Monday 28 December 2009

STATEMENT NECKLACES

I am suddenly in love with this type of statement necklaces made using the fabric rolled roses . It seems I can't stop making them LOL. Here are a few designs available in my Etsy shop together with some matching hair accessories now. There are quite a few more to come, though.
Making these necklaces is so much fun. I love to form these cute roses and combine colours and I also love to collect beautiful vintage elements to add to these necklaces.


Here are some of them modelled so that you can have an idea about the necklaces's actual size (A huge thank you to Y and V who help modelling these necklaces for me BTW).

Here is one of my favorite necklaces so far : an ivory dream


which recently found its way to a dreamingly beautiful Etsy treasury:

This type of necklaces is sure a hit currently. It can be worn in many occassions and makes a great gift, too. So if you are interested why don't drop by my Etsy shop to have a look or to take a double advantage of worldwide free shipping and special introductory price ( Offer ends December 31st)
Don't see the colours you want? There is nothing simpler - just convo me for a custom made one. I love custom orders. You design and I make it for you, or simply let me know how you want it, I'll design something to suit your needs.
Hope everyone is having a great Holiday Season!


TESTIMONIAL

I just love it so much whenever a bride send me photos from her real wedding that I made flowers for. Here is the bridal package I made for Katie from NSW Australia :


and here are some photos she sent me recently. She said the professional taken photos are yet to come but here are some that her friend took of the wedding. I found them beautiful!









and here is what she said in her generous feedback for me in my Etsy store:

...where do I start. Lynn was absolutely amazing. throughout the entire process of customizing the bouquets to receiving the gorgeous finished package. Lynn sent me photo's every couple of days so i could see how she was doing. She was in constant contact every step of the way, when the packages arrived from the UK to Australia, they we're in perfect condition. I LOVE my wedding package, i cant wait for the wedding day so i can see it all come together.
Lynn is amazing at what she does.
extremely talented and trustworthy, you will get more than you could imagine....beautiful creations! thankyou so much Lynn....
I am so happy for her when I read her email, she said the wedding day was perfect!
Katie, thank you for your kindness and for your beautiful photos. I wish you both a wonderful new life of which you will enjoy every day every hour every minute, much love and happiness forever.

Friday 11 December 2009

Ribbon Butterfly TUTORIAL

Y0u will need:
* Hot glue and hot glue gun
* Sharp pair of scissors
* A lighter
*Cotton bandage for your fingers
* For two top wings :
- 2 x 3" length 3/8" width grosgrain ribbon
- 2 x 2" length 3/8" width grosgrain ribbon
- 2 x 1.5" length 3/8" width grosgrain ribbon
(dark blue and dark green ribbon in Pic.1)

* For bottom wings :
- 2" length 7/8" width (light blue ribbon in Pic.1)
- Scrap ribbon in yellow and black

* For the antennas : 4.5" length 3/8" width black grosgrain ribbon



STEP 1: Make the top wings : Heat seal the ends of the ribbons. Glue the 2" length 3/8" width ribbon on top of the 1.5" length 3/8" width ribbon at one end making a small corner as is shown in Pic.2. Similarly glue the 3" length 3/8" width ribbon on top of the 1.5" length 3/8" width ribbon (Pic.2)

Turn it upside down (Pic.3)


Bring back the other end of the shortest ribbon and glue to make a loop (Pic.4)



Do the same with the middle ribbon - Make another loop (Pic.5)



Make the last loop with the longest ribbon but pay attention. Pic. 6 shows the wrong way doing it.




To make the last loop when bring the other end of the ribbon back to glue you need to flip it over once to make a twist, so the inside of the ribbon will stay on top (Pic.7)



You've just make one top wing. Repeat this step to make another top wing but you need to mirror what you've done. I.e in Pic.2 the longest ribbon stay in the left hand side, now to make the other wing, you should have your longer ribbon stay in the right hand side. Pic.8 shows 2 top wings completed.


Use some hot glue to glue two wings together at the very end (just about 1/4" - Pic.9)


Pic 10 shows your two top wings from a different angle - from the bottom where you should attach the bottom wings.

STEP 2: Make the bottom wings : Use the 7/8" width ribbon and trim off the areas with white strips flowing the dotted lines, going about 3/8" t0 1/2" toward inside from each end depending on how you want it look, so play with it a bit. Make nice curves at the corners (Pic.11)

Heat seal the cuts (Pic.12)

Now make an accordian fold by folding the ribbon lengthwise in half firstly (Pic13)...

... then bring down the two edges of the ribbon (Pic.14)

Secure the fold either with hotglue or simply use your lighter to melt thr ribbon a bit at the fold and quickly use your fingers to squeeze firmly - the melted ribon will merge and secure the fold (somehow :-) and it's enough!). Now glue the bottom wings to the top wings. Pic.15 now shows the front of your butterfly upside down!

STEP 3: Add the antennas . Use the 3/8" width black ribbon
From one end, cut along the 2 edges to make 2 very thin strips on two sides, about 2.5" length. Remove the ribbon left in the middle. Heat seal your cut with the ligbhter and when the ribbon still hot try to shape the antennas the way you like while heatsealing - they can be very curly or you may want to bend them alittle bit. Again, it's personal taste. I like the the way they look in Pic.17


Now glue the other end of the black ribbon to the front of your butterfly, starting at the bottom. (Pic.18)


Pic. 19 shows the back side...
Now fold the black ribbon over and glue it to the back side the way you wrap the center of a bow but don't squeeze, leave the black rinbon long enough at the center so that it will look like the butterfly's body. Then again fold the ribbon over and glue it to the front of the butterfly, you will now have what's shown in Pic.19
STEP 4 : Finisgh it off! Use your black and yelow srap ribbons. Cut two eye-shapes out of the black ribbon , and two round ones out of the yellow ribbons. Heat seal all of them (Pic.21)
Glue the yellow on top of the black and glue both of them black/yellow each onto every bottom wing (Pic.22).

Yay! Here is your butterfly , ready to find some flowers :-). Attach it to a pin, a hair clip, a hair bow as a center, to your child's dress with flower prints, put it on your hair bow bouquet, or even a bridal bouquet... how fun!
Hope you like the tutorial (Hope it's in time for spring). If you do you might want to check my blog from time to time for other projects. I'll post a fray fabric flower tutorial soon when this xmas shopping madness is over :-)
Happy Holiday everyone!

ALL ABOUT COLOURS - EART TEAM BLOG RING -

I must at first apology. This post should have been up since yesterday, but I misjudged the time somehow, being super dizzy as I stayed up until 4am the night before last night to complete a bridal order. I am so sorry if I've broken the ring -I thought today is thursday! Brrrr!

Anyway this week, our team blog ring talks abour colours. What colours are our favorite and if it's difficult to step out of the colour comfort zone for crafting

Well I must say cannot answer the first question, that makes the secon question non applicable for me either :-) It's almost like when being asked 'what is your favorite composer, your favorite book' for me. I cannot answer those questions simply because there are so many and I cannot decide which one I love better or best! It depends on my mood, different circumstance and so on...

When I craft I start with the material and its texture and colour suggest the design. Most of the time. I guess that way it's made my life much easier with bridal custom orders. Most of the brides come to me and say : my colour scheme is this and this and this...and I want my flower/ bouquet/butonniere made of fabric/feather/ribbon etc. All of these themself would already draw a sketch in my head how I should do it.

That's to say I love all colours I don't have a comfort zone, or in other words I feel comfortable with all colour and I love to be able to bring different colours together,play with them in a colour palette which suit our needs.

Want to know how other EART team members think about colours? Continue to read our blog ring at Michelle's Charm World's blog

Friday 20 November 2009

FRIDAY FOLKSY FINDS - Something Blue

Finally! I should have called it Saturday Folksy Finds instead -now it's already Saturday! Couldn't find a minute during the day with my kid being poorly...
Anyway, here is my little Folksy Treasure for today - Something blue! I really love it! And with Christmas coming in no time (really it'll be at your door before you notice it!!!), I strongly recommend you to explore the shops featured today to find more great gifts for HER or MOM or little ONES and stocking stuffers as well.




From top left corner (clockwise!)

9.Green Necklace from Flutterbies (Oh it does have some blue in it :-)!!!)

Aren't they beautiful???! Hope you love them as I do. Thanks a lot for stopping by. Have a great weekend everyone and see you next friday.
~hairbowswonderworld

Thursday 19 November 2009

EVERYTHING HAS ITS BEGINNING! EART TEAM BLOG RING

This weeks our EART TEAM blog ring is all about the beginnings. How did we started doing what we're doing!

I think I've been crafty all my life. I still remember when I was about 6, I took off all my dolls clothes and did all the altering to suit my eyes - cutting, sewing and drawing. LOL. My mommy was half excited, half angry about it! At 13, I became my sister's hair styler (without learning it) and I made her very unhappy several times. Since the age of 14, I started to cut and sew my own school clothes with my mom's very old sewing machine (again, no proper learning LOL) and even made some for my friends. I guess I was lucky that people around us were pretty tolerant :-)

But everything started to get serious when my oldest daughter turned 2 and her hair started to get longer and beautiful. As every proud new mama, I loved to dress her up and I loved all the beautiful hair bows all over Ebay US. So full, so round, so many layers, colours, so pretty! I could not find anything closer to it here in the UK, and the international shipping rate was so high! And most of all, the seller who had the bows I liked the most didn't ship outside the US! GRRRR! So I was determined to learn to make them myself. I then bought a set of bows instructions online. Here are one of my very first bows (dated 7th august 2007)



And here is how I did a month later (picture dated 3rd Sept.2007)


At first, just to make bow centers and hair clippies, I created a ribbon rose fold which lately became rather popular. I loved those ribbon roses so much, I made so many of them and mastered my technique. That's when my online friends started to tell me to venture into the bridal market. Below is one of my first bridal bouquet with satin ribbon roses:

And very soon later I started to have bouquet orders. Custom orders are however very challenging. This lotus bridal bouquet was my first bouquet sale. That lovely lady came to me and she just wanted a lotus bouquet in hot pink - I've never made a lotus stem and had no idea how I should do it. But I could not let that promising first sale slip out of my hands. So, what I did was brainstorming, google searching for images of the real flowers and making my own sketch. I was so lucky I could perssuade her to go with my plan and when she received it, she really loved it.

Since then, I started to explore more materials I could use, more types of flowers I could make. I 've learnt a lot through trials and errors. Below is the picture of my first hair flowers sale. It was actually an Etsy Alchemy. A lovely lady posted a picture and said she wanted something similar for her wedding. I was so glad she chose me. I tried to make her something similar to the photo but I added my own twist. And she loved it much more than the original version!


Now in my ETSY and FOLKSY stores, you can find many types of handmade bridal bouquets, hair fascinators, boutonnieres, corsages, brooches, even necklaces etc with all types of materials. And also E-books on how to make some of my signature's flowers and ribbon sculptures. I never can thank my customers enough. They built me up and they've been a great source of inspiration!
Want to know how other EART TEAM member got started? Follow our Thursday BLOG RING @Michelle's Charm World's blog.
Have a nice day everyone!

Friday 13 November 2009

FRIDAY FOLKSY FINDS


Have you ever shopped on FOLKSY? If not you should start doing so. There you will find all great quality and unique handmade items from the UK. You will love it. Promised! I decided I will window shop around FOLKSY and post my finds here every Friday in my FRIDAY FOLKSY FINDS posts.
Look at my treasury above from top left corner (clockwise!)

Aren't they terrific???! If you like what I found, drop in the shops to see more beautiful items from great artisants and show some love in your comments :-) Thanks a lot for stopping by. See you next friday :-)!!!

EART TEAM NOVEMBER SCAVENGER HUNT! Check it out to win fabulous prizes!!!

The Eclectic Artisans Team has a new team shop. Check it out! To celebrate our new shop and the beginning of the holiday season, we're having a scavenger hunt, and everyone is invited to participate!

Here's how to play: Visit the participating etsy shops (scroll down for the list of shops) and search their items for this photo:




When you find it, send the shop owner an etsy convo letting them know you found it. You can search and enter in each participating shop. You can only win once (we want to share the love as much as possible), but the more shops you enter, the more chances you have to be a winner! Each shop owner will randomly draw one winner at the end of the hunt. That's all you have to do.

The scavenger hunt runs from Friday, 11/13, 2009, to midnight EST on Friday, 11/20/09. Check the EART website on Monday, 11/23/09 to see the winners. Enjoy the hunt!

(Please note: EART members are not eligible to win prizes.) Here's a list of participating EART shops and their fabulous prizes:

Hair Bows Wonderworld
Prize: red velour rose pin-on corsage/buttonhole


MichellesCharmWorld
Prize: Pair of Lego Earrings & Lego

EDCCollective
Prize:
Set of four photographic art note cards with envelopes, your choice of images.

DivaDea
Prize: set of four handmade christmas cards


IndigoOrchid
Prize:
Platinum Freshwater Pearldrop Earrings

Pnkgeeni
Prize: set of six handmade embossed christmas cards


AWEshopAWEshop
Prize: Hammered Copper Adjustable Spiral Ring




Purple Sparkle Crafts
Prize: Sugar Pink Marshmallow Cupcake Candle




MouserkinsMagic
Prize:
Choice of 2 Bookmarks


InspirationRecycled
Prize: Peacock and Brown Felt Pendant


Punkynmunky
Prize: Animal print no slip hair clip trio





BeautifulSchlopp
Prize: $25 gift certificate


EclecticArtisansTeam
Prize: sparrow earrings from
MichellesCharmWorld

Questions? Convo
divadea on etsy. Thanks for playing!


Wednesday 11 November 2009

PSYCHE

I've just made this statement necklace and call it Psyche. Love how it turned out and love that it can be worn as a headpiece, too. It was fun to make the rosettes from cotton linen and lace and to sculpt the tiny white roses out of clay. It was also fun to make those tiny peach flowers from lace. The most tricky part is to assemble all of them pearls, flowers, lace yoyo and ribbon together. But I guess I made it! Add two clusters of vintage flower earring and a vintage butterfly brooch - then here it is!


Monday 9 November 2009

DIY this Christmas!

I've been dreaming to create a Xmas book of ribbon sculptures for quite a while. I love Xmas and love to create those cute Xmas figures and ornaments. Last year, Hair Bows Wonderworld released four sets of instructions for Xmas and I've just added a new set to my portfolio. Inexpensively available in my Etsy shop are instructions to make a Penguin, a Santa Sleigh, a Fancy Xmas tree , a Poinsettia flower with Holly leaves and Berries, and a Green Xmas Monster (all 3D - I love 3D).

I tried to create my tutorials as simple as possible which require only simple tools and materials that are easy to find so anyone can do it. In fact, to make my ribbon sculptures you just need to have scissors, needle and thread, hot glue and hot glue gun, ribbon, felt (sheet), a pencil and a lighter. No sewing machine, wood burner etc required.

There are plenty of use for these little cuties. Add them to a hair clip, a brooch bar, add a string so you can hang them on your tree, use them as ornament for your purse, bag, backpack or any other sewing project, oh, I can go on and on and on :-)

Last year I made a bunch of penguins and poinsettias for my friend so she could hang them on her small tree. It looked so pretty with those handmade ornaments.
You can do it, too! DIY! Celebrate and decorate your Xmas in Style!

How to make a Ribbon Santa Sleigh (newly added)

How to make a Ribbon Xmas Penguin


How to make a Ribbon Poinsettia with Holly Leaves and Berries


How to make a Fancy Ribbon Xmas Tree


How to make a Green Ribbon Xmas Monster

I hope I can complete my Xmas collection this year. Five sets of instructions mentioned above are now available in my Etsy shop and soon to come are Snowman, Gingerbread Pretties, Rudolf the Reindeer and Cheerful Santa.
So if you're feeling DIY this Xmas, it's worth it to take a peek in my Etsy store, you won't be disappointed!
Happy Holiday everyone and Viva Crafting :-)!