THE GREETING FARM - JUNE 2026 CHALLENGE!

Happy Monday Farmers! If you are not on Instagram, you may have missed The Greeting Farm's special announcement. As Marie takes this necessary time off, the Design Team will continue to post inspiration on the blog. The Greeting Farm will also continue with monthly challenges in The Greeting Farm Fan Page Facebook Group for a chance to win a $50 Gift Certificate. If you LOVE The Greeting Farm, please continue to support them during this time by purchasing their Stamps, Digital Stamps, and Coloring Book Pages! It is greatly appreciated!

"I've decided to take a break from TGF due to my busy schedule. I'm hoping that after I'm able to clear my load a bit, I can get back to bringing you some cute designs. So there won't be new releases until further notice. In the meantime, the shop will still be running, and if you have any questions at all please send me an email. Thanks everyone!" ---- Marie

***********************************************

Our JUNE 2026 Challenge is: ADD A BANNER

For this challenge, I grabbed the Artsy Kids set from The Greeting Farm. I really liked the ability to use fun art work in this one. I even cut out part of a cyanotype and added some marker to create a fun canvas. 

I added a background of mini stamps using all of the smaller stamps, then cut those into strips to create a background of banners. I used white embossing powder and Copic markers to color the images on kraft paper. 

 

The cute little girl is also colored with Copics, as is her accessories. Once those were all colored and cut, I popped them up on dimensional adhesive and created the scene. Adding one more banner with a sentiment, and the card is complete. 

 

The challenges start on the 15th of each month, and run until the 14th of the next month so you have several weeks to work on your project. The full list of CHALLENGE RULES will be listed under the challenge album on Facebook. 

To enter, upload your card to the Challenge Album in The Greeting Farm Fan Page Facebook Group.
(Click on "Media" > "Albums". Find the challenge album for the month and click on it. Click on "Add Photos". After you upload your card to the album, leave a comment under your card so it shows up on the Discussion page.)

 Happy Creating Farmers!

Pin It

AUTHENTIQUE PAPER: Happy 4th of July from Authentique!!

Happy 4th of July! All of us at Authentique Paper wish America a Happy Birthday. We wanted to wish all of our American friends a Happy 4th of July this week! Before you all go out to celebrate with picnics and fireworks, we have a few patriotic projects to share that have been crafted up with our favorite, patriotic collections!  Remember, as with all Authentique Paper products, we are always Made in the U.S.A.! 

Heather Conklin

I created a cute banner to go on my mantle for the 4th of July. I really liked the pairing of the stars in the blue paper from the Authentique Heroic Collection, paired with the fabulous red striped paper from the Authentique Freedom Collection. I created the rosettes using my Silhouette Cameo, then hot glued those to bases before adding the letters/sentiments. The stars were just stickers that I purchased just for this project from Hobby Lobby.

Supplies Used: Authentique Heroic Collection, Authentique Freedom Collection, burlap banners pieces, star stickers, Silhouette Cameo, hot glue, Lawn Fawn alpha dies, ribbon

Pin It

BOO! from Xyron, Core'dinations and Petaloo

The Xyron Design Team is working alongside of our friends at Core'dinations Cardstock and Petaloo to create some amazing projects for you this week. 

Make sure that you check out all of their Facebook pages, as well as the designers' blogs. There are a ton of prizes to be had each day!

Today, I am showcasing a fun Halloween banner that I created for my front door. I love the distressed look that the Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Core'dinations cardstock gives to this project. To create this, I cut out each section using the Lawn Fawn Lawn Cuts Stitched Party Banner in both banner sizes, as well as the circle.

I then ran those sections through various embossing folders, then sanded them with the Core'dinations Sand-It Set. This way, the great kraft shows through in various sections. Flowered sections are layered with Authentique Paper (Conjure, Components die cuts), and Petaloo flowers (Embossed Mulberry Flowers -Daisies/Chartreuse, Forget me Nots-Soft Lavender). They are attached using Xyron's Double-Sided High Tack 1/2" Tape.

 

The letter shapes are created in a similar fashion. I started with the banners, layering them with dimensional adhesive that I made using my Xyron 3" Sticker Maker and some craft foam. Then, I ran the Petaloo Crochet Fancy Trim (purples).  through my Xyron 1.5" Sticker Maker and attached it to the smaller banner. Added the embossed circle and a DIY Thicker made orange with Neon WOW! Glitter. You could create this same effect by running the front of your alphas through any of your Xyron products and adding glitter. 

Lastly, I strung each of the banners onto some twine in my stash. One trick, if you have a banner like this, you can always tape the back of the string/twine/ribbon in place. No one will see it, and your banner pieces won't shift around.

This was a super fun project to make!! Hope you enjoyed this and all of the other projects this week. Joy over at Joy's Life and Marcia Dehn-Nix have both created some amazing items!

Supplies Used:

Xyron: 3" Sticker Maker, Double-Sided High Tack 1/2" Tape, 1.5" Sticker Maker

Petaloo: (Embossed Mulberry Flowers - Daisies/Chartreuse, Forget me Nots-Soft Lavender, Crochet Lace Fancy Trim-Purples)

Core'dinations: Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Nostalgic Collection paper pad

Additional Supplies: Lawn Fawn Lawn Cuts Stitched Party Banners, Authentique Paper (Conjure, Circles and Scallops die cuts), American Crafts (DIY Thickers, Wow! Extra Fine Glitter-Neon), craft foam, twine, Darice Embossing Folders (Wood Grain, Interlocking Circles), Cricut Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Love Triangles, Swiss Dots)

Pin It

Just a Fun Card

Sometimes I really just need a card. In this case, it was actually to place a long set of stickers that I had purchased for one of my dear scrappy friends. I needed a long card, so measured one that would fit in a long, traditional envelope. I also had snagged a set of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Party Banners Lawn Cuts, and wanted to play with those on the card.

Like many of my cards, I used the leftovers of a Gossamer Blue kit from August of 2013. I don't subscribe to the Main Kits anymore (I do the Life Pages kits now), but when I did, I would toss all of my leftovers in a Ziploc bag and pull them out for cards. That way, I could toss anything together and it would all go.  In this case, I pulled a few other pieces from other items together as well. I think the green patterned paper was from something else, I cannot remember.

Anyway, it's a cute card. I still love that My Mind's Eye floral paper. <3 br="">

Pin It

XYRON! A Fond Farewell, and Game Day Decorations!

Good Morning! Today is a bittersweet day for me, as it is officially my last post for Xyron Adhesives. I have had a complete blast sharing everything that I have made with all of you. I will forever cherish the time that I spent working for a fabulous company, and alongside some super-talented ladies. 

Even amongst the bitter part, it will be a fantastic weekend this weekend. For starters, today is my birthday! While I'm not going to tell you how old I am, I will say that I'm younger than the Seattle Seahawks who are going to the Super Bowl this weekend!!

Since I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, it's a pretty big deal that our Seahawks are playing on Sunday. We watch every Hawks game, and usually my husband attends at least one a year. While our family usually watches the big game, no matter who plays, we don't usually decorate. This year... All bets are off (at least on the decoration side of things!)

I really love this banner. It's fun, and because I didn't use the team name, only a PNG of the Hawks logo, I could break it out again later if I chose to.

My husband was gifted these quite a few years ago, and we get to decorate with them finally! Just a little bit of vintage Seahawks!
For the food picks and the larger logo, I just found a PNG file of the logo online. THIS is the version that I used for this project. My crafty friend Brenda shared with me a fantastic tutorial on how to use your Silhouette's Print and Cut feature. There really are quit a few out there, and this one just worked for me. Once those were all cut, I used my Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker to adhere the logos to a scalloped rectangle that I sized just for this.

Once the logos were adhered to the rectangles, I simply attached some popsicle sticks that I cut in half (and made pointy!) with a couple of Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/8" Dots.  Now I'm ready to spear some amazing game snacks!

The banner was really easy too! I took a football shape from the Silhouette store, and cut it in both kraft paper for the football, and white for the laces. I cut the title with cardstock, then offset the letters so that I could use a contrasting color with each letter. I then ran both the laces and the blue letters through my Xyron 3" Sticker Maker. I think that the 3" is my favorite Xyron tool.

Once the laces were attached to the footballs, and the blue letters were attached to the offset green ones, I needed to attach the title to each of the football pieces. Using the Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/8" Dots, each of the letters was easily attached.

Once all of the letters were attached, I used a hole punch to create a place to use my grey twine and string up the banner.  

I'm kind of in love with the whole effect. Now all I need is some football snacks and one amazing game! GO HAWKS!

Supplies Used:
Xyron Adhesive Dots in 3/8", Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker, Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, American Crafts Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cover, Silhouette Cameo, Twinery Twine, printer, popsicle sticks. Pin It

Christmas Fun with Xyron and Heidi Swapp!!

Good morning Xyron and Heidi Swapp fans!! I love this season. Seriously, I wait all year for Christmas to come and miss it once it's gone. I love the gifts, the tradition, and of course all of the fun that you can have with decoration and gift wrap. Today I'm going to share a little bit of both.

Meet our resident elf, Stella. She is the perfect foil for the fantastic papers and embellishments from Heidi Swapp's Believe line. I took three pieces of from the 12x12 Paper Pack and layered them all together 1/2" smaller than each other using my Xyron Mega Runner. The Color Magic Jumbo Pennants were each sprayed with a mix of Color Shine in both Chartreuse and Gold Lame.

To make the photograph pop, I added a Believe Banner Delight using the  Xyron's High Tack Adhesive Dots in 3/16".

I then punched out one of the Joy to the World sentiments from one of the sheets of the 12x12 Paper Pack, and added my journaling and faux stitching with a Signo pen. 

Lastly, I used Gold Lame Color Shine on the Color Magic Striped Alphabet. I love the little hashtag, and it works perfectly with the Instagram pic I used!

My second project using Heidi Swapp's Believe line is a decorative bow that I cut using my Silhouette.

Once I cut all of the pieces of the outside of the bow...

...I sprayed a second sheet with the Chartreuse Color Shine, then cut the base of each of pieces.

I ran each of the outside pieces through my Xyron 1.5" Sticker Maker.

Once all of the outer pieces were attached to the second set of pieces, I attached them all with a long brad. See how the Color Shine on the inside of the bow covers the white paper?

Make sure that the brad is opened on the inside.

To create the banner that will wrap around the CD case, I cut a border, ran that through my Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, then attached that to a slightly larger version and attached it to the case.

Lastly, I used a few more of the High Tack Adhesive Dots in 3/16" to attach it to the case. 

Now it's ready for packing up a fun present!!


Products Used:

Xyron: Xyron Mega Runner, Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/16" Dots, Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker

Heidi Swapp: Believe Collection (12x12 Paper Pad, Banner Delights), Color Magic (Striped Alphabet, Jumbo Pennants), Color Shine (Gold Lame, Chartreuse) 

Other Supplies: Silhouette, Signo Uniball pen, CD case, circle punch, brad

Pin It

Ro's Birthday: Pretty Little Studio Sketches

I finally found them! I had purchased a set of the Word Flashcards forever ago (when we lived in our last house...) and promptly lost them in the sea of randomness that is my craft room. I searched, and searched and FOUND THEM!! Woot!!

So, here is this week's fabulous Pretty Little Studio sketch. I even got my pics for it this week!! I used a piece of woodgrain Crate Paper that I've been hoarding saving. Seriously though, this IS my favorite woodgrain so far. I also am trying to use up some of the more theme-based papers that I have and used my October Afternoon Cakewalk paper set that I got from Scrapbooksteals.com awhile ago.

I loved how I could use all of those patterned papers, and not have it be too busy. Isn't she just a funny monkey? Love that little scrunchy face. It's her happy face!

This is the Pretty Little Studio sketch from last week. I had it all completed and sitting on my craft table... yet hadn't stopped by Costco to snag the pics. Oh well. It's another cute layout for Ro's book. I used all Cakewalk papers, then used a Distress Ink to antique them a little further.

I loved the Silhouette cutouts. Although I found out that vellum is harder to cut on a large scale than I thought. I tried to make a Birthday cut, but It kept ripping. I kind of hid the crunched part with a button.

You can't tell all that much, right?

Supplies Used:
October Afternoon papers, Word Stickers, Sticky Keys, Little Flyers, buttons, Tidbits
Pretty Little Studio Word Flashcards, Distress Ink, Crate Paper woodgrain paper, Heidi Swapp Gold Shine, Silhouette cuts: birthday, chevrons, life cards, circle hearts Pin It

Sisters: And Best Friends... MWM: Amber 6

I love my little monkeys. They really are pretty darn funny. This was created before my computer went all wonky... Hence the Silhouette file. I actually used an older Gossamer Blue kit (August '12) for this layout. I really liked all of the yellow that was in this kit. Yellow isn't a normal color that I go to, but because it was tempered with aqua and pink... It was perfect.

For this layout, I used the Amber 6 MWM from Scrapbook Steals as my sketch. Rather than the separate photos, I combined them into a collage. I really liked using the three photos. So cute!! Pin It

Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic Baby Cards

At work there are a few babies that are headed our way, and as part of my extra duties, I made the cards for the upcoming babies. These are all using Dear Lizzy's 5th & Frolic. I needed some cute baby friendly papers, and I loved the soft colors and muted patterns that 5th & Frolic had. I snagged the 6x6 and a set of die cuts.

Isn't the onesie cute?? It is a Silhouette cut that is used normally for cards. I just chose not to use both sides, and of course didn't cut out the truck. I scaled it down, layered various patterns, then added the die cuts, buttons, twine and a cute Studio Calico stamped sentiment. Pin It