I'm an Artul Bag!

Click here for the challenge details!

Okay, a bit of a play on words .... I'm  not a bag, and some days I certainly don't feel artful.  But, I'm stepping out of my comfort zone of paper creations, and I joined the Artful Bag Year Long Challenge, at Frosted Petunias  ... (and what a totally awesome blog Anna has there ... you should go see!)

So the challenge this month was to work with an item that was NOT a bag, and repurpose it INTO a bag.

So I grabbed an idea I had and went of in search of the ingredients I would need to create it.... and consequently couldn't find what I wanted, so I will need to leave that for another month's challenge. Instead, while foraging through eclectica in an opshop, I found a silver ball thingy, which I can only describe as being a huge tea infuser for incredibly large tea leaves or it's a potpourri pomander to hang in your wardrobe, without a hanging string. Whate'er it is, another idea sprang forth, and so it became repurposed as an artful bag....

Forgive the ghastly photo, but being round and the size of a baseball, I couldn't photograph it flat!

Ingredients: A silver ball thingy; black rainbow fasceted beads; black rainbow seed beeds, black beads (seed, and tube); gunmetal grey beads (seed and tube); beading brooch base; silver grey glass pearls; black ribbon.

I first created the strap, by threading pearls, and attached it to the ball. I then threaded faceted rainbow beads following the cutout patterns on the ball. I strung rainbow seed beads to create a looped tassel (of sorts) and attached it to an existing metal loop at the bottom, then added a wee black bow. I had purchased a beaded flower to add above the 'clasp', but it was larger than I thought, and was too dificult to attach, so it was dropped into the 'nuther project box' after I recreated it in a smaller version.  And still had trouble fixing it! Argh!

So as a functional bag, as it's only the size of a baseball, it would hold a change purse and a lipstick, maybe a few tiny things.  It would swing well as it has a bit of weight in it, so just in case an unsavoury fellow approaches..... SAH-AH WING! Would leave a nasty bruise.  Failing that, it could hang in my wardrobe with potpourri or smelly stuff to keep away the beasties....

What a fun project this was.... thanks for peepin!