Stamped Pillow Case Dress

Mae Armstrong of Mae Armstrong Designs always creates the most unique projects and simply the best tutorials.  I love this pillow case dress that she made for her niece.  It's perfect for the season, don't you think?  Adapt and make it yours for any season with different fabric patterns, colors and stamps!  See how she created this stamped pillow case dress. 

Start off by measuring the size for the pillow case dress.   Then prepare the freezer paper initial cutout using your Silhouette SD machine, or whatever you have!

Wrap the fabric on the board (it can be any type of board).  Mae did this process to prevent the fabric paint from sticking to my table.

 Wrap and secure with painter's tape.

Iron the freezer paper stencil and make sure all sides are secure.

Start filling in the center of the cutout.  Mae picked a Tulip soft fabric paint with glitters.  Don't girls love anything sparkly? 

Let the fabric paint dry for a few hours. Then start stamping your image on to the painted area.  Mae used PSA Essentials Skelanimals Chip & Friends Peel and Stick stamp set.  Try using PSA Haunted Shack, or Hello Kitty, or any of our Peel & Stick stamps. 

Mae used Yellow Owl Workshop stamp pad. Mae did a lot of research and says she thinks she found true love pn this ink! Since she works with fabric all the time, she thinks it's worth getting the ink pad just for that purpose.

 Here's the stamped initial.

 After letting the painted and stamped initial dry. Start adding the elements to the pillow case dress.

Mae added a cute fabric trim and did a simple French seam.

 Pin all sides of the dress right side up in preparation for French seam.

 Sew all around and turned it over and iron and sew the back side completing the French seam style.

 After sewing all the sides, Mae used a garter to create the neck ruffle.

Mae created her own bias that matches the bottom trim of the dress. Pin around the arm holes and sew making sure you are catching both sides of the bias.

Sew all the way through the end of the bias.

After finishing the dress, Mae did a simple back stitch around the initial.  The design looks polished with the black border around it.

How cute is this?!  

Harry Potter Inspired Halloween Mantel

Gina at The Shabby Creek Cottage created a spooky masterpiece for her mantel inspired by Harry Potter last year that I had to bring back for this Halloween.  She created her own vintage looking apothecary jars and tombstones using PSA Essentials Peel & Stick stamps.  I love all the details here, from the crow to the gargoyles to the tombstones to the silhouettes and of course, the stamps! 

She included "Brews, Spells and Potions" stamped using her PSA Stamper and Archive and Vanilla Peel & Stick packs.  She used plum purple, lime and espresso brown ink by PSA Essentials and her standard stamper here.  See all of our inks at The Paper Clique here! 

What spooky Harry Potter mantelpiece decor would be complete without Frog parts and a Love Potion? These were done in PSA Vanilla and PSA Romance Peel & Stick packs.

She used distressed wood and her PSA Vanilla, Romance and Archive Peel & Stick stamps for the background. 

Ta-da! What an amazing masterpiece.  We just love this Harry Potter inspired mantel design for Halloween. Will you be giving it a try? 

Halloween Prep

We're busy at our household prepping for Halloween!  Molly is going to be Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, a gorgeous handmade costume by my friend Susan. (Susan's made her other 3 costumes too!) And Connor is going to be Max from Where the Wild Things Are!  Very fitting.   The Bradfords and Eccles families are coming over for soup and then some trick or treating.  This season is so much fun when you have kids.

Before the decorating and crafting, we took our annual trip to the Holiday Farms Pumpkin Patch.

After we got home from The Pumpkin Patch, we spent an afternoon painting a few pumpkins in gold glitter... This turned out to be exceptionally messy with a kid like Connor around!

Then we created a pumpkin garland for the windows.  First we cut out several pumpkins on yellow and orange cardstock.  Then decorated them with stickers, markers, paint, anything, really.

Up next, we added some stamp decorations from PSA Haunted Shack (available here where Peel & Stick packs are on sale for $13.50 each for 9 stamps plus 1 outer ring!)   I love the pumpkin and the haunted shack, they were a great addition to our pumpkins!

When they were all done, punched holes in them and threaded them up with twine from The Twinery, 
available here.   This project was a fun activity for Molly and I.

Happy almost Halloween!

Design Team Call: Holiday 2013/ 2014

After a few month hiatus, we're bringing back our design team and it's going to be better than ever!  PSA Essentials is looking for talented, crafty individuals to join our design team! Receive ALL of our stamps (a retail value of over $1,800) in exchange for doing something you love.   Read on for all the details on how to apply... 

Why be on our Design Team? 

• Receive our entire line of stamps, inks, tools: a retail value of $1,800
• Receive new Peel & Stick packs as they are released (coming soon, seriously!) 
• CASH compensation for cards or crafts printed in magazines 
• Occasionally receive free product from our cross promotional partners
• A crafting resume builder
• Display your work to a large blog audience at PSA Stamp Camp 

Requirements for Design Team: As a design team member, you are showing our customers how to use Peel & Stick stamps in the most clever, unique and creative ways possible. 

• 1 year term: November 15th, 2013 to November 14th, 2014
• You must have an established blog and social media presence with a willingness to promote your PSA Essentials projects on those outlets, in addition to PSA Stamp Camp. 
• Create 3 projects per month and photograph them. (Cardmakers/scrapbookers should mail in their cards if they wish it to be submitted for publication.) 

Who we are looking for? We are expanding our team and are looking for specific people who can fill these roles.  Calling all: 

• (CAS) Clean & Simple Card Makers 
• Shabby chic card designers
• Scrapbookers
• Non-card making, DIY, crafty types!
• Mommy's who create fun, educational, or inspirational activities for their wee-ones 
• Artistic individuals - painters, illustrators 
• Crafters who do things on a budget
• Crafters who are into green living
• A gift wrapper extraordinaire

Do you match one of the descriptions above, want all the perks, and agree to the terms? 
Applying is easy! 

Send 3 photo examples of your work, a very brief introduction to yourself and your blog address to loregan@psaessentials.com by November 1st. Please put DESIGN TEAM CALL APPLICATION in the subject matter. If selected, you will be contacted by November 13th.   Good luck and we look forward to seeing your work! 

If you are not interested in committing to a year-long agreement, you may apply to be a GUEST DESIGNER.  We'll send you a small selection of free product in exchange for your design work.   Inquires:  loregan@psaessentials.com