RAKs For My IS Friends...

Every so often the Island Scrapbooking girls get together to share ideas, craft, and just have some good 'ol clean fun... Since I had to take off a couple of days last week for the Kindergarten schedule, I decided to take Akemi with me to "play" with my friends.

Since I knew all the girls could make it, I decided to make them a little something... Everyone knows by now that I'm a copy cat, so I used Teri's tutorial to create this cool CD holder. If you have not yet visited Teri's blog, you really need to. She has awesome tutorials and is so sweet to share her ideas with all of us. PLUS, its her b-day for about 30 more minutes, so you can wish her a happy b-day!

I just love this new DP from Bo-Bunny! I just had to use it for one of the holders- and naturally I thought of using H&G's Sing and Hula Anya. Not sure why, but they just match this paper.

For my next one, I just had to one of my Dandelion Designs stamps. I really like this paper too, but I don't think IS can bring it in anymore (darn! Should've bought more when I had the chance!) Ribbon is by Bo Bunny and flowers I got from Creations By You.. years ago. I can't recall what company that was by.

Here's Lilly again... Definitely one of my favorites from Pink Cat Studio. I tried blending her dress and wings using my copics. Still practicing but I'm slowly getting it... I also used these pretty flowers by Prima.

Do you love the color combo? I saw it somewhere on the SU website and couldn't stop thinking about it. Which brings me to my next one... I used the same colors but reversed it... You can't really tell from the photo but I popped up the flowers so they stand out a bit. 5th Ave. stamp set is by Stampin Up. This is my favorite set from them.

Finally, I really wanted to use the Cup of Stuff set by TGF. These mice are so cute. Oh yah- the butterfly punch is by Martha Stewart. I love how you get 2 sized butterflies in one punch.

Other supplies used:

Markers- Copics

Spellbinder Nestabilities

Carstock- Bazzil

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a great weekend!

The Greeting Farm Blog Hop

Hi Everyone...

Ready for the weekend?? I am... I have 3 days off in addition to my weekend.. Woo Hoo! Actually I was forced to take off because of my daughter's kindergarten school schedule. Oh well- maybe I'll have some time for crafting?

I've been a little MIA recently. Got busy getting the Island Scrapbooking blog ready for The Greeting Farm Blog Hop! If you haven't checked it out yet, go to the Club Anya or Splendid Stamping with the Greetings Farm blogs for more details. They will be publishing a list of blogs that are participating so you can "hop" and check out everyone's creations. Its a great way to get new ideas. Don't forget to check out the Island Scrapbooking blog to see what we all came up with!

Here's my contribution to the blog hop... I had something totally different in mind when I started working on my card, but it didn't work out (don't even ask- its that bad), that I had to come up with a new card... and fast! Yes, I procrastinated because I got side tracked and worked on a non-Greeting Farm project that I will post soon. So to make a long story short, I stayed up till 2am last night and worked on the finishing touches till now....

As I stared at all of my TGF stamps, I was drawing a blank... sometimes the images you have just don't fit your idea.... so scrap the idea right? I decided to use the Rock the Farm set because TGF uses the farmer girl as their logo and they are the Greeting "Farm" right? So I incorporated the farm animals into the design as well.

The other theme I wanted to incorporate was the "small world" concept. My sister lives in Italy, born and raised in Hawaii, and we are Japanese, so she's very into the international theme. Now that TGF has come out with some international Anya and Ian designs, I thought this was the way to go- reminds me of her. Luckily, Kelli was nice enough to stamp a Scottie Ian and Navajo Anya for me, otherwise my concept might not have worked. Thank you Kelli! I really wanted to incorporate the world/globe in my card, so I printed a clip art from the internet.

Now for the funny part... I decided to make this a pop up card.... see how the world and all the Anyas/Ians pop up off the card? Well, when you close the card, the Hula Anya's head popped out from the side of the card! I had to perform surgery and attach the red border strip onto the card so it extended it. Yikes!

This actually gave me more room for my title, but the card ended up huge! It reminds me of a small portfolio. Oh well. Need to keep that in mind next time I work on a pop up card!

Overall, this project turned out to be very stressful but I like the results. I think I would like it more if the card were smaller.

So my daughter, who loves Anya stamps by the way, decided she wanted to participate in the blog hop too! Here's her contribution. Daddy had built this house for her favorite stuffed bunny (aka "Daba") which we painted/decorated together. That's balloons and a rainbow on the roof, Wubzy carpeting on the top floor and a Daba carpet with "I Love You" painted on the bottom floor. When I came home from work today, she had the house decorated with all her Anyas. Guess she's gonna be a crafter just like Mommy!

Stampin Up Tip

I don't know about you, but I love Stampin Up stamps... I just wish they were available in clear or as a cling type instead of wood mounted. I recently bought the 5th Avenue Floral set (woo hoo!) and was ready to mount them on the wood, when I thought to myself... why can't I mount it on a cling? So I tried it out on the stamp I liked least and guess what... it worked! All you Stampin Up experts out there probably already thought of this, but I haven't seen it out there in blog land yet, so thought I'd share it with all of you.

All I did was peel off the paper from the stamp (Just love how these stamps come already cut!), stick it onto some EZ Mount, and cut EZ mount to fit the stamp. Its now ready to be used with your acrylic blocks! Yahoo! Now the only question is... what to do with all those extra wood blocks?

Another RAK from Debi

My new friend Debi seriously needs to start her own blog! She recently picked up these cute stamps by Two Scoops Rice. We are meant to be friends because I bought this same set! I haven't used mine yet though... Inside this cute card she stamped some of her All That Scraps and Pink Cat Studio images for me so I could test them out to see if I wanted to buy them too. So thoughtful yah? Can't wait for our next play date- Wednesday right?

Bloggy Friend Award...

Enjoli of Stamping Under the Sun just gave me this blog award! She's so sweet to think of me and my blog. I just love her creations- her color combinations are really sweet and girlie. So since this award is about friendship... here's some bloggers I'd like to give it to... They regularly give me nice comments on my projects, which I am thankful for. Linda- Simple and Sassy Creations Kyoko (Linda's BFF)- Cards and Tags Mania Laura- bytkg Les- Leslie's Photos The Girls at Island Scrapbooking- Island Scrapbooking Kelli- Wink and a Smile Eunice- A Star for Chiemi Denise- Denise loves stamps And some new visitors... Michelle- Mushi's Creative Inspiration Brenda- Sweet as a Gumdrop Carol- Extreme Cards and Paper Crafts Michele- My Simple Crafts Joni- Crafty Hula Hands Joy- A Place To Be Me I know a lot of you guys probably already got this award already, but thought I'd pass it on anyway. Have a great week!

2-4-6-8...

So the reason I made this card was because I needed to practice making this double slider card in preparation for my upcoming class. I had to make sure I remembered how to make it! I decided to FINALLY use my Cheer Anya stamp. Don't ask me why I bought her... I was never a cheerleader, nor do I have any connections with any. I just think she's pretty darn cute. Maybe its because I like the movie "Bring It On".. yes, I admit it. It's pretty hilarious.

Anyway, back to the card... Since we got some complaints about school colors that I used to make the samples at Island Scrapbooking, I decided to pick colors that were not associated with any school, yet fit Anya's personality- pink and black right? I don't think any school has these as their colors.

So, a looooooong time ago, I saw someone had made a tutorial on using embroidery floss for her pom poms. I'm sorry, I can't recall what blog it was from, but if anyone knows, please let me know so I can give credit to her cute idea. Here's a better look...

Don't laugh at my cheer...

I tried to remember cheers from my high school days, but my mind was blank and all I could come up with was the "bus driver cheer". hee hee. Do kids still do that?

Who do I appreciate? You of course! Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving comments. Yay... its the weekend! Have a good one!

Supplies used:

Cheer Anya- The Greeting Farm

Number dies- Sizzix

Cardstock- Bazzil

Embroidery Floss

Ribbon

Markers- Copics

Washi Flower Pop Up- Attempt #3

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for all the nice comments. I really do appreciate them! Here's my last flower pop up... I finally figured it out... Thanks to Carol from Extremecards.blogspot.com for her help! The problem with the red card is that the washi is too lightweight. To solve this issue, I mounted the washi paper onto cardstock before attaching them all together. It makes the card bulky though, but I'm happy with the result when you open it up.

Supplies used:

Washi paper- Hanko

Dhalia die- Spellbinders

Leaf die- Sizzix

Stickles

Thank you stamp- Hero Arts

Cardstock- Bazzil

Thanks for stopping by! For those of you who live in Hilo, I'll be teaching a class on this and the tri-shutter card at Island Scrapbooking next month. If you want to learn how to make this card on your own- Carol has a tutorial on her blog (see above or sidebar for link to her blog).

Bear and Butterflies

I just love this Hero Arts Bear stamp! I don't know why I bought him, I guess I just thought he was cute. I've been meaning to make a Thank you card for the past few weeks for my hairdresser. She was so nice to give my husband A LOT of her old obon towels that she's collected over the years. I had told her that he uses them a lot when he plays Taiko and that there are a lot of kids in the group that don't have. This was the perfect opportunity to use my new stamp.

I also bought this Martha Stewart punch recently and couldn't wait to use it. When I first saw it, I really didn't think much of it, but the more I looked at it, I realized I could use the smaller butterflies and make a whole bunch of them. I just love how they accent the card without stealing the show.

Supplies used:

DP- Bo Bunny, SU

Bear and Thanks stamps- Hero Arts

Butterfly punch- Martha Stewart

Circle and scallop circle die- Spellbinders

Washi Flower Pop Up- Attempt #2

If you follow my blog, you know that I often make several versions of the same card. Guess I like to practice until I understand how to do it. So, here's my 2nd attempt at this flower pop up card. This time, instead of using the cricut cut file for the flowers, I used the Dhalia Spellbinders die to cut the flowers. The only trouble I ran into on the mechanical side is that the washi doesn't slide open as well as the last card I made. I don't know if its the shape of the flower or the fact that the washi is more flimsy than the cardstock. Need to experiment more on this! In the meantime, here's how the card came out...

Here's the inside.... I still don't know if I really like the busy washi paper as the flower.

Here's a close up so you can see how much it pops up.

Supplies used:

Dhalia die- Spellbinders

Washi- Hanko designs

Leaf die- Spellbinders

Crystals- Crystal Accents

Thank you stamp- Hero Arts

Cardstock- Bazzil

Stylish Kitty

I've been neglecting my Hello Kitty stuff lately. Too much new things to play with!

So, ever since I saw Cheryl create a Hello Kitty card using this houndsooth (spell check please) stamp I was on a mission to get one. At first I thought she used printed paper, but never did find it. I finally realized it was a stamp- (duh!) and always kept it in the back of my mind. Island Scrapbooking did a special order for me and I picked it up a couple of weeks ago. I finally got to play with it the other night and couldn't resist using Cheryl's idea of using HK with the design. She has a great eye for design! Anyway, I used a different HK die, but I think I used the same color scheme. Red works so well with black and white, I couldn't resist. Thanks Cheryl for sharing your great ideas!

Supplies used:

HK die- Sizzix

Birthday Girl and Houndsooth stamp- Hero Arts Crystals- Crystal Accents, Hero Arts

Stickles

Oval dies- Spellbinders

I'm still trying to get over Relay for Life! Maybe I'll be less tired tomorrow. Better go sleep already!