Copycat

Sometimes using the same layout but different stamps can give you a totally different look. I wanted to showcase that with Glisten and Shiny. Even with the same papers they're both unique and fun cards. I used Echo Park Everyday Eclectic patterned papers along with the Kraft.

SUPPLIES

Stamps:Glisten, Shiny - The Greeting Farm

Paper:Kraft, Echo Park

Other:washi, buttons

Colouring Material:Copics

Wavin' Mer-Ian

I was surfing through the digi collection over at The Greeting Farm store and I came upon this little guy: Mer Ian. How cute is he!? I have so many things I want to do with him, but first I wanted to play with my coloured pencils and see how he'd come out. I added a bit of Echo Park Everyday Eclectic, some washi, and a few Lawn Fawn stamps to dress him up and there you have it!

Stamps: Mer Ian - The Greeting Farm, Lawn Fawn

Paper:Echo Park

Vinyl dots

Faber-Castell Polychromos

Layout Break

 A little break from card making, I got some layouts finished and got to use up some papers as well. Bo Bunny, MME, and very old Cosmo Cricket. Still trying to clear out the paper files! The first layout is my favourite, just came together so easily.

Project Life 2012: Week 1

I ripped apart the first page that I made for this year and came up with this style instead. I like this much better and all the info is in my own handwriting instead of typed except for one small caption. I salvaged all the frames and tried to fill in the boxes with more patterned paper for interest.

Project Life 2012: Week 4

I've been having issues with my documenting of this year. I started out doing Project 365, but when we got Sirius things went a bit off track. I couldn't remember to take a photo a day. But I didn't want to throw everything out either. I also didn't like the other layouts that I had created. I'd gone with the idea of using just the Polaroid frame and that just made for boring pages. 

Then someone asked about Project Life on 2Peas and this gal, Kristin, replied with a link to all of her Project Life posts. I like the style of per entries, and the non-cohesive look of her design. I still don't like the divided page protector idea, but I was inspired to try some different formatting.

I started with the Kraft paper that I've been using for everything this year and put it on my scoring board. I mimicked Kristin's layout, with a set of six boxes and another row with a larger box and another small box. I then began to play with the paper that I'd picked to go with January, the Polaroids, and the photos that I'd sized to go into the frames.

This is the result. I have to admit, I actually really like it. Not only will it help use up this paper (which was languishing in a box), but it really adds interest to a page. You can see the first "attempt" here. It's drastically different. I'd only made three layouts like that and I'll be pulling them apart to do them in this format.

Hooray Team UK!

When I saw Flag Wavin' Mae promoted for 4th of July, I actually had the opposite thought. With the Olympics coming up everyone is pretty much losing their shit, and I wanted to celebrate in my own way. I'm not into the games, and all us Whovians were completely disappointed by the opening ceremonies, but I'm still happy the games are in London. So I thought I'd colour up Mae for the occasion and embellish her Britishly a bit, hehe.

Blushing Thank You

Hello everyone! I come to you today with a circle card for the SCS Sketch Challenge this week. Come on over and join us!

Stamps: Blush Bettie, Blush Thanks- The Greeting Farm

Paper:My Mind's Eye, Kraft

Papertrey Ink ribbon
gem
Prima flowers
embossing powder

Faber-Castell Polychromos

You're a Vision

Just a simple Polaroid card I made. I had a blast colouring the hair. Purple is the best!

Fresh Smooches

This weeks Farm Fresh Friday challenge is all about using your punches or dies. Here I've chosen to use my Spellbinders dies to make layered frames for Amelia here from the Lovey Dovey set. I wanted to work with a limited colour palette so I stamped her in red, onto Kraft, and followed with that theme using Jillibean Soup papers, a few stickers, pin, and a sentiment from the Lovey Dovey set. Come join us over at the TGF blog and join the challenge!

Stamps: Lovey Dovey set- The Greeting Farm

Paper: Jillibean Soup

Other: Stickers, Stick pins, embossing folder, Spellbinders die

Eclectic Layouts

 I picked up the Echo Park Everyday Eclectic paper at the LSS last weekend (they actually had something!) and figured I'd play today. First a page about Sirius being naughty...

And a pretty much direct copy of Glitter Girl's layout today. I changed the papers up, but it's a scraplift for sure. I used Lawn Fawn clouds to supplement the stickers that just weren't working for me. I even got to use some of my washi collection.

Brothers

I got photos! FINALLY! I don't know why, but it takes me forever to get something together to actually get photos printed so I can scrapbook. I don't know why. But with CHA Summer just ended I'm gonna be shopping for papers and stamps I'm sure, so I want to use up the old. PLUS, I have Sirius' baby book to get to!

 I bought these Echo Park boy papers, the "mini kit" kind of papers they made recently, with layouts like this in mind. Layouts of the boys together as brothers. I'm very pleased at how I planned this because I bought just ONE sheet of the paper and I used it all on these two layouts. I have a few stickers left and they'll go right onto a card with no problem.

Oh, Hello Spring

I'm in the mood to use up all the My Little Shoebox papers I've collected over the years and I thought that Blush Bettie here would be perfect for a little scene card. For one, she's just so darned cute! I'm really into the paper piecing right now, so I just coloured her skin with my pencils and then paper pieced her outfit and hair. I added some twine to her pig tails to give her some dimension too. After that, I cut her out and constructed this little scene for her out of My Little Shoebox Little Lady.

Stamps: Blush Bettie - The Greeting Farm

Paper: My Little Shoebox

Heart Punch

Faber-Castell Polychromos

Glistening Hi!

For this week's SCS Sketch Challenge The sketch had a lot of circles in it so it was fun to try to find circular things round the house I could trace, lol!

Stamps: Glisten Bean - The Greeting Farm

Paper: Lawn Fawn

washi

Faber-Castell Polychromos

Down On the Farm

I decided to play a bit with my Cowlik Butterfly stamp while I was organizing my stamps into their pockets. I was in the mood to colour with my pencils so I thought I'd stamp him on Kraft and go for it. Kraft sometimes just makes pencils look so much better. I then dressed him up with My Little Shoebox papers in my continuing mission to use up my MLS papers.

Fresh Summer

Today's Farm Fresh Friday challenge is "Summertime" which to me said BEACH! I *am* a purebred Californian after all, hehehe. I used Glisten Bean and her little cloud, and put her on the beach using a Make it Crafty stamp called Lonely Island. I dressed it up with a bit of Echo Park paper, the sentiment from Blush Bettie, and I called it done. I hope you like my entry and will play along with us for the week. You can submit your entries at the official TGF blog.

SUPPLIES

Stamps: Glisten Bean - The Greeting Farm, Lonely Island. - Make it Crafty

Paper:Echo Park

Colouring Material:

Copic Colours

Skin:E00/51/50

Hair:E09/29, R46

TGF Design Team: A Look Into My Style

(This is a mirror of the very first post I've made on The Greeting Farm's Blog as a DT member)

Hello everyone! This is my very first post as a Showcase DT member! I'm so very excited to be part of the TGF team, you've no idea. I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you a few cards and share with you some things that are really making me happy in crafting lately. I was originally attracted to The Greeting Farm because of the amazing Creeper Crew series, but recently I've been branching out and exploring the "corners" of my crafting experience. It's one of the things that I love about crafting; there's always something new to explore.

 For this first card I used the new Blush Bettie stamp and did a bit of paper piecing with her. As much as I absolutely love colouring, especially with my Copics, I find it fun to explore how patterned paper can enhance my stamps. You can really add a new look just by changing up the paper and with things like clothes (Bettie's outfit and the Unity shirt stamp) it's really effective because you can set the mood with your paper right from the start. A little colouring on her hair and skin and she's all ready. I'm also really enjoying the simplicity of Kraft paper. There's a TON of it out there, from plain to patterned, and what I like about it is how you can put it with *anything* and it'll look great.

The other thing I'm really enjoying is creating little "scenes" on my cards. I discovered digital background stamps recently (this one from Make it Crafty) and I've been so delighted at how well they go with EVERY stamp I have, not just the digis. Here I've printed out the background and used Oliver from the Lovey Dovey set and Do Si Do Anya to create this little spring scene for a light and happy card. Scenes, and combining stamps, is fun because you can begin to tell a story on your cards and create a real work of art for your friends and family (or whomever you give your cards to!).

Well, I hope you enjoyed my cards, these two techniques/ideas, and that you'll pop on over to my blog as well. I look forward to getting to know all the wonderful people in the TGF community during my time as Showcase member. TTYL!

Layout Layover

 I've been doing a lot of cards lately; both for my DT work with The Greeting Farm, and also just for fun! But I do scrapbook and I do have photos; I've also been watching a lot of Glitter Girl videos while I work so I'm in the mood. I've gotta use up some of my paper too cos CHA is coming and I need room! So I made these two little layouts. The first one is using Basic Grey Oxford and the second one is using Fancy Pants papers and a stamp from Lawn Fawn.

Hello From My Planet

 I used We Come In Peace Brittany for this card because I thought she was just wicked fun. I have some neat space paper so I thought that'd be perfect. I wanted her to shine, and I don't have a TON of space stuff, so I kept things nice and minimal. I printed out my sentiment, pop dotted it, and that's all she wrote!

Head Shots

After seeing this idea on one of my fan groups, I decided to run with the whole "Polaroid" thing. They're not only popular now, but they're incredibly easy to make in Photoshop instead of needing a stamp. Now, I HAVE a stamp, from Lawn Fawn, but as these are all digi images they're much bigger than the 2.5" square that the stamp provides. But in Photoshop it's simple to just crop a stamp into a head shot and then put a few boxes around it to make that Polaroid look complete. The other benefit is, sometimes I find doing the hair and the faces of people WAY more fun than doing their clothes. All those fiddly bits of jewellery, or doing the creases correctly, getting the shading right, all that crap. With hair and skin it just comes naturally to me, but clothing requires thought sometimes. Using this method you end up cutting of a LOT of that clothing and fiddly stuff and get a ton of the fun. It's especially good for those stamps where you might not like the theme so much, or the position of the body, but the face and hair are great. I can't tell you how many stamps this method has sold me just cos I can take out the theme and body position. Whether you decide to put them in a Polaroid frame or just use the head shot as is (which I do with a lot of Tickled Pink images).

Happy and Free

For this weeks Saturday Sketch Challenge I used Shiny Bean for the first time. I wanted to do her in emerald, just for fun. I hope you'll join us over at SCS for this weeks sketch challenge!

SUPPLIES

Stamps: Shiny Bean - The Greeting Farm

Paper:My Little Shoebox, Love Elsie

Other: MME buttons

Colouring Material:Copics

Copic Colours

Skin:E00/21/00

Hair:E29/27/25

Fresh Lemonade

Today's Farm Fresh Friday challenge is "Pink and Lemon". That's right, we're all about summer and sweetness here, so I used the new Do-Si-Do Anya because she's country sweet! I paper pieced her with Basic Grey lemonade (perfect, right?!), added a little ink, and the sentiment from Blush Bettie. Won't you join us in the challenge too over at The Greeting Farm Blog?

Stamps: Do-Si-Do Anya - The Greeting Farm

Paper: Basic Grey Lemonade

Purple Bunnies Dancing

This here card using Lucky Bunnies and Blush Thanks from The Greeting Farm is an answer to the July 7th Saturday Sketch Challenge over at the SCS forum. I really liked the simplicity of the sketch as it fits my style. I so rarely get to use purple, even though it's my favourite colour, so I really wanted to focus on two things: purple and Kraft. I used the same ink for everything, giving the sentiment a tone on tone look, and then die cut the centre to give it more interest. I found a bit of Halloween in Wonderland from Graphic 45 that was purple but neutral in theme, and added that for some more visual interest. The sketch shows a sentiment in the bottom right corner but I wanted to keep the focus on the Blush Thanks stamp so I omitted that. Hope you all like it!

You Rock Retro

 This month's Retro Fresh challenge over at The Greeting Farm Blog is "stars and stripes". I didn't want to go the "traditional" way with it, playing up the July 4th theme (cos I'm not a fan of red/white/blue colouring), so instead I went with something more my style. I LOVE anything music themed and Friday here is perfect! The Creeper Crew are my absolute favourite of the whole Greeting Farm lines too. So here's my stars and stripes, using the Awesome collection by Simple Stories to give it a boyish look, which I figured would just be interesting. I hope you like it!

 SUPPLIES
Stamps: Friday - The Greeting Farm
Paper: Simple Stories "Awesome"
Colouring Material: Copics
Copic Colours
Skin: E23/35/37
Hair: C9/7/5/2

Outfit: V12/15/17

A Wild Jess Appears

Over at The Greeting Farm our fearless DT leader Jessica Deitrich has been made into a digi stamp! Meet Wild Sprout Jessica. Isn't she cute? When I saw her I thought she looked ready for a beachy vacation. I paired her with the Beach Hut from Make it Crafty, and then used bits of two other MIC images to give Jess a flower in her hair and I replaced the palm tree as well. I really am loving digi stamps; you can make them into whatever you want! Plus? No ink on your hands, lol!

 SUPPLIES

Stamps: Jessica - The Greeting Farm, Lonely Island/Beach Hut/Metallic Flowers- Make it Crafty

Paper: Echo Park

Colouring Material: Copic

Copic Colours

Skin: E11/00/51/50

Hair: E35/37/57

Hut: E31/33

Summer Fun

 When I got home from camping I had an email that said Some Odd Girl was having a sale. They'd also just had a release. I checked out the new stuff and found this little Water Fun scene (for only $3!) and snapped it up, along with a few others. I decided to pair it with some other images to make it a full scene; Make it Crafty's Crooked Picket Fence and the little puddle splash from another SOG image. I wanted it to look like they were playing out in the yard together. I used papers from My Little Shoebox and some stickers from Echo Park to spruce it up a bit. Might be a wall hanging or something.

Here's a little close-up of the colouring for you. I could have done better, I know. I just didn't want to get stressed out doing all the little water droplets and stuff. I'll need more practise on that.

Grillin' Miller Comission

 I wanted to share this here card because it's very special. I was contacted to make a card for someone's husband for his first Father's Day. She'd seen my colouring, enjoyed my images, and wanted to know if I'm available for commission work. I AM! Just shoot me an email and we'll talk! We worked out just what she was looking for and this was the result. I used Kiss the Cook Miller from SBS and the Aussie BBQ from Make it Crafty to make this little scene. I finished it off with the Charming paper from Echo Park because it's very boyish and the colours matched those in the image.

Announcement Time!!

 So, I've literally been keeping a lid on this for over six months now, but I'm on The Greeting Farm Showcase DT! How amazing is that?! A friend of mine posted the call way back in December on her FB page and I thought "I've ONE TGF set, so why not try and apply?" You know, nothing to lose!

Here's the card I made for them and I was SOOOOOO excited when I got picked up. I'm also excited I can show it to you now! I mean, it's all Christmas-y, so it's completely not appropriate now, but it was fun back then, lol!

Here's my intro card for you all! YAY! This little guy is from the new Oliver and Amelia - Lovey Dovey set. You can see what the Premiere DT did with them here. Aren't they wonderful! Y'all know me, I love the MEN, so I had to showcase little Oliver. I figured with his jeans and stuff I'd pair him with the Vintage T collection from WRMK. How many times have you seen this paper? It's so perfect for boys!

Well, I hope you like my card and are as excited as I am. I'm loving working for The Greeting Farm so far. Last but not least for visiting all of our blogs (all 8 of us!) and saying HELLO to the new team, TGF is doing a "Second chance" Release prize. One lucky winner who visits all our blogs to welcome everyone to the Farm will win the JULY RELEASE!!! You have until Tuesday, July 3rd at 10pm CST to make the rounds. Make sure to leave a comment on the INTRO post (like this one) of my fellow team members (ME TOO!) to give a little wave and hello of encouragement for the months ahead! All info and a complete list of myself and the new SHOWCASE team can be found HERE at The Greeting Farm Blog! Get on hoppin' and check out the team to win this fabulous July stamp collection. You'll see me use it more in the next couple of months.