Kitchen Table Screen Printing Easy Peasy!

This afternoon I tried a kitchen-table screen print using an old photo frame, vintage nylon curtain material, a credit card, acrylic paint, gel medium.

I enjoyed the simpleness of this method.

The results, not perfection but I can see it's going to work.

Acrylic paint, masking tape, clear gel medium.

Credit Card squeegee.

Bossy Girl drew me a bird.

Remember to mark where the paper goes (I didn't worry about this bit) but if you want them all the same - and that really is the point, you'll need this step.

The paper stencil a piece of A4 copy paper.There will be 4-5 of these, one for each colour.

 

 

And the screen goes straight into water when done for a scrub.

I'm so glad I had a go finally, it's not as messy as I thought it might be and it really didn't take up much room or time.

Have a go you might be surprised!

If you have any questions do ask.

I spent a full year doing paper stencil screen printing in my last year of art school, though no expert I might be able to help. 

Happy Printing!!

Busy Busy!

Ok dear reader don't give up on me yet. I've been busy, which is great and in between being busy I've been busy!! Making stuff, lots of stuff, tackling repairs from the repair pile and playing with my new toy.

Turning these into cute key rings and things.

New toy! Nifty!

Repair. Actually a combination alteration...gorgeous skirt that Bossy Girl thinks is too short, combined with an old favourite skirt of her's that was due for the give away bag. It worked quite well I think. It's a bit hard to see but the spotty fabric is quite gathered and flouncy. I think she'll like it. 

Picnic rug envy.

A few months back I went on a picnic with Bossy Girl and a friend, packed a yummy lunch into my picnic basket and off we went. From the back of the car I grabbed the plastic-backed tartan picnic blanket that came from somewhere like K-Mart, I was happy. That was until I spied an mother earth type woman arrive and pull from her picnic basket the most divine, shabby, vintage fabric patchwork pinnic rug, it was just the sweetest thing!! And I thought.... ' what am I doing?'...why don't I - the queen of fabric - have a fabric picnic rug like that one??  It was just a simple eye opener - again - to the ways we can use and love vintage/new fabrics every day. 

Well, this week I received in the mail two little bundles of pre cut squares of NEW fabrics. They are already cut to the perfect size so what better to do than put together a picnic rug so that I can feel a little chic too.

I won this fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop a while back and finally got around to making my purchase. This is my very first patchwork adventure, it was ok. I'm not going to rush out and go mad patchworking everything but I'm happy I had a go. Yes it is rough, but I've explained before I am not a perfectionist.

 

 

I did a bit of fancy seam treatment.

The sewing machine hasn't seen this much action since I bought it.

Festive Garland! hallelujah!

And the last thing I tackled today but is not 100% complete was the festive garland I blogged about earlier and that came from Dotty Angel. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, I estimate it took about 5 hours but that may have been because I was doing other things, in fact I did even do the vacuuming in between so just ignore that time, you'll probably whip one up in an hour. I pinked my edges because basically I'm a very lazy sewer. I found a festive red, green and gold piece of braid that was long enough. I am yet to embellish it more and I suspect that I might have sewn the flags a bit close but hey! from a distance it looks sort of OK!!

More stitching!

The other skirt was one I cut out about a year ago, I have quite a bit of this amazing Marimekko fabric from the 50s but the end metre or so was dirty. So I decided to experiment with a selveged hemmed skirt. Now it's been so long that I've actually forgotten what I did but I think I cut out two triangle shapes basically, cut off the top, put a zip in one side and then it's sides were pinned to shape but unsewn. Today it was completed and I have to say it's a very fine little skirt! Looks good on and is a real eye catcher. Hopefully I'll get some photos of it on me here soon.

A stitch in time.

I got my sewing machine out today! Ok don't faint, yep I know I talk a lot about what I'm going to do but there has been of late very little action! Not today. I pile of repairs some as old as a year - Done! two skirts, one a remake of a very expensive skirt I 'just had to have' size 8 but I could just squeeze into it. Unfortunately it looked like a size 8 on a size 12 body. So I decided to cut the top off and finish with elastic. It was scary cutting the skirt I have to say - this was no ordinary skirt, I think the original price was somewhere in the $300 range - sale price about $60.  But I held my breath and went on ahead. Happy to report that it worked and I now have a nice little knee length summer skirt that I'll get some wear out of.

Last post on the new studio!

This is possibly the last post on the new room! Hmmm now what am I going to talk about??

Free At Last!

This extra room has changed my life, I'm inspired  and excited all over again about vintage fabric. I love being separate and yet available to the main house and I love the easy of use - I think my packing time has about halved, I literally only have to do a 360 degree turn!  So these are the final photos of the finished room, please note the lovely touches that Ted has added for me, the black fretwork which forms a magical frame  and a beautiful tactile wooden step.

Bossy Girl and I enjoyed our first meal at the table after it was freed from it's wall position and on the veranda just some of the 14 bags of fabric I took to the Salvos.

There are still things to do to the yard and a good tidy up inside but it's all OK!

My Creative Space - one of.

This is my new creative space for doing messing stuff with paper and glue. I like it.