Bags of Decoration - Neil Walker

Hellooo,

Hope you have had a good week......it's nearly the

 weekend again!

We've had some lovely warm sunshine this week, let's hope

 it lasts for a while.
Ha....no it didn't, a day later and the rain and wind
 has returned!

So this week we are focusing on bags.

Bags of Decoration is what we gave the DT.

Neil, as usual has given us a fantastic project to look at....

A bottle bag, beautifully decorated with So Soft paints.

This is the front

A closeup of the front detail

Here is the back

This is what Neil said.....

"Begin by ironing any kinks out of the bag

Start to add your images to the bag using Archival ink pressing

 down a bit longer than you would if stamping on card

 to allow the ink to penetrate the fibres

Build up your design, masking where required till you are happy. 

(Repeat on the back of the bag too)

Now, remember the saying, mix too many colours together

 and you'll end up with mud? Well, this is where you find

 out it's true. Mix DecoArt So Soft Fabric paint, Christmas

 Primary Red, Ocean Blue, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow

 into a pot and you will end up with a funny brown/grey colour

(of course, I could have used brown but where's the fun in that?)

keeping a pot of water handy, begin to apply the paint to the

 bag, avoiding the main stamped areas and using plenty of

 water to lighten and spread the colour. Every now and again

 you can work in a bit of blue,to add interest and depth. 

Use a large brush for the main areas and switch to a smaller

 brush around the images.

Once you have done both sides of the bag; either leave to dry

 or iron just to dry it out a bit (Using a craft iron rather than

 the iron you use to iron your Sunday best!)

 Now it's time to add some colour to your main images. 

Using the same colours as before, and water, add colour to your

 images. (I also used Yellow Green) I used tiny amounts of the

 "mud" colour to kind of dull down the colours where needed.

 It's also a good idea to iron the section you have done prior

 to adding a different colour adjacent to prevent bleeding.

When you have done both sides and are happy, leave to dry. 

Then turn the bag inside out and paint the top section with 

the remainder of your "mud" colour mix (assuming of course 

that like me, you ended up with far too much.)

Allow to dry, turn right side out again, and give it a last press with

 a hot iron.

The bag comes with a loose string tie cord which I attached to

 the side of the bag by sewing it on with string.

Once I had knotted the string around the cord I added a tag to

 the string and knotted it on. The tag had been stamped with

 a tag image from the stamps and I coloured it with some of the

 left over paint so the colours matched.

Now all that was left was to find a bottle worthy to be carried in 

such a stylish bag..."

So, what do you think...

What a brilliant project and really nice and unusual gift.

Do you want to have a go?

This is what you will need -

Canvas Bottle Bag

Viva Decor Stamp - Adventure

Viva Decor Stamp - Paris - Rome - Berlin

Viva Decor Stamp - Tags - Love

DecoArt So Soft Paints -

I used Christmas Primary Red, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, 

Ocean Blue and Yellow Green

Archival Ink - Jet Black

Are you going to try this....let us know

See you tomorrow,

Jane x