Happy Birthday Jada!

A few weeks ago we got invited to a baby luau. Not having seen the invite (yes, DH forgot to bring it home), I was tasked with making the b-day card without knowing if there was any kind of theme, etc. All my DH could tell me was that the invite was pink... so I took a chance and went with an asian theme. Am I glad I did! As soon as we walked in, all we saw was japanese stuff. Here's the centerpiece.. I liked it a lot and took a picture of it. Cute yah? And here's my last minute card. I had bought these large sakura dies by Quickutz and LOVE them! In fact, I have another project using them that I'll share a bit later... still working on that one. Anyway, decided to keep it pink since the invite was pink. Used another sentiment by Island Scrapbooking too since its so easy! Here's a close up.... Hope you have a great weekend! Starting mine early since we are on furlough. Yay!

Luv'n Box of Drawers

Last month, Mama helped us with the Sister Stamps Release #2 by making samples and posting it on her blog. I've been a big fan of her's for awhile now and actually got to meet Miss Anonymous in person once. Wish I could've chatted with her more, but I was happy to finally meet this mystery woman- kinda reminds me of the Wizard of Oz! So mysterious! One of her projects caught my eye and I had to go investigate further by clicking on all the links till I eventually found the tutorial on how to make this box. It's called Box of Drawers and I actually saw a different version of this at a paper craft store in Honolulu. This version was much easier as it did not require chipboard. The washi paper I used is very busy, so I decided to cut a circle in gold and mounted Kiyomi on it so she wouldn't get lost in the washi. Here's a close up of Kiyomi. And here's the inside of the box. When the box is closed up, the drawers nest nicely and can hold tiny treats. It reminds me of those lacquer chests you see from Japan. Well, my project is not as stunning as Mama's, but I hope it will inspire you to try one yourself. Check out Mama's sample and be prepared to be blown away if you haven't seen it before. Thanks Mama for being a great inspiration! It's release day today for our Release #3 images. That means you can finally get your hands on our holiday images. Enjoy!

My CATS for June

So hopefully Michelle received my CATS for June before looking at this post. As I told you in my last post, the theme for June was to use flowers on your card/tag. I really wanted to use my new Sister Stamp images, but needed to make sure flowers were included. I settled on some flowers by All Natural Accents found at Photocraft for the card featuring Mei Lin, and mini sakura laser cuts by Island Scrapbooking for the tag. I didn't want the card and tag to be totally matchy matchy, so I used two different girls and the same washi to tie them together. Hope she likes it! Here's a close up of Mei Lin... And a close up of Kiyomi... Other supplies:

• Tag die- Papertrey Ink
• Girl stamps- Sister Stamps
• Sakura- Island Scrapbooking
• paper flowers- All Natural Accents
• Washi- unknown
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Ribbon
• Crystal- Kaisercraft

Kiyomi Christmas

Hi there! Just getting in the mood for Christmas! It's Christmas in July afterall, and I know everyone is starting to think about what they are going to do for Christmas cards and gifts this year... Last year, I taught a series of classes called the Christmas Card Club. It was a monthly class beginning in the summer that featured a variety of Christmas or Holiday themed projects. Well, students have been asking if I'll be teaching this class again this year, so I'm busy putting together some ideas for my first class. I always thought Kiyomi's pose looked like she was reaching for something. Well, on the original design, she is reaching for the butterfly, but I changed it up a bit and had Kiyomi reaching to put the star on the top of a Christmas tree. Just wanted to show you the versatility of this stamp- you are only limited by your imagination! To give it some asian flair, I stamped the Lawn Fawn pine tree onto some green washi paper for a fun look. I love how it turned out! Found the stool stamp by CC's Designs and the Merry Christmas sentiment at Island Scrapbooking. Michele is starting to carry various sentiments that are perfectly sized for card makers. Plus they are all one piece, so its easy peasy to adhere to your card. Love it! Here's a close up of Kiyomi... If you live in Hilo and would like to take this class, check out the Island Scrapbooking blog for upcoming class info.

Kiyomi Kick

I guess I'm on a Kiyomi kick right now. I love how easy she is to color up and cut out! Just thought I'd share the card I made for an upcoming make 'n take at Island Scrapbooking on Saturday. If you are in Hilo, please stop in and join us, or just to say hi! For more information on the make 'n take, click here... Here's a closer look at Kiyomi... Hope to see you there!

Retailer Thank Yous

Good Morning Everyone! Happy Sunday! It's been awhile since I posted huh? Been very busy with Sister Stamps the last few weeks and things have finally slowed enough for me to post something here. Thank you to all of you who've checked out our Sister Stamps blog and who have purchased our stamps! We are thrilled to get such a great response to our first release! We've also received a lot of support from local Hawaii retailers for our launch, so I wanted to give them a little thank you gift to show my appreciation. These goodies went out to retailers who had our stamps in their stores on 7/1/11. These guys took the leap of faith with us and we are grateful for that they took the risk. Found these gold pillow boxes at Ben Franklin but I think it's a Heiko product. Anyway, added a strip of washi paper around the box for some asian flair. Then colored up a bunch of Kiyomi's and added her along with an Arigato laser cut by Island Scrapbooking. Inside each box was some goodies from the big island. Had fun delivering these after the launch and talking to retailers to see how the stamps were selling. We were surprised to find that many of them had sold out so quickly! Here's a close up of the pillow box. After the Rubber Stamp Expo, Aunty Jan and I headed to some of the retailers to drop off the goodies. We were happy to see some of them on the shelves! Here's me with our stamps at Cute Stuff. Also spotted our stamps at Photocraft... Some of the other retailers had sold out, so we weren't able to get any photos with them. Thanks again to everyone who have made our launch so successful! We are working hard on the 2nd release which is scheduled for 9/1/11. Stay tuned for more information on our next release!

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!

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!

Happy Belated Birthday Sara!

I'm really late this year! My niece's b-day was 4/14 and I didn't get this in the mail till this past Monday! Sorry Sara! Hope she gets this card before she sees it here on my blog... I think this will be my last pleated pop up card for awhile. I've been making so many for classes and other stuff that I need a break from it. Since my sister designed these images, I thought it would be nice to use them in the card to my niece. She loves her Auntie Denise and I'm sure she'll recognize her designs. Above is the front cover- kept the design relatively simple since the background is a little busy. Below is what the card looks like when its opened. Its hard to see the butterflies she is chasing, so I took another photo below this one. Aaah- here's a better view... Since my niece is now a tween (or acts like one anyway), I decided to just give her $$. Its getting harder and harder to buy kids presents nowdays, so I thought it would be nice to let her choose her own gift or save it for her trip to Hawaii that's coming up. Thanks for visiting! Its gonna be a busy week- still trying to finish up projects for my 2 craft fairs this weekend!

Gearing Up For Craft Fairs...

I have a lot more work to do before my 2 craft fairs next Saturday. I have about 20 half done projects that need to be finished up. Had to take a break in order to get the IS newsletter and class samples done... Still have more to do but it'll have to wait until after the fair. Got this washi paper from Ben Franklin. It's one of my favorites! I love the color combo and design, but I did find it a bit busy for this frame. When I placed the girl directly on the washi, she blended into the background. So to make her pop out a bit, I mounted her on a circle and added a border behind her for more contrast. Here's a close up of the image. Back to work!

Japanese Girl Frame

Thought I'd give you a break from HK and share another frame using my sister's designs. I just love this bunny washi paper and use it a lot in my projects. It reminds me of Akemi's Daba- though Daba is not so white these days. I again blew up the image to fill the space better. Since the background is a bit busy, I die cut the large scallop circle and mounted her on top of it. Then added on some flowers by All Natural Accents. You can get them from Photocraft. I'm thinking this one will come with me to the Japanese Cultural Center fair since the focus there is on Japanese stuff. Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Getting Ready for Craft Fairs....

Awhile ago, one of my students from Island Scrapbooking asked me if I wanted to share a booth with her at an upcoming craft fair. I told her I would, but didn't realize that our annual FCE craft fair was on the same day! Well, I'm not one to really break commitments, so I'm doing double duty and making stuff for both. Luckily the FCE group has enough manpower, so I will just drop off my donation to the club. Here's one of the projects that I'm working on right now.. IS DT member Tracy taught me how to cover frames with paper. Thanks Trace! It takes awhile to get them covered, but I actually enjoyed it once I figured out the theory behind it. Used my sis' design and blew it up on the computer so that it would fill up the empty space. Added the cherry blossom petals from my punch bunch punches to form the flower and added some floating petals for accent. Here's a close up of the girl... In case you are in the Hilo area, please stop by at either craft fair. Both will be on Saturday, May 7th.

• FCE Fair- Aunty Sally's Luau Hale. Fair is from 8:00am-12:30pm.
• Japanese Cultural Center Craft Fair- Japanese Cultural Center on Kanoelehua. I think it starts at 10:00am.

Both fairs will have crafts, food and entertainment. Paul's Taiko group will be performing at the Japanese Cultural Center fair and they will be selling their butter mochi as well. Hope to see you there!

Hoaloha Annual Dinner

Our club had our annual dinner this past Saturday night at Restaurant Miwa. It was a night of good food and good fun! We always give a little something to each other and this is what I came up with for this year. I decided to use my sister's bunnies again since its year of the rabbit. Chinese New Year was the previous week, but I thought it was close enough to still use this theme. Decided to go with the take out box and cut out a heart using my spellbinders and added some acetate for a window. I found some chocolate covered fortune cookies at Big Island Delights that just fit into the box! Phew! I wasn't about to dip and package my own, so I was grateful they fit just right! Here's some of the boxes up close... And here's our annual club photo. I think it came out nice this year.. you can tell our waiter had a lot of experience since he had to take about 10 photos using 10 different cameras!

Crafting Time!

Did you survive your first day back at work? Akemi had wavier day, so I stayed home an extra day on my vacation, which made it even harder to go to work today. But I got through it and now its time to craft! Get it??? Saw a cool clock at Photocraft over my vacation to Honolulu. Brian showed me some really cute Hello Kitty samples he did as a class. I liked his Hello Kitty ones, but wanted to make one using my sister's designs. For the main numbers, I used my sakura punch as the markers. Then I blew up the image so that it would fill up the space below the middle of the clock. It was much easier than I anticipated and a fun change from all those calendars! Here's a close up of the image... She's my favorite girl of the collection! I'm thinking these will make great gifts next year!

Another Bunny Calendar

We had a great time over the weekend! Had so much fun talking story with everyone and seeing what my crafty friends created. It was a lot of work but well worth it! Here's another bunny calendar for Year of the Rabbit. Decided to go with more traditional asian colors this time and used my trusty red, gold and black. My sister's designs were pretty popular, which made me really happy! :)

Japanese Girl Calendar

I think I already shared with you some of my sister's Japanese Girl images on the desk calendars I made. I think these are my favorite so far... wait, I think I said that about her other images!! Oh well, hard to choose right? Finally made these into a wall calendar. Hope you like it! Don't forget to enter my blog candy giveaway! Click here for more details on how to enter.