Create a Fabric Book with the Gelli Arts® Patch Printing Kit

Hi
there! It’s Marsha here today with a fun project you can make with the Gelli
Arts® Patch Printing Kit.

The
Gelli Arts® Patch Printing Kit includes everything you need to create fun
fabric patches to embellish your jeans, jackets and backpacks: a 5”x5” Gelli Arts®
printing plate, three colors of Gelli Arts® Premium Acrylic Paint, fabric
medium, a Gelli Arts® mini comb, a 4” roller, fabric squares, iron-on tape,
parchment paper, bubble wrap, yarn and punchinella.

But
wait, there is more you can do with your printed fabric squares! How about
creating a fun mini book?!

In
addition to the contents of the kit, you will only need extra fabric, fusible
web interfacing plus sewing and embroidery equipment.

Start
with gel printing all of your patches. I used the 4” fabric squares from the
kit and as well as about ten white cotton squares from my fabric stash.

Pre-wash
and iron the fabric before printing. The paint will grab the cotton fibers a
lot better when all sizing is washed out.

Place
two pea-sized drops of acrylic paint on your Gelli Arts® gel printing plate and
one drop of fabric medium. Roll the drops out on the plate with your roller and
make sure you mix them well in the process.

If
you are using a fabric medium from your own stash, follow the instructions on
the bottle to make sure you are mixing the correct amount of paint/medium for
the best result.

Press
a texture tool into the paint. Use the 3-sided Gelli Arts® mini comb to create
stripes, the bubble wrap to make a circle pattern, and the yarn to form fun
organic shapes.

Lay
a fabric patch on top of the plate and cover with a thin piece of (parchment)
paper.  Press with your hands to transfer
the paint to the fabric.

Remove
the paper and the fabric patch. Leave your gel printed fabric patch to dry.

Cut
hand-drawn shapes out of parchment or printer paper to create masks and
stencils. Keep the designs simple-you can always add stitched lines and
details later on.

Wipe
the plate clean with a damp cloth or a baby wipe whenever you want to change
your paint color. Or you can try to pull a ghost print with the paint left on
the plate!

You
can even cut masks out of punchinella for a super fun effect.

Leave
all of your gel printed fabric patches to dry entirely before heat setting the
fabric for 30 seconds with an iron.

Consult
the label of your fabric medium if you are using a different kind than included
in the Gelli Arts® Patch Printing Kit.

Be
sure to protect your ironing board with a cloth or parchment paper when ironing
the patches. This will prevent the paint from accidentally staining the cover.

Cut
fusible web to squares slightly smaller than 4” x 4”.

Place
the rough side of a fusible web square on the wrong side of one of the fabric
patches and iron for about 5 seconds. Repeat until all the gel printed patches
are backed with fusible web.

To
create the fabric mini book, you will need five 4.7″ x 9″ white
cotton fabric strips for the pages and two strips of 5″ x 12″ for the
covers.

Create
a total of eleven 4” x 4” square designs to iron onto the fabric strips: ten
for the inner pages and one for the cover.

Remove
the backing from the fusible web and iron all of your fabric elements onto the
base fabric. Use a damp cloth to protect your fabric from direct contact with
your iron.

Hand-stitch
the edges of the appliques and add decorative lines or details. Search the web
or consult a book on needlework for a variety of stitches to try.

Keep
going until you are satisfied with all of your pages!

Match
up the two 5″ x 12” strips of fabric (one with patch, one without patch).

Fold
all of your inner pages, wrong sides together, and place them inside of the
cover to see how much of the 12” length you need to trim. Cut the cover fabric
to size.

Take
the cover strip without the patch. Fold it in half. You can mark the center
with a disappearing ink pen or pencil if you want. Mark the middle of the wrong
side of each of the inner pages too.

(Machine)
Stitch the pages to the ‘spine’ of the cover strip without the patch, one at a
time.

Start
with the third page: the page you want to appear in the middle of the book.
Place it, folded open, with the wrong side up, on top of the cover strip of
fabric. Line up the marks in the center (use pins if needed) and stitch the
page to the spine.

Now
stitch around the page to hide the two wrong sides of the fabric.

Repeat
for all of the pages.

Back
the cover strip with the patch with fusible web. Remove the backing from the
fusible web. Place the cover fusible web side up, and place the fabric book on
top. Match up both cover strips.

Carefully
iron the back cover for about 5 seconds and then repeat for the front cover.
Use a damp cloth to protect your fabric if needed.

Blanket
stitch along the edges of the cover to finish your fabric book!

Materials:

Gelli
Arts® Patch Printing Kit

Other:

Printer
paper

Pencil

Scissors

White
cotton fabric

Fusible
web (Bondaweb, Vliesofix, Heatnbond)

Embroidery
thread

Embroidery
needle

Optional:

Paper-piercing
tool

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All rights reserved.