More Quirky Kit Inspiration

Hi it's Leo here! Today I've got some things to share I've been making with Quirky Kits so hopefully you'll be able to grab some ideas of what to do with you kits.

With this first project I've grabbed the 'What's the Story?" Quirky kit and the mini 'Sew Embellishy' fabric Quirky Kit.

A-Z mini book

One of the ideas behind the 'What's the Story?' kit is that the neutral colours can work as a base for you to add in your own personal style or to tell a particular story, (i.e add in colours taken from your photos). With this in mind I picked out the bright fun coloured fabrics from the Sew Embellishy mini Quirky Kit because of my love of fun bright colours and pattern. Don't forget that you can easily add your own personal style or taste to the What's the Story kit to give you a completely different look.

As well as the two kits I also used up some spare page protectors I had. These started as American Crafts 6x6 size but I trimmed 1 inch off the top which made them roughly 5x7 size, (including the binding at the edges).

This is going to be an A-Z minibook so I needed 26 sides, one for each letter, but I didn't have enough page protectors so I split the pages in half by stitching a line down the center. The easiest way I've found to do this so you get a straight edge is to cut a piece of card the same size as half of your page protector and pop it inside butting it right up to the right hand side edge. After that you just stitch as close to the edge of the card as possible. When you've done remove the piece of card and you have two pockets in your page protector.
If you haven't got a sewing machine there's still a way you can make two pockets from one page protector using the sticky tape from the What's the Story kit.

Just wrap the tape around the middle of your page protector making sure you tape over the top edge. It creates a boarder that well defines your two pages.

You can also see now I've added some of the fabric from the Sew Embellishy kit along the bound edges of the page protector. This helps to disguise the ugly holes along the page protector binding.

All you need to do for this is cut out strips of fabric and wrap them around the binding edge then sew them in place. I did find this was easier if I added a bit of doublesided tape to fix the fabric in place before sewing then it didn't slip around. If you don't have a sewing machine just go with the double sided tape. You could add some hand stitching if you wanted to using the embroidery thread from the Sew Embellishy kit.

After you have enough pockets/sides - one for each alphabet - make holes along the binding edge one at the top and one at the bottom and then add eyelets to each hole to stop the fabric fraying. Fix together all your pages with book rings. For my cover I used the micro-corrugated card, glued back to back to strengthen it.

I've decorated the cover with goodies from the What's the Story kit, the red Prima flower is from my own stash. The mini alphabets I've stuck down on to cork and cut them out to give them a 3D look. I really love these mini alphas they really stick down well on lots of different surfaces. I've made a 'hanger' from the red lace ribbon tying it between the two book rings.

The inside of the book is really simple. All I've done is print out my photos to fit in their relevant spaces inside my album and popped them inside backing them on to scrap pieces of paper from my stash. I've then added the titles and journalling on top of the page protector.

The Pink Paislee chipboard letters from the kit are great for this kind of A-Z project because they make perfect monograms.

The only letter I couldn't think of anything for was Z! I thought maybe catching ZZZZ's although I think I'm more of the staying awake with coffee kind! Will have to wait for inspiration to strike in the Z department.

Fabric 'Embroidery' bag project

For this next project I've used the canvas bag from the What's the Story kit, (your kit comes packaged in a canvas tote making it really easy for you to 're-use' your packaging!) some more of the fabric from the Sew Embellishy kit and the embroidery thread from both kits, (black and grey). I've also used an embroidery hoop and a Crafty Template.

First you need to cut a piece of plain fabric and fix it in an embroidery hoop. I guess it's not essential to use one of these but it makes it slightly easier to work with I think. I'm using an extra piece of canvas but you could use any old plain or patterned fabric.

Next I've printed out a Crafty Template. You can use a template or you can hand cut out some shapes from fabric. This template is from the June 2008 set if you want to download it from the subscribers area.

If you're using a paper template it's really easy to cut out fabric shapes this way. First cut out roughly around your template.

Add paper glue, (like Pritt stick) to the back of the paper and stick it over the top of the patterned fabric you want to use.

Cut out the design following the lines on the paper so you're cutting through both the paper and the fabric. It's lots easier to cut out this way, especially if you have a more intricate shape like this one.

Here I'm cutting out the shapes from the template that make up the design using a different patterned fabric.

Here I'm starting to build up the picture on my fabric. I'm making use of small leftovers of fabric to cut out embellishments.

Here's the completed embroidery. I've used a pattern from a fabric, (this Eiffel tower one was in the Hot Date Quirky Kit) and cut out the shapes from it to use so even if you don't have a template to work from you can cut out patterns from a fabric. The stitched writing is really simple to do I did mine free hand because I wanted more of a 'quirky' look but if you wanted to make it neater you could draw on the letters first and stitch over the top.

When you're happy with your embroidery take it off the hoop and iron it flat. I know it's a pain getting out the iron in summer, I had to hunt around for mine!

And here's what I did with it....

I made a 6x6 inch pocket and stitched it to the front of the canvas bag from the What's the Story kit. The canvas tote bag is already the perfect size for 12x12 papers and adding the 6x6 pocket means I can use my tote for 12x12 and 6x6 size papers. Great for on the go or alfresco summer scrapping! Oh and you defo don't need mad sewing skills to do this as you can tell I defo do not have the said mad sewing skills but I'm still pretty happy with how my tote turned out and I had lots of fun making it so you should defo have a go.

Because the tote is plain canvas you can also use it as a plain canvas and paint on to it! Maybe I can do that on the opposite side? Hmmmmm

I've since done more of these fun fabric embrodery pictures like this one above.

And I've made this one into a notebook cover:

So even if you didn't want a bag you can cut it up and use the fabric for other projects.

Happy Quirky Kitting!

xx Leo