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!

a wonderful Christmas

Hi!  Our Lego Robotics team participated in the state championship yesterday and they did so well!  Out of over 200 teams that participated in qualifiers, 56 teams were invited to the championships.  Out of the 56 teams that participated, our team placed 4th for robot performance and won a 2nd place Lego trophy for innovative solution.  I was so shocked!  Ha!  Not that I didn't have faith in our kids but the competition can be tough and we felt so lucky to have gotten so far.  I was even more impressed when the principal congratulated the kids and told them that was the best a team from their school had ever done at a Lego robotics state tournament.  Wow, what a proud moment!  The long day (waking up at 5:30 in the morning with the final awards done at 4 pm) was totally worth it!  Still feeling excited about it.  But I will finally share my card.  Hehe.

I made a card to be entered in the following challenges:  Paper Sundaes--Sundae Bar (color red and used die cuts), Wee Memories--Free for All, and Young Crafters Unite Challenge #4--use dies.

After Cheryl had posted her card using Sister Stamps Shimo-san, I wanted to use mine too!  I think I will make a bunch of these to give to the kids' Nihongo teachers.  I used Spellbinders rectangle die and the lattice rectangle that Cheryl gave me a little while ago.  Thanks!  I took this picture under our tree.  I actually wrapped some presents this morning!

The sentiment is from Wild Rose Studio.  I added some stickles to the snow on the ground and around the snowman.  Some liquid accents on his nose.  I also used a my black Prismacolor pencil and Copics for their hair.

Thanks for reading!

Where are my googly eyes?!

Hi!  I've made another card for PTI's Make it Monday #34 Thick Chipboard accents.  I like making cute stuff for kids so I really wanted to use one of PTI's Boy Basics mini stamp sets.  After going back and forth between the trucks or the rocket or the frog, I finally settled on the frog.  And I thought an interactive card would be fun for a kid and thought the chipboard idea would work well since the many layers really make the die cut pretty sturdy.

So here is PTI's Boy Basics Frog Hop.  I thought a spinner card would be fun.  You can find a tutorial HERE.  I just made an arch instead of a straight path using my old Coluzzle. 

I used PTI's coasters instead of boxes I had around the house.  I layered 4 of the die cut frogs and then the Echo Park DP frog over that.  So the layers kind of make it heavier so it doesn't spin much but it's easy for the child to manipulate and make the frog hop over to the other pad.  Papers over the lily pad die cuts are also from Echo Park.

There he goes, concentrating on that fly.  I couldn't find my googly eyes for the longest time.  I really wanted the frog to have some googly eyes cause he looks so much better with them.  So of course I had to go and buy more though I know I must still have some from before.

Made it safe to the other side. 

I think it would be cute to make similar cards with the trucks and rockets too.  There's so much you could do, make winding roads for the cars or have a race and it could be much larger than a card.  And the same with the rocket too.  This reminds me of my days making speech therapy materials for my kids.  So many concepts you could work on!

I'll also be entering this into Wee Memories Challenge #69, Simon Says Stamp Challenge--Anything Goes, and Paper Sundaes Challenge #88--Anything Goes.

Thanks for reading!

A Perfect Pear

Hi!  My hubby's aunty has a crafty store called Cute Stuff and indeed, she has a lot of cute stuff in it!  She has started doing monthly challenges too and I finally got a chance to participate this month.  The challenge for July was to make a tag and anything goes as long as it was a tag.  I knew I wanted to keep it fairly simple and use my Lawn Fawn Silly Valentine set.

I used one of PTI's tags and the congrats to is from their All About You set.  The pear couple is paper pieced as well as the red heart (velvet paper).  Tied on a matchy ribbon (from Xmas time) and some twine and then I was done. 

My tag was inspired by this card I had made for a cousin who got married.  The hearts in the background are from Lawn Fawn's Teeny Tiny Backdrops.  And I have to give some credit to my hubby who suggested I place a doily behind the mat (from PTI).  I liked it so I kept it.

My youngest had seen that I made a card and tag set and so he was inspired to make a set too!  I stamped some of the same images for him.

So this is what he created.  He colored, cut and glued them on and was happy he made a wedding card too with a tag!  He always wants to craft when I craft and so I give him lots of my scraps and the images that didn't stamp too well.  Then he wants his work photographed too!  Future blogger.

I will also be entering this set into Wee Memories Challenge #62 -- Clean and Simple. 

Thanks so much for reading and have a great weekend!

Fancy Anya's Summer Vacation

Hi!  Here is yet another travel journal that I've bound with my Cinch.  This one is for my daughter.  She picked TGF's Fancy Anya which I just bought.  She is just like my daughter who would rather wear a dress or skirt to do everything including traveling.  I decided to case TGF's Mystery Monday card for the cover of this journal.

I didn't want to make the cover too dimensional since we'll be taking it during our summer vacation so I tried to keep the cover as flat as possible and used some tape to add some fun.

Here's a close-up of Fancy Anya with her little camera ready to take some pictures.  I also used PTI's note die and Text Style stamp for the background lettering behind Fancy Anya.

This is the title page.  I got to use a lot of my American Crafts stickers that I bought a while back from Peachy Cheap.  The camera is a coordinating stamp with the papers.

One of the inside pockets with a little scooter stamp too.  I added some tabs made from PTI's tab die and mini scrapbook stamp set.  This journal has 30 pages and 3 pockets and measure 6x6 inches.

Blogger was down last night for a while wasn't it?  I was worried I wouldn't make the deadline for Wee Memories CRAFTS (Color, Ribbon, Acrylic, Floral, Twine and Stamps) Challenge #55.  You could use either all of the above or not.  Obviously I just have the color and the stamps since I didn't want the cover too bulky.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Many Thanks

Hi!  So is it really true??  It's the last ever Saturday Sketch at Club Anya?  I'm really gonna miss those sketches.  And is Club Anya really closing its doors?  That's sad too.  Though I can't wait to see what they are planning next.  So I had to make a card for the last sketch.

I made a little thank you card using TGF's Signature set to thank Club Anya and the design team for all their hard work and inspiration.  I'm so bad at commenting on their blog so thought I'd make a little something.

And my hubby just pointed out Dorothy's shoes should be red not blue.  Geez, now he notices stuff like that.  Well, this is her before the ruby red slippers.  I cut the 3 cuties out and popped them up with dimensionals.  Isn't Toto just so cute?!  I had to really be careful cutting him out.

The Club Anya is a stamp from the set.  Many Thanks is from PTI's Fillable Frames 1 stamp set.

I really like how this card came out too.  And it's the first time I've used this set since buying it a while ago.

This card was also inspired by: 
Wee Memories Challenge 49 (Anything Goes)
Simon Says Stamp Challenge (Mother's Day/Girlie Challenge)--I'm going with the Girlie part.

Well, thanks for reading and have a great week!

March 2012

Hi!  It's time for My Favorite Things weekly sketch!

I used this sketch for my March 2012 calendar/scrapbook page.  My January 2012 and February 2012 posts are HERE and HERE.  Hopefully I'll make it through the whole year so I can bind them all into a 6 x 6 book. 

I used Pure Innocence Daffodil stamp.

Basic Grey papers. 

I love these stamps because of the flowers!  So cute! 

My computer generated calendar.  I left some space above the calendar for photos or journaling.

Also entering this into Wee Memories Challenge 49 (Anything Goes).

Kind of a short post tonight.  Thanks for reading!

❤

Hi!  I had some time to make a card for Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge and for Wee Memories final challenge.

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge is to create a project inspired by the photo above.

Wee Memories is having their last challenge!  So I had to play along too and it's a fun sketch.

My card uses the Paper Smooches frog from A Little Lovin.  I reverse stamped the frog on the left, the girly one with the hot pink lips following the tutorial from HERE.  The lips and the crown on the boy frog is also from A Little Lovin.  The heart in the bubble is from Paper Smooches Smoocheroos. 

My hubby was a little shocked to see the lips on the girly frog but thought it was funny after all.  I added some glossy accents to her lips, the dots on the frogs' backs, the crown and the heart too.  I also used PTI's woodgrain impression plate on the kraft cardstock.

Thanks for reading!