Ironman

I can't believe April is nearly over! This last April case at CSI was a lot of fun. I decided to go with the National Humor Month prompt and this guy brings so much humor into my life!

I was spending the day crafting with my daughters and step mom. Hubby and I had a brief conversation and he signed off by saying he would get back to the pile of housework he was doing. He told me that he was doing the ironing. I said, "Yeah...right..." I don't think the guy has ironed more that once in his life. Soon after, I received a bunch of photos of him "ironing". T-shirt, satin dress, hat, soccer shoes. Seriously, my life is never boring....

I started off by painting the case colors onto a blank piece of watercolor paper in random streaks. Then stamped some black circles on top. I cut some cut files out, Polaroid frame, file tab (used the inside mustaches elsewhere on the page), and a couple of snarky sayings tags from The Cut Shoppe. The mustache tab and frame are backed with vellum. I stamped the arrows on the tags to add interest and added the mustaches because they are just fun. Throw on a few gears, and done!

Evidence used: metal, circles, stripes, something transparent, paint, and die cuts.

Testimony is something humorous.

Due Date - Simon Says Stamp Challenge

I played along with the challenges at Simon Says Stamp for the first time last week and when I saw this week's challenge, I was blown away. The design team hit it out of the ball park!

The first thing that popped into my head when I thought of due date, was pregnancy, but I don't really know anyone who is expecting, so I remembered the Documented stamp set that Tim Holtz recently released. I love this set so much! Love all the fun distressed date related stamps, plus it has that awesome map. A win in my book. I decided that an art journal page for my Embrace about waiting. I seem to be in a season of waiting. It seems I don't even really have anything to be waiting for right now.

I started off by spraying yellow, sunny orange, and lime sprays on my blank page. I wanted bright. Hope. I kept spraying ink and water, drying in between until I was satisfied. Then I took the stamps from the Documented set and stamped randomly on the background. Next I used the clock stencils from Tim Holtz and spread a thin layer of modeling paste over all the background. I love how the inks bleed up into the paste and bring the background forward. You can see where some of the stamping has moved to the top of the paste. Then I grabbed this really old flower set. I've had it forever and love it. I got a darker red-orange ink for these. I added some white pen scribbles to brighten them up and add some fun. All that was left was to add my quote and some askew clock hands, signifying broken time and my dislike of waiting.   

Fairy Rings

This week's case at CSI is a super cool travel one. I'm not sure how I got from travel to fairies and mushrooms... I guess the colors of the case reminded me of the colors of the mushrooms that I saw on a recent visit to the Redwoods. Oh! Travel and mushrooms, there you go.

 I found a fun piece of patterned paper and this cute mushroom cut file to compliment the photos. I love the wispy sky in the inspiration photo, so I cut out some clouds and used shimmer watercolors to give a similar effect. I used a flying bird stencil with some paste and sapphire distress ink to create dimension and more whimsy. Some grass and a fairy complete the fairy tale picture, all that was left was to write a poem for my journaling. I did have a bit of help. I mentioned to a friend that that was the final addition to the piece and she shot back some great lines! I just tweaked a bit, mostly with the division of the lines and added to the page.

Evidence used: circles, wet medium, clouds, something that flies

Testimony is a free poem:
Her secret is to
Bloom
Where she is planted
Like
Fairy rings
Peaceful
To just be
But with glorious
Aplomb

Twins Congrats Card

I saw this week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp and thought that I had the perfect project. This is my first time playing with their challenges, even though I see May post them every week. Going to need to do something about that! This week's challenge is titled "In the middle". These new babies are in the middle of so much! In the middle of the parents, our hearts, being born, taking over the world....

My daughter-in-law's sister just had twin boys. I can't imagine having twin boys! That's a lot of energy. I wanted to make her a congratulations card and I had just received the Crazy Bird stamps by Tim Holtz. I just love these birds! They make me smile and I need to smile. One of birds just has a sort of frazzled, stunned look. I think he's my favorite. I thought he would be the perfect image for a new parent of twin boys. I liked how pretty and girly the other bird is, so she became Mama. She looks very please, don't you think?

I stamped and heat embossed the birds onto watercolor paper and painted with watercolors, cut them out and placed on the woodgrain background. I cut the nest out with my Silhouette, cut out a backing piece, and stamped woodgrain with distress ink. I took the eggs from the cut file and cut the jagged cracked open lines with a pair of scissors. I painted the wooden birds with distress paint and placed them behind the egg pieces still in the nest while placing the broken tops outside the nest. Add a little banner and you have a cute card.

I hope receiving this will bring the new parents some laughter in an otherwise chaotic time.

Winter Sky

I just loved this case at CSI. Love the colors, love the travel theme, love the writing prompt for a haiku, then I found that I had map paper in the colors. And not just map paper, map paper with clouds! With the large format photo, I only needed to add a few other things. A couple of stamped travel pieces, die cut clouds and compass rose, and a bit of wood and metal. The strips of paper were actually on the end that you cut off the patterned paper. I thought the arrows fit nicely with the travel theme. I added some water color to the stamps, clouds, and compass rose and boom, all set.

This photo was taken as we left San Francisco. It had been a super storm night and the rain continued in the morning, but as I looked back at the city from the Golden Gate Bridge, The clouds were just breaking over the city, letting the sun shine through. It was a very moody scene.

Evidence used: map print, globe/travel images, metal, and stamps.

Testimony is a haiku
The pale frigid dawn
Winter is saying "Good day"
The city ablaze