I have had this wire dress form for years and I've used it here and there in my home, decorating with it and enjoying it "as is" but an idea came to me as I was perusing Pinterest and saw a dress form altered and decorated with old vintage book paper...
I thought how awesome it would be to create something of my own using the dress form I had sitting right here. All I needed was the perfect die cut shape. Feathers immediately came to my mind. We're seeing them everywhere in the industry from pre-made embellishments to stamps and wood veneer shapes.
I asked Kerri if she would make me a feather die cut and she not only made one, but FOUR incredible, wonderful feathers to create with! I die cut them from several sheets of 12x12 patterned paper to give me an assortment and variety of patterns to work with and got to work creating a skirt of feathers for my dress form.
It was important to me that I be able to remove the decorations after the holiday is over without harming the dress form so I came up with the following idea for constructing the skirt. I used a piece of ribbon and glued feathers to the ribbon fairly close together using liquid glue. I applied a line of glue to the feathers and added another layer of feathers and repeated until I had a skirt to fit my dress form (see photo below):
These are the KBS shapes/kits I used in the creation of my Valentine's altered dress form:
- Feathers
- Design Team Picks (dimensional flower)
- XOXO (heart, "Feb 14")
- A Very Retro Christmas (tag)
- Heart Banner FREEBIE available HERE
- Flower 30 Petals (Oh The Places You'll Go Class by Kerri Bradford)
I covered up the waistband of the dress (where I glued the flowers) with additional ribbons and trims... pretty ones with lots of dimension and texture.... I love being able to get some use out of the massive amounts of ribbon I have lying around here in my stash!
In addition to Kerri's feathers dies I wanted to incorporate several of her floral die shapes and create a "cluster" of embellishments at the waistline.
I layered a dimensional flower on top of several layered 30-petal flowers and added a gorgeous rhinestone metal button to the center for the cream flower. The pink chevron and red polka dot florals were die cut using the rolled flower dimensional shape and resin centers were added to each.
Once the flowers were assembled I layered ribbons from my stash and hot glued them to the waistband of the feather dress before hot gluing the flowers in place.
The addition of pre-made floral embellishments, trinket pins and a stamped and embossed tag give depth, dimension and variety to the floral arrangement.
I love adding text to my projects however this type of project really doesn't require much, if any, text. I didn't let that stop me, though! (ha!) I thought a price/hang tag would be a fun addition so I die cut the tag and the date, added some stamping and "hung" the tag from the floral arrangement.
A view at the back of the dress, tied in place and easy to remove...
The top of my dress form needed just a litttle somethin'. Nothing too grand because the skirt is busy enough! I die cut 2 KBS hearts and embellished the top one before sandwiching the pleated ribbon between and punching holes to thread the ribbon through to make a necklace. I hung some pretty beads and things from the bottom using a Tim Holtz clip.
I love what this dress form adds to my other handmade Valentine's decorations...
LINKED SUPPLIES for Valentine's Dress Form:
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OTHER SUPPLIES:
- Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red Satin Pleated Ribbon
- Stampin' Up Vanilla Flower Trim
- Stampin' Up Crumb Cake Ink
- Crate Paper Paper Heart 6x6 Paper Pad
- MME Lost & Found Two Blush Favorite Party Paper
- Crate Paper Paper Heart Collection Delicate Paper
- Crate Paper Paper Heart Collection Delivery Paper
- Crate Paper Paper Heart Collection Define Paper
More "14 Days of Valentine's Day Inspiration" project links:
- Day #1 (embellished heart shape boxes)
- Day #2 (embellished frames)
- Day #3 (Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Stamps & Dies Cards)
- Day #4 (Simon Says Stamp February Card Kit | Valentine Cloche)
p.s. A couple of tips: although this appears really time consuming due to the detail and all the "extras", I finished this entire thing in about 3 hours. The die cutting took the most time but to make the most of it I cut 16 feathers from each sheet of paper which sped things up a bit. Also, gluing the feathers in place instead of sewing or attaching in another way made things go quickly! I used a liquid glue adhesive and would lay down a long line of glue and simply lay the feathers into the glue and then add the next row in the same manner. :)
Have a good one!
