Monday, March 29, 2010

More Easter Class Projects- Simple Embellishments

Here's the rest of the Easter class projects for Monday night (see post below for the watercolor card which is also included). I love the fresh, springy colors! They're fairly easy to put together. Each one features a different embellishment that can really make a big difference in a card. Various sentiments may be substituted for occasions other than Easter. The 4x4 'Happy Easter' note card uses one of the Beautiful Wings Embosslits butterflies. The perfect finishing touch!The 'Happiness Always' card uses the SU Beautiful Butterflies die & vanilla hodgepodge hardware- always a WOW factor! I used Sweet Pea stitched felt + a button on the card with the cross. The basket is from the Baskets & Blooms SU die & a simple bow tied w/grosgrain ribbon. Click on any pic to enlarge. I still have space in Monday night's class, $10. Just drop me an email to join! Since I was so late in putting this all together, I will accept late RSVP's all the way through Monday. OR, if you can't make it to the class, I can put a kit together w/instructions.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Watercolor Crayon Technique- for Monday's class!

I have been meaning to try the watercolor crayon technique and just haven't had a chance until now. It is really alot of fun & very simple! In fact, I think there are various ways to use watercolor crayons. I love the soft effect! The technique I will be demonstrating requires solid stamps, as opposed to line images. The flower image I used is from the hostess set, Of the Earth. This is one of the projects we will make at my class on Monday evening. Please let me know, if you can attend. I will post instructions for this sometime next week.Here's a close-up of the lovely flowers!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Scallop Circle Fabric Hair Barrettes

I was so excited to make these adorable fabric hair barrettes! I've seen various versions of these on different blogs. I was recently asked to come up with an easy craft project for our Awana TNT girls group at church. I immediately thought of these barrettes & this is my first attempt. I used a combination of scallop circles from sizzix SU Baskets & Blooms & Scallop Circle #2 dies. The circles are each hot glued together and kind of scrunched up, so they don't lay flat. After allowing time to dry, I used my paper piercer to poke a hole in the center and then inserted a brad. The final touch was pulling the edges of the fabric to slightly fray it, giving it a 'shabby chic' look.

The only snap barrettes I had were Isabella's size, so that's what I used for this one. Here's some pics of her wearing one. Very cute & fun! Stay tuned for more of these using different fabrics and a slightly different format, including a brooch!

Sweet Pea Stitched Felt

I love the Sweet Pea stitched felt pieces! This card features several of them. Colors used: Certainly celery, rose red, pretty in pink, and chocolate chip. I also like the simple block layout. You could easily change this up with different images or embellishments in each block.

Another Butterfly Card!



I am enjoying the embosslits butterflies! They're pretty and can make a really quick and easy card! This one is also a fun & bright color palette on whisper white.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Embosslits Beautiful Wings!



My new embosslits butterfly die just arrived and I couldn't wait to try it out! I love the fact that this die embosses and cuts multiple images at the same time! This was a super-quick card that I needed to make for someone, so it's nothing fancy. I like the color combo- fresh and bright! I used Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, & Pixie Pink. Since the butterflies are already textured, I thought I'd throw in a few more textures for added interest. The corderoy button worked well & then I embossed the white cardstock with raised dots. Very simple!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Embellished Cloth Diaper



Well, this is officially my 2nd sewing project! This one isn't super SU related, but I figured I would post it since I did use SU ribbon (although retired)! This is a Gerber pre-folded cloth diaper, which can be purchased in packs of 12. I chose a soft flannel fabric, cut the fabric 8" wide and about 19" long, which allows for 1" sides to be folded under. I pre-washed everything before I started & then ironed well. This is supposed to eliminate any future shrinking, if you wash it in hot water. I lined each side with ribbon and pinned it all together before taking it to the machine. Then, I simply ran 2 seams along each side and one on each end. I think these would make great baby gifts! And of course since we're expecting a new little boy in June, this one will come in handy for him!
I hope to try some more of these. The biggest challenge is the cloth diaper loosing a little of it's shape, which can make cutting and measuring a little difficult. Apparently the pre-washing is definitely a must! Check out the directions I followed here.

Rag Quilt Purse with the Big Shot!

Well, I finally got the opportunity to play around with the Big Shot for a sewing project! My grandmother recently gave me her sewing machine & I was excited about trying it, although I have no sewing experience! Through the blogging world, I kept hearing that the rag quilt purses were so easy and no big deal! Well, they were basically right!
This was a fun project and pretty much on a beginner level. My mom, who is a veteran seamstress, actually helped me. I was fairly pleased with how this turned out, however, I did use the wrong batting. Apparently there's a big difference between cotton and polyester batting- I had no clue. The cotton batting (preferred) gives a more stiff affect to the bag & a little more form. I was super frugal in choosing my fabric, but I really like the color combo. One half yard of each pattern cost me a little over $4!

I used the Big Shot and the scallop square die. I cut the fabric appx 5"x5," layered 8 pieces at a time, and ran them through the Big Shot. I can definitely see how quilters would benefit from the scallop square! The die eliminates tedious cutting and measuring.

I cut a total of 32 squares. Each is sandwiched with another square + a piece of batting in between. The first step was to sew an 'x' across each sandwiched block. Then, the scalloped edges were joined and sewn together as well. You can find a great step-by-step tutorial here.

I neglected to add a clasp before sewing the final edges, so this is an open bag. I thought about adding some velcro for a closure and some buttons on the outside to dress it up. The bag can be turned inside out for the clean-edge look or as pictured for the rag quilt look. I did have to go back and snip all the edges and wash/dry the entire bag to give it the final 'rag' look. I really need to get a sharp pair of scissors for fabric cutting!

There are several variations to this bag and it's easy to adjust the size. I'm looking forward to trying another one of these soon!- preferably in a larger 'tote' size.