Easy Taffeta Flowers Tutorial

I am not that much of a flower person - I love the real things, but in my crafting, I don't use them often.

Part of it might be cost.
Pre-made flowers are EXPENSIVE.
Part of it might be time.
Hand crafting flowers can sometimes take longer than making five layouts.

Today, I was experimenting with a flower for a gift and I stumbled upon magic. They cost almost nothing to make and I finished a bloom in less than 5 minutes. Now that I know how to make them, I can crank out a bloom in 2 minutes flat from beginning to end. Now THAT'S my kind of flower. :)

First, I took some light pink taffeta that's been clogging up my top craft drawer for years. I folded it over about 7 times so I'd have 7 layers. I rooted out my Spellbinders Nested Peony dies and picked out the 2nd and 3rd largest. I die cut the flowers using my Spellbinders Grand Calibur and a piece of cardstock beneath the taffeta - it sometimes helps you get a clean cut when you're working with flimsy fabric.

After I had my layers of flowers, I put them together (I made two flowers, so this one below has 4 layers of large flower taffeta and 3 layers of medium) and fastened them with a pretty fabric brad.

These are pretty just like this, but I wanted to add some distressing. Taffeta reacts VERY easily to heat, so carefully using my heat gun, I blasted the flower until it curled just the way I wanted it. Remember, it reacts very quickly (MUCH faster than heat embossing) so start off slow with the heat gun about 6 inches away. You could probably try a blow dryer for this as well.
Here's the flower after heat blasting it. Again, it's pretty just as it is. I wanted some pink ink on the edges, though. :)
I just used Memento "Rose Bud" ink and it worked well. Easy peasy!
And here is a shot of the project I'm making. I don't want to post all of it though, because certain people might be looking at the blog ;)

Thanks for taking a peek and Merry Christmas!

Winter She Art

Earlier this year, I took Christy Tomlinson's She ARt Workshop. I have shared three already, but I have been wanting to do a winter themed one for a while now. So today, I did it!
I had a lot of fun with the dimensional details on this one. Flocking, glitter, lace, buttons, pom poms, snowflakes and a decorative branch.


If you want to make some She ARts of your own but don't know how, I encourage you to check out Christy Tomlinson's site. Her workshops are a ton of fun!
Thanks for taking a peek!

Cool Color Combo

I got the cutest holiday buttons in a button grab back from Hobby Lobby earlier this fall and I was so excited to pair them with a Papertrey Ink stamped button card! I wanted to play off the sparkly silver, so I used American Crafts Glitter Cardstock. The beautiful ribbon is from May Arts - it's got a pretty sheen to it, but you can't tell very well in the photo.

On another note, I AM DONE for the semester! Just turned in my last final today -ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. :)
Thanks for taking a peek!

Pretty Poinsettia

I bought this stamp set from Flourishes a couple of years ago because I adore elegant poinsettias (Flourishes - "Boxwood & Poinsettia"). This set is really fun for making backgrounds, but it works well as a focal point as well. On this card, I heat embossed the large poinsettia with clear powder on white cardstock. Then I colored in a few spots with a red watercolor pencil and shaded it with a water pen. Then I cut it out and embellished the center with pearls.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Baptism

Today, we are attending a baptism and I wanted to share the card I made for the occasion. I used a thick, opalescent cream cardstock and die cut it using Spellbinders dies - "Cross Collection" and "Fleur de Lis Pendants." I layered two of the crosses with foam dots to get some dimension. The embossed section was embossed with a Cuttlebug 5x7" embossing folder. Afterward, I embellished with a few mini pearls.

This card is deceptively simple to make - I had it finished in less than fifteen minutes (planning included!).
Thanks for taking a peek!

Button Boutique Christmas

Today is the last day of classes for the semester. I have finals week next week and then I'm free until January! Well, as free as a mom and wife can be around Christmas time, I suppose. We have quite a few activities planned! Hopefully we'll get around to making a lot of fun stuff : )

And on that note, I love vintage button cards. (I know, that's not really related, but just try to ignore that.)

Of course, when I saw the Papertrey Ink stamp set called Button Boutique, I knew that I would love it. And I do! I had fun yesterday afternoon making up three different button cards for Christmas cards. This is one of them.
I stamped the button card with two colors of ink (red and green) and then inked it with Antique Linen Distress Ink to give it an aged appearance. With pop dots, I affixed the die cut tree I made using my Spellbinders Nested Tree die set and American Crafts Glitter Cardstock. I added a cute little punched bow on top - this punch was a gift from Japan, so I'm not sure where to find it in the US. It's brand name is Daiso. To finish it off, I adhered buttons as ornaments with Fabri-tac glue.
And here is the finished card. I used paper by MME (Lost & Found Christmas) and some more American Crafts Glitter Cardstock. By the way, if you're looking for a sturdy and GORGEOUS glittered cardstock, I highly recommend American Crafts. It even comes in a variety pack that sells at stores like Hobby Lobby. It's not messy, and as you can see, it die cuts beautifully.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Vintage Christmas

I like to make up several vintage style Christmas cards to sell at the store (Annie Kay & Co in Kearney, NE) because there don't seem to be many around. Vintage Christmas is a very popular theme in decorating, but I don't often see pretty vintage Christmas cards in retail stores.
For this card, I used a traditional vintage image I received from The Paper Dreams Factory. They have tons of gorgeous vintage images for all occasions! They're the real deal too, printed in Germany. The garland of red bows is a trim by May Arts. They have the cutest holiday trims! The embossed paper was made with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and the patterned paper is by MME.
On this card, I used a sheet from Elizabeth Craft Designs. It's all shimmery and rainbow-like, so the embossing really brings that out. It's hard to photograph though, and it looks much better in person. The ornament was made with a Spellbinders Heirloom Ornament 2010 and some Webster's Pages patterned paper. I embellished it a bit with some pearl paint and bronze glitter for a distressed look. The gold bow was actually from a broken Christmas ornament. I couldn't bear to throw it away!

Thanks for taking a peek :)

Wait!

I just wanted to pop in here to let you know that I'm alive and to tell you not to give up on me! It's that lovely time of the semester where all the projects, papers and exams pile on and I've got 4 days left of classes and 3 days of finals before I can officially cut loose with all my creative Christmas craziness! I do have a couple of cards to share with you in the meantime. This one was created using Basically Bare Banners. The buttons (including the rattle) came from a misc. button bag at Hobby Lobby and the paper is from Authentique.
This card was made with my Waltzingmouse stamp set and the snowman is a button from the same bag as I mentioned before. The candy cane rope is from May Arts. All die cuts are Spellbinders and the patterned paper is a Christmas MME stack. The cork is by Quickutz.


Thanks for taking a peek - stay warm!