Whew! We Are Back!

Wow, what a month! I had one sewing fiasco after another in trying to get a couple of competition skate dresses done for my daughter. I had to make her Figures dress THREE times! The first time, the points in the front were too low- scratch! The second time, I spaced the fact that I was sewing with velvet and steam pressed the zipper and it went through to the front and ruined the velvet- scratch! By this time I was out of Royal Blue velvet and had to order more from New York and do 2 day shipping. The fabric arrived on Tuesday so I spent Tuesday cutting and sewing the new dress and then from Tuesday evening to Wednesday gluing the rhinestones on the dress. This takes a while because you have to glue each stone individually and then you have to wait for the area you're working on to dry before moving to the next area. It was cold here so it took the stones a loooooong time to dry. By the end of the day on Wednesday I was done stoning the dresses :-). On Thursday morning I packed and off we went to Chicago for the Meet. After four days, we were ready to get home and we arrived last night at 11:09 p.m.- home sweet home! 

I had three cards that I had made while waiting for either fabric or rhinestones to arrive, but because of all the trouble I had with the sewing, which I've never had trouble with sewing until that Figures dress (!), I didn't have time to get them posted. I did get one posted before the fabric arrived, so will be posting the other two today and tomorrow. I won't get to stamp for a couple of days because I have a lot to catch up on- laundry, house work, grocery shopping, etc. I got sooooo behind working on skate dresses. I am looking forward to going back to my stamping room and just relaxing with some stamps, ink, and paper! In the meantime, here's one of the thank you cards I made.

 

I'm not going to take time today to post the supplies because I have so much to do today, but the embossing folder I used is in the new Summer Mini. If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll post the answer sometime this week :-). Have a great day!!!

Blessings!
Barb

Sewing Update

I'm still at it :-(. I'm expecting a delivery of Royal Blue velvet today along with Royal Blue mesh. Why you ask? Because I botched the first two that I sewed- long story- and I had to order more fabric from New York and do two day air delivery. As soon as that gets here today, hopefully, it will be this morning rather than late this afternoon, I have to cut out the dress pieces and start sewing. My daughter's Figures dress is the Royal Blue one and I have to have it completely sewn by the end of today. Tomorrow I have to glue hundreds of Swarovski rhinestones on it- one by one. I ran to Hobby Lobby yesterday and  purchased two more bottles of Gem Tack glue by Beacon (used for gluing on the rhinestones). I was paranoid about running out of glue right in the middle of stoning the dresses (sigh- yep, it's getting to me). On a positive note, I just finished gluing on the last rhinestone on her Creative Solo dress about 20 minutes ago. I just have to wait for the glue to finish drying and then I can hang that dress to let the glue cure for 24 hours. Then it goes into the garment cover to protect it. In case you are wondering how many stones I hand glued onto her Creative Solo dress, the final count is over 1,100. Uh huh, you read that correctly... over one thousand rhinestones on one dress. It adds quite a bit of heft to the weight of the dress, which is funny because the stones by themselves aren't all that heavy. I'm not sure yet how many stones will end up on the Figures dress, but at least 3 gross will. I'll let you know the final count when I finish it :-).

I've gotten several comments asking for pictures of the dresses. That is so sweet of you all to ask :-). I promised my daughter that her new dresses will remain under wrap until she debuts them at her next Meet, but I will post photos after that. I even have a nifty dress form sized to my daughter that I can put them on for photos :-D. Let me tell you that the dress form I purchased was a great investment! Who knew? It has been indispensable during the sewing process for fitting, figuring out how much elastic, etc. How did I sew all this time without one, lol?! All right, I've got to run and do some housework before the fabric gets here. The place is a wreck! There are pattern pieces and fabric and elastic and rulers and tons of other sewing stuff all over my dining room table. I can hardly see the tablecloth underneath it all! It won't be long now before I'm back. I cannot wait to get my hands on ink, card stock, and stamps again!!!!!! Have a great day and a great week everyone!!! Thanks for your patience while I'm sewing!

Hugs and Blessings!
Barb

Sewing and Thank You's

I'm almost ready to be off and running.... ummmm, sewing :-D. I ordered a dress form, it arrived on Tuesday and I sized it to my daughter. Yesterday the swarovski crystals arrived and this morning the fabric arrived. I ordered a custom made to my skater pattern and that should be here today. Once that gets here, I need to make a quick skate dress to make sure it fits the way it should. Then I will be cutting into this gorgeous stretch velvet, one in ruby red and the other in royal blue, and making my daughter two competition dresses. If they come out, please pray they do (!), then I will commence stoning them. I am hoping that the pattern fits her perfectly so that I don't have to make adjustments to it. I can sew with the best of them, but I know very little about altering patterns and even less about drafting patterns. I am looking into some pattern drafting classes so I can learn how to do it. Let me tell you that the competition skate dress is a whole other beast from making wedding gowns or other clothing! I was able to alter my other pattern to fit my daughter, but the sleeve was just not working out no matter what I did. That was the day I realized I better learn how to make patterns! Then to top it all off, when she tried on the other dress the serger thread got caught in the zipper and broke it. You know that part of the zipper that goes up and down? Uh huh, it came clear out :-(. Dress scratched! To put another zipper in I would have had to take the entire thing apart because I had already serged the waist seam, just in case you are wondering why I didn't do that :-). I really didn't want to take the whole thing apart!

All right, so while I was waiting for the dress form, stones, fabric, and pattern to arrive, I made three cards that I needed for sending out. Please note- Christene, Isabella, Linda, Alice, and Donna, I am sending them out :-D. This is the first of the three and I used a new stamp set that is coming out in the new Summer Mini starting on May 1st. Isn't this bird bath sweet?

I love the bird bath and isn't this little kitty adorable? You are going to love the new sets in the Summer Mini! I think I have most of the mini on my wish list :-). I'll be scheduling my posts for the next few days. If my pattern comes today, I will be sewing away the entire weekend, so any prayers for my success will be appreciated more than I can tell you :-) ! Have a great weekend!!!


Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Paper: Peach Parfait-119794, Poppy Parade- 119793, Whisper White-100730, So Saffron-105118, Sunny Garden Designer Series Paper-119831
Stamps: Touch of Kindness- 123203 (available May 1st)
Ink: Early Espresso-119670, Tangerine Tango-111834, StazOn Jet Black-101406
WaterColor Wonder Crayons: Regals-119803, Subtles-119802, Brights-119804, Neutrals- 119805
Punches: 1 3/4" Scallop Circle-119854, 1 3/8" Circle-119860
Other: Blender pens-102845, Stampin' Dimensionals-104430

I Have Not Abandoned My Blog :-)

I know I have been absent a bit and I will probably miss a few more days of posting throughout the month. I ran into problems with the skate dresses and have to start all over again, boo hoo hoo! These are very important dresses and they have to be done in a time frame- which is getting shorter- so some things have to hit the wayside and the blog is one of them :-(. I have a couple of cards that I will be posting this week that my gals did on Monday evening and maybe, just maybe, I will get some time to do a little bit of stamping while I am waiting for the fabric to be delivered. Yep, I had to order more fabric... (sigh) don't ask :-).

Thanks so much everyone for being so patient while I am sewing skate dresses. These are competition skate dresses so you can imagine how much my daughter is depending on me :-). A few prayers here and there that there won't be anymore snags along the way would be so appreciated!!!! Hope you are all having wonderful and warm weather where you are!

Blessings!
Barb

Stampin' Celebration Challenge #47 Number Two :-)

This is the second card that I made for the Stampin' Celebration challenge. I was invited to be a Party Guest Designer this week, so when I made my card for the challenge, I made another one :-). For the inspiration photo, see my post below this one or hop on over to Stampin' Celebration so you can play too :-).

I chose only one part of the inspiration photo for the elements on my card to make a child's card. I used some of the colors in the stripes around the lion and made the stripes on a base of Pear Pizzazz. Even though the inspiration photo showed most of the lion's body, I decided to just make his head with some punches. Since there are several circle shapes in the inspiration photo, I used the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder for those :-D. 

Since the lion has on a party hat, I stamped 'Happy Birthday' from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set. I really like the size of the sentiments in Teeny Tiny Wishes- they fit in teeny tiny spaces :-). Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day today!!!!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Paper: Peach Parfait-119794, Pear Pizzazz-119795, Whisper White-100730, So Saffron-105118, Marina Mist-119682, Chocolate Chip-102128, Very Vanilla-101650, In Color Hostess Level One Designer Series Paper-121028

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes-115370

Classic Stampin' Ink: Chocolate Chip: 100908

Stampin' Write Markers: Chocolate Chip-100071, Pretty in Pink-100045

Punches: 1" Circle-119868, 1/2" Circle-119869, Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack-118309, 1/4" circle

Textured Impressions Embossing Folder: Perfect Polka Dots-117335

Other: Stampin' Dimensionals-104430

Stampin' Celebration Challenge #47

I was invited to be a Party Guest Designer at Stampin' Celebration this week. The photo above is the inspiration photo for this week's challenge. I actually made two cards for the challenge this week, so I will post my second one tomorrow. I've really enjoyed participating in the Stampin' Celebration challenges. There are so many fun elements to choose from in the inspiration photos :-). If you haven't participated in the Stampin' Celebration challenges yet, you should pop on over there and get started :-D.

For my card, I loved all the yellows in the inspiration photo, so I chose yellow as my base color. I chose to use the blue and white wallpaper in the inspiration photo for my background. I cut strips of Marina Mist and adhered them to Very Vanilla. As you can see in my photo, I also embossed the background with the Square Lattice embossing folder. Since there a few circle shapes in the inspiration photo, I chose to use a circle as my focal point. I added leaves and purple flowers, which you'll see around the bottom of the cake in the inspiration photo.

I matted Very Vanilla on Marina Mist and continued with the flowers and the leaves on the inside of my card.

Thank you so much to the Design Team at Stampin' Celebration for inviting me to be a Party Guest Designer this week! It was so much fun!!!! 

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:
Paper: Daffodil Delight-119683, Very Vanilla-101650, Marina Mist-119682, Pear Pizzazz-119795, Perfect Plum-101889

Stamps: Sense of Time-113804

Classic Stampin' Ink: Marina Mist-119668

Punches: Boho Blossoms-119858, 1/4" circle 

Dies: Little Leaves-114511

Textured Impressions Embossing Folder: Square Lattice-119976

Other: Fold-it- Bows Template (non-Stampin' Up!)

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing

I've been missing in action from my blog for the last week due to sewing competition skate dresses for my daughter. She needs a new figures dress and a new dress for her creative solo routine. Even though she doesn't need them for a few weeks, I don't like to be last minute Annie and have tons of stress because I waited until the last minute :-). I plan the have them completed and hanging in her closet at least four weeks before she actually needs them. I'm not quite done sewing them yet, but once they are done, then commences gluing hundreds of rhinestones on them. The creative solo dress is going to be using some tiny rhinestones so I'm not quite sure if I'm really looking forward to working with those, lol!

I made a card days ago for a challenge that I saw online, but that challenge is long past now and I didn't get it posted on time :-D. The challenge was to use the colors pink, navy, green, and vanilla. I've never paired pink with navy before so thought I would try that color combination out. The end result is below :-)....

I used a Level One Hostess stamp set (Because I Care) for the main image. I think hydrangeas are such pretty flowers and I wanted a pink one :-). The stamp set comes with a single little flower stamp. I stamped several little flowers and punched them out with one of the punches in the Itty Bitty Punch Pack. The four petal shaped flower punch is a perfect fit for the little flower. I popped some of them up on Stampin' Dimensionals and added a fallen little flower at the base of the stem :-). Even though I missed posting this in time for the actual challenge, I thought I would share it anyway :-). Have a wonderful day today! I hope the sun is shining bright where you live and that the day is warm!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Paper: Pretty in Pink-100459, Night of Navy-100867, Very Vanilla-101650

Stamps: Because I Care-120118

Classic Stampin' Ink: Night of Navy-102977, Pretty in Pink101301, Old Olive-102277

Punches: Itty Bitty Shapes-118309

Other: Stampin' Dimensionals-104430