WEDDING CRAFTINESS

Long time no see Blog. ;) It's been a while. But I've been busy making wedding stuff for a better part of this summer.

Violet was asked to be a flower girl in my brothers wedding. Yeah! I was asked to make her dress and the junior brides maid dress. No pressure there. Was worried I'd mess up the dresses. I could live with messing up Violet's dress but not the other girls. I really took my time with these. I used Butterick pattern 4967. I only had a slight problem with the lining and the zipper. My only complaint about this pattern is that the cumperbun /belt kept sagging because of the weight of the rosette attached at the back. Even the three belt loops I added to the dress didn't help. But that's what safety pins at the last minute are for.



I made this dress with 4 tiers. The pattern only has it for 2 ,3 or 5.



I actually made three versions of this pattern. The first version was out of some cotton fabric I had. I wanted to figure the pattern out before cutting into the good fabric. We decided to wear it for the rehearsal dinner.



Her doll needed a dress too.



I also spent time working on the invites, response cards, maps, programs, menus, other signage, etc...I highly recommend Overnightprints.com. The printing turned out great and when we had an issue with the printing of one item, the customer service was great and they resolved the issue.





Instead of a guest book the bride and groom decided on a giant letter F. They wanted it to look like metal. It is actually masonite. I cut it out with a hand held jigsaw and just used layers of spray paint to give me the effect I wanted. Names were signed with a fine point sharpies. No smearing.



I decorated this metal basket my daughter carried. It needed a lining and flowers sewn to it. I don't have a good photo but I made Violet's hairpiece too. I made fabric flowers from left over fabric, ribbon and beads. I have said this before but I highly recommend the book The Artful Ribbon by Candace King. It is no longer in print but you can find used copies on line.

Now with all this behind me and can start working on a few other project I've been meaning to start.

AM I A MAN OR AM I A MUPPET

Back in December I "taught" a puppet making workshop at work. A fun creative renewal opportunity. I use the word "teach" loosely. With this experience I learned that I have a hard time explaining something when asked. So much of what I do is trial and error and winging it or just plain intuition. I found myself doing lots of rough doodles to get my point across. But it was a success and some AWESOME work came out of it!!!!! I am lucky to be surrounded by a ton of unbelievably talented people on a daily basis.

We have a great large creative library at Hallmark. A great source of inspiration with a fun environment. The outside walls of the library have large display windows that are always filled with inspiration and artwork. We had the pleasure of filling these large windows with the puppets from this workshop. This meant a lot of work went into creating backgrounds for them.

Check them out.















This one is mine. The three numbered puppets and girl on the ground were originally created for the Shoebox blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_1HSsEx1lU&feature=player_embedded



My 80's girl. She's sporting an s side ponytail, got her awesome yellow Sony walkman headphones and is of course wearing two Swatch watches.





 

FRANK'S BRIDE

I just now got around to taking a pic of her. I finished her about a week ago.

She stands 19" tall and the base is 5" wide.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

I'm working on a Bride of Frankenstein commission piece right now.



Doodle.



I started with the head first. It's the most detailed and will take the longest.



Crazy eyes!!



Here's the head attached to the armless body. I made the body out of fleece then wrapped strips of ripped cotton fabric around it.

I hope to have the arms, dress and base for her done in the next few days.

VALENTINE PUP

I'm a little late posting this, but this plush puppy was created for a Hallmark Valentine's Day card. Card was available in Walmart stores.