Hello, it’s Gabrielle here with you today! I recently took this photo of my girls (Chloe, Meagan and Chloe’s best friend Peyton) at a festival we took the girls to.  It’s not always easy to get at photo where everyone is co-operating, so I was thrilled to get this one of the 3 of them.  I had actually started out this project as a card!  I wanted to do a corset design, but once I had the corset done, it occurred to me that I would like to use it as an accent on a page instead.  I made the corset by first drawing out a design on a piece of white paper.  I know not everyone is comfortable with sketching a design so I have posted my sketch/template below, I made it to fit easily on one of the 6×6 inch patterned papers that are one of the sizes offered by Maja Design.  Just set your printer for 6×6 and print directly onto you patterned paper, or you can just print it on white paper and cut out and trace onto patterned paper (this is a good method for when you have scrap bits of paper you want to use up!)

Template

Here are some quick and easy steps in creating this corset design.  First print off  the corset design above.

Trace out template onto your choice of patterned paper (I used the ‘7th of May-bs’ of Vintage Spring Basics for my design).  I cut a small groove into the top and bottom of the corset so that when I lace it up it looks like two seperate pieces lining up (you don’t want to seperate the two pieces entirely as this makes it harder to to the lacing up).  Then Ink all the edges with a complimentary ink color (I used Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet).

Do some machine stitching on the piece, zig-zag along top and bottom edges and straight stitch on marked lines to resemble boning on the corset. (see above)

I use a thick gage needle with a large eyehole to pre-punch the holes for the corset lacing.  Just cross-stitch an ‘X’ pattern and tie off at the top.  Adhere blooms, lace along edges and add pearl accents as desired to finish up your corset design.  Here are some close-up peeks at the rest of the page….

I really like combining intricately cut chipboard pieces with my Maja Design papers, I think the detailed looking chipboard works so well with the vintage style of Maja designs.  For my piece above I added extra detailing by using some 3D pearl paint (Scribbles) in white, to add even more texture to the design.

Above is another close-up view of the handmade corset embellishment.  I added a little tuft of netting/cheescloth to create a skirt design under the corset.  Add some lace and buttons to complete the vintage look!

Supplies:  Patterned Paper – Vintage Spring Basics (1st of May, 7th of May-bs, 4th of May, 4th of May-bs, 10th of March, 6th of May).  Chipboard – Dusty Attic Designs (Baroque Corners, Corrugated card). Lace paper doily.  Circle Frame and Dress form stand – Pink Paislee Artisans Collection. Flowers and Flourishes –  Prima, Dusty Attic. Alphabet Stickers – Websters Pages Designs (Beautiful collection).

I hope you enjoyed my project for today and hope you will give my template a try!  It can be used on tags and cards as well!

Hi everyone!  It’s me Gabrielle here with you again today!  I was so thrilled to be working on my first project using the NEW and gorgeous Vintage Spring Basics collection!  I’m such a huge fan of butterflies, birdies and florals on my scrapbook papers, and add them to a vintage design and I’m in heaven!  I wanted to go with a butterfly theme so I thought I’d create a layered butterfly wing design to accent the page.  I thought I would share with you all the steps I took to create the butterfly design…

Before I added the larger wing to my page, I first lightly inked some of the area around where the wing would be placed and did a little stamping with some script stamps.  I wanted a 3D layered effect so I glued down the larger wing and did a little doodling around the edges of the wing and then glued down the smaller wing on top, glueing only at the center of the wing so that it can be folded up slightly.  Here is a close-up view of the finished design…

I also added some chipboard in the lower right corner to mirror the cherry blossom design in the papers.  These I handpainted and I added a little nest to give a nice Spring feel to the page.

I also wanted to try something fun for this page, and it was to make my own Vintage Crinkle Ribbon!  I’ve seen these cute ribbons on many projects in the past and when I went to source them locally I had an impossible time finding them!  Then I came across some information on Pinterest on how to make these vintage ribbons from seam binding!  I gave it a try and it was easy-peasy to do and so inexpensive!  I did a little video tutorial on how to make these (the tutorial can be found at my blogpost for today at Such A Pretty Mess Blog ….if you want to have a peek!

And I have one more little extra for you today.  I know that not everyone is comfortable with sketching, so if you want to try the butterfly wing design that I created above, you can right click on the template below and ‘save picture as’ to your computer.  I saved the page as a 8.5×11 so when you go to print if you hit ‘fit to page’ it should give you the wings in the same size as I created for my page.

I hope you enjoyed my first project with the NEW Vintage Spring Basics collection as much as I enjoyed making it!

Supplies: Patterned Paper – Vintage Spring Basics (1st of May, 4th of May, 7th of May, 7th of May-bs, 6th of May), Chipboard – Dusty Attic (Cherry Blossoms), Flowers – Dusty Attic Mini Roses, Prima Roses, Prima Pearl Ribbon/trim, Nest – Prima, Green Vine Trim – May Arts, Crinkle Ribbon – handmade (tutorial link above)