Take It Further - Rags and Bones

Well I've been AWOL for the last few days what with MIL duties, car trouble and frantically trying to finished my TIF project I haven't had time to blog. But here we are just one day late my February project is done.

Last month I chose to work purely on the colour scheme but Feb's colour palette didn't really appeal. Instead I stuck with the concept, What are you old enough to remember? As with the January challenge an idea just popped into my head and I ran with it. I was born in 1976 and one of the earliest things that I can remember is the sound of the Rag and Bone man clip clopping down the road with his horse and cart ringing his bell and shouting. So I have made a mixed media doll using rag and bone as the inspiration.

I took some pictures along the way so thought it might be fun to share with you how my doll was 'born'.

First off I picked some fabrics

And then using some Fimo clay I made some body parts :)

Back to the fabric for more body parts

A skeleton emerges from all the parts. So that's the bones done .......

Now it's time for some rags. A once pretty dress ......

... is starting to show the signs of a street urchins life.

A girl is emerging, but even a skeleton needs some features right?

Some hair in the making... I picked some more felted yarn from my stash. I figured a street urchin would probably not have a hair brush to hand and I thought this yarn would give a matted unbrushed look, plus it's in my favourite orangey colours, so who could resist.

I read here, that some rag and bone men used to hand out balloons to children who bought them enough rags. So here is my girl with with her prize balloon... I guess some people might think she's macabre but that isn't my intention. I'm hoping she's more corpse bride than the exorcist but I guess it will depend on the individual point of view.

Just like last month she is looking for a name, if you have any suggestions please leave a comment. There will be a prize if I pick a name from your ideas.

Vintage Valentine

The January challenge for the FiberArtFriends is to think about ways in which to combine paper and fabric. I have been itching to get some time to play with all the ideas running round in my head but thought I would start with something simple.

Here are the cards I've made for the FAT vintage valentine ATC swap. Fabric backgrounds and paper hearts. I was looking through all my bits and pieces for some inspiration for this swap and came across some toppers that I bought in a bulk lot for card making a couple of years back. I hadn't got round to using them as when they arrived they were actually too busy for my liking but I dismantled a few and used the paper heart elements and also some paper roses for these cards. I like the way they turned out and the handmade paper was lovely to stitch on. I have loads of the toppers left so I might have a go at making a few postcards too.

I have decided to trade all four of these cards in the FAT swap. The Be Mine card that I made the other day I am going to keep for a while as it's been sitting on my desk charming me for the last few days and I'm not ready to let it go yet. No doubt it will get traded at a later date though when the charm wears off for me, lol!