Gorjuss Girls.... I Am Sorry.....

Ohhhh guys... i am so sorry... you know i feel awful....I'm not poorly this time... although I've just this last week started taking a new drug called Gabapentin which is making my husband make rather funny comments....... well actually Mark thinks I'm hilarious...they're making me fuzzy headed and i said they make me feel dopey... Mark says "that's no different to what i normally am" very funny darling... Anyway.. life is just really hectic at the moment and i keep desperately trying to find time to blog but real life just keeps getting in the way at the moment.. plus I'm back at work... which although i love my job.. there are problems there at the moment and there is lots to do with Ashley going off to Gloucester Uni at the end of the summer...You know in a way although I've always said it would take me getting an awful lot worse before i give up work.. at the moment i think i would.... then again wouldn't we all...if we could afford to...maybe when i win that lottery.... seriously I really do want to thank all of the friends who have been mailing and leaving messages.. thank you so much guys you'll never know how much it means to me... well enough of me being completely soppy.. and no I'm not dopey at the moment..LOL....

I thought I'd show you the folder i created for Lydia the winner of my candy a few weeks ago... I've added notes to the photographs on this one so you can see how i created this little paper bag folder.....I took a flat bottomed paper bag to create this folder... you could do this without the aid of a sewing machine, all you need to do is fold the flat bottomed paper bag in half and on or just before the fold place a piece of double sided sticky tape to the inside of the bag to seal it.. this will create the pocket and enable you to create one without the use of a sewing machine.. you could also hand stitch using a running stitch down the center of the folder...either of these these three methods will work... i used the sewing machine option.. obviously... I then created all of the panels for this folder... and as usual went a little crazy with my Janome Mini Sewing Machine... i did an awful lot of stitching on this one... but you don't need to.. I coloured my image using Copic and Pro Markers.. and paper pieced the dress using the same MME DP I've used for the panels on the folder... The first panel to be stitched to the paper bag was the front panel.. i attached a piece of ribbon approx ten inches, half way down my panel before stitching it to the box bottom end of the folded bag.. you can see the opposite side in the first picture above.. the stitching i used to attach the panel actually created my pocket again you can see this in the first picture.. i neglected to tell you i didn't add the lace flowers until I'd attached all of the panels to this folder.. it would have made it far too difficult to use the sewing machine... i then went ahead and attached all of the other completed panels to the paper bag folder, they were all stitched prior to attaching and when attaching the back panel i again took a ten inch piece of the same ribbon and attached it half way down the back panel to create my closure. You can see on the picture above where the ribbon is attached on the back panel.. I finally attached the lace flowers to the front of the folder... They were created by taking a twelve inch piece of lace ribbon and stitching down the straight edge using a large running stitch.. the stitches were very loose.. so that i could pull on the cotton to create the folds needed to make the lace flower.. i then used a few tacking stitches to attach both ends to each other... then i took a prima flower and a bead end cap (the bead end cap was used the wrong way around to create an extra dimension to the flowers) i pushed a brad through the lace flower I'd created and through both the prima flower and the bead end cap to complete the flower... then attached a piece of the same ribbon I'd used for the closure to the bottom of the completed flower to act as a leaf.. i created two of these and attached them to the front of my folder to finish it off... (i know three's and odd numbers are best but three would have been too much on this folder..) You can see a better view of the lace flowers to left here... i added one of my little home made pins and two crystal pins to finish the folder... Well i hope you like my little paper bag folder... it's the same way I've created paper bag albums in the past.. only i stitched lots of folded bags together with the opening being used for extra large tags that have photographs attached to them.. I'll show one i created three years ago in the near future.. pity I've not created one recently.. another thing for my long list of To Do's..

I hope you all have a wonderful week... even if like me you have work.... boohoo.... and once again thank you so much for all of your lovely mail and comments.. i can't tell you how much they mean to me....

Night Night Sleep Tight...

Ingredients... Block Bottomed Paper Bag ~ Bazzill CS ~ MME CS ~ Gorjuss Girl Stamp (Sugar Nellie) ~ Copic And Pro Markers ~ Ribbon, Lace, Brads, Bead End Caps From Stash ~ Nestabilities ~ SU Top Note Die ~ Hand Crafted Pin & Crystal Pins From Stash ~ Old Faithful Janome Mini Sewing Machine..