Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live the Dream) with you today, and I'm here to share with you a little set of lavender sachets using a selection of stamps designed by Lin Brown. I love using my sewing machine in my projects and I am always trying new techniques and products to stabilise paper. I love using paper as my base rather than fabric, but sometimes the paper is very frail. Just recently a friend introduced me to Tea Bag Paper...what a find! It can be used in so many different ways even as a light fabric in its own right, but I have found that it works very well when glued onto fragile old dictionary paper.
It had also been my intention this year to "harvest" my lavender seeds. My three plants seem to have blossomed in recent years and I thought it was time to make something to remind me of the summer days enjoying the perfume...not that that happened much this year! In the event I didn't get much seed from the plants but I did manage to get some lovely stems from a shop in Lerwick which allowed me to make these sets of lavender sachets for my bedroom drawers and wardrobe.
This dictionary has been my vintage paper source for nearly 15 years and will definitely "see me out" ! I decided to use this envelope die to make my lavender sachets - I will however show you an alternative later in the blog post. I have joined two pages together to be wide enough for the die which I then stamped with the glorious leaf stem from Eclectica stamp set ELB30 by Lin Brown.
I was drawn to this lovely set by Lin for a number of reasons. I always love a text stamp and that large one is a beauty. But the long tall stem had an ethereal feel to it and I thought it would work well under the tea bag material. I used Archival Ink to stamp as I would be using matte medium gel to adhere both together. I stamped the three images with just one inking to create a less uniform feel.
You can buy tea bag material in reasonably large sheets but I still use it sparingly. I cut a piece just large enough for the die. You can see how translucent it is and gives a nice texture to the paper too.
Any medium that works with tissue paper or napkins works with the tea bag paper, the only thing is to make sure that you have covered all the paper. I find it easier to smooth it out with a clean brush.
Once dry I was able to cut three individual sachets with my die. It is difficult to photograph but you can just see the texture of the tea bag paper.
I added a few little bits of stitching for interest. I have stamped the sentiment onto the tea bag paper using Archival Ink but I did stamp off first otherwise it seeps into the fabric which is quite porous.
Once stitched onto the fabric it looks very light and dreamy which was the effect I was trying to achieve.
And then it was time to fill the sachets with the lavender seeds...what a beautiful perfume and I must admit that the craft room smelt beautiful for days!
I was on a bit of a roll at this point and decided to make another set for Christmas presents - never too early to think ahead! I decided to make this second set without the pocket die and cut my paper into strips measuring 6¾" x 3¾" which when folded made a little sachet measuring 3¾ " by 3". It was easy enough to sew this on the machine.
I love making tiny tags from large text stamps and this one by Lin is really lovely. It has all the months of the year in it ! It will make a super stamp for isolating little pieces of text for birthday cards and scrapbook pages...I digress! I used a Distress Ink for the stamping so it was slightly lighter and also dyed ribbon to match.
A couple of small tag dies are a really good investment and can be used in many types of project. I like being able to place the die over the piece of text I want.
And then it was a case of a little production line, adding the ribbon, tags and lavender sprigs.
The sets do look quite different and I like them both!
Being able to stabilise the paper gave me an opportunity to use the sewing machine without fear of the paper tearing. I love the feel of the resulting "fabric" and it would be lovely to use music paper and other vintage papers in this way. The tea bag paper is readily available online and can also be used on its own - in fact I have a little lavender left so thought I would make another couple of sachets with just the tea bag paper itself with some stamping, but being able to see the lavender inside the bag.
There are many ways of making paper fabric, but some can be quite messy! This technique is relatively easy and as long as the inks used are waterproof and permanent should retain their colour.
It was also great to make a project with a lovely perfume.
Jennie x
3 comments:
I love these!! So beautiful and I'm sure they smell wonders! Fantastic gift for any time! Thanks for sharing! PS: adding teabag paper to my Xmas presents list!
They’re really lovely
"SEW" BEAUTIFUL! On my to do list, first to find the tea bag paper. Love the use of Lin's stamps, so very delicate and charming. 💜💜💜
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