Tutorial: Sizzix fabric art for fall

I've been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning my studio.  Like, it's all I do... at least that's how it feels.  I'm happy to say I'm very nearly done - just a few more finishing touches and then I'll have a grand reveal.

Though there's still work to be done, I did get to spend some time in there this morning doing some crafting.  It felt GOOD.

A cute little bit of hoop art, with a bird sitting on a branch of fall leaves.

I made it for the Sizzix #fallforSizzix challenge, to make a fall craft project using a Sizzix die.

The funny thing is, I used a Christmas die for this project!  It's the Sizzix Christmas Cardinal die.  But with a little bit of creative cutting, you can turn the cardinal into a sparrow and the evergreen leaves into autumn leaves.

The die is all one piece, not individual shapes for each part of the picture but you can cut different parts of the picture from different fabrics by just laying the fabric over the section you want to cut.

You'll need:

• 8.5" x 8.5" linen for the background
• Fabric scraps
• Fusible webbing
• Frixion pen
• 6" embroidery hoop
• Hot glue gun
• Small black bead for the eye
• Sizzix Bigz Die - Christmas Cardinal (Affiliate link. A commission will be paid to me if you click the link and purchase a product from Sizzix.)
• Sizzix die cutting machine

Let's put it together:

1. Draw the outline of your embroidery hoop on to your linen with the Frixion pen so you can see where to place your pieces.
2. Iron fusible webbing to the back of your fabric scraps.  Peel away the backing.
3. Cut the branch from a scrap of brown fabric and leaf sprigs from scraps of red, yellow, and orange.  You'll need a lot of sprigs.  Arrange the branch and the leaves on the linen and fuse them down in place.
4. Cut the cardinal shape from a darker brown fabric scrap.  I used an upholstery fabric because it gave nice texture.  You might notice that my bird is facing the opposite direction of the one in the die.  That was a personal preference.  If you want to reverse the direction, just cut the fabric with the wrong side facing up.
5. Trim the crown from the cardinal, creating a rounded head and place him on the branch.
6. Cut a few extra springs of leaves and layer over the bird as needed to create depth.  Fuse all pieces down.
7. To make the beak, just cut a triangle from a scrap of yellow and fuse it down on to the bird.
8. Stitch a black bead for an eye.
9. Put the linen into the embroidery hoop.  Trim to 1/2" around the edges and hot glue the raw edges down to the back of the hoop to secure.