EASTER FAVORITE VINTAGE GRAPHICS

HAPPY EASTER AND HAPPY SPRING TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS, BLOG FOLLOWERS AND FAMILY!

The following graphics are some of my FAVORITES from Karen at The Graphics Fairy, a wonderful website for free clip art and vintage graphics.  So enjoy and Happy Easter!
 

The story of Easter 

is the story of God's wonderful window of divine surprise.

  ~Carl Knudsen~

 

Ye sleeping buds, break
Open your green cerements, and wake
To fragrant blossoming for His sweet sake. 

 ~Margaret French Patton~

I LOVE the sentiment on this one (above):

A Moral for Easter,

Thy Savior's meekness wouldst attain,

Climb not too high,

or climb in vain!

Let the resurrection joy lift us from loneliness and weakness and despair

 to strength and beauty and happiness.

 ~Floyd W. Tomkins~

 

Isn't this just gorgeous???

'Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees
Filled all the air with fragrance and with joy.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Spanish Student~

Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!

  ~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"~

And my ALL TIME FAVORITE!

Miss Molly Cottontail inspired me to make a cute little Easter card! I transferred this graphic onto some fabric, and then placed it on the front of a card on top of some embossed paper, and a few gems.. very simple and sweet.

THANK YOU The Graphics Fairy for your beautiful antique and vintage graphics!  

Easter, to me, always marks a new beginning for the year. I know that Spring is on its way and Mother Earth is waking up from the long winter.

                         HAPPY EASTER AND HAPPY SPRING!

 

FABRIC YO YO TUTORIAL

Hi all.... as promised, here's my short little fabric yo yo tutorial. Pictures first, then will explain:

I'm using the pretty Chantilly textiles yellow polka dot fabric for this yo yo.  My pink yo yo was some other scrap fabric I already had.

Instructions start at the top row, to the right, then second row, the the right, then third row to the right.

1. Cut a 2" circle of fabric.  I used the lid to a vitamin bottle for a circle.

2.  Thread your needle with double thread and tie a knot on the end. Begin sewing around the edge of the circle, fairly close to the edge, with a running straight stitch (doesn't have to be real even or perfect). Under, over, under, over. Have the wrong side of the fabric facing you. On most traditional yo yos, you turn under the edge and sew the straight stitch on a turned edge. This is harder and more time consuming, but you don't need to do this because the raw edge here will be covered with a button or gem.  This makes it much easier!

3.  Sew all the way around. Then pull up the fabric to gather it. I usually do this with the wrong side of the fabric facing me.  When gathered, the right side of the fabric should be on the outside. Make little adjustments so that the circle is even and kind of flatten it out. You can kind of poke your finger into the little puff to make it lay down flat.

4. The needle is still threaded, so once you have the yo yo the way you like it, run the needle and thread through some of the gathers to the back a few times, to tack down the gathers, then knot the thread on the back and cut tail off.

5.  I lay the yo yo down with gathered side up, and kind of pull and adjust so it's nice and even. I use a little wood roller to kind of press it and set in the gathers.

6.  Voila! you're done!  Now cover the middle gathers with a cute button, gem or ribbon bow.

You can make any size.. the finished size is about half the size of the original circle.  There are some good tutorials on YouTube, but remember, you don't have to turn the edges on these, as it doesn't matter that there are raw edges because we cover them with a button, etc.

HAVE FUN! These fabric yo yos can also be used on your paper projects, scrapbook pages and cards.  Idea: how about putting some little bitty yo yos on the CTMH Drawstring Muslin Bags??? I'm going to try that!

TUFTED FABRIC HANGING AND YO YO TUTORIAL

Can't believe it's been so long since I posted! I have been busy working on another fabric project using our DARLING Chantilly textiles. It's my little tufted wall hanging on a piece of heavy 5x7 cardboard. I used the cardboard from our CTMH paper packs.  I love the results!

Isn't it the cutest thing? I love it! I wanted something that appears tufted, like a headboard or tufted pillow. I got the bright idea of putting batting (quilt batting) on the cardboard first, then the fabric, and some pretty brads that poke through the fabric,batting and cardboard, and when fastened on the back, the brad pulls the batting down so that it looks tufted.

I used the green Chantilly fabric. First, I sewed on a sweet little Easter graphic from The Graphics Fairy that I printed onto some Tailor brand Computer Printer Fabric that I got from JoAnn Fabrics.  This is very nice fabric and the transfer comes out so nice.  Before I sewed the picture onto the Chantilly fabric, I ironed some light weight stabilizer (stitch witchery) onto the back of the fabric, which makes the picture a little more stable.  You can get iron-on stabilizers at most any fabric store.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO SEW ON A PICTURE! YOU CAN ADHERE A CUTE STAMPED IMAGE TO THE MIDDLE ALSO, AND MAYBE GLUE SOME LACE AROUND THE EDGES.

Next, I placed the batting over the cardboard and pulled it tight around to the the back, and then taped it with packing tape..... kind of like wrapping a gift.  Then I placed the fabric on top and wrapped it around to the back and pulled the fabric tight and taped it.  The batting and fabric were cut about 2 inches bigger on all sides than the piece of cardboard.  Sorry, I didn't take pictures of this process.

Here's a photo of the piece after I put the brads on. I just marked the placement with a pen and poked holes with my little piercing tool. Very easy!

Next, I decided to make some little fabric yo yos using the yellow Chantilly fabric. I'll post a yo yo tutorial on my next blog post. They are very simple and fun to make. They do require a tiny bit of sewing, but it's very fast and quick.  I also added a row of some of my old vintage lace along the bottom using Liquid Glass to adhere it.  Liquid Glass is my "go to" adhesive and decorating medium...........my all-time favorite and I had never heard of it until I starting crafting with Close to My Heart!

I topped my yo yos with little light blue buttons and a bow using embroidery floss, and adhered them down with Liquid Glass.

Here's a close up of the picture I used from The Graphics Fairy. By the way, The Graphics Fairy has over 3000 awesome FREE graphics that you can use for printing, transferring, etc. 

I used Liquid Glass for the little eggs in the nest and for some of the flower petals. You just spread it over the area you want covered and let it dry.  I also used a little bit of silver glitter glue for the birds' eyes and centers of the flowers. 

One more look at my darling wall hanging. For a hanger, I used some green ribbon that I had with a knot tied at the end, using Liquid Glass (of course!) to adhere it to the plaque. I made a little tag using some of the yellow B&T Chantilly paper, distressed the edges with Pear Ink and stamped a little greeting. It's tied on with embroidery floss and can be removed if I want to put something different there.

I'll post the yo yo tutorial on my next blog post. You can find lots of the yo yo tutorials on YouTube.. that's where I found one, although mine is a little simpler to make. If you're a quilter or sewer, then you probably already know how to make them.  I've sewed and quilted for years and never did know how to make one! Now that I know, they're kind of addicting, just like making paper rosettes! (you can see some of my paper rosettes here).

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Until next time.................. happy crafting!

 

FOR ALWAYS CARD WITH FABRIC.

Hi all! What a beautiful day it was today... here in central Oregon! Got up to 60 degrees and now I have Spring fever! 

Just wanted to do a quick post of a card I made last week using some of our For Always paper and coordinating fabric.  I used lagoon and honey cardstock for the punches of color (they come with the For Always paper packet).

SEE THE CUTE LITTLE CURTAINS? I USED CLOSE TO MY HEART COORDINATED FABRIC!  OH SO CUTE.  I MADE THE PART OVER THE CURTAINS LOOK LIKE A CURTAIN "HEADER" USING CARD STOCK AND A STRIP OF THE FOR ALWAYS POLKA DOT PAPER. 

Here's a closeup of the little window and curtains. I got the idea for this card from a photo on page 101 of the Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book. It used cardstock for the curtains that was accordian-folded.

I STITCHED ACROSS THE DARK PAPER WITH MY SEWING MACHINE TO GIVE IT A LITTLE TEXTURE, AND ADDED SOME LITTLE DOTS OF CARD STOCK THAT I CRUMPLED UP AND SANDED THE EDGES.

I didn't even gather the little curtains, just cut a piece for each side about 2 inches and folded in half and creased it.. then tied with ribbon to give it a gathered look.

That's it!  short but sweet....

I have more fabric projects coming this week! 

HAPPY CRAFTING.


 

FUN WITH FABRIC AND CANVAS.

I've been so excited to play with the CHANTILLY papers and coordinating fabric! Here's my first project using canvas board, Mod Podge and coordinating fabric.  HINT, HINT, can you tell I like pink?????

LITTLE 5X7 WALL HANGING ON CANVAS PANEL.

Here's how I made this sweet little thing:  

I first painted the canvas board with pink acrylic paint (used for ceramics, etc.). I only painted about 1 inch in from the edges and around the sides.

Then I spread Mod Podge all over the board and used the Chantilly B&T paper in strips on the top and bottom.  In the middle, I put a strip of the pink B&T print from Chantilly, which I tore on the top and bottom edges.  I mod podged those down.

Next I adhered to a piece of the DAKOTA wood grain B&T, a cream card stock tag backed by a larger tag of another B&T of the Chantilly papers. I used my Cricut to cut the pretty tags. I also stamped around the edges of the wood grain with some little scrolls.

Before I stamped on the cream tag, I used Hollyhock CTMH Exclusive Ink ink and did some 2nd generation stamping of some flowers from one of the retired CTMH stamp sets.  Then I stamped in Staz On Black the wonderful saying from the CTMH February Stamp of the Month, Home Sweet Home.  

YOU MUST USE STAZ ON INK on anything you are stamping when using decoupage medium. Otherwise, the dye and pigment inks will smear.  (Although, I did use regular dye ink for the pink flowers on the tag and since it's a light color, you can't notice any smearing.)

I laid down some little scallops behind the Dakota paper, that I had left over from another project (using Dotty papers), adhering them with some of the Mod Podge. Then I mod podged over the entire board again and adhered the wood grain paper and tag and covered everything really well with the Mod Podge.  When it was all dry, (with the help of my heat gun), I stamped some little black flowers and the scroll at the bottom, using black Staz On ink.

Next I used a fine tipped Sharpie marker and made little stitch marks around the edge. No measuring, I just eyed it.

STITCH MARKS WITH A SHARPIE PEN.. AND ADDED SOME GEMS ALONG THE TOP.  I adhered the ribbon on the top for hanging with Liquid Glass.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE paper Rosettes (or yo yos) so I made two different sizes using the beautiful Chantilly B&T, one was the bright flowers and birds and the other the muted pink print.  I have perfected an EASY QUICK WAY to make the Rosettes, so if you want to know how, email me or make a comment here. I smudged the edges of both with some gray ink and I also smudged the cream tag with gray ink.  It gives it such a nice vintage, shabby look.

DARLING ROSETTES WITH BUTTONS ON TOP.  Adhered to the board with my handy dandy glue gun.

And for the GRAND FINALE.................... I used some of our darling coordinating Chantilly fabric to make the ruffle for the bottom!  I love it!  I just used a strip about twice as wide as the board (about 10 inches) and cut it 3 inches wide.  I folded it in half the long way and ironed a nice crisp fold.  

And I must admit, I did use a needle and thread!  I made a big running stitch along the rough edge using double thread, and then pulled it up to gather it and knotted the end so that it was the size of the bottom edge of the board.  This was VERY FAST AND EASY.  I didn't even iron it again. I just used my handy dandy old wooden paint roller (purchased for $2 at a second hand store) to kind of roll over the entire ruffle so it would lay flat. It works almost as good as a hot iron!  Love it!

MY HANDY DANDY WOOD ROLLER.  WAS USED FOR WALLPAPER SEAMS, BUT I WAS TOLD BY A FRIEND/QUILTER THAT IT WORKS ALMOST AS GOOD AS AN IRON, AND IT DOES!  I couldn't find it at any stores, so had to look for it at a second hand store. Don't know if they are made anymore.

I then laid a strip of Tombo adhesive along the bottom of the board on the back, stuck the fabric down, and got it nice and even.   Once it was the way I liked it, I cut a piece of scrap grosgrain ribbon, put our Liquid Glass on the back, and laid it down over the rough edge of the ruffle, pressing firmly for about 30 second.  The heat gun works great to dry Liquid Glass and I used it to set the ribbon!

(ON A NOTE:  I made another one of these canvas boards for practice (using "other" scrap papers and fabric) and for it, I didn't sew the ruffle.  Instead, I laid down the heavy duty score tape along the bottom edge of the board, and kind of pleated the fabric to make a ruffle.  It worked OK, but was kind of slow going.)

BACK SIDE: GROSGRAIN RIBBON WITH LIQUID GLASS PRESSED OVER THE ROUGH EDGE OF THE RUFFLE, HOLDS IT DOWN WONDERFULLY!

I love the look of the decoupage, which you really can't see in the photos, but it gives the final product a nice satin sheen.

And there you have it!  My first project using our CTMH fabric!  The fabric is so crisp and nice, and I love how the edges are all "pinked" to keep it from raveling.  

I'm working on another project as I speak, so will post it once it's done.

HOPE YOU HAVE SOME FUN WITH FABRIC!