Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Papertrey September 2012 Blog Hop

 Hello! I am participating in the Papertrey September 2012 Blog Hop today. Nicole Heady challenged us to use the photos below for inspiration. Here is this month's challenge.

"This month it is all about wrapping it up.  Whether you are preparing early for the holidays or have an upcoming birthday or two, have fun experimenting with fabric & felt packaging ideas.  Use any of our Favor It dies with felt and a little hot glue gun action or stitching.  Use a pretty piece of fabric like you would wrapping paper and make a custom tag to coordinate with it.  Not into sewing or gluing?  Wrap a kitchen towel or cloth napkin
around a special bottle of wine and top it off with a hand-stamped gift label.  Or rip a strip of fabric to use in place of ribbon and finish it with a pretty handmade gift card.  There are so many different things to try, you will love experimenting to see what you can come up with!  We look forward to seeing your projects!"

This is the inspiration photo for the challenge.

 

I chose to "wrap" of my gift in a little zippered pouch I made.


Inside the pouch is a bunch of washi tape rolls for a papercrafting friend.

I figured they could use the pouch for something else after opening it. It's a great size for makeup! The pouch is from a pattern called "A Little Duffle Do It" by Karen West at www.lovethefabric.com. Here's a picture of the pattern front.
Hope you enjoyed it! Have fun checking out all the other wonderful projects!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Chloe's Clips

Hello! I attended the Bluemont Fair in Bluemont, Virginia last weekend with my husband and saw some awesome hair clips and bows for little girls. One lady - Curious Bloom - made felt hair accessories for girls. Her creations reminded me of some I have seen on the PTI forum using flower dies. One smaller one in particular caught my eye. My daughter bought it for my granddaughter who is 1 year old. She used one of those snappy silver clips we used to use when I was little to hold back our hair. Once I got home, I decided to see what I could come up with using my PTI dies and PTI felt. I just love to make hair bows and clips for Chloe, my Granddaughter! So here is the fruit of my labor.

I tried and tried to figure out what to use for the body of the clip. Most of my Spellbinders Nestabilities ovals were too wide. I decided to go with an oval, instead of the clip shape the lady at the fair made. Guess where I finally found the shape I needed???  The oval cut out of the Front & Center #1 die fits perfectly! I also tried the Boy Basics skateboard, and that works, but is a little tight - it's more of a rounded rectangle shape.

These are the ones I've made so far. I'm going to call my little company (probably an Etsy shop) "Chloe's Clips" after my granddaughter. Each clip is about 2 1/2" long and 1" wide.

 This is what the back of the clips looks like. One of the ovals is stitched with the design for the front, then another oval is used for the back. You cut a small slit in the back oval to insert the one part of the clip through. The other part is sandwiched between the ovals. The two ovals are sewn together with a buttonhole stitch. There is no glue used in making the clip at all, which is safer for the little girl.
 This clip used Autumn Rose felt, and Vintage Cream and some scrap pink felt (I can't wait for PTI to come out with Sweet Blush felt!). The bigger heart is from Heartprints, and the smaller heart is from Love Lives Here. French knots hold the hearts on to the background oval, plus a little whip stitch on the bigger heat.
 This one is my favorite! It uses Vintage Cream, Orange Zest and True black felt, and of course The Winter Penguin die. Isn't he just the cutest thing?
 This one uses Kraft, Aqua Mist and that scrap pink felt and the dies from Flipping Out.
 This one uses Vintage Cream and Simply Chartreuse felt and the Holly Jolly dies, plus a little red stickles. I think next time I will use red seed beads instead for the berries.
 This one uses Aqua Mist and Vintage Cream felt and dies from the Flower Fusion series, as well as an Aqua Mist button to hold the flowers on with.
I just received my September PTI release order and I need to try out the snowman, Santa and tree from Winter Snow Globe. I think you could make these for little boys too - to clip on their backpack - how about a soccer ball or a baseball on them? Or they would even make great bookmarks for an adult. Lots of ideas floating around in my head! Thanks for looking! Let me know what you think of them - Thanks!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Winter Wisteria felt!!

Hello! I received my Papertrey September order today (in record time!). Inside, among other things, was a package of the new Winter Wisteria felt. I quickly made a flower using it and Royal Velvet felt with my new Frilly Flower dies. Here's a picture to compare the two felts. The flower was taken at an angle - that's why it looks uneven.

Monday, September 10, 2012

A Card for my Hubby

Hello! Every now and then I like to sneak a little card into my husband's lunch just to let him know I am thinking about him and that I appreciate him. I made this card last night using a new My Favorite Things Pure Innocence Girl "Prehistoric Girl" that I received in the monthly VIP Collection. She is a cutie! I stamped her on white cardstock with Memento black ink, colored her with copics, then paper pieced her dress using some paper I picked up at Michaels. The background is stamped with an Anna Griffin stamp set I purchased from Hobby Lobby. I cut the piece of burlap with the MFT Fishtail dies.
Thanks for looking!

Grandchildren Christmas stockings in progress

Hello there! I wanted to share the Christmas stockings that I am in the process of making this year for my two grandsons. Last year I made this stocking for my granddaughter using red, white, and black wool. I used a penguin out of an applique book entitled "A Critter Christmas" by Brandywine Design.




 I had to enlarge the pattern to fit the stocking. I cut snowflakes out of the white wool using Papertrey dies - specifically the Damask Snowflake and snowflake dies from Peace Be Still. I used the Wonderful Words - Holiday diecuts from Papertrey to cut "Peace" out of white wool. Once all the pieces were tacked down with either a blanket or whip stitch, I began to embellish them with additional embroidery and seed beads.  I machine embroidered Chloe's name on the top white band. The inside is lined with cotton Christmas fabric.

These are the beginnings of my two grandson's stockings. I have glued or pinned the applique pieces to the background so far. Next step is to tack them down and then to begin embellishing. Each of these will have their names embroidered on a white band at the top also. The little hedgehog on the first one is also from the "A Critter Christmas" book. The Santa is from a Nancy Halvorsen book entitled "Happy Holidays to You." I cut the "believe" letters using the lower alphabet dies from Papertrey. The "Ho Ho Ho" was also out of the Happy Holidays book. I may add the toe and heel patches to the second stocking also - I think it gives them a more masculine look. I'm sure there will be lots of beading done to these stockings too - and maybe a few snowflakes also. :) Sometimes I just go with the flow and add things as I go along.

These are the books I got the patterns for the appliques from. They were purchased at quilt shops.

Thanks for looking!