Fabric Fun! (WOYW Wednesday 15th June)

Himself was dubious. "I am sure this falls into the category of Please Do Not Try This At Home', he said, with a distinct undertone of there-will-be-tears-before-bedtime, and a dollop of don't-blame-me-when-this-goes-wrong.

"I've read about it," I said. "Lots of people do it", with rather more confidence than I was feeling and hoping I wasn't going to be challenged by 'the usual reply of "Name one". "It'll be fine. You can watch if you like", I added encouragingly.

"No thanks", he replied, heading for the door. "Watching fabric mangle the innards of a printer is not high on my list of favourite things to do".

But it was fine. Of course, it may not be washable but I'm sure I can use it for scrapping. Designing scrapbook papers was very enjoyable in the first instance, but who'd have guessed that printing your own fabric on an ordinary ink-jet printer would be so easy, or such fun? Here it is, on my desk ...

... and I'll take some photos for you on how to do it, in case you would like to try this at home!

And as promised on Monday, here are the zipped scrapbooking papers for those of you who would like them:

DownTheAllotment(Part1)
DownTheAllotment(Part2)

Some of you have emailed about the template I used in the layout on Monday this week - I hope to have that for you on Friday, with a few extras as well.

So please do hop over to the inspirational Julia of The Stamping Ground, to see what else is lurking on wonderful workdesks around the world! Oh, and Himself was warmly impressed. Eating hats is not quite on the menu, but a cup of tea and a handful of liquorice allsorts said it all. :)

Comments

[Ginger]

Oh WOW!! I love these colours and patterns!! I will definitely be downloading and cannot wait to try, this is so much fun Alexa! Thank you!

[Sarpreet]

Wow! those designs are gorgeous and printing on fabric - who would have thought! Thank you for visiting my blog. Happy WOYWW 106, Thank you for sharing, #25

[RosA]

WOW! I am so impressed! Those designs are gorgeous! How brave of you to put fabric through your printer!

[Linda]

Gorgeous! Well done you!

[Mary Anne]

Such pretty patterns! Love 'em and thanks for the download. I print fabric all the time in my printer - I even printed on a thin metal sheet once, but I'm not sure I would try it again - tooooo risky!

Mary Anne

[Paul B]

Absolutely stunning Alexa! And I've not heard of printing onto fabric with a home printer before. Looks incredible and beautiful. You are such a talented designer. Pxx

[Sheleen (Bubbles)]

Hehehe... out with the frying pan and in with the hat I say! lol
Beautiful, beautiful fabric patterns - and I was amazed when you wrote that you printed them! Thank you so much for sharing - brilliant!
Have a wonderful WOYWW #106!

[Helen Lindfield]

very impressive and pretty patterns!

[Sian]

Wow!! That is fabric-fabulous Alexa. I would never have thought of trying it in a million years. I'm scrolling back up for another look!

[Dragon]

Well I am SO glad it worked ... could have been a disaster!!! Thanks for the visit, I got my link wrong and it's actually 38 for THIS week!!!! tee hee, a senior moment...

As for that crackle technique... simple... paint some acrylic on your card, wood etc then dry it off... next get PVA glue, not necessarily expensive stuff, and daub it all over the painted surface... whilst wet/tacky, paint a different colour acrylic paint over the top and watch it crackle!!! Heat for a quicker effect... it could not be more simple. Use dark over light or visa versa... HTH
Frankie 38 NOT 16
xx

[Bleubeard and ELizabeth]

How impressive. Like you, I've read about printing fabric designs on your inkjet printer, but have never tried it. It couldn't be any harder than printing images, except when I print images, I don't have to worry in case the image isn't centered properly, like you might with your continuous print. Love what you did, though. And congrats for carrying it through.

You asked about my process with the inks. I removed the water and washed the wipes again, just to make sure all the scent and chemicals were out of the wipes. I know scents can be offensive to some people. Once the water ran clean, I put the wipes in two bowls and dropped several drops (OK, a bunch of drops) of distress ink on the wipes in each bowl. Blue wipes in one bowl, red in the other. Then I added enough water to cover the bottom of the bowls. I didn't want them all getting completely covered with ink, but knew that the ink would eventually seep into the wipes. After a few minutes, I removed them from the bowls and cleaned the rest of the ink up with Viva paper towels (kitchen towels). They are now drying on my porch. Thanks for asking.

Happy WOYWW. Happy WOYWW from (don't ask how) #1.

[NatashaMay]

I've read about this, too, but never tried it. :) This print looks awesome! Happy WOYWW!

[Jimjams]

Stunning papers, beautiful fabrics - very daring of you!!!

[Julie Kirk]

Wonderful! I shall go and announce this to the pattern lovers of the Twitterverse!

[And thank you for your lovely stripes/sculpture blog comments this week. x]

[Jhayboy]

Such pretty pattern and I love your commentary with Himself... They do make experimental crafting all that much better.

Love love these - thanks for the designs..

Jhay

[Lynn]

So I asked for the fabric and I got! I have done this before, so will definately give it a try. Thank you for sharing.

[Susanne]

How brave of you! Your risk certainly returned great rewards. And your patterns are tempting me to dabble in digital again - almost.

[Miriam]

Thank you so much for these and the inspiration to try something new!

[Morti]

I'm equally impressed - very, very interesting, and I love the colours of the fabric! Well done you...

[Angelfish]

That is just briliant Alexa! I saw the fabric and thought ooh I like those and was amazed to discover you had designed and printed them yourself. How very clever of you:)

[Brenda B]

My first thought was "stunning fabrics" and then I saw the downloads, oh my! Thank you for this Alexa, they're beautiful.

Hugs
Brenda 73

[Samantha McElliott]

Ooooo! I have heard you can do it but I haven't dared try it. Like you I have a sceptical hubby! MMmmmmnnnn. Soooooooo tempting!!!!

[Amanda]

Well what a leap of faith that was :) But well worth it they look fantastic. Please share what you do use them for and don't forget I'm on your list of potential customers should you go in to full production.

[Em]

Hi Alexa! Just dropped by to thank you for the lovely blog comments..and wow, you have blown me away. This is a wonderful place to be!

[Okienurse]

WOW~~ I am speechless! Love the fabric printouts. I thought at first that you had found a way to 'mold' paper but this is oh so much better! Thanks for sharing! Vickie #46

[Spyder]

ohooo clever you! I've done ribbons but not cloth, I do scan it in though and save it on the computer if I finda nice bit of cloth, an old shirt that's years old and you know it's not made any more, all those lovely patterns, one day they might come in handy for scrap booking or card making! Happy WOYWW!!
((Lyn))

[Cindy W]

Love your blog....very fun and, how nice of you to offer these lovely patterns! I'll have to get my courage up to try printing on fabric...my printer doesn't even like some papers much less fabric but maybe I'll test the waters....what printer do you have such good luck with? Thanks for linking in to What's on Tap Tuesday...great having you!
*smile*
#27 on WOYWW
And @scrapcollectr on Twitter

[Shaz in Oz.x]

wow that is simply amazing will keep an eye out to see just how you did do it - you will show us next week wont you pretty please? thanks for popping over Shaz in oz.x

[alexa]

Hi Sharon and thank-you for visiting! Yes. I'd be delighted to put together something about how it can be done, and if not tomorrow, then I promise for next week. :)

[alexa]

Hi Cindy! and lovely to 'see' you. I printed on an HP photosmart C4680 - a fairly standard machine, I think. It's a little huffy about cardstock, but took the prepared fabric just fine - I'll post some photos and information very soon in case you'd like to give it a go. :)

[alexa]

Hello Emma, and thank-you - I'm really pleased you popped over! Hopefully we'll be able to keep visiting!

[alexa]

Full production - oh, now's there's a thought, Amanda! Thank-you for your support and I'll make sure you get the first metre. :)

[alexa]

Yes, you really helped to give me the extra push I needed, Lynn. I'd contemplated it before but never actually tried. So this in in part due to you - thank-you!

[alexa]

I really appreciate this, Julie! And I will be studying in detail your wonderful posts on using Twitter myself. For anyone who's reading, Julie's brilliant help is over here at: http://notesonpaper.blogspot.com/p/tips-for-twitter-curious.html

[alexa]

Thank-you for all that detailed help - I really appreciate your taking the time. :) I will give this a go. I bet you can sew with them as well ...

[alexa]

Brilliant! I have crackle glazes that don't crackle, so sounds both simple and successful! Thank-you for popping over with the details. :)

[alexa]

Thank-you, Sian! As a fabric lover on scrapbooking layouts, you could try this too: I'll post some instructions. :)

[alexa]

Ooh, yes. metal sounds like a step too far for me! Delighted to hear you've had lots of success - I'll keep going then!

[alexa]

Thank-you, Linda!

[alexa]

You're very welcome, Ginger. I;ll get the templates up as well in case they're of interest to you. :)

[Karen]

This is just too awesome! I had no idea you could do this. Thanks for the downloads; these designs are simply beautiful.

[Sue Kment]

Oh my...this is just the coolest thing I have seen in ages!

[jodpea]

Well I've seen printable fabrics, is that waht this is? I wanna try putting fabric thru my Craft Robo (without the stiffener stuff u can buy) but as he regularly chews my paper I'm not sure I'm brave enough! Love this, well done. (N thanx for the downloads)

[Allycat]

Fantastic papers! Thank you soooooooooooo much!
x

[Marianne]

Thank you very, very much.

Marianne