Hallmark cards turned clothing

Check out this video about our xmas windows/decor that we built this year!

Also, if you didn't see the post where I show the step by step making of one of the dresses scroll down this page a bit.

Making a Paper Cocktail Dress

I've had so much fun making the props for our Christmas display at work this year. So, I thought I would take some step by step pics of the last dress that I built; in case you have a couple hundred cards lying around and want to make one yourself! I first started with brown craft paper and constructed a pattern.

Cut up the back of the dress where a zipper would normally go and reinforce the edges with some cards then add velcro dots. Now you have a dress that can be taken on and off the form.

Cut the greeting cards in four pieces then fringe. No, I did not sit and cut each individual fringe. Martha Stewart sells a great pair of fringing scissors that cuts four fringe strips at a time. It went pretty quickly to cut up this box of cards.

With a hot glue gun and LOTS of glue start gluing the strips on the paper pattern starting from the bottom edge and working your way up and around the form.



I made a cute little flower pin for her dress using a flower pattern from Paper Source.

Her shoes of course needed to match!


Here is our cocktail girl set up between the escalators on the first floor of Halls(Crown Center) department store. She is holding a string of cards that zig zags it way up three levels of the store.


All the cards used in our displays were reprinted from Christmas cards in the Hallmark archives between the 1920's-1980's. This installation is in honor of Hallmark Cards 100th Anniversary this year.

Paper Gowns

Iam so excited to finally be able to show you what I've been working on since July at my day job. We are setting up our xmas decor at Halls Crown Center. Everything this year is made from Hallmark christmas cards in celebration of their 100th anniversary.
This lovely lady is Holly, as viewed when you first enter our store. The trees and platform are covered with cards as well.

A close up of her vest. I made everything removable with velcro closures. If you happen to be the same size as Holly this vest is totally wearable. I can put it on but sadly I can't close it shut!


The lower back of her dress has an accordian fold detail and they are approximately 200 little red flowers on her skirt.


I will share LOTS more photos of our card creations. I made 3 dresses and a pair of men's pajamas. I will also share a step by step tutorial on how I built one of these dresses. Stay tuned!!

ring a Day #55

Some bits and baubles from one of my workbenches in the studio. I've got so many new earring ideas that I want to make so my rings will probably be pretty quick ones for awhile so that I have more time in the evenings to make these earrings up.

When I got into work and sat down at my desk I noticecd a coffee stain on my calendar that looked an awful lot like a mustache. I traced around the stain then just kept going!

Valentines

Pink tissue paper forms the backdrop for our valentine window display at the store,inspired by pinatas.

A quick ring for today made from some floral wire that we used in the store for our christmas decorations. I really like the way this one feels on the finger,will definitely incorporate this shape into a more permanent ring. Tomorrow nights ring will be based on our valentine window.

Wintery day

It has been snowing like crazy here in Kansas City these past few weeks, in fact we haven't had snow like this for 20 years here! After dinner we went out for coffee none the less. The Plaza was like a ghost town when we got there but the coffeeshop was open and all the regulars were there! Apparently nothing keeps us from meeting up on our normal coffee nights. It was a great time! This is a view of our street on our drive back home.

Since I am on the topic of winter thought I'd share a little winter display that we made at work for one of the display cases in the kids department.

It's day 6 of the Ring a Day project. I made these while at the coffee shop tonight. This orange plastic bag was in the recycle bin just screaming at me to be turned into a ring.


Dave and Bryan decided to join me in the ring making fun. We have a wooden drink stir ring and a straw ring set with a coffee bean!

Come on in the store.....

It's been awhile since you've been in. This year we had a fun color scheme of purple,turquoise, and lime; then on top of that for our big outdoor windows we threw in a spacey Jetson's theme. The Jetsons christmas special is running on a 24 hour loop.

Here at the crown center store we wanted to tie our mannequins in with the spacey theme and came up with these glasses and ears that we painted glossy white, they look like they really are part of the mannequin!

Sure wish mac were here to see these, he would have flipped over them! I had given him a pair of these glasses for his birthday this year which is what made me think of them for this window.



This garland runs on two levels of the store and is decorated on the inside and outside of the railings. We didn't drop a single ball this year, yay for us! The poor men's dept.(lower level) gets showered with a lot of glitter though.

Laundry in the city

We finally got to have a little fun with our windows this year. The city backdrop was made from foam core and we "painted" the buildings with black electrical tape and some marker.



They Might Be Giants played a concert in the courtyard just outside these windows the weekend that we did these, so we put in a little reference to them on the detergent bottles. Click on the image for a closer peek.

Egg Decorating

We are having an egg decorating contest among the employees at work. Here are the eggs that were turned in, we'll be announcing the winners on Friday. It has been great to see people get excited about this and I have to say we have some seriously creative people here at Halls!

Look what arrived in our shop!

These packages arrived in our shop last week, my mouth hit the floor when I walked in and saw them. They are HUGE!
It's Hoops & YoYo. They came to our store to make an appearance in our new kids department.
It was quite the ordeal to get our volunteers in the costumes. We learned after the first showing that it was way to difficult to get them through the doorways so we put the heads on them in a quiet corner of the store.
Still trying to get the heads on..
A little guidance through the store...
Aren't they the cutest! They are my favorite Hallmark characters. If your not familiar with them you should check out their e-cards on Hallmark.com.  The days of the week are hilarious!!
This shot really gives you idea of the scale of the suits.
Gina and I just had to put the feet on, then of course we had to walk over to HR and do a little Pee Wee style dancing in front of their window!
The head on the floor was just screaming for me to get a photo and place the caption" I've fallen and I can't get up!"