Image transfer continued...

Here's another example of the transfer technique i was talking about a few days ago. I made an illustration of a handbag, digitalized it and touched it up in Illustrator and then printed it out on paper. It was transferred onto a cotton applique and embellished with some glitter, silver paint and a lace trim with sequins. I purposely give it an antique look, which you can achieve by leaving the iron a little bit too long on the transfer when you are setting it. For this applique i needed a matching bag, so i got one of my vintage inspired bags, a black one, painted it silver and added lots of glitter. As a finishing touch i added parts of an old necklace and a bow made of vintage lace. The fun part is that the colour of this bag changes according to the light. It's a very sparkling and bright bag when it's sunny, but when the weather is dark the bag becomes black again and has a more gothic and mysterious look.

Be fashionable in each and every circumstance

Yes ladies, even when you are driving your convertible!
Scanned from :Fémina, 1906

Image Transfer Tutorial

If like to try out an alternative for those expensive iron-on, then maybe you should have a look at this! I love this transfer technique, it's cheap, easy and fun because you can achieve different "looks": from distressed to crisp images...it's worth a try!

What do you need:

soap shavings

turpentine

a piece of fabric and a fresh inkjet print

and : a well ventilated workspace!

Get a cup and fill it 1/4 with hot water, add two tabelspoons of soap shavings and stir. Then add a table spoon of turpentine and keep stirring until it looks like this:

Now we're ready to print! get your piece of paper and apply the soap and turpentine mix to the front of your print:

Then put it face down on your piece of fabric. Press it down firmly and apply the mix to the back. The paper will become slightly transparant. The mix can be applied quite thick, as long as you are careful not to rip up the paper. I like to use my hands to rub down the print, but a spoon is very handy too, it depends of the effect you desire:

Now peel back carefully ...and there it is!

How to "set" the print

Of course you don't want your image to fade after the first wash, but please note that that transfer technique is experimental : depending on the mix and amount of soap and turpentine you will get a stronger or weaker print. There are a few tricks for settings the transfer though:

Let your transfer dry for 24 hours. Get a spraying can ( you know, for spraying or watering your plants) and fill it with 50% water and 50% white vinegar. Spray it on the transfer and let it dry. After that you have to iron your transfer on high temperature or use a heat press. Repeat the last two steps( (spraying can and ironing) a few times, but don't rinse in between. When you have done this 3 or 4 times you can take an additional step and use some varnish on the transfer The fabric will become a bit stiffer, but if you do it carfully with thin layers you can obtain a nice result. This last step is recommened for transferring on t-shirts, but if you are just making appliques or transfers that don't need to be washed frequently, you can skip this step.

Ok, that's it! Feel free to post your comments and questions here, i'll try my best to answer them!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall - Valentine's Edition

I finally found a use for the brass wire hearts that i bought on my last trip to Syria! I love how an idea can just pop up while cleaning up the crafting boxes and stumbling upon my forgotten treasures. I found these hearts in a little shop right outside the Souk of Aleppo. It wasn't even a craft or supply shop, they were selling bolts and hammers and then i saw these beauties in a box in the corner. I think the shop owner didn't even know why he had them there...they looked like they had been in that corner for the past 100 years. A good reason for me to buy most of his brass shapes inventory! Right in time for Valentine's :)

New Year's Resolutions

I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions because i just can't keep up with them. Every year it's the same story and every year i simply fail at most of the things i promised myself to do better next year. Maybe i should keep things easy and not stress myself...live day-by-day and don't stress about nothing and everything. Don't they say "good things come to those who wait"? To be honest, i have really neglected my promo-plan since i've been travelling up and down from Belgium to the UK, but yesterday i was contacted by the newspaper for an interview about Etsy and handmade creations. Everything happened really quick so i didn't get time to think about what i was going to say and how everything should look...but also : no time to stress about it! :)

Many thanks and congrats to Karlita, who got the whole thing started and ArtMind, my fellow belgian etsians and EST team girls!