Fabric and Lino Printing is fun

One of my favourite crafts is fabric printing, particularly lino prints. I'm not an amazing designer or carver of lino but I enjoy printing with it. you can get so many different patterns and overlay effects even with just a few prints to choose from. 

Fabric printing can be messy: it certainly is when I do it. I wear old clothes that I'm not afraid to mess up, because I invariably end up with paint all down my arms, on my knees, and even on my face.

I don't really plan things with my craft. I put some paint on a stencil and plop it down, look at it and then start to see what it all might look like.

These are the results of an afternoon of printing with a friend. We kept pulling clothes out to add to until we'd run out! This included a lot of little shorts and shirts for her son, which turned out great.

You can print on a lot of things, but cotton works best. You can iron it to set and it holds the paint well.

My lino blocks include:

This was a stencil that I cut out of a plastic projector sheet:

They are hand carved or cut. You really can do any design that takes your fancy, as long as it prints clearly. If you aren't sure, you just do a test print and fix what needs to be fixed. 

I was lucky enough to belong to an art group for a few years and we did a lot of great projects together. When I moved cities they all got together and printed a bed cover for me. all of the blocks used were hand-designed originals from the members.

I was also commissioned last year by someone at work to make a sign for them to take to the ANZAC Day football match. What do you think?

I used the side of a sponge to create the poppy petals and small scrap booking stamps for the other shapes.

I don't print as often as I would like to, but when I do it is great fun!