Hand Carved Stamp Art - making an old bikini new again

Here's a little project I did to revamp an old bikini.  I am currently in love with anything chevron or tribal and handcrafted block-printed fabrics are to die for (but a tad pricey).  I am on a tight budget so no shopping for me!  I decided I would be creative today and try my hand at this block printing thing I've been seeing around the web.  Plus it will add a little something to a basic black bikini I have hanging around - and if it doesn't turn out then no biggie...

First off I raided my parents wine cork stash and picked two clean corks to carve up.

I drew a triangle and chevron pattern on each cork then took a utility knife and carved them out.  These patterns are super simple and not hard to carve at all - I find that simple looks best when making a stamp and the end result will depend on how you use the pattern in repeats or design.

I decided to forgo the chevron and stick with the triangle.  I measured where I wanted the stamps to be placed on the bikini and laid some tape down as guidelines.  I used a small paintbrush to apply paint to the stamp before printing.  Then stamp!

It looked pretty good as is, but the paint I used came out a little faint.  I don't know if it was because I was just using crafters acrylics or if it was inevitable with the black background.  So I decided to paint another layer over the stamped image.  This was easy and really made the gold stand out.

I measured and added a second layer of triangles (yet another Jinx photobomb).  I used Golden brand acrylics paint in Iridescent Gold.

It's hard to get a final result picture without blatantly showing my boobies but it is a bikini so here it is...

I am fairly happy with the results.  This is just a lay-out-in-the-sun bikini so the paint should last. The rows of triangles were less straight than I anticipated due to boobie curve (doh, should have realized this) but it looks pretty neat - and the bottoms that go with this bikini have gold hardware details at the hips so it looks like it was meant to go together.

I definitely want to make some more stamps and do up a scarf with this printing technique.  I will also research and invest in some fun fabric inks!