Swirlydoos Ultimate Design Challenge - Week 3

Want to see what's been keeping me busy this week? I mean besides substitute teaching and feeding everything with a mouth around here?

I made the Round 3 cut for the Swirlydoos Ultimate Design Challenge and got to play for another week. This week's project was courtesy of Miranda - who expected us to ::GASP:: work with METAL! Oh dear. Does she not know about my long standing feud with all things steam punky and industrial? In fact, I have such a hard time with this particular genre' that I've invented my own signature style and named it "Country Punk" just in desperation to prevent being laughed out of next county.

No matter. Metal foil tape, embossing, and altered items. That was the assignment, so up with the rolling of the sleeves, and down with the lump in my throat, and into the mucky mess with my fingers, and out came ....this.

Which is not so bad, if I say so myself. Pat's Signature Country Punk strikes again!

The album is an old BoBunny Word Book, which has been sitting in my project closest gathering dust and waiting for the right moment to become what its destiny dictated. This was it, I think.

I covered the word plates with metal foil tape, ran them through my big shot - some with embossing folders, some with embossing plates. Then covered them with black paint and some alcohol ink. After that - it was just the embellishing, using a bunch of little bits and pieces of stuff.

The feathers are courtesy of my chickens and my bluebirds. The little fence is a wood piece from my stash, colored with distress markers. The bingo bits are our house number. The clock is a Keisercraft wooden piece. The gears came in a Swirlydoos kit from a while back. The little hearts are die cut leftovers, covered with champagne glitter glass.

The metal butterfly is tethered to the family plate - sort of symbolic, I think. We all need to find our wings, but our family keeps us tethered and secure as a resting place when the winds get too strong. The little flower in the heart on the right is a single earring that belonged to my younger daughter. I found it when she moved out and couldn't bear to throw it out. I'm glad, because it's found its new home here.

The ribbon - I was very happy to use so much from my almost bottomless stash. I'm not even sure I made a dent.

Thanks for looking! LOVE to hear what you think.