Dressin' up THE Dress...(tutorial)

With the start of Spring/Summer and hot weather arriving, we made a trip to Marshall's to pick out some new shorts and dresses for the girls. My oldest picked out this plain jane dress, which to me SCREAMED "blank canvas". You will have to scroll to the bottom to see how my Daughter "loved" Mommy's idea!
The neckline looked rather plain to me so I thought I'd add a little dazzle with some ribbon and a vintage flower.
I started by folding over the ribbon to make pleats. The ribbon is folded at about every 1 inch and pinned directly to the neckline.
She's all pinned and ready for sewing!
Sewing is complete! be sure to go slow with you machine as you will have the added thickness of the ribbon.
Making the vintage flower! I used approx. 18 inches of 2 inch polka dotted grosgrain ribbon for my flower.
Loosely gather your ribbon and sew in the middle to allow for proper gathering. This is a good spot to heat seal your ribbon edges to prevent fraying.
Flower is complete! Don't worry about your visible threads, you will cover them later!
To make the inner layer of your flower, you will need the largest cuttlebug die in this flower set. I folded over my material tight enough to make a "heart" shape at the top. I sewed 2 stitches to keep the flower tip from opening.
Adhered my black flower tips on with E6000.
Covered my threads with a vintage LARGE rhinestone.
At this point, you can glue your pin on the back. I would've rather used a black piece of felt on the back, but I didn't have any. I'm not too worried about how the back looks like because you won't be able to see it, nor will it be going in the washer.
How snazzy is this?!!!!
Since I used a pin on the back of the flower, you can adjust her where you want:) You see that Amy Bulter fabric in the background?? Well, that my friends is my peg board that I decopauged because I didn't like the holes showing through! It's super easy to insert my hooks etc. You can see on the bottom where I store all my punches in my IKEA baskets/rods.
In the end, this WAS a surprise for my oldest Daughter and I hung it in the foyer so she could see it when she came home. Well, she hates it and told me so...said we should throw it in the trash! I never expected that from her and she asked me if I could take the ribbon and flower off?!!! Needless to say, it sent her in a total tear fest and she was terribly upset that I ruined her "normal" dress! I did hang it on her doorknob yesterday in the hopes that she would wear it today. She woke up this morning and dressed her little sister...any guesses to what little sister was wearing???!!! Little stinker!

In honor of my 30th birthday (which I also share with my twin sister, Christie!), a sweet, and simple post! My family and I spent the weekend in Myrtle Beach, so today I vow to just relax and enjoy the day!

Edible Art :P

THERE ARE 2 POSTS TODAY, SO BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN!!


Remember these recent invitations I did??? Well........
......they are NOW edible!! I thought this was sooo clever and I'm flattered my artwork was reproduced into a yummy cake! The baker even replicated the red stitching line on to the bottom of the cake! I bet it was just delish! Congrats Amanda!

Spring Nest Card...

Lots of cleaning around the house today so I'm just popping in with a spring-y bird card! With all the glitter on this paper, I had trouble getting the correct lighting. I did some photo editing, however it made the photo much to bright, so I had to go with this pic which is a little on the dark side.The focal image is from PTI's-3rd Anniversary set and the script is from Text Style II. This may be the first card that I actually left off the sentiment. I felt after I designed the card and the placement of my image, there was no room for a sentiment. The flower petals were from my loose bag and I cut them in 4 pieces and used E6000 to ahere them on the backside of my design.

Love these colors together! I had a request last week for some sympathy cards, so I will have a few more to share this week. At the time I didn't know what style my friend was interested in, so I made up several samples. This by far, was my favorite! The deep purple and bright green really POP against the kraft cs. I stamped the kraft cs with my PTI-woodgrain bg. For my focal image I used with sympathy and 3rd anniversary set (the polka dots) and damask designs. You can see a subtle shimmer on the purple dew drop ink. It adds a little pizazz without being over the top. The flowers I used were just some plain hydrangea petals that I purchased in a loose bag....so many I will have a stash for years...lol!

Spring Nest Notebook...

Having a little fun with my new 3rd Anniversary Set from PTI. I wasn't sure if I was going to care much for this set, only because I thought I'd have to buy the label die to go with it. For those of you who have this set, you'll know which image I'm referring to. I'm sure at some point I will break down and buy the die, for now I will just use my nesty dies for the circle images.Brought out my vintage sheet music and stamped her up with some Petal Power in sage green. I only stamped Petal Power on the folds in the paper...helps greatly with spacing your stamped image just right! On the backside of my focal image I cut my polka dot ribbon in 2 inch strips, folded over and adhered with E6000 glue. Image is popped up with 3-D foam tape. I made a simple tag for my bird image to "nest" on top and finished up with a few adhesive rhinestones.

There is a FIRST for Everything...

YEAH! Finally a MANLY post! Funny I should say "manly" and yet my first card has a darn bow on it! I too, questioned myself, but I decided to go with the bow. I think any "real" man would be appreciative eh?I started with PTI's-A Little Argyle for my patterned cs and my focal point is withMasculine Motifs. It's tough to see in the pic below, but I also used Woodgrain backgrounds in a very light aqua with my dew drop ink for the sky, then added the trees, and deer right on top. You don't have to worry about masking with the deer as long you stamp in a dark shade of ink, it will blend right in with the trees. I love that this set is distressed on all the images which gives a nice rugged look to your stamping.Just as I was saying I wasn't going to do thick and over embellished cards...I crossed the line! I couldn't help myself! Once I stamped the sailboat I had pictured in my mind that it should have some eyelets around the red border. To ensure I had equal spacing between my eyelets, I used a round plastic canvas (you can see a wonderful tutorial HERE by Jody Morrow) circle. Easy as pie! Before sewing on my ocean waves, I ran my cs through a cuttlebug folder.

I'm off to do a few new projects to share. This is the only one I have left, I'd better get busy for Friday's post:)

A Little Argyle...Overboard!

All the projects posted this week will feature PTI's-A Little Argyle set. The best part about this set, is that I finally own some stamps that are truly unisex! In addition to these feminine projects, I also had the chance to use this stamp set on some Father's Day cards over the weekend. Those of you who follow my blog know that I RARELY do men projects and cards...so I'm happy to go beyond my "box".Tried "A Little Argyle" on some kraft cs. My Cloud White(Dew Drop) stamps very crisp and vibrant on this cs. Once you put down your first layer of diamonds (solid shape), you will then want to do you polka dot strip (red), this will allow you to line up the dotted line (black) perfectly...which I was having trouble with the first time around! Lesson learned!I mixed a few different stamps set here: PTI-2nd Anniversary set (flower and bird wings, which I turned into the green leaves), A Little Argyle, and Background Basics: Woodgrain.It's raining here today in Eastern, NC so I'm heading off to make my "to-do" list and hoping to squeeze in a little crafting today!

Trio of Sympathy Cards...

I made up these cards while I had last weeks post up! I figured I'd make a few more while I still had the stamp set out. When I make cards or notebooks, I usually do one at a time, when I could be making several for my stash. I'm getting on top of things now and plan to attend my first craft show this fall as a VENDOR, so I need to stock up and get my spinner rack full! Very exciting!For my first card I used PTI's Women of Life set. I probably haven't inked this set since buying it, and I thought it would be a nice coordinating set with my sentiment, With Sympathy and Polka Dot Basics. For a little shimmer, I decided to use my Dew Drop inks. I love these inks because the shimmer is oh so subtle and considering the content of my card, I don't my glitter SCREAMING! I don't know if I'm too crazy about this color combo, but I'm going to blame it on the photographer...she really needs a class or two on lighting! To add a little shimmer to my center flower, I first stamped with yellow ink then lightly when over the image with my Copic Spica Glitter Pen.Out of all the cards, this has to be my favorite! Love the layout, colors, and simplicity! I'm really trying to simplify my cards these days and ease up on the embellishments and thickness. You can still create something just as nice and beautiful and not have to wonder if it will take extra postage via snail mail. I will be back on Monday with a brand new post on my "A Little Argyle" project I worked on this week! Also hoping to whip up some Father's Day Designs as well. Have a GREAT weekend!

There's a Dr. in the House...

I have a dear friend who will be graduating from Texas Tech this Friday with her Doctorate and she had asked me to design her grad invites. I was more than honored to do these considering all the hard work and dedication she put in to her education. There were several ideas I had in mind, but she ultimately decided on this lovely black/white/red combo. I didn't know it at the time, but these are actually Tech's school colors...SCORE!I hand stamped the invite with my PTI's stamps: Text Style bg and Polka Dot Basics. I printed her name on the pc and cut it out with my nesty dies.Graduation info was printed on the backside of the invite...I left off the personal info. here for safety reasons:).
Tea length design. I really like the length of this invite and it's a fun new shape, I've not tried yet.Blue and choco. combo with PTI's Damask Design and Polka Dot Basics.
Simple and elegant design...I'm thinking this one looks more like a wedding invite vs. for graduation!Another fun color combo of SU! turquoise and black. PTI's Polka Dot Basics and In Bloom. Graduation info. would be printed on the inside. I'm off to finish up an order of notebooks and the design is based off the first invite I posted. I'm excited to see how it turns out because it will be my chance to finally break open PTI's, A Little Argyle set!

A Notebook for Mom and a Friend...

I absolutely love these notebooks I picked up at Office Max. I hadn't realized at the time, but when I brought these home I realized I didn't have a hole punch that fit the spiral. Turns out, I didn't even have to take the spiral out when I picked colors that would coordinate with the kraft color front page! SCORE! Having to punch the spiral side can be quite tedious and consuming, although I would do it again, and again, and...well, you kwim:)Love these color combos for Mom's notebook. All stamps are PTI and cs is SU! I added a little vintage strip of sheet music along with some dyed flowers. The brown flower had a slight golden tint to it, so I rubbed my Jumbo Java Dew Drop over it for a more deep brown. I tied the 4 flower layers together with a double-button and DMC floss. Ladybug notebook for a friends birthday. Simple and elegant layout. The "F" is chipboard that I smothered in Fruit Punch Stickles and adhered with foam dots. For the matte below the monogram, I used SU! cs, nesty dies, and PTI-text style bg. Lastly, I added some shimmer pink ribbon to "tie" it all together.