Paper Roses, repurposed book pages

If you haven't figured it out yet, I ADORE flowers! Fabric flowers, flowers in fabric, real flowers, fake flowers, flowers made from just about anything.  So it shouldn't surprise you that I had to try something new while sipping my morning coffee.

Each petal is individually cut, rolled around a pencil for a little bit of shape and then applied to a "stick" (I used a q-tip covered in washi tape!)   Hot glued on...I have 2 burned fingers but despite that throbbing pain in my poor fingers, I love how this turned out!

Enjoy!

      

       

Breathing new life into an old book, scrapping books

Perhaps it's not a fantastic idea but I love the printed page style items I keep seeing in the scrapbook, paper product world.  I wanted to try this out myself, without having to rip up a book that I love (which is how I feel about all my books in my house)  so the kiddos and I went to the Salvation Army in downtown Kailua this morning.  After a stop at Coldstone Creamery and a scoop of chocolate cake batter ice cream and another scoop of cotton candy ice cream, we ventured over to SA to take a look at their book selection.  A perfect day, I spotted an encyclopedia right away. 1,000+ pages of experimentation for only $2, how could I go wrong?!   So after a few more errands with the kiddos, we headed home for some paper crafting time.

We (my girls too!) are LOVING making our own envelopes.  We thought they would make for a cute personal gift, some homemade envelopes with hand made cards to go with them, tied in a nice ribbon and ready to be gifted.  I showed the girls how to make the quick envelopes and we experimented a little with the encyclopedia pages.  What a neat little accent to an envelope, open the top, pull our your card and see the background of knowledge.

We did have to break for dinner but we are still at work on the floor enjoying the creative processes and discovering new ways of using old things.

I took a page of the book and made a singed flower and then a doodled heart for a long awaited Thank you card.

But as the night falls upon us, I see some tired eyes (me! me! me!)  and we'll have to pick up where we left off tomorrow.  So until then, I'm sure you are resting peacefully in slumber land or perhaps waking to a new day.

  

Add caption

Miss M's card (I adore this!)

envelope obsession

our creative disaster

Paper Fun, Simple Envelope Tutorial & Scrapbooking

I have so many things swirling around my brain that I want to make.  Sometimes I just have to do something quick and little to help quench my creative jumble for a little while.  This morning I decided to make an envelope tutorial, mostly pictures. Super easy and very chic when complete. I'm going to use this to put extra pictures in for a scrapbook in the making.

For the scrapbook in the making, I used a normal 3 ring binder (found in abundance at the stores these days because of Back to School shopping!)  I am currently in the process of creating the cover, need to do a little bit of inspiration searching to complete it. But hey, at least I started the first part of the process! I did sew it, now I just need to design it.  I've attached very small snippets of what is in the scrapbook from scratch, once it's gifted I'll show bigger better pictures.  Not a scrapbook in the complete sense but more of a scrapbook, photo album mixed with art book.  I love the new process of doodling on scrapbook pages. I think it adds a sweet dimension of creativity.

Anyway, the scrapbook will be gifted soon and my plan (though I'm not always good at following through with my plans!) is to add pages to it as I develop pictures..or for holiday/birthday specials.  We'll see how good I do. I have the best intentions though.

And finally, my brother and his beautiful Fiance` are getting married in September and I've been working on a cover for them.  Just a little bit more to go and then it'll be complete.

Until next time, have a wonderfully creative day!

Some funky craft paper, glue, an envelope and a pen 

 Carefully open up the envelope, and outline it on your craft paper...excuse the nail polish, my 8 year old daughter gave me a "manicure." 

 Trace it and then cut

 Time to fold, sides first....

 Bottom's UP!

 Add a little bit of glue....

 Seal and it's ready to go!

................The Scrapbook from scratch, peak below!...............

Searching for inspiration to decorate this cover. I want it to be whimsical, artsy and fun.

Strips and Strips and a tiny little star: Adventures in learning to piece and quilt.

I really haven't had much opportunity to create over the weekend so I was anxious to try something this morning.  I wanted to figure out how to create a tiny little center star using strips.  The outcome is not too shabby but I definitely need work on keeping my lines straight through-out.  I also think that the star will need to be a bit bigger next time around because when I finished up the block, not all triangles were the same size.

So I started out with 6 6" squares (you are only going to need 4 groups, with this you've actually made an extra 2 groups which I haven't yet figured out what to do with them.)  I cut each of them into 6" x 1" strips and then separated them into different groups.  I then cut 4 1" squares.  I attached the 1" squares on one 6" x 1" strip from each group, all going in the same direction, basically the same way you would make binding strips.  Cut the extra fabric off, pressed and then started attaching all the strips.

The strip that has the triangle should always be the bottom. I attached each 6" x 1" strip until 6 were attached, then I would do the same for the rest of the groups.

Pressed, remeasured and cut, lined up the center star and started attaching the blocks.

Once that was all done, I pressed again, and cut off the excess fabric. Put that aside and added it to the border.  I'm not sure that I would recommend using my measurements as my star is off, if you have advise I would love to hear it.  Anyway, pictures of my process. Another block complete for my sample Twin quilt.

Until next time friends, have a beautiful day!

                                                                               

started off making 6 (you'll only need 4)  groups of 1" x 6" strips  and 4 1" squares.

I attached the 1" squares on one strip from each group, I attached it as if making binding.

trimmed the excess fabric

I pressed each strip in the same direction

Then I started making my blocks, make sure you stitch on the 90 degree angle side

Pressed each group and then measured and straightened the blocks to attach to one another.

You can see my star is off a bit, I think it is just that one triangle on the damask fabric that is off though.

All attached, trimmed into a nice square, used the excess fabric for the border, see below.

Used the excess fabric to make accent the border here.  Need a lot more practice to get my lines straight!

Free Motion Quilting, House Block

Yesterday we explored a little bit of Hawaii. There was the Haleiwa Arts Festival at the North Shore and we went to check it out.  There were 2 artists there that we were very anxious to meet. One artist we have purchased 3 pieces of hers and though she was very thankful, our conversation was very much lacking. We walked away a little disappointed.  The other artist, I do love her work but I want an original piece from her, not a Giclee,  so we were very anxious to meet her.  Well, she was most definitely not friendly and seemed so commercialized that her art really lost it's appeal to us.  Disappointing? Yes but not a wasted day. We had great pleasure in meeting a few artists who were very much in love with what they do and not just looking to be the next Fad.  That is the kind of artist that I find inspiring, who's work I admire even if it's not my style.  Of these artists, I met the sweetest quilting woman.  She dyes her own fabrics with screen printing inks and she has the most magnificent colors.  She makes quilted postcards, blankets, pillow and other whimsical items. She came close to me and said, "There is no wrong way to quilt, everyone has their own style and way of doing things!"  Just what I needed to hear to try a little bit of free motion quilting last night.

I started small and to be honest, i was pretty shaky. If you look closely at my picture you can see where the swirls overlapped on to the house, some stitches were too long and not everything turned into a swirl.  The back side, well that's scary! I think next time I'll just use a bobbin thread that is the same color as the fabric because my white on brown makes every mistake incredibly visible.   I know it's all a learning process, practice to make perfect. I will continue to practice this but in the mean time, I know why they sell quilters gloves now! I love the soft cotton fabrics that I use but they feel like slippery silk as I tried to maneuver this around my machine.

A learning process still...... Until next time, if you have free motion quilting advice, please share! I shall be eternally grateful :)

                                                                       

Flower Bouquets and Stars of Triangles, adventures in crafting and quilting

Very productive day here in the B household! Decluttered a little, worked on an order and completed another square for my next Twin size quilt.

First on my list was a bunch of peony flowers for what will be 2 bridal bouquets.  Early morning, before opening all the windows, kids were still sleeping and I had the opportunity to sit, cut my satin fabrics and start singeing away at the satin to make some peony flowers. Looked over my shoulder and saw the most beautiful rainbow.  I was able to assemble a few of the peony flowers but the winds picked up too much and kept blowing out my candle quite literally! So, I have put that on hold until the wind calms again. Perhaps tomorrow morning.  I do love how it is coming together and I hope to figure out the handle to this bouquet.  If I do, I might even post a tutorial on making your own bouquet of flowers.

Next on my list was completing another block for the quilt.  I received my new copy of Simply Retro today and I saw a sampling of a star quilt and thought that I needed that block design for one of the parts to my next quilt.  So I cut out 54 triangles and pieced this start together. I'll show more progress pics as I go along. Enjoy!