What Do Weathered Wood And Childhood Memories Have In Common?

Absolutely nothing, but I'm once again getting a twofer out of one project for this week's challenges.

While Simon Says stamp and show us a childhood memory, Linda says, use Tim's weathered wood grunge technique.  And Eileen (that would be me) says continue using up some of the junk  stuff on and around your table (which includes the floor as well as any other surface that will support a pile).

So, here's what I came up with, and I have to say, I'm liking it.

First of all, let me assure you, I did NOT attend classes in a little red schoolhouse.  But I thought it conveyed a nice old time feeling.  With a little snipping, I converted Tim's Rickety House into a schoolhouse.  I cut it from a bright red tag I had lying around, then ran it through the brick embossing folder, and toned the red down with both black soot and vintage photo distress inks.

Both the background paper and schoolhouse door are leftovers from something.....a salted background technique which came out a bit too dark for the intended purpose.

The weathered wood grunge technique can be seen on the picket fence.  My elementary school (P.S. 213 in Brooklyn, NY, USA) was three stories high, built of light colored brick, and had an iron gate around it.  Let's just call it artistic license and move on.   The fence is one of Tim's dies, it was cut from grungepaper, and without giving away the directions, I used the wood embossing folder, lake mist paint dabber, and walnut stain distress ink.  I hope you can get a close up view of the fence because I think it really does look like weathered wood.

The flying American flag is a salvage sticker (the seasonal pack).  The little girls sitting on the fence (on a part of the fence where the points had broken off, of course) are from a Red Lead stamp, a stamp of an all girls class photo.  I'd stamped it several times for a project and this was one of the rejects.  So I just cut out this section, which had stamped well, and sat the girls down.  I used pop dots, so in person they do appear to be on top of the fence.

So, there you have it.  A weathered wood fence and a childhood memory.

Oh, and completely off topic, I'm very excited to say I just signed up for a stamp carving workshop with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at The Ink Pad.  I'm going with friends and I can't wait!