Choochin

When I think of the word choochin (lantern), I always think of high school when we used to tell our friends we didn't want to hold choochin for them- meaning didn't want to be the 3rd wheel on their date. Remember that Les?? Well, these mini lanterns would not provide enough light for that, but they are pretty darn cute! Made these for the store to showcase some of the new Lifestyle Crafts dies that is now available. I must admit, I first cut them out of a burgandy color but didn't like how it came out. After sleeping on it, I decided to change it up and cut them out of vellum and boy did it look better! After cutting them out of vellum, I stamped them with my cherry blossom Stampendous stamp with black Stazon. Since I used Stazon ink, couldn't use my copics on it, so I decided to color them from the back instead. The red showed through nicely. Added the black trim and handles and I was done. We were discussing the lanterns after they were done and think they would make an awesome table decoration... just add a tea light inside them and they will glow nicely through the vellum!

Anniversary Pop Up Scrapbook

My mom has got to be the hardest person to buy a gift for. The only thing she seems to like from her kids are things that we make for her. It would be so much easier if buying her a nice blouse would make her happy, but I can just hear her say... "Thanks, but I really like it when you make me scrapbooks.".. Yes, my mom is very blunt and has been known to say- "Why would I want that? I only have one body", or "I have so much stuff in my house, I don't need any more stuff", or even "Even free I don't want it!". That last one was stated at a local craft fair in which I had to hold my head down in shame. I have since trained her to be more considerate in front of crafters since they are the ones who actually make the stuff and can get hurt feelings from these types of comments- I know, I've been there.

OK- so back to the story about the scrapbook. Joe (stepdad) is a photo fanatic. He is the one who makes everyone take photos during gatherings that we all dread, but are actually happy later when we get the photos.

So, keeping these two personalities in mind... a scrapbook is probably the best gift you can give to them... unless of course you are willing to do their yard. Now that I got the hang of making the pop up scrapbook featured on Teri's blog, I decided that this would be an easy but impressive gift to give to them to document their Anniversary party. Given the fact that we had only about 10 photos taken the whole day, I don' t think I would have had enough photos for a regular scrapbook anyway.

Here's the 1st "page".

2nd "page"

Mom's face just shows how surprised she was!

We couldn't fit everyone in one photo, so we took photos by table.

Last page..

It sure was fun surprising them. I hope they like this gift!

Surprise!! Happy 25th Anniversary!

My mom has been married to my step-dad for 25 years this year. They were planning on renewing their vows in Vegas in front of Elvis (I wish I could've seen that!), but their plans fell through and they ended up not going around the time of their anniversary. Don't get me wrong.. they go to Vegas A LOT! Papa Joe can't seem to get enough of Vegas and begs mom to go as often as they can afford to. So I decided to do something nice for them since they do so much nice things for all of us.... I decided to throw them a surprise anniversary party. It really wasn't that hard since we don't live near each other, so I was able to plan the party without either of them knowing. Naturally, we had to go with the VEGAS theme.. right??

Anyway.. starting from the beginning... Here's the invitation to the party... It was relatively easy to put together. I just used stickers I found at Ben Franklin. Only had to make about 10 invitations, so I could afford to go with the stickers. Decided to use their wedding photo- which was a real challenge because it was stuck to the inside of the frame and apparently it was their only wedding photo- WHAT? I ended up scanning it while still attached to the glass of the frame. Even photoshop couldn't help this photo, so I ended up making it black and white. I guess it worked since we were talking about the past. To give it the Vegas touch, I used gold Stickles to outline the white part. The dies used were Spellbinders Megabilities set.

Here's what it looked like on the inside.

Like all older people... they go to everything EARLY. If you tell them to get there at 12 noon, they'll show up at 11:00am. I knew this was going to be the biggest challenge of the party, so I solicited help from Aunty Arleen. She invited them to lunch for Uncle Larry's Birthday. My only fear was that mom would say "no" which she's been known to do on occasion. We were all relieved when she agreed to go.. Phew! Since Aunty was going to drive them there, we didn't have to worry about them arriving before the rest of us.

We decided to go to the Hawaii Prince Hotel- Prince Court Buffet. Saturdays are the best! Its a Japanese/Hawaiian buffet that includes sushi, tempura, saimin, oxtail soup, shabu shabu and their signature chocolate macadamia nut pie. My DH says its like eating an almond roca pie (except using macadamias instead). Enough about the buffet- just go try it, you won't be disappointed. (Remember to go on Saturdays!)

So Auny Jan helped me with the centerpieces and favors of course. Larry's Bakery (where she works) makes these cool cupcake bouquets! Even the wait staff at the buffet were asking us where we got them since they've never seen it before. Aunty decorated the cupcakes using Vegas themed items. Akemi was in heaven. Aunty also decorated the flower pot and included a die cut frog for good luck.

Not shown here were the cookie favors they made for us using the Las Vegas sign. Sorry- forgot to take photos of the cookies- Hopefully we didn't eat all of them yet so I can get a photo later.

Here's Papa Joe, Grandma Helen and Akemi.

Here's the card we gave to them... I tried to use the same stickers that I used for the invitations.

Inside the card, I used the "slots o fun" sticker and covered the 7 7 7 with hearts.

Here's mom and Joe after the big surprise!

We had a great party. It was so nice to see everyone together to help mom and Joe celebrate their 25th anniversary. It was worth all the work to see the smiles on their faces!