New Year, New Embroidered/Stenciled Appointment Book

For the past couple years I've tried to mix my business life with my crafting life by jazzing up my appointment work book. It's April and I've finally gotten around to it. Last week, someone mixed the appointment books up. Now with my new design, it's guaranteed not to happen again!

Techinques used : paper cutting, stenciling and hand embroidery.

Ink used : Gocco ink.

New Pillows

Techniques Used :

1. Stenciling : Ink used - Speedball. Applied with a round sponge applicator. I created the stencil's from plastic file folders.
   
   
   
   

2. Reverse Applique. I cut the stenciled image out, leaving a little edge of color. Attached the background fabric to the back and attached my topstitching around the stencil.

3. Sewing - envelope pillow. Sewed two overlapping panels in the back to create the envelope pillow.

4. Add button holes and buttons to the back to keep the pillow closed.

Then ... ta da ... new pillows for my couch.

Potato Printing With Lotta Jansdotter

Simple Printing w/ Lotta Jansdotter from Rowenta USA on Vimeo.

Found this over at Design Sponge.

New Tools

X-ACTO X2000

My old craft knife was horrible. It took forever to cut out stencils. It was dull (from the beginning) and it would bruise my poor fingers.

Picked up the X-ACTO X2000 at the craft store. Cutting was a breeze and my fingers love the soft comfort grip. I started using my craft knife more frequently now. How often should I change blades?

DuraBright Buglight

During my web search I came across a couple sites that listed yellow buglights as photo safe lights. I'm tired of applying emulsion in the dark. I hope these work just as good as the yellow photo safe bulbs. Anyone have any experience with these bulbs?

New Pillows To Jazz Up The Couch

The design was stenciled on using Lotta Jansdotter's stencil from Lotta Prints.

Fabric ink used: Versatex in brown, Jacquard Lumiere in pearl turquoise. I liked the consistency of the Jacquard for stenciling, Versatex was a tad to thick. Once dried ... Versatex blended in with the fabric but, Jacquard stayed very stiff.

I'm having so much fun with my Gocco and painting on fabric. I started looking into a screen printing class. They're a lot harder to find in my area, but I'm determined.