Tutorials

Angel/Muse Painting Tutorial

Click here to see how this painting developed, and how I used Jane Davenport's
whimsical face technique.

Tyvek Beaded Necklace

Tyvek Beaded Necklace Tutorial Materials: 2 sheets of Tyvek, 11" x 14", new or recycled from a used shipping envelope Metallic acrylic paint, such as Lumiere® Sponge paintbrushes Pen Scissors or craft knife, straight edge, and cutting mat Thin wooden skewers Glue or glue stick Heat gun Beading wire Additional beads or stones, if desired Directions: Paint the Tyvek sheets. If you have used a recycled envelope, then be sure to paint the inside where there are no markings. I like Lumiere paints because the metallic flecks in them make the finished beads look more gem-like. It's OK to be sloppy and generous with the paint, and add different colors. Allow the paint to dry. Decide what size you want your beads. A common size if 1". On one of the long sides of the rectangle, put a dot every 1" with a pen. On the other long side, start with ½" from the edge, then mark every 1" after that. Connect your dots to form long, thin triangles across the painted page. You should have about 28 triangles. Cut your triangles using scissors or a craft knife. Don't worry if they are not perfect. Take the 1" edge of the triangle and carefully roll it around a skewer with the painted side facing out. When you get to the end, put a dab of glue (glue sticks work well) to hold it and keep the bead from unrolling. You should have a rolled bead that is about 1" long and plump in the middle. Sometimes a pin needs to be inserted in the tip of the triangle to secure the bead until the glue dries if your paint is thickly applied or if the beads are very fat. Slide the bead down near the end of the toothpick. Hold on to the other end of the skewer and quickly heat the bead for a few seconds using a heat gun. Roll the bead as you heat it so all sides melt a little. The Tyvek will pucker and shrink and the paints will become more metallic looking. Do not overheat or the bead will stick to the skewer and you will be unable to use the bead. When the beads have cooled, slide them off the skewer. On a towel or jewelry board, arrange the beads in a pleasing design. You can mix inexpensive glass beads with your Tyvek beads or add semi-precious stones like turquoise, amber, or freshwater pearls. String the beads any way you want. I use beading wire and lobster clasps secured with crimps, but if you have never made beaded jewelry, you can just string them on embroidery floss, dental floss or thin elastic and tie the ends, making sure it is long enough to slip over your head. If you make a choker, you need to use a either a clasp or elastic string.

Shabby Chic Angel Tag Tutorial

Just in time for the holidays, I made a batch of “Shabby Chic” angel tags. The shabby effect is achieved with several techniques—using recycled tea bags for the background, unevenly applying white printmaking paint to the tea bags, and using an intentionally torn effect on the angel images. The shabbiness is contrasted with the chicness of delicate, sheer laces and gossamer pastel ribbon trim.

Here’s how I made the tags:

1-use a commercial tag as a base (I got mine at Staples), or cut your own from a beige, smooth poster weight paper.

2-take dried tea bags, carefully open them, empty out the tea, and flatten. The uneven tea stains give a nice aged look. Do not use damp tea bags—they will rip. Any kind of tea is fine, but take the bags out before you add sugar, lemon or milk.

3-select a variety of stamps—lacey textures work well but any stamp will do. French fleur de lis or English classic designs also make great 'faux lace.'

4-apply white printmaking paint to the stamps. You can experiment and mix the patterns.

5-drape the tea bag over the stamp and press lightly, then carefully remove the tea bag and repeat until it is all covered. You can get usually get two or more images from each paint application. I call the painted teabags ‘faux lace.’ Depending on the size of the tea bag, you may need several for each tag. Printmaking paint works best, but you can use any white paint, just be sure to clean the stamps carefully when you are done so they don’t get paint stuck in the crevices. Printmaking paint works well because it stays wet longer than regular paint, which prevents it from drying on your stamp.

6-when the painted tea bags have dried, glue them to the commercial tag, covering the base completely. It is okay to layer the tea bags or rip little pieces and fill in where necessary to get complete coverage.

7-select a center image and glue to tag—I used some angels from The Graphics Fairy.http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

8-add strips of lace—thin, sheer laces work well. Thicker laces work better on the edges since they will obscure the subtle textures and colors of the tea bags and ‘faux lace.’ These laces are from M&J Trim.http://www.mjtrim.com/

9-if desired, add a little chalk pastel to enhance the center image, and also to soften the background color.

10-add a bow of shimmery ribbon at the top, and some extra lace or rick-rack at the bottom.

Dare to Be an Artist—Art Quilt and Tutorial

After making my first Zetti-inspired ATCs, I felt the need to go bigger. The little ATCs (2.5” x 3.5”) seemed too small to show all the detail. I also felt, for the first time in a very long time, inspired to do a series from my Zetti ATCs. Fortunately, I had designed them in Photoshop at 5” x 7” with a pretty high dpi, so enlarging them was not a problem.   I wanted to translate them into fabric and combine them with my own fabric designs, which I printed at Spoonflower a couple years ago. This is the first piece I did. Another Zetti art quilt is finished, and two more are cut and pinned.  I haven’t decided if I will keep them as separate pieces or put them together into one big piece. Here is a little tutorial if anyone is wondering “Hmmmm…how the heck did she make that?”

 1-Find images you like, either of your own, or some royalty free clip art. I used two Graphics Fairy images http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/, the teacup and the bird, and combined them with some of my original artwork that I scanned—a small painting called Mystery Woman of the Flowers and a pink monoprint. I also used a b/w harlequin on the left, which is a pattern from adobe illustrator, and the b/w positive/negative “expanded square” on the right, also known as a notan, is my own design. 2-Combine the designs in photoshop or similar program. I used a soft brush eraser to take out the background from the teacup and bird, arranged the bird on the edge of the cup, and arranged the cup on the head of the mystery woman. I put the pink monoprint in the background and the notan and harlequin on the sides. 3-Add any words you choose in fonts that please your eye. I added the words in photoshop. 4-I was working in photoshop and saving it as I went along as a TIFF, which allowed me to have different layers for each image that I could adjust as needed. When I was done, I saved the image as a jpeg. 5-The artwork I made for the ATCs was 5” x 7”, and I wanted to make the art quilt larger, so I increased the size in photoshop so that it would fit on an 8.5” x 11” paper in my inkjet printer. My printer cuts off about ¼” on all sides, and about ½” on the bottom, so I sized to 8” x about 10.25” so that nothing would be wasted. [NOTE: You can also do a drawing or painting that is about 8.5” x 11”, scan it, and print it out of an inkjet printer.]

6-I flipped the enlarged jpeg image in photoshop, then printed the flipped design out on Avery t-shirt heat transfer sheets.

7-I trimmed the white edge, and ironed the design to 100% kona cotton—heat only, no steam.

8-After it cooled, I peeled away the backing. You can also use printable cotton or silk sheets, but you do not need to flip the image. With the t-shirt transfer sheets, the finished design feels thick and rubbery, but the colors are brighter than with printable cotton or silk. NOTE: Please do NOT iron the design once you have transferred it to cotton. It will melt and be ruined!

9-Next, I chose strips to edge the piece. I used 1.5” pieces of various cotton fabrics and puttered with them until I found an arrangement I liked, then pinned them together.

10-I used some felt-like batting behind the design and a piece of cotton to back the quilt and create the “quilt sandwich”. Next, I carefully pinned all the layers together.

11-I used a zigzag stitch to connect the middle to the fabric strips, a straight stitch to quilt the middle, and a random curvy stitch to add a little visual interest and give it loft.

12-I trimmed the piece and used a machine blanket stitch on the outside edges. 

Faux Lace from Recycled, Printed Tea Bags

click here for the post: http://lindaedkinswyatt.blogspot.com/2015/06/tutorial-faux-lace-from-recycled-tea.html