Craft Chi

Okay, so in the last tutorial, inkjet transfer stamping, I said I would post another tutorial on how I made the frame brush. I know there must be about billion different ways to do this in PS, but this is how I went about making mine. Also, this will give me a chance to show off my screen-capturing skeels which several readers have been kind enough to teach me how to do that. Thank you! (If you don’t know on a Mac it’s Cmd-shift-3 for a screen capture and Cmd-shift-4 for a selection). Okay, so here goes:

Make brushes to make your frame brush I just made some foliage brushes by capturing some nature outside. I just walked to the mailbox and back and got some pretty nice shots. So first, open your photo.

Resize the images to a manageable size using your crop tool or going to Image>Image Size. **Remember, a brush must be no bigger than 8 inches in height or width at a resolution of 300. ** Then, apply threshold to the pic which converts the image to solid black and white. Go to Image>Adjustments>Threshold and then adjust to your liking.

Then, define as a brush by going to Edit>Define Brush Preset.

Repeat these steps to make several brushes from your various nature photos. Then, save the set of brushes by opening the Preset Manager. Go to Edit>Preset Manager. Select brushes in the drop down and then select the brushes you just made and click Save Set.

Now, finally we are ready to make the frame brush! Hippee!

Open a new file. I made mine 8 by 8 inches at the 300 DPI.

Make a selection. Select the Marquee tool and then make a rectangle that leaves plenty of room around it. Then select the inverse by using the shortcut Command-Shift-I.

Load brushes. First, make sure that your default brushes are loaded by selecting the brush tool and then, clicking on the brush selection drop down menu at the top menu bar. Then, click on the small triangle in this brush selection tool window. Then select the Reset brushes from this menu. Click append to add the default brushes to your brush selection.

**Also, make sure that the custom brushes you made are available. To load them, select Load from the same drop down menu shown above.**

Select a basic brush with a texture that you like.

Trace around the inverted-selected rectangle.

Stamp custom brushes. Use custom brushes like stamps, placing images around the traced frame. Rotate the brushes by selecting Window>Brushes and then selecting Brush Tip shape in the left menu. Hold down the shift key while turning the arrow to turn incrementally.

When you are satisfied with the brush, define it as a brush the same way you did with the custom brushes.

Have you ever wanted to make a rubber stamp from a digital image or text? It’s easy to mimic the look of a rubber stamp using your inkjet printer. Simply print your image or text onto a smooth, non-absorbent paper and transfer onto a receiving surface while the ink is still wet. This method has a variety of uses but works especially well for creating the look of rubber stamps and allows you to bring all of those cool digital brushes and fonts into your scrapbooking, collage or journaling work. Here’s how I made mine:

Materials:

Inkjet printer

Surface to transfer onto - smooth, absorbent surfaces such as art paper, cardstock, smooth watercolor paper and smooth, unfinished wood work best. **Also, printer ink is transparent so it will not show up well on dark surfaces.

Paper palettes - These can be found in the art supply section of the craft store. They are used to mix paint on and have a plastic-coated side. It is basically the same thing as freezer paper but it is thinner and comes in sheet form, so it doesn’t curl like freezer paper. Also, they do not come in standard sizes. So you will need buy the 9 x 12 size and trim them down to letter-size.
OR
Copier Transparencies - Not the inkjet kind, but the less expensive kind that does not have coating and is smooth on both sides.

Instructions:

First, print your image (in reverse) at the size and color you want it to be onto your paper palette or copier transparency. **The ink is transparent so it will mix with the color of your receiving paper.

Then, place the printed image face-down onto your receiving paper. **Work quickly to keep ink from drying too much.

Rub the back of your image using your hands or a brayer. Hold the paper still with one hand to keep if from shifting and blurring your image.

Lift the print to reveal your transfer. ** Note that the blue-green ink is transparent agaisnt the pink paper creating a muted purple color.

**Troubleshooting:

- You may find that your printer wheels drag through the ink on non-absorbent papers like these. ( I have not had that problem with my Epson r200). If that’s the case you can google search on how to lift the pizza wheels on your printer to prevent dragging. Although, this will void the warranty on your printer. I followed these instructions to lift the pizza wheels on my 2200 and it has worked fine while printing on all surfaces.

- Paper palettes can sometimes buckle when feeding through an inkjet printer. I place a piece of masking tape across the feeding end to help stabilize it.

- Copier transparencies can be re-used but do tend to stain over time.

Here is a layout that I created using these beautiful Boho Flourish frame brushes from Little Dreamers Designs. Or you can download my frame brush which was very easy to make and I will cover in my next tutorial.

I took this screenprinting test-shirt and refashioned it into a cute racerback using 99-cent doilies from Joann’s. I recommend using these inexpensive doilies to practice before using your pretty, vintage handmade doilies from the antique store. Although, admittedly they would look much better.

Here’s how I made it:

Materials:

Tee shirt

Tank top (to use as a pattern)

Doilies

Standard sewing stuff

Copy Tank Top pattern
First, I just laid a plain white tank top over my tee shirt, pinned it to keep it from sliding around and traced around it with a Sharpie to copy the pattern.

Cut around the marked lines leaving a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Lay the doilies out in a pattern you like. Make sure that the doilies overlap enough to give the shirt stability.

Attach the doilies to eachother. Sew the doilies to eachother (NOT TO THE SHIRT) where they overlap. I recommend using a button stitch (individual stitch that is repeated several times in the same spot). Tie each stitch off and then start at another point rather than trying to do blanket stitch which would cause the doilies to bunch up.

Cut the shirt open at the shoulders. This will allow you to get the shirt into your sewing machine and sew around the doilies a bit easier.

Pin the strung-together doilies onto the back of the tee to hold them place.

Sew the top and bottom of the larger doily piece. Sew as if the doilies were one big, oddly shaped doily (don’t sew each individual doily). I used a zig-zag stitch to secure it really well. Leave the sides (where the sleeves are) open.

Here’s what the back of the shirt looks like when you are done sewing. **Note that I sewed only at the top and bottom. Not in the middle and not down the sides.

Cut away the fabric behind the doilies. Insert your scissors in-between the doilies and the t-shirt and cut away the excess fabric.

Sew the shoulder seams back together. Reattach at the shoulders by turning the shirt inside out, pinning and sewing.

Finish arm holes. Fold the arm hole seams in about 1/2-inch, pin and sew using a zig-zag stitch. You can choose to fold the the doilies back or not. Just don’t trim the doilies or they will unravel.

Try it on! You may need to make adjustments by pinching and pinning (and sewing) the underarm area. Once you have sewed it so that it fits to your liking you can wear loud and proud!

BTW- Here is the inspiration for this shirt which I cannot afford nor do they make my size. So what’s a girl to do!? Oh yeah, Do-it-Myself!

Hey I just thought I’d ride the wave from my last Craftzine post and also post about how to easily create patterns in PS. Basically, the “Define Pattern” tool makes this very easy. Any image can repeated and adjusted easily in PS. However, I thought I’d go ahead and post about how to make a staggered pattern which is a bit more difficult (but not really). I also, thought I’d share some tips and tricks I’ve learned when working with patterns. Please feel free to add any and all feedback as I love all information regarding pattern/design etc.

Okay, so to begin:

Open a new file. 4 x 4 inches at 300 dpi is a good size. Working with a square is easier to begin with but it is not necessary.

Set the window so that you can see the grid. I leave my grid at default settings and view it by clicking View>Show>Grid. This grid helps you to be able to easily place and center objects in the space.

Place the image to be repeated. Open the image you want to repeat. Select the “Move Tool” and Drag and drop that image into your newly created file. **Make sure that the image is isolated from it’s back ground and sized properly before it is dragged-and-dropped. A good size image to work with is 2 x 2 inches for this project.

Make sure the “Show Bounding Box” tool is on. This is available at the top menu when you have the “Move Tool” selected. This allows you to easily see where the center and center edges of your design are.

Center the image. Use the “Move Tool” to drag the image in the center of the page by aligning the center mark with the center of the grid lines.

Make a copy of the image. It is easy to make a copy of the image by holding down the Alt-key while you drag the image (in the Move Tool).

Position the second image in one of the four corners. In order to make sure that the image is perfectly positioned in the corner. Place the center tick-mark directly in the corner and make sure the center-bottom and center-side tick marks are perfectly centered on the edge of the window. It’s a good idea to zoom in while you do this to make sure you get really accurate placement.

Repeat for the other 3 corners. Make 3 more copies and position them in the remaining 3 corners of the window.

Define this image as a pattern. Go to Edit>Define Pattern. Give it a name and click “OK”. **You may want to turn the background off so that this is not a visible in your pattern. Do this by clicking the eye next to the background layer in the layers palette.

**Now there are 2 ways to use the pattern you’ve created. You can use the pattern as a fill or use layer styles.

To use the pattern as fill simply open a new file (8 x 10 at 300 dpi is always a good size). And click Edit > Fill and select Pattern from the “Use” drop down menu and find and select your pattern in the “Custom Pattern” drop down menu.

Layer Styles gives you more control of the pattern, however. Open a new file (8 x 10 at 300 dpi works) and then go down to the layer palette and create a new layer by clicking on the new icon as you did before. Then fill that layer with a background color of your choosing. Then click the layer styles icon button at the bottom of the palette menu (it is the circle button with a symbol that kinda looks like an f). This causes another menu to pop-up. Select “Pattern Overlay” from this menu. This will open the Layer Styles window.

In the layer styles menu, you can select your pattern from the pattern drop-down menu. **Here’s the really cool thing: you can adjust the scale of your pattern, as well as the opacity so long as you have the “preview” box checked.

**You can also drag the layer styles window to side and click within your window drag and position the pattern to where you want it to be on the page. Cool huh?! Once you have set the pattern to your liking. Click “OK” in the layer styles window. **Note that in layer palette there is layer-style applied to that layer. Double-click on the layer-style icon under your layer to make changes to the pattern at any time.

So, there you have it. A pattern that is perfectly staggered and endlessly repeatable. You can easily apply your pattern to any size window/file. You can also easily change the background color and experiment with the scale of the pattern. Really, too much fun.