Sharing an experiment

2011 is charging full steam ahead. We have had Grant's 14 yr old nephew Ryan with us since the 9th so although I have had time of work I have had no spare time to get creative....doesn't stop me thinking about it all the time though LOL. Anyway I thought I would share something I experimented with at Christmas. I had run out of Inkjetset which is a solution you can soak material in, let it dry, attach it to freezer paper and run it thru your Inkjet printer. It makes the image waterproof, wont bleed and you can use layers of paints, inks etc over the top without it ruining the printed image. It's great for mixed media work.
Well I had decided to use an old angel image printed on fabric for my Christmas cards but as I had left making them so late I had no time to get more Inkjetset nor could I find alum powder here to make my own home made solution. I painted a section of unbleached calico with water proofing medium for fabric and left another one free. I attached these 2 pieces of calico to freezer paper so the centre overlapped. The image on the left, with dried water proofing medium pre printing, printed dull and washed out
.
To the centre one which had half waterproofing medium under it and half none I tried waterproofing medium on top of the printed image....it started to distort and wipe away with each brush stroke. Finally the last image printed on the right above was just plain printing on calico. To my surprise it printed well and was crisp so I sprayed it with Crystal Kote and then tried a wax rubbing and paint, dry brushed on top and all was well. My Christmas cards were saved. Below is the card I made and has a similar image printed on white ?cotton...it was fine weave like a sheet. It brang the colour out nicely and once sprayed with the Crystal Kote made the fabric a little stiffer so easily fed thru the Cuttlebug machine.

I doubt this type of printing would hold up well to paint washes and dye inks but it saved the day for me and maybe others if this helps someone...just sorry I made the cards so late they got to some folks after Christmas. Making Christmas cards early this year is my resolution LOL!!!.

While Ryan has been here we have done stuff nearly every day. It's awesome seeing the changes to the bush from the Dry to the Wet season....bulging waterfalls, animals, mushrooms and loads of green foliage everywhere. I'll try to share some images later on. Many of the walking tracks are closed due to local flooding but that's Ok...happens every year here. Monsoon overhead and non stop rain since Ryan came doesn't help but it has made it cooler somewhat. Ryan goes home Saturday so hope to get arty farty after that...I feel a need to get all inky and paint splattered...my hands are too clean LOL.

All you folks over on the East Coast side of Oz take care...my heart goes out to you all with rains, floods, loss of life and damage over there.

hugs

Annette In Oz