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We’re celebrating the Memorial Day holiday here in fine fashion today . . . no pun intended. Okay, so maybe it’s a little bit of a pun.

I about dropped my jaw to the floor when our lovely Nichol showed me this addition to her holiday dress form.

[ Shapes |  This & That Freedom (patriotic banner) / Stars & Stripes (star with wavy lines hanging, star) / This & That Autumn (sunflower) / Design Team Picks (rolled flower) / Silhouette Class Extras: Oh The Places You Will Go (flower) ]

You may remember her Valentine version of it HERE.

I think that’s a perfect decoration to put on display from Memorial Day to the 4th of July. Unless you’re in Utah, then you can leave it up even longer through Pioneer Day at the end of July. ;)

Here’s what Nichol has to say:

A few months back I designed a feathered love-themed skirt for a wire dress form I’ve had for years and used as decoration in my home. I designed the paper skirt in a way that it could be removed and stored away after Valentine’s Day and this is why…. I wanted to be able to create a multitude of seasonal “attire” for my dress form!

To celebrate the summer season, Independence Day and Memorial Day I used the adorable layered patriotic banner in the This & That Freedom kit, cut from red, white and blue patterned papers, then layered and glued to create a “ruffled” skirt. I used a wide paper waistband but from some flocked cardstock and added a fabric ruffle trim and embellishment at one side of the waist for fun dramatic flair. The layered vellum and glitter cardstock star design at the center of the embellishment is another Kerri Bradford shape that perfectly compliments the patriotic theme. I finished my dress form with a “necklace” of die cut paper flowers adorned with brads or buttons.

Totally love.

sigh.

And now, I’ve been reflecting on what Memorial Day is all about. Remembering those that have passed on. Taking some time to remember them and the good times. I was also looking through some of the photos of my mom’s funeral and thought I’d share a couple of my favorite photos from that day.

I loved the flowers on her casket. They were simply beautiful.

There was also a torrential downpour that occurred only while we were at the church eating at our luncheon–not before while we were at the cemetery and not after when we went back to the farm. But because of the storminess, it provided some incredible sky and I took this photo that’s always been one of my favorites.

Anyway, I hope that wherever you are you are enjoying time with your family and having a moment to talk about those that have passed and think of the fondly….and maybe laugh a little too. Tell some good stories. :)

That little Nichol. She’s been a busy girl! She asked if I would make her some feathers and of course I obliged. I knew what she was going to do with them. I just had no idea how FABULOUS it would be!!!

Okay, wait…I’m talkin’ about Nichol, right? Of course, it would be fabulous!

Check it out….this is what Nichol has to say….

I have had this wire dressform for years and I’ve used it in my home decorating “as is”. An idea came to me as I was perusing Pinterest and saw a dressform altered and decorated with old vintage book paper…. I thought how awesome it would be to create something of my own using my dressform. All I needed was the perfect die cut shape. Feathers immediately came to mind. We’re seeing them everywhere in the industry from pre-made embellishments to stamps and wood veneer shapes.

I asked Kerri if she would make me a feather die cut and she not only made one, but FOUR incredible, wonderful feathers to work with! I die cut them from several sheets of 12×12 patterned paper to give me an assortment and variety of patterns to work with and got to work creating a skirt of feathers for my dressform.

It was important to me that I be able to remove the decorations after the holiday is over without harming the dressform so I came up with the following idea for constructing the skirt. I used a piece of ribbon and glued feathers to the ribbon fairly close together using liquid glue. I applied a line of glue to the feathers and added another layer of feathers and repeated until I had a skirt to fit my dressform (see photo below).

I die cut several florals, a merchandise tag, heart banners and a heart to complete my dressform. I used dimensional embellishments from my stash to “dress up” the design. I love the way the variety of dimensional and textural flowers add visual interest to the completed project.

 [ Shapes | Feathers / Design Team Picks (dimensional flower) / XOXO (heart, “Feb 14″) / A Very Retro Christmas (tag) / Heart Banner freebie/ Flower 30 Petals (Silhouette #2 Class Extras)

j’adore mon petit miss nichol.

Valentine’s Day.

Less than a month away.

Can you believe it? I’m just looking forward to some warmer temperatures. This constant below freezing–and below zero–is for the birds. Oh wait…those birds get to fly south…what am I talking about? Lucky ‘ducks.’

Some of you may be thinking about creating some new lovey-dovey works of art to help set the mood in your home. And if you’re like me, you’re gonna wanna make exactly these fabulous framed pieces of love like Nichol made.

Here’s what she has to say:
I’ve been working on adding some new additions to the Valentine decor of our home. I replaced the glass/photos in these distressed wood frames with photo-sized inserts for the holiday. One of the best ways to get multiples in the colors you need for a project (like the first frame shown here) is to use your die cut machine. I was able to use up paper scraps from other projects to cut the hearts and cut all the tags from one sheet of 8.5×11 cardstock. The tags were customized by incorporating the shape from the “XOXO” kit with the tag hole from another kit. You could also just create a circle shape in the Silhouette software instead. I just had both files open, figuring out what tag shape I wanted to use so I created mine this way! ;)

[ Shapes | XOXO (tag+heart) / December Additions: The Extras (tag hole)

 And here's what she's a-sayin' about this one:  

I cut a heart shape and attached all the die cut flowers to the heart with tiny, tiny brads. I layered the stamped & embossed banner across the heart with foam adhesive and trimmed off the excess before placing it inside the frame.

[ Shapes | XOXO (heart) / This+That: Family (flower) / This+That: Freedom (banner)

And this one:

I really wanted to incorporate a Hero Arts clock stamp in my stash into a Valentine's frame. I was perusing my KBS shapes and came across the clock hands file and it dawned on me how cute the stamped shape would look with the die cut hands layered on top! I love that you can recreate this same idea with any clock stamp you may have by simply changing the size of your clock hands to fit! So fun! The eiffel tower and heart die cuts tie the design together. I needed a banner to stamp the definition on so I just grabbed one of the KBS shapes from a recent file and resized it to accommodate the stamp design.

 [ Shapes | This+That: Love (eiffel tower) / This+That: Halloween (clock hands) / XOXO (hearts) / Letters to Santa (banner) ]

sooooo love.
that about says it all.

thank you miss nichol.

I can’t believe we are winding down! I mean, I wrote that ‘Day 10′ and it just kind of blew my mind that after today there are just two days left! That’s just crazy, I tell ya! Oh but wait, there’s only four more shopping days until Christmas . . . how does that grab ya? ;)

Got some socks on? Are you ready to have them knocked off? Because when I saw these goooorgeous ornaments from Nichol, it seriously knocked my socks off!

[ Shapes | This+That: Christmas Past (ornament) / Christmas Countdown (ornament) / Here Comes Santa Claus (snowflake) / Holly Jolly Christmas (snowflake) ]

Okay, say it with me . . . WOW! I keep looking at those and I’m seeing some shapes, but good grief, I can’t tell just what she did! lol I think we need to be checking HER BLOG for all the detailed instructions on this.

wow.

Yeah.

I think that just sums it up.

Here’s some things Nichol has to say about it:

These ornaments were inspired by the paper stamped ornament on the front of the Stampin’ Up Seasonal Holiday Catalog this year. Only instead of stamping my ornaments, I used die cut ornament designs from Kerri’s kits to create the base layer and dimensional pieces for my ornaments. I also die cut snowflakes from American Crafts Glitter WOW paper (which cuts like butter!) and layered them in the center of the design for some glitz and shimmer. These ornaments were a great way to use up some of those bulky dimensional items that I have in my craft supply that I love but don’t often use on my layouts. Plus, I added a couple of beautiful ornaments to my collection this year! So fun!

[ still in wow mode. . .]

Well. With something like that, we just gotta put one of those kits on sale, do we not?

Yes we shall!

So for today only, this is on sale for half off. Just $5.

To purchase it, click HERE.

This kit is no longer available on sale.

 Today’s freebie comes from the wishings and wantings of Miss Laura. She thought it would be lovely to have some little banner shapes to make a very merry accent or home decor piece. I, of course, just had to have the word ‘believe’ as a little extra something to ‘hang’ them from. :)

To download it for free–today only–click HERE.

This is no longer available as a free shape, but you can purchase it HERE.