Project 12: Fabric Flowers

Dear Martha: As I am sure you can tell from the picture above, your fabric flowers left me... frustrated. I have not done a project for this blog since, um, March 6, 2011 (sorry followers!) so you can imagine my dismay when I tried to resume my martha crafting and your martha flowers were just short of impossible to make. So here is some advice that I have for you on things to double check before publishing a chapter on fabric flowers: 1. That liquid starch is readily available. I went to my local grocery store and tried first with spray starch because it was all they had. This was an epic failure. It did not make the fabric stiff enough so it just ended up getting stuck in the punch. I decided to accept this as my own mistake and went looking for some liquid starch. Finding it only at the FOURTH store!! (Followers: see the picture below for the fabric I planned on using for the flowers - an old shirt, an old sheet my old dog chewed a hole in, and the sheet bag my new sheets came in - making it a great "upcycle" project.)

2. Martha - this is the most important advice: MAKE SURE THE PUNCHES CAN ACTUALLY PUNCH THE FABRIC! I had two different punches and even after dipping the fabric in liquid starch, and making it as stiff as a board, the punches failed to cut through the fabric. Even the fabric of that very thin white shirt. So the fabric got stuck AGAIN. Then when I pushed harder the punches just made indents. Only after several tries and the force of all my muscle did I get a few measly flowers. It was too unrealistic to punch out as many flowers as I would need to make the "blooming branches" project. (thirty or more flowers cut out and glued to branches from outside). So I ended up just making one small card out of a combination of fabric and paper flowers.

3. Nobody has ever heard of flower "pips" not even the helpful lady at Michael's. Do you mean flower "picks"? And so Martha, as much as it pains me to say this, fabric flowers is just not one of your best crafting projects. I wonder how you made them look so beautiful in your book when they were nearly impossible to make. Sadly, Your Friend Ellie ps. A shout out to my mom who inspired me to set time aside as a new mom to continue with this blog and who helped me with this project.

Me + Baby = New Rules

To those of you who were starting to lose faith...I'm back. Sort-of.

Introducing my latest and greatest project, my baby girl. So now you know why I have been absent. Starting in March of 2011 I was busy sleeping, being nauseous, and creating a baby. I was also busy doing non-Martha related projects such as crocheting a baby blanket and painting a nursery. Since November of 2011 I have been busy learning how to be a mom. This is no easy task and does not come with step by step instructions in one of Martha's books. Thankfully. (No offense Martha but you have been to prison).

Now that I am a mom I have to rethink this blog. The next project in Martha's book is glass etching. This project involves chemicals. Chemicals that I am just not comfortable using around my baby girl. The etching cream needed comes with this warning:

"Danger, may be fatal or cause permanent damage to skin, eyes or respiratory tract. Vapors harmful. Causes severe burns which may not be immediately painful or visible. Ages 18 and over."

So even though I am 18 and over I just don't want to take the risk. Even with gloves, long sleeves and my baby safely tucked in my husband's arms in another room, I just can't do it. Not for some frosted glass.

So please stay tuned for my next project: fabric flowers. But please don't hold your breath, I do have a newborn after all.