The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge #4; For The Love of Mixed Media...Little Travelers' Valentine Boxes

   Valentine's Day is always one of my favorite holidays, and I always loved giving special Valentine packages to my ChiefHubby and our kids. I think it's even more special now that we are married 38 years this July- making this our 40th Valentines Day together! While I've pretty much stopped the packages with our kids (and the ChiefHubby and I don't need more reasons to have chocolate, lol), I'm tickled pink to be able to carry on the tradition with our Grandbabies!

   This year, our 2nd as Florida Snowbirds, we hoped to have one set - or both sets- of our kids to fly down for a week. The younger set are just now getting settled into their new house (finally closed last week) in Upstate New York, and it will be awhile before they are able to head anywhere for an extended vacation. And with the new baby coming this Fall, we'll be doing the most travel up to them instead. The older set had the opportunity to get away and bring our oldest 2 Grandbabies for Peanut's 2nd flight to Florida, and Princess's 1st. The ocean has always been my dream place. I was obsessed with water and swimming and dreamed of walking for miles along tropical sandy beaches. I saw it for the first time when I was 21. While I never really got to go anywhere (except to Missouri to my Great Grandpa Raymer's farm) until I was 18 and married, it's worth the wait to see things for the first time through your own kids' eyes. That made my first visit to Florida's Pacific side as a new Mommy at age 25 truly magical. It's even more special to share your Happy Place with your GRANDCHILDREN!  As of now, that's 2 done and 2 more to share it with yet. Since the 2 older babies adore- and have plenty of experience with- chickens, they were excited to play with the seagulls. Memaw showed them how to hold up the Dorito chip and wait for the birds to swoop it away. The weather finally made the turn for Spring and their last day here was beautiful and full of fun. Baby Pecan will really love the ocean as much as his older cousins did over Valentine's Day, and I am looking forward to that time!  

     Which brings me to this new Challenge on The Funkie Junkie Boutique's For the Love of Mixed Media. Laura's got this one and she's challenging us to "create a mixed media project about/for someone or something you love". It was easy-peasy for me since I was already in planning mode to make some kind of package to put the kids' Valentine candy in. So I came up with a neat idea after realizing that between our 4 Grandbabies (including the one in-utero!), they have traveled a combined 11 States and 1 other country in just the past month! Last summer, I was bummed out that our Grandbabies were just seeing "wavy water" for the first time because of Covid19. This year; they start off BIG with traveling! Jamie is up on Lake Ontario, with his Aunt just across the water in Canada. The way there is around Niagra Falls, so he got to go to another country already to visit his older Cousins on his Mommy's side. Like the rest of the world, I am so over Covid19 already! The thought of kids getting back to having LIFE again makes me feel like there's hope out there yet! 

      Mixed Media is the creation of an item using 2 or more different types of materials. I chose paper, ribbon/string/ and Distress Inks to make simple gift boxes for holding Valentine candy treats.

                                           So let's dig in and see how it's done!

These are the items I needed to divide up and have a box to fit it all inside.

Don't be fooled: those PEZ holders can be pretty large when it's in that plastic!

I wanted to capitalize on how many places they each traveled to/through, and

a mode of transportation that made me think of each child.

I picked up a clearance item on an odd trip (can't even remember where) and

already had in mind to use Tim Holtz's Destinations 12 x 12 pad.

The Funkie Junkie Boutique has TONS of paper packs, pads, and matching sets

of papers to choose from, including Tim Holtz's most recent items.

I started out by measuring the items as they were gathered together in a bag.

Each child would need a box measuring 

10 inches long x 3 inches wide x 4 inches deep

that translated to folding and cutting in the following manner:

one 12 x12 cardstock: Score fully up and down on 1-inch, 5-inch, and 8-inch marks

turn the paper one turn to left and 

Score on 1-inch and 11-inch marks

Cut to the crease only on 1-inch and 11-onch marks.

one 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock: Cut one inch from entire edge to make 8 1/2 x 10

turn and cut on 5 1/2-inches

Score on 2 1/2-inch mark

Clip corners to desired edge, or leave as square

two 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock : cut out 2 squares measuring 4-inches x 3-inches

Any leftover scraps can be used to decorate- especially double sided stock/paper.

After making one cut corner using a ruler and cutting blade, I then just used that 

corner as a pattern for all the rest of the corners.

Here is where the box is all in the correctly cut peices, ready for assembly.

ADHESIVES: I used Pink Glider Tape Runner and Glossy Accents on all.

The tape sets it and the GA makes it stay.

The main part of the box is the 12 x 12 cardstock sheet.

The lid and squares help round out the shell of the box where the 12 x 12 is too small.

This is why you want to coordinate the colors you're using.

The squares also help add some stability- kids are going to handle these boxes!

The inside of one finished box.

You can see down in the bottom right corner- I folded over an edge piece that

normally would have just been cut away. It added stability to the lid piece.

Aaaaaand....if you're like me, and you score too deeply on the ONE and ONLY 

sheet of cardstock like that in your entire stash...just add some scrap over the

top and refold. I used my Pink Glider Tape Runner for this.

What's a Memaw to do when she needs 3 Indianas and 2 Floridas and

Tim only made ONE page of these?!?!

She goes to her trusty pc, programs, and Canon Pixma....

...and she fills the order!

I also did leave it in my files for future needs.

Then come the DECORATIONS!!

In this case; Faceted Hearts in colors for each Grandbaby.

Peanut and Princess are more particular (ALWAYS Blue, and ALWAYS Pink),

whereas Baby Pecan loves Blue, Pink, Purple, Neons and bright colors.

I've seen him pick out other people's fave colors and hand it to them-

 Memaw does Pink a lotand it's been my fave my entire life.  

All 3 Grandbabies have picked up on this; they've all got a sense of color.

And here come the ties and the Distress Inks.

Here are the simple, but very pleasing Gift Boxes...

BACKSIDES

LEFT SIDES

RIGHT SIDES

BOTTOMS

Closeups:

Personalized with their names cut from Tim's license plate page.

Peanut Cole's

Princess Chloe's

Baby Jamie's

One more to get his.... when we get to New York!

I'm sending a huge "THANK YOU!! for all the LOVING comments on my makes,

especially because everyone knows my makes tell a 'story' that is usually about LOVE!

May you all take back as much as you freely give all the time:

Crafters are just the BESTEST PEOPLE EVER!!

This For the Love of Mixed Media Challenge is open until 11:55pm March 8th.

It's easy: make it, share it, enter it (following the rules on the Challenge's link),

and be included in a chance for a $25 Gift Certificate from

(Where you'll find tons of materials at great prices!)

Join in and make SOMEONE ELSE smile!

Until next time...

Stay Safe &

HAPPY BLOGGING!!

The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge #11 Triple the Heat... 3 is the way we roll!

   I'm in my 'beat the deadline' mode today; with things to get caught up on because there are more places to go and people to see- the Red Wing kids and Baby Pecan, to be exact! It's been a month since we have held that happy baby and I can't wait to enjoy being with him again! We've managed to have the older 2 Grands here and there over this month, and even went with them on a family trip to see the Children's Museum in Indy back at the first of August. Seems like every trip we make, we see a TRAIN of some kind- and the Grands all love trains! But most of this month has been just the ChiefHubby and I getting things caught up or making shorter trips on our own. In any case: this entire family ROLLS...and very OFTEN! It makes me very happy that our kids want to show their own children the good things our USA has to offer in the way of travels. There was not much travel like that in my own childhood, unless it was with my Maternal Grandparents, up until my Dad came into life when I was 7. In fact, I had very little

knowledge of the roads and places outside my own town- and even inside town was pretty roughly by map only. I just never had anyone interested in showing me where to go and how to get there. By the time I was a teenager, I loved going anywhere with my Dad or older siblings; it was exciting to go fishing, camping, or just babysit my many Nieces and Nephews at their homes. But that was about the extent of it- just here in our own county. When I met my ChiefHubby, he opened up a full-page-color version of life going places and doing things. I picked up water skiing and boating almost overnight. The site of sailboats on the water was a favorite and led to fulfilling of having my own for the past 5 years. Driving to the next county to visit his Grandparents on their Isle of Homes on Lake Shaffer was a favorite, since I was always close to my own Grandparents. I loved staying all night in Grandma's guest bed and waking up to the sunshine on the lake. Later, jet-skiing out on my own when the kids got back to school and the ChiefHubby was working all day. And like mine, they loved going places. They'd moved there when Grandpa retired from the railroad as a Yardmaster. They shared their love - and life- of both boats and trains with us, and it's passing down to our own Grandkids now.

     Some of my earliest memories of my own Grandpa involved cars, because he drove up to Detroit in 1965- the year I was born- to purchase his second Durant (1931, his first was  1929 as a teen). He spent a long time restoring that car and it became his pride and joy. I was with him in many parades, car shows, and visits to folks in that Durant, and the smell of that 'old car' remains with me to this day. It was featured in Hemmings Classic Cars magazine (click here for article) and more than one photo appeared in the local newspapers over the years. But my favorite of the 3 he restored (red Ford Galaxy 500 Convertible, the 31 Durant) was his 1955 Packard. One day, while I was visiting him in the garage and he was working on it, he asked me to get in and 'hit the brakes', so he could rig up the tail lights. I was sitting inside and looking at the newly-covered seats that had previously been an ugly green shade and asked "Grandpa, why'd you change to blue?" since he'd stuck with original coloring of the other vehicles. He stopped what he was doing and went over to the back wall, picked something off the board, then held it up to my eyes and said "Because it's the exact shade of YOUR EYES. You have your GRANDMA'S EYES." And I just about melted into the cement flooring. I had to wipe away the tears (which still happens now) because I also have my Grandma's middle name as my own middle name, and that was a lesson in learning to be proud of the name Louise.

I chose these three things- boats, cars, and trains- for the theme of my make. 

So let's see what happened!

Tim Holtz has tons of things to choose from for use on ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) of any shape.

Quite a few of my items here- especially packages of all my Paper Dolls-

were purchased from The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I like to get out everything I MIGHT use and stack it all up. 

I also take a photo of what I have out, just in case I forget to do so later.

While I had plenty of time to choose what I wanted to add to the ATCs,

my plan for color and tools was pretty straighforward:

3 colors and 3 set of stamps on 3 ATC circles:

REQUIREMENT OF 3

I did use several layers of cardstock for the middle of each ATC shape. 

This helped keep them stiff on the inside while the two outer layers were for looks.

Using Glossy Accents also helps everything keep its shape!

Next, after all the outside layers were all put together, I snipped out some stash paper

from the TH Destination 12x12 stack I was using, for some reinforcements.

The TH IdeaOlogy Ring was my plan to hold them all together as a complete set of 2 threes.

When everything was dry, I used some TH Distress Oxide in Vintage Photo

to add some aging to all of the edges.

Heat dry is a must since the DO/RegD are 'wet' until heat set.

Now the real fun begins!

Choosing which color was to go with which stamps.

While HEAT was not a requirement for this Triple the Heat Challenge, 

I decided that was the perfect way to go; HEAT EMBOSSING!

Now, if you're into making details just right, like I always try to do,

here's how to separate stamp images to make them go where you want...

...1- Tape over the part of the image you DON'T want to show

2- Then add paint/ink to the stamp's un covered area

3- Remove the tape and stamp where you wish first part to be

4- Use emboss powder or glaze of choice and heat dry....

 ...Repeat the steps for each part of the stamp's image you wish to do.

As you work, the part that is heat-finished will look differently in color,

but it will all end up looking the same shade when finished.

I'm using TH Embossing Glazes for my project.

This is Fired Brick.

You can see the TH Glazes are absolutely FABULOUS looking on backgrounds!

Just the right amount to see the stamped image, yet the background shows through it!

With all my stamping and heat emboss glazing finished,

I noted that the Antique Linen was not as visible, so I lightly ran some

Distress Paint over each image in Walnut Stain, then pounced on it with a wetwipe.

Then heat dried again.

I also wanted to add some "rust" to the edges, since these little ATCs looked

like miniature metal signs (like those sold at Hobby Lobby).

So I used the same Walnut Stain Distress Paint onto my TH Glass Mat

and working one side at a time, scraped each ATC edge through it,

dragged the edges through TH Distress Powder,

heat dried, and repeated the process as needed till I was satisfied with each edge.

It took a looooong time to do both sets of 3 ATCs,

but the effect was worth it.

Here's the pic of the items I actually ended up using out of the first photo you

saw of all the choices I laid out at the start....

...and the tools I used.

Here's the CUTE results:

FRONTS:

REQUIREMENT: Set of 3 

Made from 3 sets of stamps and 3 color schemes

3 ribbons, 3 sets of 2 ppl/pet

REQUIREMENT: Set of 3 

Made from 3 sets of stamps and 3 color schemes

3 ribbons, 3 children

BACKS:

FYI: The paper I used to lay the ATCs on for photo taking was the backside

of this TH 12x12 Destinations paperie sheet. It reminds me of Grandpa's cars.

Thanks, everyone, for stopping by!!

And if you're not coming straight from the Challenge page,

you'll find this entered on

TFJB Challenge #11 Triple The Heat

Sponsored by:

The Funkie Junkie Boutique

Enjoy the entries and posts from each blog, then come back to

JOIN IN ON OUR NEXT CHALLENGE!!

Until Next Time;

Stay Safe &

HAPPY BLOGGING!!