Fabric Flowers

 I have been sewing since I was a young girl. I have always had a love for fabric. I have never been much of a quilter, but totes, bags, toys, clothes, pillows and things for my home have run under the feet of my sewing machine. 

Collecting fabric has been something I have always done too. My collection started when my older sister Lou would send me fabric scraps and remnants from her sewing projects. 

Oh the fun things I could create from all those pretty fabrics! 

Fabric collectors are just like scrappers who love their pretty paper! And I love to collect that too! 

And now you can buy the same pretty prints in fabric and paper! Both Moda brand or Stampin' Up sell fabric that coordinates with scrapbook/card making papers!

So I can also use those pretty fabrics in my scrapping and card making too. 

Below are three cards where I have used fabric to make the flower embellishments and a fourth where I have used a standard sewing staple, a zipper, for a flower too!  

The easiest flower to make is the fabric YoYo. 

Cut a circle of fabric about twice the size of the finished yoyo. Find a circle twice the size you need and trace it on the back side of your fabric. Fold over about 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch along the edge. Hand sew with a knotted, doubled thread along the fold with a running stitch. Keep folding and stitching until you go all around the circle. Pull up the thread until tight and you have a small gathered circle in the middle. Make a    couple of small stitches to secure your circle. Trim your thread and you are done! Simple!

For the twisted fabric flower, you need to start with a circle of heavy duty tacky tape. A quick way to cut a circle is to use your die cutter. A link is here for Glubers, pre-made adhesive circles. There is a tutorial on the site to make these flowers. I did not follow this tutorial so check it out. I had lots of adhesive sheets, so I made my own.

Once you have your adhesive circle peel off one side of the backing and place the circle on a scrap of any used sticker backing paper. I used the empty sheet of Avery address labels. Set this aside.

Next tear a 1" strip of fabric. For a 2" flower you will need a strip of fabric 1" by 23". Tear along the crosswise grain of the fabric. "Fat quarters" (18"x23") are an easy source to buy for fabrics. 

Pinch the end of the fabric strip and center it on the circle of adhesive. Twist the fabric strip around on itself several times and slowly adhere the twisted strip to the adhesive in a spiral working from the center out until you fill up the circle. If you have extra at the end, trim off all but about 1 inch. Fold back the backing and tuck the fabric tail under the circle. 

Then you are ready to attach it to your card or scrapbook page. 

 The next flower is made from zipper. You can buy zipper ribbon now, but there is no shop in my area that sells it. I went to my local fabric and craft thrift store, The Legacy. They sell new and used zippers any size from 10 to 35 cents. And I showed up on 50% off day, so I paid 5 to 17 cents each!!

I separated my 22" zipper and used just one half, so I can make two flowers for 17 cents! 

Start with another doubled, knotted thread and needle. Fold under the end and start a running stitch. After about 3-4 inches, pull up the thread to slightly gather the zipper. Tack the circle together from the back side. 

From the back side fold and pinch and tack the zipper edge around the circle until you reach the end of the zipper. Tack a few stitches at the end of the zipper to the back of the flower to secure. 

Place a circle of heavy duty adhesive on the back of the zipper circle and you are done! The zipper coils are often painted to match the fabric, so you can spiral the zipper with the color side up or down. 

All papers used on the cards are from Stampin' Up. 

Thanks for checking out my blog, any questions?? Leave a comment. I love to hear from you!

Sunny California Poppies

My friend Jenny and I love to craft together. She and I started a Silver leafing project awhile back and although Jenny has finished her beautiful jewelry cabinet and posted it on her blog, I have not finished my cabinet. I ran out of silver leaf and knowing I would not be able to work on it for a bit, did not order more right away.

I placed the order and I have worked on my cabinet again and it is almost finished!

Silver leaf comes in "books" with each delicate sheet of silver between two sheets of orange tissue paper.

As each book of leaf is used up, you have a lovely book
of orange tissue sheets left over.

Being the thrifty person I am (OK, really a pack rat!)
I could not bear to throw them away!

The tissue reminded me of the delicate petals of poppies, especially our beautiful California Poppy,
our state flower, that is a bloom all over the state right now.

Since they reminded me of flowers I got out a Sizzix die and cut the tissue books into flowers. I could cut a whole book of flowers out at once, 25+ sheets with the Sizzix die and my Cuttlebug.

After the flowers were cut I used some Shimmerz spray ink on each flower.
I then dried each with my heat gun to give the petals a soft crinkled look.

I then tore some book print paper from Stampin' Up into strips and stamped stems,
leaves and grass on to the book paper.
I mixed some Close to My Heart stamps from two different sets for my grass and stems.

To give the flowers some more dimension, I folded and pinched just the centers together. I placed a drop of glue at the stamped stem ends and pressed the flower centers to the paper. A final touch to the flowers was
a bit of yellow Stickles in the center.
I adhered the book paper to an orange card, added a bit of twine for an accent and all done!

I have a whole pile of poppies cut from the leafing books, so I could make a Wizard of Oz size field of flowers!

If you have a ??'s about the stamps, papers or would love a field of poppies of your own (believe me I have some poppies to spare), leave a comment!

Inspiration in the Everyday

You can find inspiration everywhere. Even in the mundane routine of the everyday.

Even when housecleaning!

Dusting is a weekly (or at least every couple of weeks) chore! While I was dusting my milk glass collection, I noticed while even though it is all the same color, each piece is unique and has a different texture. Ruffly, dotted (hob nail), glass cut and scalloped. I use my milk glass as decoration in my dining room, for serving meals and in my scrap room for storage.

After looking at all the pieces of my collection and seeing all the differences I was wondering if I could use my milk glass as inspiration for some cards.

But I knew I would need more than just plain paper to make an interesting card. 

So I gathered up some cardstock, papers, ribbon and embossing powders all in whites.

For texture I added some cool sparkly paper covered in glass dots, embossing folders and texture plates.

These three cards all sprang from my housecleaning inspiration. And the dusting never was completed, as my crafting bug took over.

Card #1 used a Stampin' Up texture plate run through my Cuttlebug the get the embossed words onto the pearly Bazzill cardstock.

I added a border punch/embossed edge to one side of the card with a MS punch. I added some pearled lace ribbon between the papers and 3 vintage velvet flowers from the hat I posted about Here.

Some pearl centers and the card is finished!

My next card used more embossed pearly Bazzill paper. The paisleys were embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The white paper with the sparkly glass "beads" is from Aaron Brothers Art Mart. It is a big sheet 2x3 ft, so I will be able to get many cards from that sheet. 

The white satin ribbon is from SU. I used a MS doily stamp and heat embossed the images on the plain side of the pearly Bazzill cardstock then cut out the scalloped circles with Spellbinders dies.

A close up of the heat embossing. A white washed brad from SU completes the card.

In my last card I added just a bit of color with the pink velvet embossed trim. More of the Bazzill pearl paper, without embossing and more of the sparkly beaded paper.

I popped up the oval scalloped greeting with pop dots for more texture.  

Using just a very simple color palette I was able to get at least three different cards with lots of texture from sparkly beads, heat embossing, dry embossing, pop dots, and decorative paper.

Look for your own inspiration in the everyday. And then make some cards!

If you would like more info on any of the papers, tools etc. Leave question in the comments!

The Outdoor Beckons

Gardening is not my specialty. I like to garden, but when you work 40 hours a week, have 3 sons and a hubby to cook for and love to do a million crafts, well maybe not a million, but lots anyway, there is not much time to take care of a yard.

But when spring and good weather arrive, the gardening bug hits.

This last Saturday I had to head to town for a few errands and one of my stops was Michaels, to kill time while waiting for La-Z-boy to open. Bought a new chair for my hubby and when I picked it up at the warehouse Friday afternoon, the care kit, that I paid for was not there!!

I checked out M's clearance and found some Easter decor really cheap!!!

(Don't look at the weeds in the background, they are gone now ;-) )

I had wanted to buy some really big eggs at Easter to decorate the yard, but was not willing to pay the price they wanted at M's, even on sale. But I found these in their clearance bin grab bags. I bought two $2 bags and got all these eggs!! The orange egg is 12" long. I added up the original prices and got about $60 worth of eggs for $4! And a few other Easter goodies besides. I am not sure what I will do with the combination egg and feather boa garland??

My next stop was the Emerisia Garden Center. My deck was looking pretty neglected and I had an old vintage cast iron sink to fill and use as a planter. I picked up some succulents, petunias and a new rose.

When I got home it was time to plant. I replanted several pots and placed new plants in the sink. I have two old water troughs below the deck that were replanted too.

This is my new rose. Starts out a soft pink bud and opens up to this beauty.

This rose below is one of my old favorites, I love a yellow and pink rose. It is a climber by my deck.

A few weeks ago I dug this old table out of storage to use on my deck as a side table when we eat outside. It is at least 60 years old and probably much older. My hubby remembers his dad using it for years and his dad's dad before that. It has gone to Massachusetts and back. My hubby says they used it in 1964 on their trip back east in the tiny travel trailer. Four adults and four kids in a station wagon and 15 foot travel trailer from CA to MA and back! 

 It is made of redwood and folds up for easy storage.

It is looking really old and in need of care. I can remember my father-in-law Ray using it years ago when he was selling apples. I think the tally marks are the number of pounds he sold.

I gave the table a good sanding, it was rough, the old redwood was really dried out.

After I sanded it smooth, I put on a couple of coats of outdoor sealer. And now it looks beautiful.

And will be protected from the elements.

The outdoor sealer should wear pretty well, as two days later I was still trying to get the sealer off my hands! Then I remembered I had bought this a  few weeks back.

A hand scrubber to get paint and ink off your hands after crafting.

I followed the directions and it scrubbed the sealer off my hands. Hope it works as well on paint & ink!

Happy Spring and happy gardens to you!