Fabric Flower Tutorial

I showed you the fabric flowers I made for Christmas in yesterday's post.  Today, I'll show you how to make one for yourself. 

Here is what you will need:

Materials
Glue gun and glue
Fabric
Scissors
Marker or pen
A flower template (just draw a flower shape and cut it out of paper)


Step #1: 
Trace the flower template onto your fabric. You will need 5-6 flower shapes per flower that you want to make.

Step #2:
Cut out the flower shapes

Step #3:
Cut out a circle from you fabric a little larger than a quarter. 

Step #4:

Fold your flower shape in half

Step #5:
Fold the flower shape in half again

Step #6:
Snip off the end

This is how it will look.  Add glue to the tip.

Step #7:
Glue the shape to your circle. 

Step #8:
Glue at least 3 more flower shapes onto your circle.  You may need more if you have a bigger circle.

Step #9:
Glue the last two petals onto the center of the flower. 

You can add a pin, hair bow, head band, magnet, etc. to the back. 

These make great small gifts and gift wrapping embellishments!



A Homemade Christmas- Flower Pins

As I said before, this year most of Christmas gifts were homemade.  A favorite gift that I gave were these cute flower pins.  I had saw them on Jones Design Company's blog, and knew I had to make them.  You can visit her site for a great tutorial, and I'll share my own tomorrow as well. 

I used old clothes that I can't wear anymore to make all the flowers.  Jeans, skirts, and a shirt all went into these :)  I gave at least one to most girls on my Christmas list, and they were a big hit!  My grandmother had me show her how to make them on Christmas day and she made some of her own that night. 

Come back tomorrow for the tutorial!

Citrasolv Transfer Tutorial

Monday I shared some homemade pillows I made as Christmas gifts, and promised I'd share the tutorial for Citrasolv transfers.  This is one of my all time favorite projects!  I'm sure you could find tons of tutorials for this online, but I wanted to show you myself! 
To make your own Citrasolv transfer, you need:

-Citrasolv

-Fabric (I used a muslin type liner fabric that is about $2.50/yd- use a coupon at Joanne's for a better deal)

-An image to transfer (I got mine from here)

- A spoon, or anything hard that you can rub the image with

- A paint brush (if you don't have a paint brush, just use a cotton ball)

- Tape (I forgot to put that in the picture, oops)

*Some Notes on the materials*

For your image, you need something that looks good in black and white- I don't think you can transfer in color.  You MUST go to the printer properties when you print the image and select "mirror printing".  This will print the image backwards on the paper so that when you turn it over to transfer it is facing the correct direction. 

Also, the image must be printed on a laser printer or a copier. The citrasolv reacts to the toner, so a regular ink jet printer will not work for this.  If you don't have one, print it out on your inkjet and then take it to Staples or the local library to make a copy.  Or have it printed on a laser printed at Staples  (if you bring in a file on a USB or something, remember to tell the person to print mirror image)

About Citrasolv: Citrasolv is actually a natural citrus cleaner and degreaser, not a craft product.  I found mine at a health food store for $11.79.  A little pricey, but it lasts forever!  Food Lion in Lynchburg also carries it, but they didn't have the concentrated bottle- only the spray bottle that has water added. I doubt that would work. 

See, I still have tons after doing about 15 transfers and spilling some on my computer :).

Citrasolv's website will tell you where the closest places to buy it around you are here.

Once you have all your materials...

 Step #1:
Tape the paper image side down onto your fabric. (Be sure not to tape over any of the image)

 Step #2- With your paint brush, begin brushing over the image with Citrasolv. You will begin to see the image.

 Step #3: Make sure you have covered the entire image

 Step #4: Take your spoon (or whatever your using) and press down hard on the image.  Rub over the entire image.

Step #5: Peek at the corner without taking the tape off to make sure you've pressed hard enough to make the image show up.

 Step #6: Once you are ready, peel the paper off the fabric.  (This is the fun part!)

 Step #7: Enjoy your fabric transfer.  You could make a pillow, you could frame the fabric, etc.  The sky is the limit!

I'm linking up to the Frugal Friday, CSI Project and to the Lettered Cottage!

A Homemade Christmas- Pillows

This Christmas I was on a pretty tight budget so I decided to give mostly homemade Christmas gifts.  I've been wanting to share these projects as I've been doing them, but didn't want to spoil the surprise for anybody getting my gifts!  Over the next few days I will share some of the gifts and tutorials for making your own.  Update: Click below for my tutorial on making these transfers.

I gave about six people personalized pillows this year, and everyone really seemed to like them  Here are some that I remembered to take pictures of before wrapping...

For the monogram pillows, I found the beautiful borders from The Graphics Fairy.  This is such an awesome site with loads of vintage graphics! I then just inserted letters into the borders on Word. 

I made my mom these Silent Night pillows.  Don't you just love the lettering on them?  I think I'm going to make some of these for myself.  I found the beautiful graphics for them at Dear Lillie.

I think they turned out really well. I used the Citrasolv method that I shared here and here to imprint the images on the fabric. 

I'm linking up to Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy.

White Christmas!

We loved our white Christmas this year!  This is the first white Christmas in 48 years in my hometown.

Merry Christmas

I hope that you and your family have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!  I pray that you are filled with joy and praise as you celebrate the birth of Christ.

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1,14

I'll be taking a few days off from blogging to celebrate with my family. I have lots to share next week!

Wedding Ideas

I hate to admit it, but I spent almost 3 hours yesterday morning pouring over Millie Holoman Photography's blog.  She is a photographer based in Wilmington, NC where Jeremy and I are getting married this coming June.  Although she was out of our budget for photography, I have gotten so many ideas from her photos of some really amazingly beautiful weddings.   Here are some that have stole my heart:

You can see our wedding inspiration board here