Frilly and Funkie Challenge #19 Just My Type....Americana

    In my mind; there is nothing better than pairing up the colors of our US Flag, unless you could get those same colors in vintage shades!
I have an extreme love for the good old Red, White, and Blue that goes back to the celebration of our Country's Bicentennial in 1776. I clearly remember the fashion of hip-hugger, bell-bottomed, faded denim blue jeans patched over with peace signs or US Flag colors. I am a former wearer of such items and when they made a comeback in the early 2000s... I ran out to get some before the fad disappeared again! But, these past years have been 'pouring'  yourself into spandex skinny jeans that have less material in them. It's ironic to pay big money for jeans that have more holes in them than yours did as a teen in the 70s when Dad said "You are NOT leaving this house in THOSE God-forsaken, torn up jeans. I can see your SKIN through those things! Go put on some better pants, please." *sigh* Parents just didn't understand the draw of a comfy old pair of jeans. So, when our generation popped out kids of our own, we just HADDA go and show them our saved-from-the-trash old jeans. And someone went and got FILTHY RICH off of that. It wasn't ME. Sadly.

Just an early peek on my "pull" towards Americana colors and items! ;)

         But then some guy named Tim Holtz came along and while he was still a bit younger than me....*gasp!*...he GOT IT! He actually understood the blending of "vintage" or "old" with "Americana"! And I felt like I'd met a match in my theory of design and art. It felt like coming HOME when those Distress Inks came out in shades named: Faded Blue Jeans, Frayed Burlap, and Fired Brick! He could actually dig it, man; what inspiration an old camera or a vintage fan, or a still-usable 1939 typewriter could mean to someone- and the THRILL of finding one!
        If you are my age (53 next week) or older, you might even remember your Grandparents having several of these "old things" not just laying around catching dust, but really STILL being used! That was the case of my maternal Grandma- she was a 'saver' of things. And being her namesake, I was often shown a lot of these things that were dear to her and how she came to have them, and especially: how she took care of, and still used them. One item of oft-use was her

old black typewriter. It was used by her in High School and she was very proud of it. Here she was in the 1980s, still typing on that thing. I was mesmerized by it! Partly because computers were pretty new in our schools at that time. Only High School students who were majoring in some kind of office work or a business career, signed up for "Computer Technology" or "Typing" (Classes 1, 2, 3, and 4 along with "Dictation") needed to worry about learning any kind of keyboard-related learning. Since I was profoundly deaf by then (but not as bad as now, which is totally), I didn't have much use for any of that. I DID however have a WANT to learn typing just for the fun of it. My experience of typing had been almost nothing except for Grandma's old black typewriter. I had borrowed it from her for extra credit on an English Class report. Then decided I liked it so much, I borrowed it for other reports; liking that crisp, clear, bold black, same-sized lettering over my own handwriting (which was always complimented on by Teachers who said I have a 'flowing cursive").  So, there I found myself in Typing I with a state-of-the-art electric IBM. AND.....I sucked at it. From all the practice I'd had on that old typewriter where I'd had my Dad coming into my room complaining that my "CLICKETY-CLACKETY! CLICKETY-CLACKETY!" was too loud for him to sleep. So touching on those NEW "QWERTY" keys that just flew with a slight touch meant that I kept typing things that looked like:

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant toooo tttttteeeeeeellllllllllllll yyyyyyyyyyyyouuuuuuuuuuu

Oh, I passed the class... unless you count being forced to take sample Dictation on her exam. I guess she just couldn't understand how a DEAF person could possibly need to learn how to type but not to HEAR people speaking on earphones to you. Oh well.

        So when the Frilly and Funkie Challenge #19 was announced, I already had found out I won Guest Designer from the Haberdashery Challenge ( click here to see it if you missed it ), and I was going to have to think of a SIMPLE entry for Just My Type, since I'd be working on TWO projects. The bonus is getting two weeks "off" after the GD spot. with all that stuff above going through my brain, I was still hung up on that larger Tag of the Haberdashery, so I decided to just go ahead with another like it.
     NOTE: This is NOT an original design by me. I've seen a couple of these on Pinterest. So I don't want to look like I came up with this myself- NOPE! Kudos goes out to whomever came up with it first, though!! All that is original about my take on it, is the Americana paper ribbon I scored on a trip to Treasure Mart for a whole $3 on a recent "ChickTrip" there with all the Besties. I have about 3 yards of it and you'll be seeing it again, to be sure!

JIC: This could be where you could find more??

I used my TH Tiny Attacher to fold the bottom of my cut together.

Then "puffed it up" using my folded paper trick

( as shown on the Columns I made in F&F Challenge AUGUST ).

FRONT SIDE of Tag...

… and BACK SIDE of Tag.

IDEAOLOGY ROCKS !!!

Who said we were DONE with those TH Type Charms?!

Ditto for the Memo Pins I chose to use here!

More Type Charms on the puffed-out paper ribbon, so the Paper Doll girl needed to stand out, too.

She's waving Old Glory...of the smaller TH Alterations Movers and Shapers Set.

Who is NOT enjoying that TH Memoranda Paper? RUN & GET SOME!!!

I used the photo of the Royal Typewriter, above, to create a copy from Tim's die, using GrundgePaper; Distress Paints in Black Soot, Brushed Pewter, and Picket Fence,

Glossy Accents, and Foil for dimension, color, and feel.

Total layers: 5 GrundgePaper plus 1 Foil on top.

Here's another older TH IdeaOlogy item: Pen Nibs.

I still LOVE these !!!

I used a couple of my TH Embossing Folders to add a bit of dimension to 

leftover Memoranda halfsheet to add a backside to the Tag. Kept it SIMPLE!

And that's a wrap for this Challenge!

Be sure to head over to

The Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog

to see the rest of the entries this time!

The next Challenge... #20...is my 3rd time as Guest Designer, and it's a FUN ONE!

It was worth doing 'double-duty' on two projects at once, but I sure am glad to have them both completely finished so I can clean up my studio a bit. lol!

So, here's your chance to join us in showing off your creative side;

don't be put off if it's not a flat project, as you should check out some of the AWESOME

STUFF people are making for an entry...it always blows me away with their ideas!

I also need to shout about: I WON THE DRAWING- a $25 Gift Certificate from

The Funkie Junkie Boutique

the Sponsor of these Challenges. You can be sure that it literally burned a hole in my Email and I just had to go back and purchase some things I've been wanting since they came out.

(I'll give you a hint of my package on it's way: LIFT!)

 As Always:

Be Safe,

& HAPPY BLOGGING!