Tutorial Tuesday: Business Card Holder

So I just got back from the most amazing weekend I've had in a long while! I attended the Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston. I met some great new friends, and met a few people whose blogs I've been reading for a while. I had the pleasure of rooming with some amazing craft ladies: Christy and Deb. I also got to room with Surabhi who owns a math tutoring business. You guys rock! I can't even begin to explain the amount of energy there and the amazing women that I got to meet! I finally got to meet my mom's next door neighbor. Can you guess who it is? Here's a hint, her sister owns this site that's super awesome and she assists with it also! I met Maria, Alison (who had her entire wardrobe for the conference sponsered by Shade!), and April too! I had some great, hilarious conversations with Trisha of MomDot. I also got to talk to Gabrielle and Jordan. I wouldn't even know where to start in sharing with you everything I learned while there! There was definitely a reason that the conference sold out and I will definitely be going next year!

Last week I was all ready to go and decided that I needed a business card holder that held more than 5 cards at a time and that looked a little more like a Schlosser Designs product. So Thursday morning, hours before I had to leave, I came up with this simple pattern for a business card holder. (If you don't have business cards this would make a great holder for all those frequent shopper cards.)

So here's the tutorial for today:

Items you'll need:

2 scraps of fabric
1 piece of thin interfacing
coordinating thread

Piece A: Cut a piece of fabric to be 4 3/4" x 9 1/2"
Piece B: Cut a piece of fabric to be 4 3/4" x 6"
Piece C: Cut two pieces of fabric to be 2 1/4" x 4 3/4" for the inside pockets

Sew pieces C to either side of Piece B. Iron the seams open.
Layer all the pieces in the following order:

Piece A
Piece B/C (make sure the right sides face each other on piece A and B/C)
Interfacing

Pin and sew around the edges using 1/4" seams, leaving about 2" open along one of the shorter sides. See where my double red pins are on the top.


Trim the corners.
Turn right side out and top stitch only the top and the bottom. This will sew up the hole you left open for turning right side out. Sew a straight stitch along the seam where the two fabrics are sewn together. This will help secure the interfacing and make it fold a little easier. (You can barely see it at the seam between the green and blue fabric.)


Fold up the pockets and then top stitch up both sides.


How easy was that? You're done!




Happy Crafting!

Tutorial Tuesday-Floral Arranging

I realize I haven't done a home decor tutorial in a while, so how about learning a little about floral arranging? We'll learn a little about arranging silk florals today.

Here is a preview of the two projects we'll make.





Before we get started there's a quick lesson. (Which can actually be applied to ANY design, whether you're designing a room, floral arrangement, quilt, card, scrapbook page, or fabric.)

There are some simple principles and elements of design that any beginning design student learns to recognize. Then, using these principles and elements, can put together a cohesive, pleasing design. These are as follows:

Principles of Design:
Scale
Proportion
Balance
Rhythm
Emphasis
Harmony

Elements of Design:
Space
Shape
Form
Mass
Line
Texture
Pattern
Light
Color

Today for our floral arranging we'll focus on the Principles: Harmony, Emphasis, and Proportion.
Harmony: Compatibility of elements to create a pleasing whole, achieved mainly through unity and variety. Basically it doesn't all have to be the same to be harmonious.
Emphasis: Anything in the design element that serves as a focal point.
Proportion: The size relationship to the object and it's surroundings. For instance, a really small plant in a really large container means either the plant is proportionally too small, or the container is proportionally too big, and one needs to be changed to make the arrangement more pleasing to the eye.

Ok, so now we'll get started applying our principles.
When choosing your floral stems, choose one or two stems that will be your focal point. I've chosen red for that arrangement and the purple for the other one. This one will take the stage front and center! (You've already got your emphasis now! How easy was that!)
Next, choose a few more stems that will coordinate with your emphasis element. Notice I said coordinate, not match. If you've chosen a red floral stem, like mine, try a smaller red floral, or even some berries in another coordinating color. Like maybe cream or pink. Some copper colored berries would be great too. Don't worry, It's perfectly OK if they don't match! (Great! Now you're harmony is complete too!)
Finally, measure the height of the space that the floral arrangement is going in. (You'll have to do a little math here.) You want the height of your floral arrangement to be about 2/3 of the height. So if your alcove that you're putting this in is 36" high, the tip top of the arrangement should be no more than 24". The red arrangement was going into an alcove about 60" high, so the finished height was pretty close to 40".

Now you've got all your pieces, and you know about how big your arrangement should be, you're ready to put it all together.
For this one you'll need some styrofoam, a few containers, 1 floral stem per arrangement, and a filler. (I used some scrap paper and put it through the shredder.)

Hot glue your styrofoam into your container. Trim the stem to the appropriate height. (Be sure you include the height of the container in your measurement from above and don't forget to use a wire cutter for this! Most floral stems will have wire inside them!) Stick your floral into the center of the foam.

Add your filler to cover the foam and you're done. How easy was that?!?

Here are the two I made to go above my stove in the kitchen!


Now for this one, you'll need a large glass container, 5-6 coordinating stems, and 3 emphasis stems. Don't forget you're filler. I used river rocks for this one. It helps to weigh down the bottom, both visually and physically.

Place your coordinating stems in the back and along the sides to essentially make a backdrop for your focal stems. Then place your focal stems in front of those. Vary the height of them slightly. You'll see that I cut two of the red stems to be a few inches shorter than the one that's front and center. (This adds a little variety, part of the Harmony principle.) Place them in front of your "backdrop" and you're done!

Congratulations! You've completed Floral Design 101! I can't wait to see what you make!

Happy Crafting!

Winner is...

According to Random.org the winner is:

Here are your random numbers:6
Timestamp: 2009-02-17 13:55:12 UTC

Which means that the winner is:

So Stacey, email me your address (erinschlosser (at) schlosserdesigns (dot) com)and I'll get that Hey Cupcake set right out to you. Congratulations!

Want to make sure you get every post?

You can now sign up to get all posts by email through Feedburner. Just enter your email in the box towards the bottom of the left column and follow the instructions to make sure that you never miss an announcement or giveaway! Like this one:

Sign up for Feedburner, leave me a comment letting me know that you did, and be sure to tell me which one of my stamp sets is your favorite. You can find them in the Schlosser Designs Store. I'll randomly choose one person from among those who signed up and commented to win their favorite stamp set! (There are a few people that have already signed up. If so, leave me a comment to confirm that you did, and let me know which stamp set is your favorite.)

How easy is that?!? So, just sign up for emails, let me know which one is your favorite, and check back Monday February 16th for the winner! Good luck everyone!

Tutorial Tuesday-Super Quick Valentine's Day Cards

Thank you everyone for such wonderful, encouraging comments! I truly appreciate all of them!

Today's project is super quick. Just print the PDF on cardstock (download here), cut down the middle, embellish as needed, and you've got two Valentine's Day cards. I love how simple they are, and I love how the text plays with the positive and negative space. Try tying a ribbon around, or adding a few rhinestones. Next week I've got a quick home decor project and a mini floral arrangement lesson for you!


And if you're wondering why the project is so super quick today, it's because I'm working on some new items for the store, like more stamp sets and a new sewing pattern! I am SO excited! They're looking great! I can't wait to share them with you soon!

Happy Crafting!

Tutorial Tuesday-Valentine's Pillow Boxes

Here's another quick valentine's day project for you! This one is super easy and fast!
It's a cute little Valentine's Day pillow box.


Just download the PDF by clicking here. It includes one complete box and four sentiment hearts for the front. They say:
SWAK
Love, me
Happy Valentine's Day
XOXOX

The PDF will look like this:



All you'll need is:
1 sheet of cardstock per box
12"-15" of coordinating ribbon
foam tape


Just cut around the edge of the box, fold the bottom and top on the slightly curved line, fold the tab and use double sided tape to close the box. Tie a ribbon around the box, and use foam tape to adhere your sentiment onto the front! You're done! They'll fit a few candies, or a cookie! Yum!

Happy Crafting!