Sweet Fabric Flower Tutorial

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Sorry I have not posted in a while, but I had my large family here for Christmas and was busy cleaning and cooking on top of my usual Christmas prep. I should be able to post more regularly when school starts again in January. Watch for giveaways on January 1 and a challenge for the Crop Out Diabetes fundraiser with a prize at the end of January.

Today I am sharing a sweet little flower I made with fabric scallops and my Cricut. More obsessing over scallops! Flowers are so trendy right now. You can scrap with them, make a brooch, and accessorize a hat or a purse and more. But, for many of us money is tight this time of year and every extra penny is put into gifts for loved ones. So, I dipped into my stash and played with making my own flower using some pink organza & white card stock. Here’s how I did it:

1) Cut 13 Circles in the Organza using a Sizzix Die 2 ½” big, and if you are superstitious, cut 2 extra.
2) Fold the circles in half and run a basting stitch along the raw edge, ¼” from the edge. Pull the basting to 1” long on 5 of the circles, ¾” long on 5 more, and ½” on the last 3. Tie knots to hold in place.


3) Cut a pentagon at 1 ½”, 1 ¼” and a triangle a 1”. I used Cricut and SCAL2 to get accurate and equal sided shapes. I am not sure if there is a pentagon in any of the Cricut cartridges, so I used SCAL2.

4) Heat up a glue gun and glue 5 petals on each of the pentagons, using the bigger petals for the bigger pentagon and the smaller petals for the smaller pentagon

5) Glue the remaining 3 petals (1/2”) to the triangle. Here is a picture of the three layers with the scallops all glued.

6) Glue or stitch the layers together with the raw edges of the petals facing up, to back the next layer. Alternate the petals on the pentagons to make the flower appear fuller.
7) Embellish with a pretty button.
If you hope to use this as a pin or fashion accessory you may want to consider replacing the card stock with felt or chipboard.

How to Save a Cut When Your Paper Lifts Up Mid Cut

I wanted to share a technique I use when my paper lifts of my mat while cutting and causes a ruined cut. This happens when your mat is losing it's stickiness and sometimes when your blade is going dull. I will share my technique in the SCAL2 and then on the Gypsy.
SCAL 2 method:
If you notice that your paper is lifting off the mat you must
1) Immediately hit the Pause button
2) Unload the paper by hitting the Unload Paper Button on your Cricut Machine.
3) Carefully re-smooth your paper back to the mat removing any paper debris that is unnecessary and or causing problems with the cut
4) Place your mat back in the machine and hit the Load Paper button on your Cricut.
5) Hit Resume Cutting
This may require a bit of hand snipping with your scissors at the end of the cut. It does not work every time, but it is worth a try to save your paper and cut! Sometimes you only have one piece of the your favorite paper and cannot get more so give this a try. Also, if you machine is known to drag the blade when loading this technique may not work.
Gypsy method:
If you notice that your paper is lifting off the mat you must
1) Immediately hit the Pause button in the dialog box.
2) Unload the paper by hitting the Unload Paper Button on your Cricut Machine.
3) Carefully re-smooth your paper back to the mat removing any paper debris that is unnecessary and or causing problems with the cut
4) Place your mat back in the machine and hit the Load Paper button on your Cricut.
5) Hit Resume on the Dialog box
This may require a bit of hand snipping with your scissors at the end of the cut. It does not work every time, but it is worth a try to save your paper and cut! Another tip, is that you can tape your paper to the sides of the mat in the green area with scotch tape. If your cut is lifting in the center of the cut you can try temporary adhesive on the back of your paper.
These suggestions are not the ideal. It is best to keep your mats clean or purchase a new one. But sometimes we crafters work late into the night and and looking for a solution to a problem.

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger

Did you see this week's Tuesday's Trigger at Moxie Fab World? Love it! This is not my color pallet of choice but it was so beautiful. I wanted to play along, but needed a push. So, when I received my sisters Christmas card I found my inspiration.


Some other things that inspired me were my Paper Crafts Magazine. They had an Ask the Experts segment on using white space. This is NOT my mode of operation! I am a space filler! Must be my large family upbringing! I am more comfortable with embellishments filling my empty space. But I think white space well done is beautiful! I think that is why I love Moxie Fab World, they has an impeccable sense of design and understand less is more!

And my final inspiration was the new rhinestone feature in SCAL2. Love it! I pulled up a swirly circle someone shared in SCAL community a while ago that I loved and added the rhinestones via the Object menu. So easy! I then loaded my Chomas pen holder with a pink pen and "cut" with the pen. I used the rhinestones I had and when I ran out filled the circles with my Stickles. This technique is a great LOOK for LESS!!! I tried to finish each swirl in one color and repeat each color at least once, so the whole swirl looked planned. Try using a few larger rhinestones in the middle of your swirls for a expensive designer look too! You know they say necessity is the mother of invention, I think it is the mother of beautiful art as well!

Our Lego Nativity: Thanks Cheryl!

The weather is terrible today and it is too brutal to send the boys out to play. So, I pulled out our Make it Monday craft idea a day early. I splurged on the Muji Lego paper punch at the Felt Cafe at Etsy and wanted to make a stepped Nativity scene with the boys and their Legos. So, I googled Nativity SVG and found a stepped card at Cheryl's blog. I cut our scene with white card stock and we used white Legos. The punch comes with a template, and the punch has only one hole. You cannot get very far into the page with this punch, so you may have to do a little playing to get a a large Lego shape. So, thanks Cheryl for the stepped Nativity SVG!

My Shops Sponsor at Etsy Inspired Challenge

Just a note to all of you that I am a sponsor this week at the Etsy Inspired Challenge blog. If you haven't checked out this challenge blog, you will want too! Every week they have Etsy stores that inspire and sponsor challenges. You visit the shop that is the inspiration shop and use one of their items to inspire a paper crafting project. You post a link to your project and can win prizes. This week you can win a gift certificate from either one of my Etsy shops for $15.00 and a gift certificate for Tzaddishop or Tzaddihome shop $35.00 and a gift voucher for $25.00. That's three prizes up for grabs this week. And I have to say that I love Tzaddi shop's items and would be participating in the challenge if I were not a sponsor! They are offering a coupon this week I just may have to check out! Above you can see my favorite item from the Tzaddi Shop at Etsy and below one from the Tzaddi Home Decor Shop also at Etsy.

I know it is a busy time of year to participate in a challenge, but any of the prizes this week would make a great gift! So, why not spend the time you would shopping on a challenge?! Here are the links to my shops: Scrapguild and Scrapincovers.

December's Featured Etsy Blogger is: Pruitthandcrafts

December's featured Etsy blogger is Pruitthandcrafts! Like many of us, Linda likes more than one medium. She has quilts, jewelry, embellishments and more at three Etsy stores. They are Pruitthandcrafts, Pruittdesigns, and Pruittsupply. My favorite item is this sweet bag. I love the details of the hand crocheted flower and the bias tape leaf, the shape is so appealing! Her profile says she is a breast cancer survivor and Grandmother to 25. I noticed she follows about as many blogs as I do. I think I like her already!

I'm on Page 142 of Scrap N' Art's Holiday Issue

Well it's official, I've been published at an online magazine! My December Daily cover made page 142 of Scrap N' Arts Holiday Issue. I just subscribed and have not yet had a chance to check it out fully, but it has lots of tutorials for the artistic scrapper!
They published my December Daily cover which I designed for Jill D-Zines just for this issue. The files are available to Scrap N Art subscribers exclusively, but you can find more of Jill's items at Scrapdish
Supplies used:
K & Company Peppermint Twist patterned paper
H Solo Stamp CTMH
Stocking SVG file from Scrap N' Art by Jill D-Zines
Album Cover cut file by me (see below for post with file download link)
Cuttlebug Swiss Dot Embossing Folder
May Arts Ribbon
Maya Road Flower
Slide Button Bo Bunny
Microsoft Word title December 2010
And here is page I made with more of the designs you get with the Scrap N' Art issue. I used the swirl with the pillow shape in the SCAL2 to make a frame.

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Advent Calendar 2

Just had to share my second Advent calendar I made to sell at my Etsy shop. I love being able to fill an Advent calendar with something I know my kids like that is not candy! I think other parents will too and why not have a pretty one? There are other calendars available on Etsy, so to set mine apart I did several things: I decorated the back and added a photo holder. So many people have kitchen islands these days, so I thought it would be nice to have the option of displaying either side, or being able to turn it after the kids have opened their daily box. And two, I decorated the top with a swirl or a fancy shape.

December Daily Cover & Mini Album Cover File to Share

I created and cut this file for my December Daily Cover. It would make the perfect cover for any Mini Album. Don't you love a peek a boo cut?! HERE is the SCUT version. I am still waiting for my cover to be published so I can share my photos. I found out it was supposed to be published on the 3rd, but it still not up. So, I will share my screen capture only. If you use a double sided paper, you can fold back the scallops for a trim look.

Pazzles Cover Now Available and on Sale!

I did not have any Pazzles Inspiration covers in the shop during my Black Friday through Cyber Monday. So, I finished one up today and listed it with a coupon for 20% off. Sale runs for four days, and you will use the coupon code PAZZLESONLY at check out to get your discount. Find it at Scrapguild.etsy.com.
I am still waiting for the online magazine to post their winter addition, so I can show you my December Daily cover. I was very good and already journaled! I will post pictures once the magazine is up.