Dress Up 2010 - February

I have tried to go for the romantic Valentine look for February.

Before I started paper crafting last year I mainly sewed and knitted so I wondered if I could make a dress using only wool but not knitting with it nor sewing the yarn down with stitches.
When I showed Himself my efforts the silence was deafening -oh dear - but I like it.




How I made it.

I used 300g/m2 heavy water colour paper which I cut to this template shape.
I painted it with a pale pink metallic acrylic paint.
I don't have any sheets of double sided tape so I used the hi bond tape and stuck strips all around the edges and throughout the middle areas.
I wound two sorts of yarn randomly around the skirt working both yarns at the same time but laid them down separately.
For the bodice I used another yarn and wrapped it around each section in a neat line formation.
The space that was left in the middle I filled with jewels.
I used magic tape to hold the yarn threads on the back of the dress and made another painted pink template to stick over the back to make it look tidy.

I'm not sure with what to glue the back to the front that will work well.
Golden heavy gel medium or white PVA or something else?
Any suggestions would be most welcome thank you!

Happy creating everyone!
Gini
xx

Dress Up 2010 - Spanky does January.

If you want to join in with Margaret's Dress Up 2010 challenges or view the other dresses created for January click here.
Margaret has used Mr Linky and it makes it all SO easy to see everyone's dresses.
Today Margaret is my hero :-)

Now then.
Spanky is a big Lord of the Rings Fan.


She has a bit of a Gimli thing going on.




Now I have told her "Sweetheart, he's gonna dwarf you" but she likes 'em big.





The attraction is in the ginger I think; like calling to like.

These outfits me and her are creating for this year are all for Evangeline.
You can find out about her here.
Her wardrobe is a work in progress because I haven't eaten all the goodies yet from my box of Hotel chocolates, only the best for our Margaret.

After Evangeline's transformation she became windswept and dangerous enough for any outfit anybody cares to make for her anywhere, anyhow, anywhichway.
Not many women can make such a bold claim and stand by it, but Evangeline can.

This month Evangeline is going to be an Ice Queen.

She is the ice to quench Sauron's fire.

Spanky presents

The Shiny Eye of Sauron




I'm amazed Peter Jackson didn't think of it for the film, especially with them having such brilliant costumes....


Remember: All fears can be made Shiny.

Gini
xx

Paper Dresses Template

I have made a template of different styles of dresses to use to join in the Dress Up 2010 Challenge that Margaret is running over at her blog Alice and Camilla. You can find her post giving details of the challenge here.

I have drawn each dress so it will fit onto a 6 inch square piece of designer paper.
Each dress prints at about 5.5 inches high.
If you would like to use the template you are more than welcome.

All you need to do is left click the picture below to make it bigger then right click it, save it to your computer using "save as" and print it out at A4. It will hopefully print the right size, at least it did for me when I tried it.
I suggest you print it onto card, cut the shapes out and use those as templates. Remember to cut to the inside of the black lines so the pieces don't keep getting bigger and bigger.


Happy creating everyone!
Gini
xx

One World One Heart Winner - Bob the Cheese has Churned!

Poor overused Bob the Cheese (Random Number Generator) is on his last legs today but he was able to serve up a winner for me, come on down comment number.....



Comment number 99 who is

Lisa Wheeler from the blog Lisa Michelle Design


Congratulations Lisa!


I have e mailed you for your address.
The double sided Paper Doll, Garden Party Hottie VS Valentine Tottie will be winging her way to come live at your house!

( If for some unforseen reason you do not reply by Thurs 18 February, I will have to call on Bob once more for him to generate a new winner. )




Many, many thanks to everyone who has stopped by for a visit, joined as followers and left such fabulous comments and sent me such friendly emails.
I have had such a wonderful time making new creative friends and discovering lovely new blogs inhabited by so many incredibly talented artists including YOU!
I think I managed nearly 400 blogs, and on Saturday I got so thoroughly over excited whizzing around on my magic carpet that I totally forgot to feed my children - ooops.

All of your marvellous comments have furthered my belief that
there is NO such thing as too much Shiny.
Go Shiny Go!

Lisa Swifka the event organiser is a total STAR!

Looking forward to a fabulously creative year with you all :-)

Gini
xx

P.S. To all you folk out there who preferred Spanky's outfit over mine -
Remember she will throw you all over in the blink of an eye for a Carrot,
whereas I will not. ;-)

One World One Heart Give Away 2010. #1040. Valentine Hottie VS Garden Party Tottie.

COMMENT ENTRIES FOR GIVEAWAY NOW OVER - SORRY!

Hello lovely Bloggers from around the world.
I am joining in the magic carpet ride and give away event for the first time this year.

The Event

Lisa Swifka from A whimsical Bohemian blog created the event in 2007, you can find out more or join in here

The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. To interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way.


Who am I?

Myself and my sidekick Spanky make things out of Shiny, Paper, Paint and Glue to entertain ourselves and then sometimes blog about it and participate in internet based crafting challenges.



How to win my One World One Heart Giveaway

1. Anyone in any country with a blog can enter.

2. Leave a comment on this post, please only one comment per person.

3. Please be sure your comment takes me back to you, or if not leave an email address where you can be reached.

4. On 15th February one random winner will be drawn from the comments left using The random number generator
(But I think his real name is Bob the Cheese.)

5. The winner will be notified by email and the winner announced on this blog on 15th February.

6. The Prize will be posted to you wherever you are!


My giveaway.
Valentine Hottie VS Garden Party Tottie.

I was inspired by fabulous Sue Roddis's Art Doll feature in the latest issue of Craft Stamper magazine March 2010, page 50.

I usually make my paper dolls relatively realistic, but her ideas were very abstract, quirky and seriously fun ...so thought I would give it a try.

This has got to be the maddest thing I've made yet and I hope you like her.

Seeing as it is nearly Valentine's Day, I thought I would challenge Spanky to see who could make Julia (who has got to be the most famous face in rubber stamp land) THE OUTFIT in which she is most likely to pull (attract a hot date).

This paper doll has a front and a back.
We each got to design one side.
There was some serious Argy Bargy over the scissors I can tell you.

This is my design.

Garden Party Tottie.
She's 13 inches tall.
You can click on her to make her bigger.






Spanky says Julia will never pull a man in my outfit; maybe a pony called Dobbin in a Local Gymkhana, but a man? No.

And I thought wings were a sure fire winner. I mean even an A list celebrity can't compete with wings can they? Well anyway, I always was rubbish at dating.


This is Spanky's design on the reverse.

Valentine Hottie.
You can also click on her to make her bigger.





Now; I'm not a man, obviously, but I think all Julia will get out of Spanky's outfit is a rather irritating rash from all that scratchy lace, unless of course, the black lace is really a body tattoo and all she's wearing is a bra and posing pouch, but like I said I never was any good at dating.

So what do you think?

Who is Julia most likely to pull?

1. Maybe Nodding Neddy from Boy Band - Pony Power?




2. Nathan Kamp from probably every Romance Book Cover in the last 5 years?
(Not that I'm complaining mind you.)





or
3. Albert Steptoe from Steptoe and Son?




Maybe you think she's in with a chance with someone else this Valentine's Day?
If so, please leave your nomination with your comment, although any comment will enter you in the giveaway. (You can just tell me you love me if you want, yes, that would be you Mum.)

Thank you for visiting me and hope you don't suffer from too much sleep deprivation as you whip around the other 1015 (and still rising) bloggers before the 15th!

Happy Blogging
Gini
I am number #1040 on the magic carpet ride.

Guardian Angel and Where have I been?

If you were wondering where I have been (yes, that would be you Mum)...

I had an operation before Christmas and having spent the prescribed amount of time in bed I am now up and about ... but now with extra Va Va Voom.
To illustrate my transformation:

This was me prior to my surgery.
Note the complete lack of Shiny in my eyes.
(Psychotic Glinting doesn't count in the Land of Shiny.)




And this is a self portrait of me afterwards *cough*
(Click on me to make me bigger)




WOW, the wonders of Modern Medicine eh?

Keys ATC Nov 2009, The Artist Trading Club

Keys have been a very popular challenge theme in the last few months.
As I have already done Keys for the ABAA challenge in September I tried to think about keys from a different angle.
OK, so what phrases refer to keys.
Key to my heart.
Key to the door. And......

A few days pass and...... Nope, no more ideas were forthcoming.
That is pretty rubbish on the ideas front don't you think?

So I gave that up and went back to rabbits and hidden keys and had a ball dreaming these ones up.

Have you heard about the latest craze that is sweeping the country this Christmas?
Santa's Elves have been working day and night to meet the demand for flying keys and not just any keys; these are magic keys that only rabbits can fly.
Up and down the country hutches and warrens have been buzzing with excitement over the prospect of what will be lurking in Santa's sacks.

Flying Key Fever is making newspaper headlines and causing many mother rabbits considerable anxiety and sleepless nights over potentially limited stock (you didn't really think this was just a human condition did you?).

A fortunate few rabbits are already whizzing around the skies showing off to anyone who will watch them. I was lucky enough to be out with my camera and managed to capture a few of their antics in pixels.











Then I made another butterfly with a key body.




I found an image of a cute red squirrel. I love red squirrels (well just about any animal with fur or feathers really).
So this squirrel called Bob has buried his flying key to wait for the 24th December and hopes to dig it up and sell it for a fortune in nuts to some poor, nearly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, "gotta get a flying key" Rabbit. That is of course if he can find it again.



Then I noticed Julia peeping through her keyhole and low and behold Lloyd Grossman's show "Through the keyhole" popped into my head.
Come on all together now "Who lives in a house like this?"

Apparently he puts that accent on, it's not real, so Himself informs me. Now I could understand him doing this if he was a comedian, to give himself a memorable uniqueness, but he's not a comedian, he's a food critic and cook. Just shows you how little I know about the limelight and the media.

Cop a load of how out of focus this picture is, I blame my camera of course, it couldn't possibly have been me.
Oh! and on this one I thought I would finish it off with a blanket stitch border, it was AFTER I had bodged the holes in it that I realised I couldn't actually remember how to do blanket stitch which was so incredibly handy I had to do a little dance.
I got out a sewing book, but the written description of just how to do this stitch might have been written in Swahili for all the sense I could make of it, so I had to wing it and invent a new stitch called the Schmare Stitch.

Named in Tribute to the late great Jack Lemmon for his fantasmagorical performance as Felix Ungar in the Odd Couple and that wonderful scene of him having a sinus attack in the coffee shop - schmaaaare, schm, schm, schmare. (Who needs Meg Ryan doing her "thing" in a coffee shop when we have Jack...)
You can watch this scene on you tube if you like :-)

Presenting the Schmare stitch -
which as you can see is quite badly untidy, but it's a new stitch and I haven't got it polished to perfection yet :-)




I did finally come up with something for "The key to my heart" and took yet another awful picture of it with that temperamental camera of mine, which I think was having it's own sinus attack today.




These two have absolutely nothing to do with this challenge (I could have been just a little bit wicked and just left them here and let you try and decide what they had to do with Keys. The answer of course being absolutely nothing, but I'm good, allegedly, Santa says so and his sacks are very full...)
I did wonder how much of a difference a central image can make to the same background, quite a lot seemingly.



Happy Crafting everyone!
Gini