Time For A Torial....

A tutorial today! I am going to finally show how to "flock" something.  The image below is going to be used in a birthday card for a preschool friend of D#2. The theme D#2 and I picked out was princess. You can read about the gift we bought the birthday girl here. I was really bummed that I didn't have a princess stamp. I thought for sure that I had bought one. But, no, my stamps are real organized and there was not a princess stamp. I had to improvise. I googled princess cartoon image and found this one. It is a retired stamp from Stampin' Up. I drew the princess on a plain piece of paper and designed her like I wanted. I knew that I would want to paper piece some of her dress to make it look more professional.

Above: Hand drawn princess. Colored with my Copic markers.

Above: Here are the supplies that you will need to make the flock: yarn and scissors.

Above: Cut the yarn into tiny fluffy pieces. Zoom in for a closer look.

Above: Apply glue to the area to be flocked. If the area is small, pour a little glue on to a piece of paper and use a toothpick to apply the glue.

Above: I just smush the flock on and press it into the glue. Let it dry for about 10 minutes and then lightly brush the excess flock off with a soft bristle brush.

Above: Here's the finished card. I love using the corsage pins, but I always make sure to clip the point off, especially if it is for a child.

Above: I love to hang the card from the handle of the gift bag. Usually I use an envelope larger than the card so that I can punch a hole in the envelope to hang it. Today I had a eureka moment. I thought why not make a hanger for the card. So, I used the normal size envelope and taped a scalloped circle on to one short side of the envelope. The tape needs to be really strong. I use something called "red line tape". It is very sticky.

Above: The "red" is the backing. You just peel that off and it becomes double sided sticky tape. I usually buy mine at Wally World over in the office supply section. H Lobby also carries it and you can use that awesome coupon!

Above: Here is the back.

Above: D#2 modeling the present.

Gotta go now, thunder is rumbling so I should get away from the computer.

Have an awesome and crafty weekend!!!

Holly

Cards and Notebooks

Today I really don't have anything "prim" to show, but I have a couple of crafty things. I am not sure if you know this but I love to make cards and other paper crafts. The card below is for D#1 to give to one of her best friends. She picked out the paper and I designed the card.

Above: I did ink the edges to give it an antique look. The candle flame is yellow flock. I am not sure if you are familiar with "flock", but it is all the rage in the card industry. It is just basically fluffy fibers. I am not really sure what the companies make it out of but I have a very cheap and easy way to make your own. I think that it looks pretty neat, but it is expensive, especially if you want all the colors. Hopefully this weekend  I can do a tutorial on making your own "flock". It really adds dimension to your projects. I will do some before and after pictures so that you can see the difference. This tutorial will be on my other blog: http://www.cottonpickinfun.blogspot.com/ .

Above: I used glitter on the icing. Colored the mice with my copic markers.

Above: Little Tailor Mouse is in my Etsy store (http://www.cottonpickinfun.etsy.com/) . Read about him and his brothers: http://www.cottonpickinfun.blogspot.com/ .

Above: this is a mini notebook that I created recently. It is a thank you for an Etsy customer that recently purchased something from my Etsy store. I really do appreciate my customers and my goal is to make them happy and pleased with what they ordered. And that my items they purchase live up to their expectations.

Above: I love these little books, especially for writing lists.

A big "thanks" to everyone that reads my blog- THANK YOU. I love writing entries and find it a wonderful way to communicate to others throughout blog land. My sister and I talked about this for a long time and I am so glad that we decided to embark on this adventure together. Her blog is : http://www.patternpaperandcoffeerings.blogspot.com/ .

Tonight I don't have to think about supper. Son's FFA (Future Farmer's of America-for school) is having a fundraiser: Fish Fry, glad it is not monster truck racing or tractor pulling,

Have a great night,

Holly

M.I.A

So sorry I haven't had any new posts lately. I have misplaced my camera cord. It is the one that hooks the camera to the computer so that I can load all my pictures onto my blog. Not sure where it is. I am going to really look for it tonight.
Gotta go and look for that missing cord,
Holly

Mail's Here!!

Ever since I can remember I have wanted to make a mohair bear. I do have a kit that I bought years ago and never started. The thought of cutting that beautiful large piece of mohair makes my skin crawl. I have made bears, lots of bears. Bears that I call my preparation bears. They were preparing me so that I might cut into that beautiful mohair. I dream of making old antique Steiff looking bears. Today I received a package in the mail. It is from The Old Pincushion located in the Netherlands. Why the Netherlands you ask? Well..her bears are adorable and old looking and she makes patterns for them and has kits and mohair to go along with her patterns. Netherlands....hmmm...expensive shipping. Well, no, not really. I did save up my $, though. Some from Christmas, some from Etsy and some from commissioned work. I can't remember the exact shipping, but somewhere in the ball park of  $10-$15. Don't quote me. If you would like to know the exact amount, just leave me a comment and I will get back to you. Check out her website: http://www.vivianne-galli.blogspot.com/

Above: cute mohair bear kit, comes with eyes, thread for eyes, lace, cotter pins, rusty jingle bell, ribbon rose, discs, wool felt and mohair. The 4 differents types of mohair on the right were another kit, it contains just mohair.

Above: here's one sweet little bear. She's about 8 1/2 " tall.

Above: here's the other little bear. He is about 4 3/4" tall.

Above: all the different colors of mohair that I ordered. Each mohair piece is just enough to make one little

4 3/4 " bear. Maybe this will give me the confidence to cut into that big PaPa Bear mohair.

Have a "happy remains of the day" and a wonderful weekend,

-H

ps. guess who the quote is by. Hint: his best friend is Piglet :)

Foot Power....

Haven't worked on anything primitive in the last few days. I have been working on some http://www.cottonpickinfun.blogspot.com/ stuff. Head on over there to check it out. I will leave you with a small post. This summer, if mom comes to visit, I would like to learn to sew on this baby:

It is a treadle sewing machine-doesn't use electricity just your foot power-AWESOME. Wish it was more portable, she weighs about 75lbs? Mom use to sew all of her clothes on one when she was a teenager. I would love to sew something on it. I can't remember what year model it is but the decal is of the Spinx. Which I guess was real popular when King Tut's tomb was discovered?
The machine is pretty clean. I am not sure how to do the bobbin or if it uses modern needles. I do have a manual that I need to check out.
Thanks and have a great day tomorrow!!
-H

On Pins and Needles...

Two new pincushions up on Etsy- http://www.cottonpickinfun.etsy.com/  .Nothing much to blog about today. I have spent the better part of the day photographing the pincushions and getting them up on Etsy. Two daughters stayed home today, trying to recover. D#1 still has cough and throat hurts, doing a little better. D#2 is feeling much better, can't wait to go to school.

 Little Mouse Primitive Pincushion and Thread Catcher

Little Jack Primitive Pincushion and Thread Catcher

Have a good night,

-H

Please Pass the Needles..

The primitive pincushions are closer to completion. I am not sure how to put them on Etsy. It is a whole different direction than my clothespin dolls. Should I open another store to sell them? I believe that they kind of frown on that? Not sure, will have to check that out. Anyway, here's the new pincushions. I have used a pattern from cheswick company for the little pumpkin man and the bag is from sew by photos.

 

Above: Little mouse pincushion. He is holding a very large button, sitting upon a ball pincushion filled with stuffing and rice for weight. The little bag is for trash, such as snippets of fabric, wool or string. The long hand dyed ribbon is for your scissors. Tie them on and then when they are not in use, place them in the little pocket on front. A wool heart and antique skeleton key complete the scissors pocket.

Above: Fabric and wool strawberry. Two wool heart pins. The mouse, ball pincushion, leaves, heart pins, etc are made from wool felt or wool fabric.

Above: The bag is made out of Jo Morton reproduction Civil War fabrics. The lining is made from the same line of fabric just a different pattern.

Above: Scissors using the pocket and ribbon. These scissors are 5". 4" and under scissors would work also.

Above: better photo, look at left hand corner in previous pic, can see gap of background fabric. bummer.

Above: side view.

Above: Mouse has little tufts of wool fibers in his ears. Oh rats....I mean...mice? I forgot a tail for him. Must cut a piece of leather cording and make tail asap!

Above: must be very windy in Miceville. I can't get his scarf to lay down. Wasn't sure how to adhere the button to him. I tried several different things for him to hold, but kept going back to button. He looked so helpful and cute holding the button. I knew glue, hot or otherwise wouldn't work. It would show and the button is so smooth, would probably pop off sooner or later. Thread worked wonderfully. I really don't like to glue my stuff. I try to always hand sew anything that is tedious. I think it looks much better than gluing. Not that gluing something is bad, sometimes it is very necessary.

Above: This is Little Numpnee. Numpnee is what my sweet little darling D#1 used to call a pumpkin. She was not quite 2 when she called all pumpkins Numpnee. It all started when her great-Grandmother Nell brought her a little puppet pumpkin with kitty cat. She loved that pumpkin and would call it "Numpnee".

Little Numpnee is by cheswick company. I did change the pattern some. The face is different and I made the arms and legs like my clothespin dolls arms. In her pattern he is a standing doll. So cute! Of course I haven't finished it. I am going to add some velvet ric rac to the ball, scissors pocket and scissors ribbon to the bag and stitch the saying "Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere". And something for Numpnee to hold.  

Above: Instead of a strawberry, he has a spider.

Above: I wanted his face to look vintage. His hat still need to be finished. The thready yarn needs to be glued down and a pom pom on top. I know it seems very early to be doing something for fall, but I just couldn't help myself. I have had this kit for a year and had planned on making him last summer but didn't get around to it. Now I am not sure if I want to sell him or not, he is so cute in person. He is only 4" tall sitting down, hat not included in measurement.

That's all I have for today,

-H