There is no better feeling than creating something you love. We've been getting creative at Folky HQ updating some old props and creating some fantastic projects ready for our shows. The beauty of image transfer is that you have a wide range of choice over what you would like to add to your project. Whether you want to add quotes and sentiments, family photos, bold typography or vintage style images, the choice is yours.
We absolutely love plain decorations like this popular free standing Love decoration because they have so much potential for creating something unique. Using a variety of vintage inspired images from our Series 2 Design book, we copied the images using a laser jet printer and applied them randomly around this piece to create this fun project.
Transfers do not have to stay black and white though. With this up cycled tool caddy, we applied the butterflies and dragonflies before adding splashes of colour. To add colour to your project, add water to your acrylic to thin it enough to allow the image to show through and add it to the areas you want to.
One of our favourite Chalky Finish colours is this dreamy Vintage so when someone brought a sad looking wooden mirror in to the office, we just had to give it a make over. Using the 'Angels' quote from our Design book, we combined it with some hand painted angels (from our Series 1 Folky Christmas kit) and stencils. It's gone from unloved trash to treasure :)
This adjustable stool started life in Ikea; plain, black and practical, it was begging to be decorated. Base coating it using white chalky finish, we added our gorgeous Vintage transfer. To soften the look, we played around with our Oriental Blossom flowers. Diverging from the original design, we paired them with leaves we teach you how to paint from our Rosebuds kit. By mixing and matching brushstrokes in this way, we were able to create a unique pattern to compliment the transfer and also work with the shape of the stool.
We were able to create such beautiful projects using our Series 2 Starter kit. When we were creating the second series of painting kits, we wanted to add something extra. Image transfer was something we loved because of its versatility. Whether you wish to add vintage style images, bold typography or personal photos to your project, it is possible with this technique.
So, we packed our Starter kit with DecoArt Matte medium, sentiments perfectly designed for each project and a DVD full of instructions to guide you through the process.
Each project you see here used the contents of this kit along with our extra Design book which provides a great collection of images in addition to the sentiments we provide in each of our kits. To find out more about these resources, check out our Series 2 kits here.
For more inspiration and ideas for using the image transfer technique, you can also check out our Pinterest board. Don't forget, we would love to see your creations. Share them with us on our Social media accounts or tag us #youcanfolkit
It's true that the world of crafting has enjoyed much more attention in the last few years; maybe thanks to celebrities like Kirstie Allsopp and maybe thanks to the economy. It is certainly true that many crafters have embraced the up cycling trend as we begin to think outside the box instead of buying what we need straight off the shelf.
While many dabble with paper craft and card making, some delve in to baking and others decide to try their hand at sewing, many are often hesitant to learn to paint. At each show we do, we hear so many people saying 'Oh I couldn't possibly paint' followed by their exclamations that they haven't got an artistic bone in their body...they failed art....they were told many years ago they were just not good enough. The list goes on. The thing is, we are no strangers to these excuses, we've all said them but it made us wonder, why do we persevere? Why should we learn to paint? In all honesty, there are so many reasons why we should get out of our comfort zone and create but here are our top 5 reasons why we love to Folk It!
1. It takes us away from the 'real world' When we paint, whether it is with our dotty tool or paint brush, we relax. We don't have space to worry about the other things that are going on in our lives because we are busy concentrating on creating beautiful patterns or improving our brush strokes. There is no better feeling of 'being in the flow', that wonderful state where the hours seem to fly by. We are not surprised when we hear that scientific studies have found that learning to paint can help us feel calmer, alleviate depression and keep our brains sharp. For Folk It founder Carol, it is a form of meditation, a way of relaxing and even after 20 years of painting, she says there is no better feeling than the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that comes with painting a new design or completing a new project.
2. It allows us to re-discover our creative side. For children, being creative is part of their daily lives but as we grow up, it becomes harder to hold on to that creativity. Whether the enemy of creativity is outside (family, an unsupportive teacher or a friend) or within us (the critical voice that often seems to get louder the more we try to do something for ourselves), by the time we reach adulthood, we've often lost or damaged that creative part of us. Being creative can help us become creative in other areas of our lives - to think outside of the box, to solve problems easier, to see the lighter side of life.
3. It helps co-ordination and dexterity. Hand-eye co-ordination is so important and one of the activities children are encouraged to do when they are developing this skill is art. By picking up a paintbrush or a dotting tool, it strengthens these abilities, improves these skills. We love to hear stories from customers who have learnt to Folk It and found that it has helped them maintain mobility in their hands when they are struggling with medical conditions or that it has been a fun activity to help them rehabilitate their arms and hands after a stroke or accident.
4. It is economical. Our main purpose for starting our Folk It journey was to teach people to paint, to help them realise that they can be creative...that it is not a magic skill only for a chosen few. Once our customers got their hands on our kits however, they began to use our designs to breathe new life in to home decor they had fallen out of love with. In a society where we are often looking for ways to be more frugal, You Can Folk It can help transform the most tired of possessions and personalise a gift.
5. It brings people together. This is probably our favourite reason, especially in a world where many of us spend too much time on our phones. There is nothing better than painting with a friend or loved one. We cannot tell you how much we love our Ambassador courses because it is fantastic to see people inspiring each other. Painting together starts natural conversation, stimulating learning and sparks so many ideas. In an environment like that, you can't help but have fun.
Above all else though, learning to paint should never be taken too seriously. The fantastic thing about Folk Art is that anyone can learn to master the skills with practice. There's nothing worse than putting pressure on yourself for your work to be perfect straight away. The fun is in the journey, the practice you do. So grab your painting kits, get together with a friend, pop in the DVD and learn to Folk It.
When we meet our customers at shows or at our
Ambassador courses, they will often say that they love to complete our dotty
designs made popular by our Starter kits and Dotty collection but that they
just can't get the hang of comma strokes. For many, it seems like a huge
leap of faith to suddenly swap your dotting tool for a paintbrush and it can be
easy to become disheartened with your progress if we don't get it right first
time. Sound familiar?
The thing is, not everyone will experience
these 5 issues, some may only be missing one of them but each factor can make
the difference between a wonky comma stroke and the brush stroke you've always
dreamed about painting. The great news is that each one of them is a
minor thing and we see them time and time again but we also see that with
awareness, practice and perseverance, these issues can be overcome and anyone
can create the perfect comma stroke.
So, what are you doing that is
throwing your brushstrokes off track?
When we are painting, it is easy to become so
focused on the act of painting that we don't consider the fact that we might be
doing something differently to what we have seen others do. The next time
you sit to paint a design from one of our Series 1 add on kits, we would like
you to become aware of these issues and, if you see that these are something
you do, work on improving them.
1. Thinking too much
Well of course we need to concentrate, we are
learning a new skill! Right? To a point.... Yes, we need to think about how we
are sitting, where our paintbrush is pointing but once we have mastered those,
we should let the brush do the work rather than our minds. So often
we become so hung up on creating the perfect curve, the neatest point, that we
try to control the direction our brush is going and flick the bristles or pull
the brush away too quickly from our paper.
We will let you into a little secret here.....
if you position your brush on the paper correctly and move your brush slowly,
you will find you get a much smoother stroke. It does not matter if each
practice stroke is not perfect, what matters is that you sit back, relax and
enjoy the process. The funny thing is that once your paintbrush
knows you're more relaxed it will work with you instead of fighting
against you!
2. Loading your brush with too much
or too little paint.
When you load your brush with too much paint,
you will find that as you paint your comma stroke, the comma will not be flat
but will have two ridges of paint on each edge of the stroke. If you do
not load your brush with enough paint, no matter how you move your brush to
create the point, your brushstroke will fade away and disappear before you can
finish it.
To see how to load the correct amount of paint
onto your brush, take a look at this video (you will have a similar
demonstration on your DVD included with the add on kit you've
bought).
3. Holding your brush too
flat.
When we are striving for the perfect
brushstroke, we want to get it right and it's easy to think that if we hold our
brush flat meaning the handle is close to our practice paper, then it will help
us to control the brush more when in fact it often makes it harder to
use.
To overcome this, you need to forget about the
brushstrokes and the outcome and perfect the way you hold the brush. To help
you paint the best comma stroke, sit upright and hold your brush in the hand you
feel most comfortable using (Right handed people are no more successful at Folk Art painting than left handed people, everyone is on an equal footing when they first begin painting). Without using any paint to begin with,
simply place your brush on the paper and point the top of the handle towards
your shoulder. For example, if you are left handed, the handle should
point slightly towards your left shoulder. This means that your brush should be
almost upright rather than pointing to a wall. If you are right handed,
your paintbrush should be pointing up and tilted towards your right shoulder.
4.
Holding your brush too high up.
For many
of us, when we have painted in the past, as a child or later on, no one has
shown us how to hold a brush as there isn't necessarily a correct way to do
so. If you find that your brushstrokes are not coming out the way you
would like them to, check where you are holding it. If you grip your
brush higher up on the wooden area, you are not alone and you need to
reposition your grip now.
To correct this mistake, you need to think of your
brush almost like a pencil. You should be holding your paintbrush close
to the ferrule - the metal area of your brush. Holding it here still
allows you to see your comma strokes as you create them yet it gives you much
more control when you are painting.
5. Not putting enough pressure on
your brush.
It can be so easy to be scared of putting pressure on
your brush when creating this lovely brushstroke and many new folkers tend to
put just enough pressure on their brush for the bristles to touch the paper.
Doing this has a tendency to create thin, wobbly brushstrokes.
To help you paint a confident, rounded comma
stroke, as you hold your brush pointing towards your shoulder, press your brush
towards the paper so that the bristles lay almost flat on the paper (but do not
allow the metal ferrule to touch the paper) you will see the bristles spreading
out slightly as you do (this helps to create the nice rounded shape at the top
of the comma stroke). Once you have added this pressure, to complete the
stroke, slowly drag your brush and lift at the same time. It is the
process of removing this pressure and lifting the bristles away from the paper
that helps to create the point at the end.
It may seem
daunting to try to tackle these issues but just as when you learn anything new, it
will get easier and with enough practice, it will become automatic. As
you practice, you are teaching your body how to carry out these actions,
building muscle memory until eventually, your body and hands will help you
create confident brush strokes without you having to consciously think about
it. Whether you have already perfected this skill or have some way to go,
the fun is in practicing. For us, completed projects are wonderful but
nothing can beat sitting down and just painting and not worrying about the
outcome.
We've all been there haven't we? That place when you see something creative and automatically think to yourself, 'There's no way I could do that. I'm not artistic" Some projects, some crafts seem so complex we think we would never be able to master them.
Just as Kandinsky once said, “Everything starts from a dot” our gorgeous new collection of painting kits do just that. Using nothing more than a dotting tool and dots of paint, each kit gives you everything you need to create not one but 6 gorgeous designs.
Step by step, we want to help others re-discover the joy of creating. Watch something beautiful emerge from a series of dots as you forget your worries and enjoy relaxing as you learn to paint.
What you get in each kit...
3 1oz bottles of Acrylic paint
6 designs/pattern sheets to trace (there is no freehand drawing involved!)
Full Colour, step by step instruction booklet
A link to an Online lesson
6 colour mount shapes - perfect for turning into gift tags, personalising books and journals or decorating gift bags.
Transfer paper
Dotting tool
We passionately believe
everyone should have to opportunity to create beautiful
things. So whether you prefer the beautiful Sweetheart designs, classic wreath patterns or festive baubles, there is a kit for everyone. Even if you believe you can’t paint,
you can!
Welcome to the first step on your creative
journey. Take time out from your day to have fun and dot it!
Start with one dot and see where the dots will lead, after all, it’s about the
At You Can Folk It HQ, we love creating new projects and playing with different mediums and products to create different surfaces to add our Folk Art designs on to. One product we have been loving lately is DecoArt's Weathered wood. This fantastic liquid can help us turn any plain surface into one with texture and detail by causing your paint to crack and split. Following our journal makeover, we have had so many questions about using weathered wood, we thought we would let you know how to use it well to create the best finish for each and every one of your future projects.
Mount board for practice - this is great as it won't warp and we can add any practice boards we don't use for a project to our painting journal.
DecoArt weathered wood is known as a 'sandwich crackle' because it has to be sandwiched between 2 layers of paint to work. How you apply the top layer of paint determines how the crackle will appear, so it's always a good idea to try out variations before starting a project.
Here you can see some of the different effects you can create:
Depending on the look you wish to create, you can apply a dark colour on the base and a lighter colour on top or vice versa. If you are using DecoArt Americana Acrylic or chalky finish paint for both layers, they can be used in any order you wish. However, when you are using Dazzling Metallics, as we have done (see mount board No 4) metallics do not crackle. For this reason they can only be used as the base coat, not the top coat.
So now you have chosen your colours, let's begin.
Step 1. Basecoat your board and leave to dry. As always, you can leave your paint to dry naturally or speed the process up with a good old hairdryer.
Step 2. Apply a layer of the crackle medium and allow to dry naturally. This normally takes around 30 minutes.You'll know it's ready for the next step when your fingers don't stick to the surface.
Step 3 - Apply your top coat. Feel free to mix a custom colour for your top coat but never water down your paint as this will affect the medium and prevent it from working as well. Once you've got your topcoat ready, this is where the magic happens! Two factors contribute to the crackle pattern you end up with; what you apply the top coat with and how thick you apply the top coat.
Applying paint with a sponge - dabbing the top coat onto the crackle medium. The trick to this method is to always work in a methodical way. Don't go back over the area you've already added paint to as this will remove the paint you've just applied. On mount boards 1 & 3 above, you will see this method creates a lovely spidery pattern which is often finer than when you apply it with a brush.
Next, create some test samples using a brush to apply the top coat. When applying the paint lay the paint down gently, don't apply any pressure to the brush - you need to aim for a nice solid covering in one coat.
Again, once you've laid the paint down, don't go back over it, otherwise you will remove the paint. The main reason for this is that the top coat activates the weathered wood and it turns to a jelly like substance that is easily disturbed.
When applying the paint with a brush, the direction in which you apply the paint with a brush is the direction in which the cracks will form. Looking at examples 2 & 4 above, you can see that the paint has been applied with a brush using vertical strokes. Had the paint been applied from left to right, the result would have been horizontal cracks.
The direction becomes important when you are considering the finished look of your project. For a circular project for example, applying the paint with a sponge is the best option. As you can see from the enamel bucket we painted (above), the spidery cracks give it a beautiful finish. Creating lines of crackle would have distracted from the shape. However, when painting a wardrobe for example, by applying the top coat vertically, the cracks begin to enhance the shape of each panel you apply it to.
There are so many ways you can use crackle and there are so many factors that change the appearance of the finished look. Play with different colours and investigate whether you prefer light colours underneath or deeper shades as the base coat. Why not try applying with a brush in a cross hatch motion which will give you a different effect once again. The great thing is with this medium is that you do not need to apply the medium all over the object or surface. It's fun to just apply patches of weathered wood to the base or vary the thickness of the topcoat to change the size of the cracks you wish to form (as the love heart above shows).
Once we were happy with our crackled items, we used DecoArt Metallic Lustres to add stencils to some of them and also dry brushed the lustre around any raised areas/edges to give each one a bit of sparkle. Whether you wish to leave them plain, stencil them or add a bit of Folky detail on your projects, each one will look nothing less than beautiful.
This month, we were featured in the
fantastic Reloved magazine. If you haven't come across this publication, it is the go
to magazine for the latest up-cycling inspiration. Since it went on sale, we
have had so many enquiries about out gorgeous dragonfly and rosebuds up-cycled
suitcase, we have put together this step-by-step how to for you to
follow.
1. As with our Vintage Roseand Oriental Blossom cases, begin by painting the
whole case (inc. the metal details and handle) in DecoArt Chalky
Finish paint (this time in Vintage).
2. Next, use a brush and apply DecoArt
Metallic Lustre inIced Espresso to the details (corners,
locks handles etc) The reason for this is to give the wax something to adhere
to. Leave the wax to dry completely. Once it is dry, buff with a dry, lint free
cloth to give you the fantastic metallic look.
3. Next, copy your chosen designs using a
Laserjet printer. Laser printed images do give the best results. It
is possible to use an ink jet printer but the ink may smudge as you seal the
image. When you are ready, follow Carol's instructions on our Series 2 DVD's to help you prepare your
surface and transfer the images. The stamps, dragonfly, hotel images
as well as the ones we transferred on to the sides are all from our Series 2 Design book and have already been
reversed for you.
4. Once you have transferred the images, paint rosebuds from our Series 2 design around the 'Hotel Royal' transfer. There is no right or wrong way to do this; you can copy the design Carol has painted or paint your own pattern. Again, our add on kits contain a DVD & full colour instruction booklet,
complete with templates to trace so you can learn, step-by-step how to paint these beautiful rosebuds.
5. Next, add designs to co-ordinate with
the transfers you have added around the sides. On our suitcase, we added more
rosebuds on the sides. Where the 'Angels' transfer had been added, Carol
added dot roses using DecoArt Americana Acrylics in Plum, Titanium white and
Avocado from our Series 2 Starter kit. Next, Carol added angels
from our Series 1 Christmas kit using the round brush from the Series 1
Starter kit. Next, butterflies were painted on the top of the case near the handle. NOTE: the design you create on your suitcase will depend on your
own preferences and the kits you own so get creative and have fun, for example,
you could add more rosebuds and a different quote if you didn't have the
kit or didn't want to invest in both Series.
6. Leave to dry. After a couple of days
when the paint has cured, using DecoArt's Round brush, apply a layer of DecoArt Creme wax (we used Clear Creme
Wax) to protect it. Leave to dry and buff with a dry, lint free cloth to give
it a soft sheen
All that's left for you to do now is
display your case for others to admire. Whether you use it to hold towels in
your bathroom or as alternative storage solutions in your living room, it will
be admired by all who see it. Why not find suitcases of different sizes and
stack them to create a feature in your home?
How would you paint yours? What would you
use it for? We'd love to hear your ideas.
