1. Gather your goodies.
burlap, felt, warm and natural, wool batting (love it for the color)
paper bags
needles, thread, scissors (pinking and sewing scissors), pins, protractor (optional), 3-in-1, embroidery floss, printed paper, black buttons, and a sewing machine.
2. Prep everything
cut your patterns from paper bags...I used the protractor to get a better circle but the heart is all freestyle.
Cut three warm and natural circles with pinking sheers
Cut six paper bag circles slightly larger than the warm and natural circles. Use Pinking shears for these as well.
Cut out red felt hearts for the cheeks...freestylin'!
Cut orange felt noses for the snowmen...freestylin'!
Cut four printed paper hearts from pattern...use pinking shears.
Cut four wool batting hearts slightly larger...use which ever scissors you like
Cut four burlap hearts with straight edge scissors...if you cut on the bias it will ravel less. Cut these slightly larger as well.
3. Make faces.
pin your cheeks and noses in place on the warm and natural circles. There are three ways to affix the features to the snowballs.
1. hand stitch using a variety of embroidery stitches. In class the girls came up with wonderful faces I would not have thought of using all kinds of stitches including cross stitch, lazy daisy, couching stitch, outline, button hole, running stitches, and just tacking.
2. machine stitch faces. I did this on the sample with a zigzag mouth. I like the mouth machine sewn but I prefer the noses and cheeks hand sewn.
3. glue it! I like 3-in-1 glue for this.
Don't forget the mouth and the eyes! You can also add cute little eyebrows for more character
4. Sew Snowballs!
I layered the snowball and two pieces of brown paper bag for this. Just machine sew around the outside of the snowball. If you want to you can leave and opening and stuff him with a little bit of fiberfill. It is all up to you. I used black thread for all the machine sewing! You can use a straight stitch, a zig zag, a button hole or any decorative stitch for this!
5. Layer up your hearts
For each heart you have burlap, batting, and printed paper. I used fluid chalk ink around the edge of each paper heart to add something extra...your choice.
Layer up the hearts and sew...the same options apply to this step...choose your stitch and stitch in black.
6. String your snowball and hearts
Using a pearl cotton floss I hand tacked each heart to a snowball. I then tied some pretty ribbon into small knots and glued the knots over the stitches. So cute! When your string is complete you can make ties for each end using fabric strips (my choice), wide ribbon (so cute in black and white!) or any kind of twine. Tack this to the end hearts.
As a finishing touch I added little knotted ribbon ties to each snowball. It is up to you but I like it!
For this project I cut the letters L-O-V-E with a cricut using the Doodletype cartridge and 4 inch letters. I glittered them but on Saturday some of the gals added faux stitches to them with a white pen and that is my new favorite!
Either way and which ever way you make your banner I hope you will have fun doing it! If you are interested in a kit to make one like mine we have a few left at the shop. Just call us at 208-734-8592!
Enjoy the process! I hope you express a little creativity every day!
always,
Lisa and michele
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