Here’s a wonderful way to create textured snowflakes on fabric using paint, glitter, and the new set of Snowflakes stencils from Cedar Canyon Textiles.

Supplies:

~ Snowflake stencils [Cedar Canyon Textiles]
~ Black fabric
~ Sponge brush
~ Expandable paint [Setacolor™ by Pebeo]
~ Fine glitter, silver [Art Glitter]
~ Piece of copy paper
~ Heat gun (from the craft store, used for embossing) or powerful hair dryer
~ Heat resistant surface
~ Spray adhesive [404™ Spray and Fix]

Note: assemble all supplies and have them ready, as this technique requires working quickly.

Step 1 – Prepare the stencil

Spray the back of the stencil with adhesive and let dry so the glue does not transfer to the fabric.  Stick the stencil onto the fabric.

Step 2 – Apply paint

With the sponge brush, fill in the stencil openings with expandable paint.

Step 3 – Remove stencil, apply glitter

Immediately remove the stencil and sprinkle glitter over the wet paint.  Don’t be afraid to sprinkle extra glitter on the fabric because you can reclaim it later.

Step 4 – Clean stencil and brush

Quickly wash the stencil and brush as the paint dries fast and cannot be removed when dry.

Step 5 – Reclaim excess glitter

Fold a piece of copy paper in half and shake the excess glitter off the fabric into the fold.  Pour the glitter from the paper back into the container.

Step 6 – Expand the paint

Place the fabric on a heat resistant surface.  With the heat gun or hair dryer held about 3” above the fabric, heat the paint until it puffs up. The paint dries very quickly once you begin the heating process, so there is no need to wait for it to dry before you expand the paint.

More about expandable paint

The Setacolor Expandable Paint is referred to as a medium on some art supply sites. It can be mixed with (or used underneath) other paints to make them expandable. Mixing the expandable paint with another textile paint will produce a pastel version of the color and it may be quite dull. Applying the expandable paint, and then another color over the top will keep the colors bright.

If you are using the expandable paint with glitter, there is no need to mix it with another color. The paint is simply acting as an adhesive for the giltter.

Resources

Learn more about stencils from Cedar Canyon Textiles here.

Art Glitter can be found at ArtGlitter.com.

Setacolor Expandable Paint can be found at FiberOnAWhim.com, joggles.com, or DharmaTrading.com.

Susan Stein

I’m thrilled to introduce a new series of short lessons involving stencils and non-traditional materials. This series has been put together by Susan Stein of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Susan is a talented quilter, author, instructor, and recently retired quilt shop owner. Susan’s most recent books are Fabric Art Workshop and Fabric Art Projects, both from Creative Publishing, International.

Susan traveled to Houston with me in October to help out at Fall Quilt Market. She brought a number of fascinating samples made from our new stencils, most made with techniques and materials that are not a part of main-stream quilting. I’m so glad she was willing to put this series of lessons together for us. So, without further ado, here’s the first installment in the Playing with Stencils series!

Liquid Frisket through a Stencil ~ Playing with Stencils 1

This technique is for working with paper, not fabric.

Supplies:
~ Cedar Canyon Textiles stencils
~ Shiva® Liquid Masque™, commonly called liquid frisket (actually latex)
~ Disposable sponge for frisket
~ Sponges and sponge brushes for paint
~ Spray adhesive like 404™ Spray and Fix
~ Heavy paper, colored, marbled, or printed (fabric does not work)
~ Watercolor paper, white
~ White eraser
~ Opaque paint like Lumiere™ by Jacquard
~ Transparent paint like Dye-na-Flow™ by Jacquard

Step 1 – Prepare the stencil

Spray the back of the stencil with adhesive.  Let it dry so the adhesive won’t transfer to the paper.  Stick the stencil onto the paper.

Step 2 – Apply frisket to paper

Apply frisket to paper through openings in stencil

With a sponge or sponge brush, fill the stencil openings with frisket.  I use a sponge and very light application, which gives a less defined image-use the mask more heavily if you want a perfectly shaped image.  Pull the stencil off immediately so the frisket doesn’t lift off the paper with the stencil, and then let the paper dry.  Rub the excess frisket off the stencil with your finger or an eraser.

Liquid Masque on water-color paper

Here’s another photo showing frisket applied to white water-color paper.

Step 3 – Paint the paper

Apply paint over entire paper

Paint over the paper, using as many colors as you like.  You can paint right over the image, since the frisket will act as a resist.   Let the paint dry.

Step 4 – Remove frisket, add additional colors if desired

With a soft eraser, remove the frisket.  If you are using white watercolor paper and transparent paint, dilute a contrasting color and wash it over the white image and into the background.  Let the paint dry.

Note: papers vary greatly and the only way to predict your results is to do a test sample.

Finished Samples

Left: Frisket applied to colored paper using Oak Leaves stencil. Paper painted with copper paint, then sponged with a second paint. Frisket removed to reveal paper.

Center: Frisket applied to dark, marbled paper using Birch Leaves stencil. Paper sponged with copper paint. Frisket removed to reveal paper.

Right: Frisket applied to white textured paper using Birch Leaves stencil. Paper painted with copper paint. Frisket removed to reveal white paper. Paper painted with translucent paint.

Learn more about stencils from Cedar Canyon Textiles here.

Shiva® Liquid Masque is available at art supply stores and online sites.

404 Spray and Fix adhesive is available at quilt shops and sewing stores. Or check the list of retailers at JT Trading for a source.

A few months ago, I posted some of Lauren Vlcek’s Fabulous Faces. Lauren has been suffering through computer problems, but she was able to send the information and photos for a tutorial. So without further ado, here’s Lauren.

Paintstik Portraits, by Lauren Vlcek

I fell in love with Shiva Paintstiks the very first time I tried them.  They are reminiscent of the big fat crayons that I used when I was young.  Just looking at them takes me back to a time when art projects were about exploration and play!  Paintstiks are a stick form of oil paint. I love the freedom of oil paints since they don’t dry out quickly.  They are smooth and wonderfully fun to blend with your fingers.

I love any art project that includes fabric and the paintstiks are designed for fabric.  To make the paintstik portraits, you apply them a little differently than the traditional methods.  The faces on my art journal pages are painted on a separate piece of muslin and then cut out and collaged onto the page. However, you can use the same method directly onto an art quilt or even a canvas.

Supplies

• Shiva Paintstiks- antique white, dusty rose, beige, mauve, meadow green/wedgewood blue
• muslin
• gesso
• fine pencil
• extra fine line artist’s pen
• Decocolor white paint pen
• gel pens
• spray fixative

Step 1

Tape a piece of muslin to your work surface with masking tape.  Using a high thread count muslin works best.  Paint two layers of white gesso on the muslin. Allow the first layer to dry before adding the second.

Step 2

When the gesso is completely dry, remove the masking tape.  Draw a faint outline of the head and neck with pencil.  Spray lightly with a workable fixative or your pencil lines will be smudged when you add the paint.

Step 3

I like to use the paintstiks from lightest to dark.  Fill in the outlined area with antique white.  The area covered with antique white can be spread smooth with a filbert brush or your finger.

Step 4

To add some shadow around the outer edge of the head and in the eye areas approximately halfway between the chin and the top of the head, use a beige paintstik.  Again, this paint can be smoothed with a brush or finger.  While you are smoothing the eye areas drag the inner edges of each straight down to create a shadow along the sides of the nose.

Step 5

Apply dusty rose paintstik to the cheek areas and blend with a brush or finger.  This color can be dabbed between the beige and antique white around the face to give the face rosier complexion.  Then smooth as before.

Step 6

If you lost most of the antique white areas during the smoothing, you can put them back in by adding some more right over the top using the paintstik and then smoothing them out with a brush or finger.  It is nice to have some white highlighted areas at the forehead, along the bridge of the nose and on the chin.

At this point your face will have color, shape and shadow and is just beginning to resemble a face, but there are no details yet.  The paint needs to dry for 24 hours. When the paint on your face is fully dry, spray it with a workable fixative.

Step 7

Draw basic feature outlines with an extra fine micron pen in black or brown.  Draw the eyes, nose, brows and lips.  Spray lightly with workable fixative.

Step 8

Using a meadow green, wedgewood blue, or chocolate paintstik put a dot of paint in the iris area and smooth with a small brush.  Don’t worry if you lose some of the detail line at this time.  Use the mauve paintstik to dab some color on the top lip and dusty rose for the lower lip, again, blend with a small brush.  Allow the paint to dry.  These small areas don’t usually take 24 hours, but overnight is a safe bet.

Step 9

The finishing details of the face are quick and easy.  Replace any detail lines that were obscured with the extra-fine micron pen and draw in a black pupil.  If you want you can outline the iris in a gel pen that matches the eye color you chose in step 8.  Use a fine, white Deco paint pen to put in the whites of the eye and tiny highlights on the tip of the nose and along the top tip of the upper lip and in the center of the lower lip.  You can also put a small dot of white in the eye where the pupil meets the iris at about 1:00.  This brightens the eyes and gives the illusion of a light reflected off a wet surface.  Be sure to spray the entire face a final time with fixative.

~ Lauren Vlcek lives and teaches various classes in the Colorado Springs area, including one on her lovely faces. She’ll be teaching this class at the 2010 Textile Evolution Art Conferences. (You can visit www.TextileEvolution.com for more details.) Lauren is co-author of a new book called Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond from Landauer Publishing. It has just been released.

Shelly’s Note

Many thanks to Lauren for providing us with this wonderful step-by-step look at painting faces with Shiva Paintstiks! Have a question? Post a comment!

And as always, happy painting…

Our new paintstiks colors have been wildly popular — especially new new iridescent jewel colors. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at all six colors.

New Iridescent Colors

The new iridescent colors are really lovely. They are all the more special to me because I had the opportunity to work with the paint company to develop the colors. (Creating new colors is a most interesting process — there is a limit to how many times I can say it needs to be “just a little more toward the blue” before my paint guy tosses in the towel.) At any rate, our new iridescent colors are Jade, Magenta, and Sapphire. And they are simply yummy!

Jade was easy — we knew this was a winner as soon as we saw the first sample. It’s a lovely blue-green that sits in between Green and Turquoise.

Magenta is a wonderful deep pink. I really wanted iridescent fuchsia, but by the time we added the “shiny stuff” that makes a color iridescent, it was no longer truly fuchsia. None the less, I love the color and think its a great addition to the line.

Sapphire was the most challenging. The first sample came back a deep purple. It was a lovely color, but not what I wanted. After 3 times of saying “it needs to be a little more blue…” we had a winner. Sapphire darker than most of our colors, and sits perfectly between the original blue and purple iridescent colors.

We also put the 3 colors in a set of Mini Jewel colors for those of you who like “just a taste!”

I was testing out the new colors while I played with the new Snowflake stencils. (It’s always nice to do two things at once!) I’m probably more than a little biased, but I think they are all just delightful.

New Matte Colors

The new matte colors were developed for an amazing painter named Diana Lynn Cote. If you want to see some incredible paintings, visit her online gallery. Diana paints exclusively with Shiva Artist’s Paintstiks, and her work is truly amazing. The new matte colors are Fuchsia, Periwinkle and Marsh Green.

Fuchsia is, well, very fuchsia. It’s a fabulous, vibrant pink.

Periwinkle is a medium value “blue” that is similar to the iridescent Sapphire — it’s not really blue, not really purple.

Marsh Green is another great color. It’s more yellow than Meadow Green. One of my friends called it “Mr. Yuck green” after the symbol on the poison control stickers. That’s actually a pretty good description — although not terribly appealing.

Here’s a quick sample I made up to show the colors on fabric.

Enjoy the new colors — and as always, happy painting!

I don’t have grandchildren, but many of my friends do — and I just love to see what they come up with when they are on “grandma duty.” Linda Huebner of Kensington, MN has a couple of beautiful granddaughters who just love spending time with their ever-so-creative grandmother. Linda calls her time with the girls Grandma Camp. So this month, our guest artists are Maren (age 7) and Clare (age 10).

During their Grandma Camp session in September, Maren and Clare dug into the paintstiks for a delightful morning of fun. Linda had purchased some pre-printed t-shirts from The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art and the girls set out to color them in with the paints. Here they are hard at work. (And I see that Grandma had them attired in proper painting clothes so they didn’t decorate their clothes…

I think the t-shirts are quite lovely. Maren and Clare did a remarkable job of blending  a few colors as they colored in the faces. That was their one big request for the paint company — they would like a good “flesh” color. Here are the t-shirts finished.

Don’t you just love those sunglasses? Here are our lovely artists with their shirts. I sure hope Grandma fed them breakfast before she brought out the paints — it looks like they had a busy morning!

If you (or your grandchildren) have paintstik projects that you would like to share, send us a few pictures along with the story and you may find them here on the blog.

Oh, my goodness! The new stencils are flying out the door as fast as we can get the orders packed up. What a wonderful way to launch a new product line! The Snowflakes have been especially popular — no great surprise as many of us have already had snow.  Here are the new sets of stencils that are heading out to shops and our on-line retailers.

Snowflakes

Birch Leaves

Ginkgo Leaves

Maple Leaves

Oak Leaves

We’ve had a number of calls and queries asking where the stencils can be purchased. I’ve checked the website of our usual on-line retailers, but none of them have the stencils up on their sites just yet. (At least not as of Oct. 30.)

I spoke with the owner of one of my local quilt shops, and she is more than happy to take care of your orders. You can contact Dawn at Dawn’s Quilt Shop. The phone number is (320) 763-7011 and the website is www.DawnsQuiltShop.com. Dawn’s shop is in Alexandria, MN, which is in the Central time zone.

And now that things are settling down just a bit after quilt market, we’ll get back to the task of showing you interesting ways to use your stencils. I start today, but my trusty assistant is off for a few days to take care of her grandchildren, so I’ll be packing orders instead of painting and taking photos for a bit. Perhaps I’ll have to recruit some help…