Summer's here - Flowers a plenty

 

Phew - it's raining, very gently - but it has made the temperature drop a little. Now don't get me wrong I love the summer - but it is nice that it's cool enough today for me to be able to think straight!

So I thought I'd have a little fun and see how fabric printing with sponges cut into flower shapes would work - now obviously I've used the amazing Bigz Dies and Big Shot Plus Machine  -http://www.sizzix.co.uk/product/660020/sizzix-big-shot-plus-machine-only-white-gray because it's the one I have at home.

So I used the Bigz Die - Flower Layers & Leaves by Dena Designs™ - 657690 to cut the sponges -

 

 



Choose a sponge that is between 1.5cm and 2cm deep - you can use the sponge with scourer attached but buy economy as the more expensive ones are too thick to cut well, but you are more limited on the size shape you can cut -

I had planned to decorate some t-shirts for my grandchildren - but decided to see how it all worked on some plain cotton. so I laid out newspaper and then plain paper on my dining room table and selected some fabric dyes, along with some plates, and plenty of kitchen roll I was ready to roll!

I decided to start with the daisy flower and some blue die -

as you can see the flower on the left in the picture is a bit mis-shappen because I pressed too hard on the sponge - but that can be covered or disguised as we progress.

I added a darker blue using the same flower shape, and then decided to use the large flower shape with pink - and I don't think I like it - so I'll cover that later -



so I added some more daisies in a deeper pink and tried over dyeing one of the paler pink flowers.

I also tried a leaf shape - but there was too much dye on the sponge and it's just a blob -

 

 

When there was less dye on the sponge it was much better -



but when I tried over dyeing a blue daisy with a yellow circle for the centre - oops!!

 

so I decided to add the yellow as petals -

Why am I showing you this when some of it clearly hasn't worked too well - it's because I want to show  you next week how I have managed to redeem it. I went to a silk painting class a few years ago and the teacher was amazing at showing us how to redeem our mistakes or disasters! and so I want to encourage you too.

So next week I hope to have added some net or voile, and some embroidery to enhance and to conceal - will it work - I don't  know yet - we'll all have to wait and see!!

Until next week enjoy the summer sun.

Angela