T-shirt Design

It's that time again to create the Annual 8th Grade Party t-shirt. Wordle was used as the inspiration to create this t-shirt design.  It became alive with all 180+ students names.  Note: Wordle only allows you to use up to approximately 80-100 words.  Additional words and names were placed using post it glue while cutting and pasting.  A-Team Apparel out of Prairie City, IA polished up the layout, created the vector art, screen printed the shirts and sponsored the annual party.  A big thanks goes out to them for all their hard work in creating such a fun shirt and for generously sponsoring the 8th Grade Party!

Pella Swim Club - Team Poster

Our local USA Swim Club wanted to have team posters made.  The cost to have them printed locally was going to cost us $10/poster - cost prohibited.  I began searching for on-line resources.  Vistaprint was discovered.  

Wow what a great job they did - 50 posters for $56.  

MSPublisher was used to create the layout, the design was then uploaded and with-in two weeks we had posters to distribute to local businesses that supported the club.  

Greater Iowa Swim League State T-shirts

This year Pella Swim Team will be hosting the Greater Iowa Swim League State Swim meet with Grinnell.  Creating a design for the event was on the agenda.  Wordle was recently discovered.  Using Wordle has proven to be a super fun, creative way to use words with color.  The design below was used using the Wordle.Net website. 

The shirts were printed by Graphx2atee owned by Sportspage.

Pella Swim Club - Team Logo

Pella Swim Club received their USA Swimming Charter in March of 2011.  This fall a logo for the club was created.  Below is the final rendition.  It will be used on all official club documents including but not limited to caps and shirts as much as possible.  

2 color logo on red caps

2 color logo on white

Single color logo on white

Step Stool

My husband and I made step stools for all the nieces and nephews one year for Christmas.  Each one was individually painted with something unique.  He cut out and assembled the stools and I painted them.

* The original blue prints my husband created have been misplaced.  Hoping to find them so we can upload the plans for others to use.  The inspiration for the painting was taken from a piece of wrapping paper.

A matching pillowcase

Over the last few years I have taught a number of 4-H youth and my art students how to make their own pillowcases using this pattern I found on the internet.

http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/pillowcases.asp

Most recently I made a pillowcase to match a graduation T-shirt quilt made for a client.

Graduation T-shirt Quilt

A Graduation T-shirt quilt made for a young man from 18 t-shirt pieces.

I make quilts for clients all over the US.  Contact me for details.
Approximate finished size 96"x104".

Graduation T-shirt Quilt

Another Graduation Quilt made from 18 t-shirt pieces.

Homemade rosettes for a strap

This bride wanted a single shoulder strap added to her strapless wedding gown.  Left over fabric from alterations was used to create the roses and embellishment. The end result.

Bridal Gown = 1st Eucharist Dress

Our daughter Callista celebrated her 1st Eucharist this April.  Three years ago I approached our oldest daughter to see if she would like a First Communion dress created for her from my wedding gown.  She did not want any lace and so I waited.  This year when our youngest celebrated her sacrament, she embraced the idea of having a dress created out of the dress her mom married her dad in.

The project started with sketches.  Once the design was clear the original wedding gown  dress needed to be  disassembled.  The original wedding gown was one I designed and created 19 years ago.  A basic dress pattern was found, then a new the designed dress was sloped from the basic pattern.  The sleeves were made fuller, darts and ribbon accents were added to the bodice.  The skirt was box pleated instead of gathered and  lining was added to the skirt so no slip was needed.

The finished dress is more beautiful then I could have imagined.  If you attend the Iowa State Fair this year please visit the Fabric and Threads exhibits to see the dress on display.

Homemade Tatoo Paint

As a coordinator to help with crafts at our local Mom's group one year we decide the ladies would make children friendly recipe scrapbooks.  Each meeting the Mom's came together and created 2-3  4"x6" pages that would be placed in a small photo-album.  Once the year was over I continued to add more pages and create books for gifts.

Sparkly Scented Play-dough

As a coordinator to help with crafts at our local Mom's group one year we decide the ladies would make children friendly recipe scrapbooks.  Each meeting the Mom's came together and created 2-3  4"x6" pages that would be placed in a small photo-album.  Once the year was over I continued to add more pages and create books for gifts.

Prayer Bears

For Christmas one year I made Prayer Bear gift sets for our nieces and nephews.  Each kit included laminated homemade prayer cards, a large stuffed bear and a video title Prayer Bear.  I typed the cards up in fun fonts and used clip art from Microsoft's website.

Each child received a card with a Saint having their namesake as well as a 4x6 card with the following prayers:

The Lord's Prayer

The Hail Mary

Grace Before Dinner Prayer

Serenity Prayer

Grace After Dinner Prayer

The Glory Be

Before Bed Prayer

Daily Prayer to Guardian Angel

Below are few pictures of the cards and some snapshot of the kiddos receiving their bears.

A Bustle of Layers

A taffeta dress with layers and layers.  To bustle this dress I used the French Under Bustle method with color coded ribbons.  When the dress was bustled you didn't even notice all the extra layers.  The layers seamlessly blended so nicely.

A Barbie Bookcase/Doll-house

My husband built a book shelf for our daughter when she was two.  When she was 4 she begged for a Barbie dollhouse.  We painted the inside of the walls to look like rooms and purchased Barbie furniture to fill the house as her Christmas gift this year.

Shrink Art

As a coordinator to help with crafts at our local Mom's group one year we decide the ladies would make children friendly recipe scrapbooks.  Each meeting the Mom's came together and created 2-3  4"x6" pages that would be placed in a small photo-album.  Once the year was over I continued to add more pages and create books for gifts.

Salt Water Taffy

As a coordinator to help with crafts at our local Mom's group one year we decide the ladies would make children friendly recipe scrapbooks.  Each meeting the Mom's came together and created 2-3  4"x6" pages that would be placed in a small photo-album.  Once the year was over I continued to add more pages and create books for gifts.

Homemade Popsicles

As a coordinator to help with crafts at our local Mom's group one year we decide the ladies would make children friendly recipe scrapbooks.  Each meeting the Mom's came together and created 2-3  4"x6" pages that would be placed in a small photo-album.  Once the year was over I continued to add more pages and create books for gifts.

Homemade Playdough

As a coordinator to help with crafts at our local Mom's group one year we decide the ladies would make children friendly recipe scrapbooks.  Each meeting the Mom's came together and created 2-3  4"x6" pages that would be placed in a small photo-album.  Once the year was over I continued to add more pages and create books for gifts.

Peanutty Playdough

As a coordinator to help with crafts at our local Mom's group one year we decide the ladies would make children friendly recipe scrapbooks.  Each meeting the Mom's came together and created 2-3  4"x6" pages that would be placed in a small photo-album.  Once the year was over I continued to add more pages and create books for gifts.