How Dare You Fibre Challenge & raffle atc

Hmmmm...."fibre" was the challenge for our group on the How Dare You blog this month. You may not be aware but I'm about all fibred-out, after years of sewing costumes for dance schools and ice & roller skaters, my sewing machine doesn't see much action at all these days! So I'm sort of cheating a bit and using a past piece to satisfy the parameters of this particular challenge.



I also spent 6 years making cloth dolls, not Raggedy Ann types, more soft sculptural pieces than play pieces and took part in many wonderful workshops with both talented Aussie teachers as well as overseas teachers. Annie Hesse being one of them (US)! So below are a couple of pictures of my most "fibre-licious" piece of work in my whole 6 years of doll making. It stands 3 feet tall, took around 3 days to make, has 10 balls of wool in the skirt, the beaded face took 8 hours alone to do (it's 3 inches across). Annie Hesse was also the pattern designer for the other 3ft tall Ancestor dolls that were in a previous post here. Apologies for the shocking pics, these were done on a dodgy camera before I got my new digital.

EDIT: Whoops, just realised I'm in Group 2 on Aussie Dares (How Dare You Blog) so didn't need to post to this fibre challenge....oh well....3 cheers for a dufus moment!!! lol

Here's the raffle atc for today's Microscope Slide atc class at Scraptivate that I'm doing. Though I may change my mind and either do another one, or, give one of the other previous ones away as I sort of like this one. ;--) Good ol' German Scrap embosses just beautifully, this fabulous colour is Judikins Rustiques Weathered Iron.

Another Sheer Heaven class

I dragged my sick, sorry self off to teach my regular Tuesday night atc class last night and must admit, did feel better for being there with the girls, having a laugh as usual. Something about being with others and even if you're not creating yourself, just watching others have fun and turn out some arty stuff that they are chuffed over is really good for the soul. It was the Tuesday night girl's turn to learn the wonders of Sheer Heaven transfers and think I have some more converts. I did tell them they learnt the more difficult transfers first, gel medium transfers and transparency transfers (though the transparency one is only 2nd in ease-factor to the Sheer Heaven technique!). So the Sheer Heaven transfers were a hit! Here's the raffle one that I made....congrats Megan....did your Mum mind you winning??? lol (Megan's Mum, Netta, comes to the Saturday atc classes and the last few weeks in a row has sat next to the winner though hasn't won herself for an age.)

This next one is also a Sheer Heaven transfer but I also used one of the chipboard shapes (my favourite!!!) from the cuttlebug, which I first painted with Linen coloured acrylic paint, dried, then rubbed embossing ink over the whole thing and embossed it in a colour called Antiquities. Loved how the embossing turned out! I also coloured the diamond-shaped brads in this embossing powder too.

I had a play with some of the Helmar's 2-step crackle medium the other day. Wanted to see how it compared to a couple of other crackle's I've tried (Jo Sonja 1 step crackle & the Ranger Crackle Accents). I was quite happy with how it worked, though being impatient as I am, I forced the 2nd layer to dry with the heat gun and probably over-heated it a little. Will try to have more patience next time....yeah...right!!! I know that crackle medium is dependent on several things, your paint stroke style, thickness, drying time etc so I'd be happy enough to recommend this particular one, though I will have more of a play with it in the future.

Hmmm....you can't really see the crackle well on this atc as the suits are so dark, might have to try it on a lighter image and see if it scans better. Trust me, there are cracks there!!!

I thought I'd post some pics of my previous obsession....fabric art dolls. If you call them "cloth dolls" people think of cabbage patch dolls or raggedy ann, but these are more "look at, not to play with" type dolls. I have posted a few pics previously but I have loads of them so it'll take a while before I run out.

Meet Fabio....(a pattern from the fabulously talented West Aussie designer, Rhonda McGinnity)

Next one is a Patti Culea pattern (US pattern designer). See....I CAN do cute if I put my mind to it!!! hahaha I should clarify, I made these dolls, I didn't buy them and the faces are hand-drawn with watercolour pencils, gel pens & zig pens. These dolls can take 25 hours to do, now do you see why I switched to paperarts???

No art done today, chest infection and bung leg (just a pulled muscle) so my muse is taking a break....probably holidaying somewhere warmer than it is here! lol