Sew Crazy

My poor sewing machine has been stored away in my paper trunk for some time now, since I don't have a good place to leave it out.  One of my sweet scrappy friends (who sends me scrappy goodies from across the country all the time) recently had a birthday, and I whipped out my sewing machine to create this lovely bag for her:

What do you think of my fancy display hanger? Shwanky huh? I was super impressed with the way the bag turned out, especially since I'd never sewn a ruffle on anything like this before.  I have a pink and brown one in the works for myself soon.  :0)

While I have had my sewing machine out, I've used it on every single sewing and scrapbooking project.  For this card, I used it alongside my Epic 6 machine and two of my Cuttlebug dies from Big Lots (only $2 each).  I made the banner with the "harlequin arlequin" die above and embossed with the "with gratitude" folder.  I'm kicking myself for not picking up more of the dies when they had them...I was hoping for the butterfly, houndsooth, and funky circles ones.

Lastly, I made these ribbon and crepe paper ruffles for my friend since she's a no-sew-Suzy.  Love how they turned out and plan to make some for myself next.  Btw...recognize that turquoise ribbon?  It's the color inspiration I used here.

Handmade Shabby Chic Flowers

Handmade flowers, and those made by popular scrapbook companies like THESE by Prima, have become very popular.  Since buying more than a few of them would probably set me back a small fortune, I was inspired to make something similar myself and used supplies I had on hand. 

 Supplies needed:

 Glimmer Mist (I used Patina)

permanent adhesive runner

sturdy paper or cardstock

scissors

light colored ribbon

tissue paper

aluminum foil

To start, cut a circle out of the cardstock slightly bigger than you would like your flower to be.  You can free-hand them, since they don't have to be perfect.  Next, cut your tissue paper into 2 or 3 long strips.  I did mine about 1 1/2 inches the first time and 2 1/2 inches the second.  The wider your tissue paper, the more depth to your flowers (so if you plan to scrapbook with them & don't care for a lot of bulk, go skinny with them).  Apply adhesive all over your circle.

Twist your tissue paper until it looks like this and adhere it to the center of the flower.

Continue to twist and stick, twist and stick all the way around the circle.  If you run out of tissue paper before you are finished, continue with a new piece where you left off making sure to hide any edges if you can.

Use your thumb to flatten out the flower & help the tissue paper to stick.

When you have the size flower you desire, tightly wind the end of the tissue paper and slightly tuck it under the outside edge of flower between the flower and cardstock.  Cut around the flower to remove the excess cardstock. 

Position your flower on your foil and spray with glimmer mist about 3 times or so.  If you desire a darker shade, allow your flower to dry more and respray.  If you saturate it too much, it will want to unwind.

I chose sheer ribbon for this next step, but any light color would work.  Simply wad up your ribbon and dip and smear it into the glimmer mist.  Fold your foil over and seal off the edges so none of the mist leaks out.

Wad the foil up with the ribbon inside and set aside for a bit.  When you remove it, it may still be a bit damp.  If you want it to stay a bit crinkled, open it up and leave it alone until it dries.

After using the satin ribbon on my Seattle layout, I decided to pick up a couple more spools at Michael's (aka Mike's) 50% off sale on Sunday.  The color of the ribbon inspired me to create some matching embellishments.

So what do you think? Kinda spiffy, huh? I can't wait to create another page with them, hopefully for that vacation album!

Candy Break

Several of my scrappy pals and I have committed to complete 31 pages in May, and unfortunately I had only finished 2 as of early this morning.  Well, move over, Gloria, because I'm gaining on you.  I woke up this morning determined to create a page, and I actually scrapped my first layout for our Seattle vacation album from...ahem...2008.  Yeah, I've been putting it off and "saving" the pictures and products until I knew I could do them justice.  What do you think of my first creation for this album?

Here's a close-up of my satin bow...I love the poof satin ribbon gives a good bow.  I used my ATG gun to adhere this to the layout as well:

I like to bend and fold the edges of parts of my background paper and then ink them.  For this look, I did that and created a little rip about 1 1/2 inches into my paper.  I inked the edges, rolled them back and forth to make them soft and inked a bit more:

I inked the front side of this paper scrap and used my ATG tape gun to adhere it behind the tear:

All products besides the ink and pen are from Making Memories (mostly from the Passport line).  Thanks for stopping by to check out my vacation creation...hehehe that rhymed...anyhoo, I hope to have at least one or two more layouts to add to my total by Monday.  I'll keep you posted. ;o)