Giveaway!

Hi All!  When things slow down with my photography business, I will be getting back to some new tutorials.  In the mean time, I have reached 200 fans on my facebook fan page!
If you like my headbands in my etsy store you are going to want to visit THIS LINK for all the details on how to win a $50 gift certificate to my etsy store!!

photo copyright of Nicole Barr Photography

Tutorial: Fabric Lotus Flower

It's been ages since I posted a tutorial!  I love how this turned out, I just had to share!  I made this HUGE fabric flower today to perk up my outfit for our upcoming family portraits.  It turned out to be a huge lotus looking flower.  Well, my edges are little more rounded than a lotus, but it was the first thing that popped into my head looking at it.  I went around the house sticking them on everything.

Make a bold statement by adding it to a scarf...

I even put one on the wreath of my front door....

Materials
1/4 yard of georgette fabric
basic sewing supplies (sewing machine, thread)
hot glue/hot glue gun

Optional: broach pin, hair pin

Tutorial

 Start with about 1/4 yard of georgette type fabric.  It's a sheer light weight fabric with a dull finish.

Measure out 3 inches on the selvage edge and make a small cut.  

 Rip the fabric the rest of the way.  You will end up with a long strip.

 Fold fabric over itself with a 2 inch width.  

Continue to fold all the fabric till the end.

 

 

 Round off the top by starting the bottom of your cut 1 1/2 inches down.  Unroll your fabric.

 Set your sewing machine to the tightest tension, and the longest stitch length.

 Sew 1/4 inch from the straight edge.  Your fabric will start to produce a tight ruffle.  I think it's a good idea to backstitch at the beginning an when you get to the end so none of your ruffle comes loose.

 Add a dab of hot glue to the beginning of your ruffle, and start rolling, gluing as you go.

Try to keep the edges as even as possible when wrapping.

 The bottom of your flower should look like this when you done gluing.

Glue or sew the backing of your choice!  

YOUR DONE! 

I'm going to share this tutorial with these awesome link ups:

It's been a while!

Hi, I miss this soooo much!  I have been busy getting my photography business off the ground..Nicole Barr Photography  If your in the DC/Baltimore area,  I photograph families, children, newborns and pets!  I am shooting my first wedding in June, so we will see how it goes.

I just wanted to share some of the newborn props I just made.  I will also be listing some like these in my etsy shop next week!

Long time coming....

To all the wonderful people who have followed or read my blog, I'm sure you figured this was a long time coming, but I'm taking a big step back from the blog for a while.  I'm not giving it up, but I won't be stressing out like I previously was to get a project out.  Maybe I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed because of the holidays, or maybe I have the winter blahs...I don't know.  I just don't feel creative right now, and I don't want to give you crap:)  I am working on a really cool fleece vest, but I'll post it when ever it gets finished. 
I will still be following all my other favorite craft bloggers!  Maybe I can pull some inspiration from them!
Happy Holidays!!!

FREE Holiday Bokeh Textures

From me to you.....
Free Holiday Bokeh Textures/Overlays!  
These are copyright free, so you may use them as backgrounds for your blogs or textures and overlays for your photos.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Easy (and cheap) Christmas Swag

The most wonderful time of the year is here!!
I know, I know, it's been a while.  I'm swamped, what can I say.  I'm sure you can relate.


The other day I was pricing out Christmas decorations, and I have to say, maybe in past years I wasn't paying attention to how pricey some of this stuff actually was.  I wanted some pine swags over the doors in the house.  Indoors I go for artificial. I don't want to risk getting sap on the woodwork. Outdoors, is real all the way!  (Next week, I'm going to tell you how to make a wreath for you door, and about a hundred feet of garland, all for around $30.)


Anyway, I was at Joann's looking at the swags, and even with 50% off, the dollar signs were adding up because I wanted 4 of them.  Then I found these....I don't know what they really are, I would assume they are "stems" of pine for making flower arrangements.  They only cost $2.50 each!   

I only used two for each swag and a little jewelery wire I already had.

I overlapped the stems in the back.  (front view)

(back view)

Secure the stems in the back with the wire.  I used 3 pieces of wire, one in the center, and then on each end.

Luckily, I didn't have to put up any fasteners, there was already a small nail that I was able to use.  If you don't already have a hidden nail on your doorway, command hooks are the greatest invention of all time.

I will be sharing this project with these awesome link parties!

Mad in Crafts

Sew Much Ado 

Somewhat Simple

Tatertots & Jello

I heart...I HEART FACES!

I am very proud to be one of I Heart Faces Featured Members this week!!

You can see my feature here.

Thank you I Heart Faces!