Dress Forms...

are everywhere these days, and I can't get enough of them!  I guess that's why you will find a few of them on this blog!  But today, I have this one with a tutorial on how to create it on the Sizzix blog.  Hope you visit me there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jan

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A Birthday Card

I have finally had a chance to get a little scrapbooking done.  This has been another crazy month that is flying by, just as fast as last month.  We are still dealing with renovations, hopefully by next week everything will be done.  I did manage to sneak away with my sister Pat, for a fantastic week in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago.  We had so much fun; the weather was gorgeous, lot's of shopping, walking, and laughs. It was hard coming back to our cool temperatures!
Here's my birthday card using the new Sizzix Tim Holtz Tick Tock die:

I don't know why, but I love clocks.  I keep buying different clocks for my home, love any kind of paper with clocks, clock embellishments, and the list goes on.  So when I saw this Sizzix die, I knew I had to have it.  I cut it out with chipboard and "Content"paper from Authentique's collection, Carefree. After glueing the paper to the chipboard, I lightly inked the edges with Weathered Wood and Frayed Burlap Distress Ink, applied Rock Candy Crackle paint and let dry.  I wasn't sure how I wanted the middle of the clock, but after looking through my papers, found this paper (Hip to the Jive-Times Nouveau Collection) from Graphic45, which had clocks that fit perfectly inside.  I also used the paper and stickers from this collection for the rest of the card.  The flowers were made using the Sizzix Pinecone die and Mini Paper Rosette die.  I added in the wood Prima bird, mini Prima flowers, a brad from My Mind's Eye, and my rub-on sentiments were some old ones from 7Gypsies.
Hope this inspires you with at least one idea on how to use your clock die, I'm sure I'll have more in the future!
Have a great day!

Jan

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Altered Dress Form

I always seem to be buying items with the full intention of altering them and then never getting around to doing it.  After altering my Valentine's day hearts, I decided to finish a metal dress form type of ornament that I bought and started last year.  But, unfortunately I made the mistake of popping into "Homesense"(our Canadian version of T. J. Maxx) last week and found yet another dress form that I thought would be fun to alter.  So, instead of working on the old one, I started but actually finished the new one! I was inspired by Graphic 45's new line, "Kraft Reflections" and the papers were perfect for this dress form.

The dress form is metal, except for the bodice part. I first cut out the cards on the paper"All Decked out" and layered them for the skirt.  One of the papers is a thin stripe(Straight to the Point) which I scored along the lines and made the shorter pleated skirt.  I then cut out the small decorative circles from a Memory Box die and layered them around the waist.  The tissue flowers were cut out with 7Gypsies tissue and the Tim Holtz Tattered Flower die.

For the inside floor, I used a wood Kaiser large doily which fit almost perfectly inside, I just had to shave a bit off one edge.  I had a vintage spool and bobbin that I used.  All the flowers, leaves and swirls were hand cut from the floral paper, "Bed of Roses" except two (those were the Tim Holtz tattered flower die and mini tattered flower die) I used snaps for the centers of those flowers.  The dress form was a Wendy Vecchi chipboard piece covered in paper and then crackled with Rock Candy.

I glued some of the leaves and flourishes on the outside of the dress form too.

The form had four metal hooks around the waist, so I punched out small tags to hang on them.  I then used the spool on the Tim Holtz dressmakers die, to cut out spools with chipboard, then covered with paper and glued those to the center of the tags. Colored some seam binding ribbon with Distress Stain, and tied them to the hooks.  I cut out some butterflies from one of the papers and adhered them on the tissue and one at the top with wire.  That's it for my FINISHED altered dress form!  Now I really need to finish  that other one!
Have a great weekend!

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Take a Tim Holtz District Market canvas and ....

change it up!  I love these new canvases but I decided to use the one I purchased as a base to scrapbook on.  These Burlap Panels are so nice to work on, they are a solid board with the printed burlap wrapped around to the back.  Here's a photo of my finished project as promised:

I used 7Gypsies printed papers, ruler, metal charm and pin.  The red paper is from the Tim Holtz Kraft-Core collection.  I embossed it with his Collage & Notebook Texture Fade and sanded it lightly, then colored rock Candy crackle paint and scraped it across so it filled in the recessed areas. I have been coloring the Rock Candy crackle paint, which is clear, by dabbing Distress Stain (I usually use 2 or 3 different colors)on my non-stick craft mat and mixing the little puddles with a plastic card (a used up plastic coffee card) into the crackle paint which I have put also on my mat.  I don't mix them in very much, I like the paint to be uneven and have some clear spots.   I also added a bit of snowcap paint on the edges.  I had some left over rock candy paint, so I scraped it across some of the lower right corner of the canvas.  If I did another canvas, I think I would like to cover the whole thing with the tinted rock candy, it gives a subtle dimension and richness to the canvas.

I used one of Urban's vintage pocket watches but Tim Holtz makes one almost the same.  I covered the inside back with 7Gypsies paper, placed a metal Graphic45 flower, (in the center are some watch parts) then with melted Utee, I poured in enough to cover the bottom.  I had stamped on some brown tissue with a Tim Holtz stamp (Going Somewhere collection) and cut out tiny words, placed them on the hardened Utee, and then poured more hot Utee up to the brim of the watch.  The dress form is from Wendy Vecchi's Dress Form Art Parts (available at Urban) covered in 7Gypsies paper, stained on the edges, and painted with Rock Candy.  Once the Rock Candy is dried, I swiped Distress stain on top and then baked it into the cracks with my heat gun (a tip from Tim's twelve tags of Christmas).  The small piece of 7Gypsies gathered paper was made by sewing strips down the length of the paper using somewhat large stitches.  I wet the paper, patted it with paper towel, and carefully gathered up each row.  I usually clip the ends of the threads, but this time I left them and wound them around the envelope closures.  I added in different rub-ons, a Jenni Bowlin flower (love these!) a Prima tile (I broke it in half, colored the inside and (you can't see it very well) put a 7Gypsies pin through the center and the ruler is from 7Gypsies.  I guess I should explain that this photo is of my daughter, who lives in New York.  She is a fashion designer (she just got an amazing new job designing for Steve Madden), hence the Dressmaker form and bits & pieces of New York embellishments.  I thought the gathered paper looked like fabric too.  She's been on quite the journey with lots of hard work to get her where she is today and we are very proud of her!  The letters are Tim Holtz's Random Alpha parts and some of the stickers are from Tim Holtz too.  Whew, that's a lot of explaining!  I know my canvas is a bit more involved, but you really don't have to do a lot to make it more personal.  It would make a great gift too.  Hope this has inspired you!
Have a great Tuesday!

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