Quirky Classroom - Denim pinwheels with the 'Roly Poly' Quirky Kit Lite

For my first project with the new kits I decided to start with the Lite kit as I couldn't wait to play around with the fabrics. I've already been pinning denim flower and embellishment ideas on the Pinterest board for this months' kits so I was all set ready to play!

I've put together this post as a layout class you can follow or you can use any of the ideas separately to make up a different project but I've tried to put lots of different ideas together for you to try out.

Favourite Tree

To start out I took all the papers from the Lite kit and cut off small strips of various random widths, (all the lengths are 12 inches). I want to use both sides of the papers so I've cut two strips from some of them so I can flip them over and use both patterns.

 

Next I arranged the papers strips so they layered, some going over the top, some sat underneath then stitched them in place with my sewing machine using just one line of stitching down the center of each strip. If you're not sewing put your tape or glue down the center of the strips of the papers to glue them in place so the edges are loose.

 

 

Once they were fixed down I bent up the edges of the paper strips that were layered over the top to create some texture on the background:

 

 

Next I've cut out some small pieces of the netting fabric from the kit and added a piece across the top and a piece across the bottom just to add some more texture:

 

 

Next I put together the denim pinwheel embellishments. To make these grab the denim fabric from the kit, some scissors and a needle and thread.

 

The first stage is to make a square in the size you want your finished embellishment to be. The easiest way to do this is to fold over your fabric on one edge to make half a square then cut around the edge so when you unfold it you have your square of fabric.

 

Next cut into each corner of the square until you're about 1cm away from the middle:

 

Fold up each alternate corner of the fabric edges to form the pinwheel shape:

 

Use a stitch to hold all the edges of fabric together in the middle:

 

From here you can choose what you'd like to add the center. I went with buttons as they seemed appropriate along with using fabric but you could use a brad, a flat back gem or a cut out piece of paper or a round sticker instead.

That's one of the embellishments finished. I made two for my finished layout one about 8cm across in size and a smaller one 6cm across.

 

For the next part I picked out the Crate Paper 'Emily Jane' sheet, the one with the large flowers, from the kit. I wanted to cut out some of the flowers to use in relief down the side of the layout so I aimed for the shapes on the pattern that were the easiest to extract.

 

 

I added the cut out flowers to the layout using 3D foam pads to give it definition against the paper strips. I also added some of the paper posies from the kit tucking them underneath the cut out flowers so they look like they're growing alongside them:

 

 

I added the journaling to the layout using a block of the Teresa Collins Memories papers and highlighted parts of the journaling using the mini alphabet stickers from the kit fixed onto off cuts of white cardstock the cut out in pieces to add to the layout:

 The off cuts of denim fabric from making the pinwheel embellishments I stitched across the top and bottom of the layout just because I didn't want them from going to waste and they kind of 'ground' all the embellishments to stop them looking too floaty around the page?

Finished layout:

I hope you can pick out some of the ideas to put into your layouts and projects. Pop back and leave a link to you finished project or email it to me at enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk if you do so I can come and peek. Have fun!

I'll be back with a project idea using the main kit next and an idea for a layout using a 'photo grid'.
x Leo