Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Spellbinders Butterflies

I just love layering with the Spellbinders Butterflies dies! You can create the illusion of the butterfly's wings fluttering by adhering the center portion of the butterfly and letting the wings pop out at you. I CASE'd this box from Cheryl at Life is Sweet. Cheryl has such great ideas. I had that box die for awhile now and I would have never thought of putting it together as she did. Thank you Cheryl for the great tutorial!
Here's the back of the box...
I fell in love with this color combination when I went into Island Scrapbooking and saw a card made by Tracy using the same color scheme (turquoise, brown, and green). I guess I couldn't those colors out of my head and decided to use them in this box.
Supplies used:
Spellbinders Butterflies dies
Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities
Cardstock- Bazzil
Printed cardstock- Stamping Station
Flowers- Prima
Crystal Stickers- Mark Richards
Gold paper- Hanko Designs
Friend sentiment- Sizzix Sizzlits Sentiment Set
Box Die- Sizzix XL dies
I made a coordinating treat bag using the same color scheme and same butterfly dies. I covered Hershey's Nuggets with the same paper used in the box and then embellished each one with a paper flower. The topper was made by cutting a scallop circle using Spellbinders and then folding it in half. I then used my gold glitter stickles to add some bling to the edges. The topper was secured by punching holes and adding a bow.
Have a great week!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Playing Catch Up!

I've been meaning to make cards for people and am really really late for some! We were invited to a baby luau in February, but we couldn't make it to Honolulu, so I wanted to send a card... Well, its now one month later and I still haven't sent it! I finally got around to making it this week and I still need to mail it. Yup, I'm a bad procrastinator.
Supplies used:
Clip art by Mindy Terasawa- Little Safari (So cute!)
Carstock- Bazzil Bling
Oval and Scallop Oval die- Spellbinders
I'm thinking I should buy the Palm Tree Sizzix die for the background... don't ya think?
Here's the inside of the card...
Here's the other card I've been meaning to make! Now I'm not an owl person, but these owls are so cute! I couldn't resist. Plus they are accompanied by the cutest saying "Owl always be your friend". I love pink and brown, so I thought this would be a cute combo for the owl card.
Supplies:
Hoot and Annie Stamp and Owl Always Be Your Friend stamps by Dandelion Designs
Cardstock- scraps
Oval and scallop oval dies- Spellbinders
Grossgrain ribbon- Ben Franklin
Finally, another creation from my Aunty Jan... She always continues to amaze me. At first I couldn't figure out how she made the gate fold card using the Spellbinders die, but after spinning my wheels for a bit, I figured it out. Aunty Jan really puts a lot of work into each creation. She took the time to cut out each flower in Hello Kitty's basket using different colors. I guess its that attention to detail that makes it so great!

Here's what the card looks like when its open.

Have a nice day off tomorrow!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Hello Kitty Baby Shower!

Hi Everyone! Had to wait until the baby shower was over to post these photos. Didn't want to spoil the surprise for everyone, right? Here's some of the stuff I made for the shower. We knew it was going to be a girl, so naturally we decided to go with a Hello Kitty theme. The mom-to-be said she liked Hello Kitty, so we went for it! In addition to buying her a Hello Kitty crib set, mobile, towel set and blanket, we also made a lot of the prizes ourselves...
First of all, here's the card for the group gift. I couldn't wait to use my new Hello Kitty Sizzlit where she's holding a flower. The cardstock is by Bazzil (bling), and the DP is by Imaginisce- I think this is my new favorite paper company! The green scallop border you see is actually paper frills from Doodlebug Designs. I keep forgetting to use them, so I decided to take them out of its hiding place- that seemed to work because I finally remembered I had them.
Here's a close up of Hello Kitty...
Since we had all chipped in for a group gift, I thought it would be nice to make her something for the baby's room or her desk- its sad when you have to go back to work, so I thought this might cheer her up when she starts missing the baby... I used an 8x8 shadow box frame (not shown here because the flash made it impossible to see the layout). The cardstock is again Bazzil (bling) and Imaginisce. The Hello Kitty Fairy die looked like an angel to me, so I typed the words "Mommy's Little Angel" and cut it and the scalloped oval out using my Spellbinders dies. The Hello Kitty's clothes is cut from Swiss Dot paper, which I thought was the perfect print for her dress. Now all she has to do is add the 4x6 photo when the baby arrives and its done! I'm tempted to make one for myself!
After seeing so many examples of these large paper clips, I just had to try my hand at them. Since it was a Hello Kitty shower, I decided to use just the Hello Kitty Sizzlit Head die. I cut two of each so that you could look at the image from either side and mounted them with pop dots (alright, I admit it was actually the rubbish part of the pop dots, you know... the area surrounding the pop dot?) and glued the paper clip on with the E6000 glue. It was pretty fast to make and came out cute. I paired them with the coordinating covered notebook for a matching set. Remember the notebook I posted a few weeks ago? Well, I thought it was a cute idea, so I covered a few leftover notebooks I had and decorated them with the new Hello Kitty Sizzlit dies. Since the notepads are on the small side, the Sizzlit size fit the notebook better. I forgot to take a photo of all 4 notebooks I made, but here they are with the coordinating paper clip.
Paper used in this design is by Bo Bunny Press. The bottom two used paper from Imaginisce. All bling used was from Hero Arts. Again, all Hello Kitty dies are by Sizzix and the ovals/scallop ovals are from Spellbiniders. I found the larg paper clips from Walmart.
And last but not least... Here's the favors we worked on. I CASE'd the idea from Chery's blog (Life is Sweet). She made a box using the Sizzix XL Big Cuts die. The box has a window cut out, so we used acetate for the window. The Hello Kitty's were cut using a Sizzix die and we paper pieced all parts together. The box cover is kept open to support Hello Kitty. The Kitties were stuffed using baby bottle candy.
Finally, my friend who wrapped the group gifts asked me to make some Hello Kitty tags to decorate the wrapping since we couldn't find wrap with Hello Kitty on it. Here's what I came up with for one of the gifts. Its in a rather large bag, so I had room to play with. Each scalloped circle was cut from Spellbinders and the "Baby" letters were cut from the Hello Kitty Font Cricut cartridge. The paper used was Bazzil (Bling), and of course Hello Kitty Sizzlits die- its actually the Hello Kitty with the flower, which is a whole body, but I cut off her head (poor kitty yah?) so she would fit in the circle.
Here's a close up of the Hello Kitty.
We had a blast at the shower. It was nice to see Iris again! Can't wait till she gives birth so we can see the baby. Hope everyone likes all the Hello Kitty stuff!
Here's a close up of one of the paper clips..

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Hello Kitty Coming Out Of My Ears!

I decided to make a few samples for our local scrapbook store, Island Scrapbooking. Michele is so busy all the time that she doesn't have time to make anything new, so I thought I'd help her out to showcase the new Hello Kitty dies. This first card was made with the Mimmy Sizzlit die. For some reason, when I think of Hello Kitty, the colors black, pink and white come to mind. I used Hero Arts Bling to decorate her bag and bow. The label is the new Spellbinders die that I just got. I love the way it looks- it really dresses up the card. The background paper is by Bo Bunny and the "hello" is another Hello Kitty Sizzix die. It's actually a decorative strip. I just used the "hello" from the "hello kitty".
Here's another card using the Hello Kitty mushrooms and the Hello Kitty with the balloons sizzlits. The Kitty looked like she was sitting down, so I made her sit on the mushrooms. The Thinking of You is from the Sizzix Greetings set.
The next sample I CASE'd from Cheryl (again) of Life is Sweet. She posted a tutorial on a box that was so cute, I just had to try it. I already had the Sizzix XL Box die- honestly, I didn't even realize what die she had used. I didn't have the narrow oval Spellbinders die she used for the handle, so I used my old Marvy oval punch, which seemed to do the trick. The Hello Kitty is the new Embosslit that I just picked up. They are really easy to use and not much paper piecing. The paper is some old washi paper scrap I found in my stash. Its the perfect size to hold post it notes! But I ended up filing it with some Easter goodies for the girls at the store. Its cool because you can put things in the back box and the front box! I'm sure I'll use this again in the future!
I wrapped each Hershey's Nugget with some scrap paper. It makes them look more Eastery (is that a word? Maybe I should say festive).
My last sample for the store is another notebook. I learned how to make this from Amy (in my club) and have added my touch- Hello Kitty, that is. I guess I really like this Bo Bunny paper. Instead of using it with black this time, I coordinated it with brown. Even though the paper has black in it, I think the brown looked ok. Plus I love pink and brown together. The die is another Hello Kitty Sizzlit and the scallop circle is another Spellbinder Nestabilities. Can you tell I love Spellbinders? I never thought I would use them, but I use them in almost every project.
Anyway, stay tuned... we have a baby shower tomorrow that has a Hello Kitty theme! Now you know why my post is titled "Hello Kitty Coming Out Of My Ears!".

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Thank You Card

I made this card for a co-worker who recently moved to another department. Actually, this was supposed to be a Farewell Card, but I didn't have any Sayoonara or Goodbye stamps, so I decided that Thank You was also appropriate since we were also thanking the person for all that he did for us. This card was very simple to make- the washi paper was mounted on black cardstock and then again on the white card. The Thank You stamp (Inkadinkado) was stamped in gold and then embossed in clear on black cardstock. I then cut out the embossed image and mounted it on gold cardstock. The washi paper was so nice that there wasn't much more to add to the card without taking away from the beautiful design. Guess even I needed a break from Hello Kitty. Although... if it was a girl who had left instead of a guy, she would have probably gotten a Hello Kitty on her card!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

More Hello Kitty

Are you sick of Hello Kitty yet? Not me! I just can't get enough of these new Hello Kitty dies. I had some leftover post it note holder blanks cut, so I made one for my Aunty Jan since I was going to see her this weekend. This is the new Mimi die (I think she's Hello Kitty's sister), and she sure looks ready to go shopping! I added a Hero Arts pearl to the bag for a little bling. Instead of cutting and gluing her tiny wiskers, I took a shortcut and used a Glaze pen. The printed papers were cut from scraps and the name was cut using the Cricut Design Studio with George Basic Shapes cartridge. I'm still a novice when it comes to Design Studio, but I love the fact that you can weld letters together and it will cut them all into one image instead of separate letters. The small flowers were from Doodlebug Designs... one of my favorite companies. Sorry, my photos are junk... I'm still waiting for Les to teach me how to take better photos (hint hint).
My next card was a birthday card for my friend Les (very belated). I used the new Hello Kitty Mushroom die- which I just love. The Hello Kitty is actually from the die with her on the rainbow, but I thought she would look cute peeking over the mushroom. The Happy Birthday is from one of the Sizzix greetings (sizzlits) collection, and the butterfly is from Big Island Packaging.
Here's a close up of the Hello Kitty.
I also wanted to play with the new rainbow die and Hello Kitty with the balloons. My daughter just loves rainbows, so I had to buy this die. I initially made it so Michele could display it in her store, but once I showed it to my mom, she put a claim on it and I couldn't get it back (sorry Michele). The funny thing is my mom will probably never use it- she will just end up keeping it and looking at it. As long as someone enjoys it, I'm happy!
This weekend I got to visit Photocraft and J's Knicknacks in Honolulu! I had so much fun getting new ideas and seeing new products! Thank you so much to Photocraft for spending so much time with us! I ended up buying a Scor-Pal from them (on the recommendation of Aunty Jan) and am excited to start using it.
While we were at J's Knicknacks we were lucky to go when they were doing a free make 'n take with the new Easter Hello Kitty dies. I don't know if you can tell but the inside of one of the ears fell out while I was shopping in the store. All of the dies used, including the circle border are new Hello Kitty dies. Cheryl from J's Knicknacks told me that she will be doing a make 'n take when she comes to the Hilo Ben Franklin next month. Can't wait to see what new project she will come up with- hope I can make it!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

New Hello Kitty Sizzix Samples

After a long night of Hello Kitty crafting, I have some samples to share...
My first sample was actually a Thank You/Happy (early) Easter gift for Michele at Island Scrapbooking. Its one of those pint sized paint cans again that I decorated. I filled them with Nestle Crunch Eggs (Yum) because the last time I dropped off the Easter Basket class sample, I had left some chocolate eggs in it to show what it will look like and Michele told me she ate all of them! :) Tracy, Donna and Noe- better get some while you can! (Only kidding Michele!).
I used the new Hello Kitty Sizzlits Easter Die. This die is my favorite by far. I used Lasting Impressions pink cardstock (poka dots) for the bunny costume. The face was cut out with the fuzzy white cardstock, although I think I did it wrong. I think I was supposed to put the pink bunny suit over the face instead of the face on the bunny suit. The little chicks were cut from the Bazzil Bling cardstock and the grass was cut from DCWV paper.
Here's the top of the can... I just printed "Happy Easter" on the computer, cut it out using Spellbinders circle Nestabilities and Quickutz Scallop Circle dies.
Sorry, some of my photos are coming out junk because I don't have good lighting. The flash is washing out the pictures so I can't use it and get a good photo. Les, I need help! :)
My second sample is an Easter card using the Bunnies from the same die that had the baby chicks. I just love these bunnies! They look like babies. Anyway, the Happy Easter is also a Sizzix die set. It included another die that said Spring and one that said Egg Hunt. I have the perfect layout in mind to use the Egg Hunt die... You will get a kick out of it when you see it. The picture I plan on using makes me laugh every single time!
I actually have one more sample to post, but I'll wait until after this weekend since I'm going to give it to someone and want it to be a surprise!
Well, I'm off to Honolulu tomorrow! Woo hoo! Time to get in my craft shopping fix. Maybe I'll have some extra time to go to Target? Wish me luck- I heard its either crazy crowded or nothing on the shelves!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Hello Kitty Heaven

Short post today... I'm busy busy busy playing with my new Hello Kitty dies! I went to Island Scrapbooking today to check them out and ended up getting most of them! Yikes! I'm on a Hello Kitty high right now. Unfortunately I'm supposed to be working on other projects but I'm too distracted!I'll try to post some of the stuff with the new dies soon.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Who You Calling a Monkey?

I couldn't resist buying these cute cardstock stickers by Reminisce. They have a whole line of these monkeys with coordinating papers and stickers. I only bought these stickers but I'm tempted to go back and buy the rest!!! My cute nephew, Zade, was the perfect subject for this layout. His mommy calls him "Monkey" so naturally I thought of him. Isn't he a cutie?

Supplies used:
  • Monkey Business stickers by Reminisce
  • Alphabet stickers by ProvoCraft
  • Yellow cardstock by Bazzil- bling line
  • Brown and Green cardstock by DCWV
  • Quickutz cookie cutter alphabet dies

Monday, March 9, 2009

Hoaloha Projects

Hi Everyone! Yesterday's club meeting was very productive. Miyeko Yamane taught us all how to write Japanese Calligraphy. I had such a hard time but it was very interesting to learn. Yamane Sensei was nice enough to write our names for each of us who attended. I think I'm going to have mine framed. Here is Yamane Sensei demonstrating the correct way to write the kanji.
Here are all of the names Yamane Sensei wrote for us.
After our Calligraphy lesson, Amy taught us all how to make this cute notepad holder. When you open up the holder, there's even a pocket to hold all your stuff! She even made us matching pens to go with each notebook. I love the papers she choose. They colors coordinate so well together. I hope Amy decides to teach this class. I'm sure others will want to learn how to do this fast and easy project! I'm sorry I don't know what companies these supplies were from since Amy had all the supplies pre-cut. Thanks Amy! Here's the notebook I made.
Here's the inside. I put in the card so you can see the pocket.
Here's Amy with one of the notebooks.