Celebration Tea Bag Pinwheel

Welcome back!

Recently I decided to try a new technique.  I was reading through a back-logged issue of Papercraft Inspirations and came across a Masterclass article for tea bag folding and thought I'd give it a whirl - if you like origami (and I do), then tea bag folding is just the thing for you, too.

Celebrate Pinwheel

As with origami, using a thin paper is helpful with the folding and obtaining crisp edges so I dug out some of the free 6x6" paper gifts from Papercraft Inspirations (as these are always thin quality paper) and got started making my pinwheel.  It was super quick and easy, although it turned out larger than I had anticipated.  I decided to mount it on a regular A6 card blank anyway, rather than a square, to give it some interest and really make it the focus of the card.  Similarly, I used a layer of vellum to diffuse the background pattern so it wasn't so overwhelming.

I dressed up the center of the pinwheel with a swirl of twine and two layered buttons, then sprinkled some pink/purple sequins around like a sparkling fireworks display, ran another length of twine along the fold and stamped a very simple sentiment onto the pinwheel itself.

This little message of cheer will be going to a colleague who is celebrating her 25th birthday and I hope it will put a sparkle in her eye.

In an Octopus' Garden

I've been working on getting back into a regular scrapping routine since having returned to work recently.  It's not been easy - especially the work; but we won't get into that.  But I do have another new LO to share with you today; this time returning to my Barcelona holiday photos.

In an Octopus' Garden

I am totally in love with these CP retro slide frames.  Not only do they look great and are a great eye-catching feature on a page but I love just how quick and easy they can make a page come together.  I also especially like that these chipboards have a smooth texture, unlike many of the matte/pixelated chipboards used by many companies.

I started by blotting some blue and green spray mists onto my cardstock base, then sprinkled on more blue, green and some white mist and stamped some 'bubble' shapes around the page.  There was a dicey moment when my acrylic block somehow flew out of my hand and landed stamp-side down in the upper right-hand corner but I just rolled with it.

For the title, I reached into my basket of current supplies and just grabbed the first thing that called out to me - Amy Tan's vellum sticker alphas from Yes, Please.  I decided to mix things up and use the orange letters, since there were pops of orange in several of the photos and I liked the idea of using a complimentary colour palette.  I knew I also wanted to use this cute wave border strip so layered it up in the title along with the circular letter stickers and I really like the effect.

I took my time fussing cutting this little octopus from FP's Down by the Shore.  Got to use a new SC cork embellishment and added another pop of orange and some enamel dots.

I've had these adorable fish buttons for a while now, just waiting for the perfect project and when I saw the little fish paper in Down by the Shore, it inspired me to use them here (even though I didn't use that paper on the LO in the end).  A few white enamel dots add some textured air bubbles to each fish.

And I was so thrilled when I discovered that yes, I did have bright orange enamel dots and sprinkled a few in the topmost cluster, along with a piece of flair from a package I hadn't yet broken into.

To finish everything off, I decided to back the page up with some distressed orange watercolour paper, do a little machine sewing around two of the corners and really distress the inner border for some depth and interest.  I also think the distressed edge gives a little impression of an old 'message in a bottle' feeling.

Haberdashery

I broke back into my new box of goodies for a second LO and decided to work on a photo from this summer.  Now, as you may recall, I live in Sweden and belong to the local quilt guild.  There are many lovely ladies in the guild and recently one of them decided that she wanted to practise and improve her English further and what better way to do that than to create a small sewing group where we all speak only in English for the meetings?  Naturally they needed some native English speakers to help so myself, my best friend Ingrid and her mum (Swedish but lived abroad in the UK and English-speaking military bases most of her life) were also asked to join.  We have such a great time together - language is so much fun to play with and use.  Anyway, it only seemed fitting that we should be called the Haberdashery group - so that's the little story behind this LO.

 Haberdashery

So in planning out this LO, I realised that Carta Bella's Hello Again collection would be perfect with all of its cute speech bubbles, friendship quotes/sayings and patchwork hearts.  The sticker sheet was great for those little accents and I also used one of the pink papers in the layering.  I also loved this watercolour floral from Crate Paper's The Pier and decided to put it center stage for the background - you know I must love it because I'm so not a floral person, normally!

You may also have been wondering, after I spent all that time last month gushing over my 'new-to-me' manual Olivetti typewriter, when I would finally start using it with my LOs.  Well, this is the one; the big debut!  I thought it would be fun to add a definition of 'haberdashery' under the title so out came the typewriter and I merrily typed away on some vellum.  I really liked how it turned out.  I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that these green flocked Thickers (that I have a secret loathing towards) perfectly matched - I'm always so thrilled when I find something I can use them on and I usually enjoy them more once they're part of a LO.  And no LO about a sewing group is complete without some stitching, of course.

I have to admit, my embellishment clusters were more eclectic than they usually come together, especially this top piece.  I really loved that twisted arrow with the text and I was over-joyed when I found a small doily (just what I'd been looking for to add there).  I added the red geo tag to bring out a bit more of the red in the background paper, then felt the red needed more balancing in the bottom cluster...

Hello, enamel dots!  The perfect embellishment when you just need that small pop of colour.  You'll notice I also added in buttons and tufts of thread to again re-inforce the sewing theme.

In the center of the page I did a little DIY embellishment.  The speech bubbles sticker was too large to fit so I cut out a set from the paper, then added the 'chit chat' with my Olivetti and layered it up with some other bits and bobs.

And this may sound silly but my favourite part of the page (along with the vellum typed definition) are these little dates I typed onto the journaling card.  I was just so chuffed with myself that I got them lined up so perfectly on the faux tape detailing and they really look like part of the original card.  Small things.

I shared this LO on my FB so many of the ladies in the group have seen it and they're all so tickled about it; none of them scrapbook (it's not overly popular here) and they asked me last month to bring my current album, which was fun and different.  Sharing my creations with others is always such fun!

Summer on the Horizon

I feel like I've sewn my brains out these last few days (not a bad thing, just saying) so I'm switching gears back to scrapbooking.  I've had one partially started layout sitting on my table for far too long for my liking and while I wanted to get it finished over the weekend, that didn't happen but today was the day - hurrah!

So for this layout I tried something different from what I normally do.  Using colour palette charts seems to be all the rage in scrapbooking lately and I do love the Design Seeds palettes so when I saw this one, I knew I had to use it - orange, yellow and turquoise - *happy place*...

I pulled entirely too much paper and 'stuff', which resulted in being overcome with choice - never a good thing for me.  I worked on whittling it down, thinking I knew what I wanted to make and in the end it went in a rather different direction - different but good.  Here's the final layout:

Summer on the Horizon

I made the sun burst from vellum, which I misted in a bright orange, then cut out the rays and stitched them down with my sewing machine.  For the sun itself, I painted a doily using the same orange mist.

For the water I layered up stripes of different turquoise papers in an ombre effect and tilted them here and there like moving waves.  Then I layered up some turquoise sewing thread over top for some texture and held it in place with pearls for 'sea spray'.

I kept the few embellishment clusters small because I really pushed myself to go into excess on the rest of the page - something that is hard for me to do but I really wanted that boldness and overpowering feeling of joy that a multitude of gold sequins gives (or is that just me?).  And that adorable butterfly shaped paper clip?  I found that at an art/stationery shop in Ystad the other week - sooo cute!

Lastly, I used this page to play around with some homemade texture paste (talcum powder, glue, paint and a bit of water) and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I cut my own triangle mask from some cereal box cardboard to use with it.  Easy peasy.

Feels good to get this project completed and I feel like I've stretched myself with some fun, new or different techniques.

WIP Wednesday

Here we are at another Wednesday - seriously, how do they fly by so quickly?

The wind today is really whipping outside and been making me feel restless but I have managed to putter around with some scrapbooking today.  While I generally consider most layouts 'finished' once they're off my work table and photographed, sometimes I'll look at one I've done recently and realise that there's something missing.  I'm quite happy to go back and tweak as necessary in these situations, because I'm a firm believer that I should be happy with my creative work.

So today I pulled out this layout that I created in April:

I <3 Malmö

After I finished it, something just felt missing so I kept it out to mull over what it was and how to ultimately finish it.  I felt like I wanted to frame the photo and that with all the delicate colours, it needed something dark to help anchor it.  I also felt that with all the straight lines in the design and the papers, it needed something circular beyond just the buttons and the sticker.  Then I remembered one of Shimelle's older sketches (here), that uses brads in a circular shape.  So today I broke out a package of alpha brads I've been hoarding and got to work; I filled out the rest of the circle with gold sequins (totally obsessed, it's a sickness, really).  For me I found a tighter circle worked best.  After:

And a detail shot:

I feel confident in calling this project done now and have slipped it into its album.

Then I decided to work a bit more on a layout I started the other week with a sun and surf theme.  I discovered, however, that the recent humidity, low as it was, curled my vellum so I'm trying to press it out, as it's making the layout a bit tricky to work with curled up.  I did, however, add the bottom layer of papers today:

By that time I'd lost steam so I've put it aside again to flatten out some.  I am hoping to finish it off by the end of the week, though, since I don't usually leave pages to sit like this; I'm more of a start to finish scrapper normally.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank the people over at Quilter Blogs for linking to my blog.  They have a lovely selection of quilting and sewing related blogs so if you also love stitching, please do check them out.

I Can Sleep Anywhere

Went to bed last night planning to spend my morning basking in the glorious sunshine on my balcony, stitching up a new embroidery block.  Instead, I woke up to a completely overcast sky - so disappointing!  However, it was an excellent opportunity to get back to scrapbooking without feeling guilty for not being out in the fine weather.

I got to thinking about the start of this layout over the weekend.  Not that you'd know by looking at the photo, but this is from my recent trip to Barcelona.  It was Good Friday and my girl friend and I were heading back home - unfortunately, there were no direct flights with SAS from Barcelona to Copenhagen so we made a loop around all three Scandinavian countries on the way home!  Barcelona to Oslo, Oslo to Copenhagen and finally Copenhagen to Malmö (that last leg is just a 20 min. train ride, thankfully).  Alice (my friend) marveled at my ability to fall asleep despite noise and everything else so she snapped this photo as documentation.

 I Can Sleep Anywhere

I don't have a lot of dark coloured papers in my stash but I had recently picked up this Panduro Hobby-brand paper.  It was distressed with a bluish wash around the outer edges so I cut it up and turned the edges into the center to help draw focus into the photo.  The rest of the papers are from Yes, Please by Amy Tan for American Crafts and I added in some vellum to add some softness.  I layered up the word definition strips from Yes, Please, which I thought worked really well to reinforce the story in the journaling.  I also topped the page with a strip of Dear Lizzy white crepe paper border and a pale blue velvet ribbon; I really liked the curtain-like effect it added to the layout and again, more softness, texture and a dreamy quality.  Then I sprinkled a bunch of vellum and blue scrap paper punched stars onto the background with some rhinestones for twinkle.  Oh, and just for some silly fun, I added a few glittery 'z's and an asterisk.  :D

For the title, I wanted the 'anywhere' to be large so I used the new Amy Tan vellum alphas in the turquoise, mixing the lighter and dark letters.  A bit of silver glitter Thickers, Amy Tan again, for the word 'sleep' and some small Basic Grey letters for the rest.  I also stitched with my sewing machine a few times underneath 'anywhere' to literally underline the word.

The pinwheel I made from some Yes, Please paper that has triangles/squares in an uncut pinwheel pattern.  The original was a little large so I trimmed it down to 2" square and then cut along the diagonal lines - super simple - popped in a decorative brad and done.  There was a large bit of negative space in the photo just above the pinwheel that was really bugging me so I stamped out a bit of vellum to tuck into the space.

I also toyed around at including some clear and white chevron transparency but it wasn't working the way I wanted it to.  Then I realised that the little triangles I had cut out along the chevron edge made neat little semi-transparent arrow heads so I stitched them down pointing toward the photo.

And now the weather is back to being sunny and lovely - hurray!

WIP Wednesday

Today I have a whole slew of goodies to share with you so let's get started and dive right in.

First of all, I've been making (slow) progress on my embroidery quilt.  I didn't realise when I bought this quilt, which is actually suppose to be a BOM (block of the month) that there were nine months included, each month consisting of two panels of six squares to stitch - if you're keeping count, that's 108 squares altogether - yikes!  Anyway, I've been working on month #6 blocks recently and this little teddy bear turned out super cute.

Each of these picture blocks has a co-ordinating saying that will go on the backside.  They're not quite as much fun to stitch, since they're all text and they take a lot longer but I've been portioning it out by doing one picture block, followed by the matching text block so that I don't get too bored or risk leaving all the text blocks to the end.

Next up, I'm heading off to the cottage with friends tomorrow so I've spent the day preparing my next project to take along with me - those super cute citrus felt coasters I pinned on Sunday!  The website provides a printable template page but as I don't have ink in my printer, I decided to make my own templates using various glasses to trace around, which has the added, handy bonus of ensuring my coasters will fit my glasses.  I've done all of the cutting and matched up embroidery floss for the needed colours so now I just need to do the stitching - can't wait!

I also did a bit of scrapbooking work today, but the layout is far from done.  Yesterday I pulled a variety of papers but wasn't quite ready to work on it beyond that.  Today I got some good inspiration for the top portion of the page, including mixing up some homemade texture paste - such fun!  I also made my own little triangle/arrowhead template to use with the paste and it's turned out great.  I will definitely be using this more often.  I pulled out some vellum today, too, along with my Mr. Huey's mist and the sewing machine.  Here's what I have so far:

Incidentally, I ended up with such a large number of papers that I was having trouble weeding down which ones I wanted and I resorted to this:

Yes, that's right, I had to move to the floor to lay them all out so I could mix and match.  Someone please tell me I'm not alone in this and you've found yourself here, too?  I've set the rest of the layout aside for now while I process the bottom part of the page in my head for a day or two.  I know how I want it to feel, I just haven't quite figured out how to get it there yet but I'm challenging my inner Janna Werner and Wilna Furstenberg and perhaps a little Michelle de Leon, too.

And lastly, something that is not a WIP but actually complete - tetra-pack chooks!  I'm so ready for Easter now!

These little gals are so easy to make - literally two stitch lines - although placing the bits (especially the comb) was a little tricky.  If you want to make your own, check out Red Ted Art's Juggling Chooks.  There isn't a template for the felt bits but they're very easy to make - one triangle, a three-hump cloud-like shape and a heart folded along the line of symmetry is all you need.  If you're a papercrafter and have the Martha Steward heart punch, that's probably about the right size, even.  I made the eyes with a colonial knot (slightly larger embroidery knot) or you could use a standard French knot.  Oh, and since these will be decoration only and not for juggling, I left out the rice and filled them just with stuffing, although a bit of rice or sand would give them good weight to sit, too.