Bonus Disaster

My first Christmas Card Club class was last Saturday. I posted the other projects we did in class earlier but didn't post this one yet. I really wanted to try out using mica powders in sprays for a metallic look so I decided to try out this technique as a bonus project. I'm a big Tim Holtz fan and saw this on his videos where he also adds in Distress re-inkers. I didn't try this yet with the re-inkers, but thought I'd try with just the mica powder. I embossed the kraft cardstock using the new Tim Holtz scroll embossing folder (love it!) and then sprayed it with the gold mica powder/alcohol mix. It looks really nice until you touch it. Then you get gold all over your fingers.

I did some research before the class and ended up buying a sealant and bringing some hair spray to the class. We tried out both methods but not sure which one worked better. I'm hoping my students will let me know which method they used and what worked better. I'm pretty sure the sealant will be better but the fumes were not good for an enclosed classroom. I'll have to re-think this project if I'm going to try to do it again. I really like the look of this and think it would be an awesome alternative to buying metallic paper, but for now I'll have to experiment more.

If anyone has other mica powder spray sealant tips, please share them with me! Thanks!!

Supplies:

Labels die- Sizzix (Tim Holtz)

Sentiment- CC's Designs (Amy R)

Embossing folder- Tim Holtz

Mica powder

Ribbon

Cardstock- Bazzil

A Little Something,..

My friend has been trying so hard to get healthy and is doing really well, so I thought I'd make her a little something to reward her for all her hard work. She actually inspired me to teach the Stationary Box class last week and said she wanted to learn how to make it. She's told me in the past how much she loves this DP, so I used it in most of the project. I love this CC's Nora stamp so much and think she looks so cute lying down on the flowers! I kept the cards simple again and since she is also a papercrafter, I left a lot of the labels blank so she could stamp in whatever sentiment she wanted to. (Yes, they were intentially left blank for that purpose- I didn't forget to finish them!). Anyway, I hope she likes it! Here's the notecards I included in the box...

Supplies:

DP- October Afternoon, Fancy Pants

Cardstock- Bazzil

Buterfly punches- MS Crafts

Leaf punch

Swirl punch- EK success

Bird punch- SU

Tag punch- EK success

Flourish die- Sizzix (Tim Holtz)

Flowers- Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts

Stickles

Pearl Brads- American Crafts

Ticket punch- SU

Scallop circle and circle punches- Marvy

Labels 1 die- Spellbinders

Ribbon

Third Times The Charm...

Yes.. Yogurtland finally opened in Hilo while we were on our trip, so when we returned, we wanted to go check it out immediately. And I mean IMMEDIATELY! We headed to Yogurtland straight from the airport but since our plane was delayed they had just closed when we got there. We saw the employees mopping the floor. Akemi was pretty disapppointed. I was too but since I was exhausted I was OK with not having yogurt that night. Strike One! The next day we attempted to go again after dinner... What a big mistake that was! Like all new things in Hilo... everyone in town was there that night... and we are talking Monday night! We took one look at the line (which was out the door) and decided on Jamba Juice instead. Strike Two! Last week Thursday I had to take off because we didn't have a sitter. So in between some back to school shopping, we decided to have some Yogurtland for lunch (more like a snack to hold us over till we had a late lunch). SUCCESS! Akemi had actually lucked out and gone with Daddy the night before, but I missed out on that visit.. so technically, this was my first time at the Hilo Yogurtland. We had just missed the big rush- we only had a few people in front of us, but when we sat down to eat the line was again out the door. Now I must say that the Hilo Yogurtland does not have as many toppings as my Oahu favorite Yogurt Mama. They did have the fresh fruit and granola I love, so I ended up getting that on my lychee, pinapple and coconut yogurt. I think I need to stick to the non-tart yogurts. The tart was a bit too tart for me. Also, I think there are just too many people going there right now.. the machines aren't able to make the yogurt fast enough. I tried several other flavors but after pumping the handle several times and even holding it down for awhile, nothing was coming out. I guess those must be the more popular flavors. For now, I think we are going to wait till the novelty dies down a bit. Maybe it will be better once kids go back to school. I can't wait!

Stationary Box Class

I guess you can say I was a bit ambitious! I thought I could do a Stationary Box class AND a Christmas Card class in the same day. I've learned my lesson and won't do that again!!! :) Anyway, I fell in love with this paper and took the whole pack for the class. It was the right combination of words, colors, and flowers. The inside is the same color green with polka dots, so it worked well for the box base since you can see both sides of the paper. You can find the instructions on splitcoaststampers.com. We made 5 matching cards, 3 3x3 note cards and 5 tags to put in the box. We skipped the address book, etc. because there just would not have been enough time to finish it all. Here's the cards we put together for the box... Decided to incorporate butterflies since I have many butterfly punches and thought it would coordinate nicely. Loving this notebook paper too!

Here's the 3- 3x3 notecards for one of the pockets.

And here are the 5 tags we made using a tag punch by EK success.

Supplies:

Flower paper- Creative Imaginations

Polka dot paper- Best Creations

Cardstock- Bazzil

Notebook paper-

Lg butterfly punch, butterfly border, cosmo, leaf and garden trellis punch- MS Crafts

Sm butterfly punch and small swirl- EK success

Scallop border punch- Fiskars

Flower punch- Paper shapers

Tag punch- EK success

sm flowers- Prima

Stickles

Ribbon

Pearl brads- American Crafts

Pearl accents- Kaisercrafts

Dew Drops- Robin's nest

Flourish- Sizzix

Large scallop circles, Labels 1- Spellbinders

Scallop circles and circle punches- Marvy

Yum Yum Bento Book Signing in Hilo

Hi all you bento enthusiasts out there! DH's cousin "Pikko" will be at Basically Books in Downtown Hilo today for book signing. Unfortunately I can't make it, but my MIL and Akemi will be going to visit Pikko. If you are in the downtown area, stop in to check out her Yum Yum Bento Book. Its super kawaii!! Check out her blog here...

Arigato Aunty Les!

Just wanted to thank my dear old friend Les for a fun but stressful photo shoot of my family. Yes, it was my bright idea to ask Les if she would be so kind as to take photos of my DD and two nieces who were visiting from LA. She was so nice to agree and said my bro and SIL could also take family photos and my mom could join in with the 3 granddaughters. My plan was to get at least one good one of the three girls so I could blow it up for my mom and frame it.

Before I show you the photos, wanted to share the thank you card I made for Les. First saw this on Eunice's blog (A Star for Chiemi) and she referenced Michele's blog (My Simple Crafts) where she had a link to a youtube video on how to make this card. Thank you ladies! Love this idea! Les couldn't join us for dinner at Macaroni Grill so my mom gave her a gift card so she could go later. Here's the inside of the card.

Anyway, for a good laugh at what we went through... check out Les' blog for more photos and the back story. She was stressed out on her side because her computer wasn't working and she used the wrong camera settings, and I was stressed out because the girls didn't want to have to do the photo shoot twice.... let's just say there were some meltdowns.

Despite all the stressing out... Les managed to get some really nice photos on Day 2. Who knew that this pretty park was right next to Kuakini??? I sure didn't! Thanks Les- you da best! Oh yah- the next time get another bright idea- remind me of this one!

Here's some of my favorites from the photo shoot(s)...

And don't forget Miley Sakamoto??

Christmas In July

While dreaming up classes last year before the holidays, I thought to myself... why do I always rush to finish my Christmas projects?? Why not start early and get most of them done instead of waiting till the last minute (like I usually do?)?? I was inspired by the "Christmas Stamping All Year Long" blog where there are weekly challenges to inspire you to create your Christmas projects throughout the year. Well... I'm not that ambitious, but I thought July would be perfect since some of the new Christmas stuff starts coming out around then.

I really wanted the class to be about meeting with other crafters, having fun, and making cards. I didn't want everyone to stress out about mechanisms in cards and focus on simple card making. I also wanted to teach different techniques or give life to some old ones that we've forgotten about too. So this is my first attempt at this type of class and I'm having so much fun coming up with these simple projects!!

Here's my first card... decided that I had to do a distress ink card with mica powders. I really love this stamp set by CC's (AmyR set). Island Scrapbooking should be getting them in soon.

This one was inspired by all you other bloggers out there that made this reindeer last Christmas. I liked the new music paper IS brought in too and thought it matched perfectly. Still need to tweak this one a bit and add in a sentiment somewhere.

Finally- my favorite of the bunch!!! I just LOVE this Santa. Now I can't remember where I found him, but he is simple to make and oh so cute!

We'll be making a couple more projects in the same class and I'm hoping to have one every month until Xmas. Wish me luck!

Happy Belated Birthday Grandma Kat!

Grandma's birthday snuck up on me this year... Guess it was cause I just got back from vacation in Honolulu. Before I knew it, her birthday was like TOMORROW! So, I buckled down and got to work. I solicited help from DH and had him print photos for me of Akemi's recent b-day party at the beach house. He also picked out other family photos from this summer. Since it was a "summer " theme, I went with my new ocean papers. I love all the new ocean papers that came out recently- especially because they all cooridnate so well with each other. These papers also had a coordinating sheet of cardstock stickers. They made the perfect accents to fill in all the holes. I even cut up the wave border and spread it across the bottom of the album. Here's a photo of the album when its open. Here's a close up of the inside cover. The sticker set came with these cute journal stickers! I love the shell one.

Here's the other journal sticker- don't you love the cute crab??

Thanks again for visiting my blog. I'm sure I'll be making a lot more beach layouts since Akemi has been living at the beach this summer. All the more reason to buy more paper!!

More Frozen Yogurt Goodness!

So my last post about frozen yogurt was lacking some photos, so this time I made sure I got some to share with you. This is Yogurt Mama- my favorite frozen yogurt place in Kailua! The logo was designed by Marie of TGF!!!

Here's Akemi eating some of her yogurt... She ate a lot of mine too!

On this last trip... I found gold!!!! Well, not actual gold, but gold in my mind! For those of you die hard Penguin's fans out there, see those white clusters? Its Cookies 'n Cream Scrapple!!! Woo Hoo! My all time favorite topping! I could not believe my eyes when I saw it! Now my favorite yogurt flavor to get is Cookies 'n Cream so I can eat it with the scrapple! My other favorite topping is chocolate covered waffle cone bits.

My brother and his family are frozen yogurt enthusiasits as well, so I knew we'd be hitting the frozen yogurt places with them too. After a fun afternoon at the beach, we took the girls to Yogurt Mama... Here they are with their yogurt..

The little one took 2 bites and then passed out!!!! Right at the table!!!

The other two started photo bombing!

OK now for the new stuff... after a rough photo shoot, we ate at Macaroni Grill with the family.. since we needed to take 2 cars, I jumped in with my brother and SIL. Since we didn't have dessert at Macaroni Grill, we snuck away and had some frozen yogurt at Tutti Frutti. My brother said this is his favorite spot in LA. He tends to like tropical fruity flavors, so if you like that too- you will like Tutti Frutti. We went to the one by Ala Moana in the Walmart building... all I can say is that their Waffle cones are soooo good!! I wish I took more than one for mine!

My brother is such a fanatic that he collects spoons from all the different yogurt places. He was happy because this one had colored spoons but was disappointed with Yogurt Mama because they only had white spoons. I told him that earlier Yogurtland in Manoa had tokidoki spoons.

Here's a close up of my bro's yogurt. I'm shame to show you mine... He makes his look so professional! I think I had the pomegranate, strawberry, and lychee flavors. I liked the pomegranate the best- reminded me of Penguins. I did think the texture was a little icy (very little) and not as creamy as Yogurt Mama or Yogurtland. Its good if you like fruity flavors.

My bro likes jellies on his yogurt. He also likes the popping balls but said they were too sweet. Sorry, just don't think jellies look that appetizing.

And... right before I had to leave to fly home, we went out for one last yogurt! Everyone stayed awake this time! My brother had a "moment" where he transcended into his own world just enjoying his yogurt. He told us that for a moment, he actually forgot where he was because he was so into his yogurt! I think he's more obsessed than me!!!

Birthday Tubes

Aunty Jan does it again! She visited us while we were in town and gave Akemi her belated b-day present. She positioned 3 plastic tubes together to make them look like vases, and stuffed them with different colored candies and topped each one with flowers. Then she cut an "E" for Akemi's initial and added Hello Kitty to accent. Unfortunately, she got the tubes through her work, so don't know where the rest of you can order them from. They are varying lengths, which make them perfect for this type of project. Akemi's Daba photo bombed this picture- do you see him on the side of the tubes? Here's the ham herself! Do you see what is in front of her??? Well, Aunty must've been reading my blog, cause she knew we are getting Yogurtland here in Hilo and got Akemi a gift card for her b-day. Drove past the store front today to see if they opened and so far they haven't. Speaking of frozen yogurt... We went yogurt crazy this trip! Only tried one new place though, so I'll tell you later what new shop I went to and if I liked it. We did manage to go to an old favorite that I will also share photos of.

Fun At Linda's

So, before my family flew in from LA, I thought I'd squeeze in another day of crafting fun. Linda hosted a get together at her house on the 4th for a few of us gals. It was so much fun... Thanks Linda!!! And I finally got to meet Kyoko! She's so hilarious! Linda and Kyoko are such a riot together- they crack me up! We did a few make 'n takes that I'll post later. Since I don't get to see these gal's very often, thought I'd bring some goodies from the Big Island... made these bags using the new Anya from the Sunshine stamp set. She's so cute in her bikini! Got this set from Tamiko's.. Thanks Joy! Here's all of us after a fun day of crafting.... Front: Linda and Kyoko, Back: Joy, Denise, me, Jamie, and Janis

I got some RAKs that I'll share later... like a dummy I forgot them at Mom's!!!! Luckily, I'll be back next weekend and can pick them up.

Honolulu Class

What is that saying again? I need a vacation from my vacation? Just got back from having a week off in Honolulu with my family visiting from LA.. boy did those girls wipe me out! I slept the whole way home on the plane and can use more rest. I'll share some pictures of the "hams" later.

Just wanted to share some of projects we made at a class I taught for my friend Les and a couple of her friends. They wanted to make Hello Kitty and cutsie stuff, so we stuck with Hello Kitty and Create A Critter.

Being a photographer, Les wanted to make the tri-shutter album, so I re-designed it using a Hello Kitty theme with pink, black and white. Decided to use my HK cartridge this time since I wanted the black piece to be solid (no cut marks like from a sizzix die).

She also wanted to make some simple projects, so I chose this accordion gift card holder.... in Hello Kitty of course!

She also liked the Pop Up Gift Card holder... used the cute bear from Create A Critter...

And this box in a bag....

Had a fun time eating Les' lemon cupcakes (hey! I forgot to take a photo of that!) and crafting. Thanks Les, Kat, and Ann for a fun afternoon!