Saturday, February 26, 2011

From Scrap to Fab!

I am no longer greeted with recognition at Bebe or Zara, and I am happy to say that the sales assistants at Buy Buy Baby have also forgotten the twin mom in despair; I lost the friendship of those temporary faces. On the other hand, being a stay at home mom in search of self expression beyond the world of Toddlerville, Kat at Fiber Notion craft store knows exactly who I am. She also knows that I like making "stuff" from "stuff" (now this sounds eloquent :), so she handed me a bag of scrap on my last visit to get my creative juices flowing.

I came home and as if a secret Santa gift, I excitedly opened the bag ... (Don't worry if you don't understand the excitement part over a bag of scrappy fabric - only crafters do! :)

    
I looked through the pile of rejects, leftovers and pieces that went out of fashion a long long time ago. I always root for the underdog in anything (you know the heavy kid without friends on American Idol ... etc.)  ... I did the same with these fabrics ... 

So far I've made three projects from this one bag ... here is the first one ... 

Look at this beautiful sheer fabric with flowers in the foreground! I'll make something pretty out of you!

What you need: 
Scraps
Hot glue gun
Felt
Beads (only if you want to be fancy)
Satin ribbon 
A neck

Let's cut the fabric to pieces - no matter what length, 2 inches wide ... 
Or cut them all the same length for same size florets

Now follow .... 

1. Make a knot (or two)
2. Twist and turn, go around and around until you can't hold the circle any longer
3. Grab a piece of felt (preferably color coordinating with the fabric) and glue with my favorite tool - hot glue gun! (Everyone should own one of these gadgets! I've glue gunned shoes, hems, flowers .. you name it!)
4. Keep turning and twisting until there is no fabric left. Work the end to the side of the flower. Apply the glue as close to the edge as possible, so it's not visible. 
5. Once all flowers are done, take a pair of scissors and cut them out of the felt. Now glue them side-to-side to each other - again, you don't want the glue to show!  Find your old fake pearls or whatever other beads you may have and glue them to the flowers. I don't like symmetry (unless I am at the beauty parlor getting my eyebrows done) so I just glued the beads all over. 
6. Cut two pieces of satin ribbon and glue them to the end of the back of the florets. Here is a trick! You need to burn the ends of the ribbon so it doesn't fray!
7. Felt scratches and I like my pieces looking nice and neat front to back, so I grabbed a piece of satin and glued the back of the piece to it. I used Fabric Mod Podge, but any fabric glue will surely work! Let it dry, let it dry, let it dry! 
8. Almost ready! Cut out the necklace from the satin the same way as you cut out the florets from the felt. 

Aaaaaand VOILA!!!! Here it is .. From Scrap to Fab! No sewing, total time 1 hour
(And that is only if you glue your fingers a few times to the felt also!)

        

Coming up: Scrappy design for the house! 

P.S. If you make this necklace, please let me know; 
"Like" me on Facebook or Follow me or leave a comment or all of the above.
Do you have a scrappy idea? I would LOLOVE to hear about it!  

LO(lo)V(i)E 
LV  

11 comments:

  1. I found your blog through craftgawker and it's fantastic! love love love the necklace and I can't wait to see what y9ou do next..that's why I'm your newest follower!

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  2. Thank you Colleen! You just made my day, so I would like to make yours :) Email me your address to: lolovienyc@gmail.com I will send you the necklace - I hope you'll like it in real life as much as on the photos! :)

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  3. Oooh, so pretty! I'd love for you to submit this to the M&T Spotlight at http://www.makeandtakes.com/spotlight.

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  4. Thank you so much Laurel, I just did. I love the site!

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  5. I LOVE this. I made my own but it didnt turn out nearly as amazing. Thanks for the inspiration!! xx

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  6. Found you on Craft Gossip and following now, great tutorial.
    Deb

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  7. Gorgeous! I can't wait to try to make one of these. I definitely need a n0-sew project and will have to hunt for scraps.

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  8. I love it! It´s so beautiful and unique : ) I just made my own and it was really uncomplicated and didn´t take any time at all but the result is so stunning and it cost next to nothing! My favorite combinations of all time ; )I´m a student and hence i don´t have lots of money so i really appreciate this in every thinkable way! Can´t wait to see what´s coming next!

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  9. Thank you for the nice comments, ladies! I can't wait to see your necklaces! Would you mind sharing the photos? lolovienyc@gmail.com
    LV

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  10. I loLove this! I found your blog on Bird's Crafts a month or so ago and I gotta say, You got it girl! Your way with words makes me smile! I also just posted a tutorial a little like this but using these sorts of flowers for magnets! Check it out ;)

    http://thecannycrafter.blogspot.com/2011/03/fabric-rose-magnets.html

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  11. Easy to make!!!

    Wow...This is what i have been looking for and you have done a great job. Beautiful !!!!
    scrapbooking stores

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