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Posts Tagged ‘crafts’

Stitched Cards -a-thon…

Monday, December 14th, 2009

I am always looking for new ways to expand my creativity and try out different things, which is why I have recently purchased a simple sewing machine.

I never intended to use the sewing machine to make or amend clothes, nor did I intend to sew hand made dolls, home decor or bags (though I definitely do not rule out any of these).

My first intention for this sewing machine was to stitch papers with it.

I love the sewn look. It makes everything look better, well designed and finished.

So there is no surprise in me spending a whole weekend just fiddling with my new sewing machine, trying out different things and making about a gazillion cards, these are their stories…:

Handmade sewn cardsCast of Characters – American Crafts cardstock in “Earth Tones”; Cardboard; American Crafts white glitter button; Red embroidery floss; Patterned paper by Cosmo Crickt – “Jolly by Golly”; Handmade Mulberry paper; Papertrey Ink stamp “Messages”; Palette hybrid ink in “Dark Chocolate” .
Techniques – This one is pretty straightforward. I just ripped off a piece of cardboard and exposed the corrugated layer, then sewed it to the card over a couple of other patterned paper pieces, also sewn to the card base. Later I attached the button with a glue dot and stamped the greeting.

Handmade sewn cardsCast of Characters – Wausau heavy-weight cardstock; Patterned paper by Basic Grey from last year’s “Wassail” collection; Fiskars “Apron Lace” border punch.
Techniques – First I sewed the patterned paper strips to the card base and then cut the gift images from the paper with precision scissors and adhered them with pop-dots.

Handmade sewn cardsCast of Characters – Wausau heavy-weight cardstock; Ali Edwards stamp “Simply You” by Technique Tuesday; Palette Hybrid ink in “Poppy Red”; Red embroidery floss; Yellow button; Thin corrugated cardboard; Cuttlebug heart shaped die; Rangers yellow Stickles.
Techniques – I used the negative of the die-cut corrugated cardboard and teared it around the shape, then sewed around it. After that I sewed around the shape with no thread and hand-stitched it with embroidery floss, using the holes the machine poked in the card base. I added a button with a glue dot and added a sewn frame that holds an inner lining paper which conceals the hand-sewn stitches inside. For a touch of glitter, I went over the sewn frame with yellow glitter glue.

Handmade sewn cardsCast of Characters – Wausau heavy-weight cardstock; Mulberry paper heart die cuts; Papertrey Ink vintage button in “Poppy Red”; Palette Hybrid ink in “Poppy Red”; Ali Edwards stamp “Simply You” by Technique Tuesday; Yellow embroidery floss; We Are Memory Keepers “Corner Chomper”.
Techniques – This is probably the simplest card, but the one I love the most… All I did was to temporarily adhere the heart die-cuts to the card base and go over them with a couple different stitches Then I attached the button with a glue dot, stamped the greeting (I cut the clear stamp because I didn’t want to use the first part of the greeting) and voilà…

Handmade sewn cardsCast of Characters – Wausau heavy-weight cardstock; American Crafts cardstock in “Earth Tones”; Rangers yellow Stickles; Papertrey Ink vintage button in “Poppy Red”; Palette Hybrid ink in “Dark Chocolate”; Papertrey Ink stamp “Messages”; Red embroidery floss; Small square punch; We Are Memory Keepers “Corner Chomper”; Patterned paper by Basic Grey from last year’s “Wassail” collection; Handmade paper; vintage textbook paper.
Techniques –In this card I made a collage of different paper strips, sewn both horizontally and vertically with different types of stitches as well as hand-sewn with red embroidery floss. Then I adhered the paper collage with pop dots on another piece of cardstock, also sewn to the card base. After that I added the finishing touches – a button adhered with a glue dot, glitter frames and distressing the text paper with a baby wipe dabbed in the “Dark Chocolate” ink.
The greeting banner: I stamped the greeting on cardstock and cut it into a small rectangle. Then I fed the end of the rectangle through the edge of the square punch and created the slotted end. The I curled it with the blade of my scissors, pleated it in one end, distressed it with the baby wipe stained with the ink and adhered it by applying glue-dots only to its ends.

Handmade sewn cardsCast of Characters – Bazzill textured cardstock in “Butterfly” ; Papertrey Ink stamp “Messages”; Palette Hybrid ink in “Dark Chocolate”; Orange grosgrain ribbon; Striped patterned Paper by chatterbox; Rhinestones; Patterned paper by Basic Grey from last year’s “Wassail” collection.
Techniques – Simple. Simple. Simple. I temporarily adhered the paper strips to a piece of cardstock and sewed them to it. The stitch is very dense, so it was easy to tear up the cardstock excess. After finishing the sewing part I tied a ribbon around the cardstock, then I attached it to the patterned paper with some pop-dots. I added the rhinestones and the stamped greeting and that’s it. Simple…

Handmade sewn cardsCast of Characters – Wausau heavy-weight cardstock; We Are Memory Keepers “Corner Chomper”; Brown paper – recycled from a package filler; Striped patterned paper by Black River Designs (awesome papers, great quality, by the way…); Green patterned paper by Chatterbox; Papertrey Ink stamp “Messages”; Palette Hybrid ink in “Dark Chocolate”.
Techniques – I started by sewing the green paper to the card base with a zig-zag stitch. The I adhered the striped piece of patterned paper and attached the handmade flower with a few glue-dots.
The handmade flower: I punched 10 pieces of brown paper with a scallop circle punch by EK Success. Then I sewed all the pieces together in the center and crumpled all the layers, one after the other – starting with the top layer – until I achieved the look I was looking for.

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Do you own a sewing machine? Have you used a sewing machine for paper crafts? Share by leaving a comment on this post.

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Creativity Prompt – How To Make a Felt Bookmark

Friday, June 5th, 2009

How To Make a Felt Bookmark
I am equally [i.e. very] passionate about two things: making stuff and reading… Therefore, it is only natural that sooner or later I came up with a way to combine both by making bookmarks – so cute I sometimes stare at them for a while before I start reading (another oddity you’ve learned about me).

A few years back, when I had no time for arts and crafts – working looooong hours at the office – I purchased a laminating machine, making bookmarks for my self and for my parents and for my sisters and… Well, you got the picture. Sadly the laminating machine passed away after we had moved to Ireland. It never made it to California. Technically speaking it didn’t even make it to Ireland…

Well, when laminating is out of the question, lets pull out our felt stash and make the cutest bookmark e-v-e-r! Are you with me on that?

Tools & Supply

How To


[Music by the talented Josh Woodward from his album: “The Simple Life”]

Step by Step Instructions

  1. Cut two pieces of felt to your desired bookmark’s size (mine were 9¼” by 1½”).
  2. Trace one of your felt strips on a piece of plain cardstock.
  3. Align the edge of your traced rectangular with the ¼” mark of your ruler and draw a line – both lengthwise and widthwise, then cut the smaller rectangle with sharp scissors.
  4. Make s felt “sandwich”, by placing the cardstock strip between the 2 felt strips. temporarily adhere the cardstock to the felt with a [permanent] tape runner.
  5. Take your ruler and place it about an 1/8th of an inch from the edge of your felt sandwich and mark at each ¼” as a sewing guide for later on. Keep on marking all around the rectangle’s edges – you can also make smaller marks, depending on your desired stitch’s size.
  6. To allow your ribbon to easily go through the button’s holes, cut both ends to a pointy edge, then thread it through 2 of the button’s holes. Cut the excess ribbon off and protect the edges from fraying by applying a tiny dab of Diamond Glaze.
  7. We are using the button as a tool to finish off the sewing, as we cannot conceal the knot anywhere else. Therefore thread the embroidery floss through the button and into the flower and then through the felt sandwich. Leave a long tale for your knot at the end.
  8. Keep on stitching the edges of the felt sandwich with a backstitch.
  9. Secure your sewing by threading the embroidery floss back through the flower and the button and tying it in a knot with the tail you’ve left before. A dab of diamond glaze will keep the knot secured.

Felt bookmarkFelt bookmarkFelt bookmark

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If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!

I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂

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Creativity Prompt – How To Make A Cute Box Of Drawers

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

A Cute Box Of DrawersOK. I’ll admit it. I am addicted. Addicted to boxes… Luckily I have been moving a lot in the past years, so I got to buy boxes and treys over and over again. I just LOVE that everything has its place. Be it the tiniest of places, but a dedicated one.

Therefore when I saw this idea of a box of drawers online (in numerous places) I immediately knew that this project is right up my alley. So I whipped up my own version of this project with a couple quick sketches and voilà, in about 20 minutes I had one more box to add to my collection.

Usage Ideas for the Box of Drawers

  • Sewing kit – A place for your threads, threaders and needles.
  • Embellishments center (as shown above) – You can put your buttons, paper flowers, die cuts, eyelets and brads all in one place.
  • Office supply organizer – A chic way to camouflage your paper clips and staples stash…
  • Family “Mail-Box” – Attach a name tag to each drawer and leave heartfelt notes to each other. (This project can accommodate any family size, just alter the height of the drawers for a smaller family, or add more drawers and alter the height of the box for a bigger family).

I’d love to hear what ideas you come up with… so please do share!

So if you feel like making your own box of drawers keep on reading:

Tools & Supply

How To


[The great music is by Josh Woodward from his album “Here Today”].

Step-by-step Instructions

  1. Drawers –
    1. Cut 4 pieces of 5″ by 5″ cardstock. [The following applies to each of the 4 pieces]
    2. Score at 1″ all around. To make it easier to score, align your cardstock with the 4″ mark on your paper trimmer.
    3. Fold all your score lines with a bone folder.
    4. Cut one slit on each flap up to the first score line.
    5. Apply strong adhesive to the back of each flap. Make sure the flap is covered entirely.
    6. Adhere all the flaps together to the edges of the drawer, aligning edge to edge.
  2. Body –
    1. Cut your cardstock at 4″ by 12″. You can use patterned cardstock.
    2. Score your cardstock at: 3″, 6″ & 9″ lengthwise and fold all your score lines with a bone folder.
    3. Score LIGHTLY widthwise at each 1″ to draw some guidelines for the placement of the drawers.
    4. Apply a strong double sided tape to each of the box’s walls in increments of 1″.
    5. To embellish the inside of the boxes cut 6 pieces of patterned paper, as follows: 2 pieces at 2¾” by 2¾”, 2 pieces at 1¾” by 2¾” and 2 pieces at ¾” by 2¾” – Round their corners and ink the edges with distress ink. Then adhere to their respective place on the interior of the box.
    6. Adhere the drawers to the box. Make sure not to place a drawer nor to apply adhesive on any of the score lines.
  3. Lid –
    1. Cut your cardstock at: 5¼” by 5¼”.
    2. Score at 1″ all around. [Again you can align your cardstock with the paper trimmer’s 4¼” mark].
    3. Cut a slit on each of the flaps up to the first score line.
    4. To decorate the lid, cut a piece of 3″ by 3″ patterned paper. Round its edges and ink it up with distress ink, then adhere to the center of your cardstock.
    5. Apply strong double-sided tape to the back of each of the flaps and adhere together, aligning edge with edge.

A Cute Box Of Drawers A Cute Box Of Drawers

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If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!

I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂