Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Fabric Paper Collage ATCs

Yes, I gave into the craze for making fabric paper! I first read about it back in 2004 in Beryl Taylor's article "Making Fabric from Paper" in the premiere issue of Cloth Paper Scissors and in her luscious book Mixed Media Explorations. There's a basic how-to on the Quilting Arts website. You start with a layer of muslin fabric and glue paper to that base and then paint, stencil, spritz & stamp layers of color on top of that, and then cut it up to use in collage that can be stitched! (The photos above right top to bottom show some of my layers of paper & color being added.)

I had experimented with the technique a little, making this mini art quilt in 2007, but never really embraced it. Then my friend Darlene did a demo for our local ATC group this past April and encouraged everyone else to try it. And my friend Sue gave me a copy of Kelli Perkins' book Stitch Alchemy, which featured colorful Day of the Dead fabric paper greeting cards.

So I decided to try the technique for my ATCs for the Day of the Dead swap at Illustrated ATCs. I made two pieces of fabric cloth about 11x18" each (or half a fat quarter) - one in red/pink/orange shades (see above) and one blue/green/yellow.
More Fabric Paper - September 8, 2010
Then I cut out my shapes and tacked them down with a bit of glue to hold everything in place until I could stitch it.
Muertos ATCs - September 10, 2010
For the borders, I used some colorful fibers handspun by my friend Kathi. Here are the four that I'm sending in for the swap:
2010 Day Of The Dead #12010 Day Of The Dead #2
2010 Day Of The Dead #32010 Day Of The Dead #4
Now I have to finish some fruit ATCs for the Milwaukee ATC group's September theme "Eat, Drink & Make Art." (You can see some of them under construction in the first photo above.)

6 comments:

Denise said...

Hi... I trade at illustratedatcs as well (shahe05) I love the cards you have done. I'm going to have to try that... seems there is never a lack of techniques to explore.

Carolyn B said...

Thanks, Denise! Are you in the Day of the Dead swap too? And you're right - there no end to the techniques out there!

Denise said...

No, but I got all excited after I saw yours and wanted to do it, but we are leaving on Fri. to visit kids in California so I won't have time. I'll save my ideas for the Oct. MMa-thon.

Carolyn B said...

Oh, yeah, that'll be fun! I wish our schedule wasn't so booked up that MMA-athon weekend. I would recommend getting a few sheets of fabric paper started ahead of time just because I found I had to let everything dry overnight. Have a safe trip to sunny Cal!

Susan said...

I love your Day of the Dead cards. I haven't tried making fabric paper yet, but knew about it and your work makes me want to dive right in and create.

Carolyn B said...

Thanks, Susan - that's the way I was too - I kept reading about it but didn't take the plunge until I saw my friends doing it :D

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