Encre, papier, ciseaux: 2013 Artisan Entry Blog Hop

Welcome to Day 9 of the Artisan Entry Blog Hop!

Today I am sharing my second and final 3D project I had to make for the contest. To this day, I am still unsure whether it was enough or not as an entry. One minute, I'm thinking yes because there are so many details involved, the others I'm thinking no... I don't know if the number of hours involved comes across when looking at the project. The background fabric itself took hours to create. I used needlepoint linen and stamped the leaves from Gently Falling with regular Classic ink on it, ironed it to heat set the ink and then I found matching floss and handstitched around the leaves to add detailing and texture. This is the part that I figured would take a couple of hours and ended up taking an entire evening, well into the night. I've been stitching for years, you'd think I would know by now how time-consuming it is!

My first intention was for the project to be a seasonal ornament. As I was putting the project together, I suddenly thought of using the Petite Pocket die to create a pocket where notes about what you are thankful for could be inserted. Shelli always has those cool seasonal vignettes in her home and I also know that some families like to list what they are grateful for when they get together at Thanksgiving, so based on those, I figured the ornament could be used either to put in your own thoughts or to get your whole family to each write a thought and slip it into the pocket during Thanksgiving dinner. My thoughts were printed in colors, cut up into strips and stamped (and decorated with a thin piece of cardstock punched with the Scallop Ribbon punch).

I put the ornament together based on a technique I had learned from a book back in my stitching days when I was learning to finish ornaments. You wrap the fabric around a piece of cardstock covered with batting, lace the back with thread, then tighten it in place. You create a similar piece for the back using Designer fabric and then you use railroad stitching in between those two to create a neat seam, which you can then cover with ribbon if you choose. This is where I messed up in my planning. As I was about to put the two pieces together, I got inspired to create a ruffled border all around the ornament, so I folded a piece of Soft Suede fabric in two, glued it around the edge of my piece and... then discovered that the railroading stitches wouldn't work with the fabric in the way. I was really puzzled as to how to solve this dilemma, so I simply used my glue gun, pressed the two pieces together as hard as I could while the glue cooled down and hoped for the best. Thankfully, it worked and made for a nice finish!

Oh, I should probably mention if you want to try it out that I made sure to sandwich the ribbon in there between the pieces as well so that it would look neater and have more "hold" when the ornament was hung. At the top, I added a stamped leaf with a ribbon bow held in place with a button over it, then I stamped my "Give Thanks" sentiment in Soft Suede ink on Pool Party Core'dinations cardstock (again, just love the texture it gives the project) with the Notable Alphabet and added a couple of Designer buttons in the letters.

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Gently Falling, Notable Alphabet
Ink: More Mustard, Old Olive, Pool Party, Soft SUede, VersaMark
Cardstock: Pool Party Core'dinations, More Mustard, Pool Party
Designer paper: In Color Designer paper pack
Accessories: Designer fabric, Honeycomb embossing folder, Small Pocket die,
Pewter embossing powder, Scallop Ribbon punch, Pool Party ruffled ribbon,
Old Olive polka dot scallop ribbon, Cotton ribbon, Designer buttons, Needlepoint fabric,
Boutique Boxes kit, Sycamore Street satin ribbon, Glue gun

Here are all the links to the participants' blogs in case you can't hop from one blog to the next properly:

Brenda Quintana http://qbeesquest.blogspot.com/
Joan Robertson http://www.dailystampede.com/
Lauri Ingram http://lauri-paperville.blogspot.com/
Laura Mellinger http://laurasworksofheart.blogspot.com/
Kandi Phillips http://kandiphillips.blogspot.com/
Lisa Hensley http://ponygirl40stamps.blogspot.com/
Anna Black http://my-creation-station.blogspot.com/
Pamela Staples http://www.sunnygirlscraps.com/
Tina Munzke http://www.craftedwithclass.blogspot.com/
Cindy Major http://www.cindymajor.typepad.com/
Mary Haugen http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/maryhaugen/blog

Comments

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Cindy I certainly can see all the work that went into this! I really like how you added the pocket where someone could tuck in their thankful thoughts, this was a labor of love and just so creative!

Posted by: Lauri | July 13, 2013 at 06:44