Flirty Flora Goes Trick or Treating

First, big thanks for all the wonderful comments on Flirty Flora.  Like all the new dolls I design, I like to make them over a few times to see how the pattern translates and to make sure I can follow my own directions.  I am really enjoying Flora.  The hardest part of this pattern is stuffing the skinny legs and arms.  This version substitutes a decontructed silk mum for the fabric hair - two of the flower rounds were used for the top of the head.  Her arms and legs were striped with ribbon wrapped around and glued in place.  No worry about matching stripes!  I cut her legs are orange with black ribbon stripes and her arms are black with orange ribbon stripes.  The black and orange fabrics were glittered so I used stickles to glitter the ribbon.  Her headpiece was a pic I deconstructed and stuck in the top of her head.  Cardboard was used for the base - again I forgot to buy more wooden bases.   I also didn't cross her legs and I almost like her pigeon-toed pose better! The pattern will be available on CD from Dollmakers Journey and Designer Doll Patterns.  It will be available as an epattern from Fabric Addictions. So watch these sites for her availablility.  I think she is a versatile pattern and can't wait to see what can be done with her!  Thanks again for all your kind words.

Altered Cigar box

I have a very dear friend who had a birthday and I wanted to make her something.  We had been making flowers with dies, punches and stuff and I thought she could use a place to store them so I altered a cigar box.  This is the lid.  It is covered with embossed, sanded, painted and inked paper.  The plaque in the center is chipboard covered with Metal tape, embossed and painted gold then highlighted with Aztec Gold Gilder's Paste.  The little flower bead at the bottom is the knob to open it.

The sides were ebossed with a swirl design and Inked.  The shell banding is a Martha Stewart punch colored with Gold paint dabbers.  The flowers are also a Martha Stewart punch and inked with Distress Inks.  The corners are covered with more metal tape.

I covered the inside with drawer lining paper that was gifted to me.  It is the perect colors and also scented.  My friend loved the box.  Of course it was a belated gift, but I hope it was worth the wait!

Seasons Book

Covers.  The front has T!m Holtz fragments with
elements from the seasonal pages.  The spine
is covered with lace.  Since each page is a version
of the dress form, I put them in the seasonal
colors on the back cover.

Since I finished the Girly Girls book, I have been wanting to make one of my own design so I set out to make one that was more like an book and not accordian fold but still used the envelopes for the pages.  I came up with this design (second try but still not perfect). I made envelope type pages that could hold tags that would have the name of the season on them since there is no words on each page.  The pages are made from cardstock.  Since there wasn't a flap on the side to form the spine, I added one to each of the pages.  I also made the space between the pages 1/4" so the book would close, but I like my pages chunky!

Each page features a die cut from the T!m Holtz Sewing Room Sizzix Die and "dressed" for the season.

I started with Spring since that is my favorite season.  Flowers are punched whti MS punches as is the robin on the left page.  The flowers are mulburry paper and were a gift from my friend Tery.  The green dress form has an embossed overlay that was done as a test form Flirty Flora's base.  Could also have been another alternative to the modeling paste!

The backgrounds of the summer pages are stamped, embossed then inked.  The left has music, the right lace.  The right dress form is some lovely paper from a stack Once Upon A Time.  The corners are a Sizzix die as are the leaves.  The butterfly is T!m Holtz die, Cuttlebug embossing folder and cut from vellum.  The dress form with wings(T!m Holtz die) was inked then covered with lace and a fabric flower die cut was used for the skirt.  The roses are from Sizzix and Dienamics dies.  The purple butterfly is the new 3 part EK Sucess punch cut from Vellum on a TH fence treated with Crackle.  The smaller butterflies are from graphic45 Steampunk Debutante papers. 

Autumn has punched leaves, the base on the left is the T!m Holtz branch tree.  Rosettes from Sizzix dies as are the pumpkins.  The spray of leaves is the new T!m Holtz strip die.  The dress form on the right is covered with mulberry leaves also a gift from Tery and the twine on it is actually silk unraveled from a jacket.  I just inked the backgrounds a little - the papers are from the Luxery Stack.

Winter pages.  Martha Stewart snowflake punches.  The skirt is one of the new EK Success Quilling punches.  The pine trees are embossed, inked then cut from a T!m Holtz embossing folder.  the pine sprays are a Uchida punch.  The flowers are sizzix die cuts from a sizzix die cut from metallic papers. 

The tags from the book.

Finally! New Doll and Pattern

I had an inspiration and decided to make a doll from the original sketch I did for the Hoffman Challenge.  I am calling her Flirty Flora.  I really enjoyed designing her - she looks harder than she is!  The pattern contains two costuming versions - the petal skirt for those who like to sew and the scalloped skirt for those who don't! I also offer two hairstyles and two base styles.  The base on the Petal Skirted Flora is a wooden plaque with an embossed top.  The second version is made from Cardboard and is on the Scallop Skirted Flora.  I didn't have any more wooden bases when I got to her and didn't feel like getting in the car and driving, so I thought I would improvise.  Hope you like her.      There are 57 pages of directions (25 just for her face!) with 150+ photos and illustrations.  The patterns are being reproduced and should be available shortly.  Will let you know where and when.

Just incase you were curious, here is the original sketch.

New Accordian Fold Book

Book front closed with Ribbon also a gift. 

The picture is from another DCWV book and layered
with plastic from a clear eggcarton on top.  The
Heart and swirls are a Sizzix Die

I saw a post on Laura Dennison's blog for a book made from envelopes.  It intrigued me so I had to give it a try.  I made the minimum number of pages - 3 - and it took me forever!  I decided to make it Pink (my dear friend Tery gave me 3 sheets of paper from DCWV Lace and Linen stack which were pink), black and white with gold.  Used lots of Distress Inks and Stickles glitter glue and of course Inca Gold Gilder's paste. 


The title is Girly Girlz and I was going to add pics of my GFs but went in a slightly different direction and used vintage photos to depict themes of friendship, life and Channel. 

Here are the pages.

Pocket is embossed with a Tim Holtz
Embossing Folder and colored with Distress
Inks and Perfect Pearls Bubblegum.



The little envelope is a Sizzix die, the crown is Grunge
Board.  The picture is aged with textured gel medium
and colored with Distress Inks.  This page also has
a pocket for another pic or journaling.

Love this pic! It is colored with pencils,
covered with Distress Crackle Rock Candy.
The cracks were enhanced with Gilder's
paste. The papers were black and white and
colored with Lipstick and Spun sugar DI.

The quote is from Peter Pan!  The background
is from TH Crowded Attic stack.

Stamped face colored with pencils, the petals are a new
Punch by EK success.

Pocket insert.  They have pink glitter shoes!

This quote is from Oprah.  Love this pic!  Colored
with pencils, then Rock Candy Crackle.

This pic already had color, just added a bit more with
pencils. also coated with Rock Candy Crackle and then
some Tea Stain DI.

Wings have Glitter Glue.  Pages colored with DI
and Perfect Pearls

Another great shot and the caption really fits!  The
flower is also an EK success punch. 

This is a picture from Channel and the quote is also
attributed to her.  This page has a pocket and can hold
another pic or journaling.

A Black and white pic of Vivian Leigh
as Tatiana.  Rock Candy Crackle paint
and gold Gilder's paste.

Back cover also from the Sizzix die and lots of
Stickles

Top view of the book so you can see the accordian fold.

A Haunting We Will Go Swap Book

I took part in a Halloween Swap on the All Things Tim Yahoo list. We had to make postcard sized pages (4"x6") any orientation. Here is my contribution front and back. The ghost body is a stamp from Graphic 45, Steampunk debutante on vellum and embossed with silver and highlighted with Stickles glitter.  The borders are TH Sizzi as are the tree branches on the back and the pumpkins that were embossed on paper backed newsprint and then cut out.  The faces are from my French ladies Ghostie dolls. The tickets are TH stamps and die cuts and have clear printed labels with all the swap and my info.

I created a book to place the cards in.  The covers are chipboard base with embossed, inked, gilded and pieced paper brackground.  The corner medalions are also paper.  The borders inbetween are a Tim Holtz sizzix on the edge die embossed with Gold, Black and Bronze UTEE.  The center plaque is chipboard with metal tape then embossed and inked.  The title is computer generated then stamped with a cross-hatch stamp multiple times so it loks woven.  The spine is black leather that was sanded, inked and gilded.  Since the pages (16 of them) were variuos orientations (half landscape, half portrait) I needed a unique way to hold them in the book.  I couldn't punch holes in the pages so I attached them with paper clips threaded on ribbon.

There are 4 ribbons placed so I can center the pages.  One set is for the portrait oriented pages, the center two are for the landscape pages.  there are 8 clips on each piece of ribbon which is threaded through the reinforced spine then the medallions which were cut with a new jewelry die from sizzix from matte board covered with meal foil.  The fleur-de-lis back is done with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and black paper.  I used Ranger Quartz ink pad to highlight the raised parts, then Ranger Gold paint dabber, varius shades of distress inks and gold and bronze gilders paste.

Here is the inside front cover with a list of the contributors.  You can see how the pages are mounted and arranged.  The first one is my own of course!  The names were computer printed and stamped with the cross hatch stamp to look like old textured paper. The background is from a Halloween stack that I no longer have the cover for.  not sure I like it - may change it to be more like the back inside cover.

Here is the inside back cover.  The plaque (as are all of them) are Tim Holtz sizzix.  Only change I would make is to get black paperclips - which I couldn't find.  I thought I could change the color of these, but they are too slick.  If I want to add more pages, I just need to loosen the ribbons which are just knotted .  Really pleased at how this turned out.  The pages that I received were all great and really needed someplace special to reside and be shared.  Thanks to all who contributed!

2012 Hoffman Challenge Fabric Annouced!

Went to the Hoffman Challenge site to check on the traveling schedules and was very surprised to see the 2012 fabric posted.  Like many of the coordinates.  It is very feminine and very purple and pink.  Now the thought process starts.