Try Something New Tuesday!

It's the debut of my new feature, Try Something New Tuesday! Woo-hoo! I can't tell you how excited I was for this day to finally get here. I've known for at least a week that I wanted to debut a card this morning that I tried SEWING on! And not just faux sewing....I used a REAL sewing machine with thread and all! I'm HOOKED!!!!!!

So yesterday morning, I had my son bring my sewing machine down from my closet. It's been a few years since I last opened it up. And when I did, I remembered WHY I hadn't opened it up for so long....the bobbin mechanism was sitting in the bottom of the sewing case in three pieces. For some reason, the whole thing was taken apart, and I think when it happened, I couldn't figure out how to put it back together so I just boxed up the whole shebang and put it back in my closet. I was petrified that I would have to cancel today's feature because I couldn't get my machine back together!!! I'm not exactly the handiest gal when it comes to fixing machinery. But, I was so bound and determined to debut today's sewing feature that I put my nose to the grindstone and figured it out. I got it put back together in less than a hour!

The other thing I knew when I sat down to sew is that I wanted to make a simple pocket card. Nothing too serious right off the bat. So I pre-cut a bunch of different color cardstock 4.25x5.5" (it's actually one piece of cardstock cut in half lengthwise, and cut again in half widthwise). Then I cut some smaller coordinating pieces of designer paper too. I figured that since I had the big machine out, I was going to sew as much as I could at one time!

Once the paper was cut, I was ready to put the "peddle to the metal"! I quickly sewed around the designer paper pocket on each card. However, fear instantly took hold of me when I saw all these loose ends hanging off my cards. What the heck was I suppose to do with these things?????? I didn't want knots showing all over my beautiful cards!!!! I did the only thing I could think of next. I ran downstairs to my office and immediately sent off a "distress" email to the QUEEN OF CARD SEWING, Julia Stainton (Belle Papier). Now, I don't know Julia other than I'm a fan of her blog and that she's got a gazillion children! But I was desperate, and I figured if anyone could help me, it would be her. If you can believe this, I asked Julia to create a sewing tutorial for her blog for people like me who are clueless when it comes to sewing on cards! And do you know what? This unbelievable woman jumped immediately on board with the idea and in the course of the afternoon created an absolutely AMAZING, FANTABULOUS, EXCEPTIONAL tutorial for all of us to benefit from! She was skeptical at first that she would have enough to talk about, but in the end realized she had lots to share! You have got to go over there pronto and see the tutorial she has put together. She shares so many amazing projects she's made with sewing on them, you will be inspired to drag YOUR machine out of the closet and get sewing! It really was so simple, and SO fun. You can be sure I'm sewing up some more cards today!

Ok, are you ready......? Here is my very simple pocket card! I've got to be honest and say that I love how it turned out. The colors are so joyful and inspiring. Like I said, I just took one piece of cardstock, one smaller piece of designer paper and sewed them along three sides. I attached the red scalloped piece at the top of the pocket with adhesive after I was done sewing. The dragonfly is from Hero Arts (do I use anything else lately?), which I colored with my Prismas and Gamsol. I cut it out and attached it to the front of the card with foam tape (unfortunately, the dragonfly experienced a somewhat tramatic moment when I cut off his left wing. However, thanks to the foam tape, you can't tell that one of his appendages is detatched!). I added a few doodled antennas and a doodled loop 'de loop (a dotted line to show his flight) on the red scalloped edge. For the flower, I used my Cuttlebug flower die for the blossom (and chipboard), and a red ladybug button for the blossom's center. I thought the ladybug added just the perfect accent to the bug designer paper! The flower's stem is some caribbean color polka dot ribbon I bought from Ribbons and Bows, Oh My! recently. The leaves on the flower are hand cut and hand doodled.

Finally, (this is getting entirely too long, sorry!) for the inside card, I matted a piece of Whisper White with Real Red cardstock. I stamped "They Say It's Your Birthday" from the SU Happy Birthday set so you could see it peek out of the pocket. At the bottom of the inside card, I stamped the ladybug from Very Punny and drew some grass underneath it's feet, just for one last special touch.

I can honestly say, this sewing experience has pushed me outside of my comfort zone and really helped me create something unique and fun. I hope you like it! And, I hope you get out your sewing machine today and make a beautiful card! Don't forget to go right to Julia's blog right after you're done reading this to view her newest tutorial! Give her lots of KUDOS cuz she deserves it! Thank you Julia!