Archive for February, 2010

Hi everyone, we’ll continue the Lollipop & Chiffon flower today.  Thanks for coming back!

This is where we left off yesterday.  Use the heat gun (very carefully) to curve the Chiffon.  Remember I used my reverse tweezers to hold the Chiffon circle in place and then had the heat gun blow the Chiffon back toward the tweezers.

I took matte Modge Podge and applied that to both sides of the paper circles.  The Modge Podge will help keep the paper from tearing (as much) when you are crumpling it and twisting it.  I used the heat gun to speed up the drying time on the Modge Podge.

 While I was allowing the Modge Podge to cool down on the paper circles I used black distressed Stickles to go around the edge of the Chiffon circles to give the edges a little glitz.  This will match what I’m going to do to the paper circles.

I took black embossing powder and embossed the edges of the paper circles.  The black with the slate blue and white paper along with the slate blue Chiffon makes the flower really pop.  I actually used embossing gel on the edges of the paper circles and then sprinkled with the embossing powder and used the heat gun to finish off the embossing.

Take the 3 paper circles and crumple them up and twist them.  This gives the paper interesting texture and also makes it easier as you start unfolding it and arranging it.

Uncrumple the largest circle and fold it in half.

Take the half folded petal and fold it in thirds (as in the middle picture) and then in thirds again (as in the picture to the far right).  Hold the petal at the bottom and twist it (this locks in the folds).  Starting with the outer layer open up the petal (holding on to the twist at the bottom).  You do this on all three of the petals.

 The trick here is to let the petal overlap on itself and do not make it too perfect.  Petals on flowers are not perfect and these don’t need to be either.

I took a 1″ chipboard circle and glued it to the back of the petal.  This gives the flower a base and will also give you a way to attach a pin or glue it to a card, album or scrapbook page.

Now I started layering the paper and Chiffon petals.  I put a large “glop” of glue in the middle of the paper petal and then arranged the Chiffon petal and placed it on top.

 So here is the finish product.  I glued the little crystal in the center and I used the black distressed Stickles to touch-up the black edges.  I think it came out so pretty.  Next time I will make both of the petals of Chiffon at 3″, because as you sear the edges and use the heat gun to curve the edges this shrinks down the Chiffon petal and I think the 3″ circle will stay big enough to show up around the edges of the paper petals more.

Here is the little collection of what I’ve been busy making and it is creating me a little stash.

Let me know what you think!  Yes, there is more to come…..I pulled out the Sculptey Clay and the Pasta Machine.

Good Afternoon Everyone!

Hey if you don’t know about SVG Cuts (http://svgcuts.com/blog/?p=4939 ) you need to check them out.   You can click on the link or click on their blinky on the right hand side under ”My favorite Sites”.   They give you free SVG cuts and the other items they have for sell are very nice and inexpensive.  I bought their 3DWinter Greens and have had a blast making them.  SVG cuts are files that you can use with  Sure Cuts A Lot.  Using this software and True Fonts you would only need to buy a Cricut Cartridge because you wanted to.

I’m shameless, because I want to win the give away over at SVG Cuts (for my Mom who is 80 and making cards).  She is on a fixed income and would never spend the money to buy a Cuttlebug, but every time I show her what it does she just swoons.

Cross your fingers and say a little prayer for Mom that I win the CB for her!

I know when you came to visit this morning you took a double take, but this is the same site I just wanted to update the look for Spring.  I hope you like it and hey, let me know what you think.

Believe it or not we are approaching my website’s 1 year anniversary and I’m currently looking for things to put in a RAK for Talent is Optional’s (mad skills required) Birthday Party.

I’m looking forward to your comments so let me know what you think.

Click on the picture and take a close look.  This is paper and Chiffon stacked together to make what is called a Lollipop Flower.

These are pretty easy to make and they make beautiful flowers.  You can layer them with Prima Flowers, glitter, Utte.  In other words the possibilities for variations on these flowers are endless.

I made myself some templates of the various sizes of circles I wanted to use.  I used my Gypsy and the Cricut to cut the templates out of chipboard.

I started at 3″ and stair stepped down every 1/2″, so I have a 3″, 2.5″, 2″ etc.  I don’t have a circle punch so I cut everything by hand.  The chiffon is probably easier to cut by hand and I could have used the Cricut to cut the paper but I was already cutting by hand so I did it all by hand.

I got 1/2 yard Chiffon for $2 at HL and then picked-out a piece of paper (from my stash) that I thought would compliment the material.

I hand the white chalk pencil in my sewing box and used it to draw around the template of the 2.5″ circle and 1.5″ circle out of Chiffon.

I cut three circles out of the paper and two out of the Chiffon.  This is the way I will layer the petals for the Lollipop.

On the Chiffon circles I took a lighter and burned around the circles.  This keeps the Chiffon from unraveling.  Word of caution here:  You need to be careful and do not hold the flame too close to the Chiffon. 

This shows you how lightly I seared the Chiffon circle.  You may need to click on the picture so it will enlarge so you can see it better.

The next thing I did was to use the heat gun to melt and curve the Chiffon.

I used my reverse tweezers and the heat gun to blow the edge of the Chiffon back toward the tweezers, this helped it to curve.  Another word of caution, the heat gun will melt the Chiffon so you want to be very careful not to hold it directly on the Chiffon or you will end up with nothing but melted Chiffon.

This post will be continued tomorrow.  This is a long process but the out come is so pretty.  So be sure to watch for the next post.

I found this neat Ribbon Rose over at Dannis Doodles blog (http://dannisdoodles.typepad.com/dannisdoodles/2010/02/stepbystep-mondays-.html).  Check her site out she has some beautiful stuff and she deserves all the credit.  Her instructions and pictures were so great that it was easy for me to make the rose.   She is one talented lady.

I had a day where I wanted to do all kinds of projects so the next few postings over the next couple of days will be about things I tried and made.

So let me see if I can show you how I made this Ribbon Rose.

You’ll need a piece of ribbon about 12″-15″ long.  The length will depend on how big you want the rose.  Also, a satin ribbon works better than grosgrain ribbon.

Fold the ribbon in half and tie the ribbon in a knot at one end.

Now take the tail that is left above the knot and fold it down on the side and glue it.  This creates the bud of the rose.

With the remainder of the ribbon, keep it folded in half and twist the ribbon over on itself as you wrap it around the knot.  Wrap and twist the ribbon to the right and as you loop the knot adhere it to itself each time you make the loop.

Once you get it to the size you want take the end and glue it onto the back of the rose.

How cute is this!  The most difficult thing about this was the gluing the ribbon (that is because it was grosgrain). 

Isn’t this a cute Baby Card.  It is basically a 2″ circle with a quarter cut away, a couple of buttons and then zig- zag stitch.  I love the little saying “This is how we roll”.  We printed that off on the computer and she trimmed around it with some shaped scissors.  Quick and easy.

Daughter #2 is headed to a baby shower and she made a baby quilt for her friend and wanted to make a card to go with it.  She didn’t finish the inside, she is going to write something personal in it.

Sometimes it doesn’t have to be a lot of detail going on (as she explained to me).  I think it is perfectly simple and sweet and I know her friend will love it.

I have really been on a kick making flowers lately.  It’s one of those things once you start you can’t stop.  This will be a short post, because I’m really tired tonight for some reason.

After I made the grunge flower I started looking at Youtube and discovered several versions of lollipop flowers.  So, I did a little R&D and made this one out of baby wipes.  They have been colored using alcohol inks and perfect pearls and then I stamped the petals and embossed the edges.

I’m going to mess around with some variations on the material used, folds and lollipop flowers.  I think a trip to JA’s for some material might be in the works. 

Let me know what you think!

Here is the grunge flower.  I’m not sure why they are calling it a grunge flower unless it is because Tim Holtz was the one who started it.  I got my information from Creations with Christina (http://www.creationswithchristina.com/search/label/Videos). Sorry, I’m having trouble being able to link to her sight directly.   Feel free to hop on over to her website and watch the video.  Some of the steps are easier to see with the video.  Christina has an awesome website and her video tutorials are so concise and clear.  This is one of my favorite spots (especially with a good cup of coffee).  Thanks Christina for all your hard work!

She use the flower on blackout from Accent Essentials.  I didn’t have that cart so I found a similar flower on Plantin Schoolbook.  I set the width and height at 2.25″; however Christina did hers at 2.5″.

Using the flower in Plantin Schoolbook I highlighted the center circle and Hide Selected Contour.  This way the center will be solid.

By hiding the contour you can see what is going to be cut and that you have the image you want before you cut anything out.  Looks good I’m going to cut three of these all the same size.

To “grunge” this up I ran it through the CB using one of the new romantic embossing folder (I know but I couldn’t resist them) but this embossing folders looks like the little candy hearts with sayings on them (cute, cute, cute).

I took some red ink and ran over the embossing to give it some interest.  I did this on both sides because as you build the flower both sides are visible especially on this flower.  When I look at Christina’s flower the back of the petals are not as obvious.

I misted all three flowers with perfect pearls in pink and took the heat gun and dried them.  I then took the heat gun again and dried the three flowers after I had put a light layer of modge podge (matte) on them (again, both sides).   This is a very important step because it allows you to be able to manipulate the flower petals without tearing the card stock or paper.  Then you need to fold two of the flowers in half one way and then fold in half again the opposite way.  This helps you find the center of the flower which helps you determine how far to cut in.

 On one of the flowers you cut out one petal and on the other you cut out one petal and the last flower you cut a slit down to the center of the flower.

You do the same thing to all three flowers; you take one of the petals and overlap it on top of the other and glue them together.  Here is where the video over at Christina’s  makes this step clearer.

This gives you the various layers of the flower. 

On the two petal and single petal you will roll them onto themselves and glue them.

I used a paper piercer to roll the sides of the petals in and the top of the petal back.  I then rolled the sides in and glued them and put a clamp to hold them in place until the glue set.

Taking the flower with 5 petals, I smashed it down a little to make a flat bottom and then started layering the remaining flowers into the center gluing down and offsetting each layer and flower.

When you get down to the petals that have two petals and the one petal you will need to cut off the tip so it will fit into the flower properly.

To finish up I used the paper piercing tool to roll back the edges of all the petals and then took some red Stickles and squirted it in the middle of the flower.  This is a pretty significant flower even at 2.25″, so I think you would use it to embellish something like an album or box.  It would be pretty hard to have this on a scrapbook page.  You might be able to get by with using it on a card but I think you would have to hand deliver.

Now I know why you need to do video on somethings.  This was fun to make and I messed with it while I was washing, drying and folding clothes.  Good day for us, all they had to do on Red’s basal cell is to burn it off.  Doctor said no bigger than it was either way would work so why not take the less painful.  He was happy it doesn’t interfere with his V-ball, golf or bowling.

I must be getting old because I watched the Grammy’s and some of the stuff is just absolutely strange, entertaining to a point but strange.

Not much to post right now, Red will have his basil cell removed today and I think he is a little nervous.  Hopefully, after that is done I’ll be able to do some projects.

I’m going to make a grunge flower using a flower off of the Accent Essentials cart.  I need some modge podge for this project so I may have to make a quick trip to M’s or JoAnn’s.  Like I need an an excuse.

So stay tune, and I’ll show you some pictures on how to make the grunge flower.