Frameable Dressmaker Collage and Card

This is my first design for Viva Las Vegastamps! I am honored to be on their new design team.

I love dress forms and this VLV stamp (6388) inspired me to create an artwork that honors the time worn tradition of dressmaking. I design all my cards to be frameable pieces of art for the reciepent. They just need to insert this in a 8X10″ frame and hang it to enjoy forever.

The artwork is titled: “Dressmaker Dressmaker Make Me a Dream…” It is in honor of my grandmother Annie Niland who taught me how to sew on a Singer tredle sewing machine when I was just a young girl. She had an old dress form in the corner of the sewing room and the bits and pieces in this collage are all reminicient of that time I spent with her.

Here is how I created this:

I stamped the image on a piece of heavy watercolor paper (120 pound) with BRILLIANCE Cosmic Copper pigment ink by Tsuneko. I folded the paper and wet the edges so it would tear easily.

I then tore the paper along the fold line.

I use the heavy watercolor paper because it holds up well when stitched. I did free-motion stitching with black thread and my sewing machine in an oval shape around the image. This was very random allowing the stitches to show and create texture and depth.

Then I began to collage bits and pieces to accent the image and the theme of dressmaking. I used old pattern tissue, an antique button, an old tape measure, etc. When I was pleased with the arrangement, I glued the pieces down and sewed around them again to secure the tissue. I removed the shank from the button and hot glued it in place.

I then went to work on the background. I had this Vintage Black Harlequin cardstock (no longer available) from The Paper Studio in my stash. It was perfect. I cut and frayed the edges of some cream colored burlap and glued it on the front of the cardstock at an angle.

Next I painted the dress form with Copic markers to add shape and dimension. I used YR04 and YR16. I then glued the artwork to the background. I felt it needed a little bling so I added glitter glue in gold to the base of the form and wrapped some gold pearls around the image and glued them with dots of hot glue. Here is a close up of the art:

Please visit Viva Las Vegasstamps and see the thousands of designs available. Also visit the other VLV Design Team members and tell them I sent you!

Other team members are:

Terri Sproul, Team leader: Terri’s blog
Chris Hurley: Chris’ blog
Kim Prince; Kim’s blog
Cheryl Lindsay: Cheryl’s blog
DeeDee Catron: DeeDee’s blog
Jennifer Bliss: Jen’s blog

You can also find our work on Stamp Art Forum and VivaLas Blog.