Fabric Frenzy!

Happy Monday Morning everyone!  I hope you had a great weekend with lots of stamping fun!  I sure did!  With my Spring Fling card buffets on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, I was kept hopping.  On top of that I finally finished the invitations for my son's 6th birthday party...more on those later this week!  Today I want to tell you about a fantastic, limited-time promotion from Stampin' Up! 
The week after Sale-a-bration is usually a bit of a let-down...all the fun of free product is gone and we are left wondering what the next great promotion will be.  Well wait no longer!  This week all of our beautiful Designer Fabric is half price!!  This is the perfect time to stock up for all of those spring and summer projects you're planning to create.  Our Designer Fabric is designed to coordinate with Stampin' Up! inks, paper, and other accessories, and is perfect for adding a stylish touch to traditional paper projects. Available in an extra-wide fat quarters (18" x 26"). Use it for quilting, clothing, home décor, and more!
Check out these amazing prices:

Page	Item	Description	Retail Price	Sale Price
170	126892	Essentials Designer Fabric	$36.95	$18.48
171	126893	Floral District Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25
171	126894	Comfort Café Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25
171	125411	Summer Smooches Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25
171	125412	Twitterpated Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25
171	122337	Timeless Portrait Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25
171	122336	Beau Chateau Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25
171	124066	Spice Cake Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25
171	122335	Flirtatious Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25
6*	129308	Tea for Two Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25
13*	129307	More Amore Designer Fabric	$12.50	$6.25

*spring catalog
I'll be placing my order toward the end of the week, so if you'd like to get in on these terrific prices, call or email your order to me by Friday...or better yet, check out my online store and order yours today!

Now here is some project inspiration from some of my fellow demonstrators:

An easy no-sewing-required option from Amanda Fowler:



Love these little guys from Victoria Rogers:



A beautiful gift idea (also no-sewing required!) from Lynne Fahey:



Use fabric instead of ribbon on a card from Jill Hilliard:




Fabric flowers...so pretty...and it can be removed from the card and worn as a pin! From Kathleen Warhank:

Happy First Day of School!

Today is the BIG day!  My baby started Kindergarten!!  He was so excited to get to school this morning and he did GREAT with the whole saying good-bye thing.  Mommy on the other hand, was a soggy mess!  He just kind of looked at me and said "Uh...can I go in now?"  I sat in the card and had a good long cry and then was good to go. 

The big drop off...I was already sniffling while taking this photo!

When I picked him up at the end of the day he told me it was a great day and he wanted a chocolate-dipped doughnut from Tim Horton's.  That was all he had to say. 
Today also marks back-to-work for me and, no surprise, here I am posting at 6:00 pm instead of 6:00 am!  Get used to it, folks!  The fall is always chaotic and I often find a week has passed without my putting ink to paper.  Today, though, I did get some stamping done and I have some new projects to show you later in the week.  But first, you have to see these fun fabric flowers from Craft Project Central:

Die cut fabric flowers designed by Carrie Sampsel

I really love each of these little gems!  I can't wait to try them out with some of the fabric I bought on sale.  Did you know Stampin' Up is offering all of it's retired fabrics for just $1.19 a box??  That's three fat quarters for just over a dollar...doesn't get any better than that!!  I bought tons and am sure going to try my hand at these flowers.  If you'd like to try them yourself you can access the tutorial by subscribing to September over at Craft Project Central.  It's only $10 and you'll get 10 great step-by-step tutorials.

If you'd rather win, than buy, you're in luck!  Hold a party or private class with me in the month of September and you will receive a month's subscription FREE!!  That's right, 10 free tutorials just for hosting a fun night with your friends.  Call or email today to schedule your event.

More Fabric Fun

Today's post is based on a layout shown by Shelley Gardiner (Stampin' Up's co-founder and CEO) during one of her presentations at last year's convention.  Shelley's version used Spice Cake fabric and was fall-themed but I decided to give this birthday card more of a spring-feel.  See what you think...

Birthday card featuring Twitterpated designer fabric and the Perfectly Penned stamp set.

Inside view with sentiment from the Blessings from Heaven set.

Whaddya think?  I designed this card for my team meeting last month.  If you'll recall we were looking at ways to incorporate fabric into our projects and this one is a REALLY way easy to add a pop of colour and texture.  Here is what I did:
Starting with a piece of confetti white cardstock I spritzed it with blushing bride Smooch (from the Occasions Mini).  This is by far my favourite Smooch colour yet!  So quick and easy to use and such a great effect!  Setting that aside to dry, I stamped the sentiment in island indigo on a piece of scrap confetti white cardstock and then tore it out, attempting the keep the image relatively centred.  I then sponged the torn edges using both blushing bride and island indigo ink.  Going back to my spritzed cardstock, I distressed the edges using the tool from my cutter kit.  I then cut a 3" square of Big Shot Multi-Purpose adhesive sheet.  That stuff is the BEST adhesive for adhering fabric to your projects.  Easy to use and in-expensive too!  I adhered one side of the double-sided sheet to the centre of the card and then peeled off the backing to reveal the very sticky adhesive.  I then tore strips of Twitterpated fabric and layered them over the adhesive, again attempting to centre them somewhat.  I layered the stamped sentiment overtop using Tombow multi-purpose liquid glue.  The last touch was one of the big designer buttons I picked up from the Clearance Rack and threaded with a bit of island indigo ruffled ribbon. 
On the inside of the card I wanted to incorporate the fabric somehow and so I tied a narrow strip into a knot and added it as a detail in the upper left corner.  The sentiment, one of my favourites, is from the Blessings from Heaven set in the main catalogue and is stamped in island indigo on confetti white cardstock.
Another quick and easy card using our fabulous fabric...have you ordered yours yet?

Fun with Fabric

Some of the members of my Tri-City Stampers team were asking for ideas as to how to use Stampin' Up's designer fabrics on their projects.  I decided to incorporate fabric in this month's make-n-takes for our team meeting.  This is the first card we made, using the Flirtatious fabric, which is available during Sale-a-bration for FREE!

CAS card featuring Flirtatious designer fabric and sentiment from the Sincere Saluations set

Flower detail

This is the perfect workshop card, which was another reason I chose it for my team meeting.  It is one that comes together quickly and easily and whose sentiment can be swapped out for just about anything.  It also uses several of my favourite tools to create:  the Big Shot to cut out the flowers and the Simply Scored to add the scoring detail at the bottom.  I also used my Stamp-a-ma-Jig to place the sentiment, as the Sincere Salutations set is only available in wood mount.  To get the flower to pop off the card I used a large 2 3/8" scalloped circle that I punched from whisper white cardstock and then crumpled and smoothed out again.  I layered the flower on top and added the brad to hold it all together.  The stiffness of the cardstock allows the flower to have more shape and dimension.
I love this fabric and have several other projects to show you over the next little while that use fabric to add texture and colour...stay tuned!

Still more fun with fabric!

I still have a few scraps of Designer fabric left over from the last couple of posts.  I remembered a craft I did with my mom when I was a kid and thought I'd give it a shot.  This is what I ended up with:

Faux Quilted Christmas Ornament

Top of Ornament...one of our antique brads

Bottom of ornament...three big designer buttons and another antique brad.

I started with a plain styrofoam ball and a bunch of random scraps of fabric.  I then began attaching the fabric to the ball by pressing the edges into the styrofoam with the dull edge of a craft knife.  The fabric stays in the styrofoam and stretches out rather nicely.  I kept doing this until I had the whole ball covered.  I then added some Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon, pinning it into place with a strategically placed straight pin or two.  I added a loop on the top with an Antique brad.  For the bottom, I fed the prongs of another antique brad into the holes of one of the buttons.  I bent the prongs over so that the brad would stay in place.  I then strung the button and two more on some linen thread which I then tied in place around the seam binding. 
This project really is easy...not especially quick, but very simple to do.  Believe it or not, I still have enough scraps left to do one more of these!  Not bad for one pack of fabric!

More Fun with Fabric!

So I guess I'm on a roll with the Holiday Mini stuff.  I just can't stop playing with it!  Everything is just so beautiful!  I have stamps and paper from the new main catalogue that I haven't even touched yet and I can't put the Christmas stuff down!  Maybe once it goes live in 5 1/2 hours I'll be able to go back to some of my lonely stamps.  But for now, here is another project that uses the new Designer Fabric. 

I took the scraps left from yesterday's post and die cut several 3/4" squares.  I also die cut a Top Note in Whisper White.  I then used a great new product called Big Shot Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets and coated my top note die cut in adhesive.  Then I laid out a pattern of the little fabric squares on the adhesive-covered top note.  I then trimmed around the reverse side of my die cut so that I had a clean, fabric-covered shape.  I then zig zag stitched over the "seams" with my sewing machine.  I added a little Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon and one of the Big Designer buttons.  Something was still missing, so I punched out three ornaments in three different papers and folded and glued them together for a 3-D effect.  I added a little tag from the Tiny Tags set and viola...a home-spun Christmas card!

Designer Fabric...yes...from Stampin' Up!

Yes...Stampin' Up! is now offering gorgeous fabric!  The new Holiday Mini, which goes live in just 36 short hours, features two different lines of beautiful fabric.  The wreath below was made using 3/4 of a pack of the Deck The Halls fabric.  It cost less than $12.50 for the supplies!  A bargain for such a beautiful piece of holiday decor! 

So here's what I did:

1) Cut two 6" x 28" lengths of one pattern of fabric.
2)  Stitch one short end of each  piece together, forming one long piece of fabric.
3)  Sew a 1/4" hem on both short ends.
4)  Fold in half lengthwise with right sides together.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the full length.
5) Turn right-side out.  Sew one end shut.  Stitch a straight seam 3" in from closed end.
6)  Stuff tube with batting, making sure tube is full but still flexible enough to bend.  Leave 3" unfilled at the top.
7)  Sew the open end closed.  Stitch a straight seam in 3" from end, making sure batting is away from seam.
8)  Repeat steps 1-7 for other two patterns of fabric.
9)  Layer 3 tubes, on top of eachother, making sure to match the flat 3" ends as best as possible.  Stitch together.
10)  Braid the tubes, pinning flat ends together at the end.  Bend into a wreath shape and pin ends together.
11)  Cut a 4" x 6" piece of fabric.  Hem 2 long sides.  Wrap around pinned ends and hand stitch in place.
12)  Make fabric flowers/embellishments as desired.  The ones I made followed the instructions included with the fabric.  I used the Big Designer Buttons in Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla.  I sewed them onto the wreath to strategically cover the part where the  wreath joins. 

This is a great project, even for a so-so seamstress like me!  If you can sew a straight line and sew on a button you can do this!  I have lots more ideas for ways to use this great fabric.  Stay tuned...