Big Bill's Lab

Hello All,

Today marks a special day. It is the first day of Spring and I have been asked to be the guest designer for The Male Room! I know during this time of overwhelming confusion, fear, and quarantine there is one thing that is true, family. More about that later. What a wonderful and fitting time for this challenge. Here is my card for today, enjoy!

I just love the Art Deco sentiment and its gold adornments. Lots of old relics on this card signifying all the things that were found in my grandfather's lab. I sponged the masked areas using DI: Gathered Twigs, Tumbled Glass, Scattered Straw, and Hickory Smoke.

The Male Room

Challenge #132

Above: All sorts of items from Big Bill's microscope to all his beakers. I left the colors monochromatic with a bit of turquoise. Big Bill's lab had painted teal floors throughout. Left/Below: I stamped a microscope and sponged the area using an old, but good, technique; masking using Post-It Notes. Right/Bottom: He also had this old-style typewriter and of course a ton of beakers. Again using the Post-It masking technique. I mixed the ink color for the images from black to brown.

 

When I was a child I lived in a duplex. A duplex is one house that has two living units. I lived downstairs with my dad and upstairs lived Mickey Nana and Big Bill, or Grandma and Grandpa. I had the unique opportunity of living downstairs from my grandparents for many years. Getting between the units proved to be a bit unconventional; you had to pass through the garage, the lab, and down the staircase. 

Yes, the lab! Big Bill was a chemist during his working years and brought a lot of his equipment with him during retirement. He had a motley of trinkets, things, and objects in his lab. Including a drawing table and chair (I would give my eye teeth to have nowadays), chemicals in glass containers, beakers, tubes, hand and machine tools of all sorts, books, and books on science, engineering, nature, you name it he had it. That is why I designed this card to be a ton of things all together on one-panel, just like his lab. 

When he died we donated most of his chemistry equipment to my high school and the rest we auctioned off. I dream about the lab every now and then and upon waking up I always find myself smiling that I had the privilege to live with such a remarkable person, my Grandfather, Big Bill.

Well, that is all for me!! I want to thank The Male Room again for this amazing opportunity to be their guest designer this fortnight. I also want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to join me at TheGrandStampede. If you are new to my blog, please consider following me to get all my postings. If you are so inclined to leave a comment and let me know how I am doing, that would be great too.

I hope you all have a fantastic day and lots of good crafting vibes headed your way. Stay safe and healthy!!

All the best,