Journey Journal

Hi guys! Now that my entire household is back to feeling better I can get back to crafting! I'm still waiting for my prize from my win over at the greeting farm to finish the big project that I mentioned to you guys in my last post but still I cant wait to show you guys! In the mean time though, I do have something to show for my absence. I notice a lot of people getting into a  new (well new to me!) type of scrapbooking called project life. For the last few days I've been looking into it and Im liking what I see! Im now planning on starting a project life scrapbook for DH so he won't feel like he's missed anything since he left for BCT/AIT and boy do I have oodles of ideas!!! But before I get started on my own, I have a friend who travels A LOT and she recently decided to keep a travel journal. I volunteered to decorate one for her when I got the brilliant idea, why not get her a small project life book and some cards and things to fill the inside and decorate the outside in a travel-y theme?!  Here's what I came up with:






                                                             TGF Anya Lifts)






I used The Greeting Farm's Anya Lifts with the sentiment from Anya Strolls colored up with my trusty copics. the papers I used were part of open stock at my LCS inked up and aged with Tim Holtz distress inks antique linen and walnut stain. I stamped around with a vintage looking camera stamp also in walnut stain and used the Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork Flourish die for embellishment and a small section of Spellbinders Square fleur de Lis die by nesting the larges and second largest and cutting off a corner. I think it turned out awesome and can't wait to get started on my very own! I plan on entering this project in The Greeting Farm's FFF Challenge Use a Die Cut or Punch. I hope this Is just the first to come of future project life things for my blog! Thanks for stopping by,


-Krys

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



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

Excuses are like....

SO... as my visit to my parents' comes to a close I realize, I've been very unproductive! There have been so many challenges I wanted to enter but either did not have what I needed or just plain ol lacked the motivation and ideas to make it happen. Very upsetting! I did however managed to create a few gems and I am very proud, and after all, its quality not quantity right? Or is that just the excuse some people (me!) use when they've been slacking off and didn't get nearly as much done as they could've? lol! Whatever the case may be, I finished this one and was too busy worying about quality of my next (not even in the works) card creation to take a picture ^.^ I do have one today for you guys though so here ya go! Don't judge, it was taken at 5am with my phone :)

Anya Lifts

She's not for any particular contest at the moment. UPDATE : I have entered this card in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge  and also the Splendid Stamping with The Greeting Farm: Retro-Fresh Challenge- Polka Dots and/or PlaidsA co-worker of my mom's daughter is having a birthday tomorrow and she wanted to give her something special and this is what I came up with. I paper pieced the shirt because I absolutley adore that DP from MME and for absolutely no other reason ^.^ she was colored with copic markers and look! my first attempt at coloring transparent objects and it came out AWESOME on my first try! SCORE! <---Inside joke between me and my good friend, Mrs Bea LOL