Few Old Pages

Hello everybody

It seems I cannot really get back into my routine of everyday chores + scraping and blogging.
I haven't done any 12x12 page for while but have a pile of never posted pages done while ago. I would like to share 2 of them with you today. I did them just before going on the summer holiday, they are similar in design and use some of very old and some of new stash as well.

 

Ok, I know we are approaching Christmas and everybody had forgotten about Easter so far, but I was doing kind of stash 'clearance' and those spring style MME papers were perfect for the Easter photos, they also go well with kraft card that I just bought at the time and my raffia flowers that I was in a mood of making. I have few more sheets of these MME papers and I just want to use them up. I toned down the paper using white acrylic paint  and dry brush technique.        

Little birdies are stamps; Hero Arts (the birdie) and Technique Tuesday (owls), coloured them with promarkers, added gloss on top and little gems to highlight the eyes. Ribbon is by  the Webster pages and punches are Fiskars and Martha Stuart. The title is hero Arts stamps and Sizzix dies, love this bigz dies as I can make my own chipboard letters with them - I pained them first, then applied clear cracked paint- love this stuff.  And one close up:

This page is special to me because it was probably our last egg hunt which both kids enjoyed equally. This year's was disaster as the big girl (DD1) who is 11 was looking for something far more exiting and for the little one was too complicated and all ended up in tears, I did not even take any photos.

Second page, uses similar design:

 
I was trying to take a passport photos of my DD2, and it all took us 3 photo sessions and lots of photos taken untill we got something where she wouldn't be making faces or smiling or laughing.
Again I used kraft card that I just got at the time and stamped it on the left hand side with my brand new butterfly script background Hero Arts stamp and distressed it with the Ranger stain. The papers and paper flowers are from one of Papermania goody bags and fabric flower is hand made using the Webster pages netting. Title is stamped using Autumn Leaves and Hero Arts stamps. Borders are Martha Stuart punch and small craft tonic square punch used with border system to make a 'film'.

   
This is all for now. Thank you for reading my blog and all kind comments.
Svjetlana xx

Yo-yo flowers tutorial

Hello everybody,

I hope somebody is still reading my blog. When I started it I thought I would be posting far more often then I do, but at this stage I can promise at least 2 posts per months. I hope quality is what counts not quantity.

I was too busy with many different things, but craft-wise I had few 'Thank You' cards for teacher and her assistant to make, I did couple of LO's (they still waiting to be photographed) and I managed to make few more yo-yo flowers and take few snaps (forgive me a bad photo quality as I did it with my mobile phone) for the tutorial.

I saw the instructions for this flower for the first time about year ago in Simply Handmade by Northridge Media, they used it to decorate hair clips and hairband, the flower is very versatile, could be used on garments, handbags and of course papercraft.

Now, for the flowers you will need some fabric (non-stripy), scissors, needle, some thread and something for flower centre, I like using beads or button. If you not good in sewing don't be put off, it is really simple.

Cut the circle out of fabric about twice a size of your desired flower, small imperfections will not affect the flower, so you do not need die cut machine for this, hand cut circle will be just fine.

Sew long stitch along edge of the circle all way around, you do not have to tie knot at this stage, just leave enough length of the thread loose

When two ends of the thread meet together, finish on the same side of fabric where you started and tie both ends together, you have to have a little sack.

Put your 'sack' flat on the surface centring the gathered bit as flower centre. To make your flower looking nicer sew both ends of the thread to the back side and tie them into a knot on the back, then you can sew back one end and use it for sewing your chosen flower centre. 

I hope you like the tutorial.

Thank you very much for visiting my blog.

Svjetlana x

Thank You Helen

Hi everybody,
I cannot believe I am posting today again, but there is a reason; I was just trilled to see that Helen from the Scrap-A-Little become my follower. Thank you so much Helen, I adore your sketches, flowers and your pages of course and would recommend everybody to visit your blog.

And now I would like to share two pages I made using Helen's  sketches:

It looks like the white balance on the page two is not right, the background should be snow white. Anyway all flowers on these pages are hand made by me, again something I learnt on Helen's blog that a page can look stunning without spending a fortune on embellishments.

I used satin ribbon to make roses, there are lots of tutorials about these on YouTube, and white embroidery fabric and inks to do Yo-yo flower on the page 2.  The yo-yo flowers were inspired by two my daughter has on her dress, not very visible on the photo.

The butterflies on the page one are QuitzKutz die and Marta Stuart punch and bling swirl is again 'home' made using hot fix gems by Imaginesca. And there are few close-ups:

  
These yo-yo flowers are very simple to make and any fabric could be used, if anybody is interested in tutorial, let me know and I will post one here.

Thanks again, see you soon,

Svjetlana x

Fabric Flowers Tutorial

Please forgive me, the design of my blog is not finished completely, but I decided to start with the first post.

Last summer I made few denim lollipop flowers and they got good ratings on my docraft gallery, so I would like my first post to be short tutorial on them. I must also add that they are inspired by Prima flowers.

This is what you need:

1. old jeans or any canvas type fabric. 
2. various circle templates ( I use my spellbinder dies)
3. some fabric stiffener ( I make my own, but I am sure you can buy some too) 
4. pen
5. sharp scissors
6. glue gun
7. some flower centres (beads, buttons,...)
8. mists (optional) 

Using your chosen stencils and scissors, cut circles out of fabric in various sizes.

Then each circle soak well in fabric stiffener, crumple them up in balls and get out excess liquid,

 
Unfold them and gently stretch the edge of the circle, leave flat to dry ( I leave them overnight). Once dried you have something like this:

At this stage they can be misted gently or dyed with distress ink, then left for few minutes to dry again. Sew or glue flower centre on the top layer and glue gun the rest of the layers as desired, I like altering two colours.

And for the end there are some pages I made with these:

Oh, I just realized  I forgot to take a photo of my the most recent and best page, I will post it tomorrow.
Thank you for reading my blog, comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Svjetlana x