Party Pup

Who can resist this cutie? I obviously couldn't. There are two more doggies like this one, but I think I like him the best (for now until I decide I can't live without his other two buddies). I decided to make an easel card again. Here's what it looks like when its open. Here's a close up of the sentiment. I wanted to use my modern label punch but needed a small sentiment to fit. This small Seasons Greetings is by CC's. Never thought I'd use it since its so small, but it fit perfectly! Accented it with my pine branch MS Punch. Supplies:

• Party Pup- LOTV
• Modern label and word window punch- SU
• Scallop square die- Spellbinders
• Season's Greetings- CC's Designs
• Pine branch punch- MS crafts
• Red foil cardstock- American Crafts
• Silver cardstock- Bazzil
• DP- Imaginisce

September Tag Swap

My GF Kyoko is hosting a Christmas Tag Swap every month.. go check out her blog for the swap announcement if you want to participate next month. I really like this swap since you can swap 3 tags with someone else and should have enough by Christmas time!! Yay! This month I was soooo excited and nervous to be paired up with Cami.. She does such beautiful work that its a little intimidating to be paired up with her. I met Cami at the Islander Girl's Social in August and she's so much fun- I'm so glad we were sitting on the same table! So, here's the tags I'm sending to Cami.. Hope she likes it. I used one of my new LOTV images again for the tags. These images are good sized, so it was difficult to choose one that would fit on a tag. As you can see, they don't fit, so I had to have the angel hang off the tag so that there would be enough room for the "to/from". Again I decided not to make them identical since I get bored easily, so I changed up the colors a bit to give Cami some options. This time I was akamai (smart) and made 6 tags- 3 for me and 3 for Cami! Yay! Now I have some for me too. I should have done that last month too but didn't think about it till afterwards. I think I'm gonna go back and make a set of those for me too. Hope you like it Cami! Here's close ups of each tag.... Supplies:

• Angel stamp- LOTV
• To/From: Hero Arts
• DP: Doodlebug,
• Labels dies: Spellbinders
• Stickles

LOTV Challenge #65- Sketch Challenge

I promised you another sketch challenge and this one was way more difficult than yesterday's post. As you can tell from my posts that I just LOVE LOVE, LOVE LOTV images. They are the cutest images and they just make me happy when I make something with them. 'nuff said. OK- so as I already told you, sketches are not my norm, but I'm liking the results. Just picked up this paper from Island Scrapbooking over the weekend (they got TONS of new paper in by the way). There are a bunch of coordinating papers in this color scheme and I think its such a fresh look for winter. Inked up James Bear again and added him to the sketch. I also love snowflakes so instead of circles, I used snowflakes. This was fun and definitely challenging for me! Hope you like it! Supplies:

• James Bear- LOTV
• Snowflake punches- MS Crafts
• Fleur de lis pendant- Spellbinders
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• DP- Bo Bunny
• Crystals- Kaisercrafts
• Stickles
• Sentiment- Dandelion Designs
• Circle and Scallop circle punch- EK Success

Decorating The Tree

Hooray! It's another 3-day weekend for me! Just have to get through work today though. I'm back with another LOTV image (I told you I bought a lot!). This one is called Decorating the Tree. I don't normally buy boy images, but I really liked this one- must be because he's wearing a Santa hat? Anyway, this image was pretty large, so I had to use my megabilities Spellbinders this time and go to the larger 5x7 card. Since its a boy card, tried to use my non-feminine paper. As you can see its very plain looking, so I added a chocolate bow- didn't want it to look too girlie. Since I stay away from flowers and bling on boy cards, decided to try a jingle bell that I found while cleaning out my craft room. I kinda like this accent- plus it makes a pretty noise when you shake it! Supplies:

• Decorating the tree- LOTV
• Megabilities- Spellbinders
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• DP- DCWV
• Ribbon
• Jingle bell

Snow Bears

Back to my Lili of the Valley stamps! I can't get enough of these cuties! I guess if I were a bear, I'd probably make a bear snowman- I mean snowbear myself! I again cut out the scene using my nesties to keep the falling snow in tact. I didn't realize how much I actually cut out my images, so I found this challenging for me. It was nice to be able to add so much stickles for the snow. Here's a close up of the snowbears... Supplies:

• Snowbears- LOTV
• Stickles
• Seasons Greetings- CC's Designs
• Circle, Scallop Circle, and labels die- Spellbinders
• DP- Doodlebug
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Loopy border punch- MS Crafts

James Bear- Pile of Presents

This is the last LOTV card I made so far with my new images. I have lots more that I haven't colored up yet. I'm not even sure why I'm making so many Christmas cards since I normally just do a photo card to send to family and friends (they only want to see Akemi anyway!). Guess I can't resist using all the cute new Christmas images this year. I just love this pink snowflake paper and wish I had bought more! I think I am now in hoarding mode for this paper and will use it sparingly. Who can resist pink + snowflakes? Kept the design of this card simple since I used my nesties to cut out the image. Used some of my precious silver mirrored cardstock too since it went perfectly with the pink. I guess I got lazy and stamped the sentiment right on the DP instead of cutting it out. I think it came out nice for being lazy! Supplies:

• James Bear Pile of Presents- LOTV stamps
• Snowflake punch- MS Crafts
• Noel sentiment- CC's Designs
• Crystals- Kaisercraft
• Mirrored Cardstock- Bazzil
• Stickles
• Square and scallop square nesties- Spellbinders
• DP- Fancy Pants

Warmest Wishes

Yay! The weekend is finally here!!! Even though it was technically a short week for me, it felt like forever till the weekend! I had to go to Kona on Wednesday at 4:00am and didn't come home till 6:00pm, which tired me out for the rest of the week. I'm just glad I can relax today! As promised, here's more of my new LOTV stamped cards to share. As you can tell, I'm in love with their stamps! This is James Bear in the snow. When I saw him on the previews, I knew he'd be first on my list. Since I wanted to keep the snow in tact, I decided to cut him out using my nesties. My flash seemed to ruin the photo- sorry! The good thing is you can see where I used my liquid pearls for his hat and stickles for the snow. While cleaning up, I found some Jolee's snowflake stickers and added them to this card. Please visit again soon... I have one more card to share using LOTV images. Supplies:

• James Bear- LOTV Stamps
• Oval and scallop oval nesties
• Stickles
• Liquid Pearls
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Snowflake stickers- Jolee's
• Crystals- Kaisercraft
• Warmest Wishes- CC's Designs

Igloo for Two

I recently got my Lili of the Valley order from the UK. Their new stuff is so cute! Mostly Christmas themed cute animal stamps. Here's one of the first cards I made using these stamps. Its called "Igloo for Two".. cute yah? My MIL likes penguins, so this reminds me of her. Kept this card simple because I was just playing around... Ended up stamping snowflakes on the background to fill up some of the white space. Hope you like it! I have more LOTV cards to share so check back soon.

August Tag Swap

Getting a head start on Christmas tags this year. I've never really made my own Christmas tags, so this is something new for me. I'm kinda lazy when it comes to Christmas wrapping, so I usually don't make my own tags. I think its cause I have to wrap all the gifts at my house AND normally need to wrap all of my mom's gifts too. Luckily she doesn't give as many gifts as she used to, so its not so bad anymore, but I used to get burnt out and after awhile, didn't care what it looked like! Anyway- Kyoko started up this tag swap this month, so I signed up cause I thought it would be fun to make new friends and get some cool ideas. The rules are to make 3 identical tags to swap with your partner. Well, I kinda broke the rules as you can see... I didn't make mine identical. I tend to get bored and wanted to use some of my new paper, so I used the same design but just changed out the colors. Do you like it? The bear is from one of my favorite companies- Lili of the Valley stamps. I'm expecting a big order soon of new Christmas stamps that I'll definitely have to use on future tag projects. My partner this month was Jodi of Inked Inspirations. I finally met Jodi at the Islander Girl's Social 2 this month and she is so sweet. She even gave me some tips for using the Copic Airbrush system. I haven't bought one yet but I'm thinking about it... Thanks Jodi! Anyway, as you probably already know, Jodi is an awesome colorer (is that a word?) and overall awesome crafter. Did you know she was on 8 or 9 Design Teams?? She wasn't even sure, guess cause it was so many. I don't know how she keeps up. Anyway, I was very intimidated to be paired with her since she does such nice work. I was actually planning on doing something with punches or dies to be honest, but then I got brave and decided to color up this bear. I hope Jodi likes it! Here's a close up of each tag... Mounted the bear on star shaped nestibilities since he's holding a star. Star was colored in with gold Smooch- which is hard to see in the photos. Had to include a pink one since I found this cute pink snowflake paper at Cute Stuff! Supplies:

• Bear- Lili of the Valley
• Smooch
• Star dies- Spellbinders
• Stickles
• Metallic cardstock- American Crafts
• DP- Imaginisce, Fancy Pants

Happy Belated Birthday Teri!

I've made a few blogging friends on this journey of mine, and one that I met in person is Teri. I ended up taking a couple of classes from her along the way and have learned so much from her that I thought I'd send her a little something for her b-day. Since she likes pink (and so do I!), I jumped at the chance to use my new pink polka dot cardstock. It took me a few days to decide on the right stamp, but I ended up choosing this bear stamp by Lily of the Valley. Thought it was cute since she was holding a birthday cake. Also got some of those Wild Orchid Crafts roses and added it on for some accent... Since Teri always makes the inside of her cards just as pretty as the outside, I decided to do the same for her... Here's the inside of her card.... Now for the gift box. Used the A2 box instructions from Splitcoast Stampers to make this box. Although I wasn't giving her cards, the size was perfect for the goodies I wanted to send. Added on the Anya from the Spotlight set, which I got from Tamiko's. Added on more roses and a bow to hold the box closed. Took this photo to show you that I used the same polka dot paper for the box base and punched the cover with the MS doily lace punch. Hope you like it Teri!

Supplies:

• Spotlight Anya- TGF
• Bear stamp- LOTV
• Doily lace punch- MS Crafts
• Ribbon
• Daisy border punch- MS Crafts
• Stickles
• Roses- Wild Orchid Crafts
• Sentiments- Hero Arts

Fairy Friend

Yes.. still on my distress kick.... Made this card for Teri. Hope she likes it! I used distress inks again for the background and stamped the LOTV fairy image and friend sentiment in versamark- then applied mica powder to the images for a subtle look. You can't tell from the photo but the fairy and the sentiment are metallic blue. Then I embellished it with flowers, crystals, and pearls.

Supplies:

Distress inks- Ranger

Fairy stamp- LOTV

Friend sentiment- Hero Arts

Flowers- Prima

Crystals and pearls- Kaisercraft

Cardstock- Bazzil

Happy Belated Birthday Debi!

My crafting buddy Debi recently celebrated a birthday and I was stressing out about making her a card. So much so that I kept putting it off, and now her birthday has past, so I was forced to make something! Anyway, since she makes AWESOME cards, I felt pressure making one for her.. It didn't come out exactly how I wanted it to, but since I'm so late, it'll have to do.

Decided to make a double shaker card that I learned from Teri's blog... I still have a hard time with it, so its not perfect. I know Debi will love this bunny stamp by LOTV, so I knew he would be the focal point of the card. I put the sentiment at the back layer and the bunny on the layer in between the two shakers and then flowers on the top of the card. Hope she likes it!

Here's a close up of the bunny...

Here's the bag I made to hold her gift.

Supplies:

• Bunny stamp- LOTV
• Happy Birthday sentiment- SU
• DP- SU and Bo Bunny
• Flowers- prima
• Pearl brads- American Crafts
• Dew Drops- Robin's nest
• Microbeads- MS Crafts Ribbon- American Crafts
• Acetate
• 6mm foam

February OCS- A Card for Tia

I'm hoping that Tia received my card by now.... Here's the card I made for her. I just got my Lili of the Valley order in and could not wait to try them out! They are really really cute stamps and was drooling over the stamps Joy ordered from them. When I got home from Oahu, I was happy to find them waiting for me in my mailbox. :)

This little girl is so darn cute! I'm a sucker for cute girly stamps, so I couldn't pass this one up. I hope Tia likes them too!

Supplies:

Girl stamp- Lili of the Valley

DP- Doodlebug

Daisy border punch- MS Crafts

Dew Drops

Markers- Copics

Ribbon

Cardstock- Bazzil