There is nothing like receiving a personalized one of a kind hand made gift item. So on Saturday we were all busy little Santa's elves creating hand printed t-towels and canvas bags for the giving season.
By carving out individual designs on a pink speedy cut block with lino cutters we were then ready to ink up and print to our hearts content. The versatility of block printing is amazing, from printed cards to t-towels. It's fantastic! You only have to remember to heat-set the fabric ink with an iron or else you loose your design in the wash.
There is a cupcake and teacup obsession with our crafty group it seems! And there was even time to do some embossing with the heat gun to create gift tags to go along with the presents!
I should be wary about posting too many pictures of the results of the fabric print workshop that happened on Saturday, because I'm sure that what was made might all turn into presents! It should be inspiration to make more though.
It was very exciting to be printing on tea-towels and canvas bags, and how professional the designs looked too. There is nothing like a functional piece of fabric on which you can admire your creative splurge.
We were using speedball speedy carve or the 'pink stuff' as it's known as with lino cutters. It cuts like a dream so it's really easy to work with. We then used a combination of acrylic paint with some fabric medium and stamp ink pads that adhere to fabric once you heat set with an iron.
I think that I'll be running this workshop again soon, such was the enthusiasm for the whole thing. I for one am addicted to printing whether on paper or fabric.
Check out the processes involved below, from inspiration to creating the block for printing and then the printing process itself.
I also foraged my neighbours' garden for leaves and we used them to create prints with. Simple yet effective...
