Dress to Impress

I love the new Letraset pens from 2012, over the past year we have seen some beautiful  new colours being launched in the limited edition packs.  I couldn't decide which was my favourite, so I made this project using all of them.

Firstly I took a papier mache dressform, which measures around 12 inches tall, and I coloured it a flesh tone, just using craft acrylic paints this gave me a neutral base on which to work.  I then coloured a piece of sheer ribbon and a piece of lace, using some of  seasonal colours  and used them on the bust area and the bottom edge.

I then coloured some photo paper. If you have a blending tool, use that, if not a piece of folded cloth will work. I used a dried baby wipe. Add some colour using your pens then add a few drops of blending solution and dab all over the photo paper till you achieve your desired intensity of colour . This will dry immediately, so you can move onto the next stage. Using a black memento ink pad , I stamped some large and small leaves and then cut them out.

Use a thin paint brush handle and gently curve one end of each leaf. Now you get to dress the manequin. Starting at the base, and with the largest leaves, begin to attach them side by side. I started with a dab of glue but felt it might need more so I started using one small pin in each leaf. Continue adding your curled leaves till you reach the waistband. Then take a piece of white satin ribbon and colour that using your markers in a complementary colour.

 Now switch to the smaller leaves, continue adding them in the same way, overlapping the layer beneath so as to hide the pins.  Keep adding them till you reach the neckline. As you can see I filled the back, but left the front/bodice area free to show the ribbon.

I felt the neck was a little bare, so I used my seasonal colours to scribble on some printer paper which I then cut into skinny triangles. I rolled each one up tightly onto a cocktail stick, and covered with clear drying glue. While the beads were drying I stamped a medallion image onto shrink plastic. I used stazon ink for this, but as you know stazon and alcohol markers do not work well together, so I turned the shrink plastic over and coloured it in from the back. I added a hole and then heated the plastic. Lastly I strung the beads onto cotton cord(again coloured with my markers) and added the medallion.

Now to make the wings. I took a piece of very smooth 160gsm card and folded it in half. I then drew on my wing shape and cut it out.

I kept the colouring very pale, but again I used my seasonal colours. I added a border to each of the holes on the front, but kept it more minimal on the back.

Once all the colouring was done I sprayed the wings with a little satin varnish, just to make them a little more durable. I stitched them to the centre back of the waistband ribbon. To finish off I added a cardstock button (coloured with markers) to the centre of the wings and pushed in a couple of long hat pins, these too were coloured with the markers. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing this as much as I enjoyed making it. Come back here on Wednesday 14th Nov for a chance to win your own set of seasonal colours.