Zim's Colorless Extender
A Cool Idea!
This placemat is perfect for teaching table-setting to little ones!
Zim’s Fruity Placemat
You’ll Need:
- 100% cotton placemats
- Zim’s Fruit, ZimWare, & Swirl Stamps
- Zim’s Permanent Acrylic Fabric Paint
- Zim’s New Colorless Extender
- one inch foam brushes
- masking tape
- plastic spoons
- foil pie pan or other disposable container
This technique will produce lighter, transparent stamped images that are perfect for backgrounds! You can then stamp bold, colorful images on top of a transparent background with “full strength” ZimPaint!
The formula for mixing a transparent paint is about 75% Colorless Extender to 25% ZimPaint. Mix these using the smallest quantities possible so you don’t end up with a lot of paint left over. We like to mix them in a foil pie pan or in a plastic disposable container. Begin with a small spoonful of Colorless Extender and add a tiny amount of paint. Mix all the transparent colors you think you’ll need in the pie pan (this will resemble an artist’s palette!). Experiment on a scrap of fabric to see if you are achieving the desired degree of transparency or “lightness”. Add more or less ZimPaint as needed.
Placemat Instructions- 1. The Napkin
- Use the masking tape to “tape off” a rectangle. Press the edges of the tape down firmly so paint won’t sneak under.
With a foam brush, lightly sponge in the napkin area with one of your transparent “palette” paints. If you want a
“smoother” look, you can blend with a dry foam brush. Carefully remove the masking tape when you’re done.
- 2. The Background
- Place a dinner plate upside down on heavy piece of paper. Trace the plate, cut it out, & use this as your mask for this
area. Stamp the fruit images (the background) using the transparent paint that you’ve mixed on your “palette.” Hold the
dinner plate mask in place when you’re stamping an image over its edge. When you’ve finished the background, remove
the mask, & stamp some fruit in the middle of the circle that was masked. Allow the placemat to dry thoroughly.
- 3. Siverware & Swirls
- Using “full-strength” ZimPaint, stamp a place setting on top of your background. To stamp the swirl design in a
circular border, start at the bottom. Stamp around the inner circle. When you’re almost at the end, pay attention to how
much room you have left & judge the distance between images accordingly.
- Allow your creation to dry completely & heat-set by ironing. If you’re doing a set of placemats, stamp them in an “assembly line”. Stamp all the masked napkin areas first, all the backgrounds next, etc.