Wednesday, May 30, 2012

May Arts DT Call Round 1


Here I am, throwing my name into the hat for the May Arts DT call. I've been lucky enough to be chosen for quite a few of the May Arts monthly challenges and love working with such beautiful high quality ribbons.

Here is my tutorial format project (in written format): 

Gather supplies: a gorgeous super wide dark brown burlap ribbon by May Arts, Basically Bare canvas fleur de lis, Distress Stain in Pumice Stone, a medium color burlap, muslin, dark brown quilting thread (it’s thicker than normal every day thread), vintage buttons and pillow fluff! (don't forget the sewing machine!)
I splattered some distress stain on my teflon mat, gave it a bit of a spritz with water and dipped my fleur de lis in it. I then set it out in the sun to dry… I did try heating it with a heat gun and for whatever reason it kept getting a purple tint. Mr. Natural Heat to the rescue :)
After he was dry I sewed a piece of burlap to a piece of muslin.. I knew I wanted the burlap to be the main texture of the pillow.. but didn’t want the fluff to poke through the open texture, so I created the base of the pillow from a nice tightly woven muslin. After the burlap was sewn to the muslin and my fleur de lis was dry I placed the Basically Bare canvas piece on top of the muslin and stitched a couple of times with the dark brown quilting thread.. not only to hold it in place but to pull together some of the darker browns I wanted to introduce into the pillow.
Then I sewed my May Arts ribbon on at the top and bottom.. Keep in mind there’s no back on my pillow yet.. At this point in time I’m basically building what I want the front to look like! After the ribbon is in place I pulled a couple of burlap strings from a scrap of the ribbon and sewed my vintage buttons into place.
Then I sewed my two sides of the pillow (my front piece and the back piece) together WRONG SIDES touching.. but I left a small section unsewn so I could pull my pillow right side out! This makes a very crisp clean sew line all the way around. Stuff pillow.. sew shut the tiny spot.. and DONE!


Here is a video I did on making Washi tape (not ribbon based, but a video none the less!)


 

 

And here are some general projects that utilize ribbon:


A mini album made of journaling cards. Ribbon is wound through the binding as well as used for tabs to open the book.



A Christmas tag using gorgeous May Arts ribbon to hold together all the beautiful layers.


A Mother's day card using white seam binding hand dyed and burlap string.



A wall hanging using four different May Arts ribbons, three to make a Prima inspired flower and one as stitching on the stocking. 



  

An altered tray using tinsel/ribbon and a sheer ribbon as a layer in the title banner. 



A Christmas tag/card using four different May Arts ribbons to really make it a "keeper"

On @ VLVS!

Over on the Viva Las Vegastamps! blog today :


the image is a little dark, I may have to redo it before I send it out. 

Sneak Peek - Nikki Sivils and Basically Bare


Here's a peek of the project I have up on the BB blog today :)
and they're giving away PRIZES!! :) 

Saturday, May 26, 2012

MVL Link Up - Get Inked

I'm a fan of tats.. and a fan of color.. I've got 25 stars on my arm, 6 of which are bright colored with a gradient of the rainbow. The other 19 are just black outlines. 

I feel like Mary Vogel Lozinak's Images are just the perfect "stick it to the man" type of characters. 


I used 
and I put him in the


for this bad boy!! 

be sure to link up your own project using Mary Vogel Lozinak's images from Viva Las Vegastamps! -- you have until tomorrow night, check out the VLVS! Blog for any specifics on giveaways :) LOTS up for grabs!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A Basically Bare Pillow

I love burlap. and muslin. and canvas.


I also love distressing and old vintage buttons... 


this pillow has all :)

Basically bare fleur de lis in canvas, may arts ribbon, vintage buttons, burlap, muslin, dark brown quilting thread, pillow fluff. 

Friday, May 18, 2012

Basically Bare Reveal

Here's the piece I had up on the BB Blog yesterday in case you missed it :)

Using: Basically bare wings, BB Dress form, BB pennants small, and BB gears. Glitz Designs Vintage Blue paper, Clearsnap sunflower ink and fools gold glitter, vintage buttons, wooden spools, and baker's twine.