Kiyomi Tri-Easel Card

Hi Everyone! Thank you so much to all of you who've checked out the Sister Stamps blog! Check out our post on Kiyomi... Don't forget to enter to win the blog candy by going to this post... For those of you who want to learn how to make this card, I will be teaching a class at Island Scrapbooking next month, so check their blog soon for class info. Thanks!

Sister Stamps Blog Candy

Good Morning! Just a short note to tell you about the blog candy for Sister Stamps first release! To check out the sneak peeks and enter to win, check out the post here... Good Luck!

Are You Ready?

Things are getting crazy here at Crazy for Papercrafting (no pun intended)!! Yes, I have been keeping a secret from all of you... and I'm DYING to let it out!!! So here goes... You all have been seeing all those images created by my sister Denise (aka "Kiyomi") and some of you have even contacted me to purchase them. Well, due to the great feedback we've been receiving over the past few months, I've decided to take the plunge and start up a new stamp line featuring my sister's designs!! Since she provides the designs and I do everything else, I decided to name the company Sister Stamps since this company would not exist if not due our sisterly relationship. Cute yah? I came up with that all by myself! Even naming the company took months! So after months of hard work, we are ready to launch Sister Stamps' first release on July 1st 2011!! Woo hoo! To celebrate and give you more information about this company, check out our new blog here, and become a follower. I'll be updating you on the latest releases, where you can buy our stamps, and how you can enter to win some blog candy!

May CATS

What can I say? May and June have been very busy for me! So busy, I was super duper late on getting my CATS out for May... Sorry Berenice! Pls check out Berenice's blog here... she is co-owner of Karber Digital Images. Since Berenice lives in Mexico, I thought I'd send her some Aloha from Hawaii! Love these new CC's images that have a Hawaiian flair. Doesn't she look like she's ready to give you a lei? Since its a Card and Tag Swap (hosted by Joy), I included a matching tag and added a hibiscus from Island Scrapbooking. The die used to cut the tag was an old Sizzix die. I like it cause its flower shaped. Oh yah, forgot to mention that the theme for this month's swap was to use orange, yellow and pink on your projects. Normally I don't put all three of those colors together, but I kinda like the tropical feel of this color combo. Here's a close up of the card... Thanks Joy for coordinating this swap! CATS is open for sign up every three months. So check out Joy's blog for the next sign up. It might be open now, so check her out here... Once you sign up, you will be matched up with a swap partner each month for 3 months.

Stamp Layering Class

Hope you are having a nice weekend so far. Celebrated my last furlough Friday (for now anyway) by teaching a class on stamp layering. I got inspired by the Hero Arts blog a few months back and have since bought a lot of stamps that are ideal for layering. I also got me some shadow inks to work with my distress inks, along with some mica powder. We had a lot of fun in class yesterday and were able to finish all three cards pretty quickly. If there were more supplies, I think the class would have been done in about an hour. Used the gold mica powder on this one. I think you can kinda see it on the top left corner of the card since the light got to it in the photo. Used this one as a sample- we didn't make it in class, but I always like to show them different ways of applying the same technique. All stamps are by Hero Arts.

Full of Words

Guess I forgot to post this one... Made this a few weeks ago while getting ready for one of my classes. I really like using words as an accent. This card is just full of examples of how I've used words not only as the sentiment, but also on the background and on the flowers, which are the focal point of the card. My other favorite thing to use lately is kraft cardstock as my background. This card was very simple to put together.. just cut a piece of kraft and punched the corners only using the French Scroll corner punch by Martha Stewart. After I punched it, I thought it was a bit plain, so I stamped it using my Hero Arts background writing stamp in distress ink. I liked how this turned out since it gave it a vintage look. Cut the flowers and leaves using my Spellbinder nesties and used Pearl Brads (American Crafts) and pearl accents (Kaisercraft) for the centers. Topped it off with the Lawn Fawn banners and sentiment sets. Love how they coordinate so well together. The Lawn Fawn banner set is quickly becoming one of my faves. Sometimes a simple card is just as nice as a fancy card!

Piranha Plants

The last project I have to share from Akemi's b-day party are the goodie bags. After weeks of trying to figure out what to do, I came up with the Piranha Plant. These venus flytrap looking plants are a staple in Mario games and were the perfect accent to the goodie bags. Pictured here is the prototype.... I ended up finishing them off by covering the sticks with green duct tape. Bought some cheap plastic flower pots from Walmart and shoved all the goodies inside. I don't know who loved them more... the kids or the parents!? Here's a close up of the plant. And here's all of them ready to go to the party.. We had so much fun and I'm burnt to a crisp! It was nice to see everyone again- including the Ho family from Honolulu! Need to do this again next year!

Big Island Taiko Festival 2011

The 2nd Big Island Taiko Festival took place this weekend at the UH Performing Arts Center. Puna Taiko was joined by Hui Okinawa, Kona Daifuku Taiko, and Taishoji Taiko. DH is the Director for Puna Taiko, so a lot of time and effort has been put forth into this concert. Akemi and I went to see them play at today's matinee performance. Here's Akemi with Daddy after the concert. Decided to make a few goodies for the Puna Taiko members for doing a good job. Here's what I came up with... Isn't it fun? It really works too. I just love these stick bags.. Ended up making 16 of them. Ok- the sad thing is that the kids did not know what this was from! They are ALL too young to know what movie featured this drum. Even Lani- the other Director of the group did not know. Sigh, I guess me and DH are so old. I told them to all go home and watch Karate Kid II. If you are reading this and also did not know what movie it was from- please go and watch that movie- it's a classic. And here's the group showing off the goodies... Oh yah- did you know my DH was crafty too?? He's very proud of these Oni masks that were made for the festival. They used them when they were in the Keaau Xmas parade a couple of years ago, but he added hair and made a few more. They were used in one of the songs performed today. Good job Puna Taiko (and all the other Taiko groups performing today!). As for me, gotta start planning for next weekend's activities!

Chain Chomp Invites

When I asked Akemi what theme she wanted for her b-day party, she told me she really wanted Mario Bros. Yikes! I think she's about 20 years too late! Oh well, there's not much Mario out there right now, so I had to resort to my own creations. She actually said that she wanted a Chain Chomp invitation, so I came up with a flattened version. Isn't he cute? See, he's even smiling at you! Do you like his teeth? His chain on teeth make it pretty impossible to mail this bugger, but I'm lucky there's only one we really needed to mail out. The rest can be hand delivered. When you open his mouth, you can see all the invite info... Made only about 7 of them... Many had to share one invite! Sorry! Just ran out of steam to make more than that! Hope the kids know what this is! Oh well- hopefully my next b-day party project turns out as planned. Stay tuned!

Paper Flower Bouquet

I'm always looking for new ideas on what to make or buy for Akemi's ballet performances. We normally go 2 nights and I usually pick up fresh flowers for one of the nights. The second night she might get a lei or whatever I'm into at the moment. Recently, I got this new Spellbinder flower die set and I just love it! Had some leftover leaves and floral wire, so I whipped up these paper flowers in about an hour. The paper I used was Doodlebug and they are two sided, so just flipped the middle flower to the other side for contrast. I like it since its still in the same color, so it matches perfectly. Then added heart buttons found in one of the button packs from Ben Franklin, Luckily I was able to find enough for the whole bouquet. I think the heart buttons add something cute an fun to the flower. Ok, please don't judge but I pulled this out of a bag that had been sitting overnight, so my bow is all mangled! It looked nice when I first gave it to her, but you know how it goes after the event... Here's a close up of the flowers. If anyone has good ideas for next year's performance I would love to hear it!