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Hi, I’m Stacy with Close to My Heart.
There’s something really fabulous about fabric,
especially when you use it to dress up a scrapbook
layout. Today, I’d like to show you a few ways to
use our new For Always textiles featured in the
Spring/Summer 2013 Idea Book, to punch some
pizzazz into your papercrafting. Let me show you what
I mean. Here are our textiles right here.
They come in two different packs; one that matches the
For Always kit and the other that matches the
Chantilly kit...paper kit. Each of these have a different
type of design on them but they coordinate perfectly
with each of their paper packets and they only are
$8.95 each. They’re great because they come in these
giant strips of material with that fun, different designs
that are not the same as the paper packet, just like this.
Isn’t that big? And I love the pinked edge right there.
Let me show you how I used some of these to actually
dress up a layout that gives it some extra punch
and some different dimension and texture. Here I’ve
got this layout where I’ve added the strip of the For
Always script...script material right around the edge
of that 12" x 12" page. Let me show you what I’ve
done. Okay, so I’ve got my 12" x 12" page that I’ve
started, done that fun splattering technique right on
it. I’ve gone ahead and cut a 12" piece of the textile
so it matches or is exactly the length of the 12" x 12"
page. I’m actually going to do two other pieces that are
a little bit longer so it will wrap around and hide
any of the uneven edges that may show up. I want
it to be about a 1/4" along each edge of the page and so
I’ve cut it to be an inch longer than the 1/4" that you
see showing. That way I get a nice fine crisp edge
because it hides, I can roll it and hide all of the uneven
pieces, um, just like so. To make it even easier,
I’ve folded it into thirds and I’ve ironed it so it will be
a nice crisp edge. Your iron is your best friend
when you’re working with textiles. Now I’m just gonna
slide it right underneath the edge of that page...
just like so... and fold it directly over it so it fits nice
and snugly there. Let’s see if I can get that right in there...
Now if you have a sewing machine, this is where
you can just zip your page and the fabric right through
your sewing machine using a straight stitch and it
works great. But if you are a little bit shy using
a sewing machine, don’t worry because my best friend,
which is Liquid Glass, works perfectly just to adhere and
bond what you need to bond the fabric right to the page.
All I’m gonna do is put a little bit of it right underneath
that folded edge and adhere it straight down. Now
liquid glass seeps right into the material and it holds it
really nicely in place along the front and then also I’m
gonna do it along the back edge here
in just a second, but it dries so quickly and it’s fast
and easy. Just like that. And then to finish the
layout I’ll just do it on each of the edges; make sure that
I wrap the extra large pieces underneath the back
and use the liquid glass to adhere it there as well.
Isn’t that great? Let me show you how I made
this ruffle that you can see right here. It’s really
easy to do. First, because it’s highlighting the focal
image on the page, which is that beautiful girl
right there, I want to make sure it all measures to fit
exactly the length of the photo. And so what I’ve
done is I’ve gone ahead and cut a piece of the polka
dot fabric about two times the length of the photo
that you see right there. Then I fold it in each
of the edges, just so that I have a nice finished
edge and then I folded it in half. This will be
my finished bottom seam and then I’m going
to do some sewing and working right up here
to make it ruffle and gather just like it is on
that layout right there. To do that, I’m going
to go ahead and take a needle and thread. I’ve
got just some embroidery floss, tied a knot at the bottom
and I’m gonna do a running stitch which is probably
one of the easiest stitches that you can do. To begin
I’m just going to push that needle right up about 1/4"
from the rough edge of that seam that’s not nicely
folded in, and then I’m going to go about 3/4" down.
Now it doesn’t have to be beautiful sewing because this
all going to be hidden in just a second anyway,
but I wanted to do it far enough apart that it’s easy
to gather. And just make these quick little stitches like
so. And if you’re not a sewer don’t worry, because
this is probably one of the easiest sewing techniques
that there are. In fact, when I was in 4H as a kid,
this is the very first thing that they taught us
in our sewing class. So don’t, don’t fear.
It’s really easy to do. And I’m just going to keep
going all along that edge. And it does really just
take a few seconds. You can see how it even gathers
really easily. So...just like that... Okay, and
for the sake of time, I’m gonna just stop right there
but you’ll finish all the way along the edge. Now
I’m not going to knot it off at the edge yet because I
want to have a little bit of room to play and gather
all of those ruffles. And to do that, I just pull that needle
and thread, tighten it a little bit and just move that
fabric along so that it gathers very, very nicely, like so.
Anyway I want, as tight as I want or as loose as I want
Isn’t that easy? Now if I’d finished it, it would all
be gathered along this way as well. Okay, so there I have it.
So now I just need to do the finishing edge across the
top, like you can see right here. And to do that,
I’ve also cut another piece of the textile. I’ve got
about an inch and I’ve measured it to be a little bit
wider than the photo that I’ve got. Just so again, I
can wrap and gather that behind the ruffle and hide it
with Liquid Glass. Now to make it easier to hold the
ruffle in place because this is kind of a loose cannon,
I’m going to go ahead and use your ordinary office
tape that you’ve got around the house and I’m just
going to place it right here to hold the ruffle in place,
just at the very bottom. That way I can play with it
here and line up the piece right here, just like so.
And then I’m going to fold over that edge so that I’ve
got a finished seam showing there and then use
Liquid Glass again to adhere it right in place. Again,
it bonds really fast to the fabric — it’s awesome.
The tape comes right off and in the end you will have this
beautiful finished piece. Now the finished piece again,
I wrapped it around the back and added Liquid Glass
and its all set to go below my photo. Isn’t that great?
Fabric adds such a fabulous touch to any of these
layouts that you can make. It’s easy to do too. If
you’d like to punch pizzazz into your papercrafting
with these fabulous fabrics, talk to your Close To My
Heart Independent Consultant about purchasing the
necessary supplies or go to closetomyheart.com to
browse the pages of our Idea Book for more project inspiration.