Song Of Spring

It's April 15 - which is tax day, but more importantly it's The Paper Mixing Bowl's reveal day!  I've been sitting on this project for a few weeks, and I'm so excited to get to finally show it to you! 

First off, some background.  

At PMB, every challenge includes a recipe card, which has the challenge specs, a sketch, and some journaling or topic ideas.  Here's this month's card : 

As you can see, it's all about spring and pastels this month, which was really tough for me.  People who know me well know that I love working in the fall color palettes.  For me, any color, as long as it is rich and dark is a winner.  Pastels - man - not so much.  But I'm all about the challenge of stretching myself and working outside my creative box, so I went rummaging through my paper stacks and found a piece from the Webster's Pages "A Sweet Life" collection, another from the Graphic45 "Once Upon a Springtime, a third from the DCWV "Mariposa" collection, and finally, I found one of my beloved polkadot patterns in a stack of MME "Wild Asparagus" collection.  I'm just not ready to START unless I have a polka dot pattern in the mix! 

Papers in hand, I grabbed the gesso and dressed up a chipboard birdcage, fussy cut the little bird out of the Websters paper, and used my Tim Holtz WordPlay die to cut some title letters.  I strung the title on a piece of cotton string, then went rummaging through my flower box to see what might be lurking and waiting to play with my papers.  

I hit pay dirt with some old Prima Camelot roses in pale peach and pink tones.  I grabbed some mini roses that I'd found in the $1 bin at Michaels and dressed those up with some peach tone stickles.  Finally I used some music paper (not sure what the manufacturer was), sprayed it with some sunflower glimmer mist, and cut myself out some 3-d wind up roses.  I love making those.  They all have individual personalities, and it's so fun to see flat paper become a three dimensional piece of floral wonder!  

All that was left to do was ASSEMBLE.   I did a decorative corner punch with a Martha Stewart Wild Flowers deep edge punch, and then I added some final touches.  I dressed the raspberries with some Glossy Accents, created a hanger for the birdcage with some dimensional paint, gave some life to my florals with some wired jewel stems and silk leaves, and used a couple of pop dots to get that bird up in the air.  I even STAMPED on this project!  It's a creative miracle!  

Here's what ended up coming out of my fingers.  

The photo of the robins doesn't even begin to capture the event.  There were literally hundreds of them in my back pasture.  The ground was damp from a fresh rain (Thank You, God), and the birds were having a grand time scratching for bugs.    

I love Spring - the sun is warm, the breeze is cool, hope is alive, and anything is possible.  

Thanks for stopping by, and if you get some time this month, you should try your hand at the Paper Mixing Bowl Challenge for this month.  Grab the link over on the right side of my blog and it'll take you right there!  

It's Not What You Look At...

It's reveal day at Nuts About Sketches.  Here's my interpretation of Sketch #256.  I really do love working with Shawn's sketches - they're so fluid and user friendly.  My Nuts About Sketches projects always turn out great because Shawn's already done all the thinking. I just have to pull out the product and put it together.

I've got a mix of old and new here. The flowers are Primas and have been in my stash forever. The papers are Kaisercraft and are new. The letters come from Graphic45 and they're old. 

Another "old" is the man in the photos - my darling husband of 24 years now.  Every year with him just gets better.  I could not have found a more perfect life companion - he is the string to my kite, keeping me grounded, helping me achieve my dreams by making them more realistic realities.  He is a great conversationalist, has a warm, kind, and loving heart, and has a fun sense of adventure.  Every day with him is a new discovery.  

The photos are from a visit to Blue River last year. I was doing a scrapbook series on the 23rd Psalm and I had a "still waters" image in my head that only THIS particular place could make work.  True to his adventurous spirit, Tom agreed to a day drive, and off we went, taking Cowboy along of course.     

We had a great time. I had my new camera and was learning how to play with the features, but I think Tom had more fun than I did.  He took a quick skinny dip under the bridge. Me, I sat on the bank and played lookout.  I told you he was an adventurous soul!  

Sunrise Series - Week 10

March 3, 2013

Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.”
~Leonora Carrington

Hard to believe but 2013 is 20% over this week.  Today is a gift, grab it, and do something you've been putting off!