Sunday, October 16, 2011

I Believe in You

I'm finally back to cardmaking!  I cannot believe that I haven't posted anything since the end of August, but I just have not had much for cardmaking mojo.  I've been doing some knitting, and I just finished painting my daughter's room, so that's what's been occupying my time these days.

I wanted to contribute to the Hope You Can Cling To challenges at Splitcoaststampers again this year, and that finally restarted my mojo.  I'm only going to have time to post one card tonight, but I did get 6 other challenge cards made this weekend!  I'm hoping to get them photographed and posted over the coming days.

So for the HYCCT1111 challenge, we were challenged to Fight Like a Girl and include girlie embellishments on our cards.  I made the card for the 1105 sketch challenge earlier today, so I just used that same sketch and went really girlie with it.  This card is also my entry for the October Get Your Diva On Challenge.  Andrea challenged us to make handmade embellishments for our entries.



I used some black and white damask paper from my stash as the base and then created a big pink flower as my handmade embellishment.  This pink flower is made from some fabric scraps left over from the little girls' dresses for my wedding.   I was married 16 years ago, so it is high time that these scraps are put to good use!  I picked this bright watermelon pink color because it matches one of my favorite flowers, stargazer lilies.



I have a few pictures of the process, but I made a smaller flower in these demo pictures.  First, take a long strip of fabric (I used a watermelon pink taffeta) and fold it in half with the wrong sides together.  The wider your folded fabric, the taller your flower will be.  I used a sewing machine to run two rows of gathering stitches (at 3/8 and at 5/8).  Start at one end and tie off the gathering threads.  Then tightly pull up the gathers and roll into a flower shape.








 Once I have the flower rolled and shaped as desired, I tack through the layers enough times to hold the whole thing together.  The last thing you want at this point is for the flower to come partially unrolled!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Verve "Fabulous You"
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Other:  Nestabilities circle and scalloped circle, lace and ribbon from stash, fabric from stash, Recollections bling flourish from Michael's

Thanks for stopping by! 
Blessings!
Sarah