dinsdag 29 maart 2011

How to - create a dress form without sewing

Hi guys!

Well.. I can't sew.. let's just cut it short and be honest here... I have a really cute sewing machine standing on my desk here.. but all it does is collecting dust.. I tried! I tried really hard to make it work, it just doesn't.. The thread keeps breaking, I get frustrated, the thread disappears.. well just everything that can go wrong goes wrong and at the end I am left with what once was a beautiful layout, but now is pierced with holes that should be filled with thread. 

When we received our monthly scrapbook kit from Erica at yourscrapbookstash.com, there were 2 Maya Road mini spools in it and we had a special assignment to do something fun with them.. since I am not the very best at creating altered project I wanted to have this done before starting on layouts so i thought and searched hard to get an idea of what to do with them.

I always LOVE the dress form people create out of fabric and was instantly surprised that this cute idea popped into my head. Why not make an altered dress form and use the mini spools as a stand for it. Why not make this dress form out of polystyrene?! YES! Well.. we just bought a new tv, so there was MORE THEN ENOUGH polystyrene.. LOL I could have made 100! ;)

So after searching for a dressform silhouette in google images I found a cute one and resized it into 5 inches high and 2.5 inches wide.

After that I put the print on some polystyrene and cut it out with a craft knife. It does make a huge mess, so it is best to do it over some garbage can or something similar. 

Here is how it looks.

After that cut two of the same silhouettes out of your favorite paper. I used the Pink Paislee sweetness paper that was in my kit this month.

Glue these on both sides of the polystyrene dressform and voila. no sewing needed and a great base for your pins! LOL

To cover the polystyrene sides I added some gorgeous May arts lace.


So then all we need is something to have it stand on. A wooden craft stick is a great solution AND it fits perfectly in the wooden spools we will be using for the base.


Now lets concentrate on making it prettttty! Use some of your favorite embellishments to create a nice look for her. 


I used some Websters pages bloomers trim, some more May arts lace to create a bow, a vintage Jenni Bowlin button and some different pins from Maya Road to stuck in the sides of the dress form.

And ofcourse we need to embellish the other side too!


Also a vintage Jenni Bowlin button and some Jillibean Soup twine.


I also added 2 prima flowers to create a little extra dimension on the side. Stuck in some more pins... and called it done.

It was time to concentrate on the base.


I cut out a large circle (3.5 inches to be exactly) and a small circle (1.5 inch). On there I glued my 2 wooden spools and embellished them with the border stickers from the sweetness collection from Pink Paislee. I also added some sequin trim. On top of the wooden spools I glued a little netting from Websters Pages and the base I embellished using another vintage Jenni Bowlin button, some Jillibean Soup twine, a Bo Bunny flower and a Prima flower. I also loved these Prima crystals, so I added 2 of these too.

after that it is just a matter of putting some glue on the wooden craft stick on the bottom and stick it in. I am thinking of making a polystyrene base so it stands more secure, but it works fine without it too.

and here is the result:






It's super easy and FUN! And I  totally like how it looks on my desk. I am sticking in all the pins I have for some easy access and it makes me happy every time I look at it.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please let me know if you have any comments or questions and if you have made a dressform, please show me!! I would love to see it!

Happy creating!!

xo Danielle



woensdag 23 maart 2011

Confession..

Ugh... I am stuck.. I feel not too well, being sick and all.. and my creativity is nowhere to be found. My head is overflowing with things I like, things I want to do and things I would love to include in my scrapping journey, but it is just not working out.. there is nothing coming out of my hands and I feel like my brain is so overflowing with ideas that I am just stuck in what to do. I would love to create an art journal, but I just really suck at painting and all.. I just can't do it.. then I would really love to scrap my boys and show them online which is no option because my husband doesn't want to have them published online.. and then there is doing the AAM pages which I LOVE but there are days that I just don't feel comfortable to take photos of myself.. and well, these AAM photos are all scrapped... I just started a page which I was so unsure about.. it is just not something I see as a perfect art journaling or layout.. it's somewhere in between or.. well I just don't know. I am probably thinking too much about all of this, which is not a good thing to do, obviously.

Anyway.. it is not helping that I feel so bad about not getting the deadlines and I am so sorry about that. I just can't commit and submit layouts that I know are not what I am capable of.

So I finally finished this art journal/feeling/quote layout and it took me 3 days of staring and walking away and finally 2 hours to finish. I am done with thinking.. I just want to do it and well.. I try not to care about it too much..

Here is my layout using the springtime papers and stickers from Echo Park which was in my YSS kit this month.



thank you so much for all the comments you leave me.. they are really appreciated!!

xo Danielle

vrijdag 18 maart 2011

OMG!!

Look at me!! well.. I still cant believe it, but looking at Donna Salazar's blog it is true for sure! She just announced her guest Design Team and I am on there as well!
---------------

And here are my guest designers for the 2011 - 2012 Design Team
USA Guest Designers (listed alphabetically)
Gini Williams - North Carolina 
Jan Hennings, Iowa 
Lynn Forsythe - New Hampshire 
Mandy Harrel - Oregon 
Rhonda Van Ginkel - Minnesota 
Terre Fry - Arizona 
International Guest Designers (listed alphabetically)
Beverly Cunningham, New Zealand 
Danielle Aubroeck - The Netherlands 
Erika Taylor - Canada 
Leticia Seki - Brazil 
Sandi Smith - Canada 
Wendela Lam - The Netherlands 

-----------------------

I am super excited and happy for all the other girls.. this is SO exciting!!

donderdag 17 maart 2011

Lets go shopping!

Your Scrapbook Stash

Just some info for Your Scrapbook Stash


YSS Updates:
1) Sketch Contest
There is a Sketch contest going on at the YSS blog. Deadline to enter is March 31st, 2011. Click HERE for more info!

2) One Day Specials

March 17th, EVERYONE is Irish! We have a few special one day savings events just for YOU!

First, take 17% off your entire order with us today. Only on orders placed on March 17th. Discount is taken off the final total of your order. Includes, Pre-Order, In Stock and SALE items.

What else are we offering? How about DOUBLE Frequent Shopper Points. Spend $50, get 100 points! More savings on your next order with us!

(All other promotions apply ie: free shipping, Stash Cash etc)

Valid only until March 17th, 2011

dinsdag 15 maart 2011

Welcome spring!

When I received my monthly yourscrapbookstash kit I was SUPER excited to get the Springtime collection from Echo Park. I LOVE their products and the colors of this line are so fresh and happy! It totally got me in the mood for spring... too bad it is still way too cold over here for spring... BUT we finally have some rays of sun during the day.. these totally make me happy!

Butterfly crafts is having their first sketch on the blog with the new design team entries. All the girls are so creative! I love watching the different takes using the sketch..

This is the sketch I am talking about:



And this is the layout I made using Echo Park Springtime and the sketch above:



Hop over to the butterfly crafts blog and also to the yourscrapbookstash store for some AMAZING deals on scrapbook supplies.. they are truly one of the cheapest stores I found online!
Happy creating!
Danielle

vrijdag 11 maart 2011

Trying something new..

Hello sweet people!

One of my secrets is that I adore art journaling and always envy the persons who are so good at it. I bought paints, pens, special stamps, inks etc to start art journaling but I never had the courage or thought I was good enough.. Thinking of what kind of layout I wanted to make for the scrap yourself blog made me think of this little secret of mine. Yesterday night I just wanted to get messy with paint so I tried my hand at doing a page.

I bought the Pink Paislee parisian album and some refills and I just want to make the jump into doing a combination of scrapbooking and art journaling. Why not? Can I make mistakes? sure! Will that matter? no way.. so I challenge you to just take a jump at whatever you have as a little secret and just do it!!

Here is the 5x7 art journal layout I created using the art supplies I bought for art journaling.



It includes some Basic Grey paper from the basics collection, MME lost and found sticker, Tim holtz stamps, October afternoon seaside paper and a Echo Park pink heart. I also had to include some Studio Calico sunshine misting and some Ranger stickles!

It might not be as artsy as some of the art journaling out there, but I learned there is no right or wrong and.. well I totally like it.. so it makes me happy. Thats the point right?!

Now go think of a little secret and take a chance at it! 

Happy creating!
xo Danielle

dinsdag 8 maart 2011

Updates!

Aloha!

Yes I have some updates to do... I got accepted on 2 more design teams.. I am SUPER excited to create for the following 2 sites:


and


WHOHOOOOO!!! Sketchabilities will be perfect for me since I love to create with sketches and be inspired by them. I hope you will follow me there because Karan makes the BEST sketches for us!! You will love them for sure!

Butterfly Crafts is a fun website that creates 2 challenges a month using visual inspiration for all of us.. it is going to be FUN FUN FUN!

ALSO..

I have received my monthly kit from yourscrapbookstash.com and we had a fun challenge to use 2 mini spools from Maya Road.

This is what I created using the Pink Paislee sweetness papers and borders (thanks Erica for sending me some Pink Paislee too.. SO in love with that line!!!) sequin ribbon, lace, Maya Road ticket and pins, Jillibean Soup twine, Websters Pages bloomers and netting, Jenni Bowlin vintage buttons, Prima flowers and and ofcourse the wooden spools from Maya road.






It was SO much fun creating this dressform and also SO easy!! I didn't do ANY sewing (I found out I just really suck at doing anything with my sewing machine) and it was finished in half a day! I will create a tutorial for the YSS blog and will post it here too when I finish it..

There is a fun new store opening soon and Lisa, the owner is giving away some great candy on her blog HERE, so join in for a chance to win some copics!

Thanks so much for taking a peek at my blog ladies, your comments make my day!!

xo Danielle



maandag 7 maart 2011

Back home..

So yes, we are back home and we had a wonderful silly and most of all fun kids vacation! We went to a CenterParcs vacation park that had SO much fun activities for the boys.. I can say we never had a more unselfish vacation until now.. we did the most fun and silly things for these 2 happy boys that totally enjoyed them selfs being kids... Well see results below...


I have been working on a really cool project this weekend including 2 mini wooden spools from Maya Road.. I will finish all off today and will be back sharing it tomorrow!

Hope to comment around my favorite blogs today! 
xo Danielle

woensdag 2 maart 2011

Bird House

So I was going through some of my scrap files and found the photos of the bird house I created for the yourscrapbookstash DT call.

I LOVE birdhouses and I always wanted to make one since I saw them showing up in the galleries so often.

Today I just wanted to show you my version using mostly the Conservatory line from 7Gypsies available at yourscrapbookstash.com



Hope you like it!!

Happy creating!

xo Danielle