TGF's December Retro-Fresh!

Hello!  Back again to share TGF's December Retro-Fresh challenge.  This month is to create a Christmas/Holiday card using non-traditional colors.  I made 2 cards.  The first was a mistake because I forgot that it was retro-fresh and the stamp I used was a new one, not at least 6 months old.  So I made another one in the same style.

This was my first card but I used WS James!  Everything is heat embossed in white onto black cardstock.  That's pretty non-traditional right?  The sentiments are from CC Designs.

Here's my second one that has WS Ryan.  Same but different.

Check out TGF's blog for more non-traditional Christmas/Holiday cards!

Thanks for reading!

Wonderland Checkers

Hi, hi, hi!  I'm kind of excited to share my project today.  Hehe.  I've been wanting to make something like this for a while now and finally completed it yesterday.  I started the project but got kind of stuck and had to rethink some parts.  Then got like an a-ha! moment yesterday which really pushed me through to finishing.  But first let's mention the challenges that inspired this:

TGF's Farm Fresh Challenge Retro-Fresh Blue/berry  Thank goodness this is a month long challenge cause I needed all that time since I got stuck in the process.

Wee Memories Challenge 78--Free for All

and Young Crafters Unite--use dies.

Here is my project.

I made a checkers board game using TGF's Wonderland digi set.  Digital stamps are great for this kind of project.  I thought the blue/berry colors would make a fun board game.  The board itself measures 12 by 12 inches.  I just cut the berry squares and glued them onto the blue cardstock.

I made a little pizza box (measures about 4 by 5.5 inches) to hold the checkers pieces.  The letters were made with PTI's alphabet die set  The digis are relatively small so I had to color carefully.

Inside of the box.  There are 24 pieces, 12 blue and 12 berry.  And yes, small rabbits to color as well.  But with digis it was easy to shrink them down to the size I needed. 

The pieces were made from the smallest Spellbinders lacey circles die.  I had thought about what to make the pieces from and at first I had planned to cut out lots of chipboard and layer them.  Yeah, sound crazy?  I've done crazy kind of cutting before but this time I really just did not feel like cutting out a gazillion little pieces so that's where I got kind of stuck.  So I pushed this project aside and thought I wouldn't get to finish it.  But the other day after I had made my tree stamp out of thick fun foam, I thought, hey, I should use FUN FOAM!  Yay, for FUN FOAM!  Even though the fun foam is thick (6 mm) it is still really easy to cut through in the Big Shot.  So I just had to cut 24 pieces out of fun foam.  Doable, yes!  And they are really light and still stackable if you want to king your pieces.

My game board was also glued on a piece of foam board that I had around the house.  I just traced my cardstock and used a metal ruler and blade to cut through the board.  It's light but sturdy.  You could make this more durable with lamination and even magnetic!  I thought about making the board and pieces magnetic--wouldn't that be fun?  But in the end I went with simple and preserving my sanity. 

Here are the pieces out on the board. 

I even thought about making a chess set.  Wouldn't that be neat too?  Like a Twilight chess set using all the Twilight inspired digis from TGF.  But who/what would all the pawns be?  That would take some thinking. 

Thanks so much for reading!

TGF's October Retrofresh -- I Want Candy!

Hello!  It's October and time for The Greeting Farm's monthly Retro-Fresh challenge.  The theme this month is I Want Candy!  Anything related to candy is good to go and it doesn't have to be a Halloween theme either.

I went with Halloween and colored up the little guys from the Spooktacular set.  I have them in rubber stamps but now they are available as digis.  I used my convenient orange cup from Walmart and made this lollipop treat holder.

Here is another view.  In the cup I layered some tissue paper on the bottom and then added a piece of styrofoam to stick the lollipops and skewers through.

Another view.  I added black crepe paper and some green grass and you can spot some plastic spiders which used to be rings but I cut the ring part off.  A pretty simple Halloween treat.  Probably will give this to one of the teachers.

Hope you'll all be joining us this month!  Please hop over to TGF's blog to see all the challenge details and the rest of the DT's creations!

Thanks for reading!

TGF's September Retrofresh!

Hello!  A new retro-fresh challenge premieres today over at The Greeting Farm!  The theme for September is Jumping in the Leaves -- just use leaves on your project, a TGF stamp/digi that is at least 6 months old, and you have a whole month to enter this challenge.

Here's my little owl from Hoo Loves You.  I stamped him on watercolor paper and colored him with watercolor pencils.  Really old watercolor pencils but they still work okay.  I added him onto my felt leaves/branch diecut from PTI.  The sentiment also comes with the set and it was heat embossed.  Did a little bit of distressing around the edges of my paper and added brads in the corners.

After stamping on watercolor paper and coloring him in, I usually go back and trace the image again just to define the lines a bit more.  I usually do this with eyes.  I like the eyes to stand out so I go back and color them in.

Please head over to see all the challenge details HERE.  Hope you'll be joining us!

Thanks for reading!  I'll be back with another post in a bit.

TGF's August Retro-Fresh!

Hello!!  Thanks everyone for all your sympathy regarding my Copic buying woes!  Apparently, Copic at the corporate level (in Japan) has set this policy for stores to sell within their own territories and well, Oahu doesn't rate I guess cause we get no online choices.

Anyway, it's that time for The Greeting Farm's monthly Retro-Fresh Challenge!  This month's theme is Golden Hour -- use the colors yellow, orange and baby blue.  Seems easy enough, right?  Don't forget to also use a TGF image that is at least 6 months old!  This challenge is meant for us to use our oldies but goodies.  Check out the list HERE!

Here's my card!  I used Hippie Anya!  While I was looking through all my stamps for this challenge, Hippie Anya just seemed to scream those colors.  I don't really know, but I think I'm going through some one layer, simple card phase these days.  Do you go through phases too?  I just stuck some washi tape onto my card base.  The sentiment is from TGF's Roll Call Kit.  It didn't stamp too well on the washi tape part so I just went over it with my black Copic multiliner pen.

I covered her flower and the rectangle patch on her jeans with Glossy Accents and Stickles to her necklace and head thingy.  What do you call that?  I think she looks pretty groovy.  Ha! 

Please check out TGF's blog for challenge details and more cool inspiration by the Showcase DT.  I'm so loving being on this team.  Can time please slow down?  Thank you.

Thanks for reading!

TGF's July Retro-Fresh

Hi!  Me again!  It's time for TGF's monthly Retro-fresh challenge!  The challenge for July is Stars and Stripes but it doesn't have to be the usual Red, White and Blue.  Just as long as there are Stars and Stripes on your project, you're good to go.

I decided to use Space Ian and make a bit of an interactive card.

I printed out the sentiment.  I thought it would be fitting for Ian to actually move back and forth between the Moon and Earth.

Behind Ian are 2 beads and he glides on the twine.

Colored up Ian with Copics.  Added glossy accents to the heart on his flag.  The star print paper is from Basic Grey's Shine On paper pad which Cheryl got for me.  Thanks, came in handy!

The prize for this month is a biggie too!  One 4x6 rubber set and one clear set!  Be sure to use a TGF stamp that is at least 6 months old.  Click HERE for a list.  You have until August 7th at NOON to enter.  That's a whole month away so hopefully you'll be able to join in on the fun!  And be sure to check out the other members of the Showcase DT for more inspiration!

Thanks so much for reading!

another birthday card

Hello.  Surprised that it's me again?!  Well, it was nice to take a vacation this past week with both kids at summer camp, although I still had to work a little from home with everything being computerized nowadays...

Anyhow, I made another birthday card, based on the last Card Patterns sketch.  And since it's a summer birthday, thought I'd make something for the Sunshine and Summertime Retro Fresh Challenge.

So I don't even know the name of this stamp set, it's the Ian and Anya in their undies, that come with all the different outfits.  Colored the aloha shirt with unblended pencil...does it look like those inside out aloha shirts?  Actually tried inking the inverted scallop circle nestability, the mustard seed distress ink happened to match some yellow cardstock that I had (non-PTI, shocking, I know).  The hibiscus paper is something I got a really long time ago from probably one of the first Creating Keepsakes conventions I ever attended, I can't even remember which booth.

Added some eyelets to the bottom, hard to get them lined up straight even with the big bite cropadile.  All this time, I had also been using my cropadile wrong!  The first time I tried to set an eyelet, I thought it didn't do a good job, so I continued to use my old eyelet setter.  I finally looked at the instructions a little more closely today and realized I had put the eyelet in upside down!

Anyhow, the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.  It doesn't quite look like the sketch because I actually messed up stamping it on the card.  So I dug through more old patterned paper and found this light yellow one that sort of seemed to match and just taped it over the original sentiment.

Well, have a good rest of the weekend.

Best Mates

Hi!  I decided to use yet another retired and neglected stamp set from The Greeting Farm called Best Mates to make more home decor.  I wasn't sure who I could give this to if I made it into a card so I thought I'd put it in my room next to the other one I made HERE.  Plus it was the perfect time to use this set since the challenge over at Anyone for Anya was to create a pirate themed card.  I used The Deconstructed Sketch #45 for help in the layout.

I like that quote.  And I think those are monkeys, right?  But what is that one on the right eating?  Cheese, pizza, or something else?  I made it into cheese.  

I added some swirly rhinestones and black pearls all around too.  The pirate ship is heat embossed with some glitter too.  I wanna add something heat embossed to everything I make now.  Hehe. 

I added some seam binding too.  I like using seam binding.  It's easier to tie a bow with and doesn't have to look perfect.

I also want to enter this in TGF's Retro Fresh Challenge -- Spring Cleaning.  But it would be my second entry.  Can I do that?  I don't know if there are rules to multiple entries in the same challenge.  I hope it's okay. 

Thanks for reading!

Love is all you need

Hi!  Finally, a crafty project to share with you.  I used the sketch from Anyone For Anya and used the theme from TGF's Retro-Fresh Challenge -- Spring Cleaning. 

 

It's actually a nonfunctional piece of home decor.  Hehe.  I felt like making something to hang around the house though maybe it will go in my bedroom instead.  I used Kaisercraft's thick boards that I got from a sale.  It came as a 4 pack to be used like a mini-album.  But I decided to use each page separately.  I bought a pack of 7Gypsies ATC sentiment cards a while back and thought this one fit the image nicely.  And yes, it totally reminds me of The Beatles' song All You Need is Love.  I'll have to You Tube it.

So this is from one of The Greeting Farm's older sets called Panda Friends.  I bought it after searching for TGF's older stamp sets through their list of retail stores that can be found on their store website.  Yes, I clicked on every link in the US and some in other countries to see what older sets I could find.  I've had it for a while and never inked up this image.  I like that she's with 3 little pandas like my 3 kids.  So not only do I buy stamps that have the same name as me, I also buy stamps that remind me of my kids.  Though one of my kids asked me where daddy is.  Umm, at work?  Hehe.  Oh, I added in the black center of her eyes cause they are just white and look kind of spooky like that.

Oh, here's the video!  I love this song!  I love The Beatles!  Random fact number 11.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

It's a Love Story

Hi!  I made another card today inspired by a song.  I had this idea in mind and thought it would be perfect for TGF's Retro-fresh Lucky in Love challenge too.  The song I had in my head was Taylor Swift's Love Story.  Here's a link in case you're interested.  My kids liked this song a lot too when it first came out.

I also wanted to try to make an easel step card (I think that's what it's called).  A tutorial is HERE.  I tried to make mine a bit differently by using a continuous piece of cardstock for the steps but it didn't stand too nicely so I had to tape it down.  Don't know if you know what I mean yet.

So my card doesn't close now.  It'll just have to stand out like this. 

I ended up taping the valleys down since they kept flopping around.  I'll try again to figure this out.

I printed just part of the lyrics out.  I got to use the pretty Spellbinders Fleur de Lis dies that I got from Cheryl (thanks!).

Then I used Prince Ian (digi).

And I went with Princess Anya #2.  She barely makes the 6 month old requirement for the Retro-fresh challenge.  It just seems like a little while ago that I bought her.  I tried coloring her hair a little differently.  I don't usually leave a lot of white space.  I always have this urge to color all the white space but thought I'd leave it this time since her hair was so light colored.  I added some stickles and glossy accents too.  Oh, and a rose!  I got these from Lorraine a while ago (thanks!) and I love them!  They were white but I colored them red with my Copic.

I also got my first Memory Box die, the Cherish Border which is behind Ian and Anya.  So detailed and delicate.  Then I used Spellbinders Fancy Tags 3 for the last couple of song lyrics that I also printed out.

Alrighty, that is it.  Thanks so much for reading and hope you all have a great weekend!

Summer Days

Hi!   Remember Grease, the movie?  That is one of my favorite movies.  Love all the songs and it was on TV again last night as I was washing the dishes.  I thought it was a nice coincidence since my project I just completed was somewhat inspired by that Summer Nights song and just summer in general.

Wouldn't it be nice if it wasn't so rainy here?  Storming again today and couldn't take nice pictures in the gloomy weather.  Anyway, I had mentioned I was into this 3D paper piecing technique as shown HERE.  This is the project that has been driving me a bit bonkers.  Maybe I was trying to do too much into one project and I kept changing my mind on what I should do.  So it took me much longer to finish this than I had planned.  It's not quite how I had envisioned it at first but I guess it's okay and I'm glad to be done with it and move on.  Oh, and this project is also for TGF's Retro-fresh challenge--a whole new dimension.

I wanted to make a foam book like the ones they have for kids.  I thought it would be fun and different.  I looked at one of my kids' foam books to copy how they put it together.

So then I turned this into a summer themed mini scrapbook.  Maybe we'll put small photo collages on the empty pages.

I ended up covering the edges of the foam with washi tape.  I used 6 mm foam and our local craft store didn't have light blue like I wanted so I used white.  Guess it didn't matter since I ended up covering it.

This is Anya from TGF's Sunshine Kit.  I paper pieced her using the 3D technique.

Here is a view of the different layers.  I also die cut the foam to have a rectangle cutout so that Anya wouldn't get smashed and it would give the page a bit more dimension.

I covered the inside rectangle edge with washi tape too. 

The left page is blank.  I wasn't sure if I should put a sentiment on there but then just decided to leave it for maybe some short journaling and a photo.

TGF's Surfer Anya.  She took a bit of layering.  But I do love how she turned out.

She's tucked into the rectangle cutout too.

The last set of pages. 

TGF's Surfer Ian.

3D paper pieced again.  These were the 3 I did first before Geisha Anya in my previous post.

I "borrowed"  some fishy stickers from my kids.  Hehe. 

Geez, my hands are freezing now even though I have gloves on.  Yeah, it's kind of hard to type with gloves on.  After lunch I think the kids and I will cuddle together with all our blankets and pillows on the living room floor.  Hopefully, they will fall asleep and take a nap.  We actually slept like that last night.  Kind of like a sleepover in our own living room.  Can't wait for some sun.

Thanks for reading!