Friday 31 October 2008

ALTER A BOX FILE

Oooo we had some fun with ours, and hope you will too! My pink (and though you can't see it SPARKLY!) box is a foolscap size, and Linda's is a smaller A5, so there's lots of scope. Neither of ours were new, but did I point out that they do come in lovely colours now, so you might be tempted to buy one specially?? And of course this is yet another challenge in which you make something you can actually USE.

Funnily enough we've both used K & Co papers - the pink is from the Smitten range and the gorgeous folksy one is Wild Saffron. The interesting details are mainly the gorgeous grungeboard that Karen from Scrapz was kind enough to send us. It's fabulous stuff so get on over there to buy some!
The pink box was originally dark red and a bit scruffy, so I painted it with acrylics (Anita's Fuschia) and then added a sealant coat of matte Mod Podge. I fastened the paper down with double-sided tape taken right to the edge as this gives a really strong bond. I painted the hinges and other decorations with metallic black, which as you can see from the close-up gave a really good effect.




We're both very pleased with our efforts (and won't they look great on the shelf) but as usual we expect you'll have even better and more original ideas .... so can't wait to see them!

Tuesday 28 October 2008

HAVE YOU GOT AN OLD BOX FILE?

We'll be altering a box file for our next challenge so we thought you would need advance notice - I'm recycling an old foolscap one that used to hold work files (and I nearly threw it out last week) and Linda is going to be using a smaller one. Of course you can splash out on a new one if you feel like treating yourself, they come in some yummy colours now .... !

Monday 27 October 2008

Award


Rosie and I would like to thank Jaqi for giving us this award

....and whilst we're at it we'd also like to thank everyone who has supported our new venture over the last 6 weeks. We are truly humbled by all the wonderful comments and amazing pieces of artwork you've shared with us. We'd like to pass this award on to every one of you.

Friday 24 October 2008

MAKE A 3D HOUSE!





Most of us have made houses of one kind or another - house ATCs having been very popular for a while - but now our challenge is to make a truly 3D house! Anything goes and the size is totally up to you - mine are 4.5" high and 2.5" so on the small side, but I think that's because I used to be a miniaturist and seem not to think on a bigger scale!

Can you believe that Linda's gorgeous tall house is made from a drinks carton - AND it serves as a pen container? Both of us have used found objects to recycle as a "frame" to build on - mine were based on a watch presentation box and a ring box!

So we're looking forward to seeing what YOU can do ... let's build a whole town, with extra smartypants points for those who manage to make theirs useful as well as decorative!!

Thursday 23 October 2008

Fabulous Fabric Arches

Once again - a terrific response to our challenge. Thanks to everyone who joined in; we know many of you moved out of your comfort zone and tried something new. Click on the pictures to see more and find out who made each one. If I've missed anyone out, please let me know.

Friday 17 October 2008

Another Altered Can

Please take some time to visit Patty's blog and see her fabulous creation for our altered can challenge. Here's a little snippet ......... ....go and see more and find out how she made it.


Chriss has just posted her gorgeous can on the Papergirls blog......go and have a look and you'll also see lots of lovely pictures of her match box challenge, too. Thanks for joining in Chriss!

And here's another late addition.......from Kimmie at http://kimmiekrazykorner.blogspot.com/
This is great fun - we love it!!

Thursday 16 October 2008

Fabric Arches

I thought we'd have yet another change of material this week and work with fabric. I challenged Rosie to make a fabric arch.......and I hope you will join in too!!!
I hope she won't mind me saying that she wasn't wild about the idea - but I think she's done a great job. As I kept reminding her our blog is about pushing the boundaries of what we believe we can do (her words on the right!)
This is her finished piece...I love the colours, the pretty machine stitching and the clever hand stitching. A gorgeous arch Rosie!Here are my attempts.............













The first one is a mixture of hand and machine stitching.
The middle one has Angelina fibres and is totally machine stitched.
On the third one I glued everything down except the word which is hand stitched.
So...glue, machine or hand stitch....will you take on the challenge?
(Pictures are clickable for a better view)