We just passed our 38th Wedding Anniversary on July 14th. In June, we celebrated 40 years of being a couple together. I always loved summer break and that's why we were married on a beautiful summer evening at 6:30 in 1984. My, but we were still kids at ages 18 & 21. I've laid off the makeup since then, my hair got much lighter blonde (probably sun-bleached) and I've enjoyed more sunning for bronzer skin over the years, too. Summer is still my 'thing'! It's still Summer right now, folks! I deplore the idea that Summer is 'almost over' just because your local schools announce their starting dates. I'm very much the old-fashioned thinking that school should begin after Labor Day and end by Memorial Day- in entirety (graduation and all). Our Boomer Generation grew up like that and look at all the things we managed to build. Even all the years I worked in our own school system's classrooms; I felt this weigh on my mind heavily since ours followed "The 100 Days" rule that made both semesters include a full 100 days. Thank GOD they went to all day Kindergarten after I "retired" because that is another beef with me. My own Kids choose as they wish for my Grandbabies, but I still feel babies under 5 belong at home for the most hours of a day. I'm mollified with the fact that their Preschool hours and Daycare hours do fall well below the full day of kindergartens. My own 2 boys were never in any kind of preschool or day away type of thing, as we never had any kind of outside help once I stayed at home after Brett was born (I worked until Brian was almost 3 yrs old). Yet both in accelerated classes, were early readers, and absolutely loved to read. I whole heartedly allowed Teachers to use that blessing in order to help others who fell below the averages. This gave our boys early experience in being helpful to others- one that serves them very well to this day! Our Daughters are also both high achievers with each having a college degree yet balancing the act of staying home with children full time- not a feat for the faint of heart. I did both (as did they- Ashley finishing her bachelor's degree and Holli teaching HS English Lit) working with one baby till the next came along. From then on, I was "at home". Those quotes are soooo misgiving! I was home, in the car, at the grocery, in the park, at the school, at all the Scout activities, at all the games, at all the Band practices, at the homes of their friends for drop-offs/pick-ups. You get the idea: not once was "at home" actually about being AT HOME, let alone sitting down for any length of time. I never once saw one soap opera. And for almost all of those things; the ChiefHubby and I actually led them, so we always had more than just our own 2 kids. I was even the first female to coach a YMCA Flag Football Team. Staying at home is MUCH harder than most people think, and definitely; it is not for everyone. You're on call 24/7/365 and there are NO "days off" since your job happens to be where you also are "off" at. You learn that there are always interruptions, and nothing- NO THING - gets totally finished... at all. And now I'm a Memaw. Not much has changed, other than going back and forth to our kids' homes instead of only being at my own. But: I would not trade my life for anything in this world!!! If there's one thing, I am changing at all, it's being there for my Daughters- to give them a break the way the ChiefHubby and I never had anyone to give us time away. I'm still juggling everything, just different things to keep in the air all at the same time, without dropping any, lol! We're currently in Ohio for the annual People to People Retreat, camping along with 3 sets of Besties. While the internet has not been as kind to me for getting this out, I can only hope to try again (and again and again...) to get it all loaded up to the internet before I leave home. Right... *sigh*
With all that in mind, you can see where my ArtMuse was led in creating this latest make. I'm going to give you the actual description for this newest Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge; "Scotch it is!" since it's definitely something that's never crossed my mind doing- even as a close Irish lass! Suzz is leading this one and she googled what July 27th is and it came up as National Scotch Day. She goes on to say "Why not be inspired by Scotch? I am going to take great liberties with this and say you can be inspired by Scotch in any way you want to interpret it including and not limited to: tape, plaid, liquor or any way you are inspired by the word Scotch. Make sure to share with us how you were inspired!"
So let's get started!
I started with Eileen Hull's Waterfall & Tags Die in order to have the right sized tag.
Then ran the chosen papers (Ciao Bella's Underwater Love and Tim Holtz's Kraft Stock- Cool)
through my Big Shot for the tag shapes. I ran the TH Kraft Stock (a light greenish) through a
a second time using the Tim Holtz Simple Plaid Thinlit Die.
This is the finished background for the tag- both sides look the same for now.
If you've seen the movies "Finding Nemo" and "Finding Dory",
then this will look familiar to you: the grate that is leading to the outside!
I love how the Simply Plaid Thinlit cuts so precisely like plaid, yet it can be clipped apart
in several ways to create a lot of other shapes for other uses beyond plaid!
Then I got out Tim's Sea Life Stamps (one of my fave sets) and took out the Octopus
to match up with Tim's newest release in the Distress line: Unchartered Mariner Distress Oxide.
Oh! My! Goodness!
That color is fast becoming THE color on my "Fave List"!!!
As a sailor with her own sailboat.... this just describes me to a T!!!
Ollie Octopus makes another appearance!
You can see my other creation with Ollie in Summer Fish. I stamped her TWICE this time, since I needed to double up on her head and arms.
Don't forget to clean your TH stamps with a good stamp cleaner.
I found that this Ranger cleaner helps me out by smelling like bubble gum!
Next, I used Archival Ink to make a stamp of all the items Ollie will have in her... hands??
You can see the string for the deflated balloon is not included in the first stamping.
It's laying on top so I could stamp it onto the deflated balloon later.
Here is where I made a second middle-sized heart as well as the string attachment to the balloon.
I made sure I heat dried every stamped image- even the archival inked- to be sure it was all dry.
Then I chose colors I needed out of my Distress Crayons. I noticed I had no true red shade for the US Flag in my crayon sets, so that's on my list for my next The Funkie Junkie Boutique order. ;)
The technique I chose in coloring (other than the 1 TH Distress Marker in Barn Red)
was simply smudging with my finger.
I came across a very old, and now retired, blending smudger tool in my drawer
and decided to use it on the US Flag. It worked very nicely, so I used my TH Tiny Snips
to cut off the used parts as I went along on all the other smaller items to color.
Here's the TH Distress Crayon colors I've used and the finished colored items.
Don't fret about the outside lines... those will be gone after cutting.
I needed the help of the tweezers, but fussy cutting with TH Tiny Snips is easy.
TH Black Soot Oxide -by Blending Tool- on the outside edges helps the black lines to pop more
and gives some depth to the items.
Back to Ollie Octopus...and her arms.
I cut both out using the Tiny Snips, and used some Sizzix Double Sided Foam Tape
to pop out her lower head and the first set of tentacles.
The rest of one Ollie had her tentacles removed... ouch!
After inking the edges of the full Ollie, for depth, with TH Black Soot Oxide and then
on the bottom edges of the tentacles for the second cut up Ollie,
I used Speckled Egg Oxide on the top edges.
This helped make the depth look even deeper for a 3D appearance.
I used a long cut off tentacle adhered to a short arm on the full Ollie.
Rolling them together opposite sided helped make the tentacle look "turned" around.
You can see in the circle- it helped look like an elbow of sorts.
This way, the arm looks turned without showing the white cardstock backside!
Simply repeat as needed for each arm tentacle, leaving a tiny space for the item to go inside.
Here's the things I used to make this tag...
You can click on the links below to help you shop for the items easier...
And this is what Ollie ended up as; VERY occupied!
FRONT SIDE
If you've got Grandkids, you're surely familiar with "Memaw, hold this for me."
as well as the term "holding them all in my arms at once- no matter where they are"!
This is how I came up with the title- from living experience in June this year.
I wouldn't trade that experience for anything on this earth,
and I look very forward to the next time, too!
The BACK SIDE
I've used the first layer sideways on the FRONT SIDE, but this shows
the correct facing for that particular paper.
Thanks so very much to everyone for taking the time to look into my makes,
and for the kind comments/likes left on all my SMS!
Here's YOUR chance to make something for
with a chance at a $25 GC or a Guest Designer spot- Sponsored by
There's one more thing...
I'll be heading up another SATURDAY SHOWCASE for July 30th- this Saturday!
So, I'll just leave this here for now
and hope you'll be back to join me for that!
STAY SAFE &
HAPPY BLOGGING!!
The Funkie Junkie Challenge; "Scotch It Is!"
