Mixed Media Fantasy Film ATC by Trudi Sissons

At the beginning of the month I began a 3 month commitment to work with several products from Art Glitter (click for direct link to their website and store or here at http://www.artglitter.com/ ) From my experiments, I'll be sharing a total of six projects during this time period.

I came across this company while brainstorming ideas for a butterfly for the Holocaust Museum Houston project. And since they were looking for guest designers, and I liked the idea of opalescent semi-transluscent butterfly wings - the decision was easy!

For the past few weeks I have been watching videos on-line and experimenting with Art Glitter's fantasy film as well as their fantasy fiber and glitter. Today I finished the front of a second fabric, mixed media ATC utilizing Fantasy Film

My two previous posts this week feature 3 digital ATC's I created using images from Tumble Fish Studio.

Today I focused on the one image I hadn't worked with and discovered two 'new' techniques while experimenting.

Materials and Supplies:
Digital ATC transferred onto Inkjet Fabric Sheet

Art Glitter Fantasy Film "Krista's Eyes"

Threads
Sari Ribbon
Pan Pastels
Lace
Computer and Printer

Sewing Machine
Scissors
Iron

Instructions:

1. 
   Print digital ATC onto fabric.
2. 
   Iron a fusible fiber onto the fabric ATC
3. 
   Begin machine stitching with different colored threads
4. 
   Using pieces of Art Glitter Fantasy Film - "Krista's Eyes" already heat set (instructions for this are available here) position it over the fabric and machine stitch around it.
5. 
   Trim edges of the fantasy film outside of the stitching.

***Think of the fantasy film application the same way you would any type of transluscent material like tuile or organza.

6. Edge stitching with sari ribbons, other hand-dyed fibers, laces.

7. Although I was happy with the results of the fantasy film applications, I wasn't pleased with the white edges of the pellon around the ATC that remained. To 'cover' up this white and to also add some complementary colors to the ATC, I applied pan pastels with an applicator and rubbed the pastel around the parameter of the ATC as well as adding some variation in the red lace. I am thrilled with the brilliance of the pan pastel colors and ease of application onto fabric. Expect to see more experimenting with this new found application!

Here are a variety of photographs. Because the Fantasy Film is opalescent, it catches the light for a wonderful multi-colored reflection. This can be tricky to photograph. Below you'll see photographs taken under two lighting conditions - a warm yellow incandescent lighting and natural filtered sunlight.

Fantasy Film, Pan Pastels, Sari Ribbon and in the background is the fabric I plan to finish the back of the ATC with.

The fantasy fiber is on the left vertical edge, the bottom right corner and in a circle bottom left. Above and below best illustrate the variation of the red lace after applying the pan pastels as well as the red border that was white prior to the application of the pastels.

The following two photographs illustrate the difference in lighting (these are taken with incandescent yellow lighting above - quite a significant difference in hues compared to the ones above taken in natural filtered sunlight.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more experiments!