Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Packaging a Snowman

It's quite fun that every year the Papertrey Ink blog hop in September lands on my birthday.  What better way to celebrate than to spend the day in the studio?  I admit this month's challenge had me a bit stumped though.  Here it is:

This month it is all about wrapping it up.  Whether you are preparing early for the holidays or have an upcoming birthday or two, have fun experimenting with fabric & felt packaging ideas.  Use any of our Favor It dies with felt and a little hot glue gun action or stitching.  Use a pretty piece of fabric like you would wrapping paper and make a custom tag to coordinate with it.  Not into sewing or gluing?  Wrap a kitchen towel or cloth napkin around a special bottle of wine and top it off with a hand-stamped gift label.  Or rip a strip of fabric to use in place of ribbon and finish it with a pretty handmade gift card.  There are so many different things to try, you will love experimenting to see what you can come up with!  We look forward to seeing your projects!

What to make?  I didn't feel like digging out my sewing machine or hunting for bag patterns.  Nor did I have any presents to wrap.  So I thought I'd use my dies to make some kind of gift.  I remembered seeing a felt snowman ornament using the Shape Up Snowman die when it was released last year.  Voila!  I've been intending to make one of those myself!

How to wrap it?  I went scrounging in my fabric bin and found this aqua fleece which matched beautifully with the aqua I used for the tag and ornament.  (not that it looks like it in the picture!)  The soft fleece looks neat wrapped around the box and echoes the appearance of the felt ornament inside.  I used torn strips of muslin for the knotted bow.


I made a tag using the same colors as my snowman ornament, along with the matching Shape Up Snowman Accessories stamps.  I was surprised to realize that I don't have a Royal Velvet inkpad!  How did I miss that?  I thought I had all the available colors.  I had to substitute Plum Pudding instead.  I sponged around the snowman just a bit with Fine Linen ink.


Oh, you want to see inside?   :)  I stamped a sheet of white tissue paper with snowflakes in both Aqua Mist and Plum Pudding inks.  (same stamps I used on the tag)  Then I sprayed it with some Perfect Pearl Mist to give it a subtle shimmer.  Too subtle actually.  It's very difficult to see even in person.  lol

  

Underneath that lovely bit of tissue paper, you get your first look at my felt snowman ornament!  I spent several hours working on it.  I really enjoy handwork so it didn't seem long at all.  It's definitely not a quick mass production item, but it's so worth it!
 


First, I cut the snowman body from Vintage Cream felt.   Then I cut the hat from both Aqua Mist and Royal Velvet felt so I could do a two-color hat.  I cut the mittens from Royal Velvet felt and then hand-cut a strip of Aqua Mist felt for the scarf.  The twig arms are Dark Chocolate felt.

I sewed french knots with black embroidery thread for the eyes and mouth.  I also sewed on some small Royal Velvet buttons with ecru thread.  The nose is just a teeny bit of Terracotta Tile felt that I glued in place.  I glued down the scarf and arms/mittens as well.  I tacked the hat down with some thread underneath the Royal Velvet layer, but I also had to add some glue to the sides to hold it in place.

The most time-consuming part of this ornament is the blanket stitch edging.  I'd actually never done this stitch before, so thank goodness for the internet!  I found some detailed instructions here.   I did each section of the hat individually before gluing them together.  Then I stitched over halfway around the snowman body before adding a little bit of polyester stuffing.  At that point, I just added stuffing as I continued around each remaining section.


Isn't it adorable?  I may make a few more of these for Christmas presents.  Next time, I think I'll avoid blanket stitching right on the twig arms.  (although that does give some added security that they won't fall off)  Making this snowman ornament was a fun way to spend my birthday!


Hope you enjoyed your visit!  Enjoy the rest of the hop and try to come back to my blog once in a while.   I love to share!  :)

Stamps:  Shape Up Snowman Accessories, Snowfall, Rustic Snowflakes (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Royal Velvet, Aqua Mist, Rustic Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Aqua Mist, Plum Pudding, Fine Linen (Papertrey Ink); Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Felt:  Royal Velvet, Aqua Mist, Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Terracotta Tile (Papertrey Ink)
Misc:  ecru and black embroidery thread (DMC); Royal Velvet buttons (Papertrey Ink); Shape Up Snowman die, Tag Sale #4 die (Papertrey Ink); Standard Circles dies (Spellbinders); Perfect Pearl Mist (Ranger); YR18 (Copic); white tissue paper; polyester fiberfill

 

13 comments:

  1. Love it! I need to buy that die. I love him made with felt.

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  2. Anne, 1st of all, Happy Birthday! And then, love this whole gift. Sweet, sweet snowman ornie, and that darling tag. Just the cutest.

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  3. adorable ornament... totally stealing this itdea for gifts this year.

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  4. I love the packaging and the felt snowman!

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  5. That is just an adorable felt snowman! Love the colors you used!

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  6. Absolutely amazing set! So creative, I love it!

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  7. What a special gift set! Love how you coordinated all of the pieces so perfectly.

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  8. OHHHH this is DARLING!! I LOVE it ALL!! Have a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :)
    Hope your day is GREAT!

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  9. wow - yes, this is adorable! I just love all the details, stitching, color choices - perfect!

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  10. Wow, this snowman is the cutest ever! And, your packaging is just adorable.

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  11. Such a cute idea! Love that felt snowman and the packaging too!

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  12. This is the cutest snowman ever! Now I want to make one just like it- I'll bet my grandkids would love it on their tree!

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