The 'Boy' Bag

When we went to the powertex class a couple of weeks ago, Lin kindly brought me her Teesha Moore stamp, we call him 'the boy'. I used him with black paint to stamp onto fabric, then cut them into 7.5cm x 9.5cm pieces approx.

I was originally going to have 5 x 4 images, but when I put them on the fabric after I'd finally chose which I was going to use, I realised it would be a bit too big, so went with 4 x 3 instead.

I used a zig zag stitch between the images.

As I've never attempted a bag before I did look to see what I could find to help me on the internet but I think rather than helping it confused me, so I went my own way with it. I cut some panels for the bottom and sides.

I found some lovely green fabric which would work perfectly as a lining.

All the side panels sewn together.

And the tricky part, sewing the last panels and bottom together to make the bag shape.

Next came the straps for the handles.

Quite impressed with how the side panels came out, more by luck than judgement!

I turned the straps back the right way round,pinned them into the bag and when I'd got them where I wanted them, sewed them in.

Just tided up the top and the inside and there we are, all done. Very pleased with how it came out, especially for a first attempt.

And the sides don't look too bad either.

Tag Swap - Resist

I decided to use Andy Skinners technique using hair wax to create a resist. You can see it here. I cut a tag shape from a piece of white foam board and painted with media transparent yellow iron oxide and made the circles by dipping surgical spirits into the paint.

When dry I gave it a coat of media quinacridone burnt orange and whilst still wet, threw on some easy float solution. Placed plain paper over the top and lifted off the paint when the easy float had been.

Next I stamped images in black stazon. I love how it looks at this stage, but I had to continue as I'd not used any resist techniques yet!

Next I used the wax and a coat of purrisan blue hue. Looking back, I should have used a lighter blue, but hey ho!

Wiped back using the hair wax as the resist and I ended up with this.

More hair wax and then a layer of the multi surface satin paint in leprechaun.

And again, after it'd been wiped back but wax added ready for the next coat.

A coat of lace chalky paint and left to let completely dry.

I inked up my Hampton Art script stamp with stazon and stamped over the whole tag.

This is the final result after all the layers and waxing.

As I felt I'd 'lost' the main dragonfly image, I over stamped it and added a couple of bits of script over the green to break up the solid colour.

And for my second resist technique I used bondaweb. Sprayed the tag with orange media mister, ironed on the bondaweb, covered it with clear embossing powder and heated. Then sprayed it with violet shimmer.

You can see the shimmer here, especially on the left hand side.

As you can see because the bondaweb isn't solid, the violet has gone into the pitted areas but resisted where the embossing powder has melted.

Close up of the melted embossing powder and the media sprays.

And another one.

As I didn't want to cover too much of the background up, I cut out an image that had been stamped onto fabric and using the sewing machine sewed it onto the tag and doodled around the outside of the tag with a white posca pen.

Close up of the stitched image on the tag.

All products are from the DecoArt range.

Playing with Felt, Fabrics and BondaWeb

Been playing with fabric bits today.  Base is a piece of purple acrylic felt and then chopped pieces of organza, bits of cotton scrim, other scraps of fabric, then a layer of bondaweb.

Left - throwsters waste and gilding flakes ironed over the top

Right - cotton scrim and gilding flakes ironed over the top

Then I took a piece of bright red organza and stitched it over the top. I used gold to stitch around the borders.

And unfortunately you can't see this one very well, but I used a silky orange thread and a lovely stitch to add a grid to this piece.

So I've shown you the back, so you can see what I've done and the fab stitch that I didn't even know I had!!

I did make them with the intention of burning and making marks on them, but I quite like them how they are, so might leave these as they are and make some more.

Brushos and Bondaweb

The pieces of card were covered with bondaweb and brushos added. Top left brushos added then spritzed, bottom left card spritzed and brushos added and drippage, right card spritzed, brushos added and sandwiched with another piece of card to create different effects.

Stamped images have been added using black versa fine ink.

Love how the colours show through the creases in the trousers.

This one came out pretty cool too using blue and black inks to stamp with.

A Play with Tags

I'd been playing with brushos, bondaweb, bleach and straws to make different backgrounds. Here are a few I wanted to share.

The two on the right were created using the TH distress marker spritzer tool to blow the ink.

And this is what I did with them, stamped in bleach and black versa fine ink.

Purple and turquoise brusho on the tags.

Stamping with TH and Paper Bag Studio images, colour removed from the eye with bleach.

Love how the bleach showed on some of the purple splodges. Went backin with the bleach and removed the colour off the face and hands.

Another couple of background mop ups with the brusho.

The left is a tag I painted with silks last weekend, but I wanted to find out how they stamped on, and they are fabulous.  Other 2 are brusho and bleach backgrounds.

And again I went back in and took some colour from her eyes and legs.

And finally for this post, the background for the tags middle and left are created from the excess paint from the deli papers and simply stamped with LP & TH images. Tag on the right is some sort of bondaweb with a fabric texture as I painted brusho onto it and ironed it onto a tag. The ink looks dull as it soaked into the fabric.

This is the tag once it was ironed on.

And I'm sure you'll be pleased to know, that's it for today.