PaperArtsy: 2020 #5 Mark Making: Into Africa with Hot Picks {by Carol Fox}

2020 Topic 5: Mark Making

Mark making on fabric requires different techniques and Carol has some great tips. I love her experimentation with clay in a Melt Pot and the finished bag has a fantastic safari vibe!

Hi everyone, it's Carol with you today, and I'd like to share with you a project bag I have made for my knitting. I added a little tab on the side to hold a couple of stitch markers. I chose my fabric and zip to match the paints I would be using and the Cayenne which I matched my zip and tab to give it all nice pop of colour against the shades of green.

I treated my blank fabric panel just as I would a journal page,just remembering that the very edge would be lost in the sewing up, so I took this into account when placing the Giraffe.

Using bIack Archival in I stamped and masked the Giraffe from HP2002 onto my fabric.

I found the Shades Guacamole, Zucchini and Granny Smith were a near perfect match for my printed fabric so I used these as a base for the background.

I used Guacamole, Zucchini, Granny Smith, Cayenne and Caramel with stencils PS124 and PS036 to add marks and detail to my background. I then used PS136 and Snowflake to knock it back and to blend it all together.

I used the bug stamp from the new HP2002 to add detail on my background.

I used a die cut, that I cut from funky foam with paints Zucchini and Guacamole mixed on my mat to bring the green background to the front a little bit more.

My quote is from stamp set ESN28.

I followed on the theme of circles on the quote and used an old lid and Little Black Dress paint to add them to my background.

I coloured the Giraffe with pencils. I used Caran d'Ache and I have found a blunter pencil works better on fabric.

I used Stencil PS036 again here with a blue pencil to draw in between the lines to just add a light pop of blue.

Using a sewing machine I added stitching to the fabric panel.

I stamped the elephant from HP2002 onto an acrylic circle to add to my zipper pull and two of the bugs I stamped onto clay, I pressed quite hard and it made a nice imprint into the clay.I added jewellery findings to the top to use as stitch Markers.

I like making little bags like this. I find them handy to keep odd knitting projects together or this size (which is just under A4 sized) is a nice size to take a smaller journal and odd pens and bits out in if going to a class or to journal with friends.

I have used an unbleached calico fabric but I also used odd scraps or a pillowcase for my main stamped part; a pair of plain white pillowcases are very cheap and work fine. I also baked my clay in my Melt pot for the first time. I did get a little discoloration on the back where it sat on the pan, but apart from that it worked great. Next time I will find something heatproof to sit it on to allow the heat to pass under it. I think a bit of metal mesh or similar will work fine.

Thank you for reading and I can be found at the places below.

Carol xx