Great prints by Lil Fish Studios. Link.

About the designer: Kelly is a jacquard textile designer in North Carolina. She designs fabric for the Contract and Hospitality Markets by day and sew quilts and bags by night. She hopes to build enough inventory to sell her quilts and bags and is developing patterns for the same as well. Find her online here

I have developed this method for designing and printing my own, laundry-safe labels for quilts and handbags. Since these are laundry-safe, the labels could be used for apparel as well.

You will need:
Computer with software to lay out the type you want and a printer
Freezer paper or full-page sticker paper
Iron
Prepared For Dying fabric (PFD) this is ESSENTIAL!

1. Design your label, include any info you wish – you can do this in a text based program such as Word or an image based program such as photoshop. Set this info up as a “text box”.
2. Copy and paste as desired on your 8.5″ x 11″ page layout. Don’t forget to give yourself room to cut apart and to add seam allowance to attach to your item to cloth.
3. Cut a piece of the PFD fabric to 8.5″ x 11″. Attach to either the full-page sticker, or a 8.5″ x 11″ piece of Freezer Paper. I used the sticker paper for this.
4. Print this page (I have a Lexmark P4350 ink jet printer). I use the regular ink that I have in the printer.
5.Allow to dry completely.
6. After completely dry, remove sticker paper (or freezer paper) backing.
7. Heat set ink with a hot (cotton setting) iron.
8. Cut and attach to your item! I apply double-sided fusible to the back, folding over edge to catch with the fusible. Then remove backing paper and fuse to the item, I then whip-stitch for a nice, smooth edge – or you could machine stitch around it too if you like.
9. This creates a label that is wash-proof. This photo shows my label on a quilt after laundering.
Any comments or questions are welcome.

the long thread is lino printing with kids in their make it monday series.

I love this tutorial on how to make leaf and flower prints using a hammer and paper. [via craftershock]

An awesome tutorial from Glittergoods. Link.

Printed hankies by Chris De Rosa is on at artroom5, Adelaide (Australia) 19 to 26 November

Image: Chris De Rosa, hankies – found and printed on, 2008, Photo: Michal Kluvanek

At some stage in my past I became aware of a handicraft practised by my aunties whereby they would add decorative flourishes to already existing hankies as a means of both learning handicrafts (needlework, embroidery etc.) and personalising and adding value to an otherwise impersonal item. My printed additions were my own contemporary version of this practice, a means of carrying on the tradition and paying a kind of tribute to those hand crafting practices and the women and girls who pursued them.

perfect way to brighten up your table for the upcoming festive season – leaf print napkins are easy and fun to make – here is a nifty tutorial from craft stylish

Print Liberation: The Screen Printing Primer by Nick Paparone, Jamie Dillon and Luren Jenison, published by North Light Books (June 24, 2008).

Ooh ooh, the intro really sucked me into this book, screen printing in all conditions, with any budget and with simple materials. I am in!

Screen printing does involve some materials, such as the screen itself – the silk screen is stretched onto a frame, the design is printed on the screen and then the ink is pushed through. There is more to it than that – but the basics are pretty basic. The beginning bit shows you how to make your own screen, how to burn your design on the screen using photo emulsion and how to reclaim the screen to be used over again for different designs and how to print with one colour. Printing with more colours is explained in the next section as well as how to build a t-shirt press and further along how to print onto different types of objects. The back of the book has a whole heap of inspiring info and examples of screen print art and how to get into it to make some money.

I found this book incredibly easy to understand and follow – the step-by-step photos and very simple instructions were easy to get my head around and have really inspired me to give this craft a serious go.

this months kids craft weekly newsletter has some fantastic ways for kids to get into printing.

Martha Street Studio [Martha Street Studio is a community-based printmaking facility in Winnipeg.] has hosted ‘Under Pressure’, Winnipeg’s only Steamroller Print Festival. High school students, community groups, and artists from across Winnipeg create large linoleum carvings leading up to the festival. On the day of the festival the carvings are inked and printed with the aid of a real steamroller.

[via magpie & cake] Photo by Perfectbound July 19th, 2008