Dish dryer extrodinaire

I just love how my little girl likes to sit up on my bench and dry dishes!

Basic screen printing tutorial

I have showed this basic screen printing technique on my blog some time ago - when I made a couple of shirts for Owen (one with a bus on it). Here is a more detailed tutorial with some new pictures and ideas...

It started with a shirt of Rosa's - I decided needed a little embellishing and thought the theme of her upcoming birthday (butterflies) would be fun. She has been talking over and over about me making her a butterfly cake for some time... will see how all that goes with a bubs arriving any day now!

This was done on our last day of school holidays - something fun to enjoy making...

Well here goes:

You need:

• Some contact - I have used coloured to make it easier to see on the shirt (for some reason the colour of my contact actually remained on the shirt until I scraped away at it) so I would recommend clear contact
• Screen printing ink - I have only ever bought black and white but there are many colours out there - bought mine at "Art Riot" but available many places- including using mine if you like (a little goes a very long way - feel free to use some if you want to - honestly, I have plenty)
• A nikko pen (ideally a thinnish one - a sharpie or the like - especially if your design is quite detailed)
• scissors
• A shirt/piece of fabric or whatever you want your design on (needs to be somewhat flat)
• a picture of your design (must be stencil like- easy enough to cut out of contact)
• a thick piece of cardboard to put under your shirt/fabric so ink won't seep through to other side of shirt
• A paint brush
• An iron to set print when dry

First you trace your design onto contact. It may be necessary to hold your design up to the window so you can see through. I used a nikko pen to trace the outline of the butterfly onto the clear side of the contact. Here is my simple outline.

Then I cut out the inside of my design, stuck the butterfly stencil onto the shirt. I needed to trace and cut out the little pieces next for the inside of my butterfly...

Here they are all stuck onto the shirt (ok, not perfectly, but then, I am not a perfectionist:) You can see how the nikko outline helped to make the pieces visible against the background.

This next step is my favorite - dabbing on the ink... Don't paint long strokes, rather just dab up and down, making sure all the contact pieces are nicely pressed down against the shirt. I tend to let the first coat of ink dry (a few hours) and add a second coat to create a crisper colour.

After the paint is dry (I have been known to impatiently pull off the pieces before completely dry but of course you run the risk of painty fingers smearing other parts of your shirt:) When the contact has been carefully peeled off (sometimes a knife may help to lift tiny pieces that big, clumsy fingers can't manage) your finished result could look something like this... Ta - dah!

When the design is totally dry then it needs to be heat set with an iron. I put an old cloth over the top of the picture and slowly move the iron around to distribute the heat. I think I did this for about 4-5 min to make sure the design will stay on well after washing (the last shirts I made with this ink washed really well - shirts wore out before the design did:)

When Joshua saw me make this shirt ( it only took about 30 min (plus drying time) he instantly started asking if he could make one too. He chose the picture, traced it himself and cut it out - did the whole thing himself!

So here he is - we found a simple spider picture on the internet (why do boys just love spiders, snips and snails and puppy dog tails anyway?)

And the proud fashion designer:

I have also used this simple contact screen printing technique for a monogrammed pillow in Rosa's room (made some months ago now):

I just found a font I liked - and printed a huge "R" with the above technique. When the fabric was done I quilted stripes around it on my sewing machine (with a bit of quilt backing behind fabric).

It would be fun to try - other pictures on a pillow - maybe birds on a branch, making a personalised library bag, etc. etc.

I also managed to monogram a letter for baby (and hid it away for safe keeping :) NO, sorry, no secrets as to letter of alphabet or colour of fabric! It is all wait and see around here!

Well this turned out to be a mammoth post - and I've been feeling a no. of Braxton Hicks even as I type. Any day now... :)

Art Master at 7yrs!

Check this out. Hubby showed this to us - nice timing to inspire my 9 yr. old with his crayon resist painting;)

Sharon