The Eyes of Lost

This past summer we found that the TV series LOST was available for streaming through Netflix and made an almost nightly ritual of watching it as a family.  The kids, 14 year old J-Girl and 12 year old J-Boy, were so into it, and it was really cool to watch a "real" show with them.  My babies are growin' up!

And I am ruined for watching live TV.  I can't deal with all the commercials, so love my DVR and Netflix, and can't fight the indulgence of watching multiple episodes at a time, or at least not having to wait a suspenseful week for the next installment.

Watching this way, there may be some artistic subtleties that would go unnoticed if having to wait seven days for the next episode.  In LOST, you might be surprised how many opening scenes begin with a close up shot of someone's eye.  We would laugh every time!  It became a family inside joke to the point that we were screwing around with the cell phone camera and taking pictures of each others eyes one day.  At that point, I knew a scrapbook page was in order.


When the creative lovelies over at Punky Scraps put together a challenge including of all things, a picture of your eye, I knew I had found my muse!  While only 2 items needed to be included to fulfill the challenge, I think I got all but one on this page.

Here's the list of elements they challenged to be included in the layout:


     Hessian/Mesh (I had to look that one up: hessian=burlap)
     A tag
     Steampunk imagery
     Your own handwriting
     Black mist
     A picture of your eye(s); what do they say/mean to you?
     Lace of any kind
     Doodling
     Metal

And here is my resulting layout:

Bazzill Cardstock; My Mind's Eye and DCWV papers; StazOn and Distress Inks; Stampin' Up and unknown stamps; found mesh, burlap, and transparent box; Elco 19g wire; Craft Essentials paint; Sharpie, Uniball, and Stampin' Up pens

Ok, so the fun began when I printed out the pictures of our eyes.  J-Girl had just opened a new package of sewing machine needles and I found the plastic packaging under the dining room table and toyed with the idea of doodling a TV set to go over one of the eyes to play up the visual of what the essence of this story is.

I didn't have any black mist, so I diluted some black acrylic paint in a little mister bottle.  The result is kind of gray, and if you have seen the show, perhaps you will recognize my ode to the Smoke Monster.

I was multi-tasking as we combed through thrift stores and costume shops last month.  I was hunting for one of  those  lapel pins with wings that commercial pilots used to give kids when they'd fly for the first time (back when a budding aviator could tour the cockpit!).  No luck, but while surfing the net last week, I came across an awesome alternative idea and instructions for making DIY paperclips over at The Sweetest Occasion.  I had found the perfect way to incorporate metal into my project, get an airplane on it, and give a nod to that fateful flight number:

I will definitely have to work with making more paperclips!  It was very empowering to wrangle that metal into the shape I wanted it to be.  In that respect, I have always admired metal working artists; to take a medium that is seemingly impervious to change and heat it and pound it into submission at the mercy of the artist's imagination--incredible!

Thank you for visiting!