Art Nouveau = This Month's Printed Fabric Bee Give-Away!

Jackie Lams is this month's "Queen" and her theme choice was Art Nouveau! I love the rich jewel tones that come to mind with I think of that era. I chose to apply those elements to one of my favorite subjects - dragonfly's. 

I had a jewel toned piece of cotton that I had ice dyed. I applied a layer of flour resist which I spread across the surface with a silk screen tool. It doesn't look like much right now but just wait!

Once the flour dried I crinkled and scrunched the fabric to create cracks in the resist. Next I applied fabric paint with a sponge brush. The sponge brush allows me to ensure the paint finds it's way onto the fabric below. 

I allowed the paint to dry a full 24 hours and then heat set. To remove the flour I soaked the fabric in a bucket of soapy water to take off as much as I could before tossing into the washer. I followed Julie B. Booth's instructions for flour resist from her blog. Julie has a book coming out in the fall that will detail all kinds of wonderful techniques! Be sure to click on her site for updates.

The next design element needed was to add purple and gold circles. I'm not sure why I chose circles - it was more of a feel and circles seemed to be the best shape to apply the color. 

Then the dragonfly's were stenciled. I used luminescent paints to keep that art nouveau vibe.

The next 2 photos are before and after using a black sharpie marker to outline the dragonfly's. You can see how the black makes them pop off the fabric.... good 'ole markers! 

To balance out the design I stamped a few found objects, (onion netting and bubble wrap). Here is Jackie's finished piece. For your chance to win a 6" X 6" fabric collection please hop over to Jackie's blog and leave a comment - the winner will be announced May 17th!