I made a dress

I can't believe it's been more than a couple of months since my last blog entry.  Sorry for the lack of posts as I have been consumed with work related things lately. 

Anyway, I'm back and I wanted to share with you the dress I recently made from a pattern I bought on Etsy. The pattern consists of a front, back, sleeves, and pockets. The sleeves were a bit tricky to fit into the armhole and it was hard to make it pucker-free. Someone suggested not to sew the sides of the dress until the sleeves are fitted so I will try that next time. 

It's a simple dress with no buttons or zippers. Actually, it's a bit more of a tunic than a dress that you can wear with leggings or pants. I am so thrilled with how it turned out and I am inspired to make more of my own dresses. 

I am already on to my second dress so stay tuned for that. 

Have a great Wednesday!

Until next time.

papertrey ink april blog hop -- embroidered inspiration

It's that time of the month again... Papertrey's monthly blog hop.  This month's challenge is to use colours and design of an embroidery to build our own stamped version.  No stitching required!  And here is the inspiration photo...

I was inspired by the sixth photo above and used the pink and teal colour combo.   Here is my card...

I used Papertrey's Embroidered Blooms set, cardstock (white and hawaiian shores) and ink (raspberry fizz, hibiscus burst, tropical teal, hawaiian shores, simply chartreuse, limeade ice and true black).  The background stamp is from My Creative Time.   I also used my Spellbinders Card Creator dies to cut my front panels.  

Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!

  

pwp #7: SNAP!

I have been dying to use Papertrey's new Monthly Moments journal cards on my layout. No matter how many journal cards I have from other companies, I know that these Papertrey cards will always have room in my collection.

I am not a pocket scrapbooker so I use my journal cards on traditonal 12x12 layouts.  I just love having lots of white space on my pages so I do not think I will be switching over to pocket scrapbooking any time soon.  But that doesn't prevent me from buying more journal cards :)

So here is my layout...

 I love my pages clean and simple (and quick to make!).  I used various patterns from the Feb Monthly Moments cards and let them do the work.  Love the smokey shadow, scarlet jewel and kraft colour combo of this collection.
 

 
Aside from the journal cards, I also used Papertrey's Building Blocks stamp and die set.  I love, love, love this new set.  It is perfect for scrapbook pages like this.  I also used the Banner Builder die collection and modern alphabet dies.  The hearts were from a Stampin' Up punch.

I am also linking this to Leigh Penner's Pages with Papertrey challenge here which is to use a PTI sentiment stamp in your layout.  I see myself using this set in many other layouts in the future!

Thanks for stopping by!

   

pwp #32: you are so very loved

I finally got  the chance to play with my new goodies and created a layout.  It was inspired by Dawn's no sew quilted card here.   I don't know about you but I am seriously obsessed with my DD's feet or more specifically, toes.  I have been since she was a baby.  I thought it was just a phase but after 5 years, I still cannot get over it, ha! Anyway, here it is...

I used my journal cards from Project Life's Midnight kit for my patterned papers (love, love, love this kit!).  I just trimmed off the curved corners and went to town creating a quilt pattern.  I also used my new A Few Pointers set from Papertrey. Love this set as it is perfect for scrapbooking.

I am linking this to Leigh Penner's Pages with Papertrey challenge here which is to use 5 or more different patterned papers in a layout. Since the Project Life journal cards come in multiples per design, I have no problem using them on projects. I thought using them this way was a good way to make a dent on my stash.

Thanks for stopping by!

     

quick easter treats

I was preparing for easter egg hunt and stuffing those plastic dollar store eggs with treats when I ended up with a bunch of extra chocolates.  I do not really have a sweet tooth so I had to think of ways to use them.  I decided to make these little treat boxes for my DD's friends.

I used Papertrey's mini take out box and placed some shredded paper grass inside topped with the little egg chocolate treats. 

Here is how I finished them up with a simple ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by!  And if you are celebrating, Happy Easter!

pwp #23: frances-ism

Welcome to another Frances-ism layout... my way of documenting the silly things my DD does and says.

Just a quick and simple one this time using my journal cards (love those stuff!). I did this back in December and never had the chance to share.

I used journal cards from Simple Stories, Headline Alphabet dies and Calendar basics stamp from Papertrey and Right Now stamp from Kelly Purkey.

I am linking this to Leigh Penner's Pages with Papertrey challenge here which is to include a quote in your layout.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

pwp #19: gymnast wannabe

There are a few things my DD is passionate about.  And gymnastics is one of them.  I don't know if it's because of the chit chat time she has with her friends or the snacks that she gets to share during their breaks or the strict but fun coaches she has or the fact that she can jump, twist and roll to her heart's content when she's there.. but she loves going to her gymnastics class. She does not mind spending long hours there and prefers to be there than at home practising piano (but that's a whole other story).

Last weekend, she participated in her first ODP (Ontario Development Program) certification. It was a lot of fun and we were glad she completed it successfully.  Here are some photos of the event (which obviously will be scrapbooked later on :) ). 

So I thought it was fitting to share a layout I created back when she was starting out in the recreational program.  Here it is ...

I used Papertrey dies (Seeing Stars, Headline Alphabet, Double Ended Banner), journal card from Michaels and stickers from Simple Stories.

I am also linking this to Leigh Penner's Pages with Papertrey challenge here which is to use 3 different dies in the layout.  I love this challenge a lot as it gives me a chance to use my dies on something other than cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Make It Monday #159: No-Sew Quilted Card

It's been a while since I last participated on a Make It Monday Challenge.  This week's challenge found here really spoke to me so I decided to give it a go.  The challenge is to create a project by impressing a quilted patterned paper onto a card element with a cover plate or impression plate.

Here is my card.

I used various neutral-toned patterned papers from Papertrey to create my quilt which I later impressed with the quatrefoil cover plate.  I then finished it off with flowers and a sentiment from Mum's the Word.  I kept everything pretty neutral and used Berry Sorbet ink for the flowers to give it a pop.


Here is a close up of the quilt...

I really love this technique and will probably  make a card set using this technique.

Thanks for stopping by!

stamp organization

Over the long winter season, I did some spring cleaning and re-organized my stamps.  I had been reading a lot on stamp organization ideas and came across this method using Tim Holtz (TH) pocket folders.  I was drawn to it since it takes up so little space and makes flipping through my stash a breeze.  

Here is how I used to store my stamps.... I had most of them on CD cases...

Some were on the original packaging the Papertrey stamps came in and the newer ones on the TH folder... 

I bought a couple of packages of the TH  to test it out but did not commit right away since it was quite a big investment to convert all my stamps to this method.

But the OCD in me bugged me with the fact that they were in different methods. Plus,  I was running out of space for new stamps since the CD cases took up so much space.

So one day, I bit the bullet and bought the TH folder for all my big stamps (I will also explain later how I store my small stamps) 

And, here they are now...

I divided my stamps into categories and put my stamps per category alphabetically. The categories I used were:  Floral/Nature, Tags/Labels/Frames, Alphabets, Sentiments, Backgrounds, Holidays and Objects (for stamps like Pedal Pusher (bike images), On My Couch).

Here is how the individual folder looks like... I simply adhered the stamp packaging in front of a white cardstock. If there is a coordinating die, I just put it in the same folder.

The back looks like this...I adhered the sticker sheet on a piece of acetate and placed the stamps on the corresponding image. This goes on the other side of the cardstock.

For my older stamps that do not have the sticker sheet and packaging with the stamp images, I just printed out the stamp image from Papertrey's website like this...

 
Here is how the back looks like... It is just the acetate sheet.  Most of the stamps are pretty easy to figure out so I do not mind not having the sticker sheet.  I also tried to arrange it in the same order as the website image.

Now, for my small $5 stamps, I wanted to put them on individual folders but felt that the TH folder was too expensive for just one small stamp.  So I looked for a smaller folder that will do the same job.  And my choice for now is an inexpensive photo album from the dollar store.  I like this method because I still have my sets stored individually and can arrange my stamps alphabetically.  I do not have to decide which 3 or 4 sets will go together had I used a TH folder.

I put the stamps in a larger acetate sheet (acetate from my $15 stamps, cut to size) and stapled it to the paper packaging. This makes it easy for me to pull it out and put back.

It had a divider per page so I put any coordinating die at the back...

Hope it gives you some ideas you can use for yourself.  I am loving this system better.  So much easier to find what I am looking for and requires less space.

Thanks for stopping by!

 


  

princess overload

I have never been a big princess fan.  But that is not the same case for my DD.  She has never met a princess she did not like.  So imagine her delight when one of the birthday parties she attended last January had a fashion show where guests got to strut down the runway wearing a princess gown of their choice.

Here is the layout I made of that event.  The photos were not very clear as it was really dark in the runway with lots of blinking lights, lol.  Everyone had a great time, esp my DD who got to be Snow White for the day.

I used Headline Alphabet dies from Papertrey, journal card from Simple Stories, ephemera from Fancy Pants and the Fun Flair stamp ("oh yes") from Ali Edwards. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!