"Before" and "After" Pictures of My "Thong"

Remember this "before" picture of "my thong"? You know, the "weird stuff" that was sent to me for the "thong" challenge I posted about HERE?
Well, here’s the "After" picture of what I made from the "weird stuff." The industrial green and red wires, mica, tag, ball chain, wooden circles, and resistors were all incorporated into this layout.



When we do these challenges, everyone tries to disguise their "style" and anything else (like backgrounds) that might give your entry away. I haven't made a "12x12" layout in forever, so I thought now would be a good time. And it was so hard not to add distress ink to anything--which is something I always do. I also didn't want to use a picture of my own kids, so, a big thank you to my friend Ruth for letting me use the picture of her beautiful grandchildren for this challenge!

I used everything that was sent to me...and here’s what I did to the stuff.

I twisted the industrial red and green wires together and then put them through my paper crimper. They were still ugly so I colored them with alcohol ink and a gold Krylon pen and used it as a frame for the picture.

I painted the ball chain pink, formed an "L" with it and adhered it with Glossy Accents to one of the mica pieces, which I had peeled and split into three pieces.


For three of the resistors, I formed a circle with them and placed it on top of one of the wooden disks. Both disks were added to the bunch of flowers.
I added my own junk to the layout...the metal flower center is from a pair of earrings I got at an estate sale for $1.00.

I sandwiched the typed words "at first sight" between the remaining two pieces of mica and layed it on top of the tag that was sent.

The other three tan resisters were used to hang three painted baby charms from ACharmingPlace.com from the loops of that big ol’ button I received. I covered part of the button with printed twill because it was kinda ugly!

And here’s what the eleven other creative ladies did with their "thong" — so fun and so much creativity!

Sweet 16...

It seems like just yesterday when my youngest was born (the one being kissed by Joey in this picture).

But my baby girl turned
Sweet 16 today.

Time sure flies!




Kathryn went from wanting a big "Lazertag" party at the beginning of the year, to wanting just three of her closest friends over for a sleep-over. They had a great time together!

Happy Birthday Kathryn!

WICKED!

Kathryn and I had some WICKED fun last night with 18 other "crafty" ladies from Scrapbook U!
Monica, the owner of Scrapbook U, arranged for all of us to have dinner, then travel on BART (which was right across the street from the theater!) to see Wicked at The Orpheum Theater. It was an awesome show, and to see it with friends was especially nice. I’m ready to see it again! I doubt I will ever catch up to Monica, who has seen it eight times now!

Fabric ATC and Metal Embossed Letter

Good thing I posted two things on Thursday because I didn’t get to "play" on Friday because I was prepping for class. Didn’t "play" today either because I was teaching.

Even though I didn’t get to "play", I am posting two projects I did earlier this month so I don’t get out of the habit of blogging :)

First — an ATC I made for my friend, Leah. She made me an ATC, so this is the ATC I made to trade with her. Whenever Leah is planning on taking a trip to see her girlfriends, she gets lots of ironing done for her hubby. (Iron in one hand, suitcase in the other!)

So in the hopes that she comes visit me soon, I made her this fabric ATC with a vintage image of a girl ironing. The image is covered with acrylic (that’s why there is a glare) and the edged are Stickled. Charms from ACharmingPlace were colored with alcohol inks and layered using double-sided red tape

Second -- a paper mache letter that I covered (both sides) with embossed metal and added layered charms from ACharmingPlace. Hopefully, I will play on Sunday!

Acrylic ATC and Thank You Card

Don’t fall over...but this is two posts in one day!

After working on my "thong," I received inspiration today via email and snail-mail. In the mail, I received a couple of gold butterfly and flower sticker sets from Helena. She sent them to me as a little prize for answering one of her questions in bingo last month on ACP.

I made an acrylic ATC and used a Sakura Glaze pen to color in the butterfly stickers, a rub-on by Rhonna Farrer, Heidi Swapp bling, and edged the ATC with a Gold Krylon pen.

In my email today, I received Julia Andrus’s newsletter which had a couple of free downloads for some vintage bottle caps. She is also having a Spring Challenge so I used one of the downloads and made this entry. You can find both the bottle cap download and the Spring Challenge information on Julia Andrus’s website.

My Thong...

Today I will be working on my "thong." Here’s a picture of the items I received in my envelope: wires, ball chain, two wooden circles, a gold embellishment, resistors, a tag and some mica.

A little history...a few years ago I started a challenge called, "Mystery Double Dog Dare" (MDDD) where I mailed those willing to take the challenge, a mystery object that they had to make something out of. The item I sent everyone was a four slot microscope slide holder. In all of our joking around, somehow the "mystery object" I mailed everyone ended up being referred to as a "thong"–and the nickname has stuck ever since. All the "thong" entries I received were very creative.

This month, Leah is hosting the MDDD at ACP, and this is the "thong" she sent everyone. So now I have to create something from all, some or just one of these items. We can do anything we want to this thong...rip it, cut it, slice it, dice it, rearrange it, turn it inside out, ink it, whatever....we get free reign.

After we alter the thong, we send a picture back to the hostess and she anonymously posts everyone’s entries. Everyone then tries to guess who made which thong...and there are various prizes for those with the most correct guesses, least correct guesses, etc. Very challenging but fun!

So that’s one of the things I’ll be working on today...and maybe something else as well...so stay tuned :)

Paint Resist ATC

I spent today holding down the couch–still sick. But after dinner I decided I’d try something quick that I could post on my blog for today. I pulled out my copy of Somerset Apprentice to try Michelle Ward’s Gesso Resist. I have gesso, in fact, I think I have two bottles of it—neither of which I could quickly find. I seriously need to organize my room again.

So, instead of gesso, I substituted a Pearl Dabber by Ranger because I know the dabbers also act as a resist. When my paint stamped image was dry, I painted over it completely with some Making Memories metallic emerald paint, misted it with water, and then wiped off the paint.

Here’s the Somerset Apprentice article, the paper I started with (lower left-old basic grey paper) the Stampers Anonymous stamp I used, and under the stamp and to the right is what the paper looked like after it was stamped and painted.

I stamped one of Tim Holtz’s Natural Beauty stamps onto a transparency using Adirondack Pitch Black pigment ink, quickly heat set it, and used Glossy Accents to attach it to the ATC background. I stamped the quote (from the same stamp set) onto a piece of mica using the pitch black ink and heat set it as well. I attached the mica to the transparency with glossy accents. Alcohol inks were used to edge the mica, and I used a half of a butterfly charm and swirl charm (from ACharmingPlace.com) for an antennae.

So...that's three days in a row of blogging...I hope tomorrow will be four days in a row!