The Altered Bride

Her top skirt is silk upoltery
fabric with the backing
removed.  Her underskirt
is reembroidered Alcyon
Lace that was gifted to me.  I
antiqued it with Distress Stain
Her "slip" is feathers..

On facebook a very talented doll artist, Dallas Sills posted pics of her lovely doll she was submitting to the Bride doll challenge of Art Doll Quarterly.  I had let my subscription lapse so wasn't aware of the challenge until she mentioned it - though I did purchase the issue I was missing and renewed my subscription.  I had made a few brides to honor my neices in law but while at The Artsy Soul owned by my dear friend Colleen, a client came in and we were talking dolls.  I have a few Steampunk and showed her pics and found out she would love to have a Steampunk wedding but her fiance wasn't too keen on the idea.  So then I got to wondering what would a Steampunk bride look like?  Well I finished it in time to submit it.  Not enough time and money ($70! YIKES!!) to send the doll, but I will send jpgs.  So here she is in all her glory.  I used my Flirty Flora pattern mainly because I had a head already made.  Don't know why I didn't use it on another doll, but I rejected it for some reason. Like it now!

Her corset is painted ultra suede - didn't like
the original color.  The front is a key hole
from Tim Holtz Ideaology.  The charms
are from my collection.



Her Hat started out black but with
a few coats of gesso, paint, crackle
finish, and gilders paste, it is now
a lovely antique white,

Her boots are faux leather I created with
acryllic paints, crackle finish and gilder's
paste.  More tim Holtz tassels, wing
charms from my stash, little flowers
and scrolls around her ankles
from my friend Colleen.

She is holding a birdcage with love bird
charms.  It is made from Grunge
Board cut with a Tim Holtz
Sizzix die.

Hope she gets in the magazine!

Working on Christmas Gifts

I am so enamored with the little suitcase die from Sizzix!  I decided to do one in cloth.  To siffen it up, I used fusible web to adhere cotton fabric to both sides of stiff felt - the kind you can get at any craft store in 12 x 18" sheets.  I was going to use Timtex, but it was too thick and didn't fold very well.  The felt has some issues too, but it is better.  Next one I do I am going to adhere the fabric to chipboard.  I made the suitcase into a mobil sewing kit.  I put a scissors holder on the top, a pincushion on the bottom and left enough room for bobbin size spools.  I used other Sizzix dies to cut out the flowers and lots of pearl buttons for fasteners and decoration. I used distess dies on the edges of everything including the ribbon.  I added Dimensional Pearls to all the edges to keep them from fraying.  The stamp is from My Mind's Eye and the tag is a cut down version of the book plate from the Alterations large tag die.