Good day everyone.
I’ve dot painted a blue coaster this time, and I’m really liking it. The coaster I mean.
I’m still not totally happy about the little dimples that I see in some of the dots and I think, not 100% sure, that the paint might be just a bit too thin.
The next batch of paint will tell.
Starting in the centre, as always, and working my way out. This time I had a plan, and that seams to be working much better vs going at it with no plan at all.
A few more rounds, yes, it looks good, any mistakes can be wiped away and over painted with black to start anew.
Double dotting on some of the larger dots to give it a bit more character.
Do you have a list of things that you might want to try out sometime? Well, I do. Dot painting!
I came across it a few years ago, watched a lot of videos of people painting with a stylus, acrylic paint and using stencils, and some even used crochet hooks. I thought, I can do that!!
First thing I looked for were the crochet hooks, I found some at a dollar store, 3 set of 2 in 6 different sizes.
And than they sat there, not being used for a few years. So when I thought I was ready for it, I couldn’t find the crochet hooks, I looked everywhere! Well, no dot painting I guess. I put the whole dot paining thing out of my mind when one day I just saw them sitting there, in a nice glass jar waiting for me.
Wanting to see if I could find more dotting tools, I set out to look for other things as well, preferably tools that gave me lots of different size dots!
I found some screws and nails, they gave nice big dots. The thing with the screw was that it has a hollow for the screwdriver which created an air bubble when dipped in the paint. When pressed to the base it resulted in a little poof! of paint out to the side, and your round dot isn’t so round anymore… I remedied it by putting some plaster in the hole.
The second picture shows 3 paperclips, or what is left of it anyway, a small skewer and a bigger skewer, the back is used for a size dot and the point for a much smaller size dot.
And who doesn’t have pencils! I sure do, and a lot too so I have plenty to spare to use as dotting material.
To get the points all at different sizes I sharpened each pencil first, I then coloured with the numbers two through five until they had the right size, number one was the right size right from the start. I made sure to hold the pencil upright to get an as rounded dot as I could get.
I used sandpaper to get the bigger size dots for pencils six through ten.
I sharpened the back of number eleven just a little bit to get the size dot that was a bit bigger than number ten, and for number twelve I used the back of another pencil.
The second picture is just one of the views in my studio.
I got some chipboard (cracker box material) ready by painting it black, I do sand the shiny side so the paint will adhere to it. After applying one coat to one side I found it warping, it righted itself after I had painted the other side as well. I applied a second coat to both sides to make sure the board was completely covered.
I am drawing lines on the board so I can use them as guide lines to make sure the pattern is even. First diagonal from corner to corner to find the centre.
Next the horizontal and vertical line. Using a compass I draw 2 circles, find the middle on the outer circle between a horizontal and diagonal line to make four more lines through the centre. Now I have eight lines all together.
Making the first dot, which colour and what size shall I use, it’s always tough to start, I decided to use the biggest nail size and blue as the first colour, it IS a practice piece after all. Second round is going to be a small dot on each of the eight lines.
At every round I add more dots, choosing colour and dot layout.
Here I ‘walk’ the dots, using one tool, load up on paint and make 5 dots in a row, the dots are getting smaller as I get to the fifth dot as there is less paint to draw from.
Adding more dots, a big one with smaller all around.
A few more rounds and I think it’s good to go.
Time to finish it by gluing this to a base of wood, in this case I use a piece of particle board that I salvaged from the back of an old dresser. I used the table saw to cut it in 4″ square pieces. The edge is painted black to match the background of the coaster.
I’m using a gel medium as glue, it is strong and won’t likely to come loose.
I applied clear water based clear varnish to one of the coasters and gel medium to another, just to see which I like best. In the video I mention that I like the gel medium best, but I have since used the water based varnish using a very soft brush and applying two thin layers, it hardly leaves streaks and it is not near as shiny as the one I show in the video. I think I brushed on a thick layer which gave it’s shiny look.
Update May 2, 2020, white paint becomes creamy looking when using Varathane clear varnish as a finish.
I finish the coaster by adding a piece of cork to the back.
I have experimented with gluing paper napkin to fabric using 4 different glues. I did dilute the glues about 40% glue to 60% water, it ended up quite runny, which is good, you don’t want too much glue in there, just enough to hold it together.
Not all glues are suitable for this as some glues made the fabric quite stiff.
Here are the 4 glues I used, sorry, I don’t have pictures of the results of the experiment as you can’t really tell by looking at the different fabric/paper which ones are stiffer than the other.
The two glues that are making the fabric/paper stiff are: Mod Podge and Elmer’s glue-all,
if the fabric/paper is bend enough, the glue will crack.
Aleene’s tacky glue and Regular Gel Matte are the two glues that keep the pliability of the fabric/paper somewhat, mind you glue is a ‘plastic’, not all plastics have the same pliability, thus the feel of Aleene’s and the Gel Matte is much softer than Mod-Podge and Elmer’s, as well, you just added paper to fabric so it will become a bit stiffer anyway. My favorite is the Gel Matte.
Alright, lets see some pictures of the project already! In a minute I guess, I’ve got to tell you something first 😄
Excuse the pictures, I know they are upside down but I had forgotten to take pictures during the making, which happens a lot as I get exited doing my thing and forget to take pictures during the process so I took some screenshots while playing the video.
I place the fabric on a Teflon baking sheet, nothing sticks to it and it is easy to clean up, after the whole fabric is covered with images, I then let it hang dry on a makeshift clothes line made from regular string, strung along the basement ceiling. I made the mistake once to let it dry on the sheet, when dry, it gets this plastic film on the back of the fabric that makes the project even stiffer, no matter what glue is used.
Heads up: PICTURES!!!!! Finally!
The first picture shows the five napkins I used for this project.
I remove the two backing layers so I have one thin layer with the image left to play with. I do NOT throw away the other two layers, they are good for a number of uses, 1. stamp images on the napkins with permanent ink, this way the ink won’t run when collaged with. 2. I have ironed it onto freezer paper, cut to 8.5 by 11 and feed it through the printer, I have an ink-yet printer, so I would need to be careful when gluing to a base, as the ink might run, 3. and if everything else fails it can be used as a clean up ‘rag’.
Alright, back to the project,
I do have somewhat of an idea where every image goes, laying out the pieces loosely on the fabric before gluing them down. But sometimes I have to do some fiddling…
After a bit of thinking I did decide to add a base layer of light cream to the background.
I could then add the images without worrying the fabric would show.
The napkins are thin so be careful when applying the glue, I use a soft brush which helps to prevent tearing.
Here is the final product, all cleaned up and ready to go! I’m going to used it as a journal cover.
And as with most of the projects I make there is a video to show the process, I did a new thing in this video, it is in time-lapse mode and I’ve added some mischievous music!
These book plates are made in advanced so I can grab one when I need one, I think I’ve made about 40..:):)
You only need a few supplies:
Base cardstock, 2″ by 3″, here I used wall paper, some cheese cloth that I dyed with a coffee and baking soda mixture, a bit of fabric, 1 1/4″ by 2 1/4″, an image or cut-out and another piece of cardstock for writing on, 1″ by 5/8″, I have scraps of file folders from previous projects that I used.
Rounding the corners is optional, as is inking around, I just like the look.
Cover the base with glue and place a piece of cheese cloth on it, tap it down a bit to adhere. After it is dry I do a zig-zag stitch all around.
I stay at the sewing machine to sew the fabric onto the plate, again with a zig-zag stitch.
Next I glue the image to a corner, it doesn’t really matter which corner.
The last piece of cardstock is inked around before it is glued down, I made my own inking tool from a cork, the fuzzy bit on top of the cork is one of the velt pads one puts under chair legs to protect the floor.
I’m trying to keep the blog up to speed with my YouTube content but so far I am not succeeding. As of this date, I’m about 4 weeks behind and I hope to at least catch up two weeks worth. We’ll see how that goes…
Alright, how to fold a square piece of paper and get a 5 petal flower, lets do this:
First, get yourself a square piece of paper, as I explain in the video, not too think off a paper, something similar as a regular printer sheet or magazine paper. I used one of my painty papers for this demonstration. Crease each fold as you go for best result.
I start with a 2″ square of paper. Fold it in half and make sure the fold stays on the left. Fold the bottom left corner up to the top edge, move it over to the right so it sits approximate at 2/3 – 1/3.
Fold the 2/3 part that is on the left over to the main body and crease the fold, take the right part and fold this under the main body. If everything is aligned, good for you. Most of the times I would need to go back a few folds to re-adjust the fold where it meets the top 2/3 – 1/3 to get everything lined up correct, I then try it again.
Now we can cut. As you see in the first picture, this is about where my cut is going to be.
Now we carefully open the folds to reveal the flower.
As you can see in the first picture, 2 of the petals have square points, adjusting is needed so I round the 2 corners a bit and I’m good to go.
Now I would get my markers out and play a bit…..
I also used it to cut a variety of sizes of fabric flowers.
The link below brings you to the paper flower tutorial
The link below is where I explain the fabric flower, with and without iron-on backing.
Another little embellishment here for you today, it’s been called a flower but I like to call it a star.
You will need 8 squares of paper that has the thickness of regular copy paper, or a bit thinner. The thicker the paper, the harder it will get to make all the folds.
The size of each square needs to be the same, I have used squares as small as 1 1/2″ and as big as 3″. Today I’m working with 2″ squares that I have cut from one of my shaving cream marbling papers.
With the right side in, fold the square in half. Open it, turn 90° and fold again.
Open the square and fold on the diagonal with the pattern side out. Unfold, turn 90° and fold again on the diagonal.
Because of the folding you did you can now easily push the folds in and flatten to make a triangle.
I like to add a bit of glue in the four corners to help flatten the star. You can wait with this after the star is finished if you are not sure you want to do that, but it might be a bit harder to get the glue in there.
Fold the top left triangle towards the centre to create a wing, repeat with the right side.
I should look like this, I then take my bone folder and crease the point well, you could also use the back of your scissors. Make eight. I know it sounds a bit much but I like to do this when watching TV or YouTube.
Now we are going to glue two together, place a bit of glue under the right wing and mirror it at the bottom.
With the points facing the same direction, slide the second triangle in the spot , if everything goes well, each wing should match up with the base of the triangle.
Repeat this with the other 6 units so you have 4 sets, always apply the glue one the same side, in this case on the right side. Glue two sets together the same way so you now have two sets. To glue the two sets into one, place glue on the right side of each set and carefully slide them in each other.
To make the star flatter yet, I apply a bit of glue under the wing, you don’t have to do this, I just like to be in control of just about everything….😃
Off course there is a video available where I show how it is done and I hope you go and watch the video, please like, share and subscribe!
Continuing with the embellishment theme, I created some clusters. I’m using a few punches to punch circles and other images out of paper, music paper, book pages, magazine pages and wall paper. Wall paper has a nice weight to it so I usually use that as the base. Some magazine pages are thin and won’t punch properly, I would then glue 2 magazine pages together and then punch out the circles and images.
Then it is just a matter of selecting the images you want to stack on top of each other to form a cluster. Some clusters I will fasten with the stapler, other I will embellish with a brad.
