Scrapbooking Companies have come and gone. Embellishment trends change. Sometimes, we have specific products that we love so much we wish we could have an endless supply of them. There is one simple solution. You can, in some instances, replicate them on your own.

One of my favorite products were the Sassafrass In Stitches Blooms. I bought as many as I could when they stopped selling scrapbook supplies, but now my stock is dwindling. Before I could reproduce my own version of the flower embellishments, I had to reverse engineer them. Essentially, break them down into their basic parts.

Each In Stitched blossom is composed on 1-2 die cut flowers, a button and some embroidery floss. Some have hand stitching along the edges of the petals.

Supplies: Flower Die Cuts, buttons, a sheet of chipboard, circle punches, embroidery floss, needle, patterned paper

Step One: Die cut your flowers. Punches, Dies, your silhouette…any of them will work just fine. Or you can use flowers from a die cut embellishment pack if you want to use up some of your stash. Choose colors and patterns that coordinate well for the prettiest flowers.

Step Two (Optional) If you want to add a little hand stitching to your blooms, now is the time. It’s easier to sew on them before the flower is assembled. It’s also a good idea to ink any of the edges if you wish to do so. I used a brush tip marker along the edges of the flowers before I began assembling them.

Step Three: Assembling the flower is simple. We’re going to make a sandwich of the die cuts and chipboard. Punch a circle from the chipboard sheet (I use a piece from a cereal box). You want each circle to fit just underneath the layer above it so that it cannot be seen. The chipboard adds a little bit of dimension to your flower.

Step Four: Place a small dot of adhesive underneath the flower. Stick the embroidery floss to it and begin to wind it around the flower. You’ll want to use multiple strands for the best look. I use the floss as it comes directly from the skein.

 

Continue wrapping until you are satisfied with the way the flower looks, if you run out of floss, simple glue the end down, add another dot of glue and start again with a new strand.

Once you are done, you will want to add a little glue to a scrap piece of chipboard. Use it to cover the beginning and end points of the floss. This will help keep it from snagging and unraveling if you aren’t planning to use the flowers right away.

Step Five: It’s time to place the flower center. This can be anything you like from a simple button to punched layers of patterned paper. For my flower center, I chose to punch a circle and layer a small punched chipboard circle beneath it. Once again, the chipboard adds dimension. You might wish to use a liquid adhesive to ensure your center piece doesn’t fall off.

You can add buttons or gems to create another beautiful layer. Don’t limit yourself to just one type of flower. Experiment with a variety of styles. Try wrapping the floss at different stages of layering to produce different looks.

Trends and products come and go. However we don’t always have to say good bye to something we love just because it isn’t being made anymore. Replicating an embellishment allows us to truly make it our very own. In some cases, we even give an old style a whole new look with fresh new supplies.

Christy is homeschool mom who loves science fiction and video games. She always has a camera in her purse and loves to experiment with a variety of cameras (both digital and analog). Currently, Christy is a member of the Traci Reed Designs, Simple Scrapper, Get It Scrapped, and Scrapbook Challenges creative teams. She is a Deflecto Ambassador as well as a co-host on the DigiScrap Geek Podcast. You can learn more about her at her website MyScrapbookEvolution.com.