From Fall to Christmas in One Day.

Well yesterday I shared all things Fall that are going on around me, and today I'm back with some Yuletide Cheer.

Before you all run away kicking and screaming "It's too early!!!," let me remind you that Christmas is only...dun dun dun...79 days away! It's getty chilly outside (at least it is here!), and it's getting harder and harder to ignore that winter is coming. And Christmas crafting takes a lot of time. So best start early! :)

MFT has been changing things up a little lately and are back to offering a Guest Designer challenge each month. That means that each month, you can participate in the challenge for your chance to win the next month's unreleased sets and the right to post early sneak peaks and participate in the blog hop with the rest of the design team members. Pretty snazzy stuff.

There's still time to participate in this month's contest, which closes tonight at 10 pm EST. The challenge is near and dear to my heart -- to incorporate fabric in to your creation.

I have dabbled in mixing fabric with paper and with printing on fabric in the past, but this time around, I decided to try something new. I pulled out one of the new releases being released TOMORROW and made this little cutie:



To make the ornament, I hand-cut two hearts from red felt. I love felt -- it's a great no-sew, non-fraying fabric, which means lots less work for me! Then, I blanket-stitched around the edges using cream embroidery floss. I had never done a blanket stitch and had been wanting to try it out forever, so I followed this online tutorial. It was extremely helpful and kept me from tearing my hair out! :) Before I stitched the last few stitches, I stuffed the heart with poly-fill. Then I finished up my stitching.

I stamped the mistletoe image with memento ink on a thin cream muslin fabric. Then I cut carefully around it with sharp scissors, being careful not to fray the edges. I colored it in using prismacolor pencils, applied a thin layer of fabric glue to the back of it, being sure to get close to the edges so it wouldn't fray, and then gently pressed it on to the front of the ornament.

I finished off the ornament by carefully tucking some cream twill ribbon in between blanket stitches at the top of the heart. Then I added a button, sewing through the ribbon as I sewed on the button, to secure everything together.

Supplies:
Stamps: Santa Baby, by MFT
Inks: Memento Black
Accessories: Red Felt, Embroidery Floss, Muslin Fabric, Prismacolor Colored Pencils, Button by MFT, Cream Twill Ribbon

Be sure to drop back later tonight (10 pm EST) for another fun project that I have ready for you. I think the stamp in the sample I have to share with you tonight is going to make you swoon! :)

Enjoy your day! Thanks for dropping by.