upcycled fiber coasters tutorial

Recently I met up for a day full of fun with my friend and fellow artist Jane LaFazio. We met at Liberty Station in San Diego and visited Visions Art Museum, took lots of photos, ate a fabulous lunch and exchanged materials to create with. I gave Jane a bag full of painted canvas scraps and Jane gave me a whole bunch of denim and ribbon scraps. I knew right away I would put these scraps to use for a holiday gift tutorial- a set of fiber coasters.

Denim is a such a great material to create with and using upcylced jeans is a great way to save money!

Scraps of ribbon and scraps of fabric (even the tiny ones) are also great to put to use in a variety of projects.

I started by cutting out squares from the denim.

I cut up the scraps of ribbon and also added tiny scraps of my own fabric that I had on hand.

I scattered the scraps onto the surface of each denim square

and sewed them down to the surface with free motion stitching.

I continued to sew more scraps until I was satisfied with the surface.

Then I cut out a piece of tulle to layer over the surface of the square.

I wanted to add another layer, additional texture and tone down the colors a little.

I stitched the tulle over the top of everything with lots of straight stitches.

When the surface was finished, I added another piece of denim to the back and with a zig zag stitch sew the front and back together.

I created a set of four.

Last, I created four little denim rolled beads that I added to ribbon that I used to tied them all together.

VOILA! The perfect little handmade holiday gift!

P.S

Want to see what Jane created with her bag of my painted canvas scraps and denim?

Head to her blog to check it out!

black friday sale!

Head over to my etsy shop today because I am having a black friday sale!

20% off of everything all day!

Use coupon code BLACKFRIDAYSALE

happy thanksgiving from san diego!

my thanks to you- a free download

Tis the season to be thankful and lately I have been reflecting on just how blessed I am. I am so grateful to be living my dream, to have family, friends and ALL of you faithful and awesome readers who have embraced my work, shown support and inspire me every day to keep creating!

To express my thanks I created a free digital download of four different fall inspired papers for you to put to use in your weekend entertaining and crafting.

Simple head over to-

http://groups.google.com/group/alisa-burke-free-download

Click on the pdf titled "fall leaves" to download

Print on your favorite paper and use in your projects!

last minute felt leaves centerpiece

I needed some last minute decorations for the weekend and while it would have been really easy to just make a trip to Target, I decided to put more of my felt scraps to use to make a colorful, free form, felt leaves centerpiece for our table.

I started with a variety of different colors of felt

and cut them into different leaves in variety of shapes and sizes.

I stacked the leaves on top of each other and began free motion sewing them together and adding details as I went.

I continued to stack, layer and sew until I formed a free form "mass" of colorful leaves.

I will be putting my centerpiece to use this weekend!

haute holidays online class sale!

My holiday online class is now live and I am offering $10 off the price of $50!

The class is now $40.00 up until December 25th!

HAUTE HOLIDAYS

This class will motivate you to create your own stylish handmade holiday! You will learn simple and easy techniques, unique projects that incorporate paint, fabric, recycled materials, motivation to spend little or no money on decorations and gifts. Videos, projects, photos and inspiration to start creating your own haute holiday!

As a BONUS for the class, I will be sharing a handful of new projects and inspiration between now and December 25th!

haute holidays SALE
$40.00

whimsical felt slippers tutorial

Now that fall is here, I wake up every morning with cold toes- yes, even in Southern California. For a while I've been wanting to try making my own slippers with a fun and whimsical twist and my icy toes were the perfect excuse. This project could be altered and adapted in so many different ways and would be a great little handmade gift for the holidays.

I have a huge pile of colorful felt squares (those cheap ones you can buy for .29) and scraps of fleece and I decided that they were perfect to use for my slippers.

For the sole of the slipper, I started by tracing my foot onto a piece of felt. I traced it a little larger than the exact size of my foot so I would have a little room.

I then cut out the shape and used it as a template to cut out two pieces of fleece (two pieces for a little stability and for warmth).

All three pieces got stacked on top of each (the felt for the bottom and the fleece for the top) and then repeated for the second slipper.

With a zig zag stitch, I sewed all three pieces together around the edge of the sole.

Next, I cut out the top of the slipper from another piece of felt.

Again, I made it a little bigger than my actual foot.

I used different colors of felt and cut petals for the surface.

I sewed the petals down.

I created leaves with a free motion stitching.

After the flower petals were sewn to the surface I cut a piece of fleece to back the top of the slipper, leaving enough fleece to fold over.

With a zig zag stitch, I sewed the fleece to the felt.

I pinned the top panel to the sole and sewed it on the outside with a zig zag stitch.

I created another flower by cutting out petals,

and adding a dab of glue and pinching to create dimension.

I glued all of the petals together until it formed a flower.

I applied glue- Liquid Fusion- to the middle of the flower and sprinkled beads onto the glue and let dry.

Last, I glued the leaves and the flower to the top of the slipper.

I just couldn't resist hand sewing some more of the beads to the edges.

And there you have it- a pair of bright, fun and whimsical slippers for my cold toes :)