Orange, Orange and more Orange

When a girls favorite color is orange well then you should give them Orange! At least that is what my friend who asked me to make this pillow said and I must admit I agree completely with the sentiment. It is very hard to find completely orange objects and the recipient does not like pink and orange mixed which is very in right now.

Picking out the fabrics was not easy, as I previously stated orange seems to come mixed with pink now. We started with two different sized poka dots but I was worried that it would be to much so we settled for the stripe and the smaller dots. The smaller dot fabric also has some stripes in it.

The next hard part was deciding how to do the Monogram. I couldn't find a good orange ink so I decided to go with an applique which also proved tricky because I needed to make it stand out on the fabric. Ultimately I went with more orange which actually is a perfect match for the darker stripe in the striped fabric. I wish the close up of the applique had turned out better...guess it's time to pull out my camera's instruction manual again.

The next hard part was deciding how I wanted the stripes to go. I started with them looping around like a continuous line but the stripes didn't match up everywhere and that annoyed me so I ended up turning them all the same way.

As with all the pillows I make the backs Velcro shut (making it easy to remove the internal pillow form for washing) with a ribbon to hide the seem. I also always flip the "major" fabric so it becomes the minor fabric on the back. I think the back of this pillow is almost as stunning as the front.

All in all I am pleased with the outcome. Orange is not my favorite color so I had a bit of a hard time making decisions I just hope that the little girl receiving this loves it.

And I had to include a close up of the bow because I think it may be the best one I ever tied.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

This week over at One Powerful Hour I set the challenge of...
Holiday Music

Originally I wanted the challenge to be an interpretation of the Twelve Day's of Christmas song but I couldn't come up with a nice piece so I switched the challenge to any and all Holiday Music.

I selected the song Winter Wonderland and I love the version by Bing Crosby (I'm pretty sure it is the original) which can be listened to HERE. The specific line out of the song that I chose to represent is "walking in a winter wonderland" but instead of people I have what I like to think of as Reindeer.

The Reindeer, which I stamped on transparency film using brown Staz On ink, wrap all the way around the cube which is made from a cube template. The cube has some snowflakes embossed on it (not the white ones you can see but they are subtle glittery ones). Next I cut out some pine branches that I embossed using Tim Holtz distress embossing powder which gave them a fabulous texture.

To finish the cube off I added some red rhinestones, some white snowflake stickers the fibers coming out of the bottom and a cardinal covered in snow.



My camera was a bit cantankerous so I don't have very good pictures and I used the cube in an ornament exchange so I no longer have it to try to correct the photo's but you can get the general impression of the overall piece and the cardinal from this photo.

Stop by and join us at One Powerful Hour...we would love to see your creations.