Gothic Arch challenge- Garden sprite and award

This is my contribution for this weeks Gothic Arch Challenge which is 'Garden Sprite' now I'm not quite sure if it fits the mould but I had the best fun doing it. All of the images including the ones that make up the background are from Lisa's altered art. Butterflies and fairies are just two of my most favourite things ever and with the colourful flowers and the cute moon man this is gonna be one of the my most treasured arches...I love it...not that I'm trying to blow my own trumpet you understand. It's just that it's not often that I am completely satisfied with something I've created... I'm my own worst critic and normally have to slap my own wrist to stop myself spoiling something by adding and adding and adding...lol Now I am honoured to have received this gorgeous award (see the butterfly...whoohooo) from one very talented male crafter. Calv has a fabulous blog and inky fingers which turn out many a masterpiece... go visit and see what I mean. He's the only man I know who can turn a piece of fruit or a vegetable into a work of art!! Thanks Calv :)
I don't quite know how many crafters I am meant to pass this on to so I am going to just bring your attention to a couple of special ladies who's blogs give me heaps of pleasure.

Nancy began the Gothic Arch Challenges and is a lady who truly leaves me in awe with her talent for vintage creations and scrapbook pages with stories of her ancestors and her nearest and dearest. One awesome lady.

Beate who is multi talented in many ways with her love of photography and her amazing mixed media/felt creations. Absolutely fantastic

Kath with her endless talent for beautiful cards and wonderful ideas. She always inspires me and along with Budster has brightened up many a day for me with her colourful imaginative creations and has been a great blogging pal to have for myself and many others. Way to go Kath :)

Ok so three's not a couple but well I just can't stop my adding and adding whatever I'm doing... no wonder I always have lots of food on my plate....lol

I could go on and on with this award cos every blog I visit... to me is the best... but I would be here for ever so don't just check out the ladies I have passed this award to... there are lots of blogs in my blogroll and each and every one of them are a pleasure in so many ways to pop by and visit...so do so if you get time and thank you all for each visit you make to mine too... you rock :)

See you soon

hugs

Chris xx

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

Free printables

We all love freebies right... so I have decided to add a place for free printables for your crafts on my blog. The black and pink picture on the right of the blog will take you directly to the free stuff which includes ..Printable arch shapes in a variety of sizes and colours Printable atc backgrounds...

and printable papers for cardmaking, altering and/or scrapbooking. You can print them out as often as you like and I will be adding to these regularly... so keep popping in to see what's up for grabs :)

happy crafting

Chris xx

p.s. please follow the link to the freebies and do not print from this post.... you will not get the correct size or quality.

Back in Blogland

Hi all... have you missed me... have ya...have ya...lol Well I think I've been missing from blogland for long enough, and since I couldn't get my other blog back I decided to return with a brand spanking new... all sparkling...clean as a whistle...new one :) Mind you it's taken me a while to set it up... I forgot how long it can take when starting at the very beginning again and I still have lots of stuff I want to add but all in good time eh. So for now my mojo is back with cherries on the top (said in a whisper with tongue in cheek..lol) don't want to scare it away again!! My first crafty offering began as an altered arch but I couldn't seem to stop once I started it so I just kept adding more and more until it turned into a 'hangy thing' lol.

Loving my big bling...from my fave £1 shop...ooooer..bargain!

Flowers, papers, scroll stickers and chipboard tag are Papermania,

The gorgeous black and white image is from Scrapz

I adore these bling strips from Habisco... which can be used for all sorts of crafts and are just delish...you just know I need bling...any kind is good but this bling is just sooooo gorgeous and delicate.

The sentiment strip is another purchase from Scrapz and the ribbon is from my stash.

Thanks for looking... see ya soon :)

hugs

Chris x