Favorite Butterfly

This is my favorite butterfly stamp. I've pretty much had it since it came out, but have never used it yet, till today. Its so pretty- I just love how the design on the wings are all hearts! I'm pretty sure it was a valentine's day stamp, but since its a butterfly, you can use it all year round.

Anyway, had this leftover scrap paper from when I did the Mykai card and thought it would work well as an asian butterfly.

The more I use my Copics, the more I love them! Who knew blending colors would be so easy?

Thanks for stopping by! For all of you who have requested the Magic Card tutorial, I'm almost done with it... I'll be posting it after my class on Saturday, so stay tuned if you want the instructions. I hope you can follow it- Its so hard to translate the steps when you can't point to what you are talking about! In class its so much easier to be able to explain myself. Oh well- hope you guys can figure out what the heck I'm trying to say. If not you can always email me/post a comment and I'll try to explain my nonsense! Hope Blogger doesn't give me problems like I was having last night! Grrrrr.

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!

RAK from Debi

My new friend Debi is so sweet! Look what she gave us at our get together! I love the paper- gotta find out where she got it from. Candy looks yummy too, can't wait to eat it- gotta hide from DH and DD. :)

Boy Oh Boy!

I just don't know how to make boy cards I guess. I'm so used to making cute girly cards for girls or women, that I sometimes forget what guys like. Sorry boys! It's probably because I have a daughter, my brother has 2 daughters, I have a sister and sister in law, Mom, Mom-in-law, etc. Even my dog is a girl! Anyway, every once in awhile I'm forced to make boy stuff... Its always a struggle, but here's that I came up with recently... 2 baby boy cards and 1 birthday card. This one is going to my husband's cousin, who just had a baby boy. Bought this set awhile ago, but never had a reason to use it, till now. This one is going to my dear friend Bev, who's baby was born pre-mature. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family. I thought this was a good opportunity to use my brand spankin new baby set from the Greeting Farm. I love his beanie. Finally, my friend's son's birthday is coming up this month. I hear he is playing baseball now, so Sports Billy was the way to go. Whew! Glad the boy stuff is over with. Now I can make girlie stuff again!

A Sweet Day...

Akemi sure had a sweet day in May...On May 28th, she celebrated her 5th birthday AND she graduated from pre-school. She felt so special. To document this special day, I decided to try out the Pop Up Scrapbook that Teri (Big Ideas From A Little Girl) posted on her blog. It was much easier than it looked! Thank you Teri! Here's the cover... Do you like her hair? I took her to get it done for her special day. Starting young... I know. First page is about her b-day party at school. DH and I took pizza, cupcakes and goodie bags for her class. I just dig her "crown". That thing was waaaaaay bigger than her head. Next we have her and her best friend. She talks about her BFF all the time, so I just had to get a photo of them together. Luckily, they will be going to the same elementary school. Here we have Akemi with her teacher, Miss Stacie. This is when she got her "diploma" at the graduation ceremony. And the other photo is the proud parents with our little graduate. Sigh, time sure flies! I'm sure her HS graduation will be here in the blink of an eye. Finally, the proud grandparents with their little princess... OK- I'm going to try to remember all of the supplies I used.. Here goes: All dies- Sizzix All stamps- Hero Arts Stickles Carstock- Bazzil DP- Doodlebug Designs Sentiments- printed from computer Crystals- Hero Arts Phew! I think thats about it. Hope you have a great week!

Blog Award... For Me???

Tracy of For the Love of Paper has given this award to me! I think this is my first one?? Anyway, thank you Tracy- I feel special. How the heck did you find me all the way out in Texas? Its always nice to make new friends- especially blogging friends! OK- so I think I'm supposed to send this to 15 others? Phew! That's a lot! Here goes! I vist these sites on a regular basis (even if I don't post any comments). I must credit these ladies for truly inspiring me to get my butt back into crafting. Now most of you probably have never even visited my blog before.. so if this is your first time- WELCOME!

• Eunice- A Star for Chiemi
• Teri- Big Ideas From a Little Girl
• Laura- by tkg
• Jean- Dandelion Designs
• Denise- Denise Loves Stamps
• Jodi- Inked Inspirations
• Claudette- Islander Girl Stampin
• Jenny- Jenny's Creations
• Kelli- K Kraft
• Jen- Kiyomi Krafts
• Linda- Simple and Sassy Creations
• Kyoko- Cards and Tags Mania
• Club Anya
• Splendid Stamping with the Greetings Farm
• Oh- can't forget Cheryl- Life is Sweet

Of course, I'm finding new blogs to explore every day. Thanks to all of you who create blogs to share your projects!

RAK from K.I.

I had lunch with some friends from Mauna Loa yesterday. We get together periodically- mainly for b-days, to catch up with each other. My friend K.I. is always making stuff for us. She likes to bake and do crafts, so we are always getting treats from her. Here's what she gave us this time...

A cute little purse with Hershey Kisses- Truffles inside! Yum. Note to self..better hide them from everyone at home.

She also made this cute measurement reference card for me. She had made some for a craft fair that we did in May, and I asked her to make me one. Cute yah?

How thoughful of her! Thanks K.I.!

Flirty Yuki

I had a blast yesterday hanging out at Island Scrapbooking! I taught my first Magic Card class and the students were great. Then I ended up spending the rest of the day hanging out with Tracy, Kelli, and Debi, working on projects and sharing ideas. Kelli brought her new airbrush system and was testing it out. Now I want one! Yikes!

Anyway, since I had made the card folder for Tracy and Debi, I had to make one for Kelli! I remember Kelli telling me that she liked the Anime stamps from In Style Stamps. I decided to make her a folder using one of their images. I think this girl is very cute... she is so flirty! I just went to the In Style Stamps site and they are having a 4th of July blowout! Here's your chance to pick up some of their Anime items at a discount! They even have FREEEEEEE digi stamps!!!!! Yahoo! I am so there after I finish this post!

Sorry, got a little side tracked for a moment.... Back to Yuki. You can't tell it from this photo, but I colored her shoe junk. The shoe color bled into the foot. I suck. So I decided to hide it using one of the flowers!!! I learned that trick from watching Ace of Cakes. Duff says that if you see a flower in a weird place on a cake, its probably because its hiding something!! Hee hee.

Supplies used:

Yuki stamp- In Style Stamps

Markers- Copics

Stickles

Flowers- Prima

Ribbon

DP- unknown

Cardstock- Bazzil

Crystals- Hero Arts

OK now, time for you to go to the In Style Stamps website to get your free digi stamps!! Also, the Island Scrapbooking gals have come up with a new contest.. shhhh, don't tell Michele! :o! Head on over to the blog for more info on how to enter!

Happy 4th of July!

Sweet Mykai

Yes, you must be bored of these folders by now... I know. I just love how this one turned out!!! I bought the Mykai digi stamp (hope they make her into a regular stamp too!) and really wanted to use her. I also just got my cherry blossom Sizzix deco strip last week and wanted to break it in. They were just meant to go together, don't ya think?

I just love the DP too. I got it from Island Scrapbooking a few weeks ago, intending to use it with Geisha Anya, but decided to use it with Mykai instead. I think the paper is from Stamping Station- I looked on the paper but no indication of what company manufactured it. To give the cherry blossoms dimension, I used pop dots (cut them in quarters) and selected a few to raise them with the dots. I also used gold stickles to add the middles to each flower.

Here's a close up of the cherry blossom die.

Supplies used:

Mykai digi stamp- In Style Stamps

Cherry blossom die- Sizzix

Frame die- Spellbinders

DP- Stamping Station

Cardstock- Bazzil

Stickles

Ribbon

Brads

Markers- Copics

This one is going to my new friend Debi! She started teaching classes at Island Scrapbooking about the same time as me. She has the cutest baby boy who is so sweet to let her go shopping without causing a fuss! Anyway, hope you like it Debi!

In Style Anime Fairy

I bought these In Style digi stamps awhile back and just didn't have the time to make anything with them. Here's my first card using one of the fairies. The Anime images are just too cute. I hope they come up with more. I also tried out my new Prima flowers from Roses on Paper. Happy Happy Joy Joy..

Supplies used:

Fairy digi stamp- In Style Stamps

Oval and scallop oval dies- Spellbinders

Washi paper- Hanko

Cardstock- Bazzil

Ribbon

Flowers- Prima

Stickles