It's the month of MAY already! We're full into the swing of Spring here in Indiana, with morel mushroom season still going strong. My season usually starts on April 23rd as the earliest I've ever found them in our area/lake, but I found the first one on April 16th- a new early record broken in all 35 years hunting them out here. A good handful each trip/day out and a couple of good meals out of them. I've put half the 50 plus (so far) into freeze mode so the younger kids can have some when they come down in June. The near-record rain levels helped, and high 70s/low 80s with sun makes for a LOT of mushrooms to be found. The oldest 2 Grands helped find one large one, but have their minds more set on "creeking" and "crawdadding" again. Just as we got busy getting deck furniture out, and cleaning up the damage winter did on the yard, it was time for the ChiefHubby to take off to the Dakotas with our Bestie who came up from Florida with work to do out there. They 'worked' hard catching a mess of Walleye in South Dakota before heading up to North Dakota. Meanwhile, I kept busy shrooming and enjoyed seeing Peanut in his first program at school on Thursday, April 25th. The combined 4 Kindergarten classes sang "Lean on Me" and "We Will Rock You".... very COOL!! He found Mommy, Daddy, Memaw, and Papaw in the audience and - of course, only MY Grandkids- started making faces. Our four Grands are well-known for giving us entertaining laughs that last. Their thought process is strictly all their original own! The next morning, it was Princess Chloe who had Grandparents Day at her Preschool, and I thoroughly enjoyed our time together and seeing how proud she was to have a "big desk" this year! She's moving up to the big school for Kindergarten this fall. It seems that since we've been back from Florida (and even before when I flew up to NY), I've attended quite a few of our Grandkids' programs and school happenings.... and it's really AWESOME they are all four excited to share it all with us 2 old folks!! I spent my life being all about my ChiefHubby and our boys and now it's expanded to make me feel blessed beyond compare! I'm going to do as much as I can with all four of them because I know from raising our own 2 Sons, how quickly time passes. Three birthdays have already passed (older Daughter, Ashley, Princess Chloe, and younger Son, Brett) with Brian's on Thursday, May 2nd at 4:45am... he'll be 35. Ok, now THAT makes me feel old-er. :) The older kids took off to Michigan for a long weekend right after the last event, and since the ChiefHubby is gone- I've had time to get quite a few things going here at home. But mostly trekking the woods, lol!
Sizzix Vault Dies are back- with the next chapter in a long-awaited line of old favorites from Tim Holtz! I'm introducing one of my new "go-to" Thinlits Set called Watch Gears- straight out of Tim's Vault, and this one is the bee's knee's! I'm sure everyone is excited about the entire Vault set, but we're going to dole them out to you over the next two weeks, with each Design Team Member taking their turn to bring you the latest in Inspiration Ave! Let's get going with this first one; it's simply awesome!
I grabbed another one, but they all went so FAST!
I wasn't able to get a third set before they were all gone.
But, hang on, Sizzix is working hard to get more going.
Meanwhile, here's a list of LINKS to help you find things I used for this make:
I used Th 3D Embosser Mechanics with some Foundry Wax onto a black cardstock,
then trimmed it down to a tag shape.
I sanded the cardstock down a bit then trimmed a sheet of Backdrops Vol 5.
Now I had a main tag and made my own reinforcers for the top.
I also used some leftovers and ragged it all out with the TH Distresser,
then aged it all with some Distress Oxide in Vintage Photo and Black Soot.
TH Out of the Vault Watch Gears... I open mine up and count them out to make sure it's all there.
It's really going to be COOL not to have to haul around the Bigz Dies,
but it's also cool to still have them for heavy duty cutting!
I got busy with a lot of scrap paper stock- just cutting what I wanted.
I make a plan with the dies, take a pic of it and refer to it as needed.
I used my TH Glass Media Mat to space it out evenly.
I used real metal Long Fasteners to secure the gears into the watch.
Then I used Dura Lar for the glass and taped the sides with TH Tissue Tape (retired).
And here's the resulting Tag:
Feature: Tim Holtz newest Vault Thinlits Die Sets- Watch Gears
FRONT
A bow from ragged, Distress-Oxided old ribbon.
IdeaOlogy items- some retired.
The gears are all in pastel which I kept unaged/unDistressed.
See what I did there? ;) Yep- that's a word. I made that up, myself,
and it means I chose not to use TH Distress Inks/Oxides.
My Grandbabies are the gears that keep me going all the time.
Some old TH Ticket Booth
The BACK: The Grandbabies are all characters of many faces & talents that keep me laughing!
That's a wrap for this production!
THANK YOU for joining me for some fun entertainment!
Be sure to check back in at the Inspiration Ave Blog
for more Tim Holtz Vault Die inspirational makes
from TFJB's Design Team- coming up in the next few days!
And don't forget to pop into The Funkie Junkie Boutique
for all your crafting needs at a price that can't be beat!
Until next time...
Stay Safe &
HAPPY BLOGGING!!
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