Contributor Allison is back today with something very cool. DecoArt sent us some of their new and a bottle of basecoat to play with and I, in turn, sent it along to Allison to see what her and her boys could come up with. The results are pretty fantastic.
I’m all about getting my kids involved so this project was their creation. I love creating (and getting) handmade gifts and I try to pass that love along to my kids as well. We decided to make a placemat/playmat that our younger friends can take along to restaurants to play with.
The really cool thing about is that the ink actually transfers into the fabric as opposed to sitting on top of it as so many iron on transfers do. This prevents any stiffness and keeps the design from flaking off. The other cool thing is that you paint your design on regular paper and you can transfer the ink several times so you can knock out several gifts at once!
We got started painting a design onto regular white copy paper (2 sheets taped together on the back). You could also use any coloring book page which would be fun! The DecoArt Ink Effects ink transfers well on fabrics with more than 70% synthetic materials, if your fabric has less than you’ll need to apply the basecoat. Our placemat was polyester so no issues there.
I ironed the image onto the placemat and was amazed at the effect created from the ink blending into the fabric. It creates a really cool painted effect! The result is a completely clean transfer.
You can lift up your paper to see the results and to see if you need to iron more. I found that holding the iron over each spot for a few seconds had the best results. I also found out that my iron either has hot spots or I wasn’t applying even pressure because I needed to use the center of my iron on each spot to get a good transfer.
It was ready to use right away so my son gave it a trial run. His response “I really like this Mom! Can I make one to use with my motorcycles?” I think he loved seeing his own design on something he could use and play with.
Disclaimer: I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign for DecoArt and Blueprint Social. All opinions are my own.
Get Your Free Printable
Subscribe to our newsletter today and get our free printable... No More, "Mom, I'm Bored!"