TAP Transfer Artist Paper on Fabric...Another StencilGirl Blog Hop!

Don't you love when things just come together perfectly?

I was asked to participate in this week long blog hop with StencilGirl and Lesley Riley's TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) and I was already planning to experiment with creating a graffiti style piece inspired by this adorable image of Yoshi, my future dog guide foster puppy. 

 

I've always got TAP in my stash, and knew it was the perfect tool for what I was planning! I took the image into Photoshop, cropped it and played around until I had the graffiti look I was going for. Then, following the instructions that come with the transfer paper*, I printed my image and transferred it to a piece of muslin (I wanted the off white colouring for Yoshi's face).  

*I won't go into details because Lesley does it much better than I could. 

See the links at the bottom of this post for more information about TAP.

Here is what the transfer looks like on the muslin. I love the bright, vibrant colour and clarity!

I knew I wanted to stretch this piece over a canvas frame, so I added some elements that would go off beyond the main image so that they could be seen on the sides of the finished stretched canvas.  I fussy cut some bricks and auditioned them in random places. (tip: I use my iPhone to take pictures as I go so I can compare and select the placement I like best and then remember how to get back to it!)

I also cut out Yoshi's name in navy fabric to make it stand out a bit more.




It was now time to add some stencilling using acrylic paint.

I used Terri Stegmiller's Broken Circles and her Heart Grid stencils. In order to have control over exactly where I placed the elements, I masked off individual elements using post-it notes.

I added the acrylic paint using a sponge brush.

I realized a needed something else, so I pulled out Seth Apter's Inside Out stencil. Seth has some wonderful stencil designs that are perfect for graffiti work!

Once the paint dried, I was ready to fuse on the bricks and letters. (IMPORTANT: use the release paper included with the TAP if you are going to iron over the transferred image!)

Over to the sewing machine...I layered the piece with batting and free motion stitched around the bricks, loosely doodling the lines. 

Next, I set the machine to do satin stitch, but I kept the free motion foot on and the feed dogs down so I could get a more 'grungy' look to my stitch as I outlined the letters for Yoshi's name.

It's now ready to be stretched and stapled to the pre-stretched canvas. 

I really like the look of the elements that carry over to the side of the canvas. 

This was really fun and I'm thinking of working on a bit of a graffiti series, perhaps making a piece like this for each of the puppies I foster. First on the agenda will be to go back and get a favourite image of Dime, my first foster puppy!

Here are the other stops on today's hop:

StencilGirl Talk

Kirsten Reed

Linda Kittmer - you are here!

Julia Kellogg - next stop...

If you missed the other stops on this week long hop, head back to Monday's StencilGirl Talk post so you can find them all!  Have fun!

Don't forget to leave a comment at each of the blog hop stops for a chance to win these fabulous prizes!

Links:

StencilGirl Website

Lesley Riley Website

Purchase TAP

Free TAP Videos

Paid TAP Instructional Class

Stitching Finally Resumes on My Shadows Piece...

I've got a couple of pieces that I had been working on prior to my cycling accident in May, which had to be set aside because I couldn't do any hand stitching.  Then, even though I could have started to work on them again, I just couldn't seem to get back to them.

However, these days, thanks to our new little foster puppy, (see Monday's post), the only fibre art I seem to be fitting in to my day is a little hand stitching while he's napping.  It's a good thing that young puppies need several naps a day!

This piece began as an iPhone photo of my elongated shadow, taken one summer evening while I was out walking our dog, Casey.  I played around with it in Photoshop, transferred it to fabric, and now I'm adding stitch to complete the piece.

I'm almost finished with the text, and then I'll move on to my shadows.  I have a couple of ideas for what I might do to add some stitch to the shadows.  Hopefully I'll be able to share the results soon.

Another Piece of Rust...

The current GOE challenge has me working with rust again, but this time I'm approaching it in a whole new way.

Ann, one of our GOE members took these photos of a rusty grate while she was on a golf course in Mexico (perhaps this is why she never make it on the Women's PGA Tour...just saying...).

I can't reveal too much yet, but I thought I'd give you a peek at the machine stitched grass I've been working on.  I've layered some tan thread under the green to give it the texture and colour of the old, dead grass that's under some of the healthy green grass in the photo.  Instead of using rust dyed fabric (which is too hard to work with right now with the cast and all), I've edited the original images in Photoshop Elements and then trasferred it to a piece of cotton using Transfer Artist Paper.

This image shows a bit of the hand stitching I've started to accent the larger blades of grass.

I'm having fun with this piece, but it's  frustrating me that the hand stitching is causing me pain. I've decided that in the interest of my hand I'm going to have to lay off all hand work until I've healed.  I can't wait to get this cast off!