Clearsnap and Stencil Girl Blog Hop- Hand Dyed Fabric Pillow

I am on a quilting kick right now and although I am primarily a paper craft designer- I am always looking for ways to combine materials and techniques. Today I am playing with these two cool 9x12inch over sized stencils from StencilGirl:

Bubbles

Marrakesh Mix

I thought they would make a very cool hand dyed fabric. But since I am experimenting, I decided to start small and do a patchwork pillow- incorporating my hand dyed fabric into it. I used a resist technique and Izink Pigment, but you can also use any Clearsnap Pigment ink refill, or you can directly ink on the fabric with Colorbox Crafters Ink. Here is how I do the technique:

{first, you will want to spray the BACK of your stencil with repositionable fabric adhesive. Did you know there is a front and back to stencils? Just look closely on one of the corners you will see a manufacturers mark of some sort, thats the top!}

{lay your Stencil on top of a piece of muslin that is cut slightly larger than the stencil. Take some white acrylic paint and brush over the stencil. The white will act as the resist when we dye the fabric}

{I set up my dyes by dropping 3-4 drops into some small plastic containers. I use my melamine cutting board as a work surface, but a cookie sheet would work too}

{get the fabric immersed, and then lay out on the work surface}

{Now the dip in the dye is just to get the fabric wet and to allow the color to bleed. Now take the Izink dropper and drag over the fabric like show}

{now twist it to get the dye all soaked in (i know I should have done the demo with the blue-looks like a bloody mess!}

{Roll Fabric back out, and dab off excess ink from the stencil resist portion}

{Repeat with your other color. Hang out to dry making sure the drip area is over grass or dirt. When dry, press with a steam iron}

Sorry I didn't get more pics- but I go zoo into making this little pillow! Basically I cut the hand dyed fabric into 3- 2.5x9 inch strips, then used some of my on hand scraps for the rest.

{if you want to make your own I followed this free tutorial from DREAM PATCH HERE

{I quilted with a contrasting red to get my dyes fabric to stand out even more}

For the back I used and inexpensive screened cotton fabric- it mimic the resist technique on front

{Its just a little pillowcase pocket opening on the back for each cleaning}

Puffy Loves his new pillow, and I love it for sitting my laptop on when it gets to hot o my lap!

SUPPLIES:

Izink- Tulip

Izink- Tomato

StencilGirl 9x12 Marrakech Mix and Bubbles

white acrylic paint

Muslin

Foam Brush

Extra fabric and Batting

Pre made pillow form

Easy Recipe for World Card Making Day

Today is a fun day for The Clearsnap Creative Team- World Card Making Day! Celebrating its ninth year in 2014, World Card Making Day is celebrated annually on the first Saturday in October. It's a day for the card-making community—hobbyists, retailers, and manufacturers—to unite and celebrate the connection and creativity that is the heart of card making.  Make sure you check out the Official World Card Making Day site to submit your work and enter to win an amazing prize pack from the WCMD 2014 sponsors (like us!).

Today I am sharing an easy recipe for the beginner card maker. Why call it a recipe? Think of card making as cooking. If your just learning you want to start with an easy recipe. As you grow more confident, you will add in a few tweaks to that recipe. After you have really mastered it, you will start making "dishes" of your own.  Clearsnap has an awesome product for the beginner; Colorbox Creative Cards. Simply decorate the pre-printed cards by spraying or stamping over the design then layering embellishments onto dry card. The best part is you get 5 preprinted cards (5 1/2" x 4 1/4" folded) and 5 blank envelopes. Here is the recipe:
1) Choose 3 or more Colorbox Stamp Pads (all of them will work!) and using a Colorbox Stylus tool and tip- blend onto the card starting with the darkest color on bottom and work your way up blend in as you go
2) Take 1 Yard of Bakers Twine (I use The Twinery) and wrap around card top and tie in a bow on the side
3) Choose a Focal Piece- this can be a Stamp on plain cardstock- a chipboard from a scrapbook paper collection, or even a sticker. Add foam squares to pop it out, and attach to the center of your card. A focal piece should take up around 1/3 of the card space
And that's it! Let me walk you through these three very different cards, that are actually all the same.

{for this card I used a die cut from Authentiques Thrilling collection. The Inks are Donna Salazar Mixed Media Chox in Butternut and Adobe. And Colorbox Chalk in NEW Harvest. The edging is a Colorbox Cats Eye in Wicked Black}

{This Card uses all Colorbox Crafters Inks in NEW Sunshine, Limelight form the Ann Butler Collection, along with  Aruba and Sweet Pea. The stamp (from the dollar bin at Michales) is stamped in Berry}

{As an extra detail- adding in the twist on the recipe- some Smooch Glitz in Pink Fizz on the candle flames}

{For this one a did another twist on the recipe. The Focal sticker I chose from Authentique Be-You-tiful Collection was big and covered the twine, so I moved it up and the twine down- then added in a little Petaloo Flower. I chose some metallics for this one; Starting at the bottom with Crafters Ink in Stone, Colorbox Pigment Ink in Silver, and finally some Twinkle in Pearl}

{This is what the plain Creative Card looks like before getting all inked up}

{Creative Cards comes in all different designs just waiting for you to cook something up for World Card Making Day!

Continue on the hop by visiting these team members' blogs! Leave a comment on each and use the widget below to enter to win a prize pack just for Clearsnap followers!!

  Clearsnap Blog
  Denise Hahn (You are here)
  Meihsia Liu (Go here next)
 Vivian Keh
  Steph Ackerman

Enter our giveaway here (and happy hopping!!):
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-Denise