Friday, August 26, 2011

Fall color flowers

Flowers flowers every where. My on line art group had a flower exchange, and I got a bit carried away with the flower making. I only need to make 5 flowers but I ended up with dozens. This was a new color way for me, I am usually into the pinks and lavenders and blues, so these yellows and oranges and Autumn reds, were a bit out of my comfort zone, once I got started tho they just kept coming.
Pansies made from wired ribbon of various lengths. Pansies are such fun to make and they turn out just like the real thing only in ribbon. I used the oranges and yellows and added a bit of brown to a couple of them.
These were also a great deal of fun to do, they are the singed material flowers, you cut your shapes from the material, it has to be material that will curl when exposed to heat so you have to experiment and not burn down the house. You hold the petal shapes over a flame, I use a candle and let the petals curl a bit and then you stack the petals together and sew in beads for the center.
The ones in the upper right were crafted from lace, it was an experiment that turned out well. I will make many more of theses for filler flowers.
Roses, my favorite flower, the big one in the lower left is brown, hard to tell from the pictures, I used grosgrain ribbon it was a nice change form the silk and the satin I usually use. I think it gave them more body, I crafted these on buckram and had to do a bit of sewing to anchor them down, but they are nice and flat on the back so they would be great add on's.
Now I have to decide which I am going to send for the Swap with my fellow MAMA members.

Monday, August 15, 2011

French ephemera journal MAMA swap

Our on line art swap group had this French journal swap. My partner was Holly More. This is what I made for her. Above are the center pages, I made the oval frames from card stock and covered them with rayon seam binding and I made the little yellow flowers and the leaves from silk ribbon. I used jeweled brads for the cream colored frame.
I made the pocket on the left from some pretty material and trimmed it with vintage lace and ribbon. The flap on the right folds out and there are some surprises inside.
These are the first pages, a double pocket on the left with a cloth tag and a framed picture of Marie on the right.
Here is the cover, I did some embroidery and added seed beads but they didn't show up in the photo. The flowers are the singed ones that are so popular. I so enjoyed making this for Holly and I know she liked it as she told me she did, that always makes it worth while when your partner likes what you created for them. TTFN