Blog

Art Sparks is doing a blog-hop of holiday tutorials. I wasn’t able to participate this time around. However, please visit these sites as there are some very cool free instructions from some talented ladies!

Dec 4 - Lyric Kinard, Snowflake Pinwheel Ornament
Dec 5 – Tracie Lyn Huskamp, Chalk Board Tags
Dec 6 – Judy Perez, Speculatius-St. Nicolas cookies
Dec 7 – Jill Berry, Mini Book Ornament
Dec 8 – Traci Bunkers, Star Garland
Dec 9 - Lisa Engelbrecht, Easy Gilded Letters for Cards

Currently Lyric’s and Tracie’s tutorials are live.  I’ll add the actual link for new each new tutorial as they are available!

The Art Spark group has done another round of fabulous tutorials, this time Valentine Day inspired.  Because I was away, I didn’t participate.  However, if you haven’t yet seen this bog-hop tutorial round, please check out these links.  Each project is really, really good stuff!

Day 1 with Jane LaFazio — sketchbook to valentine card with an envelope, too. 

Day 2 with Traci Bunkers – Printed Heart Ice Cube Tray: Quick Printed Backgrounds

Day 3 with Diana Trout — Woven heart pop-up card

Day 4 with Lyric Kinard — Valentine postcard with a thermafax screen

Day 5 with Judy Perez– Chocolate Peppermint Cream Heart Cakes — yummy!!!

Day 6 with Kelli Nina Perkins — Heart Felt Soaps

Day 7 with Melanie Testa — a tutorial using stamps, sweet imagery and perforated edges

Day 8 with: Tracie Lyn Huskamp — a very pretty Message Pillow

It’s that time of year!
To celebrate Cyber-Monday, here are some offerings from the members of ArtSpark.
Click any of the images for more information.

My Digital Essentials book at special price and with a free gift.

Carla has fabulous online classes!

Traci Bunkers has a deal on her Moldable Foam Stamp Kits

Jane LaFazio has all kinds of cool things going on in her Etsy shop.

Tracie Lyn Huskamp has a gorgeous Nature Inspired Birds calendar

Lyric Kinard's very instructive DVD.

This is a heart map from Jill K. Berry's new book, Personal Geographies: Explorations in Mixed-Media Mapmaking. There's a 35% off offer on the book AND a blog hop schedule for a chance to win a free copy. Be sure to return here on Wednesday where I'll be offering a chance to win a copy of her fabulous new book.

Today is the last day of the ArtSpark tutorials. Here is the complete list, with direct links, and a small image to whet your appetite:

Jane LaFazio - Sketch and Stitch Bag

Lyric Kinard - Glitter, Glisten, Glimmer: Beaded Snowflake Ornament

Tracie Lyn Huskamp - A Christmas Cardinal Ornament

Traci Bunkers - Moldable Foam Stamps

Melanie Testa -- zipper tutorial

Judy Coates Perez - Folk Art Inspired Ornament

Kelli Nina Perkins - Whimsical Spool Garland

Lisa Engelbrecht - Experimental Lettering

Diana Trout - Eco Wrap with Cloth, Furoshiki

Jill Berry - Geo Papers and Projects

Gloria Hansen - Resizing an Image the Easy Way - Pt 1: Resampling

Okay, it’s not winter, and I’m not one to rush winter.  I like the summer.  Even so, it’s time for the fabulous ladies of Artspark to being another round of free tutorials for you to follow which we’re calling our Winter Tutorial Bloghop.  For my tutorial, the last on the list, I’m going to create a short video on resizing digital images.  I’m doing this because I get many questions asking for help with resizing.  My hope is that when you watch me go through the steps, it will all be clear.

Here’s the list … they are excellent!  Check them out.  Each

• November 9: Jane LaFazio – Sketch & Stitch Gift Bags 
• November 10: Lyric Kinard – Glitter, Glisten, Glimmer: Beaded Snowflake Ornament
• November 11: Tracie Lyn Huskamp – Tutorial: A Christmas Cardinal Ornament
• November 13: Traci Bunkers – Moldable Foam Stamps
• November 14: Melanie Testa — zipper tutorial
• November 15: Judy Coates Perez – Folk Art Inspired Ornament
• November 16: Kelli Nina Perkins – Whimsical Spool Garland
• November. 17: Lisa Engelbrecht – Experimental Lettering
• November 18: Jill Berry – Geo Papers and Projects
• November 19: Gloria Hansen Resizing an Image the Easy Way
• November 20: Diana Trout  – Eco Wrap with Cloth, Furoshiki

Today is the final day in this wave of Art Spark’s “tut tsunami.” My tutorial contribution is Shibori using fabric paint rather than dye. Margaret Hunt, a talented fiber artist from SC, had a blog post of the beautiful results of some of the painted Shibori she did. You can see her work here. Seeing her post reminded me of how much I’ve enjoyed this technique. When it was my time to come up with a tutorial, I decided if the weather was good, I’d do it on this topic.  If it wasn’t, I’d do a Photoshop video. The sun was shining, and Shibori won.

Shibori comes from a Japanese word meaning to squeeze, press, or wring. Today it’s basically known as a resist-dyeing technique that uses anything from clamping and pleating to tieing and stitching with the goal of creating patterned fabric. In the following tutorial, rather than using dye, I am using fabric paint. While I’ve had various Shibori dyeing classes over the years, I first learned to use fabric paint with Shibori when I took a class from Debra Lunn back in the early 1990s. I was always grateful for that class because it opened my eyes to how versatile fabric paint can be.

To do this project, you’ll need fabric. I use PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric from TestFabrics, Inc. I generally use either 400M, which is bleached mercerized cotton, or 419, which is bleached mercerized combed cotton broadcloth. However, you can also successfully use fabric that you previously dyed or light colored solids.

You’ll also need fabric paints. I like an assortment — Setacolor, Jacquard, Stewart Gill, Golden, and so on.  With fabric paint, you’ll need brushes. I like using different widths of house painting brushes, but foam brushes will work. Also add the obvious things such as containers for paint (and to mix paint in), water, and something to cover your work surface  (yes, I know the plastic I’m using in the back yard as seen its day). You’ll also need some rubber bands (or string).

Lastly, you’ll need PVC piping. PVC piping comes in a variety of widths and lengths and is available from home repair stores such as Lowes and Home Depot. Often you can find shorter end pieces for sale. Generally they are in a bin at the end of a row where the piping is sold. It’s a good deal because you can buy useful lengths in different widths often for less money than a long piece of one width. Different widths will give different results. (A tip:  If you find end pieces, try to nest one inside the next so that you can get a variety of widths and store them more easily.) Otherwise, you can buy a full length and ask a clerk to cut it to whatever lengths you want to work with. Generally speaking, the longer the pole, the easier it is to wrap large pieces of fabric. However, when starting out it’s far more manageable to use a shorter pole and smaller pieces of fabric (such as a quarter or half) to get the hang of things. In this tutorial, I’m using thinner width, shorter pipes.

First you’ll need to wrap the fabric around the pole. I do this by placing the fabric onto a table. Then, in this example, I am starting with a corner and rolling on the diagonal. Slide the pipe in one direction so that some of the pipe is always sticking out from one side.  Try to keep the fabric flat.

In this example, I’m wrapping a piece of fabric that I folded in half.  You can try all sorts of things like wrapping on the straight, creating a tube, fold on the diagonal, and so on.

After you have so much fabric rolled on, push the fabric toward one end of the pipe,

and secure the bottom portion of the fabric with a rubber band.

Continue rolling and pushing the fabric down until all of the fabric is scrunched together.

Secure the other end with a rubber band. While I am using rubber bands, you can wrap string around the fabric.  You can also experiment with using string to tightly wrap the length of the fabric to create an additional resist. The tighter your wrap, the more resist there will be. If you have a large piece of fabric, a very tight wrap will create more of a resist meaning less paint will penetrate the fabric. It’s a matter of experimentation and knowing what your goals are. If you like a lot of unpainted areas, push the fabric closer together and tighter. You’ll see I don’t worry about precision.  If you want precise, you can use a butter knife to push any ends neatly into folds.

Once you have some poles (pipes) wrapped, you can begin painting.  Although I haven’t done so above, you can wrap more than one piece of fabric on a pole.

For this piece, I mixed black Jacquard fabric paint with water. It’s about half and half.  I also added a touch of metallic black.  (I stopped using the Golden fabric additive long ago and have not ever had any problems.)  Brush on your paint.  If you want more resist (or white showing), keep the paint on the outsides only.  If you want less resist (or more paint showing) keep applying more paint so it soaks in deeper.  You can also try misting the fabric with water before adding the paint.  The more the fabric is initially misted, the more the paint will run and less resist you will have.  In other words, experiment.

When it’s finished, I leave it inside a five gallon pale and continue to the next piece.

For the next piece, I’m combining primaries. Add lighter colors first to give them a chance to penetrate.  In this case, I am starting with yellow.

Next I added red.

For some interest, I added a less diluted bright pink.

The last color I added was blue. Each color was brushed in as I wanted the colors to penetrate as much as possible while still having enough resist to make a pattern.

Continue painting your pole (pipe) wrapped fabrics until you are satisfied with it. Because these poles aren’t very long, I placed them in a five gallon bucket. I used a folded hanger from the dry cleaner to keep the poles from bumping into each other. Next, leave them to dry overnight (and clean up the mess).

The following day I unrolled a portion of each fabric to see if they were dry enough to unroll.  Unlike dye, even they are a little bit damp, I will unroll it and hang it on a line to finish drying.

Here are the results:

The full piece using the yellow, red, pink, and blue.

A close up.

The piece that was folded in half.

A close up.

The piece painted with watered-down black.

Another piece painted with black and undiluted bronze.

Both of these fabrics started with ones that I previously dyed.

Wrapping a previously dyed fabric — especially the initially rejected paler stuff — and painting it with a solid color can produce some very nice results.  It also works great on dyed solids (I’ve had success with commercial solid prints – but remember to pre-wash in hot water to get off any sizing).  You can also over paint your Shibori painted pieces.  For example, if you end up with more white than you like, water down some paint and work it into the fabric.  The key is to experiment and have fun.

Imporant! After your fabric is dry, be sure to iron it with a hot, dry iron to set the paints.  I iron both sides.

To wrap up the tutorials, here are the final two from two talented ladies,  Judy Coates Perez and Alma Stoller.  Click the image to go directly to their tutorials.

Judy's printing on teabags!

Alma's tutorial on recycling magazines!

Here’s a recap of Art Spark members who have tutorials from this wave on their blogs:

Melanie Testa’s Cloth to Headband
Jane LaFazio’s machine felting tutorial
Diana Trout’s Sumi Smoosh
Lyric Kinard’s Painted Shoes
Alisa Burke’s Altered Striped Tank
Tracie Lyn Huskamp – Nature Inspired Greeting Card
Kelli Nina Perkins – Spoon Poetry

Today in Art Spark’s  tut tsunami are tutorials from Kelli Nini Perkins and Tracie Lyn Huskamp.   Click on the images below to go directly to their free tutorials.

Kelli's Spoon Poetry tutorial

Tracie's Butterfly-tastic Greeting Card

If you didn’t yet check them out, here are the prior tutorials from Art Spark:

Melanie Testa’s Cloth to Headband
Jane LaFazio’s machine felting tutorial
Diana Trout’s Sumi Smoosh
Lyric Kinard’s Painted Shoes,
Alisa Burke’s Altered Striped Tank,

Next up in Art Spark’s  tut tsunami are tutorials from Lyric Kinard and Alisa Burke.  Click on the images below to go directly to their free tutorials.

Lyric's funky painted shoes

Alisa's Altered Strip Tank tutorial

And if you missed them, be sure to check out

If you missed the first wave of tutorials visit   Melanie Testa’s, Diana Trout’s, and Jane LaFazio’s blogs for their free tutorials.

A break from vacation photos to share … free tutorials!  Over the next several days, members of Art Spark will be adding tutorials to their blogs.  I am planning for my tutorial to be here on Saturday.  When new tutorials are posted, I’ll let you know.  Today, Melanie Testa, Jane LaFazio, and Diana Trout each share very cool free tutorials. Click on any of the photos below to go directly to their tut.

Melly's tutorial is called "From Cloth to Headband"

Jane's tutorial is on needle felting.

Diane's tutorial is called "Sumi Smoosh"