Word Inchie Inkling Challenge

This month's challenge at Inchie INKlings is to create an inchie that uses a word (or words). Ellen created some lovely inchies with words that described different aspects of herself...that kind of inspired me to find a word that I would use to describe someone: my oldest son, Ziggy, who is blind.

The one word that always comes in to my mind for him is "faith." He even has a shirt with this verse on it, which pretty much says what he feels:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)"

When Ziggy was younger, one of his favorite shapes was stars, so I thought I'd put them on his Inchie. He tells me his favorite color is blue, so I chose a dark blue, like a night sky, where the stars are placed.

We've talked about the sky and the stars and how, above all of that seemingly endless canopy of stars, is God. And He placed each star in its spot, and He made Ziggy exactly like He wanted, and He loves Ziggy...and Ziggy has faith in God. And it's not a faith like he needs something as a last resort to cling on to, or because there's nothing better out there to believe in...but faith because it's the truth, and he can depend on it, always...and I can't argue with that...


So I put the word "faith" in Braille on top of the Inchie, so Ziggy could see it first (now, I hate showing stuff that others can't produce themselves, so I apologize for that, but if you ever need something brailled, let me know, and I'll see what I can do to get it to you).

I wanted the Braille to look like stars in the night sky, so I highlighted them with my stardust pen. Added a few stars, and the print word "faith."


SUPPLIES:
Stamps.....Everyday Blessings (PTI), Special Occasions Mega Pack (Inkadinkado)
Ink....Noir (Palette), Night Sky (Versamagic chalk ink), Versamark
Paper...Inchie squares, Solid Indigo (DCWV)
Misc...stardust pen (Sakura), Braille writer, glue

So, it's kind of a simple Inchie, but that really is Ziggy: simple faith in the God who is above us all...Good night, my Sweet Prince...

Flower Inchie

Last month's Inchie Challenge was to create an Inchie with a flower image. I didn't feel like doing the lavender one again, so I used a portion of my Lockhart Picnic stamp. I stamped it on some Memory Box Homespun paper, and colored it with some Copics (they did okay on this paper, but not great). Added some Sakura Stardust to some of the flowers, and GLITTER to the edge of the Inchie...

The little pearls are just snipped off from a strand of pearls (you can buy them at Joann's), and I put them there to cover up a bare spot :)



SUPPLIES: Stamp...Picnic (Lockhart), Tiny Words (Clearly Wordsworth)
Ink...Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper...Homespun (Memory Box)
Misc...Rose Quartz glitter (Martha Stewart), Mono-multi glue, Copics, Sakura Stardust pen, white pearls (Joann's), white Inchie squares




And, today...we had sunshine!!! My furry girls looked so sweet out in the sun, so I snapped a quick photo (one of the few times that they weren't chasing eachother). They look so much better today; yesterday, their beards were covered with yellow paint, because both of them decided to eat a tube of yellow artist oil paint. And I had nothing better to do than spend a few hours at the Vet's office and shampoo a few carpets...oil paint is really hard to get out of the rug, I might add...

But today, the sun did shine, and we had no disasters :)

Touchable Things

I made a couple of Inchies in September (wow, was it really a couple of months ago...seems like yesterday) for Ellen Hutson's "Inchie Inklings Challenge." The theme was 3-D Inchies...This challenge was alot of fun, and I actually had tons of ideas. I ended up making 2 inchies. Peter thought they were cute...which is sweet, because he never really comments on the cards we make, but these were worthy of his close-up examination; how sweet is that?


Anyways, the first was made using the Itty Bitty Lavender stamp. I found this neat product called "Flower Soft" (www.katysuedesigns.com) at my LSS. It comes in a variety of soft colors, but when I saw the lavender, I knew I just had to use in on my Lockhart stamp.

To use it, just apply glue to paper, and sprinkle the product on...let dry, then fluff it up a bit (kind of like you do with Fun Flock). I also decided to make some mini lavender stems for my daughter's doll. This was done by dipping small pieces of floral wire in glue, then pressing the Flower Soft on glued area.



The second inchie was done by stamping a Lockhart IB butterfly on vellum. I colored it with colored pencils, covered the image with versamark, then mixed glitter and clear embossing power together, and heated it. The result was sort of opalescent; kind of neat. Background paper is Ariel from Memory Box. I first stamped the sentiment on the paper, but messed up, so covered it with sentiment stamped on vellum. Sentiment is from PTI's Mixed Messages. I wanted more sparkles, so I applied glue and crystal glitter to the edges of the inchie...Then I glued the little butterfly on the paper so that it looked like her path was one of the swirls on the DP.




And for some more Touchable Things...
Ziggy's school had an Open House, and we got to check out some of his classes. The school recently opened a new permanent exhibit, which I absolutely love. It is called "Sensory Safari" and is a room filled with taxidermied wildlife for the students to touch. With each animal is a printed and brailled description of facts pertaining to that animal (as well as an audio description, which can be listened to on headphones).

Here are Ziggy and Peter checking out one of the animals:
I am so excited about this exhibit...when Ziggy was young, I had no way of showing him what wild or exotic animals looked like. Most children can watch a video, check photos on the internet, find a picture in a book, or even go to the zoo to see these animals. But blind children have no way to do this. I used to try to give him a sense of what these animals were like by using small toys. I would also "make" exotic animals by describing an animal based on known animals' parts (like a giraffe has neck kind of like a horse, but much longer...a lion's paws are like the cat's paws but 7 times as large). I know it seems like a trivial thing; there are other issues to worry about. But to not have this basic knowledge or exposure to nature is just one more thing that sets these kids apart as different. And it bugs me...

When Ziggy was 6 years old, we got to visit a sensory safari at a conference for the blind. I cried tears of joy to see him finally touch a lion...and it was quite a sight to see him with one hand in his mouth, and the other in a bear's mouth, comparing teeth! I hoped that it wouldn't be the only time in his life that he would see these things, though.

So now, he's 15, and gets to see the animals again. But not just the one time! The exhibit is there permanently..and not just for him, but for the other young blind students at the school. And that warms my heart...

These are some touchable things I love to look at.