Memorial Day with Pink Paislee

I am convinced that the "sewing with material" gene skips generations in my family. Both my mom and my mother-in-law are expert seamstresses . . . Me? Not so much. I can sew on paper, but give me something flexible, like fabric or ribbon, and I fumble like a fish out of water.

Now, that doesn't mean I don't admire the look of homespun items, . . . infact, every year about this time I get the itch to create a quilted-looking item on my scrapbook pages. And that is one of the things I wanted to show you today. :)

First of all, here is my completed page. First, I'll show you how I did the background, and then I will show you how to create the 3-D star embellishments (they are sooo super easy! You will be shocked at how simple they are! :) )





First, I cut out a series of 3" hexagon shapes from several Pink Paislee Papers using my Cricut Expression machine and the Accent Essentials cartridge.

I arranged them on my paper in a combination that was pleasing to my eye, then I inked the edges with dark brown ClearSnap Chalk Ink and curled up the edges a bit with my fingers.



Before adhering them down, I stitched around the edges using my sewing machine. I like to stitch my elements before adhering them *just in case* I make a mistake. That way if I mess up, I can just remake one little element and not sacrifice my entire page. :)



And that's it! Now you have a colorful, summer picnic quilt look on your background. Fun, right?!!

Now, the 3-dimensional star embellishments. This week I found these rustic, barnwood stars on clearance at my local craft store. I am going to hang them in Owen's bedroom, but first, I'm using them as my inspiration piece for this page.



I cut out two 2.5" stars, one 3.5" star, and one 4.5" star for this page.

Using the Scor-It-All add a score line going from each tip of the star to the opposite indent, like this.




Continue around, scoring each of the five tips until you are finished.



Use your fingers to pinch and fold the star into shape.



Now it looks like this! :)



Stack a few foam dots together and adhere to the underside of your star. You are now ready to add it to your page.



Easy! I hope you'll try this star technique on a soon-to-be Patriotic Parade layout of your own.



Happy Scrapping!
Jana