Hello, Friends! For this week’s Make and Take Tuesday, I have our Graphic 45 Flower Market September Folio Tutorial ready to share with you. This is the 9th folio in this year-long series! Can you even believe it? If you are new to the blog, you can catch up on the previous 8 months of folio tutorials HERE.
Asters are the featured flower for our September folio, and they are so pretty paired up with Cloudy Sky and Dune cardstock! Once again, our folio measures 8 1/2″ square with 3/8″ spines, internal flaps, pockets and flip pages.
Authentique Stitches Guest Star of the Month
Our “guest star” for the month of September is the Stitches collection from Authentique. The pinks and blue hues are the perfect complement to the G45 papers. While the basic folio design is the same as in previous months, I did alter the design of the top flap page just a little. You know me…I get bored if I do the same thing all the time!
In addition to the G45 dies that we’ve been using every month, I invited my Annette Green Everyday Elements dies to the party. I’ll list the borders, flourishes, postage stamp and doily dies in the supply list below.
Of course, if you don’t have Stitches or the dies in your stash, please feel free to substitute goodies from your stash. It always feels good to use a product that’s been languishing in the Closet of Inspiration and Delight, don’t you agree?
Pockets and Mini Folios
Don’t you love the way the Authentique papers blend with the Flower Market florals?
Flowers and sewing are two of my favorite crafting themes, so I really enjoyed putting this month’s folio together for you. I hope you’ll have as much fun with it as I did.
Flower Market Folio Tutorial on YouTube
If you’d like to follow along as I make this pretty September folio, I hope you’ll enjoy this video on my YouTube channel.
Authentique Stitches Mother’s Day Sewing Card Folio: Memories of Mom
Hello, Friends! Today I have an Authentique Stitches Mother’s Day Sewing Card Folio to share with you as part of the Authentique Design Team Group Post. You can hop on over to the Authentique Blog to see more Mother’s Day inspiration from the team.
While my mom is no longer living on this earth, she lives forever in my heart. She was my mentor, my companion, my guardian, my nurse, my teacher and my best friend for 50 years of my life. I count myself as a most blessed woman for having had such an amazing mom. To honor her, I thought I’d share some stories and memories that inspired this card. This is more of a memorial post, as opposed to my normal tutorial, but I will still share some tips and tricks along with memories of mom.
Authentique Stitches Mother’s Day Sewing Card Folio: The Inspiration
My mom was a skilled seamstress, so the Stitches collection has a very special place in my heart. This 3″ x 4″ image could have been lifted directly from my childhood. I can’t even count the number of hours I spent by Mom’s side as she worked away at her White sewing machine. She always sat up straight, just like the gal in this photo, but unlike the gal in the photo, she usually had a mouth full of straight pins. About the only time I ever saw my mother sitting down was when she was at her typewriter or sewing machine. She did not believe in being idle.
I loved the soft scent of Tide laundry detergent combined with the liquid starch she used on all her house dresses. I would sit as close to her as humanly possible without interfering (too much) with the task at hand. Everything Mom did was fast: she typed so fast you couldn’t see her fingers flying over the manual keyboard. Mom never walked up stairs; she ran. Her mop slid over the linoleum floor of our kitchen as though she was in a race. And it was pedal to the metal when it came to sewing. That needle flew in and out of the fabric at dizzying speed. Yet her seams were always perfectly straight and true. I guess when you are raising a family of five kids, you learn how to do everything quickly.
Authentique Stitches Mother’s Day Sewing Card Folio: Pretty in Pink
Pink was Mom’s favorite color. She even had pink tennis shoes one year, and wore them until they had holes in them. There was a pink, A-line, pin-striped house dress that she wore all the time. Partly because she loved pink so much; partly because she didn’t have a closet full of beautiful dresses to choose from. Raising 5 kids also means that there’s not a lot of money for fancy clothes. But mom loved to LOOK at fancy clothing.
Like lots of households of that era, we waited with great anticipation for the Semi-Annual release of the Montgomery Ward catalog. It was an enormous, full color catalog filled with everything from garden tools to evening gowns. As busy as Mom was, she always found time to drool over that virtual emporium. With ink pen in hand, she would star the items of clothing she thought were particularly beautiful. If she really liked something, she would fold the corner of the page over to mark its place in that massive tome. And if she fell head over heels in love with a dress, it would find a place of honor, taped to the refrigerator door. That page would be marked with a huge star, and emblazoned with Mom’s handwritten note, “I love this!”
The Most Beautiful Dress in the World
One year, Mom found the most beautiful party dress…and yes, it was pink with a floral print. She starred it, wrote “I Love this!” , tore it out of the catalog and taped it to the fridge. “Kathy Jean, ” she proclaimed, “I am going to save up and buy that dress. It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”
Week by week, mom put money in an envelope, saving for that dress. She took in ironing from the neighbors, fried dozens of doughnuts (36 dozen to be exact) each Saturday morning, then sent us out to deliver them to the neighbors who happily paid 50 cents for a dozen. Little by little, the envelope grew fat, and it looked like the pink dress was going to become a reality.
Then, disaster struck. I came down with pneumonia, and the bills for the doctor visits and prescriptions drained that envelope dry. One sad day, as I was recovering on the couch that Mom kept in our spacious country kitchen, I watched as she removed “the dress” from its place of honor on the fridge. I was a little girl, but I was still able to understand why that dress was NOT going to happen. And I began to cry, “But Mommy, you loved that dress.”
Without skipping a beat, Mom came over to the couch, put her arms around me and hugged me tight. “Now Kathy Jean, don’t you know…I was tired of wearing that old thing.” And we both burst into laughter. What a Mom!
Authentique Stitches Mother’s Day Sewing Card Folio: The Envelope
This story was playing through my mind while creating this card. So I created a special “Pink Dress” envelope to tuck onto the front of this card. Here’s how it came together:
First, cut along the right hand side of the dress mannequin image with a craft knife.
Next, create an envelope for a 3″ x 4″ card following the instructions on a W r Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board.
Open the envelope flat, and stitch the image to the front .
Leave the flaps unattached.
Next, cover the stitching on the inside with a 3″ x 4″ panel of designer paper.
Tuck a vintage sewing kit and some vintage buttons on a vintage button card inside the envelope. Fold the envelope shut, slide it into the slot you created with your craft knife, and attach it to the card front with a pink bulldog clip.
Authentique Stitches Mother’s Day Sewing Card Folio: A Peek Inside
Inside this card, I tucked in lots of little items that made me think of Mom.
This little side flap pocket holds a vintage sewing card wrapped with vintage crochet lace trim and secured with a stick pin. I also created a little 3″ x 4″ note card to tuck into the pocket.
Mom loved to read, so I attached this very pink velvet bookmark with a mini belly band. She also had a thing for butterflies.
The little flap page turns over to reveal a wee pocket, sized perfectly for a pretty tea bag, vintage demitasse spoon and honey stick. And oh, Mom would have loved that pink sewing machine!
This vintage silver and gold plated spoon is imported from Italy. Mom would have loved it.
Mom loved pink so much, that once she painted her entire bedroom pink. Ceiling, trim and all. So I tried to include lots of pink in this card.
For more projects made with the Authentique Stitches Collection, click HERE.
I hope you don’t mind that I shared these stories about my wonderful Mom with you today. Wherever you are, I wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.
Hello, Friends! Today I have a very special Authentique Stitches Meets Card Maps post for you to enjoy. I’m so excited to share that the Design Team Members of Authentique have teamed up with the wonderful ladies atPage Maps and have used all Authentique papers to do the sketches! Head on over to the Page Maps Blog and the Card Maps Blog to see all our creations. Here are my two submissions to the collaboration!
As a card maker, I usually come up with my own card layouts. But these Authentique Stitches Sewing Themed Cards were made using this card sketch from Becky Fleck Page Maps. You can find a group post of all the layouts, cards and sketches on the Authentique Blog. It’s loaded with cards and layouts created from the sketches that Becky so generously shared with the team.
I chose to work with a card sketch. This is the sketch Becky sent me, along with instructions to create any theme I chose. But I had to keep the card in a vertical orientation. You can also use this sketch to create your own cards with Authentique paper, then share them with us in social media. I think it would be fun to see what you all come up with!
Authentique Stitches Collection Meets Card Maps: On the Borderline
If you look closely at the original sketch, you will see a wrapped border/bow combo. I laced ribbon through Tammy’s Sew Sweet Trims Die to add this element to my card. There is also a little banner flag in the lower left hand corner of the sketch. I chose to add a second die cut border from Tammy’s set in lieu of that.
Authentique Stitches Collection Meets Card Maps: A Peek Inside
I let myself go wild inside the card with pockets and flaps and some fun little surprises.
Open the flap at the top of the card to find a little pocket…and an adorable pink sewing machine.
I turned this into a little needle book by adding a felt panel.
Then I dressed up a little folio with this great vintage dress pattern image.
And of course, I had to tuck a vintage button card into the pocket. There’s room here to write a note as well.
Authentique Stitches Collection Meets Card Maps: The Sketch Turned on its Head
This second card also used the sketch as a pattern, only I turned the sketch upside down.
Once again, I used Tammy’s Sew Sweet Trims to create the laced border, Tim’s Rosette Die, machine stitching and vintage buttons.
The inside layout is also about the same. Just different papers and images.
“Sew” there you have it! Mission Authentique Stitches Meets Card Maps is complete. Enjoy working with the sketch I used in this post. And be sure to check out Page Maps for more fun Card Sketches and Layout Sketches.
I hope I shared some tips and tricks that you can use in your own crafty adventures. If so, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.
Stitched with Love Sewing Themed Flip Folio Project Share with Authentique Stitches
Hello, Friends! Every once in a while I come across a paper collection that is like a page from my childhood. Authentique Paper’s new Stitches collection has captured my heart. I spent a couple of blissful days creating this Stitched with Love Sewing Themed Flip Folio. While I worked, I remembered my mom, who loved to sew. She put her whole heart and soul into everything she stitched. And this flip folio is stitched with love, too.
As a girl, I spent hours curled up in a chair beside my dear mom as she sewed. She was an absolute fiend on that ancient White sewing machine. Everything Mom did was fast. Her fingers were fast, the needle flew in and out of the fabric at lightning speed. She ironed seams lickety split. She pinned and unpinned so fast that her fingers were a blur. The hum of the motor, the clacking of the needle, Mom humming a tune with straight pins in the corner of her mouth…this was the music of my childhood. I think my love for, texture, color, pattern and design was born during those happy hours watching Mom sew.
This sweetly vintage folio measures 7.25″ x 5.25″ with a 1/2″ spine. If you’re in a hurry today, you can skip down to the bottom of this post where I share a YouTube video walk through of the album.
To create the collage on the folio cover, I fussy cut images from Stitches One. A wood doily and a die cut circle add a nice geometric element to the design.
Lots of soft colored little posies, trinkets from my stash and die cut leaves play nicely with vintage buttons. I’ve had this miniature sewing machine in my stash for ages. Now it has a happy new home.
Stitched with Love Sewing Themed Flip Folio: A Fortified Binding
I covered the cardstock folio base with designer papers from the Stitches collection. To ensure that the spine will hold up well, I reinforced it with a strip of Authentique Spectrum Cardstock. This color is called Antique Lace. To add this to the album, follow these easy steps:
Cut a 4″ x 5.25″ rectangle of Old Lace Spectrum Artisan Cardstock
Then find the center point, which is 2″
Measure out 1/4″ on each side of the center point and score a line.
Now fold on the score lines
Apply adhesive, making sure that you get into the folded areas.
Finally, line the reinforcement spine up with the folio spine and press in place. You can use a bone folder to really make sure it is adhered.
I also cut the cute eyelet lace border and lacing border from Antique Lace Cardstock. I threaded a 3/8″ strip of paper through the lacing border, and then glued the two borders together on the front cover. On the back cover, I only used the eyelet border.
Stitched with Love Sewing Themed Flip Folio: A Peek Inside
There are lots of great places to tuck in photos. I think this little flip folio would make a great photo album for seamstresses, quilters, and mom, too. It would be a great way to house heritage photos.
Inside the front cover, I created a pocket with two companion photo folios tucked inside. Each little folio measures 3.25″ x 4.5″ and has a magnetic flap closure.
Flaps and pockets go together like needles and thread! These flaps will hold a 5″ x 5″ photo. You can always tuck more in the pocket along with these darling journal cards from the cut apart page.
The center page of this folio features a lovely flip element. The facing page is another little photo folio. This one is attached to the page.
I love, love, love the journal cards in this collection! This page flips down to reveal two more photo mounts.
The pages in the center panel were created with Tammy Tutterow’s “Posies and Pennies” Die from her new Sew Sweet Collection by Spellbinders.
This flap page is actually an altered envelope!
And it holds these darling button cards made with images from the cut apart page.
Stitched with Love Sewing Themed Flip Folio Project Share on YouTube
Because it’s so much easier to see how one of these little folios works, I’ve created a short video project share for you today. I hope you enjoy!
Stitches Home Decor Project
Since I already had all my paper pretties out on my work surface, I went ahead and put together this darling 8″ x 10″ altered frame. I thought you might enjoy making one, too, so I put together a quick SnapGuide tutorial for you. You are not going to believe how easy it is to create the crackle finish on this frame!
You’ll find the step out photos, directions and a supply list in the Snapguide below.
Inside the front cover, I created a pocket with two companion photo folios tucked inside. Each little folio measures 3.25″ x 4.5″ and has a magnetic flap closure.
I love, love, love the journal cards in this collection! This page flips down to reveal two more photo mounts.
Since I already had all my paper pretties out on my work surface, I went ahead and put together this darling 8″ x 10″ altered frame. I thought you might enjoy making one, too, so I put together a quick SnapGuide tutorial for you. You are not going to believe how easy it is to create the crackle finish on this frame!