At Home with Papertrey...

 

 

Can you keep a secret?

Because this post is full of holiday-sensitive information.

A certain 7 year old girl can't hear boo about this.  Got it?

This certain 7 year old has been wanting to re-do her room in a bad way.  While I'm still loving the pink and green toile wallpaper with scenes of adorable little bunnies playing see-saw and having picnics, she says she hates (light) green and pink.  And the bunnies are creepy.  Hello.  Creepy?  humph.

I suppose...it's time for mama to admit that she's outgrowing it a bit and it's probably time for something a little more grown up.  She wants...and I quote..."rainbow colors and polka dots." 

So... for Christmas she's getting new bedding...

 

some of these...

 (photo courtesy of Pottery Barn)

Some new shelving and a desk area...

 (photo courtesy of The Container Store)

Oh, and the bunnies will be torn down and replaced with...something.  Not sure what yet.  Possibly a bright pink like the picture above.  Maybe white.  We're still thinking. 

So, I thought it would be fun to create some throw pillows and accessories for her new room.  She loves cute pillows, and she's also been bugging me to make a banner for her room.  I decided to put some of my Papertrey dies to work and I created this little ensemble of three pillows and a banner.  First I'll show you the goodies, and then I'll give you some how-tos to tips for using fabric with your dies.

(Notice the cute wall paper in the background?  I know....I still think it's cute.  I picked it out before we even knew we were having a girl.  sniff.  Bye-bye bunnies.)

Rainbow colors? 

Check! 

Polka dots? 

Check!

This first pillow is covered in a rainbow of felt scallops that I cut using Papertrey's felt and their Large Scallop Border die.  I'll show you some step-by-steps a little later in the post... 

 

This next pillow was made using the new Bloom Builders #1 die.  It's just fun and happy, kind of like a certain 7 year old I know.

 

I cut the flowers from all different polka dot fabrics.  I tacked the centers by hand first, then used my sewing machine to stitch each petal into place with a few back and forth stitches.

 

I also created a fun fabric rick-rack edging using the Jumbo Rick-rack Border die.

 

And this last pillow doesn't use any of the Papertrey dies, but I thought I'd show you anyway!  I cut the peace sign with my Cricut (designed with my Gypsy using plain old circles and rectangles!).

 

And lastly, I created a banner.  I diecut the banners using Papertrey's Basic Banners die.  More about that in a bit!

 

Now for some tips for creating your own fabirc projects using die cuts.  The two main types of backings/stabilizers I use are Ultra Heat n' Bond by Therm-o-web, and Craft Fuse by Pellon.

If you want to be able to iron your diecut onto another surface, use Heat n' Bond...it acts as a sort of adhesive.  It's also what you want to use if you're going to cut fabric with your Cricut.  It's the only thing I've found that gives the fabric enough stability for the blade on the Cricut to cut properly. 

If you don't need to adhere/iron your diecut onto another fabric, but you just need some added stability, you will want to use the Craft Fuse.  It's basically just an interfacing that gives the fabric some stiffness and body.

To prepare my fabrics for cutting the flowers and banner shapes, I cut 5" wide strips of fabric and 5" strips of Craft Fuse.  I ironed the Craft Fuse to the backs of the fabrics so I had a whole stack of different fabrics to diecut from.

 

For my banner, I just diecut the banner shapes from the fabrics prepared with Craft Fuse and stitched them all together across the tops, feeding them through my machine one right after the other so it's like a big, long chain.  That way when we put up her banner, we can easily snip it apart if she wants to use it in a few places throughout her room instead of in one big long piece.

 
The blooms for the Bloom Builder pillow were also cut with the Craft Fused fabrics.  They are nice and crisp and should hold up pretty well.  The rick-rack trim was also made using the Craft Fuse.

 
 

Now for a step-by-step on the scallop pillow.  This pillow uses felt, which of course requires no backing because it is nice and firm and won't fray.  I started off by cutting a 9" square of white fabrice and 12 scallop borders (2 of each of 6 different colors).

 

Then, starting at the bottom of my fabric square, leaving about 1/2" of white fabric showing along the bottom edge, I started stitching my felt strips, one on top of the other.

 

I continues stitching until all of my strips were used up.

Then I went back and trimmed it down to an 8 x 8" square, leaving just a bit of excess below my last strip so I would have something to stitch onto without catching the scallops in the seam.

 

Then I stitched 4" strips to the top and bottom edges.

...and some 4" strips to the sides... 

 

And that's the front for my pillow!  I stitched it to some soft minky fabric for the backing using my favorite slip-cover method and stuffed it with a pillow form.  Here is a great tutorial for how to make a slip cover pillow.

I have had so much fun creating these fun, colorful projects...I've got lots of fabric leftover, so I'm thinking my other daughter is going to be getting some pillows too!  Looks like I'd better get busy if I'm going to have them finished before Christmas!  I hope you're enjoying this holiday season.  I'm hoping to pop in next week with a fun miscellaneous crafting post...you'd be surprised at the things you can create with basic crafty stuff.  hee!  See you soon.