You know all about fabric paints and how to use them, and the dyes in powders, but have you tried fabric painting with acrylic paints and inks that you normally use for art?

I have been painting scraps of fabrics that I use for my bracelet cuffs (video at the end.) I use craft paints, acrylic artist paints, Dylusion inks, and Adirondack inks. All the material is water fast but you have to wash everything by hand in cold water and dry the fabric flat.

I always use cotton fabric since it’s the most absorbent.

Here are some pictures.

Some examples of craft paints and inks.

I dripped some of the craft paints straight from the bottle onto the fabric.

I scrunched up the fabric into a tiny ball. If you don’t like paint on your hands, wear plastic gloves.  As you can see, the paint spread all over.

I added some Adirondack inks. I used the colors copper and currant.  I held the bottles about 20 inches above the fabric and gently dripped the ink to get some splashes, not just globs of ink.  As you can see I mix and match the materials.

I used Dylusion ink sprays on this fabric. As you can see it diffuses gently. Be careful not to spray the ink where you don’t want it (including your hands.) It’s very hard to get off, and you can never remove it from the painted surface.  The spray comes in yummy colors though.

I used a couple of colors of Adirondack inks on top of the Dylusion spray.  Pretty dramatic effect in my opinion.

Here I squeezed some craft paint straight from the bottle on top of some light green corduroy fabric.

I rolled up the fabric into a tight log and this is how it came out when I unrolled it.

The paint bled through and saturated the other side of the fabric so I can now choose which side I like the best when I use it.

You can write on the dry fabric with permanent markers to make it even more interesting. 🙂

You can make very diluted acrylic artist paints in spray bottles and use that too.

From the spray bottles on some muslin.

I finished that with some drips of Adirondack inks.

The fabrics dry pretty stiff. You can iron them flat between newspaper or other protective paper.

You can add other fabric and fusible web to make them even more solid.

It is a FUN way to create your own fabric.  I love to make things out of it, like fabric bracelet cuffs.

Check out this YouTube video if you want to see how I made a cuff.