Tag Archives: hand print

Oct26

Calico Bags

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A spotty calico bag.

A spotty calico bag.

We have re-usable bags of all shapes, sizes, and colours. Some of my favourite bags are the calico ones, they are lightweight and scrunch up small enough to carry in my bag. They are great for shopping and make perfect library bags, but they can be a bit boring to look at, so we took fabric paint to some new calico bags to make them unique and appealing.

The tin of fabric paint.

The tin of fabric paint.

Squeezy bottles of paint.

Squeezy bottles of paint.

A while ago my mother had given me a tin of old fabric paint tubes. She wasn’t sure if they were any good, but thought I might like to try them out. As we went through the tin we found only a couple of the tubes were dried out completely, but almost all of the nozzles were clogged. For these tubes, I cut the end off them to access the paint. There were also some 3D fabric paints in squeezy bottles that were still fine to use too.

Making hand prints.

Making hand prints.

We set out our calico bags with a piece of cardboard inside to prevent the paint from seeping through to the other side, and pegged the bag taunt to make it easier to paint. The kids did hand prints, used stampers, paint brushes, and squeezed the 3D paint directly onto the bags to make each one special. They had a ball. And when all the bags were finished, we waited until then were touch dry, and turned them over and did the other side.

Stamping.

Stamping.

Squeezing on 3D paint.

Squeezing on 3D paint.

Brushing on paint.

Brushing on paint.

Splotching paint on.

Splotching paint on.

Spreading the paint.

Spreading the paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time we were finished, we were all covered in paint, but we had had fun. Some of the paint didn’t come off as easily as others, and I needed to use some mineral turpentine to remove it from our hands and brushes. The kids thought it was super disgusting! Next time we buy fabric paint I will be checking to make sure it will wash off with soapy water.

Once fully dry, I heat set the paint with the iron. I used a tea towel over the design whilst ironing to protect the design, and prevent any stray bits of paint adhering to my iron. The finished bags look great, and are much more fun than the plain ones!

Dinosaur stamped bag.

Dinosaur stamped bag.

Hand print bag.

Hand print bag.

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Jan29

Plaster Hand-Prints

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I like the idea of having little mementos of our children’s childhoods. They each have a box of things that we can show them when they are older, such as the hospital tags from when they were born, favourite baby toys, newborn clothing, and as they get older, certificates, special drawings and some school things. Having hand and foot prints of our children have been a nice addition to their boxes, as we can look back at how small they were.  I wanted something that we could display (aside from photographs), and making hand prints in plaster was the perfect solution. IMG_7806

I bought a box of plaster-of-paris, and mixed it according to the directions on the pack. We used some small plastic plates as our moulds, into which I poured the plaster mixture to fill the plate about three-quarters full.

Box of plaster-of-paris.

Plaster-of-paris.

Plate of wet plaster.

I’d made it a little runnier than necessary, so we waited for it to thicken a little before each of the kids placed their hand, palm down, into one of the plates. I used Baby T’s foot instead of his hand, as I thought he would probably just scrunch his fingers up in the plaster, and we wouldn’t get much of an impression. L and A held their hands in the plaster for about a minute before carefully lifting them out, leaving behind their hand print. I held Baby T’s foot in the plaster while he sat in the high chair, he was not overly impressed by this. It was very easy to wash the plaster off their skin once the impressions were made.

Impression in the wet plaster.

Impression in the wet plaster.

We left the plaster to dry for several hours before checking them. They seemed fairly dry, but I left them overnight to dry completely before removing them from the plates. They slipped out of the plates very easily.

Impressions in the dried plaster.

Impressions in the dried plaster.

 

 

 

Once dry, I painted each impression with silver acrylic paint, and then the surrounds with gold acrylic paint. I did a couple of coats to make the metallic colour brighter. I left them to dry overnight, and then I added their name and the date in black acrylic to each one. I’m still deciding whether to add some spray gloss to them. I think it might be a good idea to help protect them, but I have to go and find where the gloss was stashed after our last project to use it.

Painted foot print.

Painted foot print.