Mixed media Butterfly

If you have seen my Insta feed recently you will have seen the pictures of butterfly in my garden, including one landing on my foot. They are the inspiration for this mixed media post where I use free-machine embroidery with fabric paint. 

I remember a lady at one of my free machine embroidery workshops being really surprised when I said I wasn't good at drawing. Art takes so many forms, and to be an artist doesn't mean you have to be good with a pencil!
So to help me, I found a non-copyright image of a lovely butterfly (American Monarch Butterfly, Danais Archippus to be precise) and printed it onto soluble paper.

I then laid this onto some cotton fabric and fastened it into an embroidery hoop.
The paper not only guides my stitching but adds stabilisation for the dance black free machine stitch I added.

I lowered the feed dogs on the machine and used an embroidery foot. The butterfly design gave me a guide for stitching.

See this in action 

Once the black was stitched, I ran the fabric under the tap and the paper dissolved.


 Whilst the fabric was still wet I used fabric paints to add colour to the butterfly with a fine brush - lemon yellow and gold. 

You may remember that last month I  made a screen from Tyvek Paper. Tyvek paper makes a great stencil and I used my Tyvek leaf stencil to sponge on a delicate leaf green.

I then used a foam brush edge to add some gold fabric paint. 

Once the design is dry, iron fix the fabric paint on a hot setting for 2 minutes or bake at 140°C for 4 – 5 minutes.

Angelina Fibres on a canvas bag

Hi everyone!

I have been MIA for a while but I am back now... sorry for that :)

In August, I went to drop off some of my past projects with Colourcraft at their stand at Quilt Festival - I usually avoid going to busy conventions like this because I'm not a fan of crowds but I have to admit that this one was something else! Not only because of the amazing quilting work that I had the pleasure of seeing but also because I got to have a chat with the Colourcraft people and, most of all, get my hands on some brand new products. 

Let me tell you something... they are awesome!!!

Today, I will share with you my canvas pouch with some cool embellishments made using Angelica Fibers. Not that I am blowing my own trumpet but... I have the coolest fruit lunch bag in my department!

When I first saw the small package filled with shine, colourful fiber I was like... what do I do with this? But after a quick demo, my mind was fluttering with ideas!

Here goes:

Choose your stamps, black ink (it's better if it's pretty wet) and your fibres. set your iron on medium heat (Be careful not to melt your stamp with too high setting!!!) and have baking paper ready. Ink the stamp generously and arrange fibres so that they completely cover the design. Cover it with a sheet of baking parchment and iron over until you see the stamp design come through the fabric. Remove the baking parchment and delicately remove the fibres - now melted into a sheet - from the stamp. The result should be as the last pic above shows - the design stamped onto the luminous rainbowy fabric.

Repeat the process for all the stamps you want to use in your project.

Once all your designs are ready, cut them neatly out ready for assemble. 

Do not dispose of the leftover fibres - you can use them next time - no waste!!!

You can finish your project here by attaching the elements to your bag. I used spray fabric glue to do it (Crafter's Companion Stick and Stay for fabric is perfect for that).

Or you can do what I did and create a colourful background for the elements.

To do that, I outlined the main element on the bag to know where it would be placed once finished.

I then chose a flowery stencil and with plenty of colourful Opaque Fabric Paints, I added the flower wall over the bag.

Once the paint was completely dry, I attached the fibre elements onto the bag.

Because I wanted to add some dimension to the elements, I attached the butterflies only at their centre so that the wings were sticking out when the bag is filled with my apples and oranges.

The pouch is really fun and so far, everyone who has seen it, asked where I got it from...

I'm sure it's the rainbow sparkles that do it!

See ya next time!

Ewelina

Warning: getimagesize(include/images/thumbnails/125/39486): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/vhosts/smouwen.nl/thumblinky.nl/preview.php on line 85 Angelina Fibres - Cool Assortment Sampler Pack of 6

fabric paint opaque

Warning: getimagesize(include/images/thumbnails/125/39487): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/vhosts/smouwen.nl/thumblinky.nl/preview.php on line 85 Stencil Brush Assorted - Set of 4

Warning: getimagesize(include/images/thumbnails/125/39488): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/vhosts/smouwen.nl/thumblinky.nl/preview.php on line 85 Stick and Stay - Fabric adhesive

Warning: getimagesize(include/images/thumbnails/125/39262): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/vhosts/smouwen.nl/thumblinky.nl/preview.php on line 85 Spectrum Noir Finesse Waterproof Ink Noir Black

Butterfly banner

Summer is a great time for outdoor eating and using colourful bunting for decorations!

Inspired by the wildlife in my garden, I set to work to make a bunting banner using Expandit and butterflies. It is so much fun to see the way that the Expandit bubbles and puffs up as it is heated! I used my trusty brushos to give it all a splash of colour.

Firstly I stamped some butterflies on card in black archival ink.  I used 300gsm card as that it takes all the water that I spritz on it. I then sprinkled brushos onto the card and gently spritzed them to create a varying shades of blue, lemon and crimson on the butterflies.

 I dried them with a heat gun and then fussy cut them all out (I know that some people don't like fussy cutting but I do, I find it most therapeutic.)

I decided to create some butterflies using Expandit for more texture and variety. I took some of the Expandit out of the pot and spread it thinly on my work surface with a paintbrush.  I lightly touched the stamp into the Expandit and then heated it using a heat gun until it puffed up. I cleaned the stamp straight away.

 I coloured the puffy butterflies in the same way as before and then cut them out.

I repeated this many times until I had made enough butterflies in all three colours.

I then turned my attention to the bunting.  I applied the Expandit through a stencil using a plastic palette knife and heated it with a heat gun.   I then coloured it using green brushos. You can see below how fluffy and puffy it got!

I then adhered the butterflies to the bunting bases using glue and overlapped them in varying colours. Happy crafting everyone!

Clear Spray Bottle

EXpandit 3D expanding medium

Heat Gun

Brusho 24 Colour Boxed Set