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:
Don't forget to leave a comment at each of the blog hop stops for a chance to win these fabulous prizes!
Links:
I've got to confess, it's been a long time since I've been excited about a piece of fibre art. I seem to have been in some sort of a slump and I just couldn't seem to find motivation or excitement to produce.
