September air dry clay

After the fun of the Geek challenge, it was time to dig out the air-dry clay and see if it was still usable after so long; I'm amazed to say that it was! Hooray for Fimo :D

Fimo Air Dry Clay 

So the challenge for September if you remember was to make a cute animal however it appears that I couldn't tame my thoughts in time to meet this.
After several attempts and squashed animals I thought I should use the clay as it was starting to dry out after all the use so I came up with this little witch and her companion cat.

Yes I know that it might look like a sheep but it is supposed to be a cat *blushes* .. I made a few curls on his neck to start with and it looked ok but after adding more I realise now that it looks more like some kind of sheep oops.

Witch and her sheep er cat

I slept on it and tried again but the cute animal just didn't want to come out of hiding so I ended up with ..

Baby Vampire Goblin???

After this the feet at least inspired me to think oh I could make a cute rabbit: but I ended up with

Is that a pumpkin or a garlic?

Then finally I managed to think up this little guy ..

Hi ho, hi ho

It's off to work we go

A little mole all ready for digging his next hole!

I am still waiting for him to dry out properly so he can have some colour added to his cheeks :)

A little late for the challenge but still on track for September goals so I am happy and that leaves me with the weekend to honour my own challenge of playing around with some wire.

Geek Challenge

I have really enjoyed the whole geek theme challenge for Crafters Corner and I think I might keep running with it for a few more projects afterwards too.

Of course my main geek love was always going to be World of Warcraft. With such a wealth of artwork, lore and creativity to inspire me then how could I resist it spilling over into my craft work.

The only problem was too many ideas to use!!

Although the greatest interest to me from WoW at the moment has been the Lords of War series which we have seen 3 and I am eagerly awaiting the rest. If you want to check them out then follow the link to youtube .. the artwork is fantastic.

Warcraft: Lords of war

After watching (ok several times) I decided to try my hand at orc drawing. Obviously no where near the standard of other artists however I was happy with the result although I think maybe overall I actually preferred the initial sketch. 

Sketch outline

With shading added

The shaded version felt like it was lacking something so I used coloured pencils for his eyes

Kargath Bladefist

I think this need a frame (maybe something using stones hmm) to call it finished though and maybe a bit more practice at the shading but it's a start.

It wasn't quite what I wanted to put up for Crafts Corner and decided I would create something using the felt and thread I had been hoarding.

After thinking through the many things I could try and actually trying one idea out (saving that for a gift though, so pics later on maybe), I decided that a warcraft pet would be the best idea to make.

And which better one than this little cutie - Pandaren Fire spirit  

I drew out a basic shapes on some card and used it to cut out felt shapes for the body and then one for the eyes, the rest of the face markings were just cut freehand out of orange felt.

The lips were drawn on and embroidered as I debated whether or not to add the teeth.

For the pattern on the arms and body I drew on the felt with pencil and then got stitching.

I decided to add some felt teeth too in the end.

 The whole thing took a few days overall with a shop run for more thread/felt, that and it was all hand stitched as I don't have a machine: but there is something strangely calming about stitching with Schubert in the background :D

The head and arms were tacked on fairly messily and if I do something similar again then I will be attaching the flat head and arms before filling with stuffing or practising ladder stitches.

 Finished pictures are here:

Flash adding some light

Challenges for September

Since I feel that I work better with a goal in mind, for September I will shall be participating on some craft challenges already set by other craft blogs/pages which I enjoy.

Firstly Susan Owenby (Google community) has a fantastic idea for producing any type of craft that is Geeky and you are passionate about... so there is an amazing scope for ideas here. Due by 15th September:

Crafter's Corner Cafe

Also check out her awesome craft blog here: The Bored Zombie

Secondly the wonderful blog & facebook group by Aniko Kolesnikova is hosting the monthly competition and for September the theme is Cute animals. Since air-dry clay is also allowed then I shall be contributing this time around instead of just watching from the sidelines. Though the creations by this group are really worth looking at anyhow :)

My Clay Fantasy Blog

Also check out Aniko's fabulous work here: The Mandarin Duck

 So those are two community challenges for this month but I am also adding one of my own and that is to watch some tutorials and have a practice with some wire work jewellery. I had a little play for the first time today and created this inspired by my friend Hels who I also think might join in with the geeky challenge this month.

Check out her blog here:  Creative Chaos

Hels inspired necklace

A little messy but we all need to start somewhere. This necklace was centred around some pretty buttons I found :)

Last days of Spoonchallenge

All caught up with the spoonchallenge now and these are my final offerings:

Day 19 - Landmark
I didn't really feel like drawing something sensible today so I went along with the theory that the Disney castle is as good as landmark as any and it was fun :)

Day 20 - Selfie

I wasn't sure where to go with this prompt and since I was in a silly mood anyhow then I am offering this doodle of the spirit of myself rather than a realistic version :P

Well it has been a fun month of drawings that I would probably have not have done without the nudge so thank you Spoon flower & everyone else who joined in, it was lovely to see all the different interpretations of the prompts .