Romper & Stamped Label

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 I sewed this romper for our 18 month old granddaughter. Last summer I made her a similar romper using a free pattern from Melly Mora of Melly Sews. I needed to enlarge the pattern so I compared Melly's pattern to Simplicity pattern #1447 and came up with this.  I did not like the back zipper in Simplicity's pattern. I really liked Melly's lined bodice, so I used both patterns as guides and drew my own bodice. I used the Large size in the Simplicity pattern to guide me in the total length of the romper. Pretty much used the pattern for Simplicty's shorts/pants. The shorts front were wider than the bodice, so I made gathers to fit.

I watched Melly's wonderful video tutorial as I sewed. It's on her blog page and also on YouTube. She does a great job with sewing technique and step by step instructions. I like how Melly added a piece of fusible interfacing to the crotch where the 3 snaps are applied. I had a little trouble with the snaps going through my seam allowance- my fault! I did not open the seam allowance. Instead I serged the seam allowance and pressed it to one side. That made a thick area for the snap to go through. My cotton fabric is thin so the snap did finally get set. I always worry that my home made snaps will fall apart. If you pound too hard on the snaps, the do not get set right.

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I used Melanie Ham's YouTube tutorial to make the red fabric flower. I added a narrow seam on the ends of the 20 inch strip. The total width is just under 3 inches as instructed. The strip is folded with the right side out (once the end seams are sewn). Then it's pressed with an iron.  I stitched down the end in the center to cover the fabric gathers, which had raw edges. It is hand stitched to the romper.

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I have been looking for sew-in labels for my gift sewing projects. I had labels from years ago and used them up finally. You can see my attempt to stamp my own labels using preshrunk cotton twill (given to me by Lynette) and a custom stamp I bought from RubberStamp.net.  I chose an unmounted stamp, 1 inch by 2 inches. I attached it to a wood block using double sided foam sold for that purpose from RubberStamp.net.

For stamping with paint, I mixed equal parts of  Dina Wakley acrylic-Night is the color

and

Liquitex fabric medium.
Applied the paint mixture to the stamp with my finger. Next time I'll try a foam make-up sponge. Some areas got "over-inked" and smudged.

After letting the paint dry overnight, I heat set it with an iron and cotton press cloth.

I hemmed 2 of the labels with my sewing machine. That was quite tedious, so I decided to cut the edges with Grandma Stelzer's pinking shears.

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Now I will have to wait and hope that the print on my labels remains after laundering.

Thanks so much for visiting! Hope your day brings happy surprises!

Clearance Stamps/Stencil Set

Why do clearance items "call my name".

 I don't think I would have been interested in this set, except that it was in the clearance bin at JoAnn's. I cannot find the name of it on the label: just THMM102. I supposed that somehow goes with the text on top, Mixed-Media Stamps/Stencil.

The Ranger tags were on clearance too, so I had a chance to see how they held up to water and ink and gesso. You can see from the image, there was some warping of the paper. The size is about 6-1/4 inches tall by 3-1/8 inches wide.

I used wrinkle free distress technique with oxides:

abandoned coral

picked raspberry

twisted citron.

Then I added gesso over the bricks. When dry I sponged some brown ink on the edges and also with the crackly stencil. I think the brown color might be frayed burlap-I have been using that a lot lately. Added a black paper wildflower die cut from Tim's Wildflowers #2 thinlits. The friend definition stamp is from Stampin Up!.

Thanks for visiting!

Anniversary Cards

I pulled out my old Stampin' Up! Roses in Winter set after seeing so many cards made with Abstract Impressions. This card was inspired by Vicki's card on Splitcoast way back in July of 2008!

Used Hero Arts Stamp & Cut - Ribbon Messages for the sentiment.

Inks: distress spun sugar, worn lipstick and oxide peeled paint

My friend, Lynette gave me the stitched oval die cut piece last week. I'm glad to be using it, instead of saving it in my stash! Used my old Stampin' Up Spring Garden for the flowers.

Sentiment is from Hero Arts CL342 Everyday Sayings

Inks: distress worn lipstick, oxide peeled paint

Cuttlebug embossing folder is Textile texture.

Thanks a million for visiting!

Hope you have some fun today!

June 6 Waterfront Stampfest at Lynette's

Wednesday, June 6th was a fun and relaxing day!

Lynette and I had a great time playing with her new stamp set, Waterfront from Stampin' Up!

We found a lot of inspiration online!

Ashley Fifer of Stamped AF inspired this card.
Ashley has a wonderful Video tutorial there.
Using the aqua painter/water brush here and on all the cards,
gave the stamped images a watercolor look.
We used watercolor paper from Lynette's stash for all the cards shown today.
Used embossing folder stamping technique on the fronts of these two cards
by adding distress frayed burlap ink directly onto the sizzix embossing folder.
I used woodgrain and Lynette used wood planks.
Our panel was stamped with Stampin Up!'s Waterfront stamp
using distress pumice stone for the mountains
and SU so saffron for the sun.
The trees were made with SU wild wasabi and limeade.

Sage Kimball of Stampin Madly inspired this card.
Used SU almost amethyst for mountains,
distress tea dye and vintage photo for the ground,
distress broken china for the river,
SU soft sky for the sky,
distress forest moss for the trees.

Amy Koenders of Stamp with Amy K inspired this beach scene using Waterfront.
Used Fiskars dry embossing plate "Ocean" (waves) to emboss the blue layer.
The circle is a Stampin Up! Stitched Shapes Framelits die.
Used distress tea dye for the sand,
distress broken china for the water
Su so saffron for the sun (and dots on my card)
SU lucky limeade for the palm fronds
SU close to cocoa for the tree trunks.
Added some twine over the ocean waves layer.

Our inspiration for this card came from Pinterest
The card there made by Brook Beach, but the link did not go to her blog
and I was unable to find her webpage.
We changed the card using a kraft paper and a cuttlebug happy birthday embossing folder
for our 1st layer.
Lynette cut the squares with her SU Stitched Shapes framelits die.
Used distress vintage photo for the mountains,
distress peeled paint for the grass/plains
distress forest moss for the trees.
Stamped the Printworks "happy birthday" sentiment in forest moss.

We both thought the SUJ Waterfront set was so versatile and we thank
Ashley Fifer of Stamped AF
Sage Kimball of Stampin Madly
Amy Koenders of Stamp with Amy K
and
Brook Beach
sharing their cards and the process and materials they used!
Lynette and I had a ball making these cards.

THanks so much for visiting!

Roses in Winter

This is a birthday card I made for my Aunt Laura's 84th Birthday.

My inspiration comes from Sabrina's Roses in Winter card

posted on Splitcoast here and also on her blog: My Miscellany

The roses (Stampin' Up!) are stamped with lavender lace, 

stamping off once for the larger rose, 

then stamping in the usual way with lavender lace for the smaller rose. 

Purple is my aunt's favorite color!

Stamped the leaves in old olive.

Used Hero Arts H2141 Manuscript Background stamp in frayed burlap in the background
and Hero Arts Stamp & Cut - Ribbon Messages
for the Happy Birthday banner.

Sponged the edges in antique linen.

Added a few gemstones for some glitz.

Here is a photo of our little celebration with Aunt Laura on May 28

including my husband, daughter and 2 grandchildren.

Used the same design for this anniversary card

with worn lipstick and fired brick for the roses.

Used a Hero Arts Stamp & Cut - Ribbon Messages
for the Best Wishes banner.

I cut out some paper to mask my roses, and got better coverage in stamping the
Hero Arts H2141 Manuscript Background stamp with frayed burlap.

Thanks for visiting!