Fabric Flowers Tutorial

Fabric Flowers on Altered Bottle

Hi friends Thank you so much for all the appreciation on my Handmade flowers card...I am still basking in the warm glow of the heartwarming comments!!
Sharing an altered bottle with gorgeous Fabric Flowers  made using  Sospeso Transparente technique[Here is my first introductory post on this beautiful Italian craft of Sospeso Transparente ]

Fabric Flowers

Sospeso Transparente is a magical craft indeed as its amazing to be able to turn a wisp of paper, plastic or fabric into a gorgeous 3 dimensional structure by heating and embossing!

Altered Bottle

Here is the bottle I altered. Painting with paint brushes is so time consuming and I hate the inevitable visible brushstrokes so this time sponged on white acrylic paint using a regular sponge...not only was it fun and quick but the texture is so lovely !

Altered Bottle

Here is how I made the Fabric Flowers

Materials - All the Sospeso Transparente materials have been generously sent to me by Shalini Mittal of Crafters Corner.Being on the DT of the top Craft shop in India [Crafters Corner Inspirational Blog] sure has its advantages...one gets to play with in vogue and wonderful products!!

1. Sospeso Transparente Fabric Tape  
2. Sospeso Transparente Glue
3. Sospeso Transparente Plastic films 
4. Sospeso Transparente Embossing Pad and Embossing Tools
5. Candle - good quality, non smoky variety
6. Good Scissors

Fabric Flower Making

The inventor of the craft Monica Allegro has designed some beautiful "Fabric tapes" especially for fabric Sospeso Transparente .These tapes are made of thick cotton and have beautiful floral designs on them.

Fabric flower tutorial 

Roughly cut  out the floral design, apply glue [Sospeso Transparente glue recommended as it needs to be a nice strong, heat resistant adhesive that dries clear] to the reverse of the fabric and stick it on to transparent plastic films specially designed for the craft.

Fabric flower tutorial 

Blot the extra glue with a towel or baby wipe.

Fabric flower tutorial 

Run a decoupage spatula if you have one across the designs you glued to remove excess glue from under the fabric and ensure a wrinkle free adhesion of the fabric design onto the plastic film.

3 D volume decupage

Leave the design to dry- drying time will depend on the weather conditions- have patience!

Fabric flower tutorial 

Once dry use a good scissors[ I use the Tim Holtz Tonic for this] to cut out the fabric- plastic designs and cut the flower petals to wards the center just like you would  paper flower petals when you make paper flowers so that it will be easier to shape later.

Fabric flower tutorial 

Once you have cut out all the designs you are ready to create the magical flowers!
Do refer to my DT post on Sospeso Transparente for all the detailed steps on heating and embossing

Fabric flower tutorial 

Show the plastic side of your fabric-plastic designs to a handle flame and emboss while hot to shape the flowers and leaves. Its just like in the other techniques of Sospeso Transparente , the only difference being you have to exert a little bit more force since you are embossing a thick layer of fabric + plastic.

Fabric flowers

I dressed my bottle with a few Spellbinders border-abilities die cuts , added pearls and stuck on my fabric flowers using hot glue.

Magic floating photoframe

One roll of fabric tape yielded so many 3 D fabric flowers that I used some on a floating cube photoframe I picked up from a local shop .

Fabric flowers Photoframe

After shaping the flowers, pierced the center of the fabric flower design with a scissors and added pollen to it.

Fabric flowers

Though I have been singing praise about Sospeso Transparente ever since I was introduced to this craft I think among all the different sub-types of Sospeso Transparente [ includes printed films, paper veils, napkins and fabric tape], the fabric flowers are the most beautiful !

Fabric flowers

I didnt yet add my family photos to the frame but here you can see the photo-cube rotating

Fabric flowers

And here is the cube removed from the frame [ it snaps on via a magnet!]

Fabric flowers

I hope you liked my altered bottle and frame with Sospeso Transparente fabric flowers.
Supplies 
1.Sospeso Transparente Materials : So many people are asking me where to buy Sospeso Transparente :  In India its available at the best price at Shalini Mittal's Crafter's Corner and here is the link to Sospeso Transparente on her shop : Sospeso Transparente materials .
International crafters can look for the distributors of their country in Monica Allegro's[ the inventor of Sospeso Transparente ]  website .
2. Flower pollen, Spellbinders Borderabilities