Friday, July 25, 2014

Poppies and SOC rejects help finish a visual journal cover

Some of you may have seen my previous post, where I showed the cover to my scrappy journal I made for my dear friend Kathy.

I used my handmade poppy stencil, and reworked the poppies to make them look a tad more realistic.  Unfortunately, we live and learn, and I learned the matte finish I applied after I applied my pan pastel (as an aside, my dear friend Kathy bought it for me) ran into the blue reinker and made it even darker than it had been.  Lesson learned.

Not to be deterred, I decided to dye some more fabric, this time using oatmeal as a resist.  From left: washed and torn cotton bed sheet, spoon that belongs in my craft room, cooked oatmeal*, painter's tape, plastic to cover the work table.

*The first time I used oatmeal as a resist, I used uncooked oatmeal.  I had no idea how to mix it, and when I did, a decent portion of the uncooked oatmeal fell off the fabric when I placed it on the line.


I decided I would not make that mistake again, so this time, I cooked the oatmeal.  Remember, this is NOT to be consumed by humans once you have opened and used it in a craft project.

The cooked oatmeal was sticky, and stuck better, but

certainly didn't go as far as the last batch I made.

I only got one sheet of oatmeal fabric resist this time.

Now it was time to play the waiting game.

The next morning, the fabric was dry, and I got started before the sun got too hot.  Like before, I used Staz-on re-inkers, colors of your choice and 91% Isopropyl Alcohol (also called "Rubbing Alcohol" in the US, but do not use 70%).


Once the reinkers and alcohol were applied, they dried almost instantly.  However, the oatmeal was still wet from the process, so I once again allowed them to dry overnight.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos.  I was under a bit of a time crunch, but you can see how I removed the oatmeal by seeing this post.  Sadly, this time, the cooked oatmeal was a bit harder to remove, even with the jet spray.  I had to run the final piece through my washing machine to make sure the last tiny bits were removed.  As with the uncooked oatmeal, the colors were much duller than I anticipated.

But now it was finally time to sew these pieces together.  In a way, I was a bit sad I had covered up all the oatmeal resist fabric.

I combined a failed SOC attempt with an image of a SOC "cabbage rose."  It was actually the first piece I stamped, and when I looked around for some scrap fabric, this was all I had.  I knew I'd use it some way, but never expected to use it this soon.  I used a colored pencil to draw around the cat image.  Even Bleubeard approved for once!

And because he approved, he allowed his approval to show by being part of the handmade gift.

Here is the front scanned so you can see its true colors.

And even though I believe the "better half" of this blog is more handsome than this, it's still a good caricature of Bleubeard.

Thanks as always, for dropping by.  Be sure to watch this space to see the contents of the inside of this 98 page journal.  I promise, it will be soon.

10 thoughtful remarks:

Rita said...

Oh, I was sad you covered up the oatmeal resist fabric after all the work you put into it, but it turned out nicely regardless. ;)

dawn said...

Hello Elizabeth, just wanted to come by and say thank you for the comment the other day on blog. My dad is doing ok, has waited all week for surgery which won't happen till Tuesday. Please keep him in your thoughts. I won't be posting for T time since I will be in the hospital all that day and won't be able to make rounds here.
My friend's FIL just passed away earlier today. So it's not been a good week here.
I will try to post some fun random things later over the weekend if I get the chance.
Hope your week has been good and continues thru the weekend.
Take care, HUGS!!

Craftymoose Crafts said...

It is great the way you have used all of your "experiments" in this scrappy journal. The colors you chose with the resist are fun together and it is a shame they faded so much as they dried.

Jo Murray said...

LOVE those poppies.

Cindy McMath said...

Elizabeth, your fabric techniques are amazing. I love how everything turned out - including Bleubeard's caricature (although as you point out, he is much more handsome!). The poppis are really lovely.

~*~Patty S said...

Fun seeing the fruits of labor and experiments...glad I had some oatmeal for breakfast earlier...you made me hungry too ;-)
Your poppies are lovely and things turned out really great...Bleubeard included
oxo

Eliza said...

Hi Elizabeth,

Firstly thankyou for keeping me sane this week because it has taken me all week to finally reply to your posts. I found the process with the oatmeal really interesting then I got torn away because of work, then I would start reading it again and torn away again, it was like the art gods have been against me reading this post. So in short I have persisted and bingo I love the outcome especially the oatmeal and the colours it has left behind. It really is a masterpiece that book and you should be proud.

Hugs Eliza & Yoda

Anonymous said...

Always a challenge on ypur paet to use it up, re-do what you don't like and create so ethng wonderful in the end. xox

Nan G said...

Oh I wish we could see how the resist turned out. You are so clever. I love reading about your experiments with dyeing fabric! Look forward to the next one! Hugs from all.

pearshapedcrafting said...

Wow! I am a long way back - missed this and it is fascinating! The image of you jet washing the oatmeal off was the one that really made me smile! You really are the mistress of brilliant ideas! Chrisx