Dress Forms, Bookmarks, and Lace!!!

Hey scrappers! Two small projects to share today :)

The first is for a swap on Scrapbook.com. For this one I made corner bookmarks. It was a little challenging embellishing them because in order for them to be practical they can't be too bulky. They definitely can't have dimensional flowers, so I was really out of my element! These would be perfect to embellish with stamped images. I'm still building my stamp collection so I opted for the flower route, but flatter ones. The bookmark itself isn't hard to make, you can follow the written tutorial and watch the video tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com right here.

Fun fact: since I was out of dimensionals/pop dots, I grabbed three plastic buttons in bright colors (which I never use) for each bookmark and hot glued them to the back of the biggest scalloped oval. Then I hot glued it to the bookmark. I have since gotten myself a package of dimensional adhesive circles from Hobby Lobby :)

Okay, fair warning: If you don't feel like reading from here until the next picture, you're not missing any vital information pertaining to the pictures I wanted to show you all. I for some reason felt like detailing my little trip to Hobby Lobby. All I meant to do was mention that I got a dress form and I ended up writing all this, LOL:

On my way into Hobby Lobby to get dimensionals, I passed all the cool displays they keep at the front with neat stuff. A lot of the time it's 50% off so I make sure I take a peek at it all. If nothing else it's entertaining, there are some cool things on those shelves! But I noticed something on one that I could actually buy without feeling like I wasted my very limited money on something I really didn't need (not that I needed this, either, but you know what I mean...maybe lol). Ever since I saw Jewel from YouTube show a dress form she bought at Ross that she planned on hanging tags from, I've wanted a dress form, too. I've never seen them in stores before (the kind that aren't life-sized, anyway) and didn't have a lot of luck online the first time I searched. Last week I found a few sites I could buy some from but there was other stuff I wanted to spend my money on -- if I had a steady income I'd be fine spending $20+ for a metal/wire dress form, but since I never know what kind of cash I'll have, I kind of have to predict what I might need. I'm sure lots of you do that, too :) So I decided to wait until I had a little more money to get one. But as you can probably guess, I found a perfect one at Hobby Lobby. It's about a foot tall and made from black metal. I think it was made to hang jewelry from, but who knows. Anyway, with great anticipation I stepped up to the display, reached up and flipped the price tag over to see it was only $9.99! And it was on a 50% off display so I happily grabbed one (and I say "grabbed" like it was a simple task...the bottom of the form's three legs curl up- and inward so they were getting caught on everything around the dress form. And a lot of the time the stuff on those displays is fragile or made of glass, so I had to be super careful not to pull anything off. And being short didn't help this process, haha).

So in my basket it went and I made my way to the 50% off ribbon. I had figured out that I couldn't spend more than $20 on this trip, so I took forever to pick anything out! And considering how little ribbon I have at the moment I wanted every color, in every width and every texture. Then there are cute patterned ribbons to choose from! Sheesh. I settled on some sheer metallic gold ribbon (5 yards 5/8"), silver double face satin ribbon (1 spool 5 yards 5/8" and 1 spool 6 yards 1/4"), and a 3 yards of this black ribbon with ruffly edges (5/8") -- there's no description/name on the spool like the others but it does say it's 100% polyester, and after opening it I can tell it won't last me long -- I LOVE it! Each one was $1 on sale. Then I wandered to the next set of shelves and on the other side were laces and trims. Oh my. Glad I didn't see that first or I'd have come home with nothing else but lace! But after spending several minutes picking out four spools of ribbon surrounded by loud squealing and excited kiddos I wasn't going to let that time go to waste by putting it all back in lieu of lace. So I got a big spool of white flat lace (it's about 6 inches wide) for $2 on sale. I like to buy white lace and ribbon so I can Glimmer Mist it whatever color I want for each different project. I didn't realize in the store that I bought silver ribbon, not white. Oh well, it'll do for now :) (Tip: in my experience with misting ribbon you don't get a bright, strong color like with the ribbons you buy already colored, but with lace this works very well!) I was excited to find such wide lace so I can use it with my fabric flowers.

Then I made my way to the scrapbook section and could not for the life of me figure out what to get! I was looking for something to use my 40% off coupon on, and while there was plenty of stuff I'd love to have, I couldn't find anything for $8 that I was willing to spend my little bit of cash on. But if my price limit was $10, I would have had a horrible time deciding what to get. Lots of $10 items I could have gotten. Probably would have picked up an 8x8 pack of awesome paper from DCWV (that may have been $12, I can't remember). So I decided to hold on to my money and let my printed coupon go to waste and left the store with my ribbon and lace, dress form, and dimensionals (on sale for 40$ off! Woot!) for a grand total of $15.24.

On the way home from my doctor's appointment later that afternoon I stopped at Goodwill to see if I could find any more cute shirts or jackets. I accidentally found what is now my favorite shirt there last week, so I'm now hooked on buying clothes there. I love getting like-new clothes for next to nothing! I left with two jackets (one thin denim one and one suede) and a cozy pink 3/4 length sleeve shirt for under $10.

And last night while watching a video from ILuvVintageScrap on YouTube I got linked to The Piece by Piece's Etsy store. After seeing I had more in my PayPal than I thought I had, I decided to buy some trims. I can't wait to get them! I'll be doing a haul video after Christmas and that lace and trim will definitely be a part of it :) I purchased 2 yards of her beige ruffled satin trim, 2 yards of the black ruffled satin trim, 2 yards of the ivory pleated trim, and 2 yards of black venice lace. I made out like a bandit!

Whew, shopping blabbering OVER. Now for the photos of my new dress form and how I decorated it to store some of my lace!

(The red in this is a little desaturated.)

Feel free to comment and I'll be sure to check out your blog :)