The Apron Repair

This apron is the first thing I did to try heat transfer vinyl. I had no clue and was on the phone with my friend Diane. I'm following her instructions and she told me to iron for 15-20 seconds. I held that iron down...picked it up and there was a nice brown iron scorch surrounding my vinyl. I was shocked and then she asked me if I kept moving the iron and I advised her that she did not mention moving the iron. So then I had my apron I'd gotten from Tim Holtz when I'd ordered his new book from him directly completely wrecked. I SO wanted to decorate it for the upcoming cruise.

First I used Walnut ink around the edges and it did not do much to disguise the iron-shaped burn mark. Then I decided to stamp some swirls in the corners but they looked pathetically small. I used Brown Staz-On ink. Luckily my folk art stroke painting experience came through and I used Pigma Micron pens in black and brown to extend the scrollwork around the entire pocket edge. BUT there was still a clear outline above the pocket. I decided to flood the area with paint and some flowers and use the pens to detail the painting. I would have preferred not to have the flowers but it did disguise all the scorch marks. Then I stamped one of Tim's stamps with Black Staz-On on the other pocket, added scrolls and Walnut ink...and with my newly acquired heat transfer vinyl experience (moving the iron lesson) I ironed on a large version of one of Tim's stamps. The large version was made by scanning the stamped image, tracing it in Illustrator and then exporting it to a program called Make-the-Cut which allowed me to cut it with a Cricut Expression.

Now my apron has lots of signatures from new friends I met on the cruise. The only bad thing is that I missed having so many people sign it...but I did collect some signatures!