March 11, 2011 at 8:06 AM A PRETTY FABRIC POSEY...
because it's time for a photo-tutorial. LOTS of pictures, and lots of ideas - so sit back and soak it in!
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The NEW Ring Around the Posey die is a Die-Versions Die {that means it's made by us, here in the U.S.A.!}. It's large-and-in-charge - 5" large, 4" large and 3" large. We're talking HUGE!
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For my fabric flowers I've been using up fabric quarters - a.k.a. fat quarters. Fun patterns, quilt-weight, inexpensive and available almost everywhere.
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And I'm totally lovin' on the new I-Bond Glue Gun from Imaginisce. It's cordless which makes it great for crafting outdoors - haha!
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And my new discovery is this stuff. The "magic potion" for perfect cuts, curly petals, and an adorable posey. {I found it at Michael's - and yes, I know it's not usually cool to tell your customers to run to Michaels'. But it's all good, we're cool about sharing tips like this!} I use it in the microwave. NOT the bottle in the microwave, the sprayed fabric in the microwave. I just took a picture of the bottle in the microwave. Please please DO NOT microwave your whole bottle! Gosh that'd just be silly. And wrong in just so many ways.
The right way is to lay out a hunk of newspaper, followed by paper towels, followed by your 6"x 12" piece of fabric. Spray the fabric according to the directions.
If you're patient you'll wait the hour long dry-time {I'm not patient!}. Or you'll move your fabric to fresh paper towels in the microwave and nuke for 30 seconds {mine took an additional 15 seconds}.
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What comes out of the microwave is cardstock-like fabric. I love it!
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Cardstock-like fabric cuts with no-shim, no-extra paper, no-nothing. Our new Die-Version dies are like a hot knife through butter.
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Look at what's left behind! {Yes, I changed fabric - I made several flowers and forgot to photograph the red dotty fabric in this stage - OOPS!} Perfect edges everywhere with these NEW dies - just perfect!
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Now grab your cordless I-Bond - see it's cute little headlamp light? Perfect for late night crafting or early morning crafting...even cave crafting! You'll want a nice thin layer of hot hot on the "tab" of the flower - if you get too much it'll peel off because the fabric stiffy-stuff acts as a shield on the fabric. A thin layer of glue kind of melts the shield and lets it bond!
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Curl your edges toward each other and stick 'em together! This is the middle 4" petal I'm working on here.
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When all 3 layers are complete you'll layer them up and twist 'em however you'd like them to lay. Lining them up makes the flower a bit more delicate - overlapping the petals makes a much fuller flower. Such versatility!
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I grabbed a boring white brad and stuck it through my 3 layers. When you're ready to secure your brad you'll want to mash in the very bottom of the flower. It helps the brad secure to the fabric and will help the flower itself not wobble around on whatever you're adding it to.
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So here are three layers of nice stiff petals, and a glaring white brad! HAH - But I'm not done!
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You'll want to grab something like this. A stylus, a bone folder, a ball point pen - heck even a popsicle stick will work...
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And you're going to curl the edges of each petal. The same motion you'd use when you're curling ribbon on a gift - between your thumb and whatever tool you're using. Just use the tool as a pivot point and take your thumb to curl the fabric down around the tool. The stiffy-stuff allows you to mold and bend and shape to your heart's content!
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Finished you get nice dimension, curled petals and a more realistic look. But gosh - isn't that white brad still a bit obnoxious??
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Grab your button stash and your I-Bond again, and just cover the darn thing up! What I realized when I did this is it's the IDEAL way to plow through tons of old brads in my stash. Weird shaped one, odd colors, mixed-and-matched brads for eons ago. Use the brad for it's purpose - to hold - and simply cover it up with a button or a gem or a die-cut or an embossed shape. Repurposing - love it!
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When I was making this on Wednesday I had a gift to wrap up - I took my finished flower and grabbed a 6" hunk of lime green 2" wide grosgrain ribbon. I hot glued the back of the flower to the center of the ribbon and let it cool. All that's left to do is tie the ribbon itself to the hand of a plain kraft gift bag. It makes the gift bag adorable AND the entire flower is reusable! It just needs to be untied!
Last night I was playing some more - experimenting with felt and different buttons...
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does anyone still have Boshers in their hoard of supplies? The green and the black rings up there are Boshers...and LOOK how cute they are when paired with a shanked button...
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Button, Bosher, wire {okay, so it's wire from the spool of my husband's weed-eater/lawn-edger...it's the only wire I could find at 11:30 last night!}...
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onto a puddle of hot glue. The only reason I added the hot glue here is because the felt is heavier than the fabric and without a brad I was having a difficult time keeping the point mashed down.
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But with the glue there - I could mash the bottom of the flower in and it stayed! Now the flower is ready to wire to anything I see fit...
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Here my lovely model Maccabees is showing off how cute it looks!
I did NOT use the Stiffy Stuff on the red felt flower. Not necessary. The felt I used is 30% wool felt that I bought at the fabric store on the bolt. The 9x12 sheets you buy in the craft aisles are acrylic and do NOT cut well. Grab a coupon and get some felt-blend from the bolt - you'll be much happier. Cuts like nobody's business!
However when I experimented last night - I sprayed some felt with Stiffy Stuff just to see how "stiff" it would get...
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and you can emboss the felt! This takes poseys to a brand new, textural dimension! Dig those embossing folders out and start felt-embossing!
For the above white daisy I used my I-Top tool to cover a 28mm Twist Daddy. This way it can twist onto a headband in a snap! CUTE!
Okay - I know that was a crazy amount of pictures, and I hope everything makes sense. Basically the highlights are...
- the NEW Ring Around the Posey cuts fabric and felt like a dream
- add in the stiffy-stuff and you've got a curl-able, moldable, emboss-able dream
- using the cordless I-Bond glue gun allows you to craft in a cave
- cover up cheesy old brads with hot glue and buttons
- Mac makes an oh-so-willing model early in the morning
- and you can never have enough bling in your life!
I think that's it! {LOL - I need to stop drinking coffee - I'm on caffeine overload!}
If you have ANY questions about what I did, how I did it or what I'm planning on doing with the felt and fabric garden growing on my desk - please leave a comment below!
I'm here for your habit...
Reader Comments (13)
I love that I got to pick out fabric to go with some paper I have for a layout. Have you ever taken scrapbook paper to the fabric store to match up for a wonderful embellie!
Susan, thanks so much for sharing this with us and the ALL the pictures are perfect to allow us to be successful when we try this technique
Karen W
The "Stiffy Stuff" was at my Michael's in the "adhesive aisle" - not in the scrapbook aisles. Find where they have the Aleens Tacky Glue, the Gorilla Glue, the Duct Tape, the U600, the crazy glue, the Mod Podge, stuff like that - it's in that aisle.
Make sure you share your pictures with what you create - can't wait to see flowers galore!
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This die is a honey - it cuts SO well, and the pieces just fall out, even without foam. Gotta say the Scrapycrafts quality exceeds my expectations by a mile. Dani and Susan - great job! Hope Dani has ordered more...
How will I get my DT assignments done this weekend when I'm distracted by making Posies??? LOL Gail
Looking forward to next week's fun! MB :D
Love all the projects. You did a fabulous job with this die.
Katherine