Thursday, February 28, 2008

Kiriko's class!


As you can see we were sponging a lot today. I believe these cards are Kiriko's and Kumiko's. They are beautiful! Great job ladies! They also made the gift boxes but the pictures did not turn out. Everyone in my class today has a first name beginning with a "K." So, when giving out the metal letters, I only had one letter "K." In Japan, the popular thing to do when this happens is to play Jan-Ken-Pon (Rock-Paper-Scissors.) Kumiko won! My daughter was so young when we arrived here that she had never heard of Rock Paper Scissors. She learned through school, in her culture class, Jan-Ken-Pon. One of the many things she will take back from Japan that she will never forget. The paper that we used on our cards today are Apricot Appeal, Barely Banana,Whisper White and Basic Grey Sublime collection.
My Beautiful Friends!

(Kayoko and Kiriko)

Kayoko busy working on her card.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Silly Cyclist

Life's a journey... Hmmm, I started thinking about our move and all of the things we have to do to get ready for it. We found out we will be moving to Monterey, California and working at the DLI school they have there. Bitter sweet news for me. I love Japan and all of my friends I have made here and am really going to miss them so much! On the other hand, California sounds exciting! I love new experiences, meeting new people and exploring new places. I am an adventurer at heart! Where we will be living, there are so many things to do and see that are pretty close to us. We want to take some trips with our children and see some of the national parks in the area. Sequoia national park is about 3 hours away. Now back to the less fun stuff. I am feeling like we are juggling here which made me think of my silly sealife octopus stamp with all his tentacles. Trying to make sure our dogs (2 golden retrievers)can fly home at the right time so they won't overheat. The airlines have rules about when they can fly and when they can't. They need crates(x-large crates) we had to order from the Internet for them to be able to fly. That means the kids have to get out of school early in May. We have a van that has been in storage while we have been in Japan for three years. It is in Baltimore Md. and we need to pick that up also. I guess we will be driving cross country with it to Monterey after finding time to visit with our families. We will be dropping our oldest daughter off with her Dad and traveling with our two large dogs, our 3 children and us in a mini van across the United States. If that doesn't sound like a Griswold adventure movie! So can you see where the idea for my card came from! I feel like the octopus with all his arms handling all the things that moving across the world throws at you. But, doing it with a smile, looking at life as an adventure! And, thanking God that He is giving us all of these awesome opportunities!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Priceless Blossom


Feeling creative today. My big blossom flower has a black line on it because the Basic Grey paper that I used was made like that. I never really noticed it until I photographed it. For some reason it shows up way more in the photo. I stamped the blossom in Rose Red onto the basic grey paper and used micro beads with crystal effects to cover the whole flower. I got to use the new rub-ons from Stampi'Up!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Flowerlicious! (Bloom'n Art)




These projects are for Kiriko's class this Thursday. I have used the Sublime collection from Basic Grey and a stamp set I have had forever but never used until now. It is called "In Full Bloom." The solid color papers I used are Apricot Appeal, Whisper White and Pretty in Pink. I rubbed the edges with a sponge dipped in Close to Cocoa ink. The little leaf charm and the silver rings are from the 100 Yen store. I used crystal effects and microbeads for the center of the flowers. Mini Mates stamp set for the "For You" saying. The stem of the flower is from the "Art of Life" stamp set. The background stamp is "Tres Chic" which I love! I had ordered some things from ISC and they sent me these cute little boxes! They are pictured next to the card. I had to do something with them! I decided I was going to make a matching "set" for my class.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Megumi's Starbook-Finished!!!




Megumi came to my home today to finish her book. WOW! It turned out so great! Takumi, her son, looks so handsome in all of his baseball pictures. She brought his photos to me and I scanned them and cropped them to fit in her book. We left the photos the color they were instead of making them Black and white, it went well with the book. She used my "Sporting Goods" stamp set and stamped them in coordinating inks and cut them out of whisper white paper. The set has a cute baseball, glove and bat. She used the cut outs on each page to decorate the photos. Very nicely done Megumi!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Eiko's Birthday!

Tanjobi Omedeto!
Today is Eiko-san's birthday and we met here at the lounge for lunch. Eiko, I hope you share this day with the people that you love. I wish for you that the next year will bring you a lot of good surprises and experiences and last but not least a hole lot of FUN. Enjoy!
Happy Birthday Eiko!

Coming Soon...

This is the sample of our Love Book Class we will be having soon! We will be using Basic Grey Infuse paper and Bo Bunny My Word chipboard Love books.

David's Birthday Party Invitations

David's "Movie Night" Sleepover! Daddy made the invitations for his birthday party! If he knew I was telling you this he would deny it! I did give him a few suggestions and told him to use the "Time for Fun" stamp set. He did great! The bucket of popcorn stamp was perfect for the theme.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Valentine Cooking Class!




Menu:

Salad
Caesar Salad
Main Course
Lover's Grilled Glazed Sirloin Steaks
Side Dishes
Twice Baked Potatoes
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Sizzling Coconut Shrimp with
Pina Colada Dipping Sauce
Dessert
Lemon Passion Cake
coffee
Dulce De Leche

Friday, February 15, 2008

Starbook Class!



Today we made a starbook from Kwerner designs. I had seen it on her blog and thought it was so cute! I knew I had to make one for myself. loved the paper she used and the stamp set "Stamp of Authenticity!" My theme for my book did not fit for everyone. I had made mine before our class to use as the example and it is for my mother. It says "My Grandchildren are cuter than yours..."on the cover. She has 7 Grandchildren and there are 7 pages in the book. It worked out perfectly for me! I asked each one of them to think of a theme for "their" book and we came up with many titles for each person. Megumi has one child and he plays baseball and loves it! So, Megumi's book says "My Baseball Boy." We used the "Sporting Goods" stamp set for her inside pages. Kazue has Twin girls and her's says "The Twins." Kumie made her book for all the camping trips she takes. It reads "Our Camping Days" so I pulled out my "Roughing It" and "Campout" stamp sets for her to use in her book. With each persons theme, I went and pulled the stamp sets that I thought would work well with each persons book. I changed a couple of things, I used solid colored cardstock for the "middle" 10 inch papers. Everyone used the stamp of authenticity for journalling in each book and used the "theme" stamps as decorations around the picture pages. I added my "embelishment" pieces to the sides of each page. They all turned out GREAT!



"Embelishments": I am not a simple girl by any means and I just couldn't leave my book so plain. I needed MORE details. I had went to the 100 Yen store and found rings, metal star beads and Paper "Clips" I don't really know what they are called, actually. I just played around with them and came up with this and attached them to the side of the book pages. It made a cute little inexpensive embelishment! Got to love those 100 Yen stores! Here is what it looks like:

To make your own Rub-ons ( The front part of the book that says "are cuter than yours...")use a transparency sheet in your printer and print out what you want to say. Make sure to flip it horizontally. Lay it on your work ink side down and rub it until you feel you have gotten most of the ink off the transparency sheet. Done!




Yoshie putting her book together.

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Kazue with her Twins book.

Great Job Ladies! You are more creative than you think!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Valentine Gifts!


I was up late last night till 2:42am. Yawn! making these Valentine gifts for my four children to take to school. The picture is of the gift I made for my youngest daughter's class. I made 70 total, some had the ladybug and some had the skater boy design. I was so excited when I found these Jolly Rancher "Rocks" bite size candy at our 7-day store. I loved the container. They had reduced them to 15 cents a piece! I paid $10.50 for all 70! I know In the past I have spent at least 20 dollars just on the paper valentine cards for all four kids. I saw that I had some little lady bugs laying around the craft room so I put them on top. I used the doodle this wheel, So Very stamp set and the Very Punny stamp set for the lady bug. Used a little stickles, scallop punch, 1 3/8 punch and the flower punch. In the morning Tiffany, my youngest daughter, woke up and was so excited after she saw what I had made for her class. She went and got a special bag for her Valentines. Carefully, she placed them in her bag. She showed them to everyone in the house. She carried them with her when she brushed her hair and then again when she went to brush her teeth and also when she ate her breakfast. I sent the kids with daddy for a ride to school because mommy needed some sleep! I was happy, it was finished, the gifts were on their way to be handed out to all their friends. Done! An hour later I didn't hear my husband come home and he scared me half to death! I said "What are you doing home so early?" He said "Tiffany forgot her Valentines!"

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Pure Love! Twins Birth Announcement





These are the Birth Announcements I designed for a customer who was having twin baby girls. She is a marine and didn't want her cards to be pink, so we decided on silver and white. She had taken some photos of the baby girls in the hospital and they had tubes coming out of their little noses and they were laying in the clear plastic bed the hospital uses. I knew I just couldn't put them on a card like that. I took the best picture she gave me and used photoshop elements to correct the photo. I removed the tubes and cropped out the bed they were laying in and it looked like a profesional photo! I was so proud of myself! The cards dimensions are 5 3/4" x 5 1/2". I used Whisper White cardstock, brushed silver and Basic Black. The font for the inside of my cards were French Script MS and Imprint MT Shadow. I embossed wonderful words in silver across the front top layer of vellum cardstock and in the inside on the two rattles from booties and buggies stamp set. I had cuttlebugged the white paper layer on the front of the card.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Valentine Cards!

Supplies:
Stamp sets- Haute Couture, Mini Messages (Heart), Simple Circles(small circle)
Embossing powder- Clear, Glassy Glaze
Ribbon- Black and white polka-dot ribbon, organza Black and white polk-dot ribbon, Hot pink ribbon
Ink- Basic Black, Pixie Pink, Real Red, Versa Mark
Paper- Real red, Whisper white, Pixie pink, Basic Black, Glossy white
Glitter- Diamond stickles
Hardware- Pewter Brads
Punch- Scallop, 1 3/4" circle,



Working Hard!
Kumie, doing a great job!


Eiko

Kayoko

Hiroko


Megumi and Hideko

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Flower Power!




Believe it or not I was inspired by my night gown! I loved the colors together and all the different elements in the fabric. I used the letters of the word "flower" and stamped them around the card in Chocolate chip, Gable Green and Tempting turqouise. I used my favorite stamp set Baroque Motif and Mini Messages. The "Happy" title came from the So Very stamp set. I used irredescent ice and then Gassy Glaze over it. You can't see them very well but the small flowers on the hardware were punched out in Gable Green and then a top flower was punched out in vellum cardstock and set over the Gable Green flower.