I love a good challenge...

I'm really hooked on creating for challenges lately. I think it is because it gives me a jump start and gets my creative juices flowing. I decided to play along with this week's American Crafts Challenge. The challenge was to use an enlarged photo on a LO. I found this sweet one of my niece and really liked the childlike, playful feel it projected and decided to use that as inspiration... It's hard to see in the photo but I did a technique on the clouds. I used an embossing pen to color a few clouds and then I heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. It gives it some definition. Here is a closeup of one of the clouds for a better look (P.S. Isn't that googley eyed birdie cute!?)...

You can find a GREAT video on this technique by Kelly Purkey HERE.

The journaling for this LO is a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson:
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

Supply List: EVERYTHING is American Crafts except the bird stamp (hero arts), buttons, and black frame (basic grey)

I'll be back sometime this weekend. I am super busy planning my dad's 60th surprise birthday party which is on Saturday! Thanks for stopping by.