While most people eat fruit, Sheila Rauen buys fruit and turns it into inexpensive fabric stamps. With her instructions, you'll be able to turn out professional looking pillows, towels, and place mats with just a stroke from your favorite apple, pear, or banana.
Materials:
fruits and vegetables - apples, celery and carrots are used in the projects listed below
newspaper or foam board
small leaf from apple, shrub or tree
paper towels
sharp knife
fabric for project - napkins, tablecloths or other linens
Deka fabric paints - red, green or colors as desired
1" foam brush
optional: roller or brayer
Celery and Carrot Rose - Slice across the celery stalk about 3" from the bottom.
- Apply fabric paint on the stalk bottom that was just cut. You may want to apply more than one color for variation and depth.
- Press the stalk down onto the fabric. Allow to dry.
- Repeat the pattern until a rose image takes shape.
- Slice the carrot diagonally to make a leaf shape.
- Apply fabric paint to a carrot slice and apply even pressure to create the leaf of the rose.
Apple Printing - Create a background on your material. For stripes, use masking tape in evenly spaced strips. Apply red paint to a foam brush and paint from the tape toward the center of the stripe so no paint seeps underneath. Allow to dry.
- To make a plaid, repeat step 1, going across the stripes you just painted.
- Cut a small apple in half with a sharp knife.
- Apply an even coat of fabric paint to the apple and the stem using a 1" foam brush.
- Place the apple in position on the fabric and press firmly. Remember to also press down on the stem.
- After printing all of the apples and stems, allow to dry.
- Apply paint to an apple leaf, shrub leaf, or small tree leaf. Apply paint to the leaf with the foam brush as you did on the apple.
- Place the leaf in the desired position and put a piece of the paper towel on top of it.
- With a roller, brayer, or your thumbnail, apply even pressure to the leaf to make a sufficient print. Lift up the paper towel, then the leaf. Repeat until all leaves are printed.
Sheila's Tips:
- The apples are especially elegant when printed in gold on darker fabrics.
- If you would like to stamp a border design, you may want to experiment with masking tape to create stripes or other geometric shapes in the center or as an overall design.
- Cotton swabs and sliced carrots make great "dots" for fabric printing.
For several years, Sheila has been designing floor cloths in animal designs to appear in galleries all over the United States. Several of her images are now available to the public, and she has expanded her craft into the rubber stamping business with another frequent guest of Carol's, Mary O'Neil of Hot Potatoes. Shelia's designs are included in Mary O'Neil's collection called "Sweet Potatoes," rubber stamps for paper.
