I love playing with materials and art supplies (who doesn’t?! haha) What excites me is experimenting with unusual surfaces — and finding out if it’ll work! 😛
My work has always been a mixture of handmade + digital. I turn watercolored illustrations into patterns, and then the patterns are printed onto paper or fabric, that can be used for more craft projects. I love how the handmade work comes full circle!
I work on my laptop to digitize the patterns, and always test my prints and designs on my printer. The PIXMA G4000 can print, scan, copy, fax, and the best part of it all–it has wifi! I don’t always have to attach my computer to it, and everyone else in the house can use it as well without having to move it around all the time.
For this craft, I experimented printing on CANVAS FABRIC using the PIXMA G400. Yep, you CAN print on fabric with this desktop printer!! Most types of fabric will work, but to be sure, use fabric with some cotton blend (like canvas), preferably in a plain light color.
Here’s how to do it: Take a sheet of sticker paper and stick it on canvas, then trim the edges. You can also use regular copy paper (letter or legal size) and stick the fabric onto the paper with double sided tape. Having that sheet of paper or sticker attached to the fabric makes it possible to feed the fabric sheet into the printer. You can reuse these paper backings as many times as you can; as long as they still have tack.
To make the designs, I used Watercolor Pencils and a Water Brush, and drew fun fruit patterns. Make sure the sheet you’re working on is A4 or letter-sized.
See how I used light and rough strokes to add the pigment onto the paper? You don’t need to fill up the entire paper and color neatly. Here are some coloring and painting tips to try:
- Hold the Pencil at the halfway mark so that you’re able to use the side of the pencil tip
- Wet each hue one at a time, so that the colors don’t bleed into each other (unless them bleeding onto each other is the effect that you want)
- Move the water brush in a circular motion to blend the strokes
Once the design is dry, I use the Copy function of the printer. You don’t even need a computer to make this craft!
The PIXMA G4000 can print up to 6,000 black and white documents & 7,000 colored documents (with one set of inks). No need to buy cartridges! You can simply purchase the inks for refill.Â
Also, if you register your printer in the Canon Red App, you get 260 Rewards Points, which can be converted into Electronic Gift Certificates.
The little frayed edges don’t really bother my printer’s head, but best to keep those to a minimum and trim them as well as you can before feeding the fabric paper into the printer.
Here are my printed patterns on canvas!
There are soooo many things you can do with the canvas! Small sewing projects, fabric banners, embroidery guides, notebook covers–a whole new world of possibilities just opened up now that you can print easily on fabric!
I turned mine into small pouches (because my bag can never have to many pouches for organizing my mess lol). Also, I made a pencil case specifically to fit my long brushes. If you are planning to use the things that you make regularly (and not just leave them for display) you can seal the prints with a waterproofing spray like Collonil.
I taught some Canvas Printing workshops at Canon’s events this month!
My camera strap is also made of PIXMA printed canvas fabric + some leather scraps.
Would love to see things that you make with the “Canvas Paper”
Tag me @lifeafterbreakfastph when you post your crafts!