I hate having to keep a secret, and I've been keeping one all week! (Don't worry; if I'm keeping one for you, it's still safe.) But it's now safe to spill this one: I have been chosen to participate in Sin City Scraps' first ever Design Team! I am so excited to be a part of this team, and to work with Donna Harrison of Sin City Scraps, and Terri Sproul, designer extraordinaire, who is coordinating the team!
Each month my team members and I will make cards and altered art projects with Sin City's great rubber stamps and share them with you. In case you haven't seen these beautiful stamps, go here to check them out! I love them! And don't worry, there's nothing sinful about them!
We'll be posting new projects on the first, second, third and fourth Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each month for the next six months. That's a lot of projects! My posts will appear on the second and fourth Fridays of each month. Each team member will post her projects on her own blog and on Sin City Scraps' blog, which is here. You might want to bookmark it now, or follow it through Networked Blogs!
I hope we will inspire you to try your hand at some of our projects, or some of our own!
Merchant Square will have a jewelry sale just in time for Valentine's Day - next Wednesday, January 30, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. There will be lots of fine and costume jewelry, vintage and handcrafted. I will be there with some new handcrafted pieces, like this bracelet, featuring a beautiful silverplate wing stamping, adorned with freshwater pearls and a little Austrian crystal:
The address is 1509 N. Arizona Ave. in Chandler. While you're there, you can check out the new goodies I just put in my booth (Space 74), including lots of vintage doilies and some wonderful vintage wooden shoe lasts!
This post describes how I made the canvas shown above. My last post gave general tips for stamping and diecutting fabric, and you can read it here. These techniques are used in today’s project.
This post is actually my audition for the Sin City Scraps Design Team. If I am chosen for the team, I’ll get to create and share projects using the amazing stamps from Sin City Scraps!
If you’ve seen Donna’s stamps, you’ll know how much fun that will be. If you haven’t seen the Sin City stamps, please go take a look here!
For today’s project, I used cheesecloth. It comes in a variety of weaves, but the one I like is woven closely enough that you can stamp on it in pretty fine detail:
I chose it for this project because I wanted my diecuts to have the texture of fabric and I had a piece I had dyed in a really pretty color. For instructions of cold water dyeing, see my dyeing tutorial here. If you want to use cheesecloth for this project but don’t want to buy the specialty dyeing supplies, you can use several other methods. You can use Kool-Aid, Rit dye, tea, coffee or ink. Here is a piece I dipped in different strengths of cherry Kool-Aid:
Most articles about dyeing with Kool-Aid will tell you it only works for animal fibers. But since you aren’t going to wash it, it’s completely fine for most mixed media projects. I mixed unsweetened Kool-Aid powder with water and added a little vinegar to help the color set. The color will fade if you rinse the cheesecloth, even with the vinegar.
Here’s what you will need for today’s project:
Tools
Angel wing die
Die cutter and pads
Scissors
Paper cutter (optional)
Pattern stamp
Phrase stamp
Cosmetic sponge
Nonstick baking sheet and waxed paper, or nonstick craft sheet
Foam paintbrush
Craft foam
Clothes hanger
Clothespins
Brayer (optional)
Supplies
Canvas panel (mine is 6" x 8")
Cheesecloth or other fabric (you could use paper instead, but I like the texture of fabric)
Plain white paper
Chalk ink: yellow ochre, toffee, dark brown
Mod Podge (I like matte)
Gel Medium (optional; I like matte)
Ribbon for hanging (optional)
Cardstock to cover back of canvas
I wanted to stamp a pattern on my cheesecloth and then stiffen it with Mod Podge so I could put it through my diecutter. I tested it by applying some of the ink I wanted to use, to make sure my design would show up. This is chalk ink (toffee).
I put the cheesecloth on top of a sheet of craft foam and applied the ink with a foam stamp.
One thing I love about chalk ink is that you can heat set it with an iron, so you don’t have to wait for it to dry. And it won’t run when you put on the Mod Podge! So after I heat set the ink, I laid the cheesecloth in my nonstick baking pan lined with waxed paper, applied matte Mod Podge to both sides using a foam paintbrush, and hung the piece up to dry with clothespins on a hanger. Details about this method are in my post about stamping and diecutting fabric (here).
While the Mod Podge was drying, I prepared my canvas. I wanted a simple background so the wings would stand out. I used a cosmetic sponge to apply three colors of chalk ink to the canvas. I dabbed the wedge of sponge on the ink pad and applied it to the canvas, starting at the edge and pulling it toward the center but not going all the way to the center, and worked my way around the edge. I started with yellow ochre:
Then I added toffee, pulling the sponge further in toward the center. Then I added a little bit of dark brown at the edges:
The idea is to give the canvas an aged or distressed look, but I especially wanted very little color in the center because I wanted it to look as if light were shining from there.
Once the cheesecloth dried, I cut my wings. The die had two different wings. I chose the one on the left:
I wanted to have some control over which part of my stamped design ended up on my diecut, so I put a piece of white paper through the cutter and used the result as a window or stencil for placement:
I wanted to cut a piece of fabric that was just big enough, so I trimmed closely around the wing and then used that to cut the fabric. I wanted a piece of fabric that was just a little bigger than the wing, because the die has two different wings and if I had put a larger piece of fabric through, the die would have cut out both wings and I might not have had enough fabric to make my second wing.
Now I had the fabric cut the way I wanted it, but it was almost impossible to see where to put it on the black foam of the die. So I laid the white cutout on the die, matching the outline of the wing.
Then that told me where to put the cheesecloth, and I left the white paper in place while I put the cloth through the cutter:
To make the first wing, I put the fabric right side up. Since the second wing is a mirror image of the first, I put the fabric wrong side down for the second wing. It may not have mattered much in this case, because the cheesecloth is close to transparent and the pattern I stamped isn’t really directional, but I wanted to be careful, in case it was noticeable. You would certainly want to do this for any fabric that is not the same on both sides.
I laid the wings on the canvas to check the spacing.
I knew I wanted to add a phrase, but I didn't want to stamp directly on the canvas. There’s nothing wrong with stamping right on the canvas. If your canvas has been primed, it will take stamping pretty well. If your canvas hasn’t been primed, you can coat it with gesso and let it dry before you ink or stamp it. I just didn’t want to stamp right onto the canvas because I was afraid I wouldn’t get a clean impression and then I’d have to start all over. I like to use this “indirect” method of stamping because I can stamp as many samples as I like and use whichever one looks best.
First, I stamped my phrase on a piece of the cheesecloth that had not been stiffened. I have a magnetic alphabet stamp set that allows me to spell out whatever I want to say. I liked the color combination but the cheesecloth kept shifting and it looked crooked.
So I decided to stamp the phrase onto a stiffened piece of cheesecloth. I cut the stiffened cheesecloth with my rotary blade paper cutter, because I wanted a nice rectangle. Using a piece that had already been stamped gave a little more depth. I stamped the phrase on top of the dried Mod Podge with dark brown chalk ink. I don’t think you should try to heat set the fabric with Mod Podge on it, so you may have to be a little patient at this point. I used a cosmetic sponge to apply toffee chalk ink to the edges of the wings and the rectangle with the phrase, to give some definition and contrast. I also added a little more dark brown chalk ink around the edges of the canvas.
Then I applied matte gel medium where I wanted the wings and phrase, put them on the canvas and pressed down on them. Then I added a layer of gel medium all over the top of the diecuts, rectangle and canvas: You can use Mod Podge here, but I like the gel medium. You can also use wax. When I use wax, I put a little under the diecut, apply my heat source (mini iron) on top of the diecut to melt the wax, then let it cool before adding wax all over the top of the diecut and canvas. Here's a little canvas with wax:
If you don’t want to display the canvas in an easel, you can add a hanger. I had a piece of seam binding that matched the cheesecloth I used, and I adhered it to the back of the canvas with gel medium:
Then I covered the back with a piece of cardstock and rolled my brayer over it to make sure it was glued down evenly (tip: I put a piece of plain white paper between my brayer and whatever I am smoothing over, just in case there’s stray ink or anything else on my brayer).
Now my canvas can hang anywhere:
I hope you will try stamping and diecutting fabric. There is really no end to what you can do with these techniques! Please let me know if you have any questions!
Did you know you can stamp and diecut fabric? Here are some tips.
Basically, the smoother the fabric, the better your impressions and cuts will be.
Stamping on Fabric
You can use chunky stamps and acrylic paints to stamp on lots of fabrics, but I like using my regular stamps and inks, too.
Cotton made with fine, tightly woven fibers works great. You can stamp pretty fine lines on muslin:
I am using chalk ink here, because it is my favorite. It’s thin enough to make fine lines, thick enough that it doesn’t run, and can be heat set.
More loosely woven fabrics, like burlap, don’t take the fine lines well but are pretty good with chunkier stamps:
I recommend testing any fabric before you embark on a project. I’ve had bad luck stamping polyesters but good luck with cottons, including blends. I have stamped on twill tape, bias tape and seam binding. It can help to put a sheet or two of craft foam under your fabric.
Diecutting Fabric
Again, the more tightly woven the fabric is, the better it cuts. I’ve had good luck with muslin and even with satin and taffeta. Sometimes when you put fabrics through the diecutter, you will have little bits of fiber that did not get a clean cut. Don’t pull them. That can weaken the structure or make the weave crooked. Just trim the edges with small, sharp scissors.
When you try to use loosely woven fabrics in the diecutter, you may run into trouble. They don’t have as much structure as the tightly woven fabrics and they tend to fall apart. So here is a trick for diecutting fabrics like burlap. Coat them with Mod Podge! The idea is to get enough Mod Podge on the piece to hold the fibers together even after cutting.
I like to use an old nonstick baking pan with shallow sides, like a jelly roll pan. I line it with waxed paper. You can use a nonstick craft sheet, but I like the waxed paper because I can throw away the sticky mess at the end. Just cut a small piece of your fabric and lay it in your pan or on your surface. I limit it to the size of the pan. Then use a foam paintbrush to apply Mod Podge (I like the matte finish) to one side and then the other. It helps to leave a dry edge to hold onto. You want to coat your fabric pretty thoroughly but it shouldn’t be dripping. Then I hang it up to dry with clothespins and old hangers. I found that if I let it dry on the pan, the Mod Podge pools up on the bottom and it looks terrible. I tried letting one side dry and then turning it over and applying Mod Podge to the other side, but that did not solve the problem. So the good news
is that you can do both sides at the same time, but the bad news is that you
have to find a place to hang it up while it dries. The other good news is that this frees up your pan so you can prepare quite a few pieces at the same time. If the piece is wide, it helps to put two or three clothespins on it so that it will dry relatively flat. I tried this with all-purpose glue, and it did work, but the glue pooled up even more and the piece was brittle when it dried.
Here is a piece of coated burlap drying:
As you can see, I stamped a design on the burlap before I coated it with Mod Podge. You can also stamp over the Mod Podge, but the look is a little different. The chunkier stamp still makes the best impression:
Once the Mod Podge dries, I just cut the fabric into shapes and sizes appropriate for the dies I want to use. I am working on a project featuring angel wings, so here are some wings.
First, stamped burlap:
Next, dyed burlap:
Regular dies can cut lots of types of woven fabrics, but I do recommend trying a sample before you embark on a project. Regular Sizzix dies do a fine job of cutting stiffened burlap, and so do the Spellbinders wafer-thin dies, but the Sizzlits do not work. All of them, including the Sizzlits, will cut stiffened cheesecloth.
Tomorrow’s post features a project using stamped and diecut cheesecloth. I hope you will join me again!
I bought a beautiful piece of hand dyed seam binding at the Art Unraveled Shopping Extravaganza one year, but when I went back the next year to get more, the vendor was not there. Now I am a vendor at the same show, and I decided to fill the void by making my own hand dyed fibers. I am sharing my method with you in this post.
It’s fun but messy and time-consuming. You can buy the finished products from my Etsy shop. But if you want to try it yourself, here goes!
I absolutely love the results I am getting, but I should warn you that I am not an expert at dyeing. This is just an explanation of how I dye certain fibers. If you want to learn more, a quick search online or at the public library will yield lots of reference material.
I use an immersion dyeing method, but some people “paint” the fibers with inks, paints and markers. You can make some really beautiful pieces this way, but if you are making clothing, accessories or jewelry, you will want to check the colorfastness of any method you use. You don’t want the color rubbing off on someone’s skin or clothing.
I use a cold water fabric dye designed for cellulose fibers. It works well on plant fibers but not on synthetics. It is not meant
for wool, but I have had good luck with silk. It is great on cotton, jute and rayon. The seam binding I use is rayon, which is made from plant pulp. Seam binding is aptly named; it was originally designed to bind raw seams in sewing. It is light and flexible, so it can follow the curve of any seam without adding lots of bulk to your garment. Rayon is perfect for cold water dyes, and its flexibility makes it great for jewelry. You will appreciate this if you have ever tried to make a piece of jewelry with satin or grosgrain ribbon and found that it does not drape well. I think Procion is the best known cold water dye. Dharma Trading carries its own brand, which is less expensive. I like both.
The Cold Water Dyeing Process
You will need:
Cellulose fiber to dye (prewash if necessary to remove sizing or other substances)
Cold water dye (Procion and Dharma Trading brands come as a powder in a plastic container)
Water
Soda ash
Container to soak fiber
Container(s) to mix dye
Spoon or other tool to stir soda ash mixture and dye mixture
Measuring cup for water
Measuring spoons for soda ash and dye
Protective gloves
Tray or rack for drying dyed fibers
First, protect yourself and your studio. You will want to wear rubber or vinyl gloves so you don’t dye your hands (but if you do get dye on your hands, it should disappear within a few days). And you will want to protect the surfaces in your studio. I work in my kitchen, and I’ve had pretty good luck so far. This dye has not permanently stained my counters, floor or sink. But I have splashed the dye bath onto my kitchen curtains, and it did stain them. So now I set up a barrier behind my work area using the lids from two large plastic storage containers. And I recommend cleaning up any spill right away, before it can set. You should also wear clothes you don’t mind staining, including shoes (yes, I have stained my shoes). It’s funny that you have to soak your fibers in a special solution to make the dye stay in them, but it will stay in anything you accidentally spill it on without any special help at all.
Next, the fibers you plan to dye need to soak in a soda ash solution. This prepares the fiber to accept the dye. The instructions on the dye container usually give proportions for each type of dye process. I have been using two tablespoons of soda ash in one gallon of water. This works for me, but I think darker colors may require more soda ash. When I rinse my fibers, I wash away lots of dye, which works for me, because I am aiming for a soft, muted look. Mix the soda ash into the water and stir until it dissolves. Then add your fibers to the mixture and let them soak for 30 minutes. I do this in a big plastic bucket. Here is my bucket filled with fibers:
For seam binding, twine, twill tape and threads, I measure and cut the length I want, loop it around my hand and tie it. But you can dye a larger length and cut it later, too. This is what my little bundle of seam binding looks like:
Then, mix your dye. I have purposely kept my entire process to a small scale, but you don’t have to. I mix three strengths of the same color so that I can create an ombre effect. I use three large yogurt containers. After I spilled dye all over my cutting board and counter, I started putting the dye containers on a tray to catch spills. You can use the colors as they come from the manufacturer or mix your own colors. You just add the dye powder to water and stir. There is an additive available to help the dye dissolve completely, but I haven’t tried it. I keep a journal in which I record the formula for each dye batch, so I can recreate or adjust any color. The Procion label says to use two teaspoons of dye to eight ounces of water, but because I am making pale colors, I don’t use that much. In order to measure small amounts consistently, I bought this special measuring spoon set:
Now you are ready to dye some fibers! I learned that it is much less messy to wring out an entire batch of fibers at the same time and then dye them. At first, I was grabbing an item from my soda ash mix, squeezing the liquid out, dipping it in the dye, laying it on a tray and then starting over. But there was lots of dripping! So now I wring out a whole batch of fiber and then dye it. So choose what you want from your soda ash and squeeze the liquid out of each piece. I do the seam binding first because it is delicate and it doesn’t make a mess in the soda ash liquid. Burlap makes a mess, so I do it last.
I like to test the strength of the dye by dipping a white paper towel or a piece of scrap fabric into each dye bath. It will dry much lighter, but it gives me an idea of what the color will look like and helps me determine whether the three strengths vary enough.
For the ombre seam binding, I dip each length into the lightest dye bath first, then halfway into the middle dye bath, and then about a quarter or a third of the way into the darkest dye bath. After each dip, I squeeze out the excess dye mixture. Eventually, each dye bath changes a little because of excess amounts dripping, but I’m happy with the look, so it’s okay with me. If you want the dye bath to be more consistent, you will need to make sure you don’t drip one bath into the other. I haven’t tried dyeing one piece in multiple colors, so I don’t know if you need to let it dry in between colors or not. I guess that will be an adventure for 2013!
I don’t know how long the dye bath stays potent. I have let it sit for a couple of hours while I soaked more fibers, and it was fine. A basketmaker told me she keeps mixed Rit dye for long periods of time, but I don’t know if the cold water dyes act the same way. I usually keep soaking fabrics until I use most of the dye I have mixed.
After each piece is dipped in the dye baths, I lay it on a tray. You can line the tray with paper towels to soak up some of the excess dye. If you don’t line the tray with something absorbent, some of the dye that drips off may be reabsorbed by the seam binding, which makes a nice effect. If I use a metal tray, I line the tray with plastic wrap, because I’m not sure if the dye will interact with the metal.
You can also hang your pieces to dry, but I don’t do that while they are really wet because I’ve had them drip dye all over my floor!
I let the seam binding dry on the tray. Then I rinse it in cool running water until the water runs clear. Then I let it dry again.
I like to iron the seam binding (on medium heat).
But some people like it crinkled. To crinkle it, just scrunch it up in your hand while it is wet and let it dry.
While I've got everything set up, I usually try to keep dyeing until I've used most of the dye I've mixed. I like to have twine, twill tape, embroidery floss and perle cotton to match the seam binding. And I usually add a little burlap and cheesecloth at the end. When I did this aqua batch, I had some left and tried a few new items. I put in some gauze and cheesecloth. I didn't presoak them, so the dye won't stay if I rinse them, but it should be fine for mixed media projects. I also used the dye like a wash on some canvases and even a wooden panel:
You can even dye paper with the solution! But I don't recommend trying to rinse it. You can apply it with a sponge or sponge brush.
I would love to hear about your adventures if you decide to try hand dyeing!
This isn't my normal type of post, but this is so cute I have to share. My husband left me this love note yesterday:
He scratched the words in with the tine of a fork. It turns out he had read a Readers Digest that suggested you surprise a loved one by scratching a note in a banana with a toothpick. I think you could do it with a capped pen or the end of a small paintbrush, too. You don't want to pierce the skin. Just press hard enough to bruise it. I don't actually pack my lunch, since I work at home, but I think this would be a sweet treat for someone who does take their lunch to work or school!
All text and photos copyright Karen Lackey, 2011-2016, unless otherwise noted. You may link to text but please do not copy it. If you use my photos, please give credit and link back to the original post. Thanks!
Sin City Stamps provides free and discounted rubber stamps to its Design Team members.
