What I've Been Up To

 While checking out blogs, I noticed that my poor blog has been neglected.  Only 11 posts for the entire year!  So sad.  So I'm gonna try to start posting more regularly- just hope I can keep it up. It's not that I've not been crafting, I have, just mostly working on Sister Stamps samples, which I post on that blog.  But sometimes its fun to take a break and do some other non-Sister Stamps projects too.

While blogging and YouTubing, I came across a tutorial that I've always wanted to try.  I've seen several versions, in various sizes, but pretty much the same concept of a Waterfall Mini Scrapbook.  I am not that big a fan of the regular waterfall card, but for some reason, the mini album version appealed to me.

I was so happy when the Doodlbug order arrived at Island Scrapbooking.  Their new lines are so darn cute, I couldn't help myself!  I just love new spring line and knew I wanted to incorporate it into my mini.  Here's the cover.. Decided to use the bird and tree house as the focal point.  Punched the lattice fence with my MS punch and layed it over the photo mat.  I didn't know what photo to put yet, so I used some removeable adhesive so that I could tuck the photo in when I'm ready.

 

When you open the mini, it looks like a regular book, but you can see the tab on the far right, which will tell you or the recipient to "pull me"!  

When you start pulling, this is what it will look like- I used other papers from this line for each page.  The nice thing about these papers is that they are 2 sided, so you can use both sides of the page for your photos or journaling.  Once I add in my photos, I'll add more embellishments from the same line like flowers, buttons, and cardstock stickers.

 

 As you can see, the pages start to get smaller and smaller towards the end.  You could also position it so that you flip the cover open up and pull the tab down instead of having the pull tab on the right.

Well, hope you like my project!  I'm having so much fun making mini albums!  I have more to come- just need to get photos taken and then I can share.  Later alligator!

Creative Chemistry Online Class Rocks!

Hey Everyone!
I know it's been awhile since I last posted, but I've been busy.  Getting ready for Release #7 of Sister Stamps is taking up a LOT of my time lately, but I hope you'll feel its worth the wait.  It's an all boy release, so its pretty challenging for me to come up with samples, but I'm feeling pretty good considering.

And the other thing that is keeping me busy is the online Creative Chemistry class I signed up for taught by my craft idol- Tim Holtz!  I've been watching videos all week but finally had some time today to work on some of the techniques taught in the class.  I finally got some needed supplies, but I can't finish all the techniques just yet as I don't have a lot of the products he uses.  I guess I'll have to wait for that order to arrive before I can play with those. I'm very excited though and can't wait for my stuff to get here!

 So I had to play with what I did have... cut up some tags out of old manila folders that I thought I was gonna use for a mini album, but since that's out the door, I decided to make use of them and make my own tags.  Bought the last tag die at Island Scrapbooking so I'm armed and dangerous!

After cutting up the tags, I set up my ipad and watched the videos while distressing along with Professor Holtz.  Sigh.. he makes it seem so easy!  I can't seem to figure out how he gets his so nice without much effort while I struggled on what seemed like such an easy technique!

So here's my first set of projects from Day 2- Distress Ink Introduction.  The first tag was using the flicking water technique.  I didn't know it would be so much fun!  2nd tag is brushless watercolor?  I think thats what he called it.  Anyway, had fun with that technique too.  I remember doing that long time ago with old Hero Arts and Penny Black flower stamps.  The last tag was the hardest for me.  I had to try it 3 times before I got something I was ok with posting.

 

After I finished the samples from the class, I decided to play a bit since I had everything out.  The first tag is using the emboss resist technique.  My friend Debi told me about it and teaches it in her Distress classes.  The 2nd tag was just embossing on top of the distressed background. I chose Queen's gold by Ranger- it's my favorite color to emboss with.  Finally, my last tag was just playing around. I wanted to make an asian tag, so I found my kanji background stamp and combined it with my new PTI buttefly stamp.

  

Ok gotta go scrub my fingers now!  Hope you are having a nice 3-day weekend!

Supplies:

Butterfly stamps- PTI

Flourish stamps- PTI

Stitched flowers stamp- PTI

Happy Birthday stamp (Butterfly tag)- PTI

Thanks and Happy Birthday stamps- Waltzing Mouse

Kanji background- Hero Arts

Inks- Distress Inks, Versafine, Versamark

Embossing powder- Ranger clear and Queen's gold

Mica powder

Tag die- Sizzix (Tim Holtz)

Surprise Kris!

 Surprise, surprise!  What's the surprise you may ask?  Well, today is Kris' Birthday!  Woo Hoo!  To help celebrate, I'm participating in a special birthday blog hop hosted by Lollipop Crafts.  We all wanted to wish her Happy Birthday by creating projects just for her.  You probably came over from Dena's blog, but in case you missed out on the first half, go back to the Lollipop Crafts blog for the full blog list.

As many of you probably guessed, I met Kris through blogging.  She is such a nice person and although I've never met her in person, I feel like I know her already! Most people don't know this, but Kris actually gave me a lot of advice in setting up Sister Stamps! :)  Thanks Kris!  Without you, I don't think I'd have the guts to start it and now look how much we've grown!  It was about this time last year that Kris and I were emailing each other about starting up a business.  That's when I found out what a night owl she is!  Man, she sure stays up late. I thought I stayed up late, but she takes the cake.

So on to the card... I decided that this special lady needed a special card.  Since I had pop up scrapbook on the brain, I decided to make it into a card.  Here's the cover... SURPRISE!  It's a sneak peek of a new image that won't be released until summertime.  You'll be introduced to her in July.... Washi is from my Japan stash and the sentiment is a lasercut from Island Scrapbooking.

In the first section, we have Yoshimi with a matching greeting by Hero Arts.  I was so happy to find this sentiment on one of the new Hero Arts sets!!!  It matched up perfectly!

Had to include some boys in the card, so Nobu makes an appearance here.  I love how you can cut off the toy and put other things in his hand.  I chose a mini cupcake punch by EK success.  The sentiment matched perfectly and is from a Hero Arts set.  Topped it off by adding more punched cupcakes.

I couldn't make a mini album without Kiyomi!  She is definitely one of our most popular images. Added in some gold sakura from Island Scrapbooking and another Hero Arts sentiment.

Finally, Yoshi makes his first appearance on my blog!  You will meet Yoshi next month when we start introductory posts for Release #7.  Doesn't he look like he's ready to party?

So Kris, I know I never met you, but I feel like you are such a great friend already!  Hopefully we'll get to meet up soon and then the craziness will really begin!

I just wanted to share one more story about Kris... while on my CHA trip in January, I met Jessica from the Greeting Farm.  Now I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to craft icons, so I didn't really tell her who I was, but I did mention that I wanted to take a photo of Kris' banner project that was being featured at the show.  Once she found out that I was Kris' friend.... her face lit up and she couldn't say enough about our friend.  I thought that was so neat that everyone who meets Kris seems to think the same way.

Happy Birthday Girlie!  You relax and have a good one.  For more birthday projects, hop on over to the Lollipop Crafts blog for the hop list and see who else is wishing Kris a Happy Birthday!  To check out Debi's projects click here... and tell her I said hi!

Birthday Wishes & A Winner!

Wow... I'm pretty surprised that so many of you entered to win my blog candy!  I thought that no one really reads my posts, so if I didn't post a photo of the candy, no one would leave a comment and enter.  I guess I was wrong. You guys are reading this stuff aren't you?

So before I share who the winner of my giveaway is, I thought I'd share a quick card I made one night.  I had already distressed a bunch of backgrounds so that I could mass produce some cards, so I had it lying around just waiting to be finished.  While on my trip, I found an awesome store called Paper Source!  Thanks to Debi and Denise for telling me to go there.  It's not really a scrapbooking store- more like a stationary store. The washi paper immediately caught my eye and I had fun picking out so many new designs that I haven't seen before.  They also have their own line of stamps that I fell in love with.  The cherry blossom stamp featured on this card is by Paper Source. I stamped it in Versamark and added the gold mica powder to make it shine.  I also stamped the right side of the card using the same technique using a kanji background stamp by Hero Arts.  The sentiment is one of my new favorites by Papertrey Ink.  Debi used it on a Sister Stamps card earlier and I've been eyeing it every since!

You can check out the Paper Source online store here...

And now for the winner...

Congratulations to Mimi!  Thank you Mimi and everyone who left a comment on my blogaversary post!  And thank you for following me for the past 3 years... I wonder how long I will continue to blog my crafting journey?  Oh well... too much to think about now. I'll just enjoy it while I can!