Day 337: Post-it Masking Tutorial

So my monochromatic card from the other evening brought on some questions about my masking technique. I offered to do a quick overview of how I masked the flowers...but then I thought I should do it with a new card, right?

So I popped over to CAS(E) this Sketch for some design inspiration, and then to  ColourQ for a color palette, because my brain is a big mush of moving details and over-caffeinated bad sleep. I added some 1/4" washi tape I found at Hobby lobby and a bitty strip of Charlotte paper, otherwise this is a one layer card.

My first step was the use washi tape to mask where the sentiment was supposed to go. If you can see the linty look to the washi, when I use it like this I often stick it to my pant leg before adhering it to the card so it won't be so sticky. I make it large enough to go off each edge of the card to help stabilize the card and keep it from scooting around while I'm working. I stamped the first central flower using Blush ink, then again onto a handy post-it note. You'll see that the image on the post-it isn't very well stamped - I don't need all the details, just the general outline, so I didn't bother to re-ink my stamp. I just stamped it with whatever ink remained from my stamped image on the card. I also make sure to catch at least a bit of the actual sticky part of the post-it note to help the mask stay in place on my project.

I cut out the post-it flower image and covered up the original stamped flower. Then I added two more flowers to the cluster., making a mask for each of those out of post-its as I went along. When making a masked cluster, you want to work from the "front" of your cluster to the back, stamping the things you want closest first and then adding more images behind as you go.

Each time I added a flower I made a post-it mask and covered that stamped image so I could keep adding flowers, leaves, and sprays for my floral cluster to my heart's content. When you are done, slide the masks into your stamp envelope to use again in the future. They won't last forever when made out of a post-it, but you can certainly get more than one use out of them.

Finally I removed the washi tape mask, stamped my sentiment bar and added the paper/washi strips. I popped on some pink enamel gems, then went back in with an alcohol marker to turn a few of the flower centers from pink to yellow. I used the same marker to add the dot border detail. I hope my little visual was helpful to those of you unfamiliar with masking!

Day 133: Ariel Costume Tank Top

Let me preface this post by saying that I am not a sewer. So if you are one of those amazing sewing experts, prepare to be utterly horrified by this post. I'm sorry in advance. I can stitch a scrapbook page, and even hem my own jeans (a skill which still amazes me every time I manage it), but I firmly believe real sewing should be left up to the experts. Except when I head to Disneyland apparently, and then I lose my head. I blame Pinterest. 

Last year I got this idea that I could build a Snow White princess shirt after finding this tutorial on Pinterest. Raegun made it sound so easy, and hey, I own a sewing machine, so how hard could it be? <facepalm> In truth it was both easier and harder than I expected. The princess sleeves worked like a dream - just like she wrote! Like I seriously felt uber cool when I made them. Then I got the idea to add some trim at the bottom...and some flounces...and those were weird, because pattern-schmattern-I-can-just-wing-it took over. Yep. So tiny hand sewn roses, more trim, and ribbon leaves were added to cover the crooked seams and pleating. In the end I was glad I made the shirt and pleased with how it turned out. Just don't look inside. I thought I wrote a blog post about this, but maybe I just documented the crazy on Instagram...in any case, after wearing my creation around the park (and getting hailed by a little girl waiting for a parade who apparently thought perhaps in her off hours Snow White ditches the ball gown skirt for denim) I felt that it was a success. Thanks, Raegun!

 So since I'm supposed to hang with an 8 year old girl at Disneyland next week, and I have no girls at my house, this year I figured I'd make her a costume tank of her fav princess and we'd be princesses together. Then she said her fav was Ariel. As in the Little Mermaid. Not Rapunzel, or Cinderella, or one of the others I'd convinced myself would be easier than Snow White. She wants a shell bra and mermaid tail. facepalm

> 

So I drank a bunch of iced tea and bought a lavender tank (because I do not believe 8 year old girls should wear actual shell bras) and a trio of sparkly material. Dusted off my pattern-schmattern-I-can-just-wing-it attitude and started hand stitching the material onto the tank. We will call this ruching, because I've never ruched anything before in my life and that's the closest thing I could find to what I did, but basically I cut a piece of material about double the width I was guessing I needed, stitched it on top and bottom, then crunched up the excess and tacked it in place. By Hand. For almost the entire length of Beauty & The Beast, since we've been doing Disney Ed with the boys all month. When that looked relatively even, I started stitching on trim, lots of net ruffles, strings of faux pearls, and these awesome iridescent jewel buttons. I stitched on three layers of ruffles at the bottom and repeated the crazy ruching process for the mermaid belt. All. By. Hand. 

Keep in mind I have no actual little girl to try this on...I did get one boy (who shall remain nameless) to at least try it on for me to help with the bra placement and final adjustments, but no pictures were taken to protect the innocent and helpful party. He was well compensated. On a person the "bra" wraps to the back and looks much less uneven and weird. The green flounces are towards the back of the hip, too, not sticking out all lumpy. Again this year I was reminded that I'm definitely not headed for Project Runway, but I am happy with the effort, and hoping she will love it!  

Day 127: Rolled Flower Tutorial

So I've been working on these watercolor rolled Cricut cut flowers for a very special project, and posting the pics to my Instagram. We have these flowers in different shapes on many of the CTMH cricut cartridges. This shape in particular is from the Art Philosophy cartridge, which remains my favorite cartridge to this day. It's my favorite flower on my go to, almost-always-has-what-I-need cartridge.

I had cut these flowers out of plain white cardstock, then colored them using a water brush to pick up ink from my ink pads. When the shapes were dry I rolled and shaped them into this:

There was one left over, which I used on this card, which lead to a question on Facebook about how to roll up these funky rolled flower shapes. Since rolling and shaping flowers is one of my favorite things, here's a little infographic tutorial for you!

Seven Steps to Beautiful Rolled Flowers:

1. The first thing I do with a freshly cut rolled flower shape is add a dab of dry adhesive to the flat center of the shape. This could be Tombo, a glue dot, whatever you like that sticks well.
   
2. Then I use my CTMH Quilling tool to roll them. I insert the smallest end into the wide slot on the tool. You could use tweezers, but I find this so much easier.
   
3. Roll up the flower shape towards the center, wrapping it tightly around the tool.
   
4. When you get it rolled as far as you can, Hold it tight for a few seconds to sort of "set" the curl.
   
5. Let it go (Let it go!) and slide it off the tool. Place it on a flat surface and gently tap the center to help it relax into shape. Then press down lightly on that center to stick it to that adhesive we applied earlier. That's just to hold it in place until the next step.
   
6. Apply Liquid Glass (or the sturdy liquid adhesive of your choice) down in between the petals of the flower. Let that dry completely before moving on to the last step.
   
7. Use the quilling tool on the smaller side to roll the petals back. I like to start on the outsdie and work my way in. Sometimes I leave the center area untouched for a more rose like effect. In the photo on the chevron above I used the tool to push in and down the center petals for more of a peony center. If I need it flatter I'll smack it down with a handy 3 x 3 or bigger acrylic block.  Sometimes I fill the centers with Glitter. Take that basic flower and make it your own!

If you want to color on, emboss, sand/distress your flower, do that before you start step one. The possibilities with these rolled flowers are endless...endlessly fun!