Hauoli la Hanau

I completely enjoy following Cath Edvalson, Trends Editor over at Paper Crafts Magazine and home of Tuesday Trigger.  This week her mom is celebrating her birthday in Hawaii and of course I had to send a Hawaiian birthday card her way!  The inspiration photo below...

I LOVED the colors and the flowers and the bird...just tweeked it to have that Hawaiian flair...hopefully her mom will smile at this!  Hauoli La Hanau (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)

I took Lawn Fawn's Say Cheese polaroid and stamped on water color paper and used a mask to stamp this cute little hula girl (this stamp is super old, a gift from my mom when I first started to stamp waaaay back in grade school!)Then I made a mask for the hula girl and stamped the palm tree in the background.  See Feeling Nostalgic for a peek at what the entire stamp looks like.  I water colored everything using Distress Markers.  To complete the look, and tie in more of the colors from the trigger photo, I used some flower punches and curled the edges using my bone folder and placed some pearls in the center.  The little hula girl also has a tiny pearl in her flower as well!  Oh and that cute little bird is from Lawn Fawn's A Birdie Told Me.  Lastly the sentiment comes from Technique Tuesdays Another Day in Paradise.

Hope the weather holds up so that all our visitors can enjoy our islands!  I feel truly blessed to call Hawaii home!

 

Washi Weave

I think I've discovered my "style."  I guess I'll call it whimsy and fun.  It's been so inspiring to see the various styles of cardmaking and scrapbooking layouts and I LOVE all of them.  I didn't think I really had a style until I started entering these challenges and realized I love making scenes and playing with whimsical characters and shapes. I also like CAS so hopefully I'm portraying that style correctly!  I'll be entering this to CAS-ual Fridays: CFC87 Make Your Mark and CAS(E) this Sketch following this layout:

At first glance I knew I wanted to do some weaving to integrate where the two pieces met at the sentiment.  Here is my take on this sketch below.

I love washi tape and got two of my favorites the stars and silver to play with.  I thought this cute little cow over the moon by KittyBeeDesign went well together.  Colored him with copics and wanted more dimension so stamped the cow again and popped up it's head on foam tape.  I stamped more stars from various Lawn Fawn sets and fussy cut them to add more dimension to the washi tape.  Lastly stamped my sentiment using Staz-On in black to make sure it didn't rub off on the washi tape.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and made some time to create something fun!

Winter in Hawaii!

Ok so most of you may think...is their really a winter in Hawaii?  I think it depends on how you define winter.  For me "winter" in Hawaii consists of cooler weather (70ish degree days and even cooler nights), rain and whale watching!  My fondest memories of school field trips is of our class going whale watching because they migrate to warmer water here in Hawaii.  Even til today to catch a whale spout out in the ocean feels magical!  Kinda similar to how I felt when I first saw a snow flake!

On to the challenge...Lawnscaping Challenge: Winter Wonderland

My interpretation of a Hawaiian Winter Wonderland is whale watching so this is what I came up with using LFs Critters of the Sea...

To give the card a more wintery effect, I used the color scheme and Lawn Fawn's petite paper packs in Fa La La and Dewey Decimal Collection.  The whale was stamped and fussy cut on one of those fabulous pattern papers from the Dewey Decimal Collection and the background from Fa La La.  The waves were simply embossed using a Darice folder.  The layout was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches...

Hope you had a "whale of a time" checking this out!  Below are the main components of the card!

I so appreciate any comments...they always make me smile!

It's all in the details...

I promised I'd post more Kitty Bee Designs and so here it is...

I'm also entering this in CAS-ual Fridays: Long and Short challenge so the dimension of the card is 9.5inx4in to fit in a legal size envelope for mailing!

I got my color and theme from Pinspired Challenge #2

I noticed the scarf blowing in the wind and hearts on the mittens so went with using an outdoorsy feel.  This card has a lot of details so I took a few more close up pics to capture it!

This adorable elephant makes me smile with the little flower in her ear.  I punched out the flower and put a little rhinestone for sparkle and dimension.  I wanted her to have a little pedicure too so colored her nails with copics and put a coat of glossy accents!  The grass is simply made from cutting strips of green cardstock and going at it like a hairstylist...hehehe.  I wish I had one of those grass cutting border punches, but until then I think it works.  The cute little Sakura flowers are also from Kitty Bee Designs that were colored with copics and fussy cut.  Of course for more glitter, added Stickles in Crystal. 

The clouds are also Kitty Bee Designs (actually a popcorn shape) colored with this really cool Marvy Uchida snow marker that puffs up when using a heating tool...it feels soft and puffy!  I wanted the heart balloon to be puffy as well so waited patiently for the glossy accents to dry before completing my card.

I wanted to use something other than bakers twine for the elephant to hold the balloon and went with some jewelry wire from my stash.  Thought that represented the mitten strings pretty well.  As the sentiment (from Stamps of Life) states..."I {heart} YOU" for stopping by!

Fun times!

So our dear friend's baby shower is tomorrow and we can't be more excited for them!  They have tried for a long while and just as they were preparing to adopt got pregnant!  We know they will make fabulous parents as our kids always cling to them when we get together.

This is their theme...

 

I love making party favors with my Sizzix e-clips, and to personalize it placed mom and dad's initials on the front and heat embossed the back with the sentiment.  They're filled with macadamia nut kisses to keep with the blue theme. Those mac nut kisses are sooo fun because their little flag says "aloha" on them.  I want to say you can only buy them in Hawaii too! (on the right is a simple card)

Wanted to add a pic of my little helper!  She loves crafting as well and is my biggest customer...hehehe...always placing her order for favors to pass out at school.

Here they are packed and ready to go!  Congrats to our friends!!  We're soooo looking forward to meeting their bundle of joy!!!

My hubby is super talented with gift wrap...this is his design...hope they like it!!!

Maneki-neko

I wanted to showcase one of my favorite, local stamp designers Kitty Bee Designs.  She has an assortment of cute little critters and fun images that are great for just about any look you're going for.  The best part is that her stamps represent Hawaii and its culture.  Not only are her clear stamps fun, but they stamp really well!  I wanted to enter Freshly Made Sketches and incorporated Kitty Bee Designs into this fun layout...

So what's a maneki-neko you ask?  Do the kitties look familiar?  Maybe saw something like that in Chinatown?  Hawaii is known for being the melting pot of cultures and the maneki-neko represents a lot of things such as good fortune and luck.  Depending on who you ask here in Hawaii, you may get a different story and meaning each time!  For more details check out Maneki-neko on Wikipedia.  Each paw raised whether left, right or both mean different things...either way these stamps are adorable!

I went for the traditional maneki-neko colors and used copic markers to color in the details then fussy cut each kitty.  I wanted the background to have that Asian flair so embossed red cardstock with Lifestyle Embossing Folder in Tide.  Kinda reminded me of scales on a koi fish which a kitty may like...hehehe

Just wanted to share a little piece of Hawaii with all of you.  Until next time...a hui hou!

“May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light. May good luck pursue you each morning and night.“--Anonymous

Pinspired Challenge #1

Talk about great idea!  You can always count on Pinterest to get you in the creative mood and these challenges are definitely going to get the crafting mojo in gear!

Pinspired Challenge #1:   So the challenge is to be pinspired by this picture...sooooo fun!  I LOVE the colors, the quirkiness of it and all the festive polka-dots!  Here is my take on it...

I used the Cupcakes and Balloons stamp set and framelits from Sizzix and Stephanie Barnard along with the Stamps of Life Pinwheels2stamp.  I wanted the pinwheel to appear sticking into the cupcake and cut a little slit to insert pinwheel.  To incorporate more of the polka-dots aspect I sprayed Goosebumps Texture Spray in Shimmer to the pink base cardstock. Below is a closer look...

I had a hard time capturing all the shimmer in the card, but it is really sparkly and fun!  I have not played around with the Goosebumps texture spray too much, but will definitely have to remember to use it more often since it really dries nicely and has such a cool texture.  I wanted the cupcake holder to have more texture as well so ran it through Fiskars crimper to get that cupcake liner bumpy effect.  Of course the pinwheel needed a gem in the center to complete the look!

Inks I used are Distress Ink in Shaded Lilac for the cupcake top and polka-dot in pinwheels, Memento Ink in New Sprout and Tuxedo Black.

Thanks for stopping by!  Any questions or comments feel free to leave them below...I do love chatting!

Feeling Nostalgic

This past Christmas we flew home to Guam and was able to find some amazing stamps that had island themes.  This is one of them and I designed this card especially for my Nina and Nino who took care of my hubby and I when we were poor, starving college kids!  I will never forget the warm welcome into their home and the amazing home cooked meals...

I wanted to reflect thinking about Guam and family this evening, so I decided to go with an evening look with a large moon peaking through the palm tree.  I used a bunch of Distress Inks to make the moonlit sky and grassy area.  The background stamp is from Hero Arts "envelope liner."  I LOVE the background stamp almost as much as I love this little grass shack!

So to my Nina and Nino...Si Yu'os Ma'ase and Mahalo for all your support from what seems like waaaay back then to now!  We miss you guys soooo much!!!

If anyone is interested I have contact info for the lady that makes these island themed stamps.  Unfortunately she doesn't have a website, but I do have an e-mail address.  Just message me!  Stay tuned for more island themed creations!!  Sweet dreams and g'night.

For CAS-ual Fridays

I'm determined to get better at CAS cards.  I really do like this style, but trying to incorporate my quirky taste gets in the way sometimes.  This weeks challenge CFC 85: Round of Applause
Could I get more literal than this?!?hehehe

I took a circle die to make the card since I needed to feature at least one circle.  Now that I've completed the project the happy face may have counted!  Then I got out all my alphabet stamps and went to work!  I started in the center and used the smallest of my sets from Stampendous and wanted to do variations from upper case letters to lower case and then a mix.  Then used Lawn Fawn's Harold's and Claire's ABCs to get a bigger font as the swirl got larger.  Lawn Fawn has these cute little character stamps that I used to divide the words.  To complete the look I used some twine to make a bow.  I should also mentioned I used a pencil to draw the swirl so I had something to follow when stamping the invidual letters!  This made everything a lot easier!!  That's it for my Saturday.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!  Leave a comment below to make my day!!!

Owl Always Love You!

Note to self...get a copy of Paper Crafts 75 Creative Card Challenges!  This amazing magazine will definitely help anyone in that crafting slump.  On those days when you just don't know what to create I'd pull out this magazine and go for it!

Here's the challenge...
Moxie Fab World Challenge #60: Create a Card With a Window 
and the other challenge
Moxie Fab World Challenge #18: Create a homemade stamp

The stamps and framelits/dies are from Stamps of Life "Autumn Owl." I really like the fact you can stamp and use the framelits instead of fussy cutting.  Sure saves a lot of time and makes for a quick design to come together.

Below is the final card with sentiment "Owl Always Love You" in the window!  Before putting all the pieces together...

I used Tim Holtz "woodgrain" embossing folder, but instead of actually embossing the card I just inked it up, (this is the homemade stamp part of the challenge!) placed the card in the folder and ran over the outside of the folder with a brayer!  Using your embossing folders can make great background stamps!!!  I learned this fun tidbit from a class I took at my local craft boutique.

Of course I needed to add the little heart covered in stickles and googly eyes for fun!  Hope everyone is having a great week and as always comments are greatly appreciated!!  Thanks for stopping by!!!

Taking Flight

Here is the second card for Lawnscaping Challenge #49...

This next card design is a funny story.  My husband always has the grandest ideas for designs and I have to figure out a way to simplify them so that I can tell his story on a card. 

He liked that griffin soooo much, and as much I like this cutie too, I was worried about the coloring. So my husband sees this as a challenge (he NEVER passes up on a challenge) and decides he can color.  Above is his hilarious attempt!

So after seeing his attempt, I figure my coloring can't be that bad?!? hehehe... (I wonder if he was just playing around to make me feel better about my coloring?)

We were trying to recreate those fun aerial banners (banner from stamp set "Bannerific" shaded with a rainbow of copic markers) that planes carry through the sky, but instead of the plane we had the griffin with a cute little birthday hat from the "Hats Off to You" set.

Hope everyone is having a Happy Hump Day! 

More, more, more!

On to the next challenge as Lawn Fawn is one of my favorite clear stamps to use!  Not only does Lawn Fawn have such fun images, but the sentiments complete whatever project you make.  What would make me love them even more is if I could color the images as beautifully as their design team can ;o\

Since it's Lawn Fawn's 2nd anniversary I came up with 2 cards....

I was trying to use the inspiration photo and the lollipops caught my eye.  I used the lollipop from "Sweet Christmas" and colored them in a rainbow of colors then added stickles because what's a celebration without some glitter!  The center is a little hard to see, but it is the smallest candy swirl in the stamp set and colored each section rainbow!


Please see next post for 2nd card!

Another Challenge!

In my hunt for more challenges...apparently this is getting addicting...I came across the Moxie Fab World Challenge #7 in which you are to use 10 embellishments in an innovative way.  My first instinct was to use rhinestones! Then I went through a brief moment of "inability to let go" and my hoarding instinct came about.  Anyone ever get like that with your stash?  I love to open my little drawer of gems, but continue to collect them more than use them...hehe.  Of course when the occasion arises I do use them and then I have an excuse to get more!!

Another habit of mine is to get the mini self adhesive calendars that I got from my local craft boutique.  I buy a bunch every year in the hopes to make something really cool with it and then all of a sudden the holidays are passing by and we're in a new year!  So what to do with these expired calendars......

use it for the Moxie Fab World Challenge of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used 10 out of the 12 months...talk about not wasting...and layered them all on Kraft cardstock.  I wanted to pull the colors from the calendar so placed my heat embossed sentiment on red cardstock and wanted more definition so layered it again on black cardstock.  The cute little surprised face is from Peachy Keen Stamps "Everyday Character Face Assortment" and sentiment from Stamps of Life "crayons2stamp."  

You could even take this a step further and PERSONALIZE it by placing the main month of the recipient's birthday (somewhere in the center of the card) and circle the birth date!

Hope this motivates someone to use those "expired" items in your stash!  As always your comments are greatly appreciated.

Determined

Having a great weekend pondering how to get more involved in the papercrafting community!  Gaining the courage to enter more challenges, I thought about entering A Blog Named Hero Challenge #17 A New Year, New You.  This was a PERFECT challenge for me since I am definitely new to the blogging world and received a lot of fabulous new stamps from my amazingly supportive hubby!

I got this amazing new Hero Arts Conversation Background stamp for Christmas and had to use it for this challenge.  I am normally very intimidated by such large stamps, but had so many ideas running through my head.

I decided that since this is my first try using such a large stamp I'd go simple with black ink and used some older sentiment stamps from Hero Arts.  I wanted the main word bubble to pop so I used my craft knife to cut it out and stamped celebrate in rainbow ink and added glitter!  Any comments are greatly appreciated!

And another one...

I wanted to try another CAS card for the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge and came up with this...

I'm determined to figure out my copic marker coloring and thought the Stamps of Life Flowers and Vase stamps and framelits set was perfect for this.  I wanted some kind of background without overwhelming the brightness of the flower and vase so I chose Kraft cardstock and embossed a strip to ground the vase.  To complete the look added the sentiment in the corner.  As always any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Goals!

A New Year goal of mine is to get more involved in the paper crafting community.  I decided by getting more involved I would really need to put myself out there and truly challenge myself.  I dream about being on a design team one day or having a piece of my work published!   In order for me to get there I must practice, practice, practice.  So for my first post of the year I wanted to enter my card into CAS-ual Fridays challenge.  A challenge to create a clean and simple thank you card.

Since this is my first entry to CAS-ual Fridays I wanted the card to say something about me.  My husband is from Guam and we just came back from vacationing there.  We were so blessed to be able to spend time with his family.  We went to this cute shop in the Chamorro Village that had amazingly unique Guam/Island themed rubber stamps.  In Chamorro (the native language of Guam) "Si Yu'os Ma'ase" (pronounced see-zoo-oos ma-aw-say) means thank you and in Hawaiian it is Mahalo.  So of course I had to place all the sentiments in a rainbow of colors because it is my favorite color (...yes, rainbow is a color ;o) And it wouldn't be an island themed card without the seashell border punch with a sand colored background!  Here's to crossing my fingers and any feedback is greatly appreciated!