Lilac handbag card

I made a card on the weekend that is so darned cute! I got the template from Mirkwood Designs, and it's actually a template to make an envelope, but I opted for a card instead. The lady I was making it for is the mother of a friend of mine, and she's always doing nice things for me, so I wanted to do a little pay back for her. (I also put together a nice planter for her bursting with all kinds of colorful flowers!) Anyway, this lady loves little prissy handbags, like the nice evening handbags, so I thought the handbag card was appropriate to make for her.

My mother in law was also making one with me, and her color choice for our paper was in the lilac shades -- her favorite, and actually the favorite of the lady I was making the card for too! So I decided that I would make an all over print of actual lilac flowers. I took a picture of my neighbour's beautiful French lilacs, and made a seamless fill out of a part of the picture, which I flooded to print an entire card stock page of the print. Then we traced the template on the back and cut it out. We each made up our own little verses, and printed them out on lilac colored paper. Then it was on to the fun stuff -- the decorating! We're hooked on those metallic peel offs right now. (Our stamp and scrapping stores around here are loaded with them!) We used a border and edged the flap of the purse with that, added a little flower to look like a snap, and put on the "Thinking of you" sentiment. Inside we used a butterfly punch on some of the scraps of the lilac print and glued them on under the verse. My mother in law, at this point decided her card was finished, but I was determined that mine had to have a handle! So I wired some silver beads and added the handle. Then I thought it really did need a little closure of some sort, but I didn't have any Velcro other than heavy duty stuff, so I decided I was going to run out to the dollar store the next day to get some of those little Velcro dots that have the adhesive on the back of them. They're a little more lightweight for a paper project. As we kept admiring our cards, I thought it would be really cute too if I could find a little wee mirror to attach to inside flap of the purse card. I knew I had seen packages of small mirror tiles at Michaels or Walmart at one point, but I remembered them being square, and was preferring it be round. Plus I didn't really want to buy a package of them, when I really only wanted one. The next day at the dollar store, I was so happy to find a butt-ugly compact of freaky looking eye shadow, only because it had the cutest little round mirror in it, and I was sure I could pop it out of the plastic casing and attach it to my card. I did pop it out, and it worked, and it really finished the card off quite nicely. Kathleen's mom oggled at this little mirror too. She thought it was such a creative touch! (by the way, you may note how I signed the card as "Kathleen's Colleague". This is because that is what her mom calls me, as I call her by "Kathleen's mom"!)

So anyway, that was my lilac handbag card. It was super easy to make and the possibilities of what you could do to decorate it are endless! They'd be so cute as invitations to a bridal shower, or even thank you cards from the bride! Or, as in my case, just a little "because" card!


Olivia

My Geisha Tote/Handbag

I purchased a Cadillac of an embroidery machine last year so that I could digitize my own embroidery designs, as well as applique designs. I had come across this Geisha Girl picture somewhere, and decided to create an applique for a tote bag. For the tote bag pattern, I followed my favorite instructions for the Jordy bag that I found over at Craftster.org.

I had in my stash this beautiful Oriental satin brocade fabric covered in colored peonies that was screaming to be used! So I used it for the back of the tote.

Also in my stash I had this vintage floral fabric, but it very sheer, so I backed it with a pink satin. I did some random stitching to bond the two fabrics together. When I attached it to the black fabric, I decided that I wanted an embroidered flower, like a peony in black, but I wanted it to have a bit of a cut work look to it, so I placed it where it covered the black fabric, and then cut away the black fabric to show the pink underneath.



When I was gathering fabric for my applique, I just couldn't find the right colors I wanted to use, and I couldn't justify going to the fabric store to buy more bits of fabric when I had gobs at home. Imagine that! If I had needed more than just little bits, I would have gone to the fabric store in a second, but to make a trip for fabric when I needed an inch or so sized square of this, or a three inch sized piece of that, I figured there had to be another way. Since I had yards and yards of plain white cotton, and a rainbow supply of RIT dye, I thought I would just dye my own fabric. Now one thing I have noticed when dyeing fabric in the past for tye dye or whatever, RIT dyes always seemed to be very washed out looking after doing the rinse process. Now on the Internet, I had come across some instructions for using RIT dye, shaving cream and curing your fabric in the microwave. I didn't use the shaving cream, but rather just dabbed on my colors that I wanted and then mixed them about with a paintbrush. I ended up with really nice vibrant colors, and I think the key to that is using a smaller amount of really hot hot hot boiling water (1/2 cup) to 2 teaspoons of dye powder. And while I was searching for the link for those dyeing instructions, I came across many other sites saying you shouldn't dye fabric in your microwave. You know what, I'd do it again, because I'm a bit of a rebel that way! I do remember that when I placed my rolled up fabric logs in the microwave, I first put them into a lidded container. And we are still using that same microwave for food prep and haven't had any ill effects. Now I wouldn't suggest doing this process if you don't enclose that fabric in a sealed container though, because I'm sure the steam that is generated from the wet fabric would have some sort of nasties that you wouldn't want to transfer into that evening's dinner you may be heating up.

For my inside lining, I used a pink satin. For no particular reason other than I have a whack of it, and I like pink! I sewed in my standard two deep pockets, which come in real handy for keeping things organized. I also put a Funky Olive label in there too, because I thought I may sell this tote on eBay, which is also why my pictures are somewhat decorated with Oriental text as well. I did list it with a higher reserve, as there is a lot of work that went into this handbag, with the hand beading and everything. The applique alone took many hours, from digitizing the design on the computer, which took the longest to actually creating it on the sewing machine. There are a lot of thread color changes and cutting around the tiniest of applique pieces. I would say the sewing of the applique alone took over two hours, and that's using a computerized machine that basically does the embroidery for you without having to guide the foot. In the end I was kind of glad it didn't sell, because it's one of my favorite creations I have ever sewn, and I sure do get loads and loads of compliments when I am toting it! :-)

Olivia