Ranger Designers Challenge

I was excited to once again be invited to participate in the Ranger Designers Challenge for CHA.  For this year's challenge, we were each provided with a paper mache dress form and asked to use Stickles and Liquid Pearls on our projects.   When my dress form arrived she was like a drunken sailor...totally off kilter so I  decided right away I needed to cut off the base and create a new one.  After that I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.  I talked to Deb when we were driving back to the airport after the booth set and she said, why don't you sew her a dress?  That seemed like a great idea.  

Here's how she turned out.

I cut a basic dress pattern out of tracing paper.  I guess all the years working at House of Fabrics finally paid off for me! 
I had a dish towel that I use in the dryer when I dye cheesecloth (it helps soak up the excess tea when the dryer is spinning) and it was more than enough fabric for the dress.  All I had to do was iron it with a little spray starch.

Note: I created a pattern on paper shown above, then moved to working with the actually fabric pieces I had cut out.

Stamping the pattern:
I squeezed out some Liquid Pearls -Dark Chocolate onto the craft mat then smeared it till I got a even surface.

 Like this...

After that I just started stamping.  Some are lighter and some darker depending on how thick the Liquid Pearls was on the craft sheet.  I stamped in lines across the fabric until I had the entire piece covered.

I let the paint dry for a while while I worked on something else.  Then came back to it and added Ice Stickles - Platinum to the flower portion of the stamped image.  The Stickles need to dry overnight.

Next day...
I decided the fabric needed a bit more detail, maybe another color.  I found a small stamp of just a circle with dots I thought would be perfect and followed the same method of stamping as previously described. 

Liquid Pearls -  Copper Pearl for the dotted detail.

I finished sewing the pieces of the dress together and dressed the form.   I added vintage buttons down the back of the top (but forgot to take a picture, darn it) to finish it off.  Then I set about on the little details.

These were bright red Christmas berries that I painted then added the Stickles detail with a paint brush almost like petals.  I used a green floral block to hold the berry wires so the berries could stand up to dry overnight. 
Once dry, I wrapped each with a small leaf shaped piece of Tims tissue, added gold leaves that I painted with Liquid Pearls - avocado to finish it off.

Berries painted with Liquid Pearls - Onxy Pearl
Center dot is Liquid Pearls - Gold Pearl
Glitter Petals - Ice Stickles -Platinum
Leaves - Liquid Pearls - Avocado and Ice Stickles - Gold 

 
Necklace is made from a vintage ladies watch. I just cut off one side of the black band. The metal heart charm is covered in Ice Stickles - Platinum.  The collar is cut from wool felt.

Trinket chains are made from Tim's lace chain and jump rings.   Heart with spinner - Ice Stickles - silver.  Hanging from the chain is a large Facet I painted green with Alcohol Ink then added a silhouette rubbing of a man from 7gypsies.  I added the word, "darling" cut from a book.  Also hanging is a metal Fleur de lis and Type charms.

 Stand is made from a dowel, old wooden door knob I picked up for a dollar and two candle holders turned upside down.  My sister is totally going to recognize the candle holders... I had put them in the junk bin last fall when she helped me purge the junk cupboard.  She talked me into keeping them and she was right.  I didn't end up using them for their intended use, but it worked out just the same.  Thanks Patty!  The metal candle holders have been painted with Liquid Pearls - Onyx Pearl

And here she is at the show.  Deb was very nice to walk over with me to snap a picture before the show started one morning.  
Tim's was fabulous of course.

The dress form was really a labor of love since there are soooo many steps that are not included in this post.  Just figuring out how to attach the dowel to the form once I cut off the base was a huge thought process.  But once I figured out how to do it, it only took 10 minutes to do, then a little drying time.  Many of the steps were not photographed because I was working on this at night time...a really terrible time to photograph step outs. 
Of course it all may have turned out totally different if my very nice next door neighbor (not the one that cut the vine down) did not have a drill press and the exact size bit to drill into the wooden door knob so I could add the dowel.   We didn't know he even had a drill press in the garage, my husband just took a chance and walked over to ask.  It's great having a good neighbor.

All the dress forms were shown last week on the Ranger blog.  Here are links to the four posts.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

cheers!
paula