Working With Kraft-Tex

Of the many things I've purchased over the years and seldom if ever used is a collection of stencils. I blame the Joggles.com lady and her enticing tutorials. Thanks to the the next binding I'm tackling in my Handmade Book Club having the option of using Kraft-Tex as the cover, I'm taking this opportunity to put two of these stencil to use. 

I bought a roll of black Kraft-Tex a year or more ago, not too sure about how I would use it but everyone was talking about it so I succumbed. Bookcovers was one of my thoughts as well as using Paintstiks on it, and now I had not only instructions but a whole slew of ideas generated by the others in the club. This is not Paintstiks, but Art Crayon, a freebie from the same enticing lady. I used a stencil brush to transfer the creamy pigment from the lipstick-like tube to the Kraft-Tex. I am thrilled. 

I planned to stencil the other half of this Kraft-Tex with acrylic paint, and a few days later, on my way to the table, stencil in hand, I managed to knock over a full glass of Mango juice with beetroot powder added. Very red. Very thick and sticky. Very everywhere as it tipped and spilled onto the sewing machine table where I'd set it, the other sewing machine table next to it and my thread cabinet which sits on the floor in between, before tumbling off the table to spill the rest of its contents on the rug. Yes, rug. My studio has carpeting. Well, so much for creative endeavors THAT day. And I am still hitting the major stains with the rug shampooer which is doing a great job of pulling it up. 

Kinda took the wind out of my sails though, and I didn't get back to trying the second round of stenciling until today. (Do NOT look at the carpet . . .) This time I used a round foam dabber to pounce the paint through the stencil. The red is Liquetex acrylic paint and the more orange color is Speedball screenprinting paint. I am thrilled with this too. I expended most of the leftover paint in the space on the left that will be leftover after cutting the green stenciled area to size. Just pressed that dabber onto the Kraft-Tex to make circles.

I didn't wash this Kraft-Tex before stenciling. I wanted to maintain a smooth look rather than a more textured leather look which most prefer. It's bowing from being rolled, even though I put it under weights for several days so we'll see if that causes any problems or can be rectified some other way. I do need to cover the Art Crayon with something since, even though the manufacturer says it dries and won't smudge after 24 hours, I can rub color off a sample I did shortly after I got the Kraft-tex. I've tested a workable fixative product called SpectraFix (yes, blame that lady again) and I like how it works and doesn't show on the black like matte medium does.