Doll Pillow

My Mother-in-Law called me one day with a request. She used to have this doll pillow years ago that she loved and didn't know what happened to it. She was hoping I could make her one, that was similar to what she used to have. She really loves Native American style so we decided to make the doll pillow a bit Native American in the colors to match her décor. We chose buttery yellow, golds, turquois, cream, and a dark red. She described how her doll pillow had her arms pinned together so she could hold something like flowers. And she wanted her to be about 18" tall.  

So off I began to sketch and think, and shop (my favorite part) for supplies. I had fun picking out buttons, beads, trims, and fabric. To start I drew out a pattern of her head and body onto paper that I pieced together. I then traced the pattern onto some muslin. Sew, turn, stuff and ta-da, a doll shaped pillow was coming together! I painted her lovely face and hair, but left the body part unpainted since she was going to have a pillow case dress.

The "pillow case dress" was exactly that. Fabric I made into a pillowcase of sorts to be slipped onto the doll body and attached at the neck. I sewed and stuffed her arms and sewed them into the side seams of the pillowcase. After attaching the dress I glued it closed, and added her shawl (which was a must have) and her necklace.

Here she is with a little babushka. I just thought she looked cute tucked in her arms. I know my Mother-in-Law was thrilled with how she turned out, and I thank her for the inspiration, and opportunity for me to make this Doll Pillow. :)

Cards!

After taking a long break from posting, I decided it was time to get back into it! I LOVE making cards. You can get immersed into a project for a day or two and then be done, and move onto the next thing. I made these last year, and thought I would tell you about them.

They are made from cute cardstock paper. First I make up a design/pattern from plain white cardstock, that way if I want to make more than one, I already have my template made. Then I trace the template onto the cute paper. For these guys I decided to add some black ink around the edges, since I wanted them to have a more 3-d feel. I used raised tabs on the backs of them so they were slightly lifted off the background paper.

For the quail and mermaid I wanted their parts to move, so I used brads, so you could actually move their arms/tail/ and wings. (see look at the two pictures of the quail.)

 I used the little tabbies on the owls wings here, so they were raised up.

On the house, I made the curtains, bushes, and moon raised, and decided to make a little door that could be opened. Oh, I also used some glitter glue to put a little sparkle onto the cards. They are a larger card, but you'll notice I attached them using photo corners so the card can be removed and used as a piece of art too! Ah ha multi-functional cards :) I love them.