Home Sweet Home

 Hi there!  Today the eclectic Paperie team has been challenged to work with fabric!  Our lovely host this month is Micki!
The Get Altered Challenge is held on the first Thursday of each month and each challenge is an opportunity for you to be inspired by one of our eTeam’s creations, and to share your work, and be entered into our challenge prize drawing!  Head over to the eP blog for more inspiration and to post your fabulous fabric creation!


Well, when Micki first issued this challenge, I was NERVOUS!  If you know me personally, you know that I am NEVER nervous!  But I was really unsure about what I could do with fabric!  I purposefully stay away from fabric, because it could become another addiction like paper, ink, mixed media, and stamps are now!  LOL!  My husband would just roll his eyes if I declared I was going to start working with fabric!  Haha!


Needless to say, and despite my nervousness, this project came together pretty quickly!  I started and finished in one day, so bonus points for me! 


I have been seeing sewing hoops in projects recently, and wanted to try my hand with those, so I purchased 3, all different sizes.  (One just isn't enough!)  Then, I found some fabric quarters, which I liked because they are better than having yards cut and then not using them!  These quarters are like little tastes of fabric!

I actually used 3 types of fabric on this project.  The blue background on each hoop (which started out white and then sprayed blue w/ Smooch spray) is from one of the quarters, then I used green felt for the "grass" and white felt for the fence and clouds; and lastly, I have lace inside the house adorning all of the windows!

Here is the project in its entirety:

 This is a top view of the project.  You can see the roof of the house, the tree and swing, etc.
















This is a closeup view of the house.  I actually created a 2-5-7-10 box (that originated from Splitcoaststampers.com), and then changed the measurements to fit inside the smaller hoop. With my Tim Holtz ruler, I drew all of the windows, shutters and door.  I went back w/ a Black Jellyroll Pen to bring it to life.
I cut out all of the windows w/ my go-to tool, my exacto knife.  I adhered lace to the inside of the house, and then closed it up.  The roof is just a piece of chocolate chip c/s that I folded in half and then embossed w/ the Bricked folder from Tim Holtz.  I wanted it to look like shingles, and out of all of the folders that I have, this was the closest.  I also added a gingerbread-ish look to the top w/ the 3 scrolls.  I cut each one individually and glued them.  I use 3 In 1 glue, and there's nothing holding them up except the glue at the top of each scroll!  That stuff is like cement!

I played around w/ making a box for the swing, and finally it worked.  There are no measurements.  It was midnight, and I was tired!  I have the hemp twine tied inside the box and threaded through the tree.

Speaking of the tree, the trunk is just a piece of chocolate chip c/s that I embossed w/ Weathered (same thing for the swing!) from Tim Holtz, and then rolled and glued.  I might have used redline tape actually....
To keep the tree in place, I have a pin that I glued the head to the inside of the trunk and pushed it into the felt. 
















For the felt, I made a pillow, and then I pinched the edges inside the hoop for a clean look.  I took some excess fabric from the quarter and folded it up, and then rolled the green felt around it and adhered w/ redline tape.  The flowers are all from my stash, and the stepping stones are actually from a necklace!  I took it apart, and have all of the pieces in my little boxes of embellishments for future use!  These came in handy!

















You can't see the clouds very well, but I hand sewed them onto the fabric instead of using glue.  I did glue the fence bottoms... 

That's it!  I hope that I have inspired you to create something out of fabric!  I would love to see your creations!

Have a wonderful day!