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!!!