Child's play

The theme for this week's challenge on the Simon Says Stamp & Show blog is to show a childhood memory.  I thought long and hard and tried out various ideas in my head but none were satisfying my inner self.  Then it dawned on me that I was making this much harder than it should be. 

One of my favorite memories as a young child was sitting down with a container filled with paper, fabric scraps, glue, tape, scissors, needle & thread, snippets of lace, buttons, etc....whatever might be left over from a handsewn garment (thank you mom and grandma!) or a school project.  In other words, creating something from what was on hand...no running to the store or going on-line for that special embellishment, paper or die.

I started out with a 5" chipboard circle, taken from a ring of 'pages' that were in the $1 bin at Michaels.  From there I added beads, Sizzix Swirly Heart die, Ranger Distress Inks, Ranger Acrylic Paints, Tim Holtz tissue tape, Prima flowers, soda can (butterfly), Wendy Vecchi background text stamp, Sharpies, paper, vellum, Distress embossing powders, Ritz cracker wax liner (flowers and leaves), Ranger Archival inks, vintage buttons and snaps, air dry clay flower and heart, grungeboard letters, coffee-stained tag, white heart-shaped lace stained with Ranger Colorwash, Tim Holtz Bingo embossing folder and Martha Stewart fern punch pieces.  Whew!  I feel as content with it as I would have as a child. 
I've proven to myself that I don't have to have all the new toys, bells and whistles to make art...but it sure is fun adding a few here and there!  Hope you're enjoing the sneak peaks that are coming out of CHA - wow!

Believe and imagine

Sure hope you aren't tired of seeing these altered metal birdcages cuz I have quite a few more to make!  I found them late spring at Michaels for a really good price so I couldn't resist getting more than I needed.

Believe it or not many of the grungeboard and grungepaper elements were naked leftovers from previous projects.  All I had to do was color them.  There's no way I can list the colors used on the individual pieces as I ended up trying out almost every DI color, quite a few pigment ink colors as well as numerous DI embossing powder colors on them.  Some combos I wouldn't have thought about trying but when you're just messing around sometimes it all just works out right.  Crackle paint and a paint dabber or 2 were even used on the grunge elements. 

All the stamps are Wendy's (I think I used 11), lots of TH stuff (die cuts, idea-ology pieces, fragments, jump rings and tissue tape).  The Prima flower (bottom) I've been holding onto for a very long time, wanting to use it on the 'perfect' project.   The fragment with the calendar tissue tape was the last element to be added.  I wasn't sure what the piece needed but when I spotted the new tissue tape roll on the floor I knew I had found it; especially when the month of July was staring me in the face.

I wanted the bird's wing to look more realistic than just adding a bit of grungeboard behind it to elevate it from the body.  I did that but instead of gluing the centered piece of grungeboard behind the wing to the body I glued the blunt end of the wing - more like a hinge but it won't flap. 

Bet my neighbor will be making a real flap when she receives this in 2 weeks for her birthday. Thank you for taking the time to read all the way to the bottom...if you did!

Prima secret

Prima's got a secret, a secret...(never heard the song from Finian's Rainbow?). Oh well...lots going on over there and there's a big giveaway tomorrow for a super prize basket just filled with lots of goodies. Check Prima out here!

I heard about this from my good friend, Lori, who I met up with yesterday in Bloomington for a Wendy Vecchi class (tons of fun!!!) More about that tomorrow when I can post pictures and tell you about the day.

Take care and be happy!