Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Out with the old: Stitchery

I have been a cross stitcher since I was in third grade, much longer than I have been a scrapbooker. I'm drawn to a few types of patterns, first classic samplers, which I put together on a sampler wall in the guest room:

Next, Noah's Ark samplers, which I keep with a few Noah's Ark craft figures in the living room:

And finally, garden patterns, which I mostly keep in my bedroom:

 (Side note: it's really hard to photograph framed cross stitching behind glass!)

I am a quick and prolific stitcher, so I have many that I have not yet framed, like this one, which I imagined framing in two circular mats, sans cat hair, which seems to be on it now:

I also have many classic samplers unframed, like this one, which will go in the guest room:

And many small Noah's Ark patterns like this one:

And then in 2002 I stopped cross stitching when I had kids. With my sons constantly on my lap, I couldn't imagine needle crafts. The lighting was so poor by the time they were in bed, I just put it away for a while. Recently, though, I realized the lighting at my sons' taekwondo dojang was excellent, so I pulled out and finished the pattern I stopped stitching when my eldest was born:

Then I picked up another, a Halloween pattern, that I finished quickly:

Somewhere in here I also made a few geek patterns I picked up on Etsy or in other places. These patterns were so simple I could finish them in a day:

This next one is in my husband's cube at work:

So why am I mentioning this? Now that my boys are bigger, and I have found a well lit place I will be in for a few hours every week all year, I am dedicating myself to picking up my stitching habit again. My goal is to stitch between 3-6 patterns by the end of the year. In addition, I want to frame 3-4 patterns that I have already made. My longer term goal is to design a classic sampler pattern myself based on Star Wars; instead of a house, I want the skyline of Mos Eisley, and the verse "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" along with the phrase "Home Sweet Home."  I haven't found one I like to purchase, so I'll have to design it myself!

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you set goals for revisiting hobbies you have set aside but intend to go back to.

scrapbook.

Hello! Jennifer Larson here today. As always, I have been stitching on my pages, and I thought I'd share a few ways to add stitches yourself to add a little texture.

First, here's the page, which commemorates my boys' year in the district honor choir:

And five ways to add stitches like I did on the page:

1. Stitch a word. Using a pencil, lightly write the word on the page. Punch holes in the writing not too close together, between 1/8" and 1/4", and erase the writing and stitch. I use about 2 strands of DMC when stitching on a page.

2. Stitch down the title. Using your sewing machine, stitch about three lines parallel through the top of the title word to "anchor" it to the page. Don't worry about making them end evenly.

3. Stitch journaling lines. Lightly draw lines about 1/4" apart using a ruler. Journal, then stitch the journaling lines with a sewing machine. Don't worry about making the lines perfectly straight. Erase any stray marks.

4. Stitch photo corners. Punch holes about 1/4" apart around the corner of each photo. Don't worry about making them the same size. Backstitch using 2 strands of DMC.

5. Stitch a thin strip of paper. I like using many thin strips of patterned paper on my pages. I also like to machine stitch a line through one of them to anchor it to the page. Try that with thin strips, or stitch a frame around a block of paper on your page. Again, don't worry about stitching it perfectly straight. If it's crooked, it's whimsy.

Those are some ideas for adding quick and easy stitches to your pages! I hope that inspires you to try one (or more!) stitching techniques the next time you scrapbook.

Two-Page Summer Layouts

I love summer. Early morning walks, evening bike rides, eating outside, vacations, staycations, fairs, festivals, farmers markets, outdoor concerts, ice cream, lazy days, a slower pace. That's been our summer so far, so what's not to love? All this fun means we take more photos at this time of year than any other. When I get a pile of summer pictures developed, I want to scrap as many as I can, as quickly as I can. The two-page layout helps me accomplish just that. Some are intimidated by this larger canvas, so today I'm posting a few examples with design tips so your two-page layouts can be just as easy to create as a single page.

 

 

Tip #1: Take a cue from the photos to create a background. 

The balloons in the second photo inspired me to layer patterned paper circles over white cardstock. I cut one large circle so that it runs off the top of the page and spills over onto the second page. Then I cut more circles in various sizes and colors to keep things interesting. Circles always bring an energy that keeps your eye moving around the layout.

 

Tip #2: Take a cue from the photos to create embellishments. 

Our trip to the Copper Harbor lighthouse in Michigan's Upper Peninsula inspired me to use my Silhouette to create custom embellishments that fit the theme of this two-page layout. The lighthouses are arranged in a visual triangle that lead the eye though the title and journaling, then over to the second page. A row of anchors layered on colorful scalloped circles adds interest and ties the two pages together.

 

Tip #3: A little patterned paper can go a long way.

On the same trip, we spent a lovely day in Marquette, Michigan. These photos are already very colorful and highly saturated, so I minimized my use of patterned paper. A few strips provide the needed foundation so my photos are not floating on the page. A small cloud punch allows me to introduce a more fluid shape and adds a pop of color at the top of the layout.

 

Tip #4: Horizontal borders tie everything together.

When designing a two-page layout, I'm always looking for ways to unify the look, which usually means adding some kind of border across both pages. I created top and bottom borders on this layout with paper strips and stitching. Another border of colorful patterned paper runs through the bottom row of photos. Clustering the rest of the page elements towards the center and leaving generous space gives the layout a clean look.

Do you have an abundance of summer photos waiting to be scrapped? Why not make a serious dent in your pile by whipping up some two-page layouts!

Summer Color Palette

Hi everyone, Amy here to share one of my favortie things about summer-the beautiful colors that you see.  The green grass, blue sky, and gorgeous flowers all around, it just makes me happy.  I went searching for a summer color pallette and found one that I loved.

Source

Here is my layout.

Thanks for stopping by the blog, and I hope these summer colors have inspired you to use those bright summer colors!

Jumpstart Week | Technique

Welcome to day 4 of Jumpstart Week.  This week we are looking at the different ways that you can jumpstart your scrapbook page.  We looked at Photos, Colors, and Design so far.  Today we will look at techniques.

Trying a new technique is a great way to jumpstart a page.  There are so many different techniques that I want to try on my layouts!  For my “Beach Love” layout, I really wanted to try hand-stitching on my page.  After I put down some papers and my photos and got a general idea of where I want to stitch, I stitched the word “LOVE” and an arrow in the upper left hand corner.  I also stitched a star on the lower right corner to balance things out. 

You can even stitch on Project Life journal cards. I stitched the speech bubble onto a 3x4 journal card and adhered my photo inside it.

On this layout, I hand-stitched the sun rays using twine.

Another technique that I wanted to try on a page was emboss & resist with watercolors.  I did that on my layout about going to AT&T Park for baseball game.

Here’s a close-up of what the emboss and watercolor resist looks like.

If you’re interested in trying this technique, I have a video tutorial on my blog here.

For my page “Catch a Wave”, I wanted to simulate looking at things underwater through a porthole, so I created punched out circles on the bottom of the page and filled some of them with two layers of vellum and sequins and wood veneers in between.  I think this see-through effect is a fun look.

Another technique I love is filling cut-outs with patterned papers underneath.  For my layout below, I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the circles with hearts in them, and filled the hearts with coordinating patterned papers underneath.  Pretty fun!

Lisa O created this layout by using the punched out negative space paper strips as mats behind her photo.  She had punched out a bunch of butterflies and saved a few strips of the papers to use for the layout. So clever!

Jennie also wanted to use the negative space of a die cut on a page.  The mat with the hearts cut out really pop off the page!

Laura O wanted to try some Photoshop actions on her photo.  Laura says, “I used a photo action (Adrienne Looman Little Kisses).  For something like this I always duplicate the photo to apply the filter and keep the original.  I know that someday I might want to see how things really looked.  With this photo the effects of the filter were so fun and super saturated I was inspired to scrap it with this polaroid frame and colorful papers.”  Photoshop actions are a great digital technique to try!

Jennie wanted to incorporate letterpress into a 12x12 layout.  She used that technique to create this page “The Great Outdoors”.

Another technique that Jennie wanted to try was to use large photos cut up into several smaller slots on a Project Life layout.  That looks so cool!

Want to use up all your alphabets?  Why not use the leftovers to create some visual interest?  Jennie used it as part of her title + as an embellishment/page element.  So creative!

There are many techniques that I still want to try.  I keep a list of them in Evernote so that if when I have some time to experiment, I can go down the list and try something out.  Trying out new techniques is a great way to jumpstart a page!

 

In Review

As April draws to a close, we are going to take a moment to look back through our amazing April gallery, Selfies, for one last chance to pick up some journaling, photography, and design ideas. Ready? Shall we go together?

 

We thought these five layouts had wonderful ideas for journaling our own lives. Some give us good strategies for our writing, some give us good ideas. All are helpful to recording bits and pieces of our lives. Let's look.

 

This is So Me | Lisa Ottosson

8.5 x 11 | materials cardstock (Bazzill) + patterned paper (BasicGrey) + enamel dots (Freckled Fawn ) + tag (Evalicious) + journaling card (Project Life Neapolitan mini kit) + clip (Studio Calico) + datestamp (Becky Higgins) + sentiment stamp (October Afternoon)

Tried and true and never out of style, list making is a wonderful way of catching snapshots of our current lives. You can use them as bullet points as Lisa did, or use them as starting points for a much more in depth story.

 

Confessions | Jennifer Larson

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (American Crafts) + patterned paper (My Mind’s Eye, Studio Calico) + buttons (Studio Calico) + gems (Doodlebug) + stickers (Studio Calico, Jillibean Soup) + pen (Copic) + photo turn (7gypsies)

This is such a FANTASTIC idea for a layout. And using a patterned page like this helps eliminate the daunting side as it makes your confessions just snippets of thoughts and happenings, rather than making you feel like you are at the police station having to write down the whole story! Jenny, thank you for a truly clever idea!

 

Hello 32 | Kate Christensen

8.5 x 11 | materials digital kits (Sass Mouth by Valorie Wibbens and Lauren Reid) + kraft paper (Stated by Sara Gleason) + mist (Perfect Amount of Mess V.2 by Amy Martin) + alpha (Clearly by Robyn Meierotto) + style (Digital Glitters by Sahlin Studio) + font (Traveling Typewriter)

Do you sometimes shy away from journaling because you are afraid to write? Kate's layouts reminds us that a few descriptors can be a very effective means of journaling.

 

41 | Amy Sorensen

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (American Crafts) + pens (American Crafts, Zebra) + date stamp (My Mind's Eye) + font (merge)

Amy's random list is another successful means of collecting details that might otherwise go unstated in your scrapbooks. Having the number coincide with your age helps give you a parameter but it would be just as easy to pick 25 or 100. Another helpful measure if you choose this route for your journaling is to set a time limit on each one (or on the whole) so that you just go with what comes to mind and don't get too caught up in the process.

 

Technology | Cristina C. Scrap

12 x 12 | materials Real Life collection bundle (Digital Design Essentials), Journal Junkie - Bright Heart, Good Harvest, Doodles-a-Fancy Borders and Blessed Beyond Belief (CD Muckosky), The Golden Friends fonts (Heather Joyce)

Many of us have documented our movies and music, but until now, have you thought to document your tech? or your feelings about it? So much of what we do now revolves around it, especially if you are a a techhead. Thank you, Cristina, for the reminder to capture that side of ourselves as well!

 

 

As you look through these next few layouts, notice the awesome ideas for getting some shots of ourselves.

 

Something Cool Like Aliza | Aliza Deutsch

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (BasicGrey, Studio Calico) + transparency (Studio Calico) + sequins (Teresa Collins) + thickers (American Crafts) + enamel dots (Teresa Collins) + stickers (Evalicious, Skipping 5, Studio Calico, 7 gypsies, October Afternoon) + other (Jillibean Soup, Maya Road, Two Peas in a Bucket) + fonts (Skinny)

This photo reminds us to capture the regular moments of our lives. Here Aliza was scrapbooking on vacation. But it could have just as easily been at home. Set up the tripod or ask someone to capture you scrapbooking. It is a huge part of our lives. And what fun to see your process in front of you? Great idea, Aliza! 

 

Me & My Friends | Monika Głód

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (American Crafts) + patterned paper (Studio Calico) + alphabet (Studio Calico) + badge (Studio Calico) + mist (Studio Calico) + stamps (Studio Calico) + printables (Studio Calico)

Remember how awkward it used to be to ask someone to take a photo of you and your special girlfriends when you were out on a girls night? Remember how now in the time of camera phones, no one thinks twice about taking one themselves or asking someone to do it for you? No more, here is my big camera that will scare off any passerby. No more here is the button you push. Nope. Now just hand over your phone. Everyone knows where the buttons are. Everyone knows what to do. It's awesome!! 

 

Currently | Christine Newman

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill, Strathmore) + patterned paper (Studio Calico, Bella Blvd, Hambly, Lily Bee) + wood veneers (Studio Calico) + enamel dots (Twine + Ink) + printable labels (Studio Calico) + mist (Studio Calico) + ink (Hero Arts, Studio Calico, Tsukineko) + stamps (American Crafts, Evalicious, Technique Tuesday, Studio Calico) + tag (Elle's Studio) + twine (The Twinery) + washi tape (Studio Calico) + plastic hearts (Hello Forever for Studio Calico) + doily (Royal Lace) + adhesive (Scotch, Glue Dots) + pen (Sharpie, Sakura) + fonts (Lobster 2.0, PT Sans Narrow) + software (Rad Lab, Adobe Photoshop) + printer (Canon)

We love how Christine took one photo and added different filters and washes to create three different looks. And while at first you might think that it is still just the one photo, upon looking closely, you will see that the different effects create different images. One is happy and sunny. One is reality. And the other is artsy and contrasty. The filters you pick tell a little about yourself and help add to the story. A quiet and cool hidden bit of the story.

 

Days Like These | Amy Coose

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill) + patterned paper (Fancy Pants, Crate Paper) + mist (Studio Calico) + die cuts (Fancy Pants)+ pen (American Crafts) + cut file (Silhouette Online Store)

How much time do you spend in the car? Let us count the hours. These photos are priceless. Such a wonderful way to capture a slice of life and to tell the story of a busy mom. Sometimes in the passenger seat with a whole family behind her. Sometimes in the driver's seat with a tiny in a carseat. But always surrounded by love. It makes you want to hurry to your car and take similar photos, right?

 

My Fave Things | Jennifer Hignite

12 x 12 | materials template (Nettio Designs) + circle labels (Karla Dudley) + chipboard (My DeLeon)

This is the perfect photo challenge, summarized in one layout. Take your camera (phone or otherwise) and for one week (or a day) capture all those things around you that you love. Or be more precise. Photograph !% things you love. And then use the sketch from last week to recreate Jennifer's layout so you can showcase your favorite things. It's like a tiny little pinboard. And who doesn't love pinterest? It pinterest for your own life!

 

 

And last, but not least, we selected these six layouts for the design tips they inherently offered. Get your pencil out, you are going to want to make a list of these!

 

#planneraddict | Francine Clouden

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill Basics Paper) + spray ink (Kesi’Art) + patterned paper (Sassafras Lass for Studio Calico) + journal cards (Studio Calico, Kesi'Art, Callaloo Soup Designs) + stickers (Studio Calico, Sassafras Lass for Studio Calico) + paper doily + glassine bag

All the rage right now is writing with a paintbrush. It isn't as easy as you might think, but it is a lovely way to be artistic, have fun, and brighten up a page with the perfect color of title. And just like most things in life, practice makes perfect!

 

It's A Keeper | Sue Althouse

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (American Crafts) + patterned paper (Elle's Studio, Jenni Bowlin) + chipboard letters, stamp, enamel stickers (October Afternoon) + tags, frame (Elle's Studio) + floss, vellum (We R Memory Keepers) + paper clip, camera transparencies (Maya Road) + staples (Tim Holtz) + fabric corner (Amy Tangerine) + ink (Hero Arts) + border punch (Fiskars) + typewriter (Remington)

Sue's pages are such studies in balance. She truly is a master. Though, today, we are focusing in on another well done technique. Look how she created a polaroid overlay that is sitting vertically on her horizontal photo, thereby "cropping" out the superfluous and drawing your eye in to the important part of the photo.  Then she smartly layered other bits and baubles around and under her photo providing depth and texture to the photo. It was so well done, we bet some of you didn't even see the rest of the photo peeking out the sides. (It's okay, we missed it the first time, too!) Isn't it magical? Purposeful magic makes for wonderful pages.

 

I Love Color | Diane Payne

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (Studio Calico) + buttons (Studio Calico) + brads (American Crafts) + flair (A Flair for Buttons) + die cuts (American Craft, Studio Calico) + bows (American Crafts, Studio Calico) + paper clip (Freckled Fawn) + stickers (Freckled Fawn, Twine & Ink) + pen (American Crafts)

Amazing! We are going to look to four specific things that Diane does to make this layout sing. First, to balance ALL that color, there are two wide expanses of white space. And bit of blacks for grounding. This layout would have been frenetic chaos without these two things. Next, while Diane uses all five rainbow colors, she doesn't use shades of each as well, thereby maintaining the actual number of colors to 5. Third, the hearts, while plentiful, are small and repeating. Think of her having spilled a colorful button jar along the middle band. While lots of sizes, really only two shapes (hearts and circles) which again created controlled chaos. Lastly, Diane switched her photo to black and white (and a very blown out black and white) which eliminate any competition between the colors in the photo and the colors in the layout. You may want to rebuild this layout, but go against any of these four techniques, to better understand how smart they are for helping keep a neat and tidy layout. Diane, you get a gold star for this one!

 

Me At This Very Moment | Amy Kingsford

8.5 x 11 | materials patterned paper (Seize by Allison Pennington) + buttons (Seize by Allison Pennington) + brads (Seize by Allison Pennington) + alpha (Seize by Allison Pennington) + die cuts (Seize by Allison Pennington) + flowers (Seize by Allison Pennington) + cork (Happy Go Lucky by Allison Pennington) + other digital elements (Seize by Allison Pennington) + Template (One of Each 2 by Amy Martin) + fonts (KD Everyday)

This layout is in our scrapbook section as we were completely beguiled by the diagonal cut on Amy's photo. Brilliant! Do you see the subtle arrow drawn below the title? Built bu the box, the two triangles comprising the square, and the two triangles placed to create the arrowhead? Then look to the left and down a little and you will see that there is another arrowhead facing left. And then the circle with the dangling key in the center brings your eye in and holds the balance perfectly. This layout is art. Truly a mini masterpiece. Brava! Amy, you are amazing! 

 

Selfie with Flower | Jina Jean

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (American Crafts) + stickers (American Crafts) + glitter label (Studio Calico) + labels (October Afternoon) + tag (American Crafts) + ribbon (Gossamer Blue)

Jina does color washes unlike any other. And she is SOO good at the little details. The stamped feather blowing in the breezy clouds. The stitching in the clouds for added texture. The loose threads hanging off the end provide movement and help you feel the breeze you see in the photo. The droplets of water on the patterned paper that reinforce the water in the photo. The repeated bits of loveliness in the pink scattered here and there. The addition of the little yellow bow to the flower in the top left hand corner repeats the color of the journaling strip by the photo adding cohesion. Do you see how all the random bits are anything but random?

 

Love Me My | Marnie Flores

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (Glitz) + tags (One Little Bird) + arrow (Glitz) + flair (Pixels & Co. Collaboration) + fonts (The Maple Origins, Montez)

Going digital gives you the freedom to play with hues. Liking making all the blues in your papers a tiny bit more green to make you eyes stand out? Or making things a little bit lighter here and a little bit darker there to better tie them together. If you are digital, don't be afraid to play with the depth or shade of the colors in your kits so that you can create the perfect hue for your layout.

 

Thank you, for stopping by and for being a part of our write. click. scrapbook. reading family! We love having you and hope that you have enjoyed our look back through our gallery! Only four more days til a new one!

Single Photo Layouts

Hi everyone, it's Amy here with you this week on the blog. This week's theme was an idea that one of my very talented WCS teammates came up with, so let's all thank Stephanie Bryan for the great idea!

This week is all about the number of photos, and we're starting out today with single photo layouts.  There are times where you have an amazing photo that you want to highlight, and I just love all the creative space that you are given when you only have one photo.  

 

Here are a few of my favorite single photo layouts.

 

Sue sent along this amazing single photo layout.

 I love this layout from Laura, she does such a great job using a large photo.

Then this one with all the white space, LOVE!

Jennifer created this fabulous layout using a large photo, too.

Diane also sent over some amazing single photo layouts.

I love the design of this page Diane created.

 

Lisa created some adorable single photo layouts as well.

Now that's some amazing inspiration, isn't it? I also have a giveaway for this week.  Paper Camellia, one of my favorite monthly kit clubs, has generously offered this amazing giveaway for you this week.  

 

All you have to do is leave a comment here with your email address on this post by Thursday, April 3rd, and you will be entered to win.

I am excited about sharing this week with you! Make sure to stop by tomorrow for our April gallery, it's going to be amazing.

Scrapbooking & Other Crafts | Cross-Stitch and Embroidery

Do we have any needleworkers amongst us? I learned embroidery around age 11, but quickly dismissed it as one of those things I just didn't have patience for. After getting back into the crafty world as an adult though, I picked it back up, mainly to use in scrapbooking. Using cross-stitch and embroidery, you can create some unique and customized page accents, and even backgrounds. Let's take a look at some examples.

 

Diane is a master cross-stitcher! Just look at this gorgeous heart embellishment

And here's another to continue the love theme with two sets of XOXOs.

I guess when it comes to cross-stitch it's all about the love! Lisa sent along this page:

I've always thought cross-stitching was too finicky for me to try, but Diane and Lisa are making me reconsider that opinion! Plus I found a couple of tutorials that could really help.

This one will help you make a heart tag on paper. It's in Italian, but there's a video to follow along with.

If you're not up to using a needle and thread, maybe a little faux stitching might be your thing?

You can make a cross-stitch stamp to mimic the look of stitching on your projects. Or you can use it to stamp out a design to use as a guide for the actual stitching.

Lisa told me that she also uses embroidery on her pages, usually for titles. That's what Diane did on this page

It looks fantastic, doesn't it?

I used embroidery to make a heart accent on a page about things I love

I printed out the card with the heart accent, then stitched over it.

If you don't want to do the actual stitching, you can buy pre-stitched embellishments like this tag from Amy Tangerine.

You can also find pre-stitched tags at Handmade:Modern on Etsy

Amy Tangerine also has a line of die-cut tags that are like a stitching template

She talks about how to use them here

Finally, for more inspiration check out this Stitch on Paper Pinterest board.

I hoped this sparked some ideas for you! Tomorrow we'll take a look at crochet and knitting on our pages.

Keep Warm day 2: Products

Jennifer Larson again, trying to keep warm by using some warm scrapbooking products.

True, scrapbooking products don't normally make me think "warm," but some are cozier than others. Here's what I thought up:

• fabric
• ribbon
• felt
• wax
• heat embossing
• wood (you know, wood fires...just not on your page)

And here are some pages that make use of these warm products:

The first one uses fabric trim layered on top of paper trims. Layers always make me think warm. Diane Payne also used some layered trim, this time misted:

And here's one I misted as well.

I added ribbon to this page. It was too thin, so I lay down some adhesive and randomly ruffled it as I stitched across it:

Diane did something similar on these two pages. Look at how varied it looks in each page!

Fabric...not something I scrap with much, but after looking at the following pages, I should! Here Amy Sorenson put a TON of fabric accents on the page:

And Diane added a pocket--an actual pocket!--that houses a mini album. Cute!

Here I printed a photo on self-adhesive canvas:

I sometimes use felt, which is hard to sew but easier to glue. Here's a hand cut mouse accent I made:

And some felt stickers on a page about my monster history. (I like googly eyes, in case you can't tell.)

(You know that Muppets personality quiz going around? How cute would it be to use felt on a page about your Muppet personality? Mine is Crazy Harry. I dunno about that one...)

Heat embossing is fun but sometimes delicate. Here's a page where I heat embossed some stamped circles:

Sometimes, if I mess up the embossing and get stray color, I cut out the accent and adhere it like I did on this page:

Thank you again for checking out these warm products! I hope oday gave you some toasty product inspiration; tomorrow we visit some toasty subjects to scrapbook!

Gift Decorations

First, I want to say how happy I am to see these daily posts again! It is so much fun to see what everyone share each day!

I am going to share an easy gift decoration diy. I don't have a template for you, but I used one that I found through a Pinterest search. 

 For this you will need:

• patterned paper
• scissors
• kraft knife
• embellsishments like buttons or brads
• glue
• template with 2 sizes of flowers

 

First, I traced the flowers on the patterned paper. When I had cut them out I used my kraft knife to rough the edges. 

 

Then I glued the two flowers together and hand stitched the button to the center. Before I was done I folded the petals a bit to give the flower a bit of dimension. 

 

 

If you don't end up using these as gift decorations you could use them for a table you are setting for the holidays!

Thanks for popping in and be sure to be back tomorrow!

Lisa O