DIY watercolour stationery - HeyDay Events

Loving this Tuesday afternoon DIY watercolour stationery session from Heyday Events and Natasha Hurley Photography! As if their beautiful Down by the River styled shoot this morning was enough of a treat, we have a DIY project to create the watercolour stationery suite featured in the shoot! I'm excited to see if anyone tries this DIY so please do drop images and comments on social media and let us know how you get on! Here at Heyday Events we love using different textures and materials for wedding stationery, it can give a bespoke and exciting feel to any invitation received by a guest before your big day. This DIY tutorial focuses on the image transfer and dying techniques for this fabric invitation. It is possible to use other techniques to transfer image to fabric however this technique leaves a very natural finish (with no plastic coating) and it is an easy process for brides who like to get creative. What you will need:

• Fabric – clean and ironed
• Paintbrush
• Masking tape
• Bowl
• Watercolour/dye (slightly watered down in this case)
• Print out of your design – This must be printed on a ‘Laser Printer’ or a photocopier that uses a toner to print. Before you print, your design will need to be ‘flipped’ on computer so that when transferred onto the fabric the image comes out the right way round! (This can be done using the ‘Flip Canvas Horizontal’ tool in Photoshop or another image editing program)
• ‘CitraSolve Natural Multi-purpose Cleaner’ (this is to facilitate lifting the ink off the paper and can be purchased online)

Stationery ~ Heyday Events Stationery ~ Heyday Events How to do it Image Transfer: Use masking tape to secure your fabric to a table or non-movable surface. Stationery ~ Heyday Events Stationery ~ Heyday Events Tape your design to your fabric making sure there are no wrinkles in the paper. Grab your CitraSolv Stationery ~ Heyday Events Spray or brush on the CitraSolve liquid until the design area is covered. Smooth with a paintbrush to get rid of any air bubbles. The paper may wrinkle near the edges; this is okay as long as it is not where your design is. Using the end of a paintbrush (or something smooth and rounded) gently rub over the design area. Do not rub too hard or the paper may break. Stationery ~ Heyday Events Stationery ~ Heyday Events Carefully peel back the design to check if your image has transferred. There may be areas that require further work or your paper may be too dry in which case you can use more CitroSolv. Stationery ~ Heyday Events Stationery ~ Heyday Events Once your design has been fully transferred onto your fabric, let it dry, iron to seal the design and gently hand-wash. Hang to dry. Stationery ~ Heyday Events Stationery ~ Heyday Events Fabric dye Now you have your complete design on fabric you can begin dying. Put your dye in a bowl or container (water down if required). Start with one corner of your fabric and dip the end into the dye – leave the corner in the dye to soak up, this will make the colour more intense near the edge. Stationery ~ Heyday Events Stationery ~ Heyday Events Stationery ~ Heyday Events When the colour has soaked up, drip clean water onto some areas of the fabric to create a patchy/washed look as in this example. Stationery ~ Heyday Events Stationery ~ Heyday Events Hang to dry. Ta da! Stationery ~ Heyday Events A huge thanks to Heyday Events for the double feature today! Vendor details: Stationery: Heyday Events | Photography: Natasha Hurley Photography