Hi everyone and happy July! 

The day has finally arrived! All 30 designers who participated in the iLovetoCreate Beads in a Bottle challenge are posting their projects today. And I for one cannot WAIT to see what everyone has done with this fun product. 

I had never used anything like this before and am so glad that ILoveToCreate came up with it. After the paint dries, it really does look like those expensive adhesive half pearls and beads that come in a tiny little package. This bottle can make TONS of beads and you can make them as large or as small as you want them. They are recommended for fabric but I can tell you (because you always have to try…) that they work great on paper… and maybe a few other surfaces as well 🙂

For my project, I decided to make a headband for my 4 year old granddaughter Trinity. She came to visit last week and she was happy to model it. She loves her butterflies (last year she called them beautiflies…sigh). All the dies I used are part of my new Fresh Vintage collection by Sizzix.

You will need:

Tulip’s Beads in a Bottle– red, turquoise
Tulip® Glam-It-Up!™ Iron-On Crystals™
large and fine size netting
white canvas
headband
wire
green fabric scraps for leaves
felt for flowers
spray adhesive
Big Shot die cutting machine
Butterfly die
Leaves die
Flower, Layers #9 die

Instructions:

1. Apply spray adhesive to two 6″ x 6″ pieces of netting. Lay netting adhesive side down on canvas squares.
2. Lay both canvas squares on Butterfly die and roll through Big Shot machine. Layer fine netting in between canvas to give a little extra “poof” to the butterfly’s wings.
3. Make sure that large netting is on top of the butterfly shape and use it as a grid to lay out the pattern for your paint design. I did several different arrangements. After they dried, I played around with which design would go on top and bottom of the butterfly.
4. Cut several flower layers and punch a small hole in the center. Insert a brad or sew the layers together with a button and thread. Add random paint beads where desired.
5. When paint beads are dry, add bling down the center of the butterfly’s body and on the flower.
6. Arrange butterfly, flowers and leaves as desired and glue entire group together on a small scrap of felt. Add elastic to the arrangement so the it can be removed from the headband to switch out for another design.

 iLovetoCreate is having an awesome giveaway to celebrate-just look at all this stuff!

To find out how to enter to win, you need to get over to iLovetoCreate’s blog. Find out how to enter here.

Our theme for the Designer Connection June blog hop is “Patriotic”. And I can’t think of anyone more patriotic than military wives and moms!

To see more of the red white and blue, hop on over to my fellow designers’ blogs by clicking on the blue Designer Crafts Connection button on the sidebar. You will be taken around a fabulous hop. Make sure you find the blog with the great giveaway! Keep hopping 🙂

This is a small sampling of some of the military wife specialty gifts I create and sell. If you are interested, see more on my website.