How to wrap letters with strips of fabric

Hi Everyone :)
This weekend, I shared these fabric covered letters with you during the Stampin' Addicts Holiday Mini blog hop. During the hop, we limit the number of photos and outside links per post so that it is not too time consuming for our readers to make it through all of the posts. Sometimes that means leaving out helpful tips and info.

In my post I had promised to link you to a helpful tip today, but the link itself seems to have disappeared. After an hour+ of googling every word combination I can think of, I cannot find it again or even a substitute. So how about I just show you here?  :)

This project is easy to do, but easier when you know to cover the top and bottom first - before wrapping the main stems of the letters.
Option A: If your letter is a serif font, I recommend covering the serif first. In the photo below, the right/bottom serif is covered. 
Option B: If your letter does not have a serif, then you can begin by covering the bottom of the letter with small strips of fabric - like the two strips you see on the left.

If you had serifs: Once any serifs are covered, add strips to cover the end of the letter.  These strips should overlap the ends of the serif pieces.

Next, wrap the main stem of the letter. On the back of the letter, secure the starting end of the fabric with a little bit of glue, then begin wrapping. Start low enough to cover the ends of the fabric you attached in the previous step. Slightly overlap as you wrap and trim off any rogue loose strings while you work.

And when you are done:

Additional notes:

1. You can click on the photos to view them larger. Always true, I just forget to mention it ;)
2. If you don't care for the rough edges of the fabric, cut or rip your fabric in wider strips and then fold them in half along the length. Allow the folded edge to show; you will cover the raw edges as you wrap and overlap.
3. If you are messy with wet glue, you may want to keep a wet towel handy for wiping your fingers. I apparently did not pass the Elmer's test in kindergarten...
4. This project can also be done with yarn. One color can look elegant or try multi-color for fun!
5. Let kids give it a try! Cover their initials or name and personalize their bedroom. Maybe a gift for a BFF?
6. Wreath forms can be wrapped with fabric or yarn, also. Add additional embellishments for the season or your home's decor.

Thanks for stopping by!



Supplies: Spice Cake Designer Fabric (124066), Tombow Multipurpose Adhesive and craft letters (non-su)

Need supplies? Shop Stampin' Up! Online

Stampin' Addicts Holiday Mini Blog Hop

This weekend, 19 of us at Stampin' Addicts are joining together to provide you with sneak peeks and project inspiration using products from the upcoming Holiday Mini catalog. This year's catalog contains a variety of styles and products - we just know you will find something to fit your taste!

Whether you are starting here or are already following the hop - Welcome!  Sara's blog was the stop before this one and she used a timeless new fall set, Gently Falling. The leaves and 2-step features of this set are sure to make it a classic! And those jars.. I can imagine them filled with the dry ingredients for making some kind of cinnamon cookie. (Haven't seen it yet? Follow the links embedded below and you will make your way around the hop and back to her site.)

Today, I am focusing on a new Designer Fabric offering, Spice Cake. I am primarily a card maker, but have been pushing myself to learn how to sew a bit.  Our beautiful fabric patterns have definitely inspired me to keep trying and I am hoping they will encourage you, too!

First, my main craft-love: cards! Sewing on card stock is easy and fabric adds wonderful texture to your creations.

The card on the left includes leaves die cut using our Leaves #2 die. The three leaves show you the three patterns you receive with this fabric. They feature Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Pool Party and More Mustard designs and - because they are Stampin' Up! - the colors coordinate with the card stock and same-name DSP perfectly! (They make it so easy for us...) And isn't the gift card cute? It tempts me to wrap a real gift in fabric instead of gift-wrap!

Since my sewing seems to be improving a little bit, I thought it would be fun to make a cute little bag. This one was created using a pattern from a book called "Sew the Perfect Bag".  The handles are bangle bracelets and as you can see in the inset photo, the bag is the perfect size for holding Mini Catalogs!

The book guides you to make a solid panel bag, a basic rectangle with no additional decoration on the outside. I altered it a bit by adding a belly band of the Pool Party fabric and a new Spice Cake button; don't they add a nice little splash of color? (The Party fabric also lines the inside of the bag.)

Now, how about a fun fall project for the home? And - yes - it is a NO-SEW project as promised! Here, inexpensive craft letters are wrapped with ripped strips of fabric. Cut into the edge of the fabric, then just pull the strip down and "rip" away to create long strips.  Secure the beginning and end of each strip directly to the letter with Tombow Multi. Just wrap each strip around the letter, overlapping a bit as you go. I tried to start and end on the back of the letter so that it wouldn't look too messy.

And when you are done:

I'm not sure if I will put these on a shelf or secure a length of ribbon behind them so that I can hang them up. Either way, they are my start to decorating the home for fall :) If you would like to give this a try, be sure to visit me again on Monday. I have a couple of links with helpful tips that will make this project a breeze for you.

Thanks for stopping by! Next, we get to see what Holly has done with a gorgeous new stamp set, Always Thankful. If you have visited her site before, you know you are going to see some wonderful things - and with detailed project notes - hooray! See you there!

Links:

Previous Sara - Gently Falling        Next Holly - Always Thankful


Chat with us about the hop - Stampin' Addicts Forum




 Supplies: Spice Cake Designer Fabric (124066/$9.95) This fabric coordinates with Spice Cake Designer Series Paper (124003/$10.95), DSP Digital Download (125610/$4.95) and Spice Cake Designer Buttons (124113/$7.95 for sixteen 1-1/2" diameter buttons).

Use It Tuesday - Wood Blocks

If you have removed your rubber stamps from their maple blocks, you may be wondering what you can do with the block. Here's an idea for you and your family to enjoy!

To make your catapult, adhere 2 blocks together and then attach a wooden clothespin to the top. We used hot glue but other strong craft adhesives will likely work well. For the "bucket", adhere a bottle top using the same adhesive. Once the glue is set, you are ready to play.

Try with a big target until you get the hang of it. Then try smaller targets :)

TIP: If you can find long clothespins, I recommend giving them a try. These smaller (regular sized?) ones worked fine, but we had to push down on the edge of the basket to launch. Smaller kids may not like how that feels on their little fingers.

Have fun!  Thanks for stopping by!



Stampin' Supplies: Wooden Blocks, hot glue, bottle top, plate or bowl for target

Need supplies? Shop Stampin' Up! Online

Use It Tuesday - your craft tote!

It's Monday night, technically not Tuesday - yet! But I already have a "Use it Tuesday" idea ready to post tomorrow and didn't want to wait another whole week to share this idea. School has either started already or will be starting soon for most kiddos and I know there are some of you out there who can use this idea. Today's Creative Blog shared this  organized homework station - made using a craft tote!

Now this is a great idea for staying organized at home, but it seems like this would be a great gift for the classroom as well. Most teachers would welcome a gift of extra supplies. And what a fun way to help out a kid in need of supplies?! Too fun! Lets put those extra totes to work :)


Thanks for stopping by!



Need supplies? Shop Stampin' Up! Online

Just checking in...

Hi there!

Just checking in to let you know I am alive and well! School began last week and we have added a few extras to the family schedule. Crafty-time has been at a minimum and, as a result, you haven't seen much from me here. But things are settling down now and I will be sneaking off to the craft cave soon. Ideas are piling up - can't wait to share them with you asap!

Thanks for the kind e-mails :)

Pennants in class today

We cover a variety of projects in our Friday class - one card at a time. We work with different styles and different products - some tried and true, some bold and new.
Pennants and Bakers Twine are two fads you may have noticed trending in card making lately. They both provide a fun "look" for celebrating a special occasion so we just had to add them to our repertoire. Along with a tag showing the pennant as a flag, we also created this in class today:

Clean and simple - but fun to send and receive ;)

Thanks for stopping by!


Click the ON SALE NOW tab above for a great deal on retired stamp sets!
Stampin' Supplies: 

Pennant Parade (cm #122742 $16.95)

Stamps: Pennant Parade, Happy Birthday Wishes (Hostess set)
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red
Paper: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Crumb Cake, Real Red
Tools: Petite Pennant Builder Punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/16" handheld punch
Embellishments: Bakers Twine
Always within reach: Tabletop Paper Cutter (106959), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430), Paper Snips (103579), Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner (102394), Stampin' Scrub (102642)
Need supplies? Shop Stampin' Up! Online

Pursuing Happiness with a sketch

Paula recently posted this sketch challenge on Stampin' Addicts. The sketch is based on a card on page 104 of the Idea Book & Catalog. With the kiddos trying to juice out every bit of play time before school begins, I actually had time to sneak off and play with both the sketch and some new stamps. Happiness reigns ;)

The background was stamped using one of the images from Best Friends Forever. Versamark ink gives a nice tone-on-tone look - love it on this Basic Gray card stock. The sentiment is one of the phrases in our new Pursuit of Happiness stamp set. Isn't it a nice quote? I'm tempted to send it to my Senator. (kidding....)
To see more ideas using this sketch, stop by Paula's blog; she has 2 cards to share and they both contain features you will want to try. (I don't want to spoil the surprise - check it out!) You can also visit the Stampin' Addicts forum where you can try other challenges, chat about anything stampin' and also see and share projects. I hope you'll stop by!

Thanks for visiting!

Best Friends Forever

Click the ON SALE NOW tab above for a great deal on retired stamp sets!
Stampin' Supplies: 
Stamps: Pursuit of Happiness, Best Friends Forever
Ink: Versamark, Basic Black
Paper: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze 
Embellishments: Brads (neutrals)
Always within reach: Tabletop Paper Cutter (106959), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430), Paper Snips (103579), Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner (102394), Stampin' Scrub (102642)
Need supplies? Shop Stampin' Up! Online

Use It Tuesday - Paper Scraps and the Pennant punch

I recently saw this fun mosaic piece of art on How About Orange. (Click to see the entire post, including a tutorial.)  The triangular pieces of paint chips she used made me think of our Petite Pennant Builder punch and the ever-present scraps of card stock that most of us have hanging around.

I'm still in summer slow-mo, so making a framed piece like this will have to wait. But for now, it was certainly easy enough to try it on a smaller "canvas":

Now you could go larger and fill a frame, much like she did. Or perhaps create a background for a scrapbook page? How ambitious are you today?

Thanks for stopping by!



Stampin' Supplies:

Petite Pennants (item #122361/$16.95)

Stamps: Perfectly Penned
Ink: Early Espresso
Paper: Subtles and Whisper White
Tools: Petite Pennant Builder punch, Designer Label punch, Wide oval punch, Dotted Scallop ribbon punch
Embellishments: Jewels Basic Rhinestone, Marina Mist 5/8" grosgrain (retired)
Always within reach: Tabletop Paper Cutter (106959), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430), Paper Snips (103579), Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner (102394), Stampin' Scrub (102642)
Need supplies? Shop Stampin' Up! Online

Card ideas and samples at your fingertips

One of the reasons I look forward to receiving new catalogs from Stampin' Up! is because I can't wait to see the projects contained within each issue. Did you know that our catalogs have more than 400 projects?  I'm too lazy to count - lets just say "a lot!" And my husband wonders why I look at it over and over (and over...) again! I see something new every time!

Well, today's card is not only a sample from the new catalog but it is also the project we made last Friday at our bi-weekly class. It's a pretty card with several great ideas:

• Heat embossing with white powder  (Who knew it could be so pretty?)
• Using a Sponge Dauber to add color
• Colorful card base - Calypso Coral
• Easy to use embellishments (Easy is good.)
• And let's not forget the best idea: the project was found in a great resource, our Idea Book & Catalog.

Simple ingredients and techniques, but with a wow finish. I hope you agree!

If you would like to join us for a class or are interested in getting your own copy of our Idea Book & Catalog, contact me and I'll fill you in on the details.  Thanks for stopping by!


Stampin' Supplies: 

Fifth Avenue Floral (item#113734)

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Tools: Heat Tool, Scallop Edge Punch, Paper Snips
Embellishments: Jewels Basic Pearls
Always within reach: Tabletop Paper Cutter (106959), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430), Paper Snips (103579), Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner (102394), Stampin' Scrub (102642)
Need supplies? Shop Stampin' Up! Online

Don't argue with your kids...

Give them options.

My sons are getting to an age where they seem to forget about things they've been doing on their own for years. So I thought I find a way to remind them without going into crazy-mom mode.

I invite you to (ignore the wrinkly towel and) check out my attempt at humor and written reminders:

The sign reads:

"You don't have to brush your teeth. Just the ones you want to keep!"

See? I even made it colors to match the decor they asked for (wall paint and guitar dudes). I am SO reasonable!

Here is a jpg of the sign printed out for the frame. Created in My Digital Studio as an 8.5" x 11" image, then printed onto card stock using my printer's "matte photo"and "borderless" options. My hope is that, if you want it, you should be able to click on it and open it up to true size. Loving mom, yes; computer guru - not so much. Please let me know if you have issues :)

Enjoy and Thanks for stopping by!



Stampin' Supplies: My Digital Studio, Whisper White card stock.
Need supplies? Shop Stampin' Up! Online