Starlight Textiles' Beach Bag

Morning, happy Wednesday! A not very happy Lisa here - WHERE is the sun?? And the heat?? I'm turning into an obsessive weather forecast watcher, desperate for good news. Maybe I'll cancel next week's classes and take myself back to Spain...... 😉😎

Anyway, enough grumbling, on to my project. It's a bag I decorated during last Sunday's workshop - if you missed Kirsten's blog post about that, it's HERE and you can see everyone's lovely bags HERE.

I had some lovely beach and sea themed rice papers from Imagination Crafts, so I decided to use them - some of the workshop ladies liked them too and they sold out on the day - but there are a few of 358 and 359 remaining.

I placed a piece of cardboard inside the bag to protect the reverse side and masked off the front to create four separate areas, using Imagination's pressure sensitive repositionable masking tape. 

(The bags also sold out at the workshop, but I'll have them back in stock for the August classes).

I spritzed the bag with water and, using a domed stencil brush, I applied washes of DecoArt's 

SoSoft Baby Blue fabric paint and Rich Gold Starlight Textile paint, building up the colour. 

**Handy hint: Kirsten and I discovered that it was much easier to blend the paint on the fabric using a domed stencil brush, instead of a flat paintbrush.**

I dried the bag when I was happy with the base layer, then I dry-brushed tiny amounts of Sax Blue and Topaz Starlight Textile around the borders of each masked off area to create some depth........

Again, I dried the bag and added layers of stencilling with Antique Gold Starlight Textile paint. I used the Crafter's Workshop Mini Pomegranate stencil and an old one from my stash.

 This Burlap stencil by Dutch Doobadooo would also work...............

I set the bag aside to dry and used a wet paintbrush to tear off the pieces of rice paper I wanted and spent some time deciding where all the pieces were going to go.............

It's always a good idea to take plenty of photos at this stage, I find it impossible to remember exactly what went where, especially when I change my mind about a dozen times......... 😊

Once I had decided where everything was going, I removed all of the masking tape and began gluing down the rice paper elements with Imagination's fantastic Fabric Decoupage Glue, making sure I covered the front of the rice paper with glue as well................

I again dried the bag, this takes only a few minutes, the Fabric Decoupage Glue is very fast-drying. I added more stencilling, this time with Sax Blue Starlight Textile paint and when that was dry I added Gold Shine Sparkle Medium here and there through a stars stencil......

**Once the Sparkle Medium was dry I painted it with the Fabric Decoupage Glue. This seals the Sparkle Medium, making it washable.**

I left the bag for 24 hours, then ironed it for five minutes on a hot setting - always cover the decorated side of the bag with a clean towel before ironing. Once ironed, the bag is washable up to 40°C.

The finished bag.................

I was really pleased with how this turned out, I hope you like it too. 

The next workshop at Grove Green will be on Sunday, August 20. Places are still available and all the information is HERE.

Thanks for visiting the blog today, have a great week. See you next time.

Hugs, Lisa B xx