Lettuce Stamp tutorial

I don't know about you, but we buy a LOT of lettuce at our house! 2-3 heads of lettuce will usually be sufficient for one weeks time.

What can I say? we I love a good salad with lots of lettuce and spinach, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, candied nuts and strawberries ... YUM!

With that said, it should make perfect sense to say that I am admiring the beautiful color and texture of lettuce heads regularly.

Okay, that doesn't really make perfect sense, it just makes me sound strange ...
Here, you admire it too so I don't feel like such a dork.

okay, thanks.

So, you  know the base of the heads of lettuce that we just cut off and throw away?
I have a way we can USE them BEFORE they become trash!

Have you ever taken a second to look at the other side of those stubs?
Do these look like anything besides lettuce to you?

They look like flowers to me ...
So we are going to use them to make this in only 15 minutes:
Here's what else you need besides those lettuce stubs.
a t-shirt
freezer paper
a paint brush

and fabric paint

First thing you need to do is cover up that ribbed neckline.
I like to keep the collar paint free.

Take a big piece of freezer paper and place it on top of the collar.

Trace the seam between the collar and the shirt

Cut along your traced line and then you will have a triangle shape
(that is, if you are using a v-neck).
Iron that triangle right on top of the collar making sure the edge lines right up with the seam .

Then I cut two rectangles with straight lines and ironed them on the seam at the shoulder so I didn't accidentally stamp onto the back of the shirt.

Now your shirt is ready!
Grab your paint and your stub of lettuce.
(I cleaned the lettuce a little - removing a few of the outermost leaves)
Smear some paint on your lettuce making sure to cover ALL of the edges.

Now get stamping!
I like to start at the bottom of the v-neck.
That way, I know the rest will line up nicely.

You will need to reapply paint after every stamp and make sure you press firmly - sometimes the middle of the lettuce doesn't like to stamp as well as the rest.
(when that happens, I go back at the end having removed almost all of the outermost leaves ... leaving only the very center. Then, I stamp the center again by itself.)
You will end up with something like this:
(looks a little messy - you will be surprised at what you get when you take off the freezer paper!)

Let the paint dry and take off the freezer paper.
This is what it looks like...
(I'm showing you the pink shirt because the yellow one was too big for me and didn't look very good in pictures!)

Make sure to set the paint - read the bottle for instructions.

This is another great project to do with your daughters or grand-daughters! 

In 15 minutes they will have something finished, fun and new to wear!
This would also be a cute stamp on a canvas bag or backpack!

I bet after this tutorial you won't look at lettuce the same again! :)