Karla Nathan's Mini Dress Forms

During an image search for a simple line drawing of a dress form I recently came across Karla Nathan's Mini Dress Form Workshop. One look at the dress forms created by her and her students and I was hooked! I had to know how to make them for myself.

Dress Forms by Karla Nathan

This workshop is only $15 and you will be amazed at how easy these are to create using items you probably already have around the house. The dress forms lend themselves so well to a variety of mediums including paint, paper machè, wall paper, fabric, vintage baubles, old books and crepe paper to name a few.

Incredible Student Work

Imagine the possibility for paper dresses of all kinds. A few words that come to mind to help spark some ideas might be fairy tale couture, Marie Antoinette, or vintage vogue. Really, the sky's the limit. Enjoy!

All images associated with this post remain the copyrighted, intellectual property of Karla Nathan.

Du Buh Du Art Dolls

I am fascinated and intrigued by art dolls in just about any form so it was no surprise for me to go all a twitter after finding Christine Alvarado of Du Buh Du Designs. What captivates me the most about Christine's gorgeous art dolls is her ability to connect with us on an emotional level.

Through her photographs we can almost feel the wind on our faces or hear the sounds of a rustling paper dress.

The cheers of a roaring circus crowd begin to tickle our ears as acrobats twirl from dizzying heights defying gravity just for the thrill of it. The movement of a juggler's mid air dance almost completes itself enticing our imaginations to continue the story.

Who hasn't thought of taking a ride on a flying carpet? I only ever imagined that it would be a happy occasion filled with magic and heavenly delight but what it is that makes this girl seem so sad? Is she running away or moving forward? She can be whatever I imagine her to be.

 

Christine captures mood so well not just with the expressions in the faces of her dolls but in the well thought out placement of her scenes which serves to greatly enhance those feelings of somberness or quiet contemplation. We can't help but wonder how the story ends or even how it began.

Christine's art dolls dare us to dream, to let our minds soar and connect with those soft parts of ourselves that leave us deliciously vulnerable to all of life's pleasures and pain.

All images associated with this post remain the intellectual, copyrighted property of Christine Alvarado and Du Buh Du Designs.

Distressed Edge Photoshop Brush

If you have ever wondered about how to add those fantastic distressed edges to your digital collages, I've got good news.  I found a tutorial called Ripped and Torn Edges and Stuff that describes step by step how to make a brush in Photoshop that you can use to simulate torn, distressed edges.

Vintage French Digital Collage

I've experimented with this brush in creating my own digital collages and just love the effect. I added some lines using the pencil tool to give the piece that aged, scratchy look. Try playing around with layer properties, line thickness and color to get your lines just right. Enjoy!

Vintage Dress Form Digital Collage

There is something so emotionally irresistible to me about vintage dress forms in just about any medium and certainly digital collage is no exception. Inspired by the work of others I decided to step away from painting for a moment and try my hand at my own digital creation.

Vintage Dress Form Digital Collage on Etsy

Using the black and white image of the dress form pictured below, some bits of clip art, vintage ephemera, a few of my own original designs and a little imagination I was able to create this beautiful collage pictured above. This beauty can be found in the Kell Belle Boutique.

Vintage Dress Form 

Are you inspired? Feel free to grab a copy of this dress form by clicking and saving the image on your desktop.