A 'SMASH' ing Alteration

Hi bloggers, its been a while, I'm still trying to turn those stubborn lemons into something worth the wait but its slow going. Meanwhile, I'd been working on a project that has taken me quite a while to complete. I'm proud to say, it has been completed and I couldn't be more excited to show and tell, but first, a back story!

A few months ago I started seeing these K & Co 'Smash Journals' everywhere (along with DIY tutorials on how to make your own). I loved the tutorials because when you can DIY and save money its always a great feeling on you and your pockets! And lets face it, at roughly 14.99 a book its a bit steep so why not do it yourself? why? I'll tell you why, Michaels sent me a '50% off one regular priced item' coupon in the mail and it was burning a hole in my pocket :). Anywho, I selected and purchased the one with the pink binding, Pretty Style Folio, got home, and waited for some great creative revelation to hit me... Weeks later I was still waiting. I tried journaling in it, doodling, treating it like a scrapbook, but nothing. No great work of art or much of anything else came about and I started to give up hope until one day I found the problem. It was boring, plain, and downright ordinary looking! How could I be inspired when the book itself was so uninspiring. I immediately began to design the perfect cover and to do this I had to take it in stages. A lot of hard work and many hours went into this project but it was definitely a labor of love and I'd do it again!

(BEFORE)

 

 

(AFTER)

Lolli Anya, Cheeky Geeky, Queen Bean, Alice Bean, C.C. Madden, Cheshire Bean, C.C. Friday Night, C.C. Lula

Sentiments: Anya Strolls, Anya Lifts, O&A My Favorite Things

Cheeky Geeky, Queen Bean, Alice Bean, C.C. Madden

Cheeky Geeky, Queen Bean, Alice Bean, C.C. Madden, Cheshire Bean

Lolli Anya, C.C. Lula, Cheeky Geeky, Cheshire Bean

Sentiments: Anya Strolls, Anya Lifts

Lolli Anya, Cheeky Geeky, C.C. Lula, C.C. Friday Night

C.C. Madden & Lolli Anya

 

As you can see, I had lots of fun layering and distressing and stamping and coloring to bring this book cover to life! I used quite a few of the TGF stamps in my arsenal, and actually have about 5 or 6 more colored up that were unfortunately too big to make the cover but will still be used for future projects, promise! I used Tim Holtz Walnut Stain to distress the edges of several sheets of paper from DCWV as well as a sheet of translucent vellum with script. I added a few pages from an old book also distressed with Walnut Stain as well as Antique Linen. Each of the girlies were stamped around a sheet of kraft colored cardstock and each took about an hour to color. I love the way prismas look on kraft cardstock so I tried to experiment with skin tones as well as outfit colors and was very happy with the outcome. Dark skin is not the easiest to render on kraft, found that out the hard way. But the key is layering, much like working with copics. Once I figured that out it was (semi) smooth sailing from there! Everything was held on and sealed with my homemade mod podge, which I found a 'recipe' for on Pintrest. Honestly, can you really call it a recipe if there's only 2 ingredients? oh well, the point is, whatever you call it, it works GREAT! I'll never buy the real thing again! To finish off the book I created several charms to fit my personality, connected a few jump rings and made a hanging charm for the binding of my book (gotta love that shrinky dink!). I plan to enter my altered SMASH folio in the following challenges:

 

The Greeting Farm Retro Fresh Challenge- Layers!

The Greeting Farm FFF Challenge- School's Out

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes

 

Until next time,

-Krys



When Life Hands You Lemons...

Hey out there in blogland! I realized the other day how hard it is to blog when you're stressed out or upset about something so my post have been limited to non existent. Life has been handing me lemon after extra sour lemon and they are beginning to rub off on me and make me a tad sour... ok a lot sour. I haven't quite figured out how to make lemonade with those particular lemons, they're a bit hard to digest but rest assure there are many ways to juice a lemon (so they say, personally I only know of one!) and I fortunately know quite a few recipes that require lemon juice so no worries! This week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp the challenge is summer fruit, how apt since one of the first fruit I think of when I think of summer would be lemons! And what might you say is the unanimous drink of summer? LEMONADE! That's right folks who doesn't love an ice cold glass of sweet and tart lemonade on a hot Texas day? I can't think of anyone, can you? I certainly do and this card makes me thirsty just looking at it!

TGF Lolli Anya

 

I used Lolli Anya for this card colored with copics and gave her a cool glass of lemonade by wiping away her lolli and cutting out a glass of lemonade with my cricut to replace it. The lemons were all hand drawn and stickled beyond all reason including the giant lemon slice in the background. The dp is a mix of something I created and a scrap of the Echo Park Paradise beach 6x6 stack and the ribbon is from my stash. The sentiment as well as the cute lil glass were cut from the Simply Charmed Cricut Cartridge. I plan to enter this card into the following challenges:

 

Simon Says Stamp Challenge Summer Fruit

The Greeting Farm FFF - Summer Time

The Greeting Farm Retro Fresh Challenge- Layers

The ABC Challenge P for Pretty in Pink

The Greeting Farm GVT Sketch



Up Up and Away!

OMG I'm so excited about my post today! I wanted to wait, to hold out until Monday but I just can't, I tell ya I just can't! I feel like a balloon over filled and ready to pop! O.k. I'll explain my balloon metaphor and my post title:
A few days ago TGF posted the theme for the retro fresh challenge, Layers. When I saw this my mind began to race because if you craft, you know there's more than one way to interpret the theme of layers. Problem is, I had TOO many ideas and before I could get a sketch down, another 'better' idea popped into my head so I had to start over of course. Well last night after bath time, my girls and I sat down to watch a little Disney Channel. And what were they playing you ask? Up (yes that's the entire title, how creative huh?) Even though the title wasn't all that great, the movie was pretty cute and for those of you who love cartoons or have little ones (I'm guilty of both!) I highly recommend it. Anyway, to get to the point, the cartoon inspired me to get my head in the clouds, so that's where I started. I knew I wanted to do a spinner card with a pinwheel because pinwheels make me think of wind. I also knew I wanted to do something with clouds, so first step, make some dp with clouds since I owned none this is how it came out

 

 

Ok so technically these are the leftover scraps. This genius didn't think to take a picture of it till after I played seamstress and snipped clipped and trimmed away at it but you get the idea, right? Came out pretty cute. My white pigment ink was not in a cooperative mood so I ended up using a white embossing powder and opaque white gel pen. I had a late night trying to make this card but it came together and in the end I was not satisfied, it looked so blah, so empty

 

 

Anya Lifts

 

 

Just looks like something is missing right? Anya Lifts was colored with copic markers and the sentiment inside the pinwheel window came in the same set. The hot air balloons were hand drawn on shrink dink and colored with either prismacolor pencils (center) or copic markers (left and right). I've really been into making my own charms and plan to do a post on that soon so be looking for it! As I said, I wasn't happy with the way it turned out, so I slept on it and in the morning came up with THIS:

Anya Lifts

Anya Lifts Spinner Card

 



 

I had to completely disassemble the previous card (I'm embarrassed to admit I just noticed they look pretty similar) largely because I attempted to add a sentiment directly to the blank space on the card with DISASTROUS results. Lesson learned. This time around I added another layer to the base of the card by creating a patchwork quilt looking dp. To make it I combined several leftover scraps in coordinating colors in a random order, glued them to a paper, trimmed it to fit the card base, then placed the last (big) piece of the cloud paper I made on top. For a little more color I also added a banner with the matching sentiment to the Anya Lifts set, and a few clouds on dimensionals for even more layering. Last I re attached my DIY hot air balloon charms on thicker dimensionals so that they would sit slightly higher than everything else for the final layer of my masterpiece! This was my first ever spinner card and I can now proudly show it off in the following challenges:

Splendid Stampin Retro Fresh Challenge- Layers!
Splendid Stamping FFF- Wave Your Banners or Flags!
Splendid Stamping GVT Girly Girl
Oozak Challenge Anything Goes with a Sentiment
Simon Says Stamp and Show Transport!

Hope this wasn't too long!
Happy Stamping,
-Krys

Fairy Tails

Hello again bloggers!
Today has been just peachy for me and my DDs and DH, and how could it not be, I started my day with a trip to my LCS and got everything I needed for under $10! Granted I didn't buy much but I went in with a purpose and only a few select things on my mind and came out with everything I wanted for less than I thought I'd spend, great way to start the day. What did I buy? Tis a secret, for a tippy top secret project that is coming soon I promise! How's that for a tease? Well to get to the point of today's post and the title ( I promise I used the correct word, its a homophone!) I found a challenge for a garden themed card and I wanted to put a spin on it so I thought what other type of garden can I do besides the traditional flower garden? Not many of you know that I'm a gamer as well and I love RPGs like Final Fantasy, and more importantly for this card, Kingdom Hearts. For those of you unfamiliar with the latter, Kingdom Hearts is a game based on the worlds of several different Disney characters such as Mulan, Hercules, and once again more important, or rather more relevant, The Little Mermaid. In the world of Ariel you visit her grotto, and something beautiful like.... are you ready for this...

an undersea GARDEN!

Perfect! I created an undersea garden for my card and what better stamp to use in an undersea garden than a mermaid? I cant think of anything more perfect except, I only have one mermaid stamp and to be honest, I'm not too crazy about her. Her torso and tail would go beautifully however with another head (that sounds so much worse than it is) so I swapped her head out for TGF's fairy-like cutie pie, Shiny Bean and OMG too freakin cute!!!!

Shiny Bean/ Mermaid Anya

Now I wish I could take sole credit for this idea but I'm actually casing another scrapper/ card maker on her idea to use TGF's Mer Ian swapped with Shiny Bean's head over at A Thousand Sheets of Paper. Man oh man is that chic crafty! I don't own Mer Ian yet but I do have Mermaid Anya so I used her and it came out beautifully! I experimented a little with my copics to give her tail some texture I believe it worked out nicely unfortunately I neglected to write down the color combination I used -__-. The sentiment is from TGF's Anya Lifts set, the stickers rhinestones and paper were all from my stash. Spun Sugar Distress Stickles on her sea shells, tail and hair accessories finished the look. I plan to enter her in the following challenges;
TGF's Garden Variety Tuesday Girly Girl
TGF's Farm Fresh Friday Bold and Bright
The All Sorts Challenge In the Garden
The Sweet Stop SSS214 (sketch)
All That Stickles Distress Stickles Linky Party

Something Fishy

Well as if the title wasn't self explanatory, I've got a bit of an obsession with beaches and oceans going, which is being reflected in my projects like crazy but hey, if it inspires me why not go with the flow (lol see even my jokes are watery!). And though technically I don't think a shark is a fish today I decided to make a masculine card using one with surfer Ian (whom you will see more of along with TGF's Cheeky Beach, Fleur Anya and more, once my Echo Park Paradise Beach and Bo Bunny Key Lime paper stacks arrive!). I am once again smitten, with all the ideas of beach and pool themed cards floating around my head there is no doubt I have the beach babe blues. I think I'll work on a plan to get the hubby to take us all to the beach one weekend and get this fun-shiny excitement out of my system, but for now, you guys are stuck with it so without further ado get ready to suffer the consequences:

 Surfer Ian

 

Ian was colored with my trusty copics and the DP I used is by DCWV from Baby Boy, All Dressed Up, and the Bouquet De Fleur Stacks. The shark, splashy wave, and water bubbles all came from my sticker stash and the sentiment, from TGF's Anya Strolls. Ironic that he seems to be getting chased by the shark huh? Total coincidence that I didn't notice till after the decision to use this sentiment was decided, cool right? I know, I amaze myself sometimes with my inattention to details lol! Now the question is who's dream is being chased, the surfer or the shark??? I'll leave that decision up to you guys in blogland. Thanks to this silly little glitch I have an excuse to enter in the 7 Kids Challenge Just Wrong! A few rhinestones in the corner and some stickles here and there finished off this fun splashy card. I really think I'm getting the hang of these masculine cards now that I realize they don't all have to be drab and plain and subtle! Along with the 7 Kids Challenge, I plan to enter this guy in the Anyone for Anya? June photo challenge as well as the Splendid Stamping FFF challenge Bold and Bright, A Creative Romance opening challenge Anything Goes, The Pink Elephant challenge 202 Summer Time Theme, TGF's Retro Fresh Challenge Bring on the Sun, and finally the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge Brought to you by the Letter "S".

What are you Wading For???

Aloha! Looking around blogland I see I'm not the only one bitten by the beach bug! With so many different beach and summer type challenges coming around I can't help but start my annual daydream of vacationing in Hawaii! And with Hawaii on the brain what better way to perk up my craft room *cough (kitchen table)* than with an adorable hanging sign to keep hope alive! Hey I WILL have my vacation in the Hawaiian Islands one day, but first and foremost, I want my own house built, complete with a custom kitchen and bathroom. Since hubby and I are in the process of trying to make that happen a Hawaiian vacation, as well as the new bed I so dearly need, is on hold. Now I know you're probably thinking what on earth does that have to do with the price of tea in China, or more importantly, my blog right? Well it just so happens that while replacing the wooden slats that came with my bed (which were actually quite flimsy), my hubby had two rather small pieces of wood left over. Too small for him to use for anything so he handed them over to me saying and I quote "Here, I'm sure these wont be here a week before you find something to do with them". He was right! A million and one ideas have been going through my head and I finally settled on my adorable sign! (P.S. in my project description, all the 'S' words will start with a red capital letter 'S', follow the Simon Says Stamp and Show link to find out why!)

Fleur Anya

Fleur Anya

Fleur Anya

 

 

 



Ahhhh, doesn't this just make you want to hit the beach? And just in time to bring cheer to the drab wet weather we're currently having here. I created this sign as I mentioned, out of a spare bit of wood. I started by painting the Summery Sandy Scene in acrylic paints. I then Stamped TGF's Fleur Anya on paper and colored her in a Sunny yellow colored dress. I Stenciled the word "Aloha!" and colored in with Prismas. Next I took a couple of Splashy Stickers from my Stash including a big wave, crab, Starfish, and Sea Shell for decoration. To complete the look, I added Stickles to just about EVERYTHING and finished it off by covering the Sun, Sea Shell and the word 'Aloha' in Judykin's Diamond Glaze. (Man that 'S' thing got old QUICK lol). As you can see from the different pictures, my masterpiece moved around A LOT but the final picture will be its forever home, well until I get my dream home anyway! I hope to enter my project in the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge where the inspiration is the most amazing cupcake I've ever seen, a beautiful beach scene, the TPE Challenge #202- Summer Time, Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge, Brought to you by the Letter "S", The ABC Challenge, O for Open, and last but not least The Greeting Farm  Retro Fresh Challenge, Bring on the Sun. So, What are you Wading for? Go have some Summer fun!
-Krys

The Greeting Farm Fever

Hi out there in blogland! It's me again, of course, and once again I'm awake absurdly early. I've been in sort of a funk, which I had until recently attributed to not having any new stamps. Turns out that's not it, I still have no idea what it is but I've been lacking motivation. I also haven't found any challenges that I got excited about in a while but maybe thats cause I keep losing lol. In any case I knew I needed to give you guys something since it has been a few days ( I tend to not make cards when my hubby is off work, kinda like my personal off days so we can do things as a family). Usually even if I have no motivation, looking at the DT projects and challenges over at The Greeting Farm will give me some sort of creative spark, and sure enough I was right, consider my creativity sparked, temporary or not!

TGF Oliver- My Favorite Thing



This pic came out a bit fuzzy for some reason so I'll more than likely retake it at a normal hour, you know, when people are awake and not just my neighbor's rooster (who I consider introducing to Colonel Sanders daily). P.S for those of you who have only had the...pleasure...of seeing roosters on television, they not only crow when the sun comes up, but apparently whenever the urge strikes them. Unfortunately the urge seems to strike my neighbor's rooster no less than 18 hours a day, you get used to it... sort of. I digress. To get back to the point, this week's challenges at the farm are the  FFF- Oh Boy!, where you have to rep a male TGF stamp, and the semi abstract GVT- 1-5-5, meaning you had to incorporate 1 of something 5 of something and 5 of something else. I chose 1 stamped image, Oliver from TGF's My Favorite Thing Set, 5 different papers from the DCWV Baby Boy Stack and 5 Buttons. I've had that stack forever but hadn't even opened it because of my drastic lack of male stamps. I seem to have quite a few unopened or barely touched stacks that 'Seemed like a good investment at the time' collecting dust as I type. I just feel so bleh! Maybe a new pack of dp will end my rutt? One way to find out, Oozak, here I come, see feeling better already, TTYL bloggers!