Another archway!

 Over on the CollaborArt blog we are taking part in a six month chinese whispers fabric project.

Each month we use another participants previous project to inspire us and a small envelope of goodies are sent to try to use some of them in our next project (full details can be found on my previous blog post here).

  The lovely Chris sent me (a larger than expected!!) envelope of goodies 

(such lovely building fabric)

 

 and this fantastic card titled "The Socialites Boccee Tournament.  Friendly competition ensues on the course but it's no reason to put down the wine"  A sentiment I concur with!!

 The picture of the project I was sent had some stamped images on the fabric (a lovely art quilt representing a season) so I thought I would use that as my inspiration spring board.

I used some fabric I previously dyed in a tea bath and stamped an ornate archway and attached the printed fabric, batting and muslin.  I made a mask to ensure I was covering the archway with the patterned fabric.

 I then free machine embroidered around the stamped image and then with a deep breath cut through the top layer (being extra careful NOT to cut any deeper) to reveal the layers below

 I then added some of the decorative edging and a metal button Chris sent me and made 2 ribbon roses (thanks to Jill and Arlene at the Coven for their patience in teaching me how to do this!) and used some variegated thread to add a couple of hand stitched leaves

 I also added some hand stitching on some of the buildings to add to the quilted effect.

Month two down.  I have already had my photo for the next inspiration, but this project has taught me to hang fire on deciding what to make next as it can be difficult to incorporate some of the items you are sent (which is good as it stretches the imagination).  

So I await another visit from my postie

Kyla

So taking some time today to browse the web and I came across a cracking challenge blog 'shopping our stash.blogspot.com' which encourages your to use the stash you already have rather than having to buy new, and lets face it, unless you are totally new to crafting then you no doubt have a TON of stash.  I have been crafting since I was about 7 years old, now I am 40 and live in a 3 bedroom house with my hubby....well you can guess just how much stash I have amassed over the years, what with that, my hoarding tendencies (is that me or are all crafters the same....I can't walk past a skip without having a little rummage!) and my love of charity shops and car boot sales (though not as many these days as getting up early on a damp Sunday morning suddenly has very little appeal-I wonder why?!).

So I decided to have a go. A few years ago I bought some sheet music in a charity shop and although I have used a couple of pieces I worry that sheet music will become too expensive and I wont be able to buy anymore!  Seriously, this is how crafting gets to you!!  But I decided to make a tag.

I glued the sheet music to some scrap card (seriously this is great card for putting through Colin and generally grunging up, £2 for about 1 kilo of scrap card from the card making industry lots of bit left over from apertures etc-you never know what your getting, but this time I got a lot of gold card so bonus!).  So, I glued the music paper to some card using some multi-medium and smeared over white gesso adding lines of gesso with the edge of an old credit card (well, a promotional Love Film card!). When dry I die cut a tag and added colour with distress inks and inked through some sequin waste.  I then spritz a little mica and water to blend everything together and add a little sheen.

Next I hit my hoard of ribbon (admit it-we all have one,if not two secret stashes of ribbon....we know we;ll never use it but its SOOOO much just to touch!!), or at least my wired ribbon.  Now, I was suckered into buying an entire box of these at a show some years ago (I am MUCH more discerning these days) so I have a large collection of different thicknesses and colours.  But they do made great ribbons and look great on tags.  So I decided to make a couple.  I added  a couple of TH tattered leaves that I scrunched up, distressed and spritzed with water to blend the inks and coated them in gloss accents for a bit of shine.

Finally I used some gold vellum (again, I bought this about 7 chrismas' ago!) and die cut a bumble bee, colouring in the body and adding some stickles for a little bling.

So pop over to shoppingourstash.blogspot.com and use up your stash....it'll make room for more when I hit the Autumn craft shows!!! (I KNOW it defeats the object, but anything that uses up stash is good).

Happy crafting

Li'l pidge x