How to make a custom car windshield sun shade inspired by the book 1,000 Ideas for Graffiti and Street Art

Momma's got a brand new canvas!!!! It's all thanks to the book 1,000 Ideas for Graffiti and Street Art. I never thought about car windshield sun shades as a place to make art, but there you have it! Just one more spot to paint, collage, decoupage and otherwise make your mark!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? OK I'm a dork but coming from someone whose walls are packed with art already and there is barely a stitch of clothing that I haven't attacked, a girl needs a place to be creative. Not only that, this art will be seen on the street and how cool is that to be able to share!?!?! Scroll down to see how I made my first car sun shade design.

This is a page from 1,000 Ideas for Graffiti and Street Art that shows an artist sharing his art and sentiment (even though I "erased" part of it I'm sure you know what he's saying). It was spotted in Lisbon, Portugal by Target.

1,000 Ideas for Graffiti and Street Art:

Murals, Tags, and More from Artists Around the World

by

Cristian Campos

Graffiti and street art used to be a sure sign of a neighborhood’s neglect. Even though it is still a countercultural art form, its role has grown: it enlivens public space, provides social commentary, and adds humor and color to the urban and suburban landscape. 

1,000 Ideas for Graffiti and Street Art is a showcase of urban art suitable for artists of any medium, designers, and other creative artists looking for urban-style inspiration for their visual work. A visual catalog, it is both a practical, inspirational handbook and a coffee-table conversation piece. Graffiti and street artists—rebellious and non-rebellious alike—will relish the opportunity to have so many ideas for color play, illustration, and wild expressions at their fingertips.

Inside you’ll find:

-1,000 photographs of graffiti and other types of urban art, with captions that feature location (city, state, country) artist name (if known).

-Artwork sorted into categories such as letterforms, stencils, portraits, murals, nature, tags, throw-ups, pieces, and productions

-Urban art glossary, basic aerosol painting and street art techniques, and more

Cristian Campos is a Barcelona-based editor and journalist that specializes in design, comics, illustration, and music. Former editor-in-chief of H Magazine, he regularly contributes to publications such as Rolling Stone and Man. He is the author of more than ten books, including Graphic Design in Holland and The New Wave of Japanese Illustration.

Want to see more inside 1,000 Ideas for Graffiti and Street Art? Well then pop on over to this link to Qbookshop and hit the "Google Preview Button" for more graffiti goodness.

OK here is my custom car windshield shade:

And here is how to make a custom car windshield shade:

I started with a windshield shade that was a freebie promo item. I enlarged a photo of my favorite pair of scissors to use as my pattern. I printed them out on 2 pieces of paper and taped them together.

Then I went to my stash of fabric samples. You know those swatches that oftentimes have cardboard attached. I only needed scraps. I found a cool plaid that had red in it and that would match my car. The scrap would be big enough to cover the logo. I also found a metallic fabric that had a not-so-pretty floral pattern but I thought would look cool as sort of texture on the scissors.

The plaid fabric had 3 sides already with a pinked edge and I wanted the 4th side to be pinked. So I popped off the straight blade on my Simplicity Rotary Cutter and popped on the pinking blade.

I did a test on some scrap fabric.

All good for cutting the 4th edge with a nice pinked cut.

I Mod Podged the square onto the shade by just applying the Mod Podge to the parameter. I used my pattern weights (also known as river rocks) to hold the fabric in place as I turned up each side and spread the Mod Podge.

For the scissors, I decided to use Heat & Bond because the lame fabric frays a lot and I was going to be doing quite a bit of detailed cutting of the shape. I transferred my scissor image onto the back of the Heat & Bond with my scissors upside down. Then I rough cut the Heat & Bond and very carefully ironed it onto the lame fabric taking care not to melt the fabric. I used 2 press cloths and the glue did come though the lame fabric a bit as it is really thin. Then I cut along the lines I transferred to get my pretty scissor image.

All that was left to do was again very carefully iron the lame scissors onto the windshield shade.

The other side of the windshield shade will most likely have a bunny of some sort on it but I didn't want to make you wait to see this idea for making a custom windshield sun shade before I got it done!

Comments

[Leisa Dreps]

Now that's just simply brilliant! I'd love to have one for my sedan. Now windshield art isn't just confined to just decals.

[Car Sun Shades]

These kind of post are always inspiring and I prefer to read quality content so I'm happy to find many good point here in the post, writing is simply great, thank you for the post.

[Dustcarts]

Your car will keep its beautiful new look. In addition the cover protects from bird droppings which are ugly, dirty and unpleasant. No more splotches and stains.

[Flavia Casumpang]

Wow! Saves money, helps you be creative... great idea! Hmmm... I'm thinking about a design that could doubly be funny, like an angry dog barking to keep off those who attempt to do something to your car. What do you think?

[Plumbing]

Cool ideas. Thanks for sharing all of unique ideas. I'll be looking forward for your next post.

[tyre changing machines]

Choosing some dark shades for a windshield would help too and it'll save a lot of money. So many have attempted to do this project.