Halloween Fun!

Just wanted to share some photos of the Halloween fun we've been having so far. Akemi's school had a "Literacy Parade" where kids could dress up as their favorite characters from a book. Guess they had to tie in the whole dressing up with education. Since her costume this year was not exactly educational, we looked through her books to figure out what she was going to be for the parade. She chose Trixie the Halloween Fairy from the Fairy book series she loves. Found all the accessories from Walmart, but for some reason no one had orange shirts!! We finally found one at Macy's. Thank goodness. Made her Madonna-esque skirt following the instructions on Joy of Crafting. Took two rolls of tuelle but was very easy to make! Akemi loved it! She was so excited to get dressed she woke us up at 6:00am to start getting ready! Here she is with her book... Here's some fun photos from work this year. Every year we dress up for Halloween and try to coordinate our costumes with a theme. Its fun when everyone participates! This year we went with a Disney theme. Everyone kept guessing me as a Musketeer! What the heck? Guess I don't make a very good Hook since I'm so short! Should've brought Akemi's blow up Crocodile pool toy!! Do you like my pirate face? Diane had to fix my hat because I was looking like a pimp at first! Isn't Fiona awesome??? Robyn always has the best costumes!! Have a Safe and Happy Halloween!

Halloween RAKs

Happy Halloween Weekend everyone! I'm very happy that its finally the weekend! Yay! Gotta get ready for another busy busy weekend. I teach class today and then will take Akemi to the mall for some trick-or-treating. Then we have Halloween at our house, so need to clean up a bit and get ready for the party. Just wanted to share some of the Halloween goodies that I made and I received. The first photo was some treats I made for Akemi's class. Decided to keep it really simple by cutting cute Halloween paper (from last year) using my new candy die from SU. Its so tiny that you can barely fit those Halloween sized candies in them! I thought it was good though since the kids get so much candy anyway. The next treat is a RAK from Joy! Hi Joy! She was so sweet to send everyone who left a comment on her blogaversary post a favor. I love this box! She really dressed up the french fry box by making it into an owl. So clever! I loved all the goodies inside too- she gave us a gift card to BF, a clear stamp, candy and little note pad. This last RAK was from my CBFF Debi. She made these really cute note pads (love it!) and added some candy. Here's the candy all wrapped up and secured with a clothes pin. Don't you love this tag?? Thanks Debi! Also wanted to thank all of you who took the time to add your comments to my sister's artwork. I'm thrilled you all like her work as much as I do. I will let her know- maybe we can convince her to make them into stamps??? :) Happy Halloween!

A Special Calendar

Hi Everyone! I think I promised you a special project that I had in the works right? Well, this is indeed very special to me as my sis drew all of these characters! I love her! Asked her to send me some old designs she had done previously so that I could make them into a calendar for an upcoming craft fair. My original request was for some bunnies since next year is Year of the Rabbit. Then it expanded and expanded and she ended up sending me all of the characters so I could make a full calendar. Here's the calendar as a whole... Jan-June on one side and July-Dec on the other side... I made them in their order beginning with Year of the Rabbit since that's 2011. I know you can't see all of the images, so I took individual photos of each month for you to get a better look... Thank you so much sis! You are da best!!! Made this calendar especially for you, so I'll be sending it to our dear old bro's house so you can pick it up on your trip. I'm making more projects using her designs that I'll share soon. I'd appreciate any feedback you can give me on this project and/or my sister's designs, so please leave me a comment with your thoughts. No need to sugar coat your comments- honest feedback is appreciated! Thank you!

HPA Pumpkin Patch

Hello Bloggers! Just wanted to share a few photos from our Waimea adventure this past weekend at the HPA pumpkin patch. We went last year and the girls had so much fun, we decided to take them again this year. Here's Akemi with her BFF J.J. at the fake pumpkin patch. The pumpkins actually looked good this year, but we passed on getting one there since we didn't want to carry it around the fair. I like their smiles in this photo, but the exposure was junk. Sorry- tried to fix it but didn't do that good a job. The girls were squinting because it was really windy with lots of dirt. Here they are on the mini train. Akemi didn't want to go but her BFF did, so she caved and went with her. I think she had fun- see her smiling? Here's the "bat girls" showing off their prizes from one of the games. We've got a busy busy weekend planned too, so I'm sure I'll be sharing more photos then.

Wreath For All Seasons

My Crafty Friends LOVE Papertrey Ink (PTI). I tried to resist as long as I could, but I finally broke down and went a bit crazy the past two months ordering from their new releases. This is one of the stamp sets I picked up from them called Wreath For All Seasons. All I did was emboss it in gold (along with the Peace sentiment) and add red rhinestones as the berries, and voila! A simple elegant card that literally took minutes to make. I love fast projects that come out nice. I really am getting old yah? Can't wait for my October order to arrive!

Goldilicious

Isn't this card Goldilicious? I thought that was a funny name for this post- its one of my daughter's favorite books, so I thought I'd borrow the name for my blog post! I was prepping for my acetate card class last week and decided to try out my new embossing powders. Since I had tried several of the new zing ones, I gravitated back to my favorite Queen's gold. This time, I embossed the Hero Arts wreath stamp in gold on cream cardstock. Kept with the gold theme and added gold crystals and pearls. I really like how it turned out- not at all like my usual style, but I still love it. Maybe I'm just getting old? Finished it off with the Seasons Greetings sentiment stamp, also by Hero Arts. So glad Island Scrapbooking has gold mirrored cardstock again! Now I don't have to hoard it as much! I'll be back soon with a very special project!

RAK from Enjoli

I was so happy to see Enjoli at the Island Scrapbooking Anniversary Sale last weekend! I was really busy and couldn't really chat all that much, but it was nice to see her anyway since she lives on the other side of the island. Look at all the goodies she gave me.. So spoiled yah? I love love love the bag she made with the new Doodlebug Halloween paper! Don't know if you can see the tag but its a Hello Kitty Halloween stamp. Love it! Thanks Enjoli!

October OCS From North Shore Craft Girl

Happy Friday!!! FINALLY! The weekend is here! In for a busy weekend but am so glad that its gonna start soon. Just wanted to share this cute card I got from my October OCS partner Ka Ren aka North Shore Craft Girl. Isn't it cute!? She told me she doesn't normally make Halloween cards, but I think she did an awesome job considering! She also sent me those black roses. Perfect for Halloween.. don't cha think? And here's a close up of the cute witch. I think she's from CC's Designs.

October Tag Swap

Hi All! It's almost the weekend! Hope your week is going well. Wanted to share my tags for the October tag swap that Kyoko hosts every month on her blog... If you want to participate next month, be sure to check it out regularly for when sign ups are open. My partner this month was Leanne- go check out her blog here for some cute projects! I've been enjoying this swap a lot. We are supposed to make three identical tags to swap with our partner... but I didn't follow the rules again and made three similar tags- not identical. Sorry! I used these cute snowmen by TGF. This is a set from last year that I just adore! After stamping and coloring each snowman, I stamped a snowflake background stamp over the image with versamark. Then carefully added in some mica powders (different color on each card) on the background around the snowman. The camera doesn't pick up the shimmer of the mica powder, so you'll have to trust me that its metallic looking. After I was done coloring, I punched out the tags with my circle punch and then layered them on a Spellbinder large scallop die and topped it off with some ribbon. Hope Leanne likes it! Here's close ups of each tag.... Hope you will join the tag swap! Maybe you'll be my partner next month! Supplies:

• Snowman stamps- TGF
• Snowflake background stamp- Hero Arts
• Mica powders
• Circle punch- EK Success
• Large scallop circle die- Spellbinders
• Ribbon

October OCS- Halloween Card

Hello! Wanted to share my October OCS card for Ka Ren. I sent out her card last week, so I'm hoping she got it by now. Please check out her blog for some awesome projects! I decided to work on my swap card early this month since I had a little break before the Anniversary Sale and my classes. I love this Witch Brigitta stamp by CC's and wanted to use it on this card. I guess I went for an all black and white theme without realizing it. Here's a close up of the little witch... I decided to decorate the inside too by using my new Sizzix spiderweb die. I cut this one from acetate this time and tried out my new Tim Holtz alcohol inks with my blending tool. I think I just used silver and then stamped all over the acetate before adding it to the card. Decided to punch out my MS Crafts spider instead of using the spider that came with the die- not sure why as they are pretty much the same size. Because the background was black, the spider blended in, so I mounted it on another white spider for a shadow effect. Finished off the card by stamping spiderwebs in silver. Here's a close up of the spider... Supplies:

• Witch Brigitta and sentiment- CC's Designs
• Bat and spider punch- MS Crafts
• Oval and scallop oval punch- SU
• Spiderweb die- Sizzix
• Spiderweb stamp- Hero Arts
• Cardstock- American Crafts

Heartfelt Ornaments

Made more samples for Island Scrapbooking in preparation for the Anniversary Sale. I thought these Heartfelt Creations ornament dies/stamps were pretty neat. To make my life easier, I decided to emboss the ornaments in gold on red cardstock so no coloring for me. Embossed some bling cardstock for the background and "hung" the ornaments from the top of the card. I think the hardest part was adhering the gold cord to the card. Here's a better look at the ornaments... Supplies:

• Ornament stamps and dies- Heartfelt Creations/Spellbinders
• Embossing Folder- Tim Holtz
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Embossing powder
• Gold cord

Popcorn Bear

I really can't remember when I used my one and only Popcorn Bear stamp. Frankly, I don't think I ever did. I thought this set was cute because you could stamp or write messages on his paper. Had to dig him out of my stash to make a sample for Island Scrapbooking since Michele just brought them in. These flew out the door and I only saw one left! I guess everyone loved Popcorn Bear! Here's a close up of Popcorn... Decided to make this an easel card, so added a sentiment on the inside and popped it up with a pop dot. Supplies:

• Popcorn Bear- Crafter's Companion
• Friends to the end sentiment- CC's Designs
• DP- Best Creations
• Oval and scallop oval punches- SU
• Flourish punch- EK Success
• Ribbon
• Lacey squares die- Spellbinders
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Flowers- Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts

With Love From All Of Us

Greetings Everyone! Just recuperating from yesterday's Anniversary Sale at Island Scrapbooking. Thought I'd share one of the samples I made for the store since these new Heartfelt Creations stamps and matching dies were introduced. My friends Michele and Tracy both have a special love for cardinals, so I made this card with them in mind. Decided to keep the card more rustic looking since the cardinals look real and used kraft cardstock as my background. Since the stamp was very long, I had to make sure the card base was long enough for the stamp size. I've never really stamped on kraft cardstock before but I think I kinda like it! Anyway, the beauty of Heartfelt Creations sets is that the dies coordinate with the stamp sets. Plus they give you several stamp set options for each die set. I decided to die cut the cardinals on white paper instead so I could color them with my copics and get their true color. Then I popped them up on the card to give it some dimension. Since its a Christmas card, I decided to add some gold stickles on the pine needles and pine cones as an accent. Supplies:

• All stamps- Heartfelt Creations
• Cardinal dies- Heartfelt Creations/Spellbinders
• Stickles
• Cardstock- Bazzil

Happy 7th Birthday Island Scrapbooking!

As you can see, the Island Scrapbooking Girls and I have been very busy getting ready for the store's 7th Anniversary Party today! Each of us had a hand in making these 50 favor bags for the event. The first 50 customers will receive one of these goodie bags as a thank you for being great customers over the past 7 years. In addition, we have a lot of other things planned... please stop by if you are in Hilo- you won't want to miss out on all the fun!

• Free Make 'n Takes (one by me and one by Debi). I will be showing you how to make the strawberry box and basket that was posted here.. If you plan on participating, please bring scissors with you to help speed up the process. Debi will be making a cute ornament that could also be used as a tag. I definitely want to make that one myself!!
• Unreal in-store specials! Michele has put a lot of things on sale and if its not on sale, you can probably use your 40% off coupon if you are an Island Scrapbooking member. Here's some of the things on sale: Copics (yes- Copics!!), CC's Designs stamps, Greeting Farm Stamps, Spellbinder Dies, Martha Stewart Punches, and all printed paper!! Plus all red tagged items will be an additional 50% off of red tag (we added new items to red tag- so you'll definitely want to check that out too!)
• What's a party without games!? Remember we hid some geckos around the store last year? Well, this year I hid some honus (mounted on the big island) in different colors around the store again for you to find. We also have a fun- Guess Who Made This Card game where customers can guess which DT member (Donna, Tracy, Kelli, Michele, Debi, or myself) made each card. Some of them are really old, and not so easy to figure out!
• Hourly prize drawings, plus additional opportunities for you to win! Qualifying purchases will get you entries to win Island Scrapbooking gift certificates, plus if your goodie bag has a little stowaway, you might just win a prize! Don't forget... bloggers/facebook followers can print out the extra blog entry form found on the Island Scrapbooking Blog for another change to be entered into the drawings!
• Don't forget to bring in a handmade birthday card to enter into our card contest! A random winner will be drawn for one of our prizes. We can't wait to see what creative cards come in!

Phew... is that it? I'm not sure.. we may have more surprises up our sleeves tomorrow. If you don't know where we're located, you can find us at the corner of Ponahawai and Kilauea. Check out the Island Scrapbooking blog for more information on the sale. See you at the store!