Gathered Ribbon Flower Tutorial and Sneak Peek

I'm really honored to be a guest designer for the August kit of Freehand Scraps. The new kit is chock full of yummy goodies, which I can't reveal quite yet. But I can show you a few sneak peeks.  Today, I am going to show you how I used a few products in the August kit to make a gathered ribbon flower.

One of the items in the Freehand Scraps kit is this Crate trim from the "Neighborhood" collection. Love Crate trims! I used the shell-colored ruffle ribbon to make my flower. This trim is perfectly suited for flower making because it has the nice elastic at the bottom, which is easy to run a needle through.

I used orange embroidery thread here so you can see my stitches. The stitches won’t show so you can use any color thread you have on hand. Make sure you tie a good knot at the end of your thread because you will have to pull on the ribbon to gather it.

Use your needle to make long running stitches on the elastic part of the trim. After you’ve stitched the length you need for your flower, use your fingers to gently gather the trim. The ribbon will naturally curl into a circle. You can make your gathers tight or loose, depending on the look you prefer. Once you have your circle, either backstitch or tie a knot in the other end of the thread to secure it. Then stitch the two ends of the ribbon together to hold the circle. Don’t worry about stitching neatly because none of the stitching will show once you add a decorative center.

The ribbon was a little too pink for my project, so after I had gathered the flower, I misted it with Tattered Angels’ “Peach Delight.” I love the way you can use mists to color ribbon and trim.  I always mist lightly first, then again if I want more color. The photo above shows the flower after a first spray with mist.  To give the flower a deeper hue, I misted it again.

The last step is to embellish the center. I used a small circle sticker from Basic Grey’s “Out of Print” collection topped with an adhesive pearl. Both the sticker sheet and adhesive pearls were in the August kit.  After my flower was completed, I used it as a decorative center on a die cut butterfly to mimic the butterfly wings in my photo.

Now you have a sneak peak at one of my Freehand Scrap projects. I'll post the full layout next week. 

Echo Park Projects

I spend a lot of paper-crafting time on projects for my little boy, so it’s a treat for me whenever I have a reason to make something pink and girly. A friend asked for ideas for an elephant-themed card to welcome a baby girl and I knew right away that I wanted to do a shaped card. I don’t have a die cut machine, but since an elephant shape is pretty basic, I figured I could draw one. I practiced on scrap paper, then drew an elephant shape on a 5x7 note card.

Once I had my shape, I selected pink and floral papers from Echo Park’s Country Drive collection. I covered the shape with patterned paper, then added a floral blanket with pink trim, a felt cheek, a rhinestone eye and a little butterfly cut from patterned paper. To finish the card, I attached a pink ribbon tail, border punched toes and a floppy ear. A little machine stitching all the way around was the final touch.

She’s pretty cute, I think:

Echo Park supplies

Country Drive collection: Flutter By and Clover Meadow pp

While I had the Country Drive papers out, I noticed that the B side of Daisy Fields looked a bit like tiles in a swimming pool. So, I grabbed that paper and paired it with a few sheets of Echo Park’s Splash line to make a summer page.

This layout, called “So Hot Even The Cars Go Swimming,” is about my toddler’s deep and abiding love for his cars. As you can see, he and his cars are rarely parted, even at the swimming pool. And to be perfectly honest, it’s been so hot here that the cars probably appreciated it!

Echo Park supplies

Country Drive collection: Daisy Field pp; element sheet; alpha sheet

Splash collection: Mini Stripes, Fish and Diecut pp; element sheet; alpha sheet

Little Boy collection: element sheet

Here’s a closeup of the title work.

It’s not unusual for my son’s cars to show up in my paper crafting projects. Sometimes quite literally. As in this case, where his white convertible became an integral part of the project.

Echo Park supplies

Summer Days: Element sheet and journaling cards

Playground: Element sheet and journaling cards

Springtime: Journaling cards

Little Boy: Element sheet

For details on how I made the shadowbox, please see the blog post here:   http://writesnapscrap.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-am-primarily-layout-maker-but-i.html

　

Guest Designer for Birds of a Feather Kit Club

I am so excited to be a guest designer this month for Birds of a Feather Kit Co. The July kit gave me joy! It was filled to the brim with summer fun from Cosmo Cricket's "Salt Air" line and vintage goodness from October Afternoon's "Five & Dime." Plus added embellishements from Webster's Pages, K & Co. and Kaisercraft.  I had a really wonderful time playing and creating with all the goodies.



Here is a picture of the kit and the patterned paper add-ons:

 These are the projects I created:

12x12 layouts

                                

Cards

Altered Frame and Mini Album

For more information on BOAF kits, follow the link below and be sure to check out the projects by fellow guest designer, Janet. The site also has a great message board. The posters there are warm and inviting and oh, so smart. It’s a great place to hang out, meet new friends and get some crafty inspiration:  http://www.birdsofafeatherkitco.com/  I just saw a peek of the August kit and it looks fab!

Those Quickly Passing Baby Days

It’s a good week when you find one of your layouts featured on the October Afternoon blog. OA featured the layout below, "Welcome Baby," of my son as a newborn.

The blog link is here: http://octoberafternoon.typepad.com/october_afternoon/2011/06/flickr-feature-vol-2.html

And it’s an even better week when you find a layout of your son at age one in the pages of Creating Keepsakes.  My layout, "Oh, How The Days Flutter By,: is on p. 70 of the July/Aug 2011 issue.

Oh, time, you are swift of foot. The baby years go too fast. Much too fast. How I miss those sweet baby days. Those days when my little one was soft and warm and malleable and I could swoop him up and hold him close and he wouldn’t protest and he wouldn’t squirm away. And he wouldn’t look at me funny if tears dropped down my cheeks in awe of this tiny creature and in wonderment of being his mom. But he is my big boy now. A toddler. And he’s wonderful in his own right. But there is a tug, always a tug, for the baby he once was.

A Summer-themed Project

I am primarily a layout maker, but I really do love to absorb myself in altered projects every now and then. I had the best time playing with Echo Park’s fun summer lines and a Tim Holtz configurations box for this project. This is the finished box.

And here are the steps I used to make it.  When, I opened the package, I found an outer box with a lid and several small inner boxes. You can configure the inner boxes in different ways or you can leave some out as I did. 

First, I used a thin layer of inexpensive white acrylic paint from a craft store to white-wash the inner boxes and outer frame. 

Next, I pulled out some mists from Tattered Angels, tested the colors on plain white paper flowers, then began misting the box. I laid some netting over one corner as a mask.

The last step was to gather some journaling cards and stickers from Echo Park. I used three different lines: Summer Days, Little Boy and Playground, putting things at different layers and heights in the box. Then I borrowed a white convertible Matchbox car from my son for the bottom right and raised the car on foam squares.

After the inner boxes were decorated, I glued them in and covered the project with the frame I had misted. The last step was to add a few Echo Park stickers to the outer frame. Below is a more detailed look at the left and right sides of the configurations box.

This project was featured on the Echo Park blog on 6/2/2011.  You can find the EP blog entry here:  http://echoparkpaper.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-spy-echo-park.html#more

Memorial Day

Today.

Today I honor my brother, who served with the Marine Corps in Iraq. He had a hard service. He was assigned to a reconnaissance mission, not to a base. He slept in tents; he ate MREs; he patrolled in towns; he helped rebuild schools. He befriended Iraqi children. And he lost his friends. War is ugly but I am blessed with a brother who has a beautiful soul and a deep devotion to those he loves. This is the kind of men and women serving our country today.

 

Today I honor my father, who was drafted into the Army, but volunteered for the Marines during the Vietnam War. He was in the infantry, a foot soldier. The stories he told me about the war were of the camaraderie of his buddies or funny things about the young villagers. He never spoke of the ugliness he saw. He didn’t expect to make it back. We’re all blessed that he did.

 

Today I honor by grandfather who served in World War II. He was in the Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was wounded and awarded the purple heart. He was the hardest worker I ever knew. He could do anything with his hands. He loved his wife. He provided for his family. He held his grandchildren close. He was a great man and I miss him.

 

 

Today. Today, I lift up our men and women in service. Today, I grieve for the fallen. Today, I swell with pride that I come from a family whose fathers and sons and brothers have fought for our freedoms.

Today, I honor and today, I remember.  And tomorrow, I will too.

Banners and Pennants with Echo Park Paper

I was so excited when Echo Park Paper debuted last year and I get a thrill each time I see a peek at a new release. I’m giddy at the moment due to upcoming release of Country Drive. Eeeeee. While I wait, not so patiently, for its release, I made some layouts featuring banners with a few of my favorite EP collections.

My little boy is a bit obsessed with cars.  I'm told this is a stage boys and men never outgrow!  Echo Park's Little Boy collection seemed to be made just for me, or rather, just for my little boy. I especially loved the stickers sheet of trains, planes, boats and cars. So cute. I used Little Boy mixed with a bit of Wintertime for this page of my son absorbed in play. It’s called “At The Track.”

When EP came out with a line called, Playground, well, I couldn’t resist. I love that the EP lines include soft, lightly patterned papers on the flip side of their whimsical patterns. Here, I used the backside of “Capture The Flag” as the base of my page. I also added stickers and a journaling card from the Playground line. Under the main pic, I added a little border of Springtime and for my banner, I used one of EP’s debut lines, A Walk in the Park.

I love using banners. Oh, I hope this trend doesn't go out of style!  Banners and pennants give such a whimsy touch to boy pages.