Hello everyone! Chantalle back with you today to share a couple of projects using Claus & Co. and beautiful Petaloo blooms. We have all seen the stunning new Carpe Diem planners which are set to hit retailers momentarily (yippee!) I absolutely adore my platinum one. The understated chic holds such bold fun within! To mark the upcoming festive season, I thought it would be fun to create a custom bellyband to give my planner a bit of Christmas cheer, without ruining the beautiful split leather finish. This is how it turned out…

 

 

To start, I measured a length of elastic (20mm width) to fit around my planner. Selecting the pretty Petaloo assorted trim in Glitz Red, I used my sewing machine to stitch it along the left edge of the elastic. I used red thread so you don’t see the stitching. Tip: To give it more stretch, I would suggest tugging on the elastic slightly as you sew, so when it’s finished, it has more ‘give’. Mine turned out a tiny bit rigid. Once the trim was stitched in, I sewed the elastic together to form the band shape.

 

 

This is what it looked like before I embellished it:

 

 

All the embellishments were applied using a hot glue gun. (I’m sure I lost fingerprint or two in the process! haha.) For the larger green flower I’ve used Petaloo Mixed Textured Layers in ‘Moss Green’ and the smaller white one is also Mixed Textures but in ‘Ivory’. The petals have a subtle curve to them already, which is really nice. I wanted to accentuate this height, so I adhered them with the curve facing upwards. I dabbed a blob of hot glue in the centre and pushed down using the back of a stylus to get them to set with the extra height.

 

 

I really loved working with the leaves and berries from the Suga Red Clusters. They were great to tuck behind larger blooms. Once I had created my custom flowers and chosen the rest of my embellishments, I went about arranging them on the elastic. Before I glued anything down,  I grabbed a sheet of baking paper and folded it over a couple of times and then tucked it under the elastic. I could then go about adhering my embellishments without damaging my beautiful planner. 

 

 

A brad makes a sweet floral centre…

 

 

I’ve chosen Claus & Co. chipboard stickers as they are more hardwearing.

 

 

I love how the band turned out! I can definitely see myself creating more to suit other seasons and holidays.