Finally able to participate in Julie Booth's Surface Design Scavenger Hunt !

Reveal for the texture rubbing scavenger hunt.
http://www.threadbornblog.com/2015/05/day-9-fabric-printing-at-home-scavenger.html#comment-form

I wanted to participate in this from the start, but other obligations kept me away.

My husband hid the fact that he broke my glue gun and we had no water yesterday due to a water main break. So I was extremely limited on resources.

Photo 1 - non skid carpet pad 

Photo 2 - Cement on our back steps

Photo 3 - Plastic canvas

Photo 4 - wood from our back porch

Lazy afternoon printing

One of my favorite things to do on a sunny lazy afternoon is to make prints in the backyard. I get some sun and I get my creative energy flowing.

I always have scrap muslin and canvas lying around my art studio to use for such an afternoon.
By art studio, I mean a small room that really is only big enough to house the vast amount of art supplies I have. The room isn't usable so I work a lot outside and also I use my washer and dryer as an art table.

I purchased some Jacquard inks and tie dye spray colors and made a stencil out of clear contact paper and viola….canvases that I might eventually make into pillows or tote bags with leather straps. I have so many ideas, I can't keep up with them!


First I did stencils, then dropped ink, then sprayed them. I used scrap pieces to blot the excess inks.

This is the blotter piece of canvas. 

This is the final work, ink drops, some negative space from the stencils and over sprayed with hot pink tie dye inks. 

Just some ink splatter. 

More ink splatters. 

Coffee filters, washable markers, salt and water

I like to make prints with what ever I have in the house.

I took some old coffee filters from a broken chemex and drew all over them with washable markers. I find the cheap store brand makers are the best. I didn't have any particular image in mind that I wanted to draw, I was just more focused on the colors blending together well.

Honestly I do not have the best drawing skills, I can't draw still life, people, plants or animals. Or even buildings. There my secret is out.
What I am good at is color and shapes. I also love abstract art and I excelled at abstract painting class while everyone struggled and I struggled in real life painting while everyone else succeeded.


The first step is just drawing on the coffee filters. I cut them in quarters and I cant remember why…
I used hot pink, orange, red, shades of light blue and greens.

In this step I took an eye dropper and just dropped water on the areas with the most color overlapping. 

My workspace also doubles as a washing machine!

This is another color study I did, this was browns, pinks, red & purples. This one I used salt on and the spray bottle instead of the eye dropper. 

The spray bottle also doubles as a good weapon against cats (named Jack) who like to thwart any making of art. 

These are what both of them looked like after a water. I let them dry on a another coffee filter and some rag towels. 

This was another color study I did the same night. They almost had a tye dye look to them. I did 4 different patterns and then 4 different color studies. Then added water with an eye dropper and some salt. 

In the end Im not sure what Ill do with them. But its just fun and relaxing to just create. 

Wrapping paper prints

I worked on a few prints that I had envisioned for holiday and birthday gift wrap. I was pleasantly surprised that when I put my mind to it, I was actually far more creative & successful than I thought. Sitting sedentary (creatively speaking) has not caused me to forget who I am….


These are from a birthday gift series I worked on and then had printed through Spoonflower.

The below were watercolors using an inexpensive kids watercolor set and then using an inexpensive watercolor tablet. I scanned them into PS and played with the saturation, hue and color levels and viola!

This is from my holiday gift series, I wrapped all of the holiday gifts this year in this and everyone loved it!

More from the birthday gift series. 

This one was also birthday gift wrap and I also had it printed on fabric…..love it!!

Hand drawn textiles

I love doodling, drawing, sketching or what ever you want to call it. Markers, crayons or colored pencils are often my medium of choice when it comes to creating something.

That said, here is a pen and ink drawing. Single drawing, then tiled.

Getting back to the design part of this blog....

What I originally intended for this blog was for it to be design based, things I find inspiring. Color, patterns, texture....

Of course Im allowed to post off topic things, but I am hoping to go back to my original plan...

Photos from my nature walk...

We got a new little dog.....

A little guy ran in front of my car, exactly 2 months after my Smokey passed away and it was the same day our application for a dog adoption got approved. He found me.
We have a little dog who has no name. He is well loved, he loves treats and toys.
The cats hate him and I heart him.