The Junebug Dress

Today I have finished up a Junebug Dress that I made from the tutorial posted at 

Craftiness is not Optional.

To go directly to the tutorial click here.  

While your there, check out the other great projects and tutorials as Jess has some fantastic ones!

I wanted to make a tester dress so I chose this fabric I had in my stash that a friend had

given me a long while ago. The colors are trendy but I wasn't fond of the print. 

The fabric is definitely vintage and has a lovely hand to it. 

Now that it is finished I have changed my mind and am quite fond of it!

The front has a button up flap.  

Love the fact that there are no zippers to deal with.

I absolutely hate sewing in zippers.

I used the size 2/3 pattern that Jess provided in the tutorial.

It will be going to one of my great nieces.  

Both are two years old but wear a size 3.

I changed a few things up from the original tutorial.

I made the sleeves longer as it is going into fall now 

and I added lace to the sleeves also.

I'm thinking of pairing the dress up with a brown turtle neck and the same color leggings.

I also made the skirt of the dress fuller than what the tutorial called for.

I couldn't decide on what buttons to use.  

As this was a tester dress I didn't want to have to buy anything to make it.

I scrounged through my button tin and found these vintage ones.

Although they are not the exact brown in the dress, I think they compliment

the vintage fabric and old time feel that the dress took on.

I am also going to stop calling it a tester dress now as it came out

better than I could have imagined.  For that I have Jess to thank

for such a fantastic, easy to follow, tutorial!

Thanks Jess!

I'm going to be whipping up another one real soon.

I'm thinking of all the possibilities for trims!

Ric rac around the button up flap, ribbon along the bottom, the ideas are just flowing! 

Until next time, 

Vintage Halloween

Hello!  Today I would like to start off by thanking everyone that left a comment on my "Pearls and Pastel" card.  To say I was ecstatic, when I found out I had won  the Week #29 challenge at The Shabby Tea Room, would be an understatement. I had come home from an exhausting 12 hour day at work and just wanted to enjoy the new entries that were submitted since I had last checked.  Well, by the time I played with the pups and griped to my DH about what a bad day I had endured, it had passed midnight and Debbie had already posted the winners.  I started giggling like a school girl and my 22 year old daughter thought I had lost it! Oh, I should mention that it was my first win ever! As a matter of fact, it was only the second challenge that I had submitted a card to (the first was Week #28 at TSTR).

Your comments made my good fortune even more special and, for that,

I thank you sincerely!

Now onto the Week #30 challenge at TSTR.  This one was very difficult for me.  I couldn't seem to wrap my brain around an idea for my card.  I spent all week fiddling and fooling with various papers and embellishments. In the end, I made practically everything on the card from scratch.

Here is the inspiration photo we were provided for the challenge. 

 

Our cards were to use the colors from the photo and have a vintage style.

I loved the 3D cut outs of the candelabras so I knew I wanted to use one in my card.

Once I got my candelabra cut out on my Cricut and embossed with gold powder,

I got stuck for any further ideas.  It took a few days of mulling it over to come up with my final design and here it is.

I printed out the inspiration photo and carried it with me all the time and looked at it often.

I decided the room looked like a room in a witches house.

Then I thought she wasn't such a bad witch because she likes beautiful accessories.

I didn't want a witch on my card so I made the "spell book" to represent her presence.

  I roughed up the edges of all the pages, distressed and curled them then put it together.  You can't see it in this photo but the top two pages are arced and secured in place.  I added the little black bookmark made out of black ribbon.

If you can't tell from the photo, the black thing on the book is a feather. 

It's supposed to be a quilling pen but lacked something in the translation

when the card was photographed.

Do the roses look out of place on this card?

I debated if I should put them on but decided to go for it as the photo made me think the witch has a softer, feminine side to her.

I made the roses out of FIMO and inked the edges black. 

When the ink dried, it turned out to be a more brown color but still looked okay.

The following two pictures were taken in direct sunlight

as the one above (taken in my homemade light box) looked very flat. 

These pictures are a more accurate representation of my finished project as you can see the dimensional elements and the gold embossing of the candelabra.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I made the paper behind the candelabra.

I wanted the background to look like the candles were giving off a glow

and I didn't have anything like that on hand so I sat down and made it myself.

The cheese cloth was originally white and I stained it with Ranger Vintage Photo Distress ink.

 In the above photo you can somewhat see the glimmer of the gold embossing

on the candelabra.

This photo is an over exposed close up of the corner roses.

I wanted to show that I used a natural element on my card.

This is the dropping from one of the trees at work.

I stepped on the thing and twisted my ankle. 

After a few choice words to it, I decided it looked all spooky and creepy

and would me a nice addition to my card.

Whatever it's called, it's as hard as a rock and has all these

spikey, pointy things sticking off it.

So, to sum it up, it wasn't an easy challenge for me but

I am so glad I decided to participate.

 Until next time, 

Pearls and Pastels

I think I actually gasped when I saw the inspiration photo for this weeks challenge at

The Shabby Tea Room.

Isn't it just to die for?

This is my style to a capital letter T.

Oh! And the colors! I'm in love!

Even though it has been a hectic week at work with a lot of overtime hours,

how could I not join in!

It's now 4 a.m. and I just finished my card and photographing it.

Here is what I came up with.

The beautiful background paper I got from Raspberry Road Designs.

She has some of the most BEAUTIFUL digital papers I have seen.

The off white paper is actually glitter embossed although it doesn't show up well in the photo.

I scored it at a local discount outlet store nearby,  24 sheets for $2.99!

I believe it is from Memory Makers and it is just lovely.

All the beads came from a kit I picked up at Joann, Etc. a while back

and was just waiting for the right project to use them on.

I think my absolute favorite embellishment on this card is the acrylic butterfly.

Again, at a local discount store, this butterfly was attached to a tape dispenser.

I loved the dispenser as it is all vintage shabby but the butterfly was just the cherry on top.

My dispenser looks a little naked now but I can live with that.

I couldn't decide where to put the wording on the card so I used a technique I saw where you print on a transparency and transfer the wording to your project.

It worked perfectly on my satin ribbon.

I just love how my card came out and I hope you enjoy it too.

Thanks for looking!

Until next time,



The Shabby Tea Room Challenge - Week #28 Entry

Today I have decided to enter my first card challenge.

I absolutely love all the yummy cards the gals submit

to the challenges at The Shabby Tea Room.

I could sit for hours and just keep looking at all of them.

Such wonderfully talented ladies.

Each day I visit I get so much inspiration and decided to join in.

Although my skills are not up to par with the others, we all have to

start somewhere, right?

This is the inspiration photo.

Cathy, the host of the challenge, asked that a card be created using this photo as inspiration.

The cards are to have a school theme and use the colors in the photo.

Here is my submission.

As I stated before, my photography skills leave a lot to be desired. 

The picture of the school children is actually a much deeper blue and resembles

the slate chalkboard in the inspiration photo as does the blue

DP in the background of the card.

I inked and distressed the edges of the card and elements to mimic the

khaki coloring in the map and rulers.

The green was pulled from the map also.

I added brads to represent the lunch pail and eyeglasses.

The wording on the card states:

"No one has fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and

generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true

education should be to unlock that treasure." ~ Emma Golmam

I thought this quote fit the graphic of the vintage school children perfectly.

It was also my inspiration for the use of the key.

Speaking of the key, I made it using a technique called "cracked glass".

I cut the key shape out on my Expression and went from there.

Instead of using clear embossing powder I used gold then antiqued the

cracks with Tim Holtz distress ink.

It doesn't show up very well in my photo but it looks really cool.

That's all for now!

Until next time,



Recent Cards

Today I would like to share some of the cards I have made recently.

As I am new to card making, I do not have the supplies and tools

that I would like to create with.

As with any hobby, the cost of those supplies and tools can add up

pretty quick.

 

I am very fortunate to own a Cricut Expression (love it!) which I will have

worn out by the end of the year if I don't stop using it so much.

It is the main tool that I use with my cards as I do not have a lot of

punches,stamps, inks, markers, etc.

I have purchased some distressing inks and a very limited

amount of embellishments (pearls, brads, etc) but for the most

part, I use what I already have on hand.

With that in mind, here are a few of my creations.

I made this card for my friends birthday.

It was made entirely out of white card stock from Walmart
except for the floral center picture.

I inked and embossed some of the layers to give dimension.

The ribbon I had in my craft stash and I used a few purchased pearls to jazz it up a bit.

 

Happy Birthday, Weenie!

The Cricut, ribbon from my stash and a few pearls and some 

designer paper that I picked up at a local discount surplus store

 was all it took to make this card for my great aunt.

I know my pictures aren't the best.

The energy saving bulbs in my house always makes my camera use the flash.

Will have to come up with some type of light box or something.

That's it for today!

Until next time,

This is where it all starts!

Today I have decided to take the plunge into the world of blogging.

I am starting with the idea of sharing my passion for crafting.
Card making, mini scrapbook albums and machine embroidery
are just a few of my favorites right now. 

We'll see where it leads.

So, without further ado, lets get started!

For the first post, why not start with another first?

I created my very first mini scrapbook album for this years family reunion.
To my surprise, it was raffled as one of the main prizes. 

Like everything else I do, I jumped in with great ambition.

I wanted my album to look all shabby chic, vintage and distressed,
like the ones I see on other blogs and drool over.

I watched enough You Tube video's on techniques to give me eye strain for a week.

Why do the authors make it look so easy?
They whip out a page in 10 minutes or less while
I sit for hours completing the same type of page.

I worked every spare moment of an entire week on this album.

The trip to the reunion was a 4 hour drive and we were to leave at 8 a.m.

I finished the album at 3 a.m. and had the alarm set to get up at 6 a.m.

 

I didn't put a lot of embellishments on it as I did not know to whom

it would be going and quite frankly, I just ran out of time.

In the end, even though it wasn't what I had envisioned,
 I was somewhat pleased with how it turned out.

The recipient was very happy she won the album as her hobby is photography.
She said she planned on filling it with photos of this years reunion
and bringing it back for everyone to see at next years gathering.

That's it for now.

Until next time,