DecoArt Ink Effects

Found time to play with DecoArt Ink Effects this week, i struggled to find the Base Coat that i needed to add to the 100% cotton dust sheet i was trialling. I recently  got my hands on a couple of bottles and started to experiment.

For the first experiment i printed out three heart shapes onto 80 gsm copier paper from Vera Lane Studio and painted the Red Ink Effect over the top. Left this to dry for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile i cut out a small piece of 100% cotton dust sheet from the mahoosive packet i bought from Aldi in February and lightly sprayed it with the Base Coat.

Next set up the iron, (no steam just a dry iron) to a cotton setting, when everything is dry and the ink has had time to react place the heart face down so the red side is facing the cotton.

Put a piece of copy paper over the top of the design and iron for 30 seconds moving the iron slowly and constantly, when done remove the paper slowly to see your design. Your design can be used many times.

As you can see in the above image i managed to use the red heart 5 times before it lost all of it’s colour. You can get three good images before it starts to fade dependant on the type of fabric you use.

I am keeping the paper hearts as i can use them on another project, the ink doesn’t disappear it stays quite vibrant as you can see from the picture.

Next up i wanted to make some dots to decorate a fabric bin for my Expedit storage.

Followed the same steps as before but this time i used the transfers three times to get this lovely dot pattern across the top of the fabric covered bin. You can see how buckled the material has become after i ironed for the 30 seconds, i think my iron might have been a tad hot. After 24 hours the material has flattened a little but not completely.

Macro of the first transfer colours.

The Aldi 100% cotton dust sheet, treated with the base spray and the dots after just one transfer. The texture of the dust sheet gives a ghostly impression…

Here is a You Tube video from DecoArt showing how to use Ink Effects with a freehand drawn image.

You can use these inks through a stencil, you can draw free hand designs and fill them in with the colours of your choice.

A quick recap; Use 80 gsm copy paper to draw your design, then paint it with the Ink Effects inks. When dry turn over and iron onto your fabric. When the ink has transferred peel back the copy paper very slowly to reveal your design.

This technique is easier than it looks, the video explains it all very well, hope you get the time to watch it!

Any questions please leave them in the comments below and i will try to answer them for you.

Thanks for dropping by.

xxx