Heather Ross Prints
Several weeks ago I ordered a copy of the new Heather Ross Prints book. I eagerly awaited its arrival and no sooner had it hit my doorstep than it was unwrapped from its box and voraciously flipped through. The book features an extensive number of awesome DIY projects using Heather Ross' patterns in applications from wallpaper, and sewn crafts, to printables (yes there is a disc included with all the patterns and printables she uses). It's truly worth its weight in gold!. But what truly sold me was the portion of the book where Heather shares her design process, and gives a thorough Photoshop tutorial for those who are interested in learning. I literally could not wait to try!
Here's what I made. I first decided on a magic show theme, and after sketching up some ideas I followed each step in the book carefully (from raw sketching to Photoshop editing) until finally by the end of the day I had created my very own print!
I sent it off to Spoonflower to be printed onto fabric, and then just last week it arrived! Of course I had to make another print to go along with it since the first one was so fun!
I enjoyed the print making process so much and I hope I have a lot more time to work on learning the craft in the coming months.
Note: There were horrible lighting conditions when I took this photo. The actual fabric is much more vibrant and true to the original design colors.
If you'd like to see more of what you'll find inside Heather Ross' book, you can find a post about it on her blog.
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| by Ez Tuesday, September 25, 2012 
Reader Comments (33)
they look great!
the funny part about the book cover is: ross is the word for horse here in switzerland. :)
Oh my! I just saw this post and hopped on over to Heather's blog. I just ordered my copy. I totally cannot wait to try it too :) Your fabric and prints came out so cuuute!
You guys are the best! Thank you all so much for your kind words about my first prints! I'm even more excited to keep experimenting with the technique now! xox Ez
P.S. For those of you that asked, I haven't made these fabrics available for sale yet, but I will let you know if that happens! :-)
P.P.S. I believe that Heather's technique is demonstrated using Photoshop CS5, but I have CS3 and all her steps worked fine for me. I'm not sure how it would work in other versions of Photoshop.
P.P.P.S. I should have also mentioned above, that once you sketch your design on paper you will need to use a Bamboo tablet to "draw" your design into photoshop (this is done using a scan of your sketch which you trace over), so it's not as hard as it sounds. You can use the mouse on your computer, but it is much harder, and not nearly as enjoyable. It's worth the cost of the Bamboo Tablet in my opinion.
so cute EZ!!
So cute and fun! You are so creatively smart Ez! x
eeeeee! Thank you so much for sharing this book. I've played around with pattern making before but have always wanted to create a fully finished pattern and get it printed at Spoonflower. I am heading over to Barnes and Noble right after to work to pick this book up :D
Just lovely—and thank you for the wonderful photos showing the process.
Thank you for showing your prints! They are beautiful and now make me really want to try out the book! Also thank you for the note about CS3 working fine and really needing a wacom tablet. Very helpful to know. ...please keep making prints! You've got a knack for it. -Kate