Tag Archives: painted fabric tutorials

Painted Fabric – Cardboard Resist

This is the first cardboard resist piece I made, it was made on a painted (light wash) piece of fabric and I used two colors for the design. Read on to find out more and for the How-to video see below.

For this next piece I left some of the backside tip fabric unpainted (no yellow), once dry and pressed I painted orange dots to the centers. I didn’t like that result, they felt too deliberate. The holes were in a tighter placement and I don’t think the overall results were as good, BUT maybe it’s just the colors; I think these colors would have been more striking on a white background.

Below is the only piece (so far) painted on white fabric, the picture doesn’t show how pretty it really is. I forgot to take a photo before I cut some pieces out, that’s the photo-shopped out white areas.

The next piece didn’t go as I had hoped. I started with a piece of rope wrapped fabric in green (more about that in a future post). I used three colors on the green background, which was an okay idea, but again the holes were too close. I’ve concluded that there needs to be more fabric and space between the holes.

  • black paint at edge
  • yellow paint on tip
  • flipped it and painted third color
  • back dry, not pressed
  • front dry, not presses.
  • front pressed, can’t really see the centers.

I did use the the above fabric but it doesn’t look anything like it did after painting. In my previous post I share the crackle/crinkle painted fabric and said I’d try to share an artwork using that technique and this newest paint technique. Here it is… Mixed media collage, raffia, coffee filter, and hand painted fabric. I may talk about the background wall fabric in a future post.

Untitled. Approximately 15.5″ x 11.5″

I learned more… One – I wanted the vase to be shiny so I painted Mod Podge on it, when it dried it was shiny BUT the crackles and crinkles were no longer visible. And two – Dry Mod Podge is really hard to wash out of fabric! I ended up flipping the fabric over and that worked fine, it’s actually darker than it appears in this photo.

After painting a few pieces I have more ideas for using this technique. If you paint fabric using any of these techniques I hope you’ll share your results.

Stay tuned for the next sweepstakes/giveaway announcement.

Crackle – Crinkle Technique

I mentioned in my previous post that I have been working on new painted fabric techniques. I’m sharing a one here, though for me it’s not new because I accidentally made a piece of this fabric a long time ago. Below is a short video that demonstrates just how easy it is.

A couple things I should say – First, it is best to use darker paint to get the most obvious results. And, unless you have large hands or a large handed helper, this technique is really only for making small size pieces of fabric.

Next week I’ll share another new technique and if time permits, an artwork using the two techniques.

Below is another piece of fabric I made using this crackle/crinkle technique. I used black paint and after I rinsed it, I had a sad feeling that it didn’t work (see left side below). But I should have known better… Just a hot iron and the crackle appears, like magic! In this photo the right side has been press completely flat (except for the little crease on the right edge).

Below, the fabric front is on the left and the back on the right. Any brown color is just from bad lighting; the piece is nice dark charcoal gray. I like the fabric back as much as the front and now I see plaster walls, cave walls, or rocks… Note to self – Must try in brown.

I look forward to sharing more painted fabric pieces and hope you’ll say tuned. Thanks for stopping by.