MM Idol Round 3

Oh
my
word!

Wow!

You have got to check out the entries for this round here. Voting ends around 10pm tonight (Tuesday). Hopefully after more hiccups yesterday, things will have sorted themselves out again today. I really, truly, honestly appreciate the time people are taking to visit the MM Idol blog and vote (even more so those who are voting for me :D) But in any case, even if you can't make up your mind which project to vote for, you must at least make sure you go and be inspired by all the different things people have done.

This week we were challenged to get back to the basics. We were allowed to only fundamentals only such as cardstock, paper, ribbon, brads, stickers and photos, of course, to create a project that wows. We were asked to create something relating to home décor, photo décor, page layouts, mini books, or anything we could think of, using these fundamental products in a new and creative way.

So, no inking, painting, sanding, sewing, stamping, chipboard, pre-made flowers or embellishments. And it was just as hard as it sounds!

As ever, inspiration didn't hit me until Saturday night - well driving home after crop on Saturday actually.

I created a large woven bag (12"x4"x8.5") made purely from paper and cardstock. And if I had known how much work was involved I might have not started it!


Each 12x12 paper was cut down to 7cm strips, creased and folded three times to make a four layered strip. I lost count of how many strips I needed - it was around 100 I think. At least it made quite a dent in the pile of papers I have built up over the years. Actually I managed to use up LOTS of older papers, mainly because I needed to use thinner papers (rather than the double sided patterned cardstock I favour now) and had to find enough papers in the right colour range. There's KI Memories, Making Memories, Sweetwater, Provocraft, HOTP, Cherry Arte, Chatterbox and DCWV all thrown into the mix. I really like the bright, cheery Spring colours too.

The handle is two different wide gingham ribbons stuck to a cardstock core to make it strong. In fact the whole bag is very rigid, each side has, in effect, 8 layers of paper, plus it is lined inside with a contrasting (green) cardstock.


The top trim is just cardstock edged with decorative scissors then holes punched in and ribbon laced through, the corners are finished with bows. There are rub ons to each of the sides (cherish, dream, wish and believe in yourself) which are a mix of Autumn Leaves and Making Memories.

As the effect of the woven bag is very busy, the front was decorated quite simply with handcut flowers and circles, embellished with brads and doodles, the edges of the card was inked by carefully going around with the broad nib of my two ended zig pen. Each flower has a centre photo featuring my three children.

Three affirmation tags are tied together and attached to one side. These are a mix of patterned paper scraps, rub-ons, brads, stickers and buttons. The cute birdie paper piecing is using a stencil template I found on the web one day last week (which I know I have saved to favourites but typically now can't find!).

And all this came about because of the initial theme that popped into my head of "Flowers from the same garden"!