Thursday, May 9, 2013

How to Make a Lacey Button by Guest Designer Andrea Ewen

Did you see our exciting announcement yesterday? In case you didn't, you can find it by scrolling down to yesterday's blog post or by clicking here. You won't want to miss it!

Continuing with the excitement here at My Creative Scrapbook, we have a guest designer to introduce to you today! Please help us to give a warm welcome to Andrea Ewen:



Hello crafty friends! My name is Andrea Ewen and I've been married to my high school sweet heart for almost 18 years (together for 27!). We have two children together, a 15 year old son and a 13 year old daughter. I live in New Jersey near the beautiful shore and work full time in a small pharmacy that is 2 blocks from the ocean. Crafting has always been a passion of mine...in high school I funded my extra curricular activities by sewing hair 'scrunchies' (remember those?) and making Christmas wreaths out of pinecones. One fateful day in 2002 I went to a Stampin' Up! party and about blew my life savings on paper crafting supplies. I was so hooked! I have to say though, card making initially looked a lot easier than it was...for me. I made many 'interesting' cards in the following years but seemed to have found my stride 8 years later when I started my blog, EwenStyle. Maybe starting my blog gave me more confidence, or maybe more accountability, not sure...but either way I have learned immense lessons from this experience. For example, I've learned that there are blue-ish browns and red-ish browns. I've learned that more is not always better. I've learned that I REALLY love flowers and anything girly. And most importantly, I've learned that I still really have a lot to learn!  I try to concentrate on absorbing as much as I can and experimenting as much as possible. I adore "paper manipulating" whether it be in the form of die cuts, border punches or flower making. I love to use lots of vintage and feminine items like ribbons, lace, pearls and flowers. My style has been evolving over the years, but I've seemed to have settled into the comfy chair of Vintage/Shabby Chic/Antique designs. I currently design for Verve Stamps, Zva Creative, Maja Design Vintage Papers, Paper Sweeties Stamps and 3 challenge blogs...the Ribbon Carousel, CASE Study and Vintage Card Cafe challenge.

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Andrea designed with our May Limited Edition kit, and today she's sharing a tutorial on how to make a lacey button!

Here's Andrea:

"You'll need an 8" strip of the lace, a chipboard button and a needle and thread:


Start on one end of the flat side of the lace with a basting stitch along the whole length of the bottom:


When you get to the end, gently pull the thread taut:


Attach both ends of the lace with a stitch:


Now using the same basting stitch, follow the end up to the outside perimeter to secure the two ends together:


Tie off the end with a knot and snip off the thread:


The end result of the outside flower...the back of the button is a sticker, but to make it look 'authentically' sewn on, we're just going to put a couple of stitches on the button:


The stitch will also help to secure it a bit better, but you only need one or two stitches for the effect:


Voila! Finished product:


On the card:"


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Here's the May Limited Edition kit that Andrea designed with: 


and here are more of her beautiful cards using this kit:







That's not all... Andrea also created this beautiful altered chipbook:





Thanks for joining us this month, Andrea!

My Creative Scrapbook kit club is all about you and helping you preserve your memories in a fun and creative way. For information about subscribing to any of our monthly kits, please visit our website, here.

3 comments:

Lydell Quin said...

All such lovely creations Andrea! You created so much with this kit!!! Gorgeous Lacey button too! TFS.

Valia Katzaki said...

Thank you for the tutorial! I loved both the cards and the album!

Anonymous said...

Your really good.