of them. So the DATE and HER ANSWER was the most important part of this gift/memorabilia. Keeping the designs simple is best, so that its serving its purpose clearly. Lastly Think about their personality, and how you can portray that into the design.
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