How Do You Like Them Apples!

One of the Creative Challenges for EtsyRAIN has "Apples" as the inspiration. I normally don't get a lot of time to participate in these challenges as I'm usually busy getting ready for a show, filling an order, taking care of the kids... well, you get the idea. Creative Challenges are a challenge for me to fit into my schedule.

But I love them and I love the idea of them. I love seeing how many people can take the same idea and all come up with something completely different in all types of mediums. Not only that, but it's a way for me to help my fellow artisans promote their Etsy shops.

Anyhow, while on "vacation" I had to make a dress for my daughter to wear at our family reunion. I didn't intentionally set out to make an apple dress - but that's what I got! And I LOVE it! I'm so glad that it's hers and we get to keep it. It even has a matching bib (watch for those to show up in the store).

I was on a roll, so I decided to also tackle another Creative Challenge - "Sci-Fi". I made a really cute Yoda dress - but I was playing around with putting in sleeves and I wasn't 100% happy with it. I'll be trying another one... but in the meantime, check out the fun apple dress! Oh, and my daughter loves her apple dress... just not as much as her Manny dress (she loves Ice Age and I made her a dress with the characters on it - it's cute)!

I'm still working on getting the stores up (okay, I'm working on motivating myself to get the stores back up). I hope by the weekend I'll be back in business!

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Personal Creative Challenge - May/June

Okay, so I've been looking at my stash of fabric and have decided that these beautiful fabrics need to get used. Of course, they are sitting them waiting for inspiration to hit me. Some of my fabrics sit there for a long time. Even if I know what I want to make out of them... it can take me months of figuring it out in my head before I even begin to make a pattern for it.

I also host periodic creative challenges for the local Etsy Street Team, EtsyRAIN (aka Puget Sound Indie Arts). So, I thought I should have my own little creative challenge each month. Since this one is starting in the middle of the month and I have some big shows to prepare for... I'm giving myself to the end of June. If I finish it before then, I'll just start a new one.

I'll post pictures of my creations here. Some pieces of fabric are quite large and might yield more than one item. I'll also be doing this along with the creative challenges I do for the group. This, the group one and my show should keep me plenty busy this summer... oh, and you can't forget all the fun the kids and I will be having!

So the first piece is this beautiful blue & green marbled velour type fabric (see photo). It's soft, but does have a nap (is that the right term), so it will have to be cut with that in mind. I have somewhere around three yards of this fabric (I think). It's also stretchy... so it will lend itself to many things. I'd love to hear ideas of what you picture this fabric becoming. I have a few of my own... but I'm not 100% sold on any of them. Maybe your idea will spark my imagination.

Stay tuned for pictures!

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