Paintstiks, Part 3

Interweave was having a sale recently and I took the opportunity to purchase a couple more accessories for my Paintstiks. First, I bought the Grip-n-Grip mat. What a weird name, but I really like the product.

It is a smooth, firm mat that you put underneath your fabric to hold it in place while you are painting on it. This is to be used instead of taping your fabric down. What a time saver! And I think it works better than taping. When I did the pieces I showed yesterday using the rubbing plates, I had to tape down three sides of the fabric and slide my hand underneath the fourth side to move the plate around. This was not easy and I ended up distorting my fabric a little in the process. I don't think it mattered for those pieces, but using this mat would have made the project easier. (I didn't use the mat because I did those projects on Thursday and this didn't arrive until Friday afternoon.)

The second thing I got was a new book with a stencil set. The book is called Design Magic by Shelly Stokes.

In the book she shows you how to make your own stencils in this style using freezer paper. However, I think her premade, transparent plastic stencils are probably easier to use, at least for a first project with this method. If you decide to buy the book, I recommend you look for a book/stencil set like I got. It is so nice to be able to open the book, read a few pages and start on a project. Making the stencils yourself doesn't look to hard, but I bet it is time consuming. Probably well worth the trouble to make one of a kind fabric, but not for trying out the process to see if you like it. This book also contains projects in addition to information on how to use her new stencils.

This is one thing you can make with the stencils that come with the book. She also has several other sets of stencils you can purchase and I probably will at some point.

There are two stencils per set, one is the negative of the other. Her instructions are quite clear on how to prepare your fabric (just press a few registration lines) and how to line up the stencils and interchange them so that you get great designs like these.

Another thing I really like about the book is that she shows you how to clean your stencil brushes. I have never used oil paints before and had no idea how to properly clean my stencil brushes and her first book didn't say much more than be sure to clean your brushes when you are finished.

Well, that is the last of my recent Paintstik projects. I haven't done anything with these yet because they are still curing. You have to let the pieces cure/dry for 3 to 7 days and then heat set them. I will probably heat set them today.

Paintstiks, Part 2

For the next couple of projects I used rubbing plates. I used a set made by Cedar Canyon Textiles called triangles. The set contains six plates and this image from their website shows you the six plates in the set. Click here to see the other sets they have.

For this first one I use the other half of the fat quarter from the grid project. Here is the before photo.

And the after

I was trying to move the plate uniformly so I could get a nice evenly repeated image of the rubbing plate. These plates are about 6 inches square so you pretty much have to move them around to fill up an area with the design. It was impossible for me to move it uniformly so I gave up on the next two.

For this one I used the gold and copper colors from my set of iridescent Paintstiks and moved a plate around somewhat randomly, twisting and turning it.

For this one I used two of the blue colors and again moved a rubbing plate around, twisting and turning it.

One of the things I find frustrating about my set of paint sticks is that the individual sticks are not labeled. (I have the set of 15 mini iridescent sticks.) So I have no idea what colors I am using. It didn't occur to me until just now that I should number my sticks with a Sharpie and then I can at least make notes to myself about which colors I used on each project.

I have one more project to share with you tomorrow. I'll be giving a short demonstration/lecture to my guild on Saturday about Paintstiks. These will be my samples.

Paintstiks, Part 1

On Thursday afternoon I played with my set of Paintstiks. I did several projects. This was the first one. I cut a very pale purple hand-dyed fat quarter in half.

First I taped it down to the back of a cutting mat. I wanted a smooth surface that could be easily cleaned up if the paint seeped through - it didn't. Then I taped off a grid. I used the tape as my palette.

Just rub the paint stick along the tape and pull the paint onto the fabric with stencil brushes. Here is what it looks like finished, before pulling off the tape.

And then after pulling off the tape.

I got the idea for this from the book Paintstiks on Fabric by Shelly Stokes. It has a lot of great ideas and techniques for using Paintstiks.

I like the one in the book better than mine. I think I need to blend the colors better. But this is okay for a first try. I'm sure I'll figure out a way to use this, just not the way I originally envisioned. I definitely like the grid idea. More on my other projects tomorrow.

Gifty Day

I told you that I had a gift occasion coming up but that I didn't know exactly who the gift would be for. The occasion was today and we played a little game to exchange gifts. Big surprise - I made a purse to give!

Inside the purse I place all the dry ingredients necessary to make a pot of bean soup and a pan of corn bread, along with the recipes. I think the recipient liked it.

I love the gift I received!

The teapot is one I have had. The gift is the tea, the teapot cozy and the little trays for the used tea bags. Look at how cute this tea is!

I wish I could put smells on my blog. This tea smells so divine. I had a pot of this White Ambrosia this afternoon while I played with my Paintstiks. I'll show you photos of my afternoons work soon.

The other thing I have been doing a lot of lately is baking zucchini bread. It freezes so well and my family loves it. My husband and son will eat one of these loaves, by themselves, in one sitting, for breakfast. I didn't even get any of the first two loaves I made!

I have always had trouble getting this bread out of the pan in one piece. With these loaves I tried putting parchment paper on the bottom of the pans. It came out perfect!

Painted Hibiscus

My first Paintstik project is finished. I bought myself a set of Paintstiks for my birthday and painted this that afternoon. I made a stencil using freezer paper and used the silver, a blue and a green to paint this on a piece of turquoise hand dyed fabric. The silver turned out more gray than I was hoping. Maybe the background is too dark or there isn't enough contrast. After painting it and letting it cure, I didn't know what I wanted to do next. So I did nothing for several weeks. In the end, I just hand stitched around the flower and leaves then echo quilted the design. I used one strand of DMC floss for the stitching. It turned out alright for a first project. I have a few ideas of things I'd like to try next. Not sure when I will get a chance to play with the Paintstiks again, but I'll post photos when I do.

Playing with Paint Sticks

Above, my birthday gift to myself - a set of iridescent paint sticks, stencil brushes and brush cleaner - along with a photo copy of an hibiscus that I outlined with a Sharpie. I traced the hibiscus onto freezer paper and then cut it out (a painstaking process but hopefully worth it). Below is a photo of the stencil ironed to my fabric as I am stenciling.

Below is what I ended up with. I used silver as a base color but it looks more gray to me, at least on this fabric. On top of the silver/gray I used a green on the leaves and a dark blue on the flower.
The image is now curing (i.e. hanging on my design wall drying). The directions say to let it cure 3 to 7 days, depending on how heavily you applied the paint. I think I put it on pretty light so I think I'll wait until Thursday or Friday (3 or 4 days) before proceeding. The next step is to heat set the image by pressing it with a hot iron. Then I am going to quilt this somehow.

So far I have learned: (1) I need to test the paints on a corner of the fabric to see what they will look like before using them on my image; (2) the cutting out process of the stencil is not fun and takes as long or longer than the painting process; (3) cleaning the brushes is also time consuming so painting several pieces at the same time would be a better use of my time (and I may need more stencil brushes for this).

I think this was a good investment. It's a way to create custom fabric and is not as messy or time consuming as dying fabric.