Photo cushion with Lumi

Hello crafty people! I sure hope you enjoyed our blog hop - it was great fun to put on from our end :)



Today I have a crafty project to share that uses the awesome range of Lumi Inkodye products. This is a fun and fabulous way to print onto fabrics - the colour develops in sunlight, and it's permanent so washing isn't an issue. I made a cushion that has a photo of my daughters printed on it:
 

The process has a few steps, but they're simple and if I can do it, anyone can!  Here's how I did it:

I chose a photo and cropped it reasonably tight. I didn't want a complicated background in it:

Next I converted it to black and white with a photo editing program:

Then I converted it to a negative:

 If you don't have a photo editing program, all of this can be done through the Lumi website.

I printed this image onto a sheet of Lumi Inkofilm, which is an inkjet transparency. I printed it on the highest quality because the black bits have to be really black and opaque.

I found a piece of calico fabric (any natural fibre will work eg cotton t-shirt), and covered it with Lumi Inkodye.  The snap packs made it really easy to apply - I used the opened pack to spread the Inkodye over the whole piece of fabric, then used paper towel to mop up the excess:

Here's the Inkofilm transparency clipped in place onto my cutting mat:

Up until now, all of this has taken place inside. Now it's time to go outside for some sunshine. I was disappointed to find it was the cloudiest, most overcast day ever in Melbourne. At least it wasn't raining! I know the Lumi Inkodye only takes about 10 minutes to react on a sunny day, so I figured it would take about 30 on such an overcast day, so I left it on the bonnet of my car and went inside for a cup of tea.

I came out to check it and this is how it looked:

Good definition of the image, but the colour wasn't quite what I expected. I needn't have worried! This is how it looked after a minute or two in Lumi Inkowash:

Aaaah - there are my girls! I left it to soak for a few hours to deactivate all of the photosensitive molecules, and then washed the fabric piece in the washing machine.

I don't really know how to sew, but when the fabric piece dried, I layered it onto some denim from some old jeans and made a little cushion out of it. Voila! A gift for someone who thought they had everything!

The potential for the Lumi Inkodye range is endless! I'm seeing home-made merchandise, funny t-shirts for special events (eg buck's/hen's nights, birthdays), personalised aprons and shopping bags, business cards, gifts for grandparents, invitations for kitchen teas, baby showers etc etc. With a range of nine colours, there's sure to be one to suit.

Ooooh - now I'm getting excited! I hope I've inspired you to create something too.




PS- Make sure you pop back tomorrow morning to see if you were one of our lucky blog hop winners!!