I've amazed myself at actually being ahead of time with these next two projects and am taking a week off to spend time with my family. The ChiefHubby and I are back up in New York again and currently stopped off to see Niagra Falls for a couple of days before heading further north to Oswego, meet up with the younger set of Kids and Grandbabies, and travel up to a rental house on Lake Ontario for a week's vacation for them to celebrate their 10th Wedding Anniversary (Thursday; August 10th) and us to spend some long-awaited time with Little Man Pecan and Princess Rose. We were told over Facetime that Princess actually took her first step last Friday! I'm so excited to see this milestone and celebrate her first birthday the next week (Wednesday, August 16th)! After all that, once we're back home in Indiana, it will be catching up with house cleaning and give some needed attention to my flowers before they are gone for another year's ending. We'd gotten home from the Florida house and that weekend, traveled to Hillsboro, Ohio, in a caravan of 4 camper RVs for the Annual P2P Family Retreat Camp. Then it was a week at home before we headed down to Madison, Indiana, taking ChiefHubby's Aunt Ruth Ann along to attend the funeral of her Sister-In-Law (CheifHubby's Aunt) who survived since the accidental jet plane crash death of her USAF Husband in 1968. She'd finished raising his 3 Cousins and she had a good-sized number of Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren celebrating her burial on what would've been her 88th birthday- Monday, August 7th.
Tonight (Tuesday, August 8th) was a big night for our oldest Grandchild: he met his Kindergarten Teacher and off he goes tomorrow (Wednesday, 9th) for his first day. He's successfully hurdled over Preschool and on to the Big School.... while I smile through my tears. It's always a GOOD thing when time passes and changes happen. We WANT children to grow! Because the opposite is to not grow and that's not the description of "life" and "living". Numbers are very important: they tell how old (or young) you are. Numbers hold memories of years gone by and there's no stopping time since only GOD controls that. Numbers can bring fun, like the days of "endless summer". or they can bring frustration; making winter seem just as endless. Numbers are a big part of GOD's plan for us (The BIBLE proves this). The numbers we use, help us to mark each celebration, birth, marriage, death, or simply find our way across the country via numbered roads; each one is important in keeping order in our world. There are numbers for keeping ourselves busy with work, school, and play as the clock hands pass around to land on those magical numbers that tell us we can finally go home and be together once again. Little Pecan, Jamie has been counting down the days for over a month and a half and tonight was so excited to be down to "TWO DAYS!" till we're on his doorstep waiting for him to fly into our arms, and if I'm blessed... and I know I am.... Princess Rose might just toddle over to me for a "pickmeup". The number of days will pass by too fast, in moho, and I'll be penciling in the next time's visit, but I am grateful for any numbers that come my way!
August is bringing you tons of new Tim Holtz products and I can't wait to try them out! But, alas, we must all be patient for shipping dates from the factories to The Funkie Junkie Boutique and then to most parts of the USA. So while I'm (not so, lol) patiently waiting, it's all good if you've got some older Tim Holtz things still using up space in your stash and you get the itch to craft: by all means, use them now and make that room for all the new craft-candy coming your way! My eyes spied a few packages of Tim's IdeaOlogy Number Blocks.... and then some Odds and Ends... and since I still had some of the Distress Paints still on my desk from the last Inspiration Ave make (click here if you missed it)... a light bulb went off in my head because this was the perfect mix for the theme covering this next 2-weeks: "By the Numbers"! C'mon, join me for a scroll to see what I created.
We'll start with a list of links to help you find some of the products:
After playing around with two sets of the Block Numbers, I decided I wouldn't need to use the two leftover numbers that didn't fit into my idea. You'll find that the packaging order of the blocks is actually the best setup that forms a near-perfect rectangle. But I kept on because I knew it would somehow work.
I chose to work on the front numbers first and pleasantly found that by using the 6 as a 9,
my plan worked! I mean, who's gonna really care that it's really a 6 used upside down?
So I used my (very old) craft mat to help me flip the entire thing over.
I had to be careful to make sure it was in the same order, so I picked up each to double-check.
We were in Florida at the time I was finally getting to play with these blocks, so I had time.
And since it was the very week of our 39th Anniversary... I had motive!
By the time I was ready to sand down the blocks, we were home from Florida and
already packed back up again- camping in Hillsburo, Ohio, for the P2P
Family Camp, which runs for a week. This year, 4 sets of Besties were together-
along with over 1,000 other campers walking to and fro for all the programs.
I was also using my very old (retired, but I really wish Tim would make these again)
Sanding Block with a couple of refill sheets. (Since it's retired, I added the all-new
Tim Holtz Distress Sanding Discs for you up above on that list.)
You can see how I made sure, for the third time, it was all in order after sanding was complete.
My plan book shows the order I settled on while down at the Florida house.
Layering was a bit tricky...
Was I going to level all the black areas?
Or was I going to level all the number faces?
After looking at all the angles, I settled on having all the black areas level together.
Why? Because when it was stacked up like that, the view off the side was
one of a giant old wooden stamp!
I began with the BOTTOM layer- because it was going to stand up,
I was going to need to make sure it was level on the bottom.
I used the top view (looking down at the "wall" of my blocks stacked)
to make the black areas level together as I built upward.
GLOSSY ACCENTS !!! Easy to use, dries FAST and SURE!!!
Here is where it gets even trickier.
I ended up going backward from that last bottom block, to the 4 then 8, 9, and 1.
Then I just filled in all the rest as they fit.
I admit to needing LOTS of pressured sanding on that little number 7's sides
for it to be the last fit into that groove between the two blacks. Whew!
This is where I stopped to make sure the back of the blocks were also all level when laid flat.
Meaning the black areas all leveled together and the numbers were all the same level.
You can see the spaces left in just a couple spots... and they were CUTE!
Next, some embellishments!
I did use the Distress Crayons and (retired) Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder
(in Vintage Photo) to give a lot of faux rust to the Odds and Ends. PERFECT TOUCH!
I brought it back from Hillsburo and put it on top of my black filing cabinet.
Below are the rest of the photos- including some closeups.
I cut the plastic that held this frame piece and glued it to the INSIDE.
Then printed out one of my mini-print B&W paper photos to fit inside.
Have we really changed that much?!
Just the 2 of us- on the road anyway!
Our special numbers!
Those BACKSIDE numbers look pretty cool also!
I may add photos later into those spaces.
Thanks so much for joining me on another crafting adventure here on Inspiration Ave!
Be sure to come back for more AWESOME projects from the rest of our Design Team!
I hope you'll keep busy while you're waiting on all the new Tim Holtz goodies, and don't forget to go over to The Funkie Junkie Boutique- just in case you forgot anything for Halloween !
Until next time...
Stay Safe &
HAPPY BLOGGING!!
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