Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Fancy a cuppa week - Jo Firth Young

Hi, 
You are in for a treat today with a fantastic step-by-step by Jo Firth Young made for you. LOOOTS of pictures, close shots for you to see how she made her adorable project. 
Hope you will take the time to tell her what you think in a comment below. Can't wait to read ...

JOFY used the Fabric book, which we don't have in stock at the moment. You can still order it, but please bear in mind that there will be a delay in dispatching this to you. 



The other option is the burlap one, which would be fantastic for vintagy or masculine  projects ;-)




 I loved this fabric book as soon as I saw it.  The heavyweight calico that it is made from means it is strong enough to be painted sewn & generally altered.


 The first thing I did was to create ‘pockets’ out of a page by folding it down and pressing the fold.

I then masked it off 


   
I used Cut&Dry foam to add Fresco Finish paints through the stencil (Mermaid Fresco Finish).
 


I used my sewing machine to sew around the folded pocket and around the entire page to secure the pocket and further embellish the page.  The felt die cut heart is hand sewn onto the page.

To decorate the pages of the book I die cut cups from fabric.  
I find that fabric die cuts more successfully if it is backed with a supporting element (thin paper for example) – in this case I created a ‘sandwich’ of cotton+iron-on-interfacing+Bondaweb.  I find this combination works really well: the iron-on-interfacing strengthens the fabric ready for cutting, while the Bondaweb is a product used to glue fabrics together.  
I used it here to ‘bond’/glue the fabric to the book page ready for sewing or doodling.  (glue sticks can be used for this also.).  The other advantage to die cutting all these layers together is that it ensures there are no scrappy edges.
I haven’t decorated all the pages of my book – I decorated half of them spread throughout so that it’s a theme running through but leaving space to add detail, journaling and/or scrapbook elements as the book develops.


I used my sewing machine to add detail to the cup on the front cover of my book.  

This resulted in the sewing being visible on the next page.  I liked how it looked - like a line drawing of a cup but decided to give it a wash of colour.

On another page I die cut and attached 2 small cups.  I wanted one of the cups to be facing the other way so I die cut one of the handles by placing the die on the reverse of the fabric sandwich.  I created the ‘sewn’ line by sketching onto the fabric cup with a permanent ink felt tip pen.  The words were added in the same way.


 The sketching on the above cup was also created by sketching.



So that is my ‘cuppa’ book – lots of space for adding text, sketches and stamped images of cups, and tea & coffee related phrases.





Materials:
Fresco Finish paints ‘Mermaid’ with a touch of ‘South Pacific’.
Crafters Workshop  Stencils: Circle explosion or Circle grid

See you tomorrow





Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Fancy a cuppa week - Michelle

Hi,
So have you got your cuppa ready? Michelle does ... several cups and cupcakes actually as she used the Kanban cup set




She is back today with a lovely mini album "you are the cream in my coffee"... isn't it adorable?







Here is what Michelle used
Kanban Cup stamp: Coffee shop
Distress inks: Peacock Feather,Worn Lipstick, Tumble Glass, Mustard Seed, Festive Berries, Vintage Photo

See you tomorrow



Monday, 21 January 2013

Fancy a cuppa week - Gio

He everyone, 
hope you had a nice week-end... 
Looking at the weather in the uk, at least in East Grinstead where I used to live, it looks like it's cold and very white indeed. (you have more snow there than we do here in southern Ontario!)
..... so what would be better than a "fancy a cuppa?" week... Just grab yourself a lovely cup of tea or coffee, and come and join us every day  for another week of inspiration.

We are going to start with Gio and a beautiful project of cup and place mat. Looove this one, love the soft colours.. This is so cute. 
Please let us (her) know what you think in a comment below. 



I cut two squares of natural calico. I adhered the Dreamweaver stencil: Vertical teacups to the fabric with masking tape and I sprayed some Dylusions ink spray. I glued some pieces of lace and ric-rac ribbon, then I sewed together the two pieces of fabric.

I printed on cardstock, cut and gessoed the teacup template. I stamped the cupcakes with the CI-374 stamp and black jet archival ink. I coloured the stamped cupcakes with Distress Inks and I sprayed everything with the Dylusions ink spray. I assembled every pieces and I embellished with pieces of lace.






Materials
CI-374 - Hello cupcakes
Dreamweaver stencil: Vertical teacups

See you tomorrow