Tutorial - Fluffy Ballerina Blooms

The other night while my mom was over visiting we were fooling around with some fabric and she sewed a scrap length of fabric I had together and came up with these. I instantly fell inlove and just had to share this. I know there may already be a tutorial out there for these but I personally haven't found one yet so here goes......

What you need:

1. Very soft fabric like crushed organza or chiffon
2. Needle and strong thread - I used 2 stands of embroidery thread
3. small cardstock circle for back of bloom
4. Flower centers
5. Glue - I used a hot glue gun

Step 1 - It's important to decide what finished look you want BEFORE cutting your fabric
The width of the fabric will depend of how big you want your bloom. The fabric gets folded over so decide how wide you want your bloom before cutting the fabric. The large blue bloom in the pic above is approx 4inch wide finished and my fabric was 3 inch wide. For a smaller bloom obviously decrease the width.
The length will dictate how ruffled your finished bloom will be so again decide before cutting you fabric.
For the large blue bloom my fabric was 3inch wide and 1.5 yards long
For the smaller blue bloom my fabric was 2.5 inch wide and only 1 yard long (less ruffles)
For the yellow bloom my fabric was 2.5inch wide and 1.5 yard long

Step 2 - Fold width of fabric in half and do running stitches along the edges as shown in the pic

Step 3 - Once you reach the end try and untwist all the ruffles so that the sewed edges are all on one side











Step 4 - Take the 2 ends of thread and pull together so that the ruffles form a circle with the sewed edges to the center. AGAIN make sure to untwist the fabric and all the ruffles are facing outwards.

Step 5 - PULL TIGHT but carefully as to not break the thread. Once you have a tight center knot the thread several times and cut off excess thread.

Step 6 - You will notice that the bloom is VERY puffy so that is why the next step is important if you plan on using the bloom on a LO.
Turn the bloom over onto the back side and apply some glue (I used my hot glue gun) and attach the center of the bloom to your piece of circular cardstock. This will pull the front center of the bloom inwards and flat againt the cardstock creating a ballerina effect.

Step 7 - Turn bloom back over and apply your flower center and VIOLA, you have your very own ballerina bloom.

I made this little pink one (about 2 inch wide) using some chiffon. For this size my fabric was 2 inches wide and about 1 yard long.

HAVE FUN AND ENJOY!!!!

PIT - Weekly tutorial

This weeks tutorial over at my DIY....because you CAN group at Pages in Time is by the very talented Rebecca, better known as Byondbzr over at sb.com. It's a really easy tutorial to follw and you can dress them up for something fancy or use fun and bright fabrics with fun centers for a more playful look. Why not  try these yourself and then post your picture in my group HERE for a chance to win a RAK

Each Monday I add a new tutorial so if you enjoy making you own embellishments then come along to the group and join in on the fun. You'll also find some other amasing groups and challenges to participate in over at Pages in Time. It's a wonderful community of very friendly and talented ladies.

~ My Big Brother ~ PIT Thurs Sketch

This was the Thursday Sketch over at Pages In Time. Each week a new sketch is posted in the Thurs Sketch Group so come along and join in the fun, you'll be just in time for the NEW weeks sketch. All LO's posted are added to Karen's Blog for all to admire.

Here is my take on the sketch. When I first saw the sketch I immediately thought "GIRLY LO" but then I got home, looked at the pics I had on hand that would fit the design and decided to put my own spin on it by adding a little GRUNGE!!! So yes, there's loads of paper tearing, scrunching and everything is DISTRESSED to the MAX.....LOL!!! I don't think my 11 year old son would be too happy if I did a "girly" LO with pics with him in.......hmmmmm

Here is a close up of the grungy flower I made from book pages which I misted and obviously DISTRESSED A LOT!!!. The lovely flourish is from Niklindesigns1225.etsy.com. She has some of the most spectacular paper flourishes!!! The flowers tutorial will be a future featured item in my DIY....because you can group over at Pages in Time and is also one of this months twist options for my July DIY challenge at Sb.com. Both challenges have a RAK on offer so if you like making you own embellishments then come on over to iether or both groups and join in.

~ Mommy's Angel~

This is my DS Matthew just a few weeks old. I just LOVE new borns and can't believe his 14 months old already. It seems like this pic was taken just the other day.
I used the water distressing technique on this one. At least I TRIED to do it but wasn't very sucessful. I can tell you that it's a lot harder than it looks to get the paper to crease just right. I think I wet my pp's too much which made the paper harder to work with. I eventually decided to just leave it as is, let it dry and then inked it. Hopefully I'll do a better job next time.

I made another one of my braided vines for this one. I used the vine to cover the edges of the distressed circle and hide all the intidy bits underneath...LOL!

I took apart a rose vine I bought from Katie's etsy shop, misted the roses blue and emerald green and then braided them into the cord.

I made all these blooms myself. The centre bloom is the Paperbag flower by the talented Lisa Gregory. I'm a huge fan of her work and LOVE her flower tutorials. I'm using this tutorial as this weeks featured tut in my DIY.....because you CAN group over at PIT.  The Organza Blooms are ALSO Lisa's creations and are super easy to make and will be an upcoming featured tutorial.

Here's a close-up of Lisa's brown paperbag flower. In the tut she says you can used coffee filter paper or even cardstock but I personally highly recommend using the paperbag as it delivers the best results and the flower stays the sames and doesn't flatten out as it does with the coffee filter paper. I used the smooch emerald green mist on this one.

~ Pages in Time~ DT Challenge

As I announced in an earlier post, I've been selected as a DT member for Pages In Time and the first challenge we were given was to each create a LO using the new PIT logo so here's my take.
I used Prima's Rainbow Watercolor pp for the bg. The lovely rose vine is from my good friend Katie's Etsy shop. The original vine was pink and white roses only so I misted some of them pale green and blue to compliment the pp's.

I made this gorgeous bloom using this fabulous tutorial from Rhonna's Design. It's very similar to the layered fabric blooms I use a lot but the difference is that with these you cut slits into the fabric and round the corners to ceate petals and then melt the edges. The best thing about making your own blooms is you can colour co-ordinate to your pp's as I have done here.

~ My little Princess ~ Prima May BAP

This is my DD Erin wearing one of her favourite "princess" dresses. Like most girls her age she LOVES dressing up and will even go to the mall with me all dressed up....LOL!!! She hasn't allowed me to dress her since she was 2 so it's always interesting to see what outfit she has on in the mornings. She sometimes even puts on one of her princess dresses at night as PJ's. We've learnt to just let her be and just change her into proper PJ's once she's fallen asleep....LOL!

I used one of the Prima flutterby collection pp's to cut out the flowers, butterflies and bird. The scattered pearls are also from Prima's e-line collection. These come in such a great variety of colours and are a def must have!! Here are some close-ups

                                                                                                                                                                       

~ You are Beautiful ~

As I recently announce, I'm now a DT member over at Pages in Time and one of the fun attractions is the Thursday Sketch. Each week a new sketch is posted and anyone can submit a LO and stand a chance to win a RAK. Here is this weeks Sketch...........

And here's my take on the sketch. I was so excited when I saw this weeks sketch because I've had this photo in my stash for quite a while but am always nervous when scrapping a large print so I'm happy to have found a way to use it and am delighted with the result. It's quite a simple design but I love it because all the focus is on the picture.

~ Viva SA ~

These are my darling kids in their Soccer supporter shirts the morning of the Soccer World Cup kick off here in South Africa. I did this LO for the colour challenge over at sb.com. This months challenge was to select one of the country's in the world cup and use the colours of their flag in your LO. I obviously selected SA. I must just tell you that scrapping with primary colours is a HUGE challenge for me. This is the first time I've ever tried and I must confess, I prefer toned down colour pallets.

I used Lisa Gregory's Ribbon Flower tutorial to make all the blooms on this LO using ribbon in all the colours of the flag. They're really easy to make and can be dressed up or down depending on the centre you use. I added some Prima pearl centres to the white flowers and an old button to the black. For the smaller flowers making the circle I just used some pearls that I found in a local beading store.

I made the flourishes with some liquid pearls and then doodled around them to make them pop against the black cardstock. This LO is also for the no pp's and doodle challenge at sb.com.  When time is limited but you still want to participate in challenges, I try and combine a couple in 1 LO......cheating I know, but what's a girl supposed to do???/

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!

I was so excited to receive the news yesterday that I've been selected as the Internation DT member for Pages In Time. This is my first DT membership so I'm humbled and flattered all at the same time....LOL! I'm sure the next 6 months are going to be fun and exciting and I'm very excited to be part of a fabulous team!!! Please take a moment to check out the fabulous blogs of my fellow design team members; Lisa Valentine, Victoria Warren-Mears, Denise Coulter, Andrea MacDonald, Lacee Broyles, Marie Levite, Helene and our team leader Barbara Lochridge as they are all extremely talented.
Come along and visit us at Pages In Time, there's tons of inspiration to be found in the gallery, join one or more of the fabulous groups and challenges. There's a little something for everyone.

Prima June Product Pick

Look at Prima's Stunning June Product Pick. Are these not some of the most beautiful embellishments you've ever seen!!! This is definitely my favourite collection to date, Prima have truly outdone themselves this month. This is also one of my favourite colour combo's.