Thanks Mom

As a child of the 50s and 60s, I fondly remember my mother wearing dresses at home while cooking, cleaning, doing laundry etc.  The dresses were made of assorted prints, dots or stripes in beautiful cotton fabrics.  She always wore an apron.  So, when I started designing a card for the "A Little Bit Retro" challenge at Cards in Envy, I knew I wanted to create a dress and an apron because to me (besides a vintage car) nothing says retro more than dresses and aprons from that era.  This entire card is paper pieced and does lie flat so that it can be easily mailed in an envelope.  I found a pattern for the bodice of the dress at Kell Belle Studio.  For the skirt, I was pretty much on my own.  I found several different YouTube videos on similar skirts but not exactly what I wanted.  I spent what felt like hours cutting and folding on white copy paper to make a pattern before doing it for real on this pretty yellow polka-dot paper.  The apron was easy.  I just cut out the shape, made the little pocket and added the narrow blue satin ribbon.  Once this card was finished I needed a sentiment and looked through all my stamps and finally decided on "Thanks Mom."  My mom is no longer living.  I made this card in memory of her but if she were still here, I most definitely would have sent it to her.  I will probably send it to Operation Write Home and feel sure that some troop overseas will want to send a special thank you card to his or her Mom.

All the papers used for this card including the dress and apron are from the Teresa Collins 6x6 "Memories" paper pad.  I just love them and they worked fabulously for this card.  The little flower is from Prima and was in my stash, as was the bit of crochet lace for the apron, the blue satin ribbon and the silver pearl that's the center of the flower.

So what is "A Little Bit Retro" for you?  I'd love to see a card that you create for this challenge and hope you will check it out, create a card and link it to the Cards in Envy challenge blog post. We don't give prizes.  But the designers do vote for their favorite cards and we award cute blog badges for First in Class and In the Mailbox.  You must create a card that is an A2 size (4.25"x5.5") and is relatively flat to fit in an envelope for mailing with first class postage.  The challenge starts tomorrow, Monday, September 16th.  Hope to see you there!