Positive/Negative

Sooooo... I saw an article in Quilting Arts Magazine (by Enid Weichselbaum, Dec 09 issue) where she used alphabet stickers on fabric as a resist, then painted over them, removing the stickers to leave the original fabric below. I could not wait to try it. She had really interesting stickers from a scrapbook store. Wish I had some of those, but instead I used some press on stickers that were in the "stuff to get rid of in a yard sale some day". Good thing I never got around to having a yard sale.

I skipped most of the instructions (did not wash the fabric first, did not iron the fabric, did not put stabilizer backing on the fabric....) I just put some stickers on muslin and went to town. I got out my now favorite acrylic inks, brushed one color on, then brushed over that with a lot of water. Then brushed on a second color and added more water and blended them until I was happy with it.

You are supposed to let that dry before removing the stickers. I did use my heat gun to encourage it to dry faster, being careful not to hold the heat over the stickers too long. The fun part is peeling off the stickers to see what it looks like... ooooooh

Then I added more stickers, this time using words. I painted over the words, and also added some watered down ink over the white spaces.

I am really into all these layers. I'm not finished yet. Later, I might add some stamping and some hand lettering. I haven't decided yet.

This is not my first piece. The first thing I tried was just simple, single words. Then I put those on painted fabric to make funky tree shaped ornaments. See--they are funky, artsy shaped trees. They are NOT trees that say "I could not make a tree shape even though I drew it out on graph paper so the sides would be symmetrical." Nope.

I used a gold gel pen to outline the letters to make them pop a little.

These ornaments can also be used as a hat.....


Or earrings!
fun, fun, fun!!!