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A Fall Batik Banner


The kiddos and I just finished making the most fun fall project: a glue batik banner. I've never done anything like this with fabric before and we had a lot of fun. I got the idea in the October issue of Family Fun.
1. First, I took a piece of muslin fabric that I just happened to have in my fabric bag. (Don't even ask me why someone who doesn't sew has a bag full of fabric). Then I tore it into the size that we wanted.
2. Next, we arranged some leaves on the fabric and outlined them with school glue (I used Elmer's).
3. Then we let the glue dry for 24 hours. Well, we got busy on the weekend and let it dry for a few days:)
4. Then we took some acrylic paints in fall colors and painted our leaves.
5. And we mixed a fun color for the background. After that we let the paint completely dry (it took a few hours).
6. When the paint was dry, I ran a kitchen sink full of warm water. After letting the it soak in the water about 20 minutes, I began rubbing the glue out of the fabric. It came out very quickly and easily.
7. After letting it dry one last time, I used some Heat 'n Bond to make a place to slip in a dowel rod.
Here's the finished product, hanging on our backdoor! I love the way it turned out and the way that the glue made those patterns. Its such a cool tie-dyed sort of look. I can't wait to try this again!
Well, today I'm off to War Eagle, Arkansas...a little spot out in the middle of NW Arkansas that is beautiful this time of the year and has the BEST arts and crafts fair around. I used to go every year until we moved to Alabama, but now that we're back I've been counting the days until this week! I'm sure I'll have some treasures to show you tomorrow:)
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Kayren said…
I cannot even begin to tell you how JEALOUS I am that you are going to War Eagle. I've been three times, and used to make the trip back when I was close enough and could get off work. (You just gave me a fantastic idea for my Show and Tell.)

The batik is cool. The girls did something kind of like this in a homeschool co-op on wet silk with paints where they ran on purpose for the tie-dye effect. Then you run it under the water to rinse out the paint that is remaining. They made cool scarves/belts. The same could have been done with their project with wax pencil, but I really don't remember how you'd get that out, and it sure wouldn't be nearly as simple as getting out the glue with your project.
October 15, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Betsy Brock said…
Wow! That looks great! The possibilities would be endless...I bet you do another one for a different season!
October 15, 2009 at 9:29 PM
Lora @ my blessed life said…
Kayren~
War Eagle was great!!:) Sorry to rub it in. lol I was worried about the rain, but it turned out to be a lovely, cloudy, cool Fall day. I don't like it when I'm hot at War Eagle shopping for Christmas gifts-ha! I was so excited to be going this year b/c I hadn't been able to go since we moved to AL in '06 and I was used to going every year:)
October 15, 2009 at 9:42 PM
Michelle M. said…
I LOVE this! I was just thinking today that we need some autumn decorations around here. I am definitely going to do this! Thanks.
October 16, 2009 at 11:03 PM
Lora @ my blessed life said…
Michelle~
If you try it, I hope you'll post on it. I'd love to see what you make!
October 17, 2009 at 8:56 PM
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