Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop

Visions of Bali by Lorine Mason

Welcome Hoppers! When Eileen Hull asked me to participate in her current blog hop I was honored as I am not a consistent blogger but a good friend. I want to be, a consistent blogger I mean, as I think I qualify as a good friend despite my lack of blogging skills, but it seems I let life get in my way at times!

My contribution to the blog hop involved the use of the leaf die that Eileen designed within the Fresh Vintage collection as well as some wonderful wire and Katydids from the folks over at Beadalon and a wonderful designer named Katie Hacker. What was I to do with all this great stuff?

The Design Process Step by Step

1. My first love is fabric and I love to fuse things so that is where I started, I simply fused fun batik fabric leftovers to bamboo felt and then slid them through the Sizzix machine cutting out leaves of perfectly predetermined sizes.

1a. Yes, I could have changed the entire design listing process to add a step I forgot but that is just not me so we have 1a. I had to sew something so I 'clothesline' sewed down the center of the leaves using a fun variegated thread on my sewing machine. I then cut apart my leaves and moved to step 2.
Clothesline Sewing: means to sew in a continuous row without breaking your thread, just keep feeding in the next leaf until you are finished.

2. My second love these days is t shirt fabric strips, I rummaged through my design trunk and found a matching strip and used it for the base of the necklace.

3. I love just a touch of sparkle and since I come from all things fabric I filled my Katydid with hot fix metallic rhinestones from iLoveToCreate using glue as frankly it was just a little too delicate to hot fix anything into the channels of the finding.

4. Just so I did not stray too far from my roots I wrapped the wire around a fabric turner tube to create fun coils and then created some spirals to add to the magnificence of my creation.

5. I think I am ready to put it all together. Does this count as a step?

6. Break time: I must get a cup of coffee before I finish.

7. Back to work, I find the center of the t shirt strip and use it to tie five of the leaf stems together with a beautiful knot.

8. I moved up either side of the necklace and continued to tie additional groupings of leaves. Live dangerously and don't measure.

9. I then spiraled the coils around the t shirt strip between the leaf groupings.

10. I added a touch of glue to the back of the Katydid and the spirals made earlier and glued them to the top of the center grouping of leaves.

11. One last look to decide if it looks finished or not! I think it is.....

12. Take a sip of coffee and call the master of all things Fresh Vintage!

13. Be sure to continue hopping - just click on the hop forward button on the Fresh Vintage icon along the side.

14. Thanks for stopping by......

15. Almost forgot -please stop by the Oh My Crafts blog and leave a comment for a chance to win the Leaves die used in this project. Wow! if I did not already have the die I sure would......