Happy Birthday

Hello, I'm squeezing my Farm Fresh Friday Spy Day #11 in here before Eva's TGF blog hop post tomorrow.  This is actually a non-holiday card as we're going to be celebrating 3 birthdays over 4 days this year.  I'm thinking I will buy a bunch of cupcakes so at least each birthday person will have their own individual cake to blow candles for but yet we won't all be stuck eating 3 cakes for weeks on end.

I used Birthday Anya 2 that I won from a previous challenge.  I wanted to thank Marie and Jessica for their generosity in sending this to me as there was initially some confusion regarding the stamp I requested.

Anyhow, colored the skin with copics, the rest with colored pencils.  Added stickles to the cupcake frosting.  The patterned paper is from Echo Park, Victoria Gardens, used Papertrey ink green cardstocks and Bazzill gray cardstock.  The flower is a Beautiful Blooms die.

Bye!  Off to make another card, hopefully I can get the other 2 done in time!

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!

Joy

Hello again.  This is the last of my completed cards.  I think I better get hopping, I just bought gift cards for my kids' teachers but I don't know if I can make enough holiday cards to go along with the gift cards.  Anyhow, here's another Farm Fresh Challenge, Friday Spy Day card.

It was technically a tag in the sample, but I used it like a sketch, loosely.  Instead of buttons, I used letters.  I couldn't think of any other holiday phrase that might fit.  Again, tried the Copics for the face, pencils for the rest.  Same pink patterned paper I used before (We R Memory Keepers).  Punched all the purple things with Doodlebug glitter paper.  Same snowflake punch, it's the only snowflake I have so I'm probably going to be using it over and over again. And the dark purple cardstock is from Papertrey ink.
Bye!

Merry and Bright

Hello again.  I actually made a card for The Greeting Farm's Monday Fun Day #8.  The weeks are flying by, I guess it's been a while since I participated in a Greeting Farm challenge.  Anyhow, here's the sketch...

And here's my card...

I printed a background paper from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly Golly pack that I got from One Buck Wednesday on Jessica Sprague's site.  That was an event in itself, because the colors look different depending on if you pick PSE to manage color or printer to manage color.  I tried to match Vivi's clothes to the paper, it turned out a bit colorful.  I think all the stripes were getting me confused.  I colored her face again with copics.  I think it's hard not to leave a dark rim when adding the darker color for shadowing.  I think I just colored over everything with the lightest color and when it dried it didn't look too bad.  Added some stickles to the fur trim and jingle bell.  The sentiment is from PTI's Tag It, the snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch that I used on some Doodlebug glitter paper.

Bye!

Best Grandma Ever

Hi!  I was able to make another card!  This one was inspired by both TGF's Friday Spyday #7 and Moxie Fab World's Celebrating Relationships Challenge.  This card celebrates Grandparents' Day or more specifically Grandma in our family. 

I used Grandma and the sentiment from TGF's Grandparents set. 

The banner is from PTI.

Hmmm, not much to add to this post.  I'll keep it short and simple.  Thanks for reading! 

have a merry xmas

Hi!  I've been feeling kind of in a rut these days.  Today I was so indecisive, I couldn't get anything crafty accomplished.  I literally wasted my day and I was irritated at myself for doing that.  So finally I just started doing something and thought to play along with TGF's Monday Funday #7 to use Twi-Color Combo (red, black, silver/white).  I'd go watch the new Twilight movie too except I don't really know anyone that would watch it with me.  Guess I'll just wait til the DVD. 

I decided not to use Twilight inspired stamps and thought the color combo could be xmas-y as well.  'Kay, I threw a little green in there then thought shucks, I should've colored the leaves silver or something.  I love this Holiday Anya!  She is so stinkin' cute.  I colored her hair with Copics and my black Prismacolor pencil.  Added a whole bunch of bling and the circle sentiment is from Wild Rose Studio.

So basically, it took me the whole day just to make this card even though it's relatively simple.  Ugh!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Many Thanks

Hello.  And I have another card!  Because I let my husband do all the laundry and play with the kids this afternoon, hee hee!  Plus fall break is ending and our relatives left this morning so it's been relatively quiet today.

Anyhow, it's been a long time since I did a TGF challenge, but I made one for Farm Fresh Friday Spy Day #2.  And finally used some paper and stamps that I'd bought a while ago but never got around to making anything with.

I colored Thursday with my black and white pencils.  Excuse the spot in the middle of her face, of all the places for the kraft paper to have a dark fleck, it was where I decided to stamp her face!  I've tried this coloring once before, I didn't realize it was so long ago.  Maybe I should have watched Deconstructing Jen's video again now that I look at her post and realize her image looks colored way differently.  Used some patterned paper from Crate Paper, which probably looks a little too bright and spring-like together with Creeper Thursday, but I didn't want to color another image all over again.  The paper flowers are from SEI with little gems added to the centers.  And lastly a sentiment from PTI's Tag-Its.  Bye!

Sharing is Caring

Hi!  It's me again!  So I do still have 2 loads of laundry to fold and a stack of library books that I need to record for my son's reading log but I did make another card today and almost completed it by the time I went to pick up the kids.  Hehe.  I wanted to make a thank you card because my 2 boys recently received this huge bag full of Pokemon cards from my daughter's classmate who no longer wanted them.  My boys were so happy to say the least.  There must have been well over a few hundred cards!  It was so generous of him especially since we know it can be hard for kids to give things away even if they don't play with them any more.

So I found some inspiration over at TGF's Spy Day challenge.

I basically followed the layout and this is a different kind of card for me since it has so much going on in terms of patterned papers.  But I like how fun it looks.  I opted not to include the twine and bling just to keep it more kid friendly.  My older son picked the image because he thinks this Oliver is cute.

I colored TGF's Oliver from Just for You with pencils.  I showed it to my husband when he got home from work and he asked me why the boy has a huge bandage on his head!  It's a hat!  It doesn't look too bandage-y, does it?  I think it's still cute, especially his little wink.

Okay, I should try to clear off my desk of the books and maybe fold one load of laundry now.

Thanks for reading!

sweetest wishes

Hi!  I almost thought I wouldn't be able to make a card for TGF's first Monday Funday Challenge to use scallops.  But I found some time tonight though I should've actually been cleaning the house and getting ready for my daughter's Lego robotics team to come over to our house for practice.

Anyway, here is my card.  I stuck with something simple and sweet.  This is TGF's Cuddle Anya.  Isn't she super cute?  Love her and her hat and bear.  I used a scalloped square and actually went around and punched holes to give it that eyelet look.  The background is stamped with Hero Arts canvas.  The tree die cut and sentiment is from PTI.

I thought I'd practice my pencil coloring again.  I used my kids' regular color pencils.  Now I think I need to practice the hair.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday! 

Thanks for reading!

love you

Hi!  I made a card for TGF's WCMD/Splitcoast Stampers Announcement Challenge.  We were to case any one of TGF's former or current DT members.  So I checked out Joni Wilson's blog and found this super cute card.  I really liked that it looked so fresh and clean and something that I normally don't do.  And it was just a sweet, little card.

Here's my card.  I used Birthday Ian.  He is so cute!  Then I stamped the word love from one of Lawn Fawn's sets and the brackets from MFT's Say What set.

A nice and simple card.  I should make more cards like this.

Thanks for reading!

Rainbow 10!

Hi!  I didn't feel like cleaning much today (I'm sure I'll be paying for it later).  Instead I made a simple corner bookmark/card for my daughter who will be turning 10 soon.  I can't believe she is in the double digits now--there's no turning back!  Sigh, where does the time go? 

So I thought I'd use the rainbow colors inspiration from TGF's Which Card Wednesday.  And also will be submitting this into Paper Sundaes Challenge #88-- Anything Goes.

I used TGF's Birthday Anya 2 who is such a cutie.  My daughter loves her.  I colored her dress pretty simply in rainbow colors and tried to make rainbow colored sprinkles on her cupcake.  Added some stickles too.  The numbers are die cut from PTI's numbers set.  The kraft cardstock is embossed with Cuttlebug's birthday folder.

I like making these bookmarks for my kids' birthdays.  They are simple and fast and my kids can use them too.  I usually write a little note on the backside.

Thanks for reading!

Halloween Gift Card Holder

Hi!  I think I'm working backwards.  After a bunch of Christmas projects, I thought I'd better get onto Halloween.  And really what pushed me to start was TGF's Farm Fresh Friday Halloween challenge.  I thought I'd also play along with Crazy 4 Challenges C4C106--Halloween projects and Simon Says Stamp--use dies or punches.

I thought I'd make a little haunted house for Halloween.  I used TGF's Spooktacular set (rubber version).  It's now available in digi form.  I used Magnolia's Tilda lace die for the roof, Martha Stewart's scary fence punch, My Favorite Things grass die, and Spellbinders' rectangle dies for the windows and door (which got hidden by the witch).  I distressed the edges with my scissors and sponged some white over the house.

Here's a little close up.

The house opens up from the roof end to reveal a treat!  A gift card!  It's held closed with some velcro.  More trick or treaters from TGF's Spooktacular set.  I embossed some spider webs using Tim Holtz's embossing folder and sponged them in white.  The sentiments on the web are from the same TGF set.  The letters for Boo! were die cut using my Sizzlit alphabet die.  I'm not sure what it's called.

Here's a little close up of where the gift card goes.  You can see the spider sticker too.  I cut a small slit with one of the Spellbinders rectangle dies.  This house was made using the whole length of an 8.5 by 11 inch piece of cardstock.  The widest part of the roof measures 6 inches.

I thought this would be a cute way to give a gift card to one of my kids' teachers for Halloween.  Adults need treats too, especially teachers!

Thanks for reading and hope you're having a great weekend!

Keep Cozy

Hi!  I think I have Christmas on my brain.  So when I saw the latest Farm Fresh Friday Challenge at TGF, I really wanted to use the snowmen from their Keep Cozy set.  And also because the challenge is "white out" or a white theme, it reminded me of snow (snowmen), although it doesn't snow here.  I was lucky enough too that my Keep Cozy set came in the mail on Saturday.  Just in time!  So I decided to make some tags using all the snowmen.

I used PTI's tag sale die and stamped the sentiments that come with the Keep Cozy set before embossing the tags with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots folder.  I colored their carrot noses, added some bling for buttons and some glossy accents on some parts of each snowman (earmuffs, top hat and mittens).  I cut out the cute snowmen and popped them up with dimensionals.  I added stickles on the raised dots of the tags.  You can click the photo for a close up.  I have to say that trying to photograph this was kind of tough.  It's either too much glare or the colors get blown out or can't see all the accents.  So finally, I think this was the best I could do.

Now I have to get going on my art journal assignment.  I think my daughter has given up or actually doesn't have much time for it anymore in her schedule.  She is busier than I am.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

stir, sip & enjoy

Hi!  I was so inspired by TGF's current Farm Fresh Friday challenge--You're Hot and You're Cold to finally use Cafe Ian.  And I have that song in my head every time I read the challenge post.  I wasn't quite sure what to make until I saw an unopened box of hot chocolate on my shelf.  I was afraid it was expired but hot chocolate lasts a long time--this box doesn't expire until 2012!  Anyway, I thought I could make like a tea box dispenser thingy except larger to hold hot chocolate packets.  But in the end, I made it a bit different.

It's almost like an upright tissue box cover but just smaller.  It fits 10 packets of hot chocolate.

Here is the front with Cafe Ian.  I love this paper and thought he matched nicely sipping hot chocolate on Xmas morning.  The sentiment is from PTI's Tiny Treats Christmas.

A different view.

The top view.  I used PTI's label die to cut through the top for easy access.

I think my project fits both the hot and cold theme.  It's Christmas-y but also it's hot chocolate.  Hehe.  I'm glad too that I made another Xmas gift for one of my kids' teachers/classroom aides/extra-curricular coach/teachers.  After making my list, I realize there are about 16 teacher gifts I have to make!  I've made 3 things so far so 13 more to go.  That's doable, right?  Though I better get on to the Halloween goodies too.

Thanks for reading!

110 days til Xmas

Hi!  So I spent most of this long weekend working on one project to enter in TGF's Farm Fresh Friday--By the Numbers challenge.  I wasn't sure what to make until I saw my calendar and was inspired to make a countdown calendar.  My kids love counting down to Xmas.

It took me a while to make this because I had to figure out the dimensions and what not, and I had a couple different layouts in mind but finally went with the simplest one.  This stamp is from TGF's Xmas Sweeties.  The numbers are die cut with PTI's numbers die set and the sentiment was made with PTI's Simple Alphabet set. 

My kids love counting down to other occasions too so I included New Year's Day,

Easter (digis are hard for me to color.  They don't dry well even when I heat set them so there are some smudges here and there),

my son's birthday,

my son's birthday,

my daughter's birthday,

first day back to school,

and Halloween!

I used my Cinch to bind it all together and made an easel like backing so it can stand.

My kids love it so the long hours crafting was worth it.  And I guess we have to decide what occasion to count down to.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!