Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

For many years I worked as a silk painting demonstrator for Rupert, Gibbon, & Spider, the company that makes Jacquard Products. I loved demonstrating silk painting mainly because it’s a really easy technique that gives brilliant results. During our recent trip to Turks & Caicos I found some silk painting that really caught my eye. I think the pieces fascinated me so much because it wasn’t your typical scarf or tie, but a very up scaled craft application for gift tags and bookmarks!

I am always amazed at the creativity I find as I travel. I’m inspired when artists and crafters think outside the box and match their creative skills to what the consumer is willing to buy.  I might not immediately buy a $200 silk painted scarf, but I did buy $30 worth of gift tags and bookmarks!  The local silk painting artist in Turks & Caicos knew that her consumer was the tourist seeking souvenirs and keepsakes to take back home.  While one or two of the day’s tourists might buy more expensive items, she didn’t lose a potential customer like me by including some less expensive options, yet still kept her designs fresh, innovative, and charming!

We can all learn from that savvy artist down in the islands of Turks & Caicos.  If you want to make a living from your art or craft you must take the time to learn and understand your customer.  High ticket items will sell, but mid to lower ticket items will sell faster in most markets.  Take a look at what I purchased.

Bright brilliant colors make silk painting an eye catching technique! I got the ladybug gift tags for a friend and the fish gift tags for myself. The silk painting is sandwiched between the paper bookmark within a window making it look like stained glass.

Quick Tip!

Round paint brushes are usually the best for silk painting when you need to paint into small places or paint in details.  Flat brushes are best for broad areas that need to be painted.  A quality brush will do most of the work for you!

Earlier this week I posted about dimensional paint and thought I’d show off some great Halloween projects I found at Duncan’s Website.  Dimensional paint can be used to outline, add depth, add sparkle, and even adhere!  It’s a product that you should spend a little time practicing with before you start using it on your crafting surfaces, but it’s time well spent.  Feel free to share you dimensional paint projects and your Halloween crafts!

You can find the instructions for all these fun projects at Duncan’s Website!

Dimensional Paint is formulated to keep it’s thickness and shape providing a 3-D effect, rather than acting like a typical paint that is flat and follows the form of the surface, it is brushed or sprayed on or behaves like markers and pens.  You can draw, outline, write and embellish with dimensional paint.  Bottle tips do vary, but dimensional paint comes in a bottle that can be held like a pencil in your hand.

Step by Step With Dimensional Paint

1. Always practice on scrap paper or surface you are going to add the dimensional paint to, so you can get a feel of how the tip and surface work together.

2. Don’t shake the bottle.  You don’t want to add any air bubbles to the paint.  Tap paint down to tip gently.

3. Hold bottle upright with tip down just as you would a pen or pencil.  Allow tip to lightly touch the surface to be painted.  Gently squeeze and begin to draw or write onto the surface.

4. Lift tip away from surface before letting go of your hold.  If you stop squeezing, you may let air bubbles into the tip and bottle. You may want to wipe tip clean between drawing lines.

5. Paint should be allowed to dry for 12-24 hours to completely set. 

Did You Know?

Dimensional paint can be used as an adhesive.  Apply a dot of paint to adhere buttons, paper roses and other embellishments.

A fine metal tip is available to get a very fine line of paint.  The metal tip is placed onto the bottle’s plastic tip and pressed firmly onto it. 

Dimensional paints vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.  Some dimensional paints dry tacky while others dry hard.  Experiment to see which is best for your projects.

Dimensional paints bond to many surfaces including paper, fabric, and wood.  Always read packaging and labeling to see what the dimensional paint will bond to and if it needs to be heat set.

A wide variety of colors and effects are available.  Some paints are ultra glossy while others are metallic.  Check out the variety available.

Always securely cap your bottle of paint after each use and clean any additional tips you may have used.  If some paint does dry in the tip use a fine needle to unclog.

For thicker lines of paint, hold the bottle at a slight angle to the surface, this allows more paint to flow and the result is a thicker line.

I’m just back from a surprise vacation to Grand Cayman!  I thought our trip had to be cancelled due to some hurricane activity, but my husband surprised me and off we flew! When I travel, I can’t help but try to check out what the locals are crafting or what’s popular in different parts of the U.S. and world.  However, this time I didn’t have to go looking for crafts since within an hour of arriving at Ocean Frontiers at Compass Point, Britta Egrid was putting down some plastic covering on the picnic table in front of our room.

Britta was going to show us how to make driftwood signs to post near the dock.  I’ve seen this type of signage at many tropical locations and I just love it.  Driftwood is found along the shore, dried out, and then painted with mileage to a location.  For example, my town of Palm Bay, FL was exactly 600 miles to the south of our Grand Cayman location. 

I’m going to be very honest.  The paintbrushes were very primative!  I’m spoiled by delightfully smooth paintbrushes from Loew-Cornell and we were using kid’s brushes with stiff bristles that were a little uneven, but I just loved it!  Outdoor acrylics are used since these signs must stand up to tropical sunny (and sometimes very wet!) locations.

My husband and I were inspired to come home and finally start a sign post with locations we’ve been lucky enough to travel too (Chuuk, Palau, British Virgin Islands, Key Largo) and places we hope to visit one day (Belize, Turks & Caicos, Galapagos Islands).

Britta (far right) gives some painting tips to my husband (far left).

I put some finishing touches to our sign!

Our sign was added to the sign post (beside left dive flag).

You have the tools, now how do you age, antique, and distress materials?  Here’s a handy guide:

Bleach It!:  Brush or lightly spritz paper with bleach.  Allow colors to fade, dab off any excess.  Lemon juice can also be used.  Heat set once dry.

Coaster It!:  Using a messy cup of coffee or tea, use your paper as a coaster or saucer and let it soak up the coffee or tea that has puddled at the bottom of the cup or glass.  It’s an interesting, realistic touch of distressing.

Crush It!: You can ball up the paper and then smooth out to give aging lines and some instant wear and tear to paper.   The more you crumple it, the more aged and soft the paper will look.  You’ll have a paper with a fine webbing of age lines. 

Ink it!:  Spill a little ink on that paper!  Dribble it!  Puddles of ink are perfect touches of aging.  Allow ink to dry completely before adding any embellishments or photos. 

Iron it!:  For a more polished look, iron distressed paper.  Always use an ironing cloth to protect your ironing board surface and your iron!  Do your best to crush, ink, rip, sand, and more, then use the iron on a warm setting to smooth it all out.

Sand It!:  Using sanding paper, fine steel wool, or an emery board, sand the edges of paper or embellishments.  Skip the sanding paper or emery board over the body of the surface too.  This gives the effect of weathering and aging by wind, sun, and time. 

Speckle or Splatter It!:  Using an acrylic wash or ink, take an old bristle brush or toothbrush and dip into liquid.  Lay background paper or scrapbook page on newspaper or other covered work surface.  Flick brush or toothbrush with your thumb and this sends a fine mist of paint over the paper.  Repeat until you are happy. 

Sponge It!:  Sponge on hints of color using inks, pastels, chalks, paints, tea, coffee, glazes, and watercolors.  Add layer upon layer of color until happy.

Spray It!:  Spray surface with diluted ink, paint, even strong tea or coffee.  Intensify color by repeated spraying.

Tear or Rip It!:  Tearing and ripping paper gives it an aged or distressed look.  You can rip along an edge or right down the middle!  Practice ripping with scrap papers to get a feel of how different papers will rip and tear.  You can also chalk or ink the ripped paper edges to give a more earthy aging effect. 

Tips

• Age builds up on surfaces so to create a realistic aged surface slowly “build” layers of color, stain and paint. Then sand or pound. Then repeat layering of color.
• Step back from your work occasionally and look at the aging effects from a distance. Up close your project may look done, but at a distance you may see it in a different light.
• Gold ages with brown tones, silver with black tones.
• Add shadow with dark hues, highlights with light hues.