A 3 Musketeers Halloween

This little princess wanted to be a musketeer from Barbie and the Three Musketeers. Her logic was "She has blonde hair and I have blonde hair." She is my same niece who got the birthday dress that I love. It's so fun spoiling her.

She was so excited. Who's the Best? Aunt Tiff. 

This is the original photo  that we had to go by from http://www.momstakeonthings.com/review-barbie-and-the-three-musketeers-dvd/

Her mom wanted to contribute so she did the design for the gems and attached them. 

 I used  McCall's pattern 6020.

 

 I had to extend the sleeves, skirt, and also the bodice to give it the "v" shaped point at the end.

 Instead of making the circular sleeves to give the look of the sleeves, I doubled the sleeve measurement and gathered it. It was the same process I used for the dress here. I also did a lace-up back with the center section velcroed in. To fill out the dress I made a simple circle skirt out of felt about 4 years ago because some days you just don't feel like messing with tulle.

This was the thank you gift she picked out. This is exactly how it popped out of the box. Her mom did the folding for the bill to make it heart shaped. She picked it out because she said "she makes sock monkeys and she likes them. And she doesn't need money." Such a funny girl.
Love her and loved making the dress for her.

Linking up to Finish it up Fridays  and Family Ever After and is my audition for Season 6 of
Project Run and Play

2 Showers, 1 week, no time

I had two baby showers this week. One I was decorating for, and another one that was 3 hours away, so I couldn't go, but wanted to do a gift.

The decorations are for my sister-in-law. They live down the street from us and are expecting their first baby girl in 8 weeks. Even though there were a lot of emotions, (you know, with us not being able yet to get pregnant after 7 years) I made my best efforts to make the decorations look great. All of the decor is made from ribbons and paper. Here's to throwing out happy baby vibes into the universe!

First ribbon wrapped wreath I've ever done. And by wrapped, I cut them in about 4-5" strips and pinned them to the back. It saved ribbon it took about 2 1/2 rolls of the ribbon to cover it. I just love it. The flowers are attached with pink, black, and white sewing pins to the styro-foam.
All the shoes are even made out of paper.

Blocks are made from empty ribbon boxes I got from Michael's when they were 

re-stocking their ribbon inventory. Then I painted them black and threw in some rocks to keep them weighted so they wouldn't just tip over. All the pink and black paper I had bought about 3 years ago when I worked at a scrapbooking store without a purpose, so this was a great way to keep our costs down for the shower and use up some of my paper stock pile. Then I cut out the words on the LPF.

I know this picture is blurry, but I wasn't even paying attention while I was snapping pictures,

 and I was trying to do it before everyone showed up. The little banner is onesies attached with clothespins that I had also cut out on the LPF. The balloon flowers was an idea I pinned on Pinterest. 

I love the banner and think it turned out fabulous!! Next time I think I would make one long strip of a tutu, glue it down, and then cut it. 4 inch tutus are a pain. It took much longer than it should have because the tulle kept falling off the small sections of elastic. I used a thumb tack to attach it to the wall then taped a flower over it.

These were the party favors we filled with M & M's. I couldn't cut them out on my Cricut, 

(except for the flowers) so all 30 of them were cut out by hand. And were a big hit. I got the pattern for the shoes here. The shoes on the wreath are made from the same pattern. Just enlarged to about 50% more.

The baby book for my cousin. Her shower was originally supposed to be in August, but her little boy had to go through some medical procedures after he was born, so it was postponed and then was re-scheduled for the same weekend. I was already committed to doing the decorations for Nicole's shower, but sent a gift and hope she enjoys it. They are my go-to gifts these days for babies. One day I may get back to blankets, but for right now the Christmas season is coming and is going to be busy, busy.

linking up to Family Ever After for the weekend linky party and the DIY Showoff