The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge #13 Creating Die-Na-Mite....and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Fun With Stencils...My Sister; My Teacher

    Please bear with; it's a long post. :)

    Like the lyrics of a favorite Rod Stewart song of the 70s, Maggie May: it's late September, but in this case; everyone really is back at school. When it comes to our entire family of nine, during summer months, there are only two adults working full time, and no one in school. Come fall, there are three in some form of school (used to be four until Older Daughter graduated with her Bachelor's in May) all through the week. While I teach Sunday School- for PreK to 1st Grade- it takes a good bit of time during my weekdays to make up the lessons and activities for my class of anywhere-up-to-12-kids on any given Sunday. I always loved school, myself, and spent several years in gifted/talented programs or being sent up one grade for reading, literature, or history subjects- all of which I loved. In grade school, I would gladly opt for staying inside during recess and reading a good book. To this day, I do my best work on my own, and our Younger Son is like that, whereas our Older Son is more of a 'works best with others' like Dad. I do have to say that every one of our family enjoys reading and keeping up to date with things. So education/learning has been a big part of our lives, and will continue to be so.

    Whenever I think of my life growing up as the youngest of 10 kids, I'm always grateful to have had older siblings who cared enough to teach me things. I got babysat a lot because I was only 7 when my Dad came into my life, and brought me 6 more older siblings. The oldest- my Sister Sharon- was already married and had a baby. From the first, I looked up to her because at 14 years older than I was, and through the years, she was more like a "mom figure" to me than a Sister. She got after me when I was being bratty, and she didn't mince words when she explained why. She took time to bring me nightgowns as a teenager, and I knew she was only trying to help me when she's admonish the way I dressed or acted. My Dad would tell me what the older kids had done, like Sharon graduated HS with 10 more credits than needed, trying to keep me challenged to do the same. He was proud that 2 of his Daughters didn't wear much (if any) makeup in their HS Senior photos- just at the time I was getting ready for my own Senior Year. Our Dad was a quiet guy who spent the majority of his early retirement weekends with visits from family: his kids or his 5 Brothers & 1 Sister. And on Friday night, before taking off for the skating rink, was when I would see my siblings, almost like clockwork. Once I got married, it wasn't as often as I'd have liked, and in the past 15 years, it's been hit & miss. But just this past weekend, their Mom (known in my own house as Grandma Minnie) held a 70th Birthday Party for Sharon, and it was my first real chance to see everyone, and it was Sharon's first real chance to be out with everyone since in the past 20 months, she's spent in the hospital or in nursing rehab. But Sharon's tough....she singlehandedly raised 2 girls, both of whom are successfully raising their own families. She's worked her own way in jobs during years when men had the best chance to make good money. It's not been a perfect family, but then; none are. As the youngest, it's easy to watch what your older siblings do and learn from their successes and mistakes. But it's hard to see them getting older and you want to pull back time because you're just now having fun in that coveted older age they always had. I actually have 14 siblings. It's complicated, lol! 2 Brothers and 1 Sister have already passed, and of those 3, I didn't get to meet 2 as an adult. Time flies, so I make sure to tell them "I LOVE YOU".

That's the bottom line of where I got my inspiration from, I actually began this project back in May, and just got fortunate enough for it to work out as a gift to my Sister. So let's move on down and see where I incorporated TFJB's Die-Na-Mite theme and the SSS Fun With Stencils...

If you look closely on the table, you can see my Folio inside workings.

I like doubling up the outside shells for good measure.

Yep- this happened!!!

The bearings just fell out all over, and with FIVE GUEST DESIGN SPOTS for OCTOBER,

I was ready to fall apart also.

Then I remembered SIZZIX helping me out with the broken handle pin some years back.

They sent the whole shebang for me saying it comes as a set.

I only needed ONE of the TWO bushings back then, and I dug it up to find the 2nd...

SAVED!!!

PS: SIZZIX is one of the BEST EVER companies, and very helpful!

Get to know your Big Shot. I do keep a Vagabond on hand for backup, though.

TFJB Challenge- Creating DIE-NA-MITE REQUIREMENT

I made sure the bottom and top edges for the pocket were not going to be in the way of each side.

I always plan my placement before gluing or taping anything together.

Plan twice and adhere ONCE!

The waterfall is easy and fast to place.

You can see my fingers inside the pocket- with the tuck space pocket edges glued to the undersides.

These pieces were leftover from the Letter L post.

Tip: To keep these TH 3D Embossed raised areas from crushing inside your Folio,

add some Glossy Accents into the backside's indents- LIGHTLY as shown- to fill up those indents.

I spread mine with my finger, smearing into the valleys.

The Glossy Accents dries to a hard clear and makes the raised areas sturdier.

I've pretty much pared down my Stencils to these.

Eventually, I plan to add more TH Stencils to my stash.

Use scrap paper underneath stencil, 

or tape the top of the stencil, to cover up what you don't want shaded.

REQUIREMENT for SIMON SAYS STAMP "Fun with Stencils"

These are the four I finally chose to use for all the Tags and tuck-pieces.

               Here's what came out of all that due cutting...

This is the outside shell and the front I ended up with at the end of that Besties Scrapping

A lot of die cutting with the Eileen Hull Folio Die... easy and fun!

UPDATE: I did forget while posting this originally, to say that the very first panel

(on the far left) is CORK SHEET. I've used a TH IdeaOlogy Memo Pin and just before 

wrapping, I added our note of "Happy Birthday" into it.

     Plenty of places for photos and writing little notes to go with. I'll be making a visit with Sharon

             to take her the photos of her party that I took and help her put them into the Folio.

The Eileen Hull Folio Die makes clean, easy to assemble cuts and joins the other

 EH Books dies as come of my favorites to use.

I hope you've enjoyed this make and I'll send another SHOUTOUT!

to everyone for all the SOOOO SWEET COMMENTS!!

I'm again entering this into the 2 most fun Challenges...

The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Creating DIE-NA-MITE

Sponsored by

The Funkie Junkie Boutique

and

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Fun With Stencils

Sponsored by

Simon Says Stamp

----------BIG NEWS!---------

I'll be Guest Designer for

SIMON SAYS STAMP MONDAY CHALLENGE BLOG

for the entire Month of OCTOBER!!!

But that's not all:

I'll also be Guest Designer for

THE FUNKIE JUNKIE BOUTIQUE CHALLENGE BLOG

in mid- OCTOBER!!!

I hope you'll be stopping by because I can't wait to share the 

AWESOME THEMES going on!

Come join in on the FUN!

Until then...

Stay SAFE &

HAPPY BLOGGING!!