Big Art Adventure (fabric arch challenge)

Well I was determined that my creation for Rosie and Linda's challenge this week was NOT going to be the last one in BUT then as I tried to do my post last night Mr Blogger decided to be pacman... he chewed up my post and spat it out... I wasn't best pleased I can tell you, do you think he just needs a rest sometimes like us or is he just playing games!!


So anyway I'm last again...lol and on top of that I had a total blond moment with the challenge because for some strange reason even though I popped over to the girls' blog to check on it twice I had decided that it had to be completely hand sewn... although the prompt was for a 'fabric arch' duh!! Still I did have fun making my arch and playing around with my hand sewing for a change. I have been looking for an excuse to use this fabulous fabric that I received as a RAK about 2yrs ago... couldn't bring myself to use it back then because I thought it was so pretty but I just knew I wanted to use it for my arch.

I had to add some bling but I also did some chain stitch, running stitch and blanket stitch.. how good am I eh... though not the neatest sewer in the world I find hand sewing so relaxing. I decided to make my arch functional and not just pretty so I put some wadding inside so that I could use it as a pin cushion. It is about 6in tall but as you know I've got man hands and didn't fancy struggling with something tiny this week :)
I had a 'happy accident' with my main image... I used this beautiful girl which was a free image from Art-e-zine .... but it was supposed to be coloured.... my printer however decided otherwise. Just as I began printing my picture out onto transfer fabric.... the printer decided it would be fun to run out of 2 ink colours, only me being me... I didn't realize that it was printing out in black and white with a hint of turquoise 'till it was too late!! I still think she looks lovely though and I did give her a flower in her hair for extra prettiness :D

Now they say things come in three's and it really appears to be true in my case this week...lol First of all printer playing games, then Mr blogger having some fun of his own and as if that wasn't enough in one week... I spent the evening with my blogging pal Chriss last night crafting and eating cream cakes (heh heh... no choccie this week). Had a fab time as usual and left quite late to come home.... but NO that wasn't to be either!! Drove my usual way to discover the access to the road I normally take (the only way I know) was blocked off by a Police car... obviously an accident had occurred or something equally serious. So not really knowing another way, I tried to backtrack and join my road further up... but no that wasn't to be either, so not having my sat nav in the car I was stuck and ended up with no other option but to drive back to Chriss's almost 45mins later to beg a bed for the night....lol Luckily she is a sweet friend and let me back in ha ha :D So it then turned into a gossipy late night with both of us getting no sleep before 3 a.m. and then reminiscing over old memories from our childhood till we were laughing so much we could hardly breathe.... eeeeeh but what a lovely end to a totally peculiar week :D

Okay I'm off because as usual I am getting verbal diarrhoea... could be here all night and DG is impatiently waiting for me to take him to the shop for sweeties... may find myself in the proverbial dog house if I ignore him for much longer...lol

Hope you're having a fun day

hugs

Chris xx

Linda and Rosie's awfully big art adventure challenges

Okay everyone hold on to your hats cos this is a Loooooooong post...lol After a few hiccups and problems with my camera I have finally managed to upload the creations I have made for Rosie and Linda's last three Art adventure challenges and I have to say I have had heaps of fun with these and been taken well out of my comfort zone :)

In reverse order challenge 4 was to alter an empty beans can :) I wasn't sure where I was going to go with this but because I found one of those plastic can saver lids in my kitchen draw I decided to use that to decorate the top by adding one of my paper flowers. I already had this made up so the papers were an easy choice.

I added a chipboard embellishment to the front as I intend to use it to save little pieces of paper with little memories written on them to help me with my scrapbooking. How often do you wish you had written something down to jog your memory... well this is going to be my way from now on :)

This is the top of the flower looking down so that you can see the vellum middle and the seed beads... I am loving these at the moment attached with 3d gloss. Sorry the photos are a bit pants at the moment I am working on it I promise :)

Challenge no 3 was to create an ATC altered doll... now I really had fun with this one... meet Acrobatic Amy...lol I wanted to do something different so out came my sketch pad and colouring pens and with the addition of a few other bits and pieces she was ready to join the circus...lol

She wanted to be a girly girl... but all glammed up too so I gave her some flowers in her hair and some girly jewellery bits to adorn her arms... she was well chuffed I tell you... she kept looking up at me and smiling her approval. One thing that she insisted on was legs that would go right up to her neck... you know the sort of legs we all would give our high teeth for...lol Well I couldn't let her down could I....

and just to make sure she felt completely comfortable I let her wear her lovely colourful tights for when she would be indulging in her acrobatic feats...

Well the girl was so impressed she immediately launched into her acrobatics to let me know how blissfully happy she was and oh boy what a show... she's so flexible... what a gal.... hope you enjoyed the show....rofl

Okay last but not least Challenge no 2 was to create an album in a matchbox.... now this one for me was a tad difficult... not because of the challenge... I will try anything once but just the sheer size of it. The problem is I have got man fingers... honestly my hands are massive, so fiddly little things sometimes cause me heaps of problems. I did get there in the end though and was quite elated at the fact that I managed something half decent :)

The images were all rub-ons (sorry can't remember who by) and I went for a theme of Ladies accessories. I haven't fastened the tiny album together yet just so you could see the pages as some I did 3d. I actually for once did some major stamping to make the paper to cover my box and pages with ... because my friend Chriss gave me a special gift (thanks Chriss x) of two gorgeous stamps and I just had to play with them.

I used German scrap to add a bit of bling to the front which I got from Scrapz and then lined my box before decorating my tiny pages :)

Wow!! that was a long 'un ... need to get my breath back now...lol I will be looking forward to this weeks challenge and if you want to get yourself thinking out of the box and try out something different then pop over to Rosie and Linda's challenge blog yourself and join in with the fun.

See you soon... happy crafting :)

hugs

Chris xx