Polka Dot Dress

Onefer:

This dress was inpired by Library Challenge #82 and it's ending soon.  For some weeks now I've been trying to find time to make up this party dress - but like my mother used to say, when you can't find time you have to make time!  Who needs sleep anyway?  

I love the Library Challenges - I love the inspiration a book title or cover photo might provide ... or the story itself if I've read it!

I haven't read this one but the cover and the title were enough to kick my mojo into gear and I just happened to eye a large piece of blue polka dot in my scraps from a previous project.

  

Some of you may recognize this dress - it was cut with one of the original Sizzix thick cut dies and must be getting close to 20 years old now!  It's actually on a dress making dummy but it's easy to trim off stand and you're left with this fabulous dress ... and the shoes!  I mean if you're going to have a fabulous dress, you've got to have a pair of matching shoes too - am I right!  There is a handbag too, but I always struggle to fit it on an A7 card front!

I love this cover plate die (Simon Says Stamp Bohemian Detail) because it adds a little background interest but I can still stamp a sentiment directly on the panel (before the detail cut is done).  The sentiment stamp is also very old - a no name mounted on a wooden block which I picked up in a bargain bin if my memory serves me right (which it rarely does these days I should point out)!  It still stamps well though (which worried me as I usually rely heavily on my stamping platform these days)!

The die also cuts pieces for the neckline and waistband and I thought I'd add a pop of colour!  The flip side of this DP has sunflowers so I guess that's where I got my inspiration to cut these in yellow ... and to add the sunflower corsage!  With the corsage, I thought it might work for a birthday or graduation - I know a few people who are graduating from high school this year!  This lovely teeny sunflower is from a recently acquired set called Garden Shed by Sophie Guilar (Sizzix Brand).  Amazon kindly suggested I might be interested in this die set on one of my recent visits - so nice of them to encourage me to buy new dies (like I need any help in that department)!  For this reason, I'd like to enter it in NBUS Challenge #52 (Darnell must be getting heartily sick of me over there but I've barely scratched the surface of things I haven't used)!

I'd also like to enter the As You Like It Challenge which asks Plain or Patterned Paper.  There's nothing like patterned paper for speeding up a project - whether it be for a background panel or for paper piecing a large die image as here!  

Challenge Up Your Life Challenge #160 also has a Patterned Paper Challenge!

And finally I'd like to enter the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge!

Twofer :

This was a pretty quick A5 card made up over the weekend for a young woman just graduated from the European School and is off to follow her musical dream next September in London! If you want to know HOW talented she is, you can listen to two (so far) of her original songs on her YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChXrRlLvi1I1C3LiD7kZ9Tw) and Spotify - written, sung and played be her (did I mention she plays multiple instruments as well). 

I've known this young lady had talent since she sang a solo at her (and my youngest's) First Communion 9 years ago and it has been a privilege to watch her evolve as a performer!  She has a beautiful rich voice but mostly prefers to accompany our choir on the violin - if you listen to her singing you can only image how good she is on the violin!

I just figured out how to download a video her mother took of her Bac performance from Whatsapp and have added it here.  It's an ABBA song and the performance was A M A Z I N G!  Considering this is a live recording taken with her mother's phone, I can on;y imagine how good this girl is going to sound once she hits London and has access to the equipment at The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance!

Eva's favourite colour is green which is why the colour scheme if fairly monotonal!  This gorgeous butterfly (Memory Box Gypsy Butterfly) is meant to represent her beautiful self creating a melody as she flits back and forth on the treble stave - can you see the hidden channel in between the two highest lines on the stave?  Unfortunately it didn't spin as well as I would have liked which is why I didn't bother trying to take a video.  Plus I had very little time before I had to take it in and have all the choir members sign it on Sunday morning!  I could have used one of the more symmetrical butterflies die in my stash but this butterfly is sooo her - tall, elegant and commanding and it's NBUS as well!

I'd like to enter this card in the Triple B Challenge July Challenge!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate