C&T Publishing is a group of quilters and crafters dedicated to publishing products tailored to our audience. This blog is where we break away from book schedules and marketing campaigns to focus on what drives us to be creative and how this creativity manifests itself in our every day lives.
Category Archives: Surface Design & Mixed Media
Free Project: Summer’s End fabric postcard
September brings the last days of summer and the first days of fall. Before looking ahead, take a moment to reflect back. Better yet, share those memories with friends and family via a homemade postcard! The key ingredients to making these, fast2fuse® and TAP Transfer Artist Paper, make this a quick and fun project. These examples are all about summer fun, but could certainly translate to year-round events. The sky’s the limit to how many extra embellishments you might add…paint, (Continue Reading...)
The art of letter correspondence…and the snail mail folio
My 8 year old daughter loves receiving mail. By claiming the chore of mailbox retrieval, she’s always first to discover the treasures that lie within (fingers crossed, one will have her name and only her name on it). Her grandmothers are especially supportive in cultivating a love of letter writing, and by corresponding with them the old fashioned way, she has learned that if you write, you shall receive.
In this day and age emails and texts are the dominant means (Continue Reading...)
Two Button Purse Project
Look what Creative Troupe member Rosalind Pollock created using Liquitex® ink! and paint, fabric and thread! This is a great project for anyone interested or curious about surface design. The technique is simple and the results are stunning.
TWO BUTTON PURSE
By Rosalind Pollock
Materials:
Liquitex® Professional Acrylic ink! -Naphthol Crimson, Phthalocyanine Blue, and Transparent Raw Umber
Paintbrush, plastic palette and water
Cotton fabric, thin batting and backing fabric (approx.13” x 8”)
Thread
2 buttons
Scissors
Pencil or wash away marking pen
Instructions:
Mix a few drops of each of three colors (Continue Reading...)
Fabric table runner
Jane Dávila, author of Jane Dávila’s Surface Design Essentials, has created a fast and fun way to enjoy fabric you’ve created yourself using art materials. The big squares in the design of this table runner pattern will show off your own surface designs, such as this paint-washed and stamped fabric. The size of the finished table runner is 63” x 15” but it can easily be made longer or shorter to suit your table.
Supplies:
Hand-painted or printed fabric ¾ yard
Sashing fabric (Continue Reading...)
Wednesday Night Live – replay!
We fused ourselves silly making fabric postcards tonight! Click here to watch the replay – you will love it!
Our special guest demonstrator was Cheryl Malkowski, author of Quilt-O-Grams. Cheryl rocked the room with her beautiful floral bouquet thank-you postcard, complete with gorgeous free-motion stitching. This was her first time doing a live webcast and she was a natural!
I followed up with another quick and easy fabric postcard demo featuring an image of the chinese character for “sincerity.” We shared how (Continue Reading...)
Wednesday Night Live – replay!
Spring was in the air – with brilliant greens, bright yellows, and dreamy hues of blue. Our guest demonstrator, Andrea Currie, painted a unique dimensional wrap for a flower vase with one of our Ready-to-Go!® Blank Canvas Books. I created an easy table runner design, accented with painted fabric appliqué and Ultra-Light Lutradur®.
Both projects would brighten up any kitchen table in a snap! Click here for the replay link if you missed the show.
Be sure (Continue Reading...)
Wednesday Night Live – replay!
What a wonderful show this week! We had over 200 people in the room – the chat was on fire! Many new friendships were made between people who share a passion for creativity and all things handmade.
Our special guest, mixed media artist Suzi Blu, joined me to demonstrate some really fun ideas for adding some texture and interest to mixed media projects…if you missed the show, click here to watch the replay link.
Suzi showed off her signature-style art journaling on (Continue Reading...)
Wednesday Night Live – replay!
We were Lutradur lovers, fabric fans, and happy TAPpers tonight! If you missed the show, click here for the replay.
Three projects were shared – each used fabric, Lutradur® and TAP® together. Above is a quick and easy block for an art quilt or wallhanging—I used TAP to transfer my flower photo on to a frame of Lutradur. Then I used fusing powder to adhere the Lutradur to the batik fabric with Angelina fibers melted (Continue Reading...)
Wednesday Night Live – replay!
Thanks so much to all of you who joined me for our first public webcast in our Digital Lounge – Wednesday Night Live!
The room was filled with fun, creative people from all over the world…and lots of lively chatter! But hey – if you missed the show, never you fear – just click here to watch the show at your convenience.
I shared how to decorate the cover of an 8″ square Ready-to-Go!® Blank Board Book with all these wonderful layers, all (Continue Reading...)
Holiday gift wrap using the fast2fuse craft pack
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The challenge: To decorate some holiday gift packages using only fast2fuse® craft packs, some brown paper wrapping, and what was on hand in my studio.
Being someone who is known for my over-the-top gift wrapping, I was a little worried. I like tailoring my gift wrap to the person receiving the package—finding just the right ribbon, the perfect paper (sometimes even painting my own), or tying on a special accessory. Would I still be able to do that with just what (Continue Reading...)
