Experimenting with Kunin felt

 I am sharing some textile work today. I took part in a challenge for my textile group ATASDA to use Kunin felt in a textile piece. It is an acrylic felt so that means it will burn and distort with heat, unlike wool felt that won't change. I used some felt that had a pattern embossed on it by the manufacturer. I think the altered felt here would look great as a journal cover. Either sew a loose cover or glue it straight onto a hardbound journal/book.

   

 I put it flat on a baking tray that was protected with alfoil and baking paper. I sprinkled on silver embossing powder all over the felt.

 I used a very soft, large, clean paint brush to gently sweep across the felt so the embossing powder would fall into the embossed areas and I could see the blue felt again in the raised areas.  

 I put the tray in the oven at a low temperature (about 150C) and left it for 10 minutes. It was still a little unmelted so I left it a further 5 minutes to melt completely. I took it out of the oven and let it cool before using it in my piece. I was really pleased that my experiment seemed to work and only the embossed areas were silver.  

 In a different experiment I tried to spread paint over the embossed areas with a palette knife but it didn't work too well. I wrapped paper towel around a wooden block and used that to spread the paint around.

 It is a far more patchy look than with the embossing powder which may suit some projects but not the one I had in mind.  

This piece of felt was cut out with a wood burning heat tool.  I used a stencil for the design and enlarged the pattern using my computer. 

 This is the final picture for the challenge. I layered the different felts over a piece of sari cloth. It is very sparkly in real life.

Use up your stash!

Some time ago I took a good look at my accumulation of craft and art products. I realised that I had a huge amount of stuff and some of it was not even useful any more. I have never really felt that I needed the latest of everything but I found it hard to resist a bargain at craft fairs or art store sales. Then when I did have a big stash I kept wanting to save the good stuff for the big, important projects not the small everyday work I was doing in my studio. Art journaling and general scrapbooking were not important enough

I went to use one of my art products and found it had dried up when I had hardly used it at all. That was the light bulb moment for me. If I didn't use what I had it would be gone before I could use it. Even the scrapbooking supplies that are now seen as out of date would seem too dated if I didn't use them. I had to learn that everything I make or create is important and worthy of the best supplies. I decided to stop buying any more new things and use what I already have. This was hard at first, but now I can go to a craft fair and only buy things that I will use immediately. Sometimes I don't even buy anything at all! It is my goal to use up a lot of items I have been saving so I have more space in my studio.

 This weeks card for the 52 challenge has part of my stash in it. A while ago felt cut out borders were popular for scrapbooking and I bought a few colours. I had this green one that I decided to use.

 You can see it is pretty bright and also self adhesive. It was one length but I cut it into three pieces to fit onto the card front like a background rather than a border.

 I used the Lumiere paints on the tissue paper side of the card. I also did the same on the other side of the card that was plain. I ended up using the plain side for the front and put a quote on the back.

 I sprayed the felt with mica sprays. I was hoping they would become more colored and sparkly but most of the spray was absorbed by the felt. It did make the green color less vibrant.

 When the felt was dry I removed the backing paper and stuck it onto the card. I cut some of the lengths apart so they would fit onto the card better. I used my favorite Inca Gold metallic paints to add more color in random areas on the leaves. I used copper and gold colors.

 I glued on some butterfly cut outs and the card was finished. The quote on the back reads:
"Nothing makes me so happy as to observe nature and to paint what I see - Henri Rousseau."

 You can see how 3 dimensional the felt is. I like the way the altered felt looks so now I will start adding it to more of my scrapbook pages. I love when a small bit of fun, like these cards, inspires me to use products in a new way. Go ahead and look through your stash. Find something you have had for a while and think of a new way to use it. What are you saving it for?