Friday, June 4, 2010
Flippin for Flowers Giveaway!
I am honored to be back as a Guest Designer for Sassy today!! For those of you who don't know, my Gypsy screen cracked last week and I have been a little lost without her! Thankfully, I completed this project before she cracked!!
I wanted to try cutting fabric with my Cricut, and with summer right around the corner I thought this would be a great time mix my project with some summerwear!
I AM GIVING AWAY THESE FLIP FLOPS AND VISOR TO ONE LUCKY WINNER!! All you need to do is be a follower and leave me a comment here to have a chance to win! I will select a winner Sunday June 6th and will post that evening!!
I bought some fat quarters from Michaels and Wal-Mart as well as used some left over fabric that I already had. I picked up some hot pink flip flops and a visor from Michaels. My original color scheme was hot pink and zebra stripe. Well, the zebra stripes looked too chunky once the fabric was cut into small flowers. I changed out the hot pink for the orange flowered fabric. Lucky for me, I work at Michaels and was able to pick up another pair of flip flops and a visor in white!!
Cutting fabric is a bit tricky when you don't have a ton of patience like me! I almost quit more than once, but I do have a stubborn streak as well!
The first thing you need to do is iron Heat and Bond (or something similar) to your fabric. This will stiffen up your fabric and make it easier to cut. I did iron my fabric first to get out the wrinkles, then ironed on the Heat and Bond. My friend uses a heavy duty iron on paper, but this is all I found at Michaels. Next time I will seek out something more Heavy Duty!!
Following the directions on the package, place the paper side up (shiny side towards the fabric) and iron to the wrong side of the fabric. Do not peel off the paper until after you cut the fabric.
You should use a new blade and a new mat. My friend also recommends using painter's tape to tape the fabric down to the mat. This helps keep the fabric tight across the mat. I did not have painter's tape handy, so I tried scotch tape. It did not really seem to help much and it did not come off the edge of the mat easy.
I used Plantin Schoolbook for my flower shape and made four different sizes of flowers. The pink fabric cut the best as it was a pretty thick fabric I used to make drapes for my daycare with. You can see here the orange flowers did not cut well. I used scissors to snip the parts that did not cut through all the way. I did peel off the paper backing once I removed the flowers from the mat.
Once cut, I had a difficult time getting my flowers to have some texture. I tried running them through the crimper, but that did not do much. Crumpling does not work with fabric like it does with paper ~ that would have been too easy!!
I decided to poke two extra holes (one on either side of the middle hole) and gather the flower a bit. I used my Cricut dental tool for this and it worked like a charm. I only poked my finger once!! I used the biggest brad I had and poked it into the bottom hole, back up through the middle hole and down into the top hole to gather the layers together. I did this one layer at a time. I couldn't take a photo as I needed both hands and did not have a helper handy!
I glued a rhinestone on each flower. I used Tacky Tape to glue the flowers to the flip flops.
I made a third flower with the extra pieces and glued it to my visor with a glue dot.
So here you have a nice flowery pair of flip flops and visor!! This project was a bit frustrating, but I am glad I stuck with it!
Don't forget to leave me some feedback with a way to reach you so you have a chance to win!!
What a great idea. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteLori- you did such a fab job!!!!! I have everything but the flip flops!
ReplyDeleteSo cute!!!! I love cutting fabric with Cricut!!!!!! TFS!
ReplyDeleteCeleste B.
ccscards.blogspot.com
These are great, I've been wanting to try cutting with fabric for quite some time and my have to give it a try now that you made it look so easy! LOL TFS
ReplyDeletemccadesmom at gmail dot com
What a cool idea. Great tutorial. I have been wanting to try fabric but have been a big chicken.
ReplyDeletebrz352@yahoo.com
Very cute! I have been wanting to try cutting with fabric, but was scared too, lol. They turned out great.
ReplyDeleteSo Cute!! You can find me on Cricut.com as Josie0602
ReplyDeleteIt would be so fun to play with
ReplyDeletethese! I'm already thinking!
;) TR
mrstjf2000@yahoo.com
Love these! Soooo cute!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your wonderful tutorial! This is a great project and screams... TO THE BEACH!
ReplyDeleteGroovy flowers!
ReplyDeleteLori, this flip-flop and visor are just to cute for words!!!
ReplyDeleteLoie, I love these, they are so cute. Thanks for sharing how you did these.
ReplyDeleteStacy
I loved your tutorial. Thank you for sharing your beautiful creation with us!
ReplyDelete