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I was in the studio over the weekend and found inspiration in a favorite vintage photo.The end result was this Young Miss ATC.
I used a Kraft paper ATC blank that I spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to age and distress it and give it that grungy look I so love. I added the vintage photo, some stickers, paper fasteners, and a flower for embellishments. Just a simple little piece of altered art really, but I love how it turned out.
Here’s a project that I did specifically with Easter in mind. It’s my Grungy Bunny Bag.
I made this out of 2 pre-made 5×7″ drawstring muslin bags, one for the face bag, and one to cut up for the ears. I started by using my Coffee Shop-colored Glimmer Mist to grungy up the bag. What can I say? I didn’t like the plain look of the bag. 
I drew on the facial features lightly with pencil, then painted them in with craft acrylics.
Next, to make the ears, I cut two ear shapes out of the other muslin bag and grungy’d those up with the Glimmer Mist too. Then I created folds at the bottom of each ear to give them more of a dimensional ear shape, and cut a hole through those folds with a regular hole punch. This hole gets used to join the ear to the bag itself with a brad. Then I cut a small slit into each side of the bag face, just below the drawstring casing area, near the top of the bag. Next I took a brad, poked it through the holes in the ear folds, and then poked it through the slit in the side of the bag face to connect the ears. Closing the prongs of the brad inside the bag face secures the ear to the bag. And I just repeated that for the other ear, and tied the bag closed.
This Bunny Bag is really meant to be a gift bag. I stuffed it with regular fiberfill just so I could take a picture of the full bunny face. But you could fill it with any Easter candy, like chocolate eggs, or Jelly Beans, or M-n-M’s or something. The muslin bags are very affordable and there’s no sewing involved in this project. It’s a really quick, easy, and fun Easter craft!
I created this more rustic, country primitive bag over the weekend. It was inspired by the Gingersnaps Creations Coffee & Cream Color Challenge. It’s just a fun Grungy Button Bag.
I started with a plain muslin bag, which I used my Grungy Sauce Mix on to get it good and grungy. (Note: if you’d like the recipe for my Grungy Sauce Mix, you’ll find it on my primitive blog in the Grungy Hang Tag Tutorial.)
Once my grungy bag was baked and dry I created the flower for it, following the Burlap Flowers Tutorial I blogged about. I changed the finishing of the flower because I wanted a flatter flower to allow for the button to go in the center. But I did create the basic flower following that tutorial. I used 3 types of material to create my three-layered flower. The bottom one is a cream-colored burlap; the middle one is a muslin-type material that I grungy’d up using Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist; and then the top one is a floral cotton. I sewed the button on through the flower to the muslin bag. Then I just added two more buttons, in coffee and cream colors, to add a bit more visual interest and to finish it off.
Really, you could use this bag to store some craft buttons in, or anything else. You could also use it as a gift bag.
As I begin to play around more and more with fabric in my art and crafts, I’m trying to incorporate other types of art and techniques that I love…like Altered Art. This fabric collage, Rose Gardens, was great fun for me. It’s a little bit primitive and rustic, and a little bit shabby chic, and still with that altered art flair. This piece is about 4″ x 5″ in size. I’m using this as entry into the Three Muses Old Fashioned Challenge.
I actually started this with a muslin bag that I grungy’d up with my special grungy sauce mix. I just love the look of grungy muslin, what can I say? So that is what you see on the outer edges of this piece; it serves as the background for the whole collage.
Next I took a plain piece of muslin and did an image transfer onto it using a gel medium. I used a vintage photo of a woman (I’ve named her “Rose”) picking roses outside her window. At first I was irritated that my black and white image came out looking pink in the transfer image, but hey, what’s a gal to do? I just decided to go with it. After that dried I distressed the edges of the muslin, then sewed that onto the grungy muslin bag using black thread. I just like the way the black thread contrasts with the muslin.
Then it was time to embellish, so I took some decorative ivory-colored trim and used that to frame my transfer image. Then I cut off all the edges of the muslin bag–because it wasn’t really a bag anymore once I sewed the image onto it. And the nice part is that the extra layer of fabric from the back of the bag makes the whole collage a bit more firm, which I like. I frayed the edges of the remaining part of the grungy muslin bag. Then I tied 3 paper roses together with a black ribbon and sewed them to the bottom right corner of the collage.
At some point I may use this small fabric collage as part of another bigger project. But I am happy with it as it is for now. And one fun thing for me on this…there is a flaw in the image transfer, to the right of Rose’s dress, near the bottom. It’s a little white spot that didn’t quite transfer from the photo. But to me, it looks like a little fairy…and I love that!
As I was decorating my Christmas tree the other day, I came across this country primitive ornie that I’d made for a swap a few years ago, but hadn’t photographed it at the time. I thought it’d be a nice addition to the blog so I snapped a photo while I was thinking about it. I made this for a country primitive ornies swap through an online community I belonged to.
I started with 2 pieces of an off-white felt that I’d cut to the size and shape I wanted. Then I spritzed them with my special grungy sauce mix–though not too much, because I wanted him to be just little a little bit grungy, rather than dirty. I then baked them in a warm oven for about 10 minutes or so, flipping them once, until they were fully dry.
Next I cut orange pieces of felt for each snowman’s nose. Then I stitched on the nose, and then stitched on 2 buttons to be the eyes. I kept the mouth very simple and just stitched a series of X’s for his smile.
After all the facial features were complete I stitched three sides, added just a bit of fiberfill to round out the face a bit, then stitched the rest of the way on the outside edges of the felt. And I finished each one off with a green and ivory gingham fabric strip for hanging.
I love the simplicity of country primitive crafts. They are just full of warmth and fun and have a sense of home. And these particular ornies are so easy to make. I think I had to make about 15 or 20 of them for the swap I was in, and it didn’t take me all that long to complete them all. And my smiling snowman looks sweet on my tree too!
I’ve also linked this project up at the Sassy sites blog for their Christmas Creations Using Fabric Challenge. Be sure to take a peek at their blog to see lots of other wonderful and creative holiday fabric creations!
Here’s another altered hangtag creation I’ve made using a less-is-more approach. Sometimes I get a bit carried away with embellishments and details and I forget that it’s OK to just do something simple. Yet when I give myself permission to do something simple, I usually love how it turns out.
I started with a plain manila hangtag that I used my secret grungy sauce mix on to get it good and grungy and give it that aged look. Then I took a fabulous Paper Artsy rubber stamp and stamped on the design, which features a cute child’s face, and clock, and some design motifs. To that stamped image I added a black button brad to the center of the clock image. I also added a black leaf sticker, and finished it off with a black ribbon at the top of the tag.
I love how this turned out. Hope you do too. I will always enjoy doing my busier more detailed projects, but it’s a nice change of pace to do something a little bit different once in awhile. I’m also using this for the City Crafter Challenge Blog’s Little Children Challenge.
This altered hangtag is a bit different than what I usually make, since I usually make hangtags out of paper and blank tags. For this one, inspired by the Gingersnap Creations Sewing Notions Challenge, I created my fabric own hangtag from scratch using fabric!
I started with some lovely vintage-looking floral fabric that is tan in color and has some delicate burgundy-colored rosebuds on it. I cut it to the size I wanted (2-1/2″ x 5″). Then I found some scrap muslin fabric that I had already made grungy using my secret grungy sauce and I tore the edges to distress it, and to make it fit on top of the other fabric. I sewed the muslin to the floral fabric using black thread, to give it some good contrast to the fabrics I was using. I didn’t want this to look all perfect and clean-edged; I wanted it to look aged and worn, and a bit rustic. After I sewed on the muslin, I then sewed the two pieces of floral fabric together as well.
Next I gathered my sewing notions and embellishments: a Tim Holz metal key, a copper brad, a brown button, a brown satin ribbon with a pearl bead accent, some tatted lace trim, and a rusty safety pin. I poked a hole in the fabrics to make it possible to attach the key to the tag, and used the brad to do just that. Then I sewed on the button, and then also sewed on the brown button. I finished the bottom edge with the tatted trim, and then used the rusty safety pin to attach the brown satin ribbon to the top of the tag.
I am finding that I really enjoy working with fabric. Sewing isn’t one of my stronger skills, so I’ll need to keep working at it. But in working on this tag, I was really getting some fun ideas for creative fabric projects I could try. I really had fun with it…except for all the times I needed to thread a needle, which is difficult to do without the bifocals I really need to get one of these days. Darn my aging eyes anyway! I also like the idea of doing a more tattered-style of sewn creations–much less worry about perfection gives me lots more creative freedom (and less stress). And as Martha would say, that’s a good thing.
Here’s to more fabric projects in the future! Have a great Wednesday.
Since Autumn is one of my two favorite seasons of the year, the other being Spring, I always enjoy creating fall-themed art projects. And since I’m trying to create more and more sets when I create hangtags, I created this fall-themed hangtag set. I’m also entering this in the City Crafter Challenge Blog’s Autumn Leaves Falling Challenge. This challenge required us to create any project using the colors of Autumn Leaves. I’ve definitely used some of my favorite fall colors!
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This set of four tags all started out plain, and I used my usual grungy sauce mix to grungy them up. Then I used a doily-patterned rubber stamp to stamp on the doily texture using yellow-gold ink. Next I picked out fabric sunflower-type flowers in 2 shades of orange and I attached one to each hangtag using a brown metal button fastener. Then I chose four dimensional stickers, each with its own word, and adhered one to the bottom of each hangtag. All that was left after that was to finish each of the hangtags off with a gold organdy ribbon.
I love the colors of Autumn, don’t you?!
If you’d like to see more creative projects from other crafters and artists, be sure to take a peek at Today’s Creative Blog. Lots of great stuff there!
I’ve created some different altered hangtags recently…trying to get away from doing only individual hangtags all the time. This set is one I’ve done using some chipboard vintage photo buttons.
I started with four plain hangtags and used my usual secret grungy sauce mix to grungy them up. Then I took a rubber stamp that has a sort of textile/fabric texture to it and stamped each tag near the center using brown ink, just to contrast a bit with the grungy background. Then I took another decorative rubber stamp and used black ink to create a decorative ground for the buttons. Next I took four different chipboard buttons, all feature vintage photos of children, and added them using a black metal button fastener, for just an added pop of color. I finished each hangtag off by rubber stamping on a different word to each tag, and adding a brown satin ribbon to each as well.
I love playing with ideas for magnets. I made this one awhile ago when I was creating some others, but somehow forgot to post it.
I started this with a grungy hangtag, measuring 1-1/2″ by 3-1/4″. I used one of my Paper Artsy rubber stamps to stamp on the vintage style image of the woman. Next I dabbed on some distress ink on her face and neck, to give it some more color and depth. Then I distressed a piece of paper and stamped on the word, caring. And I finished the magnet with a rhinestone gem, to make it look like she’s wearing a diamond earring. Then I just needed to adhere it to the magnet. C’est fini! 
