Belly Dance Performance

This performance was at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT on March 24, 2010. Everyone at the academy was great, very attentive and helpful to make sure our show went as planned. They were so nice to invite us for dinner after the show. They had international week and I had some much needed Cuban meatloaf, rice and beans and fried plantains. Food was yummy!

I hadn't performed in public since before giving birth to my daughter Kayla. I was nervous at first but it felt great going out there and dancing. After the second song all my nerves disappeared and I danced away freely. Can't wait to do it again in May :) Our troop is called The Jewels of Araby.

 Here are a couple of pictures of me and the rest of the beautiful dancers:

Here is my new custom made veil by Sonya from Expressions.

Look how pretty our veils look! I just love our veil dances, it looks like beautiful wings fluttering through the air.

                                      

This is Habibi and we use our zills, always a crowd pleaser!

                                      

And this is our Egyptian dance using our canes. Check out my bedazzled cane in the previous post.

This is me and my awesome cousin Sharon who joined belly dancing shortly after I joined...we have so much fun together!

Oh and I have to add that my mom made my belly dance dress. Didn't it come out wonderful?! I wish I knew how to sew like her. She also made my wedding dress...maybe one day I will post a picture of that. She is so talented! Gracias Ma!

Thanks for looking! 

Belly Dance Cane & Silk Veil

So for our Egyptian dance we use a cane. Our instructor told us to decorate the handle part of the cane. So of course I had to bling mine out! It took me about three hours to make. The adhesive I used is Bond 520, I bought a pack of different size jewels from Michael's. One pack in crystal and one in multi color. I sat there with my tweezers and one by one got each stone glued in place. I really like the way it looks, specially the K initial I added. That is my favorite part.

A pretty dazzling personalized cane!

This is how my cane was given to me, just wrapped in gold foil...BORING!

This is my cane after I bedazzled the heck out of it...hehehe.

                                      

As for the veil, it is a new one I just got custom made by Sonya from Expressions. It is a 3-yds x 45" rectangle in 5mm habotai silk. She is great and does amazing work. All her work is hand made and she was fast and so helpful in designing my veil. I love the grey tentacles and the different blues. I already used it at a performance and it looked so beautiful as it flowed through the air. It also matched my belly dance outfit very well ;)

I absolutely recommend her for any customized veils, scarfs, etc. Amazing what she can do with her skill!

Thanks Sonya!!

Ribbon Holder

So I was on the Cricut message board last week and saw a post by SentimentalScrapper that made a ribbon holder with her Gypsy. So I figured I would create an svg file for myself since I don't have Gypsy and here it is! I love it and it can keep my ribbon scraps organized, untangled and visible for me to know what I have left. She's got great instructions on her blog.

For my ribbon holder I used Avery plastic dividers. I figured this would hold up best instead of card stock. Plus look at all the cool colors!

I trimmed off the holes and the tab insert, so I ended up with a 7 3/4" x 11" sheet.

These are the blade setting I used on my Cricut Expression.

Standard Blade
Speed: 2
Pressure: 5
Blade Depth: 6

I was able to fit 8 tags on my sheet of paper. I only cut once and it cut perfect!

I used a 1" book ring that I found at the dollar store to keep my tags together. I wish I had a larger book ring but this will do for now.

Thanks for looking!

Childs Door Plaque

Here is another gift I made for my cousin Arisena's baby shower. I am so happy with the end result of this project, I think it is just too stinkin' cute! I love the safari silhouette. You guessed it, she is going for the jungle theme!

I can't wait till little Jeovanny is born, comes home from the hospital and before entering his room, this door plaque that was made with lots of love by his Tia Kathy is the first thing he'll see. Well, I guess he won't really be paying much attention to his door for a while. I am sure he'll be sleeping, eating, pooping and going back to sleep. Oh and of course most important, enjoying the love of his parents!

For this project I used an unfinished wood plaque from Michael's, blue crafts paint and two different types of ribbon. The light green ribbon for around the edge of the plaque and the blue ribbon to hang the plaque. I sanded and smoothed my piece of wood. Applied 3 coats of the blue paint. Added my vinyl, light layer of matte Mod Podge, hot glued the light green ribbon around the plaque and stapled the blue ribbon to the back. 

As for the cut files. The clouds I found off of someone's blog, can't remember...sorry! The font is Ravie and the safari silhouette can be found here. I absolutely love this file, thanks to brandonw from the craftedge.com forum for sharing this beautiful file. When I first found it I couldn't wait to use it for Mr. Jeovany Joel Hernandez :)

I love how his name pops out!!

I think Jeovany's mom and dad will love this one too!

Boutique Baby Wipe Case

This is my first try at converting a boring baby wipe case into a fashionable boutique baby wipe case. I love the look of this. Made a couple of mistakes here and there but I think I did pretty good for the first time. I can't wait to make more. I need one for myself...in pink! This was very easy and I hope to make more to sell. They make great baby shower gifts, specially for that fashionable mom. I made this one for my very trendy, pregnant and cute cousin who is expecting her first baby in April. As you can see by the color scheme, she is expecting a boy. Can't wait to meet the little guy! 

Update:

I got instructions on how to make this project on youtube. There are a couple of helpful videos, choose the technique you like and make your own! Check out some videos here.