creativityUNLEASHED by traci bautista

love you papa...

daddy...you are our hero.

you set the example for all of us with your patience, kindness and love.

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thank you for raising me with your constant encouragement to follow my dreams. you taught me early on that with hard work and doing things with passion, I can accomplish anything.

thanks for believing in me.

wishing you a wonderful father's day..

love you papa..boo

mixed media fabric display ideas

Last week I shared a two video tutorials {here and here} with numerous ideas of how I create mixed media + dyed fabrics for my art journals and other projects. Once you have all of those beautiful fabrics in your stash, how do you creatively store or display them?

Here are some colorful and inspirational ideas for display and storage....

CURTAIN cable: Use a cable system, usually used for curtains {see photo above} add rings with clips and hooks and a closet hanger to hang items from the cable. Both of these can be found out Ikea. This is a great system for hanging larger pieces of painted canvases.

BINDERS + plastic sleeves: Group fabrics by color or for certain projects and place them into top loading plastic sheet protectors then into a large binder{2.5" or 3"} since the fabrics. This organization method allows me to easier flip through various fabrics in an organized fashion. To prevent fabric from sliding out of the plastic sleeve pin the top closed with a quilting pin.

BINDER clips: For projects I might be working on soon, I group fabrics and special pieces and clip them together using a binder clip and hang them on my studio inspiration wall.

CROCHET hangers: Use the top loading binder sheet protectors or clear plastic bags filled with *flair trays including painted fabric swatches to decorate your studio or walls. This is a great way to create color studies or put together embellishment kits for your projects. I love and collect vintage crochet hangers, I attach clips and clothes pins to hang the

CLIPBOARDS: I have a few legal size clipboards on my wall that hold my fabric project collections. It's a fun way to rotate your fabric collections on your inspiration wall.

DESIGN wall foam core: another great way to experiment and see fabric for a project is to create a design board with a large piece of foam core.  Use quilting pins to tack the fabric to the board. This works great and allows you to move pieces around.

I hope these ideas inspire you to find creative ways to display all of your lovely creations. I'd love to see how you store or display your fabrics. If you a link to a photo online, please share it in the comments. happy organizing! xoxo~Traci

{video} mixed media + fabric tutorial part two

Yesterday I shared various fabric painting ideas and gave an overview of how to use the Tulip Tie-Dye Kit in this video tutorial. Today continues with more ideas for over dyeing fabric and I reveal all the colorful fabrics I created during this painting session.

>>--------------------------VIDEO TUTORIAL-------------------------->>>

Here's part two in the video series, it's about 30 minutes. You can find the supply list, step-by-step directions, more photos and tips in the previous post...enjoy the inspiration!

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STAY TUNED...for the final post in this series that reveals more ideas and inspiration on how to use the fabrics for color palettes, how I store them, and information on how I use the painted & dyed fabrics to create art quilts and art journals. I'll also share a simple DIY sketchbook planner project.

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TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY  ILoveTo Create

 

{video} mixed media + fabric dyeing tutorial

Today I continue my Style reMIX blog series featuring Tulip Tye-Dye Kits. Tie Dye is all the rage in fashion trends this season as I shared in this post. I want give you insight in how I use these colorful tie-dye kits from ILoveTo Create for other things than t-shirts and pre-made tote bags. It's a fun technique and a great way to use up all the fabric scraps and painted remnants sitting in your studio.

I've created a two part video series that explores various ideas on how to mix custom colors using the dyes, ideas for resists and demonstrations on how to over dye hand painted textiles. Tulip Tye-Dye Kits and One Step Dyes are super easy to use and produce vibrant colorful fabrics.

{creative toolbox} here are the supplies you'll need to complete this project...

• Tulip Tie-Dye Kit
• various white or natural cotton fabrics - Drill cloth, Roc-lon Super muslin, cheese cloth, Roc-lon Osnaburg, white on white quilting fabric, painting rags from hardware store, old t-shirts
• cotton yarn, fibers and laces in beige, neutral or white
• resists - Collage Pauge in applicator tip bottle, Tulip Slick Dimensional paint, Derivan Matisse gesso, white paint, Aleene's Fabric Fusion, Acrylic paint, Tulip Soft Fabric paint
• painted textile remnants
• stencils - sequin waste {punchanella}, plastic needlepoint canvas
• Tulip Fabric spray paints
• Tulip Fabric markers
• large plastic bin
• Ziploc plastic bags
• rubber bands
• plastic or canvas tarp to cover your table or floor
• apron
• 2-ply paper towels
• optional - rubber gloves, safety glasses and mask

BASIC TECHNIQUE...

FABRIC TO DYE: I start with remnants of my mixed media painted fabrics and pieces of cotton fabrics and fibers/yarns. The pieces above are a mixture of cotton fabrics including muslin, drill cloth and canvas that have been painted with Tulip Soft Fabric Paints, Tulip Slick Dimensional paints and Tulip Fabric Sprays. They can be dyed with or without washing first. If you don't wash the fabric, the final dyed color will not be as vibrant.

MIX COLORS: mix custom colors in Ziploc plastic bags. Then place fabric piecs in the bags and soak them with the dye mixture. Place dyed fabrics with similar colors in ziploc bags and let set for 6-8 hours of longer for deeper/richer colors. Experiment with color mixing. I don't have exact recipies I just experiment and play. Test color with small pieces of fabric and add more dye colors to make changes to the color mixture.

RINSE & WASH FABRIC: Follow the directions on the package to rinse and wash the dye out of fabric. I like to iron my dried pieces to keep them flat.

tips + ideas

• for more vibrant colors pre-wash and dry fabric. 
• wetting fabric before dyeing is optional. If fabric is saturated with water first, the dye color will be lighter, it also helps blend colors together or create gradations of one color.
• let dye fabric set for longer than 8 hours for deeper, richer color {I leave mine overnight}
• this is a time consuming but fun project, set aside a day for dyeing and washing fabric. Dye large batches of fabrics, so you have a lot of pieces to choose from for your projects.
• use safety glass & mask when working with powdered dye pigments if you are sensitive.
• use rubber gloves and an apron when dyeing fabric to protect hands and clothing.
• wrap dyed fabrics with paper towels.
• if you have dyed delicate thread/fibers or lace, place items in lingerie wash bag to prevent them from tangling.
• use mixed dye within 45 minutes, dye strength lessens after 45 min
• use the dyed and painted mixed media pieces create fabric journals, art quilts or other fabric projects.
• bottles and ziploc bags are reusable. make sure to rinse the bottles after using them and allow to thoroughly dry.

>>--------------------------VIDEO TUTORIAL-------------------------->>>

Here's a video tutorial which gives an overview and ideas of fabrics painting & resist techniques, techniques on mixing custom colors and how to over dyed painted textiles. It's almost 40 minutes and jam-packed with info...enjoy the inspiration!

Come back tomorrow for part two in the mixed media + fabric dyeing series, I'll show a few more color mixing and over dyeing ideas, a BIG reveal of the colorful finished pieces and ideas for using the dyed fabrics. Happy tie dyeing...xo~Traci

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TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY  ILoveTo Create

artJOURNALING daily magazine

There is a new feature that Flipboard recently launched which allows the creation of magazines. I've decided to create a monthly issue of artJOURNALING daily to showcase a collection of inspiration, photos, ideas and tutorials I've curated from various artists on the web. Each issue will feature some of my artist friends, articles and artists I discover online. The content will include stories, photos, tutorials and images about art journaling, handmade books and mixed media that I hope inspire you and encourage your art journaling play.

Introducing the first artJOURNALING daily magazine! {see the cover of the first issue above}. This month I've included articles from various artists that shared about their personal pen favorites {including one of my most popular articles about white pens}, interesting art journal papers and pages. There are juicy images from Pam Garrison, Mary Ann Moss, Alisa Burke, Teesha & Tracy Moore, Orly Avineri, Mindy Lacefield, Karen Michel and many more. I hope you'll discover new artists and be inspired by all of the interesting content.

To view and subscribe to my artJOURNALING daily magazine download the free Flipboard app. {available for iPhone/iPad, Android Phones, Kindle Fire, Nook} and search for artJOURNALING daily or "treicdesigns". I will post on my blog when I create a new issue each month. You can also view the link to the magazine online here. Enjoy the inspiration!

happy art journaling..xoxo~Traci

 >>>>>>>>>>>>>SHARE YOUR WORK>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'd love to see what you are up to in your own art journals, please share links to your photos or blog posts in the comments. what did you journal about this week?

*be inspired by the lovely pool of photos & share your artwork in the artJOURNALING daily flickr group