December Daily 2011!!

Happy New Year Everyone! I finally finished my first ever December Daily album - I hope you will check out my pages in this video:

I hope you enjoyed the video - Thanks for stopping by! :D

Saturated Canary Challenge #7 - Christmas/Holiday

**TWO DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!**

Can you believe it? In case you get lots of crafty goodies under your tree or even if not and you just want to steal a few moments of quiet in your craft room, Saturated Canary Challenges has the project for you "Christmas/Winter" theme is our challenge this week. I love that it leaves it so open for whatever inspires you this time of year. I have been working on my december daily even though I haven't shared any pages yet. I haven't had the time to really take pics and blog about it so I thought I would do a video at some point. Not anytime soon of course (see above. LOL). But I did want to share my day 8 page which doesn't have any pictures just one of my favorite Saturated Canary winter images Hot Cocoa because we LOVE hot chocolate in this house. I just added some simple journaling around the page. I hope you will join us and you can find all the details HERE.


Challenges I'm Playing:
iCopic - Last Minute Holiday Projects (I'm behind on my dec daily so that's last min, right? LOL)


Supplies:

• Saturated Canary Hot Cocoa Digital image
• Copics
• Echo Park Designer Paper
• Elle's Studio Tags
• October Afternoon Stickers
• Doily from Creating is Fun
• Distress Ink
• FabScraps Rub On Dispenser
• Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher
• Helmar Acid Free Glue
• Helmar 450 Quick Dry
• Helmar Zap Dots

TGF 3rd Annual Customer Blog Hop!

I am SO excited - I think I have participated in this hop since it began and it's really exciting for me this year as I'm wrapping up my dream term as a farmer. I thought for this hop I would share my family Christmas cards with you. I almost always create photo cards and this year I thought I was going to stamp our cards and just tuck in a wallet of the kiddos but hubby said to me the other day, I really like your photo cards and that was all I need to hear to make them again! We took our kids to see Santa the other day and the pictures turned out amazing so it was a no brainer to use a couple of them for our cards this year. The expressions and moments captured with each click are perfect. It is a super long hop so I don't want to get into one of my long winded blog posts today! LOL Here is our card which I will finally be sending out TODAY!!! I know, late but ah well. Such is the story of me. 


My project definitely falls into the HOLIDAY category:

What do you think? I really love how it turned out this year. I kept it simple with the pictures being the highlight. I always like to add a Christmas quote or saying and this one really stuck out to me this year. Do you see Elf Anya on the ticket!!! Isn't she adorable? One of my favorite things about digital stamps is that I can add my favorites to my Christmas cards each year and Elf Anya is definitely one of my favs. I kept begging to bring her back since she was released just before I became a TGF fan & was thrilled to see her as a ltd digital stamp! The digital papers and ticket are all from Sassy-Designs.


Anyway, I hope you enjoy the hop and thank you so much for being such loyal followers during my term as a farmer. Many of you know how much this has meant to me and it's been such a blast, ending way to soon!!! But I am really excited to see the next batch come and do their thing. Now enjoy the rest of the hop and if you want to start at the beginning for the FULL list of everyone participating, check out the TGF Blog.  There are THREE grand prizes being given away, one in each category of Holiday & General as well as for a non-particpant who hops with us and leaves comments all the way through!!! Wowsa!


Merry Christmas!

The Greeting Farm Throwback Thursday - Holiday edition!

Today at The Greeting Farm, we normally have a Throwback Thursday and the DT will dust off some of our neglected but much loved stamps to give them new life. This week we all dug into our stash for some of the past winter / holiday themed stamps that have been released of the years. I still think TGF has the CUTEST snowman on the market and as I dug thru my stamps they immediately called out to me and I couldn't resist. I made this mixed media style tag to put on a gift this year. I had fun creating the background with Faber-Castel gelatos and I actually stampsd the image from Keep Cozy using Faber-Castell Artist Pitt big brush pens. They are great for art journal stamping b/c it is an indian ink and is permanent once dried. The other cool thing is that I also colored the image using a combination of white gelatos and Artist Pitt big brush pens. While the ink is still wet you can use a wet brush to get a more even coverage while coloring your images. It creates a neat water colored effect that is once again permanent once dry so you can continue to add layers. I also used the Splotchy stamp by The Greeting farm to add the ink splotches on the tag.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to stop by TGF blog for the rest of the DT inspiration and I hope you will pull out some of your older stamps to give them some new love! Also, The Farm Fresh Challenge blog has a retro-fresh TAG challenge going on right now that this would be perfect for!

Challenges I'm Playing:

Two Peas Vendor Challenge - Faber-Castell Project

Anything Goes - Tags

My Time to Craft - Vintage Christmas

Partytime Tuesdays - Red & Green Christmas

Hooked On Crafts - Winter Wonderland

Oh La La Challenges - Anything But A Card

Take A Word - Joy

Products:

• Keep Cozy & Splotchy Rubber Stamps by The Greeting Farm
• Tim Holtz Tag
• Faber Castell Gelatos and Big Brush Artist Pit Pens
• Glimmer Mist
• gesso
• Indian Ink/Nib
• Sharpie Pen
• Tim Holtz Grunge Board Holiday shapes
• Distressed Ink Tattered Twigs
• Helmar 450 Quick Dry
• Helmar 2 Step Crackle Medium
• Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher
• Seam Binding
• Webster's Pages Flower Florette

Saturated Canary Challenge #6 - For the Boys

Last week started another new challenge at Saturated Canary Challenges and this theme is For The Boys. Now it can be anything from a card or project with a masculine image or theme or you can use a glam image for a guy if that suits your fancy as well. It's pretty open to interpretation and you can find LOTS of inspiration from the Saturated girls on the Saturated Canary Challenge Blog!

For my project, I finally finished this onesie for a friend even tho her son is now 3 months old. Yikes! I hate not getting things done in a timely fashion. It truly is one of my worst faults. So I used the digi Baby Jake b/c he's too cute! This is another one of my Tshirts that I made by printing the digital image on transfer paper and coloring once it was ironed on the shirt.

And here is a close up of the image. I love making these and you can find my tutorial HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will join us in our challenge this week!

a merry time with helmar 2 step crackle

Today I wanted to share a pretty Christmas card that I made using some of my favorite papers by Webster's Pages. These papers are already so intricate and beautiful, I don't really want to cover it up with a lot of layers but I did want to do something special to highlight it so I immediately thought of Helmar's 2-step Crackle medium! I absoultely love this stuff (I have to admit, I've been hoarding it which is kinda pointless when you love something! *giggle*) So, I cut my paper to fit my card base and then I covered it with Step 1, waited about 10 minutes and covered it with Step 2. Then, because I'm an impatient card maker, I set it on a chair in front of my space heater. *gasp* I know, I know! But I have to tell you, that little bit of heat really got those cracks to appear in no time. It was awesome!

I also used Helmar Tape Runner to adhere the entire panel after the crackle dried to my card base. I actually cut it to fit the front of the card without a border which added another interesting element to it. For my sentiment panel, I used some Unity Stamps called Blossom Stackesr and after fussy cutting (Because I do not have the matching spellbinders dies, dear santa, can you help me out with that? LOL) I used Helmar Zap Dots to give it some dimension and then used Helmar 450 Quick Dry to adhere the poinsetta flowers & sparkler around it.

And a close up of the crackle. After it was dry, I just went over it with some distress ink in Tattered Twigs. Adding ink really makes the cracks pop on any project. I promise not to hoard my crackle any longer! It's just way too fun! 

Thanks for stopping by!

*finally* My No Lines Coloring Tutorial!!!

So, I finally finished my no lines coloring tutorial yesterday! You may remember I attempted to make a video tutorial about a month ago but had many issues which resulted in replacing my new computer which was not even a month old at the time! I ended up losing the original file so I colored up Creeper Sunday using the same no lines technique and that's what I have for you today. I really hope you enjoy this!


First, here are a couple cards that I have made using this technique. 

This card uses Creeper Sunday available at The Greeting Farm and is the stamp feature in the video tutorial below.

This card uses Cheeky Mate also available at The Greeting Farm and is the doomed first video attempt. I love how this one turned out and enjoy using this technique over and over.

Here is the tutorial broken into part 1 and 2:

I hope if you try this technique you will share it with us on The Greeting Farm's Facebook page and/or galleries!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Helmar December Sketch Challenge

Did you know that Helmar hosts a sketch challenge every month? And Lydell, one of our fabulous Helmar Hotties, creates these amazing sketches for us to use. You can create anything you like as long as you follow the sketch in some way. You can find the challenge on Helmar's Blog & Here is the sketch:

And here is my December Daily Cover using this gorgeous sketch! 

I used so many of my favorite Helmar products to create this cover. I used 450 Quick Dry to adhere the glitter paper and most of the flat embellishments. Then I used Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots for everything with dimension. I also used Helmar's 2 Step Crackle on the grungeboard trees. 


Thanks for stopping by!


Supplies:

• Helmar 450 Quick Dry, Liquid Scrap Dots & 2-Step Crackle
• Bella Blvd Paper Tree
• Best Creation Glitter Cardstock
• Unity Stamps Co
• Authentique Sticker Words
• FabScraps Circle Embroidered Embellishment
• KaiserCraft Gemstones
• Twinery Twine
• Papertrey Ink Vintage Twine & Buttons

Oh snap Lizzie! Birthday Blog Party!

So, my good friend Lizzie is having this awesome and fabulous Birthday Blog hop in her own honor which is so cute and so Lizzie! When she put out the message to anyone who wanted to be involved, I jumped at the chance b/c I knew it would be a week full of amazing types of crafting inspiration. Now, I'm a card maker by trade, but I love to color on just about anything and when trying to figure out just what I could make for my #1 fan, I decided on a tshirt. I love Saturated Canary images and I know Lizzie does, too. The image I chose to use is called Copica even thought I know Lizzie had a terrible copic "incident" awhile back and doesn't use them, I couldn't resist. *giggle* We'll just have to pretend it is a paintbrush instead. ;) So, Happy Birthday, sweetie! I hope you have a wonderful day full of love and laughter. You always make me laugh and I hope that one day we get to meet in person. I know we'd probably laugh all night! Thank you for always encouraging me and asking me to be a part of your fun birthday blog hop!

I created a little step by step tutorial that turned out to be super picture heavy! LOL Sit back, enjoy a cuppa your favorite drink and I hope you like my tutorial!

Step 1: Print your image on Transfer Paper. I used HP Transfer Paper for Dark Clothing even though I'm usually using it on white. I like it and it works. 

Step 2: Carefully cut around your image as close as you can to the black lines. Then carefully remove the backing before placing your image on the tshirt for ironing.  I can't tell you how many times I have forgotten this step only to ruin it b/c I end up fusing it to the backing and then I can't use it. Grrr! LOL

Step 3: Iron your image on the shirt using the protective sheet that comes in the transfer package and let completely cool before removing the protective paper. ps. it's a good idea to slip a piece of chipboard inside the tshirt both for ironing and coloring.

Step 4: This is the fun part - time to color!!!

Step 5: Once you are done coloring, you need to heat set your color and I do this by using the same protective sheet from the Step 3.Once again, you need to let this completely cool before removing. 

Final product! Doesn't it look awesome? I think so and they wash so well. My girls have had their shirts for over a year and the color hasn't faded or bled at all. I'm so happy with this technique. It's time consuming but so well worth it. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I really hope you enjoyed the tutorial as much as I did making the tshirt. Digital stamps really give you a world of opportunities when you think outside the box!!

Hugs,

Carisa

Happy Helmar Holiday Hop!

Happy Helmar Holiday Hop!!

It’s that time of year where we all start thinking of the holidays so what better way to get your Holiday spirit than a great Helmar Holiday Hop? Filled with so much Holiday cheer and some amazing projects featuring all the different Helmar Adhesives. 

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the Helmar Holiday Hop. If you have been following along, you should have hopped here from True’s Terrific blog. If not, you just have to stop at the Helmar Blog and start from the beginning. There are goodies along the way and we don’t want you to miss a thing.

I have seen these adorable clothes pin wreaths on pinterest and thought,  hey, those look cool and I bet I can make one! LOL And then, I went, ummmmm.....how did they DO that?! So, I enlisted the help of my hubby and came up with a game plan to use a wire shaped into a circle. 

The easiest and most time consuming part of this project was covering the clothes pins with paper. I used Echo Park Merry Christmas line from last year. I figure it's time to stop hoarding it since I really wanted to get their new line but I still had all this! *giggle* 

To do this,  I used Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA Glue. I love this glue and I wanted to use it b/c you can find it easily at any Hobby Lobby store in the ART section. Emphasis on art, not the scrapbooking, stamping section - if you look there you won't find it so make sure you are in the paints, canvases aisles. 

I like to paint my glue on - it gives a nice even coverage when I'm adhering paper.

I did several at one time before cutting them out to save time. I liked my little rows of clothes pins! 

Ok, so after they were all covered, I knew I wanted to make this withstand years of use so I sealed with with Helmar's Acrylic Sealer. This stuff is awesome and even though the bottle says 20 mins dry time, I don't think it took longer than 5 mins to be honest. The top clothes pin in the picture is covered with the sealer and the bottom one is not. 

Next came the hardest part. What to do to make them stay in place and not circle around the wire as soon as you pick it up. 

This is where I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry and some lace. I tied lace in between each clothes pin and added a dab of glue on each side. A quick pinch and on to the next one. I was ecstatic when the glue was completely cured and I was able to pick up my clothes pin without it going wonky on me!!! These pics are blurry b/c I had my 6 yr old camera woman helping! haha

It looked so pretty already with the paper and the lace, but I needed to add a way to hang it  and added a pretty bow I made using some twill tape ribbon from my stash with the knot wrapped with twinery twine. It was the perfect touch as I really wanted to go for a rustic home spun feel with the browns, reds and greens. 

I added the glitter covered gems and using Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots added the flowers for a bit of dimension as the finishing touches. I hope you like it and have been inspired. Now I just need some pretty Christmas cards to hang on it!  

Make sure you leave a comment at every stop because the elves of Helmar will be giving away prizes to some lucky Helmar fans. Now hop on over to Lydell’s Lovely blog to see another amazing Helmar Holiday project. The Holiday Hop will be open for comments until 11:59P.S.T December 4^th , so take a look and enjoy a little holiday spirit from all of us on the Helmar Team. Thanks again for stopping by today and Happy Holidays.