Twirly Swirly Dresses and Lacy Girly Pages

I had a very artful weekend, which is always a good thing, but especially when here in NYC it went from sweater weather to 90+ overnight.  Yuck!  Not that I need one, but it was a great excuse to stay indoors and get messy.

On Saturday I went downtown to Michele's studio for yet another great class with Sue Pelletier.  Spending time with my artsy friends, creating a special canvas......priceless!  We altered little dresses.  They were gessoed, painted, embellished, and stiffened.  And then they were attached to canvases we covered with dress pattern paper, tissue paper, and assorted other items.  I used a wide gallery wrap canvas, which allows for more decorating opportunities on the sides, and best of all, it's ready to hang when you get the piece home.

I didn't take a photo of the dress I chose before altering, but I think it was a light blue with tiny dark blue polka dots.  I also used the back of the dress as the front, because I liked the opening.  Well, enough blah blah blah, here it is:

 

 

Me and my peeps, and our swirly twirly masterpieces:

 



 

Is that fun, or what?  And yes, that is a pink bow in Pat's hair.  In case you were wondering.

 

And that's not all I did.  I received two art journals last week, both from the Kindred Souls round robin.  Carol and Gloria both requested a vintage look, with Carol also asking for an inspirational quote.  So I had two opportunities to bring together fabric and paper and sweet embellishments.  First up, Carol's page.

 

 

Carol supplied grungeboard pages, and I covered mine front and back with kraft paper that first received a faux leather technique.  I originally saw that last year on Anita Houston's blog.  Click here for all the details.

 

Over that went some torn strips of printed fabric, and then the focal image, which was printed on cotton and has some batting underneath.  It is attached to fabric cut with the Sizzix Doily Frame die, and surrounded by a bunch of little Prima flowers. 

 

 

 

I made some stick pins and added them.  If you look above the pins you can see the word "timeless."  I actually used metal letters for writing on leather.  I figured, hey, leather, faux leather....let's see what happens.  It worked!

 





 

 

And the quote:

 

 

 

The back:

 

 

 

Gloria requested vintage shabby chic.  I treated my focal image just as I did for Carol:  printed on cotton and backed with some batting for added poof.

 

 

 

The background paper is by Prima (the Melody collection), and it was enhanced with a lot of sparkle, thanks to my Sakura clear stardust pen.  I outlined just about everything. 

 

 

The butterflies were cut from scraps from the same Prima pack, using my Sizzix Embosslits Beautiful Wings die.  I covered them with Glossy Accents for a different texture.

 

 

 

Two more handmade stickpins.

 

 

And a few more Prima flowers, sprayed with some Perfect Pearls Mists.

 

The back:

 

 

 





















More Prima paper, more butterflies, and more doodling with the Sakura pen.

 

All in all, in spite of really sucky weather, a pretty great weekend.