As promised to a friend, here's how I printed on burlap last weekend. I cannot take credit for coming up with this idea. However, every tutorial, DIY or YouTube video I found were all on ink jet printers. We only have a laser printer. You see, the problem with a laser printer is the use of toner and the heat it creates to apply the toner. And I was afraid running anything that had to be heated and bond to the burlap would come off in the printer.
But I decided to give it a whirl. We bought the printer for fairly cheap, wouldn't hurt if I killed it right? Plus the hubby was out of town.....
Anyways, lets begin!
First, assemble your supplies!
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| Freezer paper or some lightweight fusible webbing, rotary cutter or scissors, straight edge for trimming, and of course your burlap! |
In addition to these items you will need an iron that you can use with NO STEAM. The paper you see in the picture above was just a regular sheet of printer paper. To me it was easier to just trim around that sheet instead of cutting the freezer paper before ironing it on. Freezer paper can be found in the aisle at the grocery store with the plastic wrap and aluminum foil and such. There is a lot on each roll. But it can be used for all kinds of stuff!
Next, iron on your stabilizer of choice. The great thing about this is if you use the fusible webbing, there is no right or wrong side to iron it on to. So if you're using it just read the package directions and apply to your burlap. Same goes for the freezer paper. I just tear off a big piece and stick it on.
Next, trim to size! You can fudge a little here. Of course you can only print as wide as your printer will go, but just play with your margins and paper size. I just used standard size. Also, burlap is a woven fabric, and not a tight weave either. Unless you have found some awesome burlap and if so please comment and let me know where you found it! So you're going to want to either darken your image, or increase the amount of ink your printer settings are on to apply more ink to your burlap.
I found a piece of color card stock so that you could see better what I was talking about with trimming your paper to size.
Now here's where you can tell the difference between the two types of stabilizers. Keep in mind you are not peeling anything off until AFTER you print. But I just wanted to show you the differences.
The left side if the fusible webbing, the right half is what you would get when you used the freezer paper.
Now that you have your paper trimmed to size, run it through your printer. Make sure you know which way your paper needs to go in so that the burlap size is what gets printed on. I used the Kentucky outline for my pillows.
And that's it! You have a printed image! I would run a hot dry iron over it to help set the ink, and I wouldn't suggest putting this on something that needs to be laundered. Not only would I be afraid the ink would wash out, but burlap isn't the best fabric to run through your washer. Now it's up to you to figure out what to do with your creation.
This first image I am probably not going to use. I have taken the image and inverted the colors and going to try again so that you can see the words better, and then frame it.It's some really cool UK subway art. Just hard to read when there's not a light background behind it. This also has the fusible webbing on the back, hence why it's cut so close on the left edge and not unraveling. The fusible webbing would be great too if you were going to attach it to another piece of fabric, or just wanted to keep it from fuzzing out on the ends, as burlap so tends to do.
And here's my pillows! The smaller one on the left was my first try. As you can see, i just did basic print settings, and it was stretched to fit a standard sheet of printer paper. And you can also see that loose weave i was talking about because you can see the fabric behind both of them. On the polka dot pillow I enlarged my paper to be legal size, and darkened the lines by adjusting the toner setting on the printer set up.
So there you have it. You can use the same methods for printing on fabric in a laser printer as an ink jet! *
*(Disclaimer) I used my printer for this and took the chance of it not working. Luckily it did but I make no guarantees about any other printer. Be craft smart.
Have fun crafting and C-A-T-S, CATS CATS CATS! ~A
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