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The home of exuberant amateurism.

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Dress Up 2010 June

The lovely Margaret's Dress Up challenge is going full throttle here.
You can still join in if you have the urge.

My apologies for not visiting anyone lately, I have been decidedly under the weather for 6 or so weeks now and everything has been on hold.

But the good news is I have a getting back to health plan which includes working reduced hours until the school summer holidays and then am at home with my kiddiewinks for the whole 6 weeks for some R & R!
I thank my lucky stars for having an employer who will let me take unpaid leave and keep my job.
Hopefully by September I will be back to my usual state of wellness.
Nothing but good times ahead :-)

Onto June's Dress.
I have always associated June with Summer Balls.
I don't think there is any logic to why I think that, but hey - who cares!
This dress is one I would have loved to have worn when I was younger (and had a flatter stomach.)
Click on it to make it bigger.


I did a watercolour wash on thick watercolour paper.Stamped a Personal Impressions flourish randomly with Adirondack dye ink in Clover and added some shiny!

I found these little coat hangers that fit my dress template perfectly.




They are made by Woodware and are called 20 Mini Coat Hangers code EMB024 and cost a mere £2.85 and you get them in an alterable box frame as well from www.alteredelement.co.uk
This is a great store, fast service and excellent customer service.


My dress templates are downloadable from this post if you want to use them.

I had an accident with my April dress. Yikes!
My printer is on a shelf above my crafting workspace and for some unknown reason black ink dripped out of a cartridge that I was changing and splashed all over the dress.

This is how it looked before.


I tried to rescue it by adding black doodles and some pearls and a flowery thing but it still looked fugly, so I mixed some peachy coloured mica powder with water and painted over everything, then restamped the birds and crowns in gold ink.
This is it after.




I prefer it in it's new incarnation so maybe it was serendipity, but it didn't feel like it at the time!

I mentioned to some of you I would photograph all the dresses together for June's post but I haven't got round to it yet- sorry.
I still can't decide how to decorate my wardrobe; too many choices I think.

I hope to visit all you other dress up players soon and everyone else in crafty blogland, I have been feeling the lack of you all!

Happy creating!

8 comments:

Electra said...

Welcome back, girlfriend!
I love the ballgown, especially the rows of tiny bling along the skirt. Amd the colours. And the top. And. and. and.
Now as for Aprils' I agree with you serendipity make it even more sparkly, but I think I heard some rather blue words coming across the ocean. LOVE the pearls!!
Did you know the Queen is here? I'll tell her I was talking with you.

Sherry said...

Hi Gini,

I thought you'd be quiet lately. I'm sorry you've been under the weather and hope you get back to full health soon - it's great that you've got the six weeks holidays to recover too.

Love your pretty (shiny) dress. I too prefer your revamped May one - you'd never have guessed it had black ink all over it!

I love your little birds in your previous post - too cute!

Take care xx

SYLVIA-ANNE said...

Gini Gini Gini - I am so happy to see you back in blogland, and I hope this means that you are feeling much better. I have so missed your wonderful stories, and by the way I love the dress.
Lots of love and hugs, Sylvia xxxxx

Jana said...

How, oh how, did I miss this post??? I adore your Summer Ball Gown. So very pretty. Quite a wonderful score with those perfect hangers. And wonderful save on your April dress. Sometimes you have to make lemonade...

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Here I am admiring your lovely dress for April that I would never have seen had I not gone looking. I kept trying to see evidence of dripping ink, but you really covered things quite well. And this revised version is even more lovely than the original, if that is possible. I see you have a ton of bird stamps and everyone of them is a keeper. Great dress and will try to find that company that makes hangers in the US.

Jen xo said...

Thanks or the link to the coathangers... i love it when things get transformed , you id great job, hope you are feeling better by now...

Linda Vincent said...

Oooh what an elegant ballgown...and such lovely random-stamping! (I was doing that yesterday when I disturbed an ants nest in the garden).
I love those little hangers...and I covet the bird stamps.
Hope you're feeling better now my friend.
hugs
Linda xxrestile

Linda Vincent said...

PS Ignore the 'restile'...got the word verification in the wrong place (and not for the first time :-)