Sunprints
It’s been way too long since I posted anything. Unfortunately, life has been a bit crazy around here. Things are stressful enough pulling together products for the commercial use store I’m working on, but then my father-in-law suddenly needed to have open heart surgery. The surgery was a week and a half ago and he’s now doing FANTASTIC. We’re hoping he’ll be back home in another day or two and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things will settle down just a bit.
BUT, I did manage to find some time to play and play I did. I discovered a really fun way to “dye” fabrics and realized it would be a great way to make papers. It’s called sunprinting (or sun printing). Now I was familiar with the photographic process of doing sunprints where one uses specially treated paper to create images. While the process is somewhat similar, this is different in that it uses paint on fabric to create your images (like my daughter used to say “exactly the same only different”). I’ve always wanted to try my hand at either fabric painting or dying, but the thought of messing with all those dyes and the hazardous materials one needed to use kept me from actually doing it. I found the idea of using paint in place of dye much more attractive although it did get somewhat messy at times.
I did some shopping around and found one of the paints (dye-na-flow) at my local Jo-Ann’s where I also bought my 100% cotton fabric. I had gathered some ideas for what I would use for the “printing” … now all I needed was a sunny day. Luckily, we’ve been having some really wonderful weather. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to be outside and NOT have to work in the yard. I’ve gotten some great and some not so great prints but I had a blast. Here are some photos of what I’ve made (so far).
I got such GREAT scans of these and have loved playing around with layering them on top of each other and tweaking the colors. In the process, I tried adding some of my patterned overlays on top and that, my friends, is the basis of this post … FREEBIES!!! I decided to share some of the papers that I made. All you need to do is click on the preview to download them.
If you’d like to try your hand at sunprinting, this is the link to the tutorial I used — http://www.bloombakecreate.com/2012/09/more-sun-printing-fabric-with-dye-na-flow/. You can also Google it using the term “sunprint with paints.” I would love to see what you make or have made … just post a link in your comment below. Plus, feel free to share any tips or tricks you might have. I’m definitely a beginner with this and would really love to learn more about the process.
Read MoreSouthwestern Venture redux
It’s come to my attention that I forgot to provide a download link for my Southwestern Venture kit. Thank you Donna for being so persistent and patient with me!! Click on the preview below to download and remember you must be logged in.
I’m now thinking I need to provide a single index to my kits … guess I need to put that on my todo list!
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Spring Bling Paper Add-on
As is typical with me, I have created an add-on to my Spring Bling kit. It’s a pack of 8 more papers which will give you a total of 16 papers. However, I’ve added a bit of a twist for this download … it can only be downloaded from my Facebook page. 
If you’ve never downloaded something from someone’s Facebook page, here’s how you do it. Go to my page — http://on.fb.me/XqCI2w — Click on the Fan Freebie tab — and, since you’ve never done this before, click on “Like” at the top right of the page. You’ll then see the preview above with the words “Just click the preview to download” — then do what it says … click the preview. Hopefully, your download will start … if it doesn’t, let me know by either posting on my Facebook page or adding a comment to this post.
Read MoreSpring Bling
It’s been WAY too long since I did anything “fun” and then given it away. Instead I’ve been busting my bum pulling together products for a commercial use store which is still in the works.
Yesterday, I made the decision to take a break from creating content that is under appreciated and decided to make something that I know will be appreciated … a freebie kit for you, my readers. I call it Spring Bling and bling it definitely has. Check out the preview …
It uses the color palette that I selected for Round 4 for the Designer Darling contest that I dropped out of. I just couldn’t let it go to waste and you all are the beneficiaries of my need to do something a bit more creative with my time. As I learned, I did a layout with it just to make sure it would be workable.
The picture I used is from my photo session at my friend’s mother’s house. This lady always has a bunch of something blooming at her house so I’ve learned to bring my camera with me whenever I visit. This time I was well rewarded … to the point that I ran out of juice in my camera batteries.
Back to your freebie. As always, you must be logged in to download the kit and you can download it by clicking on either preview or just clicking here. Be sure to keep an eye on me because you all know I’m not typically one to release a kit and not want to add to it. I’ll also try to do a better job of posting stuff … even if I don’t have any “good news.”
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