Summer Of Color!

I have an admission - I've never participated in a weekly challenge before (much less daily) - I'm always worried about overcommitting myself what with the day job and all, and finding myself not actually enjoying what I'm doing.  But I can't resist Kristin's Summer of Color challenge - it's laid back, no pressure, a great group of participants, and most of all run by Kristin, who I just love. Well, okay another motivator is that every week's theme is a flavor of Ice Cream - by far my BIGGEST weakness, among many.

The first weeks ice cream inspiration is Rainbow Sherbet....Yummm....

As I thought about it, the idea of a Rainbow Sherbet rainbow popped into my head, and there was no going back.  This kind of sweet, childlike piece is not something I would probably normally make (mostly because my nieces and nephews are all too old now, so I'm not as inspired as I used to be) but I think that's what's good about a challenge like this -  it leads you to go outside your usual comfort zone and do something different.  And I really enjoyed it....(In spite of the dry time!)

I'm doing a p.s. and adding to this post - I was planning to talk a little about how I made this when I made the original post, then things got crazy on me at work and I just hit "publish".  So now, since a few people have asked - my secret ingredient for the clouds was a pre-mixed little tub of drywall repair compound.  I spread it all over a 6"x12" piece of wood, then created the "rainbow" by trying to just glop it down in round lumps. It's a little tricky - you don't want to squish it, but you have to work it in enough that it all holds together. And it needed lots of drying time - I'd touch the top layer which would feel dry, then press harder and a whole chunk would shift!  Then it was just layers of paint, and a layer of wax.  The letters are stamped onto tissue paper, laid on the top layer of wax, then heated with a heat gun enough for the wax to absorb the paper.  If any of you have any other questions, please just e-mail - I love sharing techniques with people...