Soccer Bags {with DecoArt Ink Effects}

I recently finished a project that I love and I'm really excited to share it with you!

DecoArt has a new line of fabric inks called DecoArt Ink Effects and they sent me a box of them to try.  I received all twelve available colors {a beautiful range: yellow, green, violet, purple, light green, orange, red, brown, turquoise, pink, blue, and black} plus Ink Effects Basecoat {for treating cotton prior to coloring.  The product adheres best to synthetic fabrics but can be used on cotton and cotton blends by pretreating the fabric with the base coat}.

These inks allow you to paint any design on any type of paper and transfer it to white or light colored fabrics using an iron.  The final result isn't stiff and it won't flake off like iron transfers or fabric paint.

This new product was perfect for an idea I had. Luke and Lila both play soccer and I've been wanting to make them soccer bags for carrying their water bottles and balls.  Inspired by this, I sewed simple drawstring bags with white panels across the front.

To personalize the bags, I printed clip-art pictures of soccer balls and printed their names in cute fonts.  You have to print your image in reverse or you'll end up with backwards text on your finished project.  {I knew this but forgot and Lila's bag now has a patch over the backwards name.  Fortunately, the patch looks cute.}

Once you have your images and text, you paint over them with the ink.  Since I had small details, I used a fine brush and I used a couple of coats of ink.  The more ink you use, the brighter your final image will be.  I painted one soccer ball with black and one with orange and used red and pink for the names.

You let the ink dry for approximately forty-five minutes {or until completely dry} and then you're ready to iron.

I placed my first image {the soccer ball} where I wanted it and ironed it for about one minute on dry high heat {no steam}.  I was so excited to peel back the paper and see how cute the image looked!  The colors will be a bit more muted than the original color on the paper and the longer you iron, the more vivid the colors will be.

I ironed Luke's soccer ball on as well and then ironed the names over the balls.  You can reuse the images without repainting them with ink.  As they're used repeatedly, the image will grow lighter but that would give a neat effect on certain projects.

I love the way these soccer bags turned out and my twins absolutely love them!

{I haven't washed our bags yet but Ink Effects images remain vivid even after laundering.}

My mind has been reeling with lots of other ideas for this ink.
DecoArt Ink Effects will be in JoAnn stores next week.  I'd love to hear your experiences with them.
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I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with DecoArt and Blueprint Social.  All opinions are my own.

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