Idea Jar - Prompt #1 - My layout

Well, I am tickled pink to say that I did my first layout in well over two years yesterday!  Knowing that I had this challenge to complete definitely motivated me to do this page.  I sure hope that it helped you create something with fabric on it this week as well!

I made this flower with scraps from my fabric stash :-)

If you would like, share with us if you were able to do this weeks challenge......and be sure to check back tomorrow for the next Idea Jar Prompt! :-)

God Bless!

di

Idea Jar - Prompt #1

The other day I was chatting with several of my dear friends on UStream and I was talking about how badly I needed to start scrapbooking again.  I don't think that I have done a scrapbook page for over two years now!  I started scrapbooking way back in 1996 and it is the one craft that I have always stayed with....well, except for these past two years. lol  But, things were very tough at home with our oldest daughter and there for awhile I completely lost all of my desire to do anything creative.  Until I discovered art journaling this past April.  It has truly saved me, resurrected my creative muse and now it's time to get back to doing some scrapping!  But, I need some help getting started again and after several ladies said that they would like to join in with me on my quest to complete some pages I remembered that I had this:

So.......

The Idea Jar Prompts was born. lol

I made this Idea Jars ages ago and it's full of pieces of paper that have page starters on them.  Some tell you to use a certain tool, or supply, or prompt, etc.  So, each Sunday (sorry, I'm already a day late!) I will post the new prompt.  You have until Saturday evening to complete the prompt.  Just check in here and leave a comment that you finished the prompt.  If you have some way to show us your project, then please leave a link in your comment.  I would love to see what you make!

Oh and most important, you do not have to do a scrapbook page.  Do whatever you want!  A card, an art journal page, a scrapbook page, it doesn't matter.....there are no rules here.  This is just to help us get something done each week.  One page a week is so much more than I have done in the past two years! And those add up to 52 pages in a year and that's way more than I have done in ages.

Okay, enough talk....here's this weeks prompt!

I hope this helps inspire you to create something this week!  And, if you want to, check back in here and let us know what you made and share your work if you want to! :-)

Take care and God Bless,
di

Game Face - layout

First of all, I have to say this.........

GO BIG RED!!!!!!!

Okay, now that I have that out of my system....lol I also have to say that the photo of my kids on the second page (acting like the statues) is by far one of my most favorite photos of my kids ever! lol I have a copy of this on my fridge and it makes me laugh every time I look at it. It's great for those times when I'm grumpy. lol This layout covers a couple of challenges. It was my submission at Practical Scrappers for their Bling Challenge that was last week (yep, I'm late on sharing mine here on my blog!) and it's also for a sketch challenge at a great Yahoo! Group called ScrapFromYourStash. The sketch is by Shawn at Nuts About Sketches. She has tons and tons of awesome sketches, so be sure to visit her blog to see them!!!!

Things are still crazy here.....I'm averaging one page a week......which I guess is better than zero! I'm trying to pull out all of my winter clothes right now, pack them up and move in my summer clothes. I need to do that for little GG, too, so I have quite a bit of clothes to go through!

I hope to share more with you soon!

Markers Challenge @ Practical Scrappers

Good morning! This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use your markers! I have had the full set of Stampin' Up! makers for many, many years and I must say I can't believe they still work so wonderfully. I guess that's a bad sign that I really haven't been using them that often. ;-) So, I was really excited to see this weeks challenge. I have been trying to use them more and I think that I'm actually really enjoying all of these markers for the first time since I bought them ages ago!

I really wanted to challenge myself and think of something that I hadn't done before. So, I decided to color on some thick, cotton "ribbon". I'm not sure what this stuff is called, but it's not ribbon, it's more like yarn or flat cotton twine. Anyway, I decided to use blue and pulled out three shades of blue markers. I put some Mono Adhesive on both ends of the twine and stuck it to my work surface, so it wouldn't move around while I colored on it. Then, I just started making lines of different thicknesses for each color and followed the pattern all of the way across the ribbon. Easy as pie and it matches my layout colors perfectly!!!! :-) If you click on the picture, you can see a bigger version of it....I forgot to take a close-up of the colored twine!

Obviously, this layout is about our love of Whole Foods. lol We go there a little too often.... ;-) It can be pricey, but I find that their 360 house-brand is quite reasonable. Really, all that I buy there right now is organic produce, some beauty/bath items, Keifer and organic coffee. That's my one, big splurge. Organic coffee. lol My little one loves Whole Foods, too, especially their cookies! I know that people like to call it "Whole Paycheck" but I really do find that if you buy what's on sale, use coupons, and buy their house-brand, that it's not too bad. Plus, I'd rather pay the extra for things that I know are better for me and my family.....but that's an entire different topic! ;-)

I hope you all join in on this challenge at Practical Scrappers! Please visit us there, check out all of the amazing projects and add your own to Mr. Linky!!!!! It's a wonderful place with wonderful people and a great place to get inspiration to use the supplies that you have!

Flowers challenge at Practical Scrappers

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use flowers! I'm really sick, but wanted to quickly share two projects where I have used flowers.......

For my layout I punched out several flowers and added them around my journaling....

For my card, I added a crochet flower that I had accidentally made while trying to make a round dish cloth. lol I really messed up following the directions, but ended up with this and I knew that I had to use it on a card or layout. Silly, I know, but I think it looks kinda cute!

I hope you all are doing well......I started feeling sick yesterday and it hit me fast and hard. I tried to get some sleep tonight but just couldn't, so here I sit at 1:38 a.m. Ugh......I hate bad, head colds! Take care........ :-)

Brad challenge at Practical Scrappers

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use brads! I had so many ideas running around in my head on how to use them for some samples, but I just didn't have the time this past week to work on much of anything crafty related. I did get one layout done, that I'm sharing with you today.

For my layout I put a brad in the top two corners of the patterned paper and then holding a strip of fabric on that's at the bottom edge of the patterned paper. I knew that I had to pep those brads up a bit, so I ended up putting a small, blue rhinestone on top of each brad to give them a bit a razzle-dazzle. lol This is a super-simple layout of my little Gracie when she had her first cold. She looked so pitiful. And, now that I'm sitting here looking at this layout, I forgot to add my journaling! I told you it's been a crazy week! lol Guess I had better go do that!
Please be sure to visit Practical Scrappers to see all of the amazing projects that are being posted by the design team and the wonderful people who submit their creations with Mr. Linky. All of the inspiration there is absolutely amazing! And please join in on the fun, too, and share your creations using brads this week!

all right, all ready! - digi layout

Here is a layout that I did today. I've had this one on my mind for quite awhile and I'm really glad that I was able to do this one today and mark it off my "things to scrap" list! I'm hoping to work on some other things today, too, but we'll see!

Journaling says:

I love the snow. Really I do, but I am so sick of snow right now, I could almost scream. Our first big snow storm started on December 8th and it snowed for days. The kids have missed 6 days of school (so far!). Little did we know, that was just the beginning. We had our next big snow storm during Christmas Break. Well, it was officially a blizzard and is now known as "The Christmas Blizzard of 2009”. I must admit, that having a huge snow storm during Christmas was pretty darn cool, especially when we were opening presents while big snowflakes were falling from the sky. But, now here we are at the end of January and we have had several more encounters with Old Man Winter and he hasn't been very polite! Joe has had to use the snowblower more than he ever has before and than goodness we have a big one! Gracie and I have been going through some serious feelings of cabin fever! She and I have made it to the mall as many times as we can, so that she can play in their play area, run around, and just be silly. It feels like we have spent every day of the past two months covered with a thick, dark cloud. The sunny days have been so rare. And, the roads are horrible! We went a long time with most roads being about half their width, so two lane roads were one and 4 lane roads were just two. There was so much snow and no place to put it all, so it came into the street for several feet on each side of the road. Now, when I hear that we are expecting more snow, I just cringe! I want to see the curbs on the street, I want to see the ground, I want to see something besides WHITE! But, like I said, I really do love the snow.....just not this much!
December 2009-January 2010

Digi supplies used:
Bundled Up! kit from Shabby Miss Jenn Designs
Frame - freebie from Joanne Brisebois Designs

Pattern Paper Challenge @ Practical Scrappers

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use 2 or more designs of patterned paper on your project. Well, I am totally addicted to patterned paper. I have tons of it. I collect it like fine china. lol I say that because a lot of it I treat like fine china! I file it away in my cabinet and leave it there, because it's so pretty, I just want to look at it all of the time....just like if it was china in my buffet. lol It's silly, I know, but true. Silly and sad! lol So, I've been trying really hard to not collect patterned paper like I used to. I only buy new patterned paper if it's for a specific project. My goal is to use up my massive stash of patterned paper that I have collected in the many, many years that I've been scrapbooking.

So, here's what I have to share:
For this layout, I used eight different squares of patterned paper. I keep all of my paper scraps organized by color in drawer units, so it was easy for me to look through my color drawers and pull out scraps of paper that worked well together for this layout. So easy and lots of fun! I've had such a scatter-brained week (more on that later!), I can't remember where I got the sketch idea for this layout from....sorry! This is my little Gracie during her first feeding of cereal. Such a cutie-a-tootie!

I'm sorry about the darkness of these next photos. I tried to take the photos at night, which wasn't too smart of an idea! The idea for this idea came from sheer desperation. lol My husband gets up a lot earlier than I do, and since I've had Gracie and I sleep in with her as long as I can, he has often left for work before I get up and moving in the mornings. So, almost every morning, I had to call him to see if my little Sophie doggie had been fed or not. Needless to say, this got really old. So I made a sign that I put on our fridge w/ a long magnet. The sign is double-sided....one side says "Sophie HAS been fed" and the other says "Sophie HAS NOT been fed". I used five different patterns of paper on this one. Another project made mostly from my scrap drawers. I also raided my ribbon box and used lots of different ribbons!

For the title, I used my Big Shot to make the letters for "Sophie" and "been fed" and my good, old-fashioned plastic letter template for "HAS" and "HAS NOT". The dog, dog house and food bowl are all stamped using an old Stampin'Up! stamp set that I've had forever. I used pastel chalks and a blender pen to color them in.

Now, before you ask, because I know your wondering......did my husband ever use this? Well. Nope. Not once! lol All of that work and it doesn't get any use at all! He just doesn't think to use it and I don't bother him about it. Oh well. It was a lot of fun to make and sure does look cute on my fridge beside her food bowl. And, I guess I do still bother him about it in a way, because every now and then I do have to call him and ask him if Sophie has been fed! lol

I totally forgot to share my projects for last weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers. It was to use embossing of any type. My daughter had her Confirmation this past weekend and all of last week was complete chaos! Let me just say that it is almost impossible to find a decent dress for a young lady to wear. One that isn't too short, too low, too sparkly, too slinky....too EVERYTHING! lol It took 3 days of shopping and going to almost every clothing store in town before we found something. But, it was so worth it! She looked absolutely beautiful and the ceremony and Mass was wonderful! I will try to share my projects from last week in a day or two.

Take care, my friends.....and happy crafting!

Toot Toot!!!! It's the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop!!!!

Hi! I am so happy and excited to be a part of the Practical Scrappers Design Team Blog Hop! If this is your first time visiting me, I sure hope that you enjoy your stay here and thanks so much for stopping by. With February coming up on us very quickly, we were asked to feature a project about something that we love. So, here are some layouts about some of the things that I absolutely LOVE!!!
Coffee. Yep. I LOVE it!!!!! Just LOVE it!!!!! I try to not drink so much, but right now it's almost impossible. This cold, winter just begs for me to have my coffee pot full at all times. lol

My other true love is my iPod. I just can't live without it. I absolutely LOVE music and I always have my iPod by my side. I can't wait until I can get one that has more memory. I have so many songs and it's hard for me to pick what to have on my Pod. lol My main play list is titled "my pod rocks". lol Yep. I love my Pod!

This layout is about all of my most favorite things. I really had a blast putting this layout together, except after I was all done with it, I realized that I didn't have anything related to Coke-a-Cola. I am a tried-and-true Coke-a-Cola fan and I can't believe that I forgot to put it on this layout! There used to be all sorts of Coke scrapping products and now that I need one, I can't find them anywhere! Oh well.....guess I need to cut part of a logo off a 12-pack or something! lol

I couldn't share things that I loved without showing you this bookmark that I made. I am a book addict. Yep. I am. I totally admit it. I have books EVERYWHERE! I can't walk into any store that sells books w/o buying one. I just can't do it! I just wish that I had enough time to read them all! Maybe one day.....lol I need to do a tutorial on how to make these. They are super easy and lots of fun! Plus, they stay in your books really well!

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog during the Practical Scrappers Designer Blog Hop. Now here's the really fun part! I have eight cards - handmade by me- and I am giving away as a prize for the visiting me during the blog hop. I am sorry, but I am only able to ship to those of you who live in the United States. All that you need to do to qualify is this: you need to become a follower here and leave a comment on this post. I will announce the winner on Monday, January 25th so make sure to check back in! You should have arrived here from Amys' beautiful site - Paush Design. Your next stop is Joy's wonderful blog - Craftstash. If this was your first stop head over to Practical Scrappers to start at the beginning of the hop. The designers are giving away some great prizes and have some absolutely amazing projects to share - you don't want to miss your chance!

Thanks again for visiting me, please come back often and I hope you enjoy your ride on the Practical Scrappers Design Team Blog Hop!!!! Toot! Toot!!!!!

Bling, bling, bling.....

I'm not quite sure where this past week went, but it sure did go by....I can't say that it went by fast, but it's gone! I meant to share some things with you all here this past week, but I'm just so out of sorts lately. We have been going through so many snow storms and blizzards....I have serious cabin fever! My children just went back to school today! They were supposed to go back last Wednesday, but we ended up having snow days on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday because of snow and bitterly cold temperatures. It was -45 with the wind chill! I wasn't able to get any crafting done then because my scrap area is in our mudroom and wow, was it ever cold in there! It's on a cement base, so the floor was freezing and the window are old, so we had some major drafts. Today was actually in the low 30's and it felt like a heat wave! lol So, my little one and I spent some time in my scrap room and I was able to make a card for next weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers. I can't wait to share it, but you're just going to have to wait and see!

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use bling! Bling of any kind - glitter, rhinestones, anything sparkly!
I needed to make a sympathy card for a dear friend of mine who lost her father on Christmas Day. So, I decided to use this lily and I added pale, yellow glitter to the flower and then a small, yellow rhinestone in the center. I stamped the image on water color paper and then went around the edges of the image with my blender pen. That created the water color look outside of the edges of the image and also colored in the centers of the leaves and flowers. I did some old-school embossing on the oval. This is something I learned ages ago before home die-cut/embossing machines were even a twinkle in any of our scrappers eyes! I didn't take any pics of how I did it, so I'll have to make up a quick tutorial on it sometime soon. It's easy and cheap and great for anyone who doesn't have a die-cut machine.

I also shared these samples at Practical Scrappers for this weeks challenge. My Gratitude Journal cover and one of my journal pages where I used glitter, plus this layout that you can see here. I've already shared those here on my blog, so I won't re-post pictures of them now.

I have been up to lots of other crafting! Crafting that I can do in my living room and no in my freezing mudroom! So, keep a look out because I'll be sharing them here soon!

I hope you're all having a wonderful and are keeping nice and warm!

Buttons, buttons, who's got the buttons? ;-)

The challenge this week at Practical Scrappers is to use buttons! I love using buttons on my layouts and cards and if I ever see a jar of them at the thrift store, I buy them right up! There are so many things that you can do with them....here are some of my favorite layouts that I have used buttons on:

Use them to frame part of your photo

Embellish patterned paper-
Each of the circles in the strip of patterned paper have a white button in the center of them. And then I made a cluster of three buttons with ribbon by the heart embellishment.

Line them across the whole length of your layout

Create the center of a flower
(I absolutely LOVE the bottom photo of my then 11 year old holding her new baby sister!)

Use them as the centers for flowers

Buttons are so much fun to add to any layout! I hope you got some ideas for using buttons on your layouts!

Sweet - layout - Practical Scrappers weekly challenge

The challenge this week at Practical Scrappers is to sew and here is my layout where I used my sewing machine. I went around the edge of the circle paper twice in an uneven pattern. I really love using my sewing machine on scrapping layouts and I really need to do it more! My problem is that I don't have room to keep my sewing machine out in my scrapping area, so once I put it away, I tend to leave it there for awhile. If it was sitting out, I'm sure I'd use it more.

This is my little GG last Christmas. Once she tried a candy cane, she was hooked! I can't believe that it's already almost Christmas-time again! Where did this year go? I'm sure that I won't be able to put candy canes on our Christmas tree this year......I have a feeling that they will start to disappear one by one!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Monday! It's Thanksgiving week! I have so much to be grateful for and so many big dreams for our future that we are talking about..... :-)

Love-Doh - layout for Practical Scrappers weekly challenge

Good morning everyone. Wow. I am surprised that I can sit here. Well, I barely am. I woke up at 1:30 a.m. Sunday with the stomach flu and this is the first time that I've been out of bed and sitting up since then. It was awful! lol But, I sure am glad it's over. I just hope and pray that no one else in the house gets it. Especially my little Gracie.

The challenge this week at Practical Scrappers is to use acrylic paint. For this layout I simply dry-brushed some white acrylic paint onto the red card stock. After the paint was dry, I added all of the other elements and there you go!

I would love to write more, but I'm honestly not feeling too well!

Take care!

Scraproom Re-Do - organizing by color

Well, I did it. I reorganized all of my scrapping embellishments by color of the weekend. It was a pretty big decision to make, too! I am a creature of habit and I've have things the same way in my scrap area for a long time, so the idea of doing this really freaked me out for a bit! lol The first time I heard of organizing your embellishments by color was by Stacy Julian. She has talked about it in some of her books and on her web site also. I always loved looking at the photos of everything all pretty in their drawers by color. I have always organized my paper by color, but everything else was by type. All the ribbons together, all of the buttons together, flowers together....etc. This was working just fine for me, but I really wanted to try something different. And, after sitting and really think about how I scrap, I actually think what color I want to use, before what type of embellishment. This is funny, too, because I thought I was the other way around. I thought that I said to myself, "I need a button. A red one." But I really think, "I need something red, how about a button?" I think that this is probably the most important thing to think about seriously before deciding to organizing your embellishments this way. If you think, "I need a button" first and then decide on a color, then I wouldn't think about touching your embellies! lol This might really mess your scrap-thinking system. But, if you're feeling a little stale and like you're not using your embellishments as much as you'd like to, then this might be a way to mix things up a bit for you. Either way, I would really sit and think about how you scrap before you consider doing this. It is a huge change! lol

So here is what my scrap area looked like before......
This is my main work area. The counter top is pretty much full of stuff, especially the two, gray drawer units. These units had all of my small embellishments in them organized by type: buttons, ribbon scraps, brads, flowers, etc. These drawers were also my little ones favorite thing to play in! And, another reason why I decided to try this way or organizing honestly. She likes to work beside me while standing on a stool and she can easily reach these drawers and pull things out. This was really starting to drive me crazy! lol More so because she was putting things back in different drawers and mixing everything up. So, I knew that these drawers had to go, because she's only going to get bigger and able to reach more drawers! lol The two, small green drawer units hold my square-punched photos and the white drawers are my category drawers. Both of these are for my Library Of Memories system of organizing photos as taught by Stacy Julian and discussed in her book, Photo Freedom. I highly recommend this book if you're looking for a change in how you scrapbook photos! It totally helped me break out of the "I can only scrap chronologically" way of mind and threw me into the "I can scrap whatever I want to, whenever I want to!" scrapping freedom! No more, "I'll never get caught up.".....sorry, it's easy for me to get excited about that system. Oh how I wish and dream that I could afford to take her on-line class, but the book is awesome, too!
I have a 2-door, tall pantry that I keep my drawer units in. The unit on the left was pretty much a mess and waste of space. The top, three drawers were full of ribbon. Some were still on their rolls and others were wrapped around plastic, floss keepers. The other three drawers were completely unorganized and just full of stuff that needed to be sorted. This was really a waste of good organizing space! The unit on the left is actually two, 6 drawer units on top of each other. These held all of my paper scraps, organized by color: red, yellow/orange, green, blue, pink, purple, brown, white, black. Then, a drawer with specility papers like vellum and mulberry paper, one with scraps of only Chatterbox patterned papers (I had aquired over 300 pieces of Chatterbox paper at a garage sale for a steal and thought I should keep all of the scrap together, so that I could use them better....I was wrong, I never remembered they were there!). On top of these units is my one, true scrapbooking shame......I'm hanging my head in shame right now as I type.....those tall stacks of paper are layouts. Completed layouts that are waiting to be put into scrapbooks. Isn't that terrible????? I don't even want to know how many are sitting there. How can anyone enjoy them all piled up there, shoved in a cabinet? Oh, woe is me.......I think that should be my next project. Putting them into albums..........

After about two days of working, I was finished.......here's how it looks now:

The unit on the left now has embellishments in it, all organized by color. I had to use two drawers in the unit on the right for embellishments also - for white/black and then metallic. The pink/purple drawer is pretty full, but I'm going to try to keep those two colors together, because I don't have any more drawers that I can use! The unit on the right still has all scraps, organized by color and a drawer for specialty paper.

Here is a peek inside some of the drawers:
I used some of the little drawers from the gray unit to help keep some things organized together, like the ribbon, the rhinestones and glitter, and then a larger drawer for paper pieces, chip board, anything like that. I have the flowers in a zip-loc baggie as well as scraps of ribbon and fabric in a baggie. I have been saving these round, metal tins for years. One of the teachers at the school I used to work at was throwing them away and I took them, because I knew that I'd be able to use them for something! You can see them the easiest in the green and pink drawer (click on the photo to see it bigger). I have two in each color drawer. One has buttons and the other brads and eyelets. I punched out a flower in coordinating paper to put on top of each tin. I also did this for the front of each drawer in the units.

Here is the biggest change in my scrap area. My counter top. Getting rid of those two, gray units really freed up a lot of space on my counter top. I added a little shelf (a piece of scrap wood sitting on top of two, recycled spaghetti jars!) because I wanted to keep the two, green units right there and to put any small odds and ends. I have a jar full of black buttons and a jar of white buttons, because I had too many to keep in my color drawers. I also have my two Design with.... calendars from Autumn Leaves there, but I might move those because I never really look at them like I should. The white basket has silly odds and ends in it. Movie tickets, labels, card board coffee sleeves, things like that. It's another idea from Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom book. It's just fun stuff that you can sift through and add to a layout. Little things from every day life go in there. This can easily be moved to free up more space, if I need it. The red and white polka dot pot is my little trash bin and the square basket next to it has photos in it that I am planning on scrapping soon. Then I have my tool turn-around that I use to hold my pens, pencils, scissors, paint brushes, erasers, glue tubes, etc. The basket next to the lamp is full of small stamps that can be used on envelopes and the back of my cards and layouts: "hand stamped by" and "scrapbook layout by"....things like that. :-)

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I have reorganized my scrap area. I honesltly haven't been able to do one bit of scrapping since I did all of this work! The rest of my weekend was very full and I just haven't had the time to play in there at all and to try out my new system. I must say that when I open up one of my color drawers, my severely right-sided brain gets so happy! lol I can't wait to put it to the test and see if this helps me use more of my embellishments that get so easily forgotten about. I also had a ton of stickers and what-not just lying around. All of those have been put into plastic page protectors with pockets and into a binder with my alphabets and other stickers.

I guess I should say that I do not have any of my stickers in my color drawers. I decided to keep them organized together. Right now, I have a binder full of alphabets that are in page protectors and organized by color and a Crop-In-Style Paper/Sticker Binder full of stickers that are organized by theme - love, flower, sports, birthday, Christmas, Halloween, spring, etc...... I don't know if I will ever add all of those to my color drawers. I do like having them by theme and I think that I'll use them the most if I keep them organized that way.

Well, I have rambled on long enough about this! If you have photos of your color drawers on your blog or if you decide to do this, please share because I would love to see what you have done!

Take care and I hope you have a wonderful day........and hopefully are able to do something creative!

Easy-Peasy Ribbon Flowers - tutorial

It has been a pretty crazy and busy week for me. I have actually gotten a lot done in my scrapping area (no layouts but lots of organizing!) and I hope to share with you all what I've been up to soon! But for now, I am going to share with you how to make some easy-peasy ribbon flowers. I took these photos last week while making a flower for a layout and I'm finally able to show you how to make them. They are super cute and I hope you enjoy learning how to make them! I've made them from several different types and sizes of ribbon and they have always turned out super cute. So far, I've used them on my "Silly" layout and my "Thanks from the Heart" card.

So here we go!!!!

The first thing you need to do is pick out your ribbon and cut it. I honestly haven't been measuring them as I make them. I've just kind of been cutting the ribbon to the size that "felt" right. I know that doesn't help you much, but I'll try to explain. lol The thicker the ribbon, bigger the flower will be so you can cut the ribbon longer. Thin ribbon will make a small flower, so you need to cut it a lot smaller, like 2 inches or so. I used a 1-inch thick, organdy-type ribbon above. It's a thin material, so I knew it would gather tighter and make a nice, frilly flower so I cut the ribbon around 5 inches long. You just need to play with it and see how it's going to work, if you're not sure. You can even stitch and gather it (without cutting the ribbon) to see how it's going to look first.
With a nice, sharp needle and matching thread, run a straight sewing stitch all the way across one edge of the ribbon. For my thread, I cut a nice long piece of thread, run one end through the needle, fold the thread in half, and tie the knot about 4 inches from the end. You want the thread double, so it's strong enough to handle your pulling on it later and a long tail at the end of the knot. That way you will have extra thread to hold on to and help gather the ribbon. When you're done sewing, it will look like this:
Now pick up your ribbon and start pushing the ribbon in on both sides until you can bring the two ends together and tie once. Don't tie it in a complete knot yet! Pull the ends of the thread tightly until the ribbon has gathered together tightly in the center and has made a flower. Now you can tie the thread into a knot....or two, or three. lol I usually make a few knots, just in case. lol In the picture below, this is what it looks like after I tied my first "knot" and before I pulled the two threads to tighten the ribbon into a flower. Once you pull the two threads, the center will close of your flower. If your ribbon is thick, it won't close as tightly.
Now take a good look at your flower. See if you can tell where the two ends of the ribbon are. Sometimes the ribbon folds over it's self and hides the ends and looks just fine. Other times, you can easily tell where the ends of the ribbon are and I think it looks a lot better if you can't see the ends. lol So, with this thin ribbon, I was able to just add some Mono-Adhesive to the ends, just a bit, and then pinch the ends together to seal it up. It works great on thin, organdy ribbons. For thick ribbon, I use the same thread that I gathered the ribbon up with and run a straight-stitch down the ribbon and back up to the center to sew those two ends together. I had to do this for the flowers on my "Thanks from the Heart" card, even on those little flowers. Now you can cut off those two threads. Here's a finished ribbon flower!
Now here's the fun part where you can really play! You can add whatever you want to your little flower or leave it like it is. Here are some examples as I was trying to decide what to add to my flower for my "Silly" layout (I ended up picking the button one! lol) :
You could even add another ribbon flower that's smaller....that would look cute, too!

I hope this made sense. This is really the first tutorial that I've done and I tend to get a little wordy. lol If you have any questions, please ask and I'll help as much as I can! I have some other fun, flower ideas to share with you soon! I'd also love to see any projects that you do using these easy-peasy flowers, so please share here!

Take care everyone and I hope you all have a wonderful day!