Free Printables: Miniature Botanical Books

I created these miniature books using beautiful public domain botanical illustrations.

Some of the images feature works by Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Geneviève de Nangis Regnault, and Nicolas François Regnault, while others are taken from various prints in the William Curtis Botanical Magazine. To honor the original creators, the back cover of each book includes information about the artist and/or source.

The pages come in varying tones. For an added vintage touch, I recommend stamping brown distress ink. I also glued a tiny bit of vintage lace on the front cover. 

The printables are designed to fit 4 copies per standard, 8.5" x 11" paper but you can vary the book sizes a bit by printing some slightly smaller at 85-99%.

Don't forget to cut out little pieces of card stock to glue on the back of the front and back cover before gluing the folded pieces down.

 

Making Transparent Background of Crochet Doily in Photoshop

I've been working on making graphics for junk journaling. I like to take photos of crochet doilies and lace I see at antique stores and thought I'd try making transparent pngs of them to use as clip art for backgrounds and such. I could also print them as is with a white background.

So here is the image I'm going to start with:

I'd normally use the Quick Selection Tool to remove objects from backgrounds but there would be too much to fix here with all the holes.

Instead, I'll be making the selection via Color Range. Go to Select > Color Range and use the dropper to select the color of the doily (or of the background color but it wasn't as effective for me in this photo) in the Selection box.

I kept clicking on the doily until it got as dark as possible in the Selection box and then adjusted the Fuzziness so it'd increase the range of colors selected. Then I checked Invert so it would select the background instead of the doily. Click OK.

As you can see, the selection is not perfect. It still has bits of the background but that can be easily removed. But first!! Make sure the layer is not locked and then use the delete/backspace key to remove the selected background. I made a new layer below it and filled it with a dark color so I could see everything easier.

Then use the Eraser Tool with a small brush size with 100% hardness to remove the leftovers. 

I also removed the tag but not the string that was tied onto the crochet since it blends in anyway.

And here is the transparent image!~

I like to keep the image at a large size since it's easier to size down for projects rather than have Photoshop try to resample everything. 

Gingermelon Li'l Luvs Unicorn Doll #2

My second Gingermelon Unicorn plush. I had a bunch of light purple felt so I just had to make a unicorn in that color along with pink hair. Pink & purple is one of my favorite color combinations!!

For the unicorn's long hair, I used scrap yarn in pink and purple shades, mainly from Impeccable Solids & Caron Simply Soft.

I also wanted to experiment with making a lace dress, so I used a strip of eyelet lace trim from Joanns for the main piece. I cut out scalloped edges to make the top of the bodice and straps, then added some vintage lace, and some Taobao lace cutouts. 

My favorite detail though has to be the gold stars. I didn't have gold glitter so I got creative and cut them out from an old organza gift bag I'd saved for years--just waiting for the right project! A little glue and they were perfect.

Gingermelon Li'l Luvs Unicorn Doll

 

I've wanted to make Gingermelon's patterns for so many years and decided to start with the Li'l Luvs Unicorn pattern.

I had some leftover purple unicorn fabric by Timeless Treasures that I bought from fabric.com (before it moved to Amazon?!) years ago and thought it'd be funny to make a dress with it for a unicorn.

I also had various laces from Laces on TaoBao and scrap yarns (handspun or from Michaels).

Instead of embroidering the eyes, I wanted to try lashes. I stitched on some 18mm mink lashes that I cut in half. I would've tried gluing but I didn't have any around but I think stitching it into place may be more secure.

I didn't plan out the colors for the mane. I just knew I wanted to use the pink/orangey handspun yarn for some texture and then I just grabbed random worsted-weight yarns I had around.


I really like this pattern as it's not too simple. It has more pattern pieces than a basic flat pattern but it's not complicated. There are only a few darts to sew and most of the pieces are sewn with the right sides out using blanket stitch.


I'm already starting another with purple felt!

Unicorn Embroidery

I finally got this punch needle kit out that I got from Michaels like a year ago. I think I bought the wrong type of needle for it because it was difficult to push the needle through the fabric and the thread would come undone every time. The punch needle stuff has been sold out in stores for so long so I decided to embroider it instead.

 I made a loop stitch for the body, satin stitch for the blush, and back stitch for everything else. To add more details, I used some metallic gold thread. I also used some of the felt flowers from the kit along with some nail art rhinestones and sequins.

I did a leaf stitch to make some little wings.

I wanted the mane to be more pastel-y so I only used the lighter colors from the yarn included and then added in some Teeswater locks that I got from La Fiaba Russa and some leftover handspun yarn.

 

To cover the bottom, I crocheted some flowers out of #10 cotton thread and a 1.5mm hook. And then I painted the background with some watercolors.

Fairy Queen Coat

I've had the Fairy Queen Coat pattern by Earth Tricks in my queue for years but kept putting it off for other projects. When it was first released, it only had 1 or 2 sizes and it didn't seem like the pattern was tested or tech-edited so people kept finding mistakes. But it got updated and now it goes up to size 3XL.

I tried to use up yarn I already had so I chose this pink/lavender acrylic yarn. Otherwise, I would have gone with cotton for a better drape. I ran out of yarn so my "coat" is much shorter and I modified the sleeves. 

I can't remember what yarn it is but it's either the discontinued Craft Smart yarn from Michaels or a discontinued color from Red Heart with Love.

My modifications are listed in my notes are on Ravelry.

Butterfly Filet Crochet Curtain

I stumbled on the pattern Swallowtail Butterflies by Kimi Honda while browsing Ravelry. It's from the 80's/90's so it's out of print. 

Interestingly enough, it was shared in multiple magazines (I thought that wasn't a typical thing for crochet??) and I was able to find the Magic Crochet magazine on eBay.

I made mine into a curtain instead of a table runner so I only did the first half of the pattern and then repeated the stars/dot pattern until it was long enough. I used a 1.3mm hook and Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet Size 10.

It's currently being used over my shelf as a jewelry holder.