Tutorial - Fabric Butterfly

Butterflies are fun and whimsical, which is what makes them one of my all time favourite embellishments. There are so many materials you can use to make them, each delivering a unique finished look. You can print and cut them out of transparency for exquisite details and colours, die-cut or punch them out of cardstock or fussy cut them out of patterned papers, to name just a few ideas. What I'd like to share with you today is making use of a combination of cardstock, fabric and trim to make a butterfly embellishment that will certainly be a one-of-a-kind.
Supplies:
Cardstock
Fabric (I used satin)
Trim
Gel medium
Stickles
Pearls
Floral wire
Fabrictac

Step One: Gather your supplies together. Cut a piece of 3x3" cardstock and fabric. I used satin fabric for my project for added shimmer.

Step Two: Add a layer of gel medium to your cardstock and then stick the fabric onto the cardstock. Try and make sure that there are no air bubbles between the fabric and cardstock.

Step Three: Using some fabritac, glue your trim onto the fabric as shown above.

Step Four:Keep gluing the trim down until you have covered the entire surface area of the fabric.

Step Five: Turn your fabric over to the cardstock side. Draw a butterfly image onto the cardstock. I used a cardstock butterfly I had in my stash to trace my image.

Step Six: Cut out your butterfly using a sharp pair of scissors. If your have a butterfly die cut then you can use that instead. To finish off your butterfly add some stickles to the edges, use pearls for the body and some floral wire for the antennae.

Depending on the trim you add to the fabric, you can give each butterfly a life of its own. You can use mono tones as I have or you can use a rainbow of colours with a mixture of textures. No matter what you choose, each butterfly will be a mini art piece of its own suitable for any layout or card.

Tutorial - Fabric Paper

Because I love making my own backgrounds, I often browse the web looking for new and interesting background techniques. It was on one of these searches just over a year ago that I came across a great tutorial on the Shimmerz website using muslim cloth, tissue paper and some mists. Since then I have used the technique several times and have made a few subtle changes to suit my personal style. I'd like to share my version of this great technique with you.


Supplies
Muslim cloth
Tissue paper
Mists in several colours
Several stamps
Permanent ink like StazOn
Distress ink
Blending tool
Sponge brush
Metallic paint (optional)
Gel Medium or Modge Podge

Step One: Gather your supplies together. Cut a piece of muslim cloth slightly bigger than 12x12". The extra 0.5" is needed because once you're done and your fabric paper has dried, you need to cut the edges down to straighten and neaten it out.

Step Two: Tear your pieces of tissue paper into several medium size pieces. Using several different stamps, stamp images on your tissue paper. I prefer to fill one piece of tissue paper with a single image or background stamp. Because I'm aiming for a vintage style finished paper I used clock and script stamps. Also leave some sheets blank. It is very important to remember to used a permanent ink like StazOn to avoid the image bleading once you start adding the modge podge or gel medium.

Step Three: Scrunch each piece of tissue paper ino a small ball. This will create creases which will add texture to your fabric paper when you start to layer the papers.

Step Four: Now tear the sheets into smaller pieces and form piles with like stamped images together.

Step Five: Water down some modge podge or gel medium. Using a sponge brush, add the mixture to your fabric starting at the top left corner. Layer a piece of tissue paper over the glue mixture as you go. Use randomly placed pieces of various stamped images as well as blank pieces of tissue paper over-lapping each other. Paint another another layer of glue over the paper.

Step Six: continue adding the randomly placed tissue paper until you have done approximately three layers. This will provide a firm base for your project once it has dried. Leave this to dry overnight.

Step Seven: Once your paper has dried completely, cut the edges to straighten and neaten it out.

Step Eight: Now is when the creative fun begins. Using as many or as few shades of mists, spray random patterns onto your paper. For mine I used various shades of browns and some black gold tattered angels glimmer mist.

Step Nine: Using your blending tool and some distress ink, ink the raised edges of the paper to add definition to all the creases. You may also want to ink the edges of the paper for a nice finished look.

Step Ten: As a last finishing touch I selected to add some Liquitex metallic gold acrylic ink using an old toothbrush. This completed my vintage look fabric paper.

You can use your paper as a background for a layout or cut it down into smaller pieces to use on a card or tag. You can also scale it down to an ATC size, this would make a fabulous background for any project of your choosing. You can use a combination of lighter pastels and bright colour mist for something more whimsical. Another option is to use a floral die-cut or punch to make a homemade flower. Whatever your choice, you're guaranteed to love the end result.

Tutorial - Twisted blooms

Personally I enjoy making homemade fabric flowers a lot more than paper blooms. I love the feel of fabric between my fingers and it never ceases to amase me how you can turn a simple piece of fabric into something extraordinary with a little thread or glue and some imagination. I've made these twisted fabric blooms a hundred times over but decided to add a little twist this time that I'd like to share with you.


Supplies
Fabric- Satin or tafata work well
Mask or stencil
Fabric glue
Gel medium
Fine glitter
2" cardstock circle
Flower center

Step One: Gather all your supplies together. Cut a piece of fabric 2" wide and approximately 20" in length.

Step Two: Scoop some regular gel medium onto your craft mat, add some fine glitter to the gel and mix together well until the glitter is evenly distributed in the gel.

Step Three: Lie your fabric flat on your work surface. Place your mask onto the fabric ensuring it's lined up straight.Using a paint brush, paint some of the glittered gel medium over the mask or stencil.

Step Four: Carefully lift the mask or stencil from the fabric to reveal your design.

Step Five: Place your mask onto another clear spot on the fabric and follow step three and four over again. Keep doing this until the entire surface area of the fabric has been covered. Set your fabric aside until the gel medium has dried completely

Step Six: Fold the fabric in half length-wise and glue down with some fabritac glue. Fold the one end of the fabric over forming a tip then fold pleats into the fabric as shown above. The fabric will start forming a natural spiral shape. Keep going until you reach the other end.

Step Seven: Cut a 2" circle out of cardstock. I used a piece of Prima packaging for my circle.

Step Eight: Add some fabric glue to the circle. Starting in the center and moving your fabric in a spiral while twisting, glue your fabric to the cardstock.

Step Nine: Keep going around in a spiral until you've reached the end. Tuck the end of the fabric under your circle and glue down. All you need to do now is add a flower center and you're done.

Here's one more look at the finished bloom

Making your own design by adding the glittered gel medium to the fabric is an interesting way of adding your own unique touch to an old flower tutorial. You can apply this same technique to many other fabric flower designs. These blooms will look great of a layout and you can make mini versions for cards, tags or ATC's.

Tutorial - Anglaise Pretties

Anglaise lace is one of my favourite trims. I love the vintage appeal it has and it's so easy to alter the colour using mists which opens the possibilities to use bright colours to make it frilly and playful or colour it with some tea dye ink for the perfect finish to your vintage styled project. I was playing with a left over piece one evening and found myself making these adorable flowers.


Here's what you'll need
Supplies
Anglaise lace
Tulle
Mist
Needle and thread
Mini paper rose or flower center of your choice

Step One: Cut a 8" piece of anglaise lace (if your lace is wider than 1.8" you may need a longer piece. If you're not sure cut your piece about 10" long and shorten it if necessary. Cut three strips of tulle the same length as your anglaise and about 1.25" wide.

Step Two: Using the mist colour of your choice, mist all three piece of tulle and your piece of anglaise. Set aside to dry for a few minute. I don't suggest trying to speed up the drying process with your heat gun because you risk melting the delicate fabric.

Step Three: I was working on several of these at the same time and somehow I went from photgraphing the lavender one to the aqua marine one half way through my tutorial. My apologies. For this step, you layer all four pieces together with the anglaise at the bottom and then the three layers of tulle over that. Using a simple running stitch, stitch the entire length of lace going through all four layers.

Step Four: When you get to the end, hold each end of the thread and pull to gather your lace together forming a circle as shown above. Tie a knot to keep your flower in place.

Step Five: Seperate and fluff up the tulle like a ballerina tutu.

Step Six: Add your mini paper rose to the centre with some fabric glue. You can mist the paper rose if you like. I chose not to because I like the contrast of the white rose aginst the coloured lace. You're all done!

These will make the perfect embellishment for any girly layout or can even be used on a card. You can make a variety of colours with a single piece of white anglaise lace and some tulle. Be creative and make mix and match some bold colours. Depending on your misting colours these can be adapted to any holiday season too. I'd love to try some orange and black or purple for halloween, wouldn't those be fun.

Mixed Media - May projects

Ever since I joined SNR I've been drawn to mixed media more and more. I'm just loving getting my hands dirty in all the fun goops. It's also fun being able to work on smaller pieces to experiment with differnt techniques.

I used some molding paste for the background of this arch which I then painted with some Creative Inspirations paint. I also used some polymer clay to make the vine and mini leaves. I misted the piece of trim with some homemade mist.

I made this set of inchies using some Ranger sticky back canvas which I coloured with several combinations of  distress ink. I stamped the background using my heartfelt creation scrapt stamp and my vintage clock Inkadinkado stamp. I used some Kaiser Craft fabric brads for the center pieces.

I first painted the bg of this ATC with some gold acrylic ink. I stamped onto the painted bg with my script stamp. I then used my Prima mask and some Golden molding paste to add texture to my bg. Once the paste had dried I painted it with some Creative Inspirations paint. I embellished the ATC with some feathers, pearls and psinted Prima blooms to add a vintage flair.

Tutorial - Vintage Clock

Clocks .....boy was I glad to see this trend come to life. I've always had a fascination with clocks, what's not to love. They can be both comforting, like the sound of a grandfather clock ticking away in your home, as well as functional. My grandparents had a large free standing grandfather clock in their home and I think this is where my passion for them stems from. I remember going to sleep every night listening to the tick-tock sound.....


I was absolutely delighted to see some of the big brands release clock themed patterned papers. Bo Bunny's timepiece collection is by far one of my favourite paper collections to date and is my inspiration for this vintage clock I created and would like to share with you.

Supplies
Glossy Paper
Alcohol Ink
Blending Solution
Blending tool
Clean felt pads
Pearls
Clock Stamp
Permanent Ink, like StazOn
Liquid Pearls
Ribbon
Chipboard key
UTEE
Heating tool

Step One: Gather all your supplies together. Depending on the diameter of the clock face stamp you use, cut a circle about 1/4" wider than the actual clock face. This will allow space to paste the rim onto. Cut your rim piece with the inside diameter measuring approximately the size of your clock face.

Step Two: Using your blending tool and a clean felt pad, colour your rim piece with a combination of espresso alcohol ink and copper mixative.

Step Three: For your clock face use a combination of espresso alcohol ink, gold and copper mixative with a generous amount of blending solution. This will give you background significantly lighter than your rim piece. Use a permanent ink like StazOn to stamp your clock image. I used a Cherry Pie Arts stamp for my face.

Step Four: I used a Dusty Attic vintage key chipboard piece for the chain hook of my clock. I embossed the top piece of the key with some brass UTEE. This is the only part of the key that will be visible on your completed project.

Step Five: Paste your three layers together starting with the chipboard key, then paste the clock face piece onto the bottom half of the key, last paste the rim of the clock onto the face piece.

Step Six: Add some pearls onto the rim. Position each pearl in line with the hour marks.

Step Seven: To finish my face I added some gold liquid pearls to the inner rim. I also added some ribbon which will make it easier to attach to a LO. You may also like to add a mini rose to the center of your clock face.

These will make a perfect addition to any vintage LO. You can dress your clock face up any way you want. You can add glitter, maybe use paints instead of alcohol inks. You could also add some vintage chipboard clock hands for extra dimension. Each piece will be a delightful piece of art.

~Pretty as a Flower~

This layout was done for the May Colour Inspiration call at SNR. Each month we're provided with 3 images and 2 colour paletts to select from. We then need to use our selected colour palett and the image we select as inspiration to create a layout.

This is the image I selected for May

I used my Dusty Attic chipboard piece to represent the gate in my inspiration piece. I would've loved to have had some of those fantastic Dustic Attic gate pieces but I couldn't afford to wait the 3 weeks shipping time to SA so I made the best of what I had on hand. I added some floral pieces above my chipboard to mimic the inspiration piece.

  I used some more Dusty Attic scrolls to represent the wall hangings in the inspiration pieces. I added some mini roses to the top. I painted the scroll with some Creative Inspiration paints and added some pearls to finish it off.

All in all, this was a loose translation of the inspiration piece. the Prima paper I used as my background added just the right amount of busy floral.

TFL