13 Childs Play

What's the saying? "Better late than never.".   Yeah, that's me this week over at CSI, I am LATE!  Allowed myself to get a little side tracked but I've been "righted" and am sailing straight now!    It's our last of our March Case Files and I think the colors summed up the month rather well! So without any further delay, let's see what I pulled out of my hat!

I've had some MME stashed along with some sheets of Adore I've been itching to use!  So, I USED them!!  My evidence includes, hearts, twine, & jewels.  I misted some white flowers w/ my Sand TA and added blue highlights w/ my Faber~Castell watercolor pencils.  I covered my American Crafts Thickers w/ yellow Stickles, and my Heidi Swapp polka dot resist letters w/ Perfect Pearls in baby blue.  Inspired by the pin-wheel challenge, I used my heart punch and a rhinestone to create my heart flower in the upper right corner.
The picture is my DD Erin back in 2006.  She was a sweet 6 years old.  We, her siblings & I, took a trip out to Mineral Wells to play at one of their fabulous parks.  I was lucky to catch this shot.  Summer days in Texas tend to suck the life AND color out the landscape, so I boosted the colors with my favorite online photo editing site.  I also trimmed it to a circle for this particular layout.
For a list of all my supplies please visit my online gallery here!

Thank you so much for stopping by and your comments are deeply appreciated! 

Brother & Sister

IT'S FRIDAY!!  And it's reveal day... YEAH!!   I had too much fun with this Case File.  One of my favorite colors are in it.  But I praddle on.. let's get to it! This weeks colors are:

Pale blue, golden yellow, pale green, teal & olive green.  Guess which is my favorite??  OLIVE green.

This is also my last nod  to our Sponsor:  Boys Rule Scrapbook Kits .    One random player over at CSI will be the lucky recipient of one of their fabby kits!!  You still have time to play!  So head on over!
I am using a combination of sketches for my layout this week.  The first is February 17 Sketch by Jenny Evans and the second is from Creative Scrappers # 196.   If you're scratching your head and going "Huh?"  please know that I saw both of the sketches and my creative juices started flowing.  And I have to give credit where credit is due, thank you for the inspiration!!

One of the challenge elements was glass or transparent element.  I was thumping my head on my desk wondering HOW to fulfill this challenge!  I've been admiring a blog post from Amy Coon, titled "Wishes Do Come True"  She had created these beautiful wishing wands, you MUST go see.  She is dear friends with the one and only Teresa Collins and between the two of them.  WOW.  So I pulled out my Tim Holtz accordion flower die and started messing around.  THEN, I pulled out my box of transparencies.  (I bought a box on clearance somewhere, but the ink jet printer HATES this brand) and behold!  Transparent accordion flowers with glitter stars!  Photo's don't do them justice.

Another challenge element was a liquid medium.  Grrrhhh this was hard.. then I remembered a jar of Structure Gel by Winsor & Newton Galeria.  This stuff rocks!  Grabbed a star stencil and a putty knife and poof!!

The picture is of my father and his older sister, Arleen.  I remember this picture sitting on the book shelf as a child and always liked it.  (I have an old soul)  But I remember my dad's story telling.  He is a GREAT story teller. And many of his stories include his brothers and sister.  Many of my childhood stories hold memories of my aunt and mostly her children. And we have a few of our own now that we share with our children.... Thanks for the story dad. ;)

HMITM Challenge 184

Life in the Wharton household has been crazy choatic and hectic and it doesn't look to be easing up anytime soon.  So imagine my shock, delight and panic when I open my email on Friday asking if I'd like to GD on How Much Is Too Much.  Of COURSE I want to play along!!!  Hmmm but how am I going to manage??  Simply by putting everything else on the back burner until Monday morning! 
This challenge recipe was FUN and in theory, SIMPLE.
Use ONE holiday photo - This was taken 12.30.09 during a visit home for the holidays
Use 8 patterned papers but none can be holiday specific to my photo- I used patterns by Basic Grey, CratePaper, Bo Bunny, MME, Creative Imaginations, & Teresa Collins.  All of mine were scraps and some were double sided.  For example, on of the BG papers was Figgy Pudding (no no no) but the back side was black and white stripes! 
Incorporate the word Happy - 2" chipboard letters covered in Basic Grey ~ Nook&Pantry
Holiday embellishments - Santa image by Tim Holtz, metal embellishments by Making Memories, altered snowflakes, holly die by QuikCutz.
Other supplies used are: Stickles, Distress Inks by Ranger, Orange Pearl Pen by Viva and misc. ribbon.  My garland was created by punching 1 3/8" circle and folding in half off center.  Then I distressed the edges.  With a white gel pen, I traced an extra circle scallop below my "garland" and then added sparkling Stickles "beads".

Thanks so much for visiting my blog.  Hope you enjoyed!

Gesso...

Ohhh the sweet lovely smell of gesso...it's becoming a crafty favorite here! Been reading and re-reading my lovely magazines again and was literally picking apart the newest Stampington Publication, The Stamper's Sampler. I love seeing what folks out there are creating. I drool, I bend page corners, I circle images, and take note of what stamps are being used.. I first browse quickly thru the magazine, speed reading type of thing. Then I go back article by article, savoring the words, instructions and supply lists. After I finish the articles, I head to the back of the magazine..there the "Challenges" are posted for upcoming publications. I also say to myself, "I'm going to enter one of these!" I then get to the deadline date and say "There's no freakin' way I can get this done in time, I'm the worlds best procrastinator." But I don't let the deadlines stop me from "participating" in these challenges. They just don't get submitted! Oh!

In this month's issue of TSS AND Take Ten there are several challenges that intrigue me. The first article was on paint. Yeah, good ol' fashion acrylic paint. You remember when Making Memories was churning out those cute little bottles of paint and ladies were bonkers making sure they got every color... (if you want more info, pick up your Jun/July issue of The Stamper's Sampler at your favorite store)

The next article was is from the Take Ten publication, it's on fabric backgrounds..and lastly another article on Tags..simple manila shipping tags. WOW. Fast forward to the back of the magazine to the CHALLENGES...and look one on paint, another on fabric and another on tags...three separate challenges...what can I do with that????

Taking my cue from the fabric article, I went down to my favorite superstore (NOT) and bought me some unbleached muslin. I tore mine into card size panels, next I grabbed my acrylic gesso...(two challenges combined into one!!

Grabbed my Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, I'm using four colors.  Scarlet, Sand, Olive and English Ivy.  Hmmm a pattern perhaps?  In retrospect, a resist or a stencil might have been fun in creating this background, but I digress.  Spritzed away..in the next batch I'll probably saturate the color a bit more. 

The next step, I grabbed my acrylic stamp with a sheet music background and I put it on my Mega Mount.  It's 6x6 block slightly curved for larger backgrounds. (I bought mine at Cat's Creations, out in Mineral Wells.)  I love it! Stamped the image off center or actually off in the upper left corner somewhere...it's not an exact science.

Spritzed some more Glimmer Mist on it, this time wanting a more splattered pattern and used the color "Coral".  Looks like rust got on there some how.  After drying, I'll adhere to a card, layer with a tag I've stamped, colored, Stickled, distressed, and glimmered.

My Christmas card will be done!  And I will have met all three challenges at the same time.  Well, I like it and think it's cool..;)  Oooh, I think the first batch of muslim is dry..time to start stampin'!