Newest creation

Emily's newest summer dress!

She wasn't feeling very photogenic but I tried to get pictures of the whole thing.

Silhouette wall art

This isn't something that I would normally post here.  I am working on art work to depersonalize my house to put up for sale in the spring.  I wanted to have a piece of my children up still without having it scream Caleb and Emily are here!! I say this only because those of you who have seen my house in the past know that the walls of my house were a shrine to my children!

After spending some time on Pinterest I came up with a way to accomplish what I wanted.

I decided to reuse some canvases that I painted when Caleb was born.

Supplies: 

A canvas of whatever size you want, I used a 18 x 24.

acrylic paint in two color choices and a pearlizing medium

a spool of ribbon

painters tape

a flathead paintbrush

foam brushes

a stencil 

some decorative upholstery nails

a 12 x 12 piece of scrapbook paper

mod podge- I used the Matte finish

take a profile picture of your child against a plain wall. 

 (This is easier said than done sometimes.  Hopefully they will hold still for you!) 

 I put my picture in photoshop and darkened it to make it easier to cut out. You could print yours in black and white to make it easier to see the edges.

Let's start on your canvas.

Paint the base color over the entire canvas, go over the edge just a little but don't worry about the sides you will cover them with the ribbon later. 

Let it dry. 

Tape off a border. I created my borders using the width of the painters tape.  The first boarder is 3-1/2" wide and the second is the width of the tape-3".  Scale your borders according to the size of the canvas you are using. The outer border should be bigger than the inner border.

 Paint your second color in like shown above. 

While that is drying, print out your profile picture on 8-12 x 11" paper, cut it out, and then trace your image on the BACK of your scrapbook paper. I did the same process for the letter on the lower portion of the canvas.  I went online and found a font that I liked and traced it on the back of the scrapbook paper (mirror image) and then cut them both out. Set that aside.

Take your main color and the pearlizing medium and mix them together.  I would do about 75% base color and 25% pearlizer.  You don't need much, maybe about two tablespoons total.  

Take your foam brush and your stencil and add your backdrop the the center of the canvas.

Note: Don't put too much paint on your foam brush or it will bleed through your stencil.  I dabbed it in the paint and then dabbed some off onto some paper towel.  You can always go over it again to add more color but it is hard to take it back off.

 I also added the pearling medium to the boarder of my canvas to add more shimmer before I tool off the tape. I used my paint brush to do this. Note: this will lighten the color of your boarder a little.  You may have some bleeding touching up to do where the tape was depending on how well you got the tape stuck to the canvas.

 Let that dry completely.

Lay out your silhouette and letter on the canvas, try to center them in the middle of the canvas and leave a small space between the image and the letter.  The spacing will change depending on the size of the canvas you are using.

  When you are happy with how they look

glue them onto the canvas with your mod podge. Make sure to go all the way to the edges of the scrapbook paper, this will get messy but you want the edges covered in glue so they don't peel up.

 I went ahead and painted the whole canvas with the mod podge to seal the whole canvas and make sure the image wouldn't peel of the canvas. You do need to be careful to not get it too thick in one spot.  It will go on creamy and thick and you will think you have just ruined all your work but don't worry it will dry clear.  

Note: Since the mod podge is water based you can spread it out a little with a wet brush if it gets too thick.

Add your ribbon around the edge of the canvas and tack it down with a hammer and your upholstery nails. try to space out the nails to make sure the ribbon doesn't slip around the corners.

 Create a loop at the top to hang your finished art work.

Hang and enjoy your new art!

Liesel curtain dress

A friend of mine came to me and wanted a special dress for her daughter's birthday.  Her daughter LOVES Sound of Music and she is going to take her to the play for her birthday. So what better dress than the "curtain" dress that Liesel wears in the movie.

There is a website http://www.edelweisspatterns.com/ that has created a pattern but it is an adult size. She posted a bunch of great pictures of her dress and the pictures she used to create her pattern.

  My friends little girl is a size 7.  So, I found this pattern that I thought I could adjust to make work for the size I needed.  I also used the pictures from http://www.edelweisspatterns.com/ 

 I found the fabric at www.fabric.com  It is not an exact match but I think that it works really well.  

The fabric looks like it has a woven texture but it is 100% cotton.  I thought this added to the "curtain" look of it.  The fabric that  http://www.edelweisspatterns.com/  used is from Michael Miller.

After all of my adjustments and changes here is the final product.  I hope to get pictures of her in the dress after this weekend!

These are the types of projects that I LOVE to do!  They are challenging and I get a kick out of doing something that is special and one of a kind!  I hope that you all like the finished product as much as I do.  

Update on pattern project

Since I posted "New Year, New projects" I now have three projects going with this pattern.  I will post all the options when they are finished!  I have also posted to my facebook page a great selection of new fabrics that I have found and am itching to do a project with.  Please take a look and let me know what I can make for YOUR Easter celebration!

New year, New projects!!

I am so excited to start a new year of projects!  As I was doing the yucky job of paperwork for my taxes I realized how many GREAT projects I did last year!  I LOVE doing projects for people, especially when it is for a special occasion.  I feel so honored to have a little part in their special event!  I get to start this year with just such a project.

I have had a friend from design school, who just had a baby girl, call me up and ask me to make her a special dress for a wedding that they are going to where the grandparents will be meeting their granddaughter for the first time.  My heart melts!  This happens to be an Irish themed wedding and mom wanted to make a dress that represented that and yet her little one could wear for a while.  So, here is a picture of the pattern and the fabric that I am going to be making for her.  you will have to wait for the final product to see that!

Can't wait to show you  (and her) the final product!!  Here is to a new year full of great projects!!

I promised that I would post pictures of the finished product, here they are....

Bloomers

The back buttons.
I just shipped this off yesterday to CA. and the wedding isn't till St. Patrick's Day so I will have to wait for pictures of the precious little Sara in this but so will you!!!

Tara's Ribbon trimmed jeans

I have a great friend who sent this to me and asked if I would feature her on my blog and after looking at her project I told her " OF COURSE!" I think this is a really cute and easy solution to a problem that I am sure many of you have out there!  Thanks, Tara Gibson for sharing your project! 

Ribbon-trimmed jeans

My little girl has a tendency to outgrow her pants in the length before she is ready to move to the next size in the waist.  A friend who has the same problem showed me what she did to lengthen her daughter’s pants.

                                      

My friend did hers using a hot glue gun. I happened to have some peel n stick fabric tape on hand so that is what I used. It’s like double sided tape for fabric.     

                                          

I did this in under 2 hours. Most of your time is spent doing the prep work: cutting the ribbon, cutting the fabric tape, applying the tape. Once you have your ribbons cut, apply squares of tape to the ends of the ribbons on the wrong side of the ribbon and leave the backing on. Lay out the ribbons in the order you want to place them.  Peel off the backing on one end of the ribbon and press the ribbon onto the outside of the pants.

                                                          

Next, peel off the backing from the other end and press it to the inside of the pant leg.                                                                       

Do this all the way around the pant leg until it looks like this:

                                                          

Next, apply a band of ribbon all the way around to cover up the exposed edges. I applied the adhesive to the middle section of the band and pressed it to the front and then flipped the pants over to apply adhesive to the remaining pieces and overlapped them on the back.

 Please give me some feed back on what you think about this project and if you have any ideas that you would like featured on this blog send them to be directly and I will see what we can do.

designerlady@gmail.com

                                                            

t shirt scarf- I saw this on pinterest and I had to make one of my own!   

I wasn't sure that it would really work but think that it turned out pretty good!  What do you think?