Finding my groove...

FBW #193 - Spring Time

2012-03-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
Today the Flutterby Wednesday Team is happy to share with you our creations for this week's FBW challenge #193. The theme is Spring Time and the challenge this week is sponsored by Robyn's Fetish. For more details on our sponsor and the challenge head on over to the Flutterby Wednesday blog. The team got a chance to pick an image from the Robyn's Fetish store for our inspiration cards. I chose to go with this cute image called, Babette the bunny.

The card came together pretty quickly for me. I decided to make an egg-shaped card using 3 levels of the petite oval Spellbinders. After printing the image out I cut it out and then went to town on coloring. I know it's not the greatest, and thank goodness the image is cute. I matted the image to a striped piece of dp from the DCWV Whimsy stack, the colors were perfect and the stripes just right. The ribbon is a fun touch, pulling all the colors together and the base of the card is yellow cs from Bazzil.

Alrighty, time for you to create a Spring time card and don't forget to include your butterfly, angel or fairy then link it to the FBW #193 post. Mahalo for stopping by!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
white cs (Neenah solar crest white)
Copics:

Stamp Convention Alert!!!

2012-03-05T23:30:00.000-08:00

(Scroll down for my Lollipop Crafts post)

Hey everyone!

Don't have anything to do this weekend? Need some crafting supplies? Well you're in luck!! Renate' & I will be partnering with Kathy of Pixie Boutique again at the 2012 Rubber Stamp Convention in Carson, CA. We'd love for you to come visit us again if you're in the neighborhood. We will have lots of rubber for you to purchase with stamps from a few of our favorite companies. Shall I name drop? Wellll, back by popular demand, we will have rubber from the following companies: La-La Land Crafts and The Greeting Farm!! We picked up some really cute rubber that was featured at CHA from both companies. Renate & I are introducing two new companies: Sister Stamps and Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps!! We are so excited to be able to introduce these two new stamp companies to the community.

Our booth will be located in the back of the main hall in between Stampers Anonymous and Magenta. We are planning to have make & takes (limited supply) and some other goodies to purchase so make sure you come early and bring your friends and family! The more the merrier! O and one more thing, we'd appreciate it if you could save your cash for our booth. :)

Here are the details of the show taken from the website:

2012 Spring Rubber Stamp Convention at the Carson Community Center

Saturday, March 10th: 9am - 4pm

Sunday, March 11th: 10am - 3pm

Carson Community Center

3 Civic Plaza Drive

Carson, CA. 90745

Admission:

$6 per day

$8 for a 2-day Pass

Children under 12 yrs old - FREE

Free parking

Refreshments available

So if you're in the area and need a day of craft shopping or need to replenish your craft supplies head on over to the 2012 SRSC at the Carson Community Center. We look forward to seeing you again!

Have a good week!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Lollipop Crafts #70 - CAS

2012-03-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everyone!
Hoping you all had a terrific weekend. As you know I was busy, busy, busy this weekend. Crafting that is. Hoping to share some of those with you all soon. But for now, I have a CAS aka Clean And Simple card to share with you in honor of our new challenge at Lollipop Crafts. So it's pretty simple, create a clean and simple card. I know I know, this might be one of thee hardest kinds of cards to make for some of you, but I think this would be a fun opportunity to step outside the box and see if you can. I know how hard it can be, but with some fun papers and a cute image you too can accomplish one.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that there is a prize up for grabs this week? Oops! My bad! Our lovely sponsor is none other than Meljen's Designs. What are you in the running for? How about 4 digis, of your choice, from the Meljen's shop? Yep, so make sure to keep your card clean and simple to be considered for the prize. Besides being in the running for the prize you can also be in the running to be in our top 3. If you need some inspiration or not too sure what clean and simple might be hop on over to Lollipop Crafts and see what the rest of the T-Team is showcasing.

For my CAS card I took a page out of my blogging friend, Donna Mikasa's book. She is the queen of CAS. I just love how she takes an image and makes it the focal point on her cards. Please make sure to visit her blog if you haven't already. I decided to case this adorable card she created with the new Sister Stamps image, Daba. I loved the white on white with Daba as the focal point. Here is my card using another Sister Stamps image, Kiyomi.

I used the reverse wonky rectangle Spellbinders to cut the card and image, then using distress inks peeled paint & crushed olive I added some color to the inside of the image still making her the focal point. The sentiment is from the newest AmyR collection called Be Happy Sentiments and I punched it out with a Stampin' Up circle punch. I thought it was perfect for that spot in the corner. I'm not too sure you can see unless you click on the picture, but the card base is actually embossed with daisies. That's how the paper came when I bought it from Hanko Designs. The ribbon is from my stash. And there you have it, a clean and simple card.

Alrighty friends, hope you liked my clean and simple card. I had a lot of fun making it and sharing it with you. Now it's your turn! Create your CAS card and directly link up on Lollipop challenge # 70. Good luck, and most of all HAVE FUN!!

Mahalo for stopping by! Have a fantastic Monday!
Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
White cs (Xpress-It & Recollections), Tuxedo black ink (Memento)
Copics: 100; E000, 00, 01, 11; G40, 43, 46; Y21, 26, 28

Lilo's Fun Friday #19 - on Saturday!

2012-03-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Girls Day everyone!
Sorry I didn't get a chance to post a LFF project yesterday. I decided to wait until today since this is the card that I wanted to share. I waited til today because I thought this would be perfect for Happy Girls day. I found out about this wonderful day last year from all my Hawaii blogging friends (they are all listed on my right side bar under "Aloha from Hawaii.") I wish my mom had told me about it, but so glad I know about it now. So in honor of this special day where girls are celebrated I made this card using Sister Stamps, Mei Lin.

I don't really have anyone to give this to so I kept the sentiment simple. Yes it's another handwritten one. That gorgeous washi paper is from Hanko Designs. I forgot I had bought it and while rummaging through some bags I found it and two more packets of washi papers!! Love when that happens. (lol) I pulled colors from the washi paper to color Mei Lin and her pin wheel streamers. She's cut out with a wonky rectangle Spellbinder and I distress inked the inside with dusty concord DI. I really feel bad covering up all that beautiful paper, but I think Mei Lin looks beautiful here so I'm gonna leave it as is.

O! You all have to stop by Nadine's blog. I saw her card this morning and I had to smile because we used the same stamped image. Her card is beautiful!! And I'm just not saying that because she gave me a shout out. I truly believe she does really amazing work! :)

Just a few things happening in my neck of the woods. I will be very busy for the next two weeks preparing for a stamp convention and a Crafters show. More details to follow next week. I hope that in between I can stop by and oohh and ahhh over everyone's creations. I wanted to say Thank you in advance for visiting me. You all know how much I appreciate the love.

Okie dokie, back to the craft table to continue ~~working~~ creating. I hope you all have a wonderful Girl's day and crafting weekend!! Mahalo for stopping by!

Hugs,
Lilo

Supplies not listed:
Iris Tsumugi cs (Hanko), white cs (Recollections, Xpress-It), purple cs (Bazzil)
Copics: E50,51,01,11; V20, 22, 25; BG53, 57, 100

Lollipop Crafts Sponsor Spotlight

2012-03-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Thursday everyone!

Did you all enjoy the extra day yesterday? I was at work all day so, it was just another day like any other. Hope some of you got to enjoy it doing something fun.
This week Lollipop Crafts is super excited to have Little Miss Muffet Stamps sponsor this week's TAGS, TAGS, TAGS challenge # 69. Here is a little bit about our sponsor in the words of it's owner and illustrator, Barbara Sprout:

Little Miss Muffet Stamps was inspired by a house full of Little Miss Muffets and arachnophobes alike. It isn't too difficult to imagine how I ended up here since I've been drawing and coloring from the moment I picked up a crayon. Now as I sit in my hobby room I get to share my passion with my own Little Miss Muffets who love to work along side of me. My motto is still "A stamp a day keeps the stress away."

Feel free to visit my gallery at http://forgottenscraps.blogspot.com/ for daily inspirations.

Here are a few of the LMM DT samples, be ready to fall in love with these new images:

Aren't these amazing? Pretty fantastic if you ask me. I feel so inadequate to share mine, but you know what? I'm ok with that. These ladies are all so talented and I am so happy to share their amazing cards with you. Since the challenge for this week is all about tags, I decided to create a CAS tag for a gift bag. I used Linda Lee Hatter, and colored her up in spring like pinks and greens. I attached the tag to a pink bag and this can be used for any occasion.

The tag itself was pretty easy to make. I first printed out the image, colored her and then cut her down. Using Spellbinders Label 4, I die cut only the top part and punched a hole. I used my round corner punch for the bottom. Added a green & pink dotted ribbon to match Linda Lee's outfit.

Alrighty, if you haven't already submitted your card, what are you waiting for? You still have time and remember our sponsor is offering up three digis of your choosing. So make sure to follow the rules in order to be eligible for the prize and be considered in our top 3.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you'll come back tomorrow for my LFF post. Have a terrific day and happy March everyone!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
White cs (Neenah Solar Crest); pink paper bag
Copics used:

FBW #192 - Open Challenge w/ SCACD

2012-02-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

Today we have a brand new challenge at Flutterby Wednesday. It's an open challenge and we have a terrific sponsor, SCACD (Susana's Custom Art and Card Design). For all the details on what you will be in the running for and links to the DT blogs, head on over to the Flutterby Wednesday blog. Each of the DT received an amazing stamp from Danni plus a card showcasing their stamp. I don't think any of us know what the others received so it will be a real treat for everyone, including me, to see what my fellow DT buds create. I decided to use the beautiful card Danni sent me as my inspiration.

If the shoe fits card created by Danni Bindel

Isn't this beautiful? I think so. The colors are terrific and her coloring is gorgeous. I always love her layouts and the papers she uses. I'm so stoked I have a Danni original!! This image is called, "If the shoe fits," illustrated by Victoria Case for SCACD. Love the fairy's expression when the perfect shoe is found. I went for a similar layout and changed up a few things because I made some boo-boos. But it's always nice when that happens because then you create something that might turn out better than the original.

Here's my take on Danni's card. I thought her being a fairy she'd enjoy and maybe rock pink hair. I was right. (lol) I went with a pink and black color scheme. As much as I loved the details on her skirt, I went the lazy way and colored it all black. The b&w dp is from Making Memories and the pink is from Recollections and they were all matted with black cs (Recollections)

The fun part was trying to color the shell/chair. I wanted to add a pearl like tone to it so after coloring it in I used some pearl pen and my finger to spread it around. IRL you can see a pearly sheen, but here not so much. I did add some sparkle to her shoes and wings. The sentiment was handwritten. I guess it's every woman's dream to have that perfect fit. Right ladies?! :)

Well I hope you all get a chance to play, and remember to include a fairy, butterfly or angel to your card to be in the running for the prize then directly link up with us at the Flutterby Wednesday blog. Mahalo for stopping by today, have a great 1/2 way to Friday day and Happy Leap Year!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
Black tuxedo ink (Memento), MS butterfly & border punches
Copics & Stickles:

Lilo's Fun Friday #18

2012-02-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday everyone!! Woo Hoo!! It's been one of those kinda blah weeks for me, but the weekend is lookin' up. Can't wait to get home from work today to start the relaxing. What do you have planned for this weekend? I know I'll get some crafting in with my buddy Renate and hopefully catch some zzzzs in there some where. :)

This should be a fairly short one today because the card itself is definitely CAS. It might not look it but it really is. (lol) Made this card for a friend. I hope she likes it and takes some inspiration from it. Using Sister Stamp, Miyako, and 2 gorgeous Yuzen washi paper from Hanko Designs here is my share for LFF #18, hope you like.

Ta-da! This doesn't look like it, but I only used the washi paper and Miyako here. That paper is so dramatic and really pretty it really did not need anything other than a cute image. I thought it would be fun to cut the top corner and used my new Fiskars border punch to add a fun accent. The other washi paper is one I have used in the past, and it worked really well in the corner. Colored Miyako to match the oranges and golds on the sakuras. After fussy cutting her I popped her up with pop dots. No sentiment this time, thought this could be used for any occasion.

Well that's all for me today.

Just a quick note on some new release news I saw around blogland:

New release previews for Sister Stamps #6 started yesterday so make sure to "hop" on over to the Sister Stamp blog and read how you can win some really cute images.
The Greeting Farm blog is also showcasing a new line today, so make sure to head on over, who knows you might get lucky and win some cuteness.

Alrighty, time for me to sign off. Mahalo for stopping by and for your lovely comments. Have a terrific weekend!!!

Hugs,
Lilo

Supplies not listed above:
Black Tsumugi cs (Hanko Designs)
Copics:

Surprise!

2012-02-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

Hello again, yes again, this is my second post for today. Please scroll down to see my previous post. Thank you!

Today, the Lollipop Crafts DT is wishing a very special birthday to captain of the A-Team, Alanna.
Happy Birthday Alanna. Hoping today is fun and fabulous for you!! :)

Please visit the Lollipop Crafts blog for the birthday wishes being sent to Alanna and also stop by her blog and leave her some birthday love. Although this is not a birthday card it does have a bright celebration feel to it. I used bright colors primary colors and the card itself was something that I made when I first started making cards some few odd years ago. It was super easy to pick an image, color it, cut it out and plop it on top of the card. Love when that happens. hehehe.

Who better to be plopped down on to this bright fun card than WS Summer from the Roll Call kit by The Greeting Farm? I colored her with Copics, using similar colors to match the background. I love her expression. The stamps used on the background paper are from Stampin' Up, so I guess you can say I made my own pp. I hand wrote the sentiment and added some fun dots to break up the white space.

Well thanks so much for stopping by again. And don't forget to stop by Alanna's blog to wish her a Happy Birthday. And you still have time to enter this week's Anything Goes challenge, we already have 173 links!! Woo hoo, knew you all would love this challenge. If you're still working on your card here is where you can link up your card. No sponsor this week, but you have a chance to be chosen in our top 3, plus you get to submit more than one card.

Challenges:
Monday-Funday #21 - Show your primary colors

Mahalo for stopping by again! Enjoy your day!!
Hugs,
Leanne

Friday Spy Day challenge

2012-02-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
I've been quiet on the commenting again, but slowly getting around to catching up. I want to say thank YOU for taking the time to stop and leave me lovely messages. They definitely make me smile and keep me in high spirits.

I haven't been playing in too many challenges lately, but when I saw the Friday Spy-day pick from the Farm Fresh Challenge blog I decided, hey let's play! So I did. Here is the awesome picked image:

And here is my interpretation using Sunday from the Creeper Crew.

Pretty CAS yea? I have been loving the blues lately and want to keep using colors that I haven't used for some time. Just like stamps our markers need love too. lol. So here I used greens, blues, kraft and white. I hand wrote the sentiment : You're way COOL! I enjoyed finishing this one, especially coloring him up. I hope you like it too.

Alrighty, you still have some time to play in the Friday-Spy day challenge over at the FFC blog. Whatcha waiting for? Have a terrrific Thursday my friends!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
Dots stamp (Stamps by Judith); white cs (Neenah solar white), blue cs (Bazzil), kraft (Recollections) green (MME), twine, button; Spellbinders lacey circles, regular circles. Tuxedo black ink (Memento).
Copics:

FBW #191 Photo inspiration

2012-02-22T03:07:00.000-08:00

Morning everyone!! Please excuse the lateness of this post!!

Another Wednesday is here and man is February going by too fast or what?!! Well hopefully we can slow it down with a new challenge at Flutterby Wednesday. We hope ya'll enjoyed last week's A.W.W. (Anything with wings) challenge. It was really fun to see what ya'll came up with. This week we are back to normal with our angel, fairy or butterfly incorporated into this week's challenge. I'm pretty sure it's one that you will like. Danni asked the DT to use this beautiful photo to inspire our creative juices .

Isn't this gorgeous?! And sooo PINK!! hahaha.. I'm sure some of you are in ga-ga heaven that it's so pink, but there are other colors and inspiration here, right?! lol.. Be sure to check out my fellow awesome teammates inspirations by using the side bar on the left under the Flutterby Team banner, or you can head on over to the Flutterby Wednesday blog and link from there.

Here is what I came up with using a few of the newest C.C. Design images and a new AmyR sentiment that I got via All That Scraps. These can all be found here in the February 2012 release. The first of the images is Swiss Pixie Lucy, she's sitting on top of a Swiss Pixie Woodland daisy. The sentiment is from the Be Happy sentiment set.

Pretty CAS, leaving the images as the main focus of the card. I used a MS flower border punch to add on the opening. Also used a MS butterfly punch (with kraft cs (Recollections)). The dp is part of an old G.C.D. Studio paper pad collection called Rose Colored Glasses. I used a white pencil to outline the butterfly. I substituted a sunflower for the original acorn that is in her hair. Colored this with Copics.

Alrighty, I hope you like what I came up with and it inspires you as much and the photo. Now it's your turn to create. Please use the photo inspiration above, plus an angel, fairy or butterfly on your card for this week's challenge and link up with us here. Lookin' foward to your projects this week. Have fun with it!!

Mahalo for stopping by!! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Before I forget, please use the Panda Express coupon located on the top left of my side bar today for a free serving of our newest shrimp dish, Peppercorn Shrimp. It's pretty good and a wok smart item.
Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
White cs (Neenah Solar Crest), Tuxedo black ink (Memento)
Copics:

Lollipop Crafts #68 - Anything Goes

2012-02-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everyone!
Hope you all had a terrific weekend! Today is a start of another challenge at Lollipop Crafts. It's an anything goes but we don't have a sponsor so hoping you will play along anyways. For some wonderful inspiration from our DT head on over to the Lollipop blog.

For my ATG card, I created a card using some fun girls from The Greeting Farm. Miss Anya Lounge girls to be exact. I masked one and stamped the other two slightly behind her.

I went simple with the layout and colors. Been wanting to use that dp for quite some time and it was a nice bit of color & sparkle to add here. The sentiment is from the Creepin' kit which I stamped on to a Spellbinder banner. The only embellishments I used were a strip of ribbon and the MS butterflies flitting on my card.

I had fun coloring the different hair & skin tones. Using only two colors on their clothes was pretty fun too. This is a really fun set to play around with, I think I'll try to use it more.

Alrighty friends, hope you can play along with us this week. Remember to upload your direct link to your card/project to today's post on the Lollipop Crafts blog, it's challenge #68. Mahalo for stopping by, have a terrific week!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
White cs - Recollections & Neenah solar crest, Fiskars border & corner rounder punch, Cream pearls -Viva decor pen. DP & Copics listed below.

Lilo's Fun Friday #17

2012-02-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Aloha Friday everyone!

Welcome to my new blogging buddies Norma, Tan, & Carol! It's so nice to have you here, I hope you get inspired. ;)

Before I get to today's LFF #17, I wanted to say Arigato to Nadine and Thanh for linking up. Although Nadine didn't want the stamp (she was the guest designer for Sister Stamps so she already had Miyako) I was so happy that she linked up. That means the winner of the Miyako stamp is Thanh!! Woo Hoo!! Thanh be sure to email me your snail mail address so I can get Miyako out to you. Here is what she had to say about the Sister Stamps line:

"I would love to win a Sister Stamp because I've been so excited to see some Asian stamps that really represent the Chinese/Asian culture. I love the lion dance ones and the fans and lanterns. Even their eyes are perfect. ;) I have had to hold off because of Christmas presents, but look forward to putting in an order soon. Thanks for the chance to win. :D "

It's so true what she said. I whole heartedly agree. Now here is my share for this week. I have been wanting to use some of my neglected Copic colors. Especially the blues. I had a fun time with the FBW #190, Anything with Wings challenge post so I thought I would make another one using one of my creative friend's handmade dragonflies and cute little Kiyomi from Sister Stamps.

Here is a very simple design that doesn't really need a lot for it to work. The card is actually 4x4, I just enlarged it a bit so you can see the details. I replaced the butterfly that comes with Kiyomi with the dragonfly. The dragonfly in orange really gives this a pretty amazing feel especially because it's so much bigger than Kiyomi. Sorta looks like she's in the distance and reaching to pet it.

Dragonfly created by Sesame Bijoux

The dragonfly is sitting on a (Tim Holtz) mini paper rosette. The rest of the card is dark blue cs (Recollections) layered with an origami paper (Aitoh) and the frame to match.

Kiyomi is colored with Copics (list below) and I kept it simple by leaving her band white as well as her collar. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, keeping the focus on Kiyomi and her new dragonfly friend.

If you are interested in my friend's, Jenny Chen, handmade dragonflies or handmade jewelry please visit her Etsy store, Sesame Bijoux. And if you are interested in buying any of the Sister Stamps visit the Sister Stamps blog for a list of vendors on their side bar.

Well that's it for me today. Mahalo everyone for stopping by in your busy schedule and for all the lovely comments. Hope you have a fantastik weekend and for those of us with a 3-day holiday... woo hoo!! Enjoy it!!

Hugs,
Lilo

Supplies not listed above:
White cs (Xpress It); Memento tuxedo black ink (Tsukineko)
Copics:

FBW #190 - Anything with wings

2012-02-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hello!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday.

Are you ready for a new challenge? Well come on over to the Flutterby Wednesday challenge blog and join us for a one time only twist. This week and ONLY THIS WEEK you will be able to use ANYTHING WITH WINGS on your card. Yep that means anything. Check out the FBW DT makes by using the links on my (left) sidebar (under the Flutterby Wednesday banner).

I totally took advantage of the challenge to create a CAS card using something different but it does have wings. (lol)

This images is from Fiskars clear stamp set Sweet Pea. I have been wanting to do more CAS cards and this is as CAS as I can get. I just couldn't stamp this on white cs, it was just too much white space for me. But adding the clouds (used tumbled glass distress inks and a stencil) didn't take away too much from the CAS vibe.

I stamped the image using Versafine black ink on to the cloud covered cs then inked it again with Memento tuxedo black on another piece of white cs. Colored the propeller & banner with Copics, fussy cut them out and popped them up. Inside the banner and card I hand wrote "Flying by to say... Hi." (inside). And that's all she wrote. (lol)

Can't wait to see what you create. I'm sure there will be lots of new things with wings this week, but remember it's only for this week so please feel free to take advantage. Mahalo for stopping by. Have a great week!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:

A lovely blog award from Shirl

2012-02-14T23:30:00.000-08:00

I was thrilled to receive news that my blog got a Liebster Blog Award and from a really sweet and awe-mazing friend on Valentine's Day as a gift... Woo Hoo!!!

Here's the to-do list of any Liebster award recipient:

A short introduction about Liebster Blog Award: 'Liebster' is German for 'dearest'. The award is a 'share-the-love' arrangement, given to inspirational bloggers with less than 200 followers

Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog
Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserves to be noticed.
Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog

Mahalo to Shirl from Creations by Shirl. Shirl is so creative and so sweet. She is usually the first to post on my blog and leaves me some really lovely comments. I only know her through blogland, but feel she is a sista @ heart. She is an amazing crafter and is ALWAYS posting new images and sharing new sites. I go to her blog every day just to see what she creates because I know it's something I will probably end up getting. She's a wondeful inspiration and to receive this award from her is a wonderful honor.

Big hugs to you Shirl, and Mahalo for this lovely award.

Here are some of my five favorite blogs (in no particular order) with less than 200 followers:

Mahalo ladies for your inspiration and being really amazing blog buddies. Please be sure to check out their blogs and leave them some love. Maybe you will also become a follower/friend as well.

Enjoy your day and come back tomorrow for my FBW post.

Hugs,

Leanne

Happy Valentine's Day with some Happy Mail!!

2012-02-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Tuesday and Happy Valentine's Day!!

You would think since I've been making so many Valentine's Day cards and projects that I would actually have one to share, right? Wrong! But don't fret because I do have something that I just received in the mail and it is definitely perfect to share on this Valentine's day.

It's from my Feb secret sister, Kim Yu. She posted this beautiful card on her blog the other day and I fell in love with it. Let's face it I love all of her creations. She mentioned that it was for her secret sister and I left a message saying that her SS would love it. I was RIGHT! (lol) She is amazingly talented and so crafty. She is just one of a group of ladies I love to visit and see what she's been up to. I take a lot of inspiration from her. And on top of that, she is super sweet in person!

Here are several pictures of the happy mail I received from her. (Be advised, there's quite a few pictures, but well worth the scrolling through. :)

Oooo!!! What is it?!

O my!! Yay!! A custom made purse by Kim! So pretty!!

It's gorgeous!! And totally made out of paper!!

Ack!!! Yay!!! Homemade goodies!!

Gorgeous handmade crotched flowers - So hoarding these!! (j/k)

Love these cute picture holders made out of clips

Oooo!! Beautiful baubles, all custom made by Kim!

My very own Kim original
Now go ahead and drool! (lol)

Sweet and not so simple tag. Love the yo-yo!

Gorgeous inside

Take a look! Isn't this the prettiest card ever?
;)

And there you have it, my pretty amazing secret sister Valentine swap showcase that I wanted to share with all of you custom/handmade from the very talented and amazing Kim Yu. Did you know she has her own Etsy store and sells all her divine handmade goodies? Yes, check it out here. I want to send a big Thank you to Kim Yu for the gorgeous RAK and card. Your talent is amazing sista! Would you like to participate in these secret sister swaps? Well all you have to do is sign up with Kris HERE. It's so fun to receive but also lovely to give and you get to meet so many new friends and reconnect with old ones.

Alrighty gotta get myself in gear for work. I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's day. Be back here tomorrow when I share my Flutterby Wednesday post. It's a very new challenge and one I'm sure a lot of you will be excited about. Let's just say it's all about wings... lol.. Have a good one and Mahalo for stopping by!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Hey you!

2012-02-13T18:45:00.000-08:00

Hello!!
Yes today is my second post, please scroll down to see my Lollipop Crafts challenge post.

As you are reading this, I should be celebrating Renate's birthday with her, Zach and a few of our close friends at Gyu-Kaku in Old Town Pasadena. I made her a card using one of her favorite stamp lines, Gorjuss Girls. I used Rose, who I purchased along with a few others, from All That Scraps. The dp was from the same paper pad stack (DCWV - The Rustic stack). I love this paper pad and have been waiting to cut into it. This was the perfect occasion. I used a sketch from my blogging friend, Kim Yu to help me bring some fun elements to the card.

I am really pleased with how it turned out. I wanted to go with a warm color palette and I think I achieved it with the yellows, blues, browns and oranges and touches of white. What do you think?

I paper pieced her dress and did some fun affects to it. Yes, I used a couple Copic markers to add the folds but if you look closely you might be able to see that I added dimension to the dress. No? Well here are a couple side views...

Where the folds are drawn in I used a hockey stick embossing tool
to create the folds on the paper to make the dress look and feel
more pronounced.

Here's a better angle. See how the paper dips where the "folds"
lay? I also layered it twice (only because I ripped the first one
while trying to work the paper) because it gave it more
dimension and poof once I added the second layer. :)

Side view of the finished card

Here is a close up of the other side of the card. Thought you'd like to see the details. :)

I used several Spellbinder dies for this card. Love how handy they are and how clean they can make a card look. My first time making those circle flowers. I used a couple SB circles and my hockey stick again. Added a nice big half pearl to the center of each. Love how it turned out. I wonder if this is what is called shabby chic? If so then it's my first time and I'm so pleased with the result. woo hoo! Alrighty, time for me to scoot. Hopefully we are enjoying our meal and Renate is enjoying her birthday dinner. :)

The Voice and Hawaii 5-O are on my lists to watch tonight. Hoping to get home to watch at least H5O. On a sad note, just wanted to say RIP Whitney Houston. You are going to be missed, but never forgotten.

Challenges:
ATS Wednesday Challenges: Anything Goes

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
White cs (Neenah solar crest, Xpress It); Light blue cs (Bazzil); Square/scalloped square & circle dies (Spellbinders); doily (Joann's); lace (May Arts scrap from CHA); butterflies (MS punch); half pearls (Recollections)
Copics:

Lollipop Crafts #67 - Saturday's Valentine

2012-02-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning!!
Hope you all had a nice relaxing Sunday. Before I start my post I just wanted to wish one of my sista's @ heart and fellow crafting buddy, Renate Winter, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RENA!! LUV YA GIRL!! ;)

Today is a start of another challenge at Lollipop Crafts. This week's theme is "With love..." anything but a card. With Valentine's Day tomorrow we'd like to see projects that are well anything but a card. Those include anything 3-D, tags, altered frames or jewelry. Just make sure it's not a card.

This week Karber Digitals is sponsoring our challenge. The winner will receive 2 free digis from the store. If you haven't seen the new and wonderful things happening at Karber Digitals here's the link to the store. The A-team will be back on Thursday for a sponsor spotlight on Karber Digitals so make sure you check the Lollipop Crafts blog for all their info. You can also see all the wonderful projects created by the T-team for this week's challenge at the Lollipop Crafts blog.

For my anything but a card share I decided to try my hand at making a heart shaped treat box. Using Spellbinders (heart & scalloped heart), my Scor-pal and some cardstock here is what I came up with using C.C. Saturday from The Greeting Farm.

Here is a side view of the box

I went pretty simple on the top of the box. Using brown cs (Bazzil), kraft cs (Recollections) and a red & white dp (Recollections) I layered each one on top of the other. Dry embossed & distress inked the kraft cs to give it a bit of dimension. I hand wrote the sentiment, seemed easier than having to search for one.

I thought adding the roses behind him would be a lovely touch so I used a clear stamp from Inkadinkado (Best Friends set). I stamped, colored and fussy cut the roses then layered them behind Saturday with some pop squares. How can you resist a guy with roses in hand? (haha) And what's on the inside? Well some Hershey kisses cause what would a Valentine treat box be without candy? Any empty box of course. (lol)

I was able to fit in about 6 Hershey's kisses, but I could probably add 1-2 more. Now who can resist a guy with roses and chocolates? I think that's the recipe for love, no? (hahaha) OMG sounds like a line from Pepe le Pieu! I better stop before you all think I'm a nut! (lol)

Hope you plan on joining us for this week's challenge. I can't wait to see what creative projects you make. Mahalo for stopping by today and be sure to head on over to the Lollipop Crafts blog for some eye candy.

Hugs,

Leanne

Supplies not listed above:

Swiss dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Vintage photo Distress Ink (Ranger); white cs (Xpress-It)

Copics:

To follow or not to follow...

2012-02-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

***(Please scroll down to view my post for today or click HERE)***

Morning Friends
I've copied and pasted this from Mary J's blog. She's done some research and I think says it better than I could have. (lol) So it sounds like only non-blogger users will be affected, so if you use anything other than Blogger as one of my friends please consider Linking up (on the side bar) with me so that I can continue to follow you and maybe you'd like to follow me. As for those of us still using Blogger, it sounds like we will be ok, but if you're not too sure please feel free to add your link too. Have a wonderful Sunday!!
Hugs,
Leanne

Here is Mary J's post:
To follow or not to follow...
Hi all! I bet you've all seen the rumours around that blogger friends connect is going to disappear! So I bet you're worried about losing your friends - I know I am!!

Anyhoo, I've done some research myself and found this link on the official Google website...

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-spring-cleaning-out-of-season.html

It states...

"Google Friend Connect—Friend Connect allows webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a few snippets of code. We're retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012. We encourage affected sites to create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on their site so they can bring their community of followers to Google+ and use new features like Circles and Hangouts to keep in touch."

The key word here is 'non-Blogger' - that means the service will be stopped for users of other platforms like Wordpress. So, if you want to keep friends who are non-Blogger users, then you can create the Google+ page where you can "add people to circles" - what that looks like, I don't know!!

There is no official confirmation if GFC will disappear altogether for Blogger users, but it does look like Google is going to push users to use the Google+ page.

Until I've received confirmation on what is actually going to happen and for those non-Bloggers who want to follow me, I've added Linky Followers (a free service) on my side bar. If you follow me on this, then I will return the favour and follow you on your blog too. Click on the badge below if you want to sign up for the service.

Won't you be my...Valentine?

2012-02-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!
Hope you are all having a terrific weekend. I'm up to my ears in paper, markers, stamps and Spellbinders and I'm having a terrific time! Still working on a few things for next week so hoping this post is pretty quick.

Now I don't normally use animals in my cards, but I couldn't resist purchasing Silver Valentine from Tiddly Inks. He's adorable, I mean how can you not want him, right? hahaha. He's also perfect for a sweet Valentine's day card. Now I'm really not sure if Silver is a female or male, but for this card I thought being a male would be fine even if the card is mostly pink. (lol) This is my first time merging digital images too. I used one of two free cute heart digis from Birdie Brown as a backdrop. (Click here to get the free images) I think it looks pretty cute especially when it looks like Silver is surrounded by hearts.

I used a pearl pen on the hearts and then using two Copic markers tried to make them look like pillows. Not sure if it worked but that's what it's supposed to be. I doodled around the edges and added fake stitches to the sentiment, main image and the heart. Here's a close up.

I handwrote the sentiments. Trying to keep it nice and clean. I redid the sentiment heart 4 times before I was satisfied with this one. CAS is definitely better than too much. (lol) I plan to make another card using this adorable little guy and use the other hearts from Birdie Brown. Let's see how long it take to finish it. (lol)

Alrighty, Mahalo for stopping by today. I truly appreciate all the support and comments. They keep me inspired and thankful for wonderful friends like you. Don't forget to link up for my give-a-way. You have until Friday to enter. Stop by tomorrow for my Lollipop Crafts challenge #67 share. Until then enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Challenges:
Tiddly Inks: #79 Valentine

Supplies not mentioned above:
Black, dark pink cs & pink/white striped dp (Recollections); white cs (Neenah solar crest); dark pink ribbon & buttons (stash); heart & scalloped heart dies (Spellbinders); border punch (Stampin' Up)
Copics:

Crafting with Chuck!

2012-02-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

Good morning everyone!!
I must be getting back to normal because I've already done 3 daily posts in a row! It's good to be back. Today I wanted to share a project I helped my cousin, Chuck, with. So last weekend my amazing cousin Chuck asked if I would help him with some Thank you cards for his cast members and of course I said yes! He is assisting with several other people to help produce a musical with cast members from Disneyland and the proceeds will go to charity. This was one of the easiest projects, but took forever to make. I think it was because we both were super tired and falling asleep in our chairs. (LOL) Mind you we started this project at 11 pm and finished them around 9 the next morning. We did get sleep in there or else we would have been bleary-eyed and who knows how they would have turned out! (lol) Anyhoos, enough rambling from me here is what we, or mostly Chuck, created for his cast members...

Our finished project - 26 Thank you cards

I believe we made 26 cards featuring the Flashback poster. Adding a star to the corner and using the different colored cs was the only thing that was added. Definitely CAS. There is a significance to the colored bg papers. Each color represents a team that directly reports to Chuck. But everything else is the same. We went with kraft cs as the base. Here are 4 of the cards all with different bg papers:

Orange Team

Blue Team

Green Team

Red Team

I did all of the cutting of the papers, punching of the stars and he asked me to write everyone's name in the star. Can you see the embossing stars on the bg cs? Chuck did all that using the Cuttlebug. I think he really enjoyed that part. Don't believe me? Well here are some pictures to prove it...

Time to emboss! - Chuck with the Cuttlebug

Embossed and glued! Check!

And yes I did mention he put them together right? Here's another picture of him in action, he's so precise!

It goes right there... perfect!

For the inside of the card he wanted something simple. I chose several stamps for him to choose from and he picked a simple Studio G stamp with the sentiment: thanks ever so much. He stamped it on the inside flap using white Colorbox pigment ink. He did a fantastik job, we only had 1 casualty. He told me that he wanted to get Starbucks gc for them, so he wanted some kind of pocket to add to the card. I cut yellow squares, scored the sides, used a circle punch on the top and he glued them to the other side of the card. I also punched out some white stars then wrote in: A GIFT FOR YOU!

Lastly I told him you should always sign the back so they know it was handmade just for them. Here's how it turned out and yes that's my writing (again) but he wrote in the initials which are for him and two of his other producers. He wanted to include the others although he made the card. Just like Chuck to always include others. :)

Here's another shot of the finished project. Love how the different colors pop each other. That was a great choice to add a yellow star instead of just plain white. Gr8 idea Chuck!!

26 Thank you cards, DONE!

These turned out pretty darn cool. But the only thing that matters was that he was happy with the end result.

He was supposed to distribute them this week, so that's why I am posting this today, with his permission of course. So that's how I spent part of last Friday and Saturday morning. Crafting with my cousin and helping him create these fun cards to show how much he appreciates his team for all that they are doing for the show. I bet his team will definitely appreciate it.

Alrighty everyone, I've got lots of craft stuff to do, so I'll say adios for now. Hope you're having a gr8 Saturday morning!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Happy Birthday Tammy!!

2012-02-11T07:25:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
Popping in to wish my Lollipops Crafts Team Leader, Tammy, a Happy Birthday!! Best wishes for a fabulous birthday!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Please stop by her blog and leave her some birthday love and also stop by the Lollipop Crafts blog to see some cute cards made by a couple of the DT.

I'll be back for another share later today.
Have a fabulous Saturday everyone!!
Hugs,
Leanne

Lilo's Fun Friday is back #16

2012-02-10T04:00:00.000-08:00

Aloha Friday everyone!
Yes, LFF is back and refreshed from CHA. Apologies for not pre-posting while I was gone. My process is to make something two days before I post. Well at least that's how it is for LFFs. When I'm doing DT projects I try to have them pre-posted the prior week. I did say try. lol.. Anyhoos, I hope you like my share for today.

If you've been reading my posts you know that when I got back from CHA there was some awesome happy mail waiting for me. In one of the packages was a stamp that I won from Island Scapbooking (Hilo, HI.) Now I already have the stamp since I pre-ordered it and was super stoked to get another one. Now what am I gonna do with two of the same stamp? Well I'm thinking I need to have a give-a-way. I'll get to that in a bit.

So the stamp I won is Miyako from Sister Stamps release #5. I had to wait to ink her up since I had to finish some DT work, nut last night I got to play with her and had so much fun coloring her up. I went to my stash of washi and origami papers and found 2 cute prints of origami that would go nicely with my image. I wanted to try something different so was thinking easel card, but with a twist.

This is a twisted easel card. The card measures (when closed) 4 1/4" x 4 1/4". Below is a close-up of Miyako and the sentiment (handwritten). I paper pieced the origami heart she is holding over her head with a different origami pattern paper than the background paper. That purple paper that is cut out with the heart circle Spellbinder is Tsumugi cardstock in Iris from Hanko Designs. I love that cs and use it for special cards like this one. It has a really nice design and the color was perfect for my card. ( I have about 10 different colors with 3 different patterns. I always stock up when I'm around the Hanko booth at any craft show) There is a white circle mounted behind Miyako that I distressed with dusty concord and tattered rose distress inks.

The sentiment is handwritten and you if you look closely you can barely see the hearts around the border. I used a Copic marker to do that. I thought the sentiment was perfect for this special card that I am sending to my February Secret Sister. Our theme is hearts and there are plenty of those here. :)

I used some of my new Copics to color her kimono. Lovin' the new Vs & RVs. The colors will be listed at the bottom of this post. Don't you think she's a cutie? She makes me happy and I hope she'll make my SS happy too.

Alrighty are you ready? So for this week's LFF #16, I am going to add Mr. Linky to the bottom of this post for your chance to win my extra stamp of Miyako. Before you link up read my rules:

Directly link a "For Fun" post - What is a "For Fun" post? A new post that is NOT linked for any challenges.
If you DO NOT have Miyako or ANY Sister Stamps - I want to share her with someone who didn't get a chance to order her or who does not have any Sister Stamps and would love to try one.
DO NOT POST on your blog.
Leave me a comment and then tell me if you are a fan of Sister Stamps (like me) and why.
I will keep this open until the next LFF post which is Friday, 2/17 at 4am (PST).
Please feel free to link even if you aren't interested in the stamp. Let me know in the comments section if you don't, I still would love to come and see your post. :)

As this is my give-a-way I reserve the right to disqualify anyone who doesn't follow the rules.

Well that's it! Have a fantastik Friday and a super awesome weekend. I'm so stoked because my sister and her fiance are coming to visit this weekend. We haven't seen them since before Thanksgiving so it will be a really nice visit. I'll be crafting in between because I'm so behind. Mahalo for stopping by today! Good luck!!

Hugs,
Lilo

Supplies not listed above:
White cs (Xpress-It & Recollections)

Lollipop Crafts #66 Spotlight

2012-02-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!!
It's really good to be back and sharing another crafty creation with you. Today is spotlight day for us at Lollipop Crafts. This week our sponsor is the amazing Meljen's Designs. Check out the Lollipop Crafts blog today for Team T's spotlight showcase using some cute Meljen's Designs images.

Here's a little tidbit on our sponsor:
Meljen's Designs is a lovely stamp company owned and illustrated by Melissa Jenkins. She illustrates whimsical digital images inspired by her kids and family. The Meljen's Designs store officially launched on April 1 and is steadily growing! Meljen's Designs has new releases along with a new challenge every Thursday, freebies every Monday and a Guest Designer each month at the Meljen's Designs Blog. For our challenge #66, make a Valentine's day card, Meljen's is offering up 4 digis from the store. Can't wait to see some amazing Valentine's day cards linked up to our post by YOU!

I decided to play along with this week's challenge theme. Make a Valentine's day card. As you can tell my card is a different kind of Valentine's day card. Not your traditional sort of valentine with reds, pinks, etc; but still represents that special day. I used Turtle's Little Star because it's so darn cute and I love turtles!! Melissa's version of turtles is so up my alley. Super cute face and love the fun details. This image called for some blues and greens and well an under water theme. So I went super simple and used a really pretty dp from the Whimsy DCWV paper pad.

The paper had so many beautiful details I didn't want to add too much more, but had to throw in some hearts and those computer generated sentiments as this is a Valentine's day card. It kind of looks like they are on a search for some very rare flowers that only grow in the ocean. ;) Printed out the image and cut it out with a Spellbinder circle. I printed it out 3 times. Why? So I could create an underwater scene with a paper stencil and Distress inks, color up the image and layer parts of the turtle & starfish to give them dimension.

Alrighty, you still have time to link up your Valentine's day card to our blog and remember the winner gets a pick of 4 free digis to choose from the Meljen's Designs store and 3 of you will be featured in our top 3. How cool is that? Way!!

Mahalo for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your week, it's Friday tomorrow!!

Challenge:
Meljen's - #96 Pastels

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not mentioned above:
White cs (Neenah Solar Crest & Recollections), white card base (Recollections)
Distress Ink in Tumbled glass (Ranger by Tim Holtz)
Small heart punch
Pop dots
Corner punch (Fiskars)
Copics:

Flutterby Wednesday #189

2012-02-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hello!!
A warm welcome to you all and to any new friends! My goodness, it's been a very slow process getting back in the groove. It seems like forever since I last posted and I want to thank you all for staying with me while I'm trying to get back to blogging. Trying to catch up at work has been a bit of a challenge as well, but slowly, I predict, I will be back to normal, or at least my version of normal. (haha)

Speaking of normal, today we hope you join us for a new challenge over at the Flutterby Wednesday blog. Today, challenge #189, is a L*O*V*E recipe.

L = 2 or more layers
O = odd # of embellishments (ex: 3, 5, 7)
V = use the color VIOLET on your creation
E = use any other color EXCEPT red.
Include a butterfly, fairy or angel on your creation

For more fluttery inspirations please visit my awesome team at the Flutterby Wednesday blog. The list is located on the right side bar. My share today is one of the make & takes featuring one of the newly released images premiering at CHA from La-La Land Crafts. Her name is Marci with Cat and she is adorable. Irina created an adorable 3-D milk carton project plus three other projects. This was the only one I got to make. Why? Our table was so very popular we actually ran out of all the other projects!! Goes to show how much fun everyone had at our booth. And the beautiful projects Irina created also kept them coming back each day of the show. I don't have any pictures of the rest of the projects, but keep checking in at the La-La Land Crafts blog and hopefully Irina will post them. Here's the milk carton and if you look really close you can see all the details. Now I embellished it up a bit to make sure I followed the recipe, but the original does not have all the bling.

Isn't this darling? I believe the patterns for all the elements (milk carton, picket fence, roof & tree) were cut using a Silhouette machine. The grass looks like a Fiskars grass border punch. Here is a side view of the carton.

I used my new Copics (2011 & 2012 woo hoo!!) markers to color Marci with cat as well as the small MS butterfly fluttering around. So how did I do with the recipe? Let's see, multiple layers? Check. Odd number of embellishments? (3 orange gems in the tree, 3 flower gems and the rope ribbon = 7) Check. Any violet here? (Yep, her dress, shoes, flower gem and butterfly) Check. Use any color but red? You betcha, that's pink not red! So that's a check! Lastly I have my little butterfly. Check! Woo Hoo!! (hahaha)

Alrighty, now it's your turn to create something using our L*O*V*E recipe. Link up with us at the Flutter By Wednesday blog and don't forget your butterfly, angel or fairy. Have fun with it, can't wait to see what you create!!

Mahalo for stopping by and if you would like to purchase any of the new La-La Land Crafts stamps from CHA, they are now in the store. Have a terrific Wednesday!!

Here's a couple more pictures from CHA.

With Renate & Jess from TGF, that's my Mermaid card!!

Here's one with Naomi, 3-D Thanh (hangin' off Naomi's purse) & Carisa (Designed to Color)

And here's one with Sharette:

Here's one of me and Sparkle:

And lastly here is a nice group picture of new and former DT teams for The Greeting Farm:

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:

Lazy Saturday

2012-02-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!!Wow, it feels like ages since I last blogged!! Thank you to everyone who became a new friend while I was away!! Welcome to my blog!

I'm trying to get back to normal so for today I wanted to share some happy mail I got when I finally got home from CHA and a few pictures from the event. This is going to be a semi long one so if you like feel free to scroll through.

First up, my happy mail! I pre-ordered the new 2012 Copics a couple weeks ago from Scrap-Mart. I totally forgot about that, so was really excited to tear in to the packaging! They also sent a $10 gift certificate, woo hoo, more shopping to do! Way cool!

Here's a really amazing set I received from my Secret Sister Swap for January, Gail Woo. How lucky am I?! Very lucky! She did an amazing job with the mini bottle holder and the cute post it note holder with some lovely accessories to go along with it. Mahalo Gail!!

And lastly I got Miyako from Sister Stamps in a release hop I won from Island Scrapbooking. I am definitely happy to add her to my collection along with the little bag of punched flowers. Arigato IS!

It's only been a few days and I'm already going through withdrawals from missing Renate, Rosemary, Sandie, Irina and a whole bunch of other fabulous ladies from this week's CHA convention. CHA is a whole other world come to life. We read each others blogs and develop friendships here. It's so awesome when you finally come face to face. Here are a few pictures of some really lovely ladies... Enjoy!

While we were setting up we had a lovely visit from LLLC DT member Jing Van Opstal! She is soo cute and really sweet! It was really nice to finally meet her and really nice to see her through out the show.

Jing Van Opstal, Irina Blount, Renate Winter

I just realized that our team in the booth did not take a "team" picture! Ai ya!! So here are some random pictures of us in and around Anaheim. Here's a picture of Irina, Rosemary & Sandie. Those ladies kicked butt at the show. We had such a terrific time with them. I heart these ladies!!

Team La-La Land Crafts:
Irina, Rosemary Shaner Bridges & Sandie Dunne

Papa La La - Love this picture of Eric!

Me & Renate - Cotton Candy anyone?

One of the best parts of the show for me was when I got to meet the sisters from SISTER STAMPS!! Most of you know how much I love their images, so it was sooo nice to meet them in person. Here's a couple pictures of Jenny and Denise. They are so cute, I just wanted to keep hugging them. I think they thought I was kinda lo-lo (crazy)! I was just really excited to meet them and hear the Aloha in their voices. LOL!

Denise and Jenny from SISTER STAMPS

Here's one with me and Jenny, see how happy I am? LOL!! Seriously, they are two of the nicest ladies and I found out Jenny loves Disneyland as much as I do, maybe more. Hopefully all her magical wishes came true. :)

Jenny Sakamoto of Sister Stamps

I was really happy to run in to Sparkle at her booth. Suzanne Bier, my fellow FBW teammie, was also there so I had to take a picture. Aren't those aprons cute? Sparkle mentioned Shaela Odd made them. They are so cool!!!

Suzanne Bier & Sparkle Smith from Sparkle Creations

Here are former fellow DT members Lisa Hjulberg and Kim Yu who were at the show helping out at Sparkle's booth. They stopped by our booth to say Hi!

Lisa & Kim

Here's a picture of my new friend, Patricia Serrano, who was also working in Sparkle's booth. She stopped by on her breaks to do our make & takes. She's so nice & she loved doing the make & takes!

Patricia Serrano

Alrighty I think I'll stop for now. I'll share a few more tomorrow. All the pictures will be posted on my FB page and some in the La-La Land Crafts FB page as well. If you see your picture there please feel free to tag yourself or anyone else you recognize. Thanks! I'll leave you with this pretty LA sunset photo...

Mahalo for leaving me so many wonderful comments while I was gone. I'm trying to catch up with everyone's posts so please be patient while I get back in the groove. :) Mahalo for stopping by!! Have a great evening or morning!

Hugs,

Leanne

FBW #188

2012-02-01T00:00:00.001-08:00

Hi from CHA. Super sorry that my post is LATE!! I had a hard time getting internet access and my phone was just not working out, couldn't upload a pic from there.

This week's FBW challenge (#188) is an open challenge. The challenge is sponsored by Rhoda Design Studio and they have generously donated a $20 gift certificate to the winner of this week's challenge! Woo hoo! So make sure to include your butterfly, fairy or angel in your project or card and upload your direct link to your post to challenge #188. Be sure to visit the FBW blog and you'll find all the links to the DT.
Here is my share for this week. It's a card I made using my newest image from The Greeting Farm. The set is called Forest Friends. I made a simple "Bambi" kind of card.

I used Distress inks and Copics to color the image. I thought it would be cool to add some clouds in the background with the grass. It softened it up a lot. The sentiment is also from this set. I used a MS punch for the three butterflies.

Sorry to cut this short but I need to get some rest and get ready for the last day of CHA. Here's a picture of me, Suzanne and Flat Peggy Toole (LOL). It was so nice meeting Suzanne. She is so nice and so sweet!!

We also got to hang out tonight which was a lot of fun. I'll be posting those pictures up real soon..

Alrighty, one more day of CHA. So sad, but it's been fun. Met some really great people and I know that we will have some lasting friendships. That's what's so lovely about this craft of ours. The wonderfully sweet, talented and friendly people we meet. Okie dokie. Don't forget to use your angel, fairy or butterfly on your project and have fun!!! Mahalo for stopping by!!

G'night!!!

Thanks,
Leanne

Challenges: TGF
Copics:

Lollipop Crafts #65

2012-01-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

Aloha from CHA everyone!!
Hope you are all enjoying your Monday. Today is the 2nd day of CHA, I hope to post some pictures soon of what we've been up to since Friday. If you are attending CHA, please stop by the La-La Land Crafts booth #1780 and say hi!

This week's Lollipop Crafts challenge #65 is Anything Goes. Woo Hoo!! Everyone's favorite right? Well at least it's my favorite. :) So for your project go crazy or go CAS. Whatever you want to create make sure you link it up with us. For some inspiration from both the A and T Teams head on over to the Lollipop Crafts blog.

Today I wanted to share my finished card featuring Wryn - Close to my Heart, from Tiddly Inks. Now if you remember I posted a picture of her colored up (here) and was going to post when I finally put her on a card. Well after much deliberation with layouts, papers, etc... I finally finished and here it is. Please be kind!! :)

So what do you think? I really like how it turned out. I know it's pretty busy, but I think she needed those big flowers and the black & white theme with the touch of red. I couldn't really see her anywhere else. LOL. The card itself is black cs, the dp are from an old paper stack from Making Memories that I remember buying from Target. The red is Stardream cs in Jupiter that I bought a few years ago from Kelly Paper Company. On the left side of the card you can see a very familiar ribbon. Yes, it is actually one of my favorites and I did a fun little double bow. Dangling from the bow are two hearts. I drew in the pattern using Copics R46 and RV000, then I traced over it with a white gel pen (Sakura). The string is red embroidery floss. Here's a close up of it:

I cut apart the sentiment and mounted each word on to the same red cs. It's my first time doing that, and I really like how fun it looks.

Wryn - Close to my Heart

Alrighty, now it's your turn. Create a project and link it up on the Lollipop Crafts blog under challenge #65. We don't have a sponsor this week but you can still be in the running for our top 3! Looking forward to your projects!

Mahalo for stopping by. Let me know what you've been doing while I'm at CHA. Hoping to post some pictures soon.

Hugs,
Leanne

Flutter By Wednesday #187

2012-01-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy hump day everyone!!
I'm so excited, tomorrow night, Renate and I are packing up her truck and trekking down to Anaheim. For vacay? Nope, we're going to CHA!! Yeppers, this will be our 3rd time at CHA with the awesome duo of La-La Land Crafts, Eric & Irina. If you are going to be at CHA I hope you can stop by our booth (#1780) and say hi. I am looking forward to greeting some old friends, meeting new people and hopefully getting to put some faces to some of you who will be attending. I'll try to post pictures as often as I can. But don't be surprised if I'm MIA for several days. I'm pre-posting so I don't miss any DT deadlines, but commenting will have to be put on hold. Sorry in advance! :)

Okie dokie, now back to our regularly scheduled program... This week's challenge over at the Flutter By Wednesday blog is all about EMBOSSING. Use any sort of embossing technique on your card/project along with your butterfly, fairy, or angel. Once you are done creating head on over to the FBW blog and directly link up your photo to challenge #187 using the Inlinks button at the bottom of the post. For more fluttery inspiration please visit the talented FBW ladies by visiting the Flutter By Wednesday blog.

For my card I used Yoshimi, the newest addition to the Sister Stamps line. I went pretty CAS even tho there's a lot of color going on. I colored her with Copics, but also paper pieced her kimono and hair ribbon. The origami paper (Aitoh) has a really pretty butterfly and sakura pattern. I dry embossed the white cs using a cherry blossom branch embossing folder (Cuttlebug). I added a MS butterfly and also some pearls which I colored blue. The sentiment is from TGF (OA-Happy Day)

Yoshimi

Alrighty friends, hope you can play along with us this week. Remember to use the emboss technique on your project/card and don't forget to add a butterfly, angel or fairy. Mahalo for stopping by! Have a terrific Wednesday and happy fluttering!

Hugs,

Leanne

Supplies not listed above:

Red cs (Bazzil), Black & white cs (Recollections), blue shimmer paper (DCWV- Linen closet cs matstack), cream pearl pen.

Gong Si Fa Cai, Xin Nian Kuai Le!

2012-01-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

(Second post today, please scroll down for my Lollipop Challenge #64 post)

"Wishing you prosperity, Happy New Year!"

Here's a Chinese New Year card featuring the Lion dancers from Sister Stamps. It's the year of the Dragon so if I squint my eyes it will look like they are carrying a dragon, not a lion. (lol) I kept it CAS and gave the dragon/lion some really fun and bright colors. (I actually saw a picture of a dragon with these colors on Google after I colored it up.) I used two embossing folders (Cuttlebug-Asian themed) and circle Spellbinders for some awesome background and texture. Added some orange glass beads to the corners making sure not to put 4, as 4 is unlucky in the Chinese culture. Not sure if you can see it, but I stickled the red/yellow parts of the dragon/lion. The sentiment is hand written and the translation I found also on Google.

Dragon/Lion Dancers

May this year bring you prosperity, joy and serenity. Xie Xie for stopping by today!! Have a great day!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above

Lollipop Crafts Challenge #64

2012-01-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

Good morning!!

For those of you celebrating the Lunar New Year today, Gong Xi Fa Cai! Wishing you all the best for the New Year!!

We have a new challenge over at Lollipop Crafts. This week's challenge #64, "Wing It," should be very fun. You have to have something with "wings" on your project. Use a butterfly, angel, fairy, bees, etc... to qualify for this week's prize as well as showcase in our top 3. This week's sponsor is Robyn's Fetish. Need some inspiration to get your creative juices going? Well pop on over to the Lollipop Crafts blog and feast your eyes on the designs from the T-team.

My friend's daughter is having a birthday this week so this was a perfect opportunity to ink up one of my new birthday stamps. Here's my card featuring Fairwee Josie and she's celebrating with a huge cupcake with sprinkles!

Isn't she cute?! She's just one of 6 new Birthday/Party Fairwees waiting for you to come by and pick them up. They will bring so much cuteness and fun to any project. Now for my card I went pretty CAS with this one. I found some wonderful patterned paper (DCWV The Glitter Sweet stack) and the rest was white and kraft cs (Recollections). I paper pieced the cup holding the cupcake with a scrap of dp. The rest of the image is colored with Copics and Stickles. I matted the dp on to white cs and used a (S/U) scalloped border punch to accent the top and bottom of the card. The sentiment is one of the new sets from AmyR. I stamped it with Rich Cocoa ink and matted it to a kraft scalloped circle (S/U).

Fairwee Josie with Cupcake

Alrighty, now it's time for you to come and play with us. Want to be in the running for the prize, then please make sure to follow the challenge theme, we want everyone to be considered for the pize as well as the top three, so please follow the theme.

Mahalo for stopping by, can't wait to see what "Winged" creations you come up with.

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
Memento black tuxedo ink

Lilo's Fun Friday #15

2012-01-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

Good morning and Happy Aloha Friday!!
Woo hoo!! Who else is ready for the weekend besides me? I bet we all are right? Are you doing anything fun? Well if you you are, I hope you share. :) As for me, hopefully it will be a relaxing weekend. Maybe get some crafting in that's not DT related or watch a movie or paint a wall or four. (hehehe)

Anyhoos, enough rambling!! Today for my Fun Friday share I used a new image from... Sister Stamps, release #5!! Yay! As you know I recently received some happy mail this week, I needed another Thank you card for a guy so it was easy to choose to ink up cutie Keitaro. He's one of 3 new valentine images from Sister Stamps and he is adorable. (For more info on the new release and where you can buy the stamps head on over to the Sister Stamp blog. ATS is now carrying them as well).

Keitaro card with origami heart & samurai hat

Jenny's sister really did a terrific job with Keitaro. The details are awesome! I love his samurai hat and the origami heart. I had to try to make them myself! I did go online and searched for links to make origami hearts and a samurai hat. I love origami. So many cool things you can make with one sheet of paper. I found a website with free downloads of instructions. If you're in the mood to paper fold click HERE to be directly linked to Origami That's Fun & Easy. I used mulberry paper to make the heart and samurai hat. Here are a few pictures of the card...

Sentiments read: Domo ARIGATO Gozaimasu! Thank you very much!

I love the chain of hearts too! Can you see I spelled out ARIGATO inside the hearts? It was a really nice surprise that I could fit that inside. Me likey! Now I wish I knew how to make one of those heart chains. I guess I could Google or You Tube it and maybe I will once I have more time. Used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the backdrop and some origami paper to accent behind Keitaro. For my layout I used the Desconstructed Sketch #35:

Here is a close up of the bottom part of the card featuring the sentiment. I cut out a paper heart and added some blue ribbon to mimic the top of Keitaro's hat. Hand wrote the sentiment on kraft cs and mounted it on to some of the same origami paper.

Paper heart cut out on the sentiment, see the cool zig-zags,
I used pinking shears for that!

ARIGATO!

I love how it looks like he's on a banner. I cut a small strip of kraft and adhered it to the bottom to break up it up so as to follow the sketch. I had a hard time with his hair. I know it's only a small space to color, but my E29 was giving me problems and I really didn't want to color all over again. No biggie for me so I left it. See the zig-zags on the bottom? I used pinking shears for that! Hey you can find lot of craft tools if you just use your imagination. :)

Alrighty, time for me to sign off. I hope you enjoyed my share for today. Have a terrific Friday and Domo Arigato Gozaimasu for stopping by!! (hahaha!)

Challenges:
ATS - Color challenge
Deconstructed Sketch - #35

Hugs,
Lilo

Supplies not listed in post:
brown memento ink, dark brown cs, kraft cs, Xpress It paper, blue paper ribbon

Love you Larry

2012-01-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!
Today at the Lollipop Crafts blog, the T-Team is showcasing digis from our sponsor, Digital Delights.

The owner, Louby Loo had this to say about her cute digi store:

"Welcome to Digital Delights by Louby Loo. A magical palce filled with digital creations from all walks of life. We are your one stop shop for all your digital stamps and digital products which are instantaly downloadable. We also have a wide range of digital papers and svg cut files for all your crafting projects. Our low prices reflect out belief that crafting should not only be fun but affordable too! Other services include custom blog design and custom watermarks. Why wait for snail mail? Start creating with our instant downloads today."

Digital Delights is offering the following prize for this week's NO EMBELLISHMENT challenge #46:

For my team's inspirations make sure to stop by the Lollipop Crafts blog. Since this week's challenge #46 is no embellishments, I thought it would be cool to use my punches for this one. We were given a couple of images to use for today so I chose to use this cute image called Love you Larry. Isn't he sweet?! >.<

I colored him up at my crafty bud, Renate's, and got a chance to use her Prisma colored pencils. I used reds & blacks for Larry, sorta giving him a gentlemanbug (as opposed to a ladybug) shell. (hehe) I also colored in the background with reds and after going over it with some baby oil I used a white Sakura gel pen to add some white dots. I fussy cut the heart out and then matted it to black cs then fussy cut that out. Love how it looks 3-D, but it's actually not. (hehe) Working on those shadows really helps with the illusion. I used a scrap piece of red & white dotted paper and was pretty stoked that it somewhat matched the inside of the heart. The other dp is gray and white and was perfect as a subtle backdrop. I inked up a dollar sentiment stamp in white, stamped on to black cs then embossed with red embossing powder. Love how the red looks on the black background. I also matted the black cs to red cs. Added several punched hearts here and there to break up the red dp and another small one on the sentiment . I cut out the LOVE sentiment that comes with the image and matted it to a scrap of black cs and put it on top. I colored that one with R46 (Copic) and dotted it with the same white Sakura gel pen. So love how it turned out.

Alrighty, I hope you have a chance to play with us this week. Just link up your project minus embellishments to the challenge post from Monday for a chance to win the $5 voucher from Digital Delights. Mahalo for stopping by today. Be sure to come back tomorrow for Lilo's Fun Friday #15. I hope to share one of my new stamps on a card. :)

Have a good one!
Hugs,
Leanne

FBW #186 Anything Goes!

2012-01-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday!!
Are you ready for a new challenge with the Flutter By Wednesday team? Well it's everyone's favorite, Anything Goes! For some awesome inspiration from the DT and details about this week's challenge head on over to the FBW blog.

Today I am sharing an easel card/calendar I made using the cute Rainbow Dreams Pixie from Tiddly Inks. First let's start out with the front of the card. I used one of my favorite WRM dp. I punched some white clouds (Fiskars) and used Copics to color the image and clouds. O look, there's a butterfly who wanted to be in the picture! She's also colored with a Copic marker and decorated with cream Viva pearl pen dots. ;)

Here are a couple pictures of the opened easel card/calendar. I used some of the same dp to mat the calendar which was part of a RAK I received from my LPC sista, Cyndi. :)

Front View

Side View

Alrighty, if you're ready to play along all you have to do is make sure you use a fairy, butterfly or angel in your project and link up with us HERE.

Mahalo for stopping by!! Have a great day! :)

Challenges: Tiddly Inks #68 - Color challenge

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies not listed above:
Corner rounder punch (Fiskars)
Martha Stewart butterfly punch
White Neenah cs

Happy Mail!

2012-01-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

Hello! Sorry I don't have a card to share today, but I do want to share something I colored. Still thinking how I wanted to put her on a card, but for now there is no card/project completed. I do have some happy news, well at least happy for me, I receive some of my new stamps and I really can't wait to ink some of them up. Look for something new on Friday. (happy dancing!!)

Wryn - Close to my Heart (Tiddly Inks)

This is Wryn - Close to my Heart, one of the new, sweet images created by Christy Croll at Tiddly Inks. Some of you might know that I love to, occasionally, use different colors for hair. Wryn's got some really pretty locks and I wanted to try something different. So here she is with a Blue Violet do. I sparkled up the heart and wings using a clear glitter Sakura gel pen. For the dots on her dress I used a white Sakura gel pen and once it dried I went over it with R46. Let me know what you think.

Okie dokie, I've gotta finish up my card for this week's Flutter By Wednesday challenge and then write up my post. If I finish early and don't pass out, I'll stop by to oohh and ahhh. Have a good evening/morning for those in the UK. Mahalo for stopping by!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Copics:

Helping out a friend

2012-01-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
I'm calling out for supporters on behalf of Danni to help a little girl who's going through a tough time right now. Do you have a card or two that you created that you would willing send to brighten a little girl's day? I know I have some that are just sitting in a box waiting. I'm sending mine off soon as Danni needs them as soon as the postal service can get them to her.

For the full details as well as how you can help please visit Danni's blog post HERE.

Mahalo in advance for giving! ;)

Hugs,
Leanne

Another Cupcake Leslie card

2012-01-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

Afternoon everyone!
Just got back from a yummy lunch with my co-worker and almost forgot that I didn't post the card I made last night. So here's another card I made using Cupcake Leslie from Karber Digital. I used up a scrap of dp and a pretty easy layout.

Ayeee! She is sooo cute! I don't know why I haven't used her til now?! I love her red glasses, a la "Sally Jesse Rafael." (haha) I have a couple other Karber digis that I would like to get onto a couple cards so look for those in the future. The sentiment was computer generated, and the border was created with my newest MS border punch.

Alrighty, that's all for me today. Hoping you have a terrific Monday! Be sure to head on over to the Lollipop Crafts blog today for this week's challenge and inspirations by the A-Team. Digital Delights is our sponsor. Be back on Thursday for my spotlight post on our sponsor.

Mahalo for stopping by!

Hugs,
Leanne
Copics:
E74, 77, R46, N2, R00, E50, E51, E01, E11, E71, E93

Cupcake Leslie

2012-01-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hey, I'm back and this time I'm a bit early. I hope you're having a good weekend.

I have a fun and cute card to share today. It's pretty CAS and I'm liking it immensely. I used a Karber digital image that I purchased when Berenice first started her online business. My card features Cupcake Leslie.

This little girl is so darn cute with her big head and glasses. I also adore that the cupcake has a face too. Hopefully Leslie isn't too hungry right now. It would be a shame to chomp into that cupcake.. lol Yes, that is a balloon or my rendition of a balloon. I used two circle Spellbinders and a small heart punch. The "ribbon" was drawn in with a white pencil. The dp is scraps from my scrap bin. The sentiment is from a retired set from TGF. I used the white pencil to add a subtle border to the kraft card edges. Pretty CAS.

Cupcake Leslie

Okie dokie, have a super awesome Sunday and if you have Monday off enjoy it. I don't, so I'll be at work. Mahalo for stopping by!

Hugs,
Leanne

Copics:

Arigato Miyono

2012-01-14T16:45:00.000-08:00

Hello! Yep, this is a late post. I've been enjoying the day catching up on commenting on the awesome Tiddly Ink blog hop, some laundry, watching some Hallmark Channel movies and now some re-runs of Glee! Well at least listening to it in the background while cleaning up my craft table. :) If you haven't had a chance to join in the hop at Tiddly Inks you should. It was totally fun to hop and be part of it. I'm pretty sure if you head on over you'll pick up a few images from the shop. They are definitely too cute not to pick up! I wanted to Thank those of you who've stopped by to leave me really lovely comments. It makes me smile and I enjoy reading them all. Also hello to those new to my blog. Welcome and I hope you get some inspiration from me. :)

Keeping up with one of my 2012 craft resolutions to try and post everyday is pretty fun. I think it doesn't matter what time you post as long as you do. So here I am at 4:35 pm listening to Brittany sing a Britney Spears song typing up this post. (lol) Well if you can't tell by the title I am going to share another Thank you card featuring Miyono from Sister Stamps. I think it's one of my favorite hair colorings so far. I really enjoy coloring an image when it's stamped with brown ink. You can't really use too many colors, but it definitely looks softer to me.

I added some fun washi paper fans that I punched with a fan punch. I used 6 punches for this card. There are 2 flower punches, the oval punches for the sentiment, a sun punch and the fan punch. I forget that I have them sometimes. I'm going to add using punches to my craft list. I have too many that don't get used. They add such a nice accent don'tcha think? :) Sorry I don't really remember what I used on this besides the punches and stamps. Sorree!! That's what I get for not writing down colors or papers. That's why now I'm taking picture of everything! Another crafty resolution. My crafty resolutions are go as I encounter. lol. What's one crafty resolution you have? Maybe I can add that to my list. :)

Miyono from Sister Stamps

Here's a close up of Miyono. I seriously don't know which of these cuties I like more. Alrighty, going to sign off for now and start making a new mess! hehehe. Have a great Saturday evening my friends!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Sentiment: TGF retired set

"Friends are the Flowers of Life - Tiddly Inks Blog Hop".

2012-01-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

(This is my 2nd post today, if you'd like to see my Fun Friday project just scroll down.) :)

Hello!

Today I'm hopping along with Tiddly Inks and all of their fans. I hope you like what I made using one of the new Wryn stamps created by Cristy Croll. For a full list of all the hoppers head on over to the Tiddly Inks post titled "Flowers" and start hopping. Now because I'm sure there will be lots of friends playing in the hop I'll make this a short post.

I used Wryn and the Friends are flowers sentiment for my card. I altered the image so that the sentiment was actually underneath her borrowed wand as if she was sprinkling fairy dust onto the flowers.

I'm so bummed about parts of the card. I actually printed this out twice and paper pieced the colored parts on to the second one. I'm bummed because some of the glue squished out and when I attempted to clean it up it smudged, so please pretend that's supposed to be there. lol.

Here's a shot of the wand sprinkling the dust to make the flowers grow. I used Stickles for the dust and made sure to sprinkle some on to the heart flowers and some on the ground. Okie dokie, now you need to hop on back to the Tiddly Inks blog to see who your next stop is. I'm almost positive you will squeal!

Have a great time and don't forget to leave me a message, I'd love to know what you think of my card, well besides the little mess ups. hehehe. Have a fantastic Friday and Mahalo for stopping by!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies:
White Neenah paper, black Recollections cs, dp scraps, circle & teardrop scalloped circle spellbinders.

Lilo's Fun Friday #14

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Aloha Friday everyone and a big WELCOME to my newest friends!! :) I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy browsing around. :) I wanted to say thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last few posts. I know sometimes it's hard to read through everything, I have the same problem sometimes, so I really appreciate that you are interested in what I write. :) I hope you all get a chance to create some candles too, like I mentioned it's super easy and can be addicting, just please give credit to Lydia Bancroft, she really deserves it for sharing her awesome tutorial. :)

Now I was trying to decide what to do for today's LFF #14 share and since I'm still in candle fun mode I thought I would do another one with one of the Sister Stamps. :) Speaking of Sister Stamps, make sure you stop by the Sister Stamps blog to see the amazingly cute Valentine's day previews and you'll also see who the guest designer is. She's a favorite of mine and she rocks the Sister Stamp images. You also have a chance to see Debi's amazing previews, she's been busy helping out Jenny on the Sister Stamps blog as well as her own! She's awesome! :) Lastly Jenny is generously giving away the new releases to some lucky commenters, so head on over here to check out the rules and sign up.

Alrighty, since Valentine's Day is coming up I decided to try my hand at my first Valentine's Day project. I was fortunte to receive a very awesome set of water colored pencils (special delivery from Switzerland) for Christmas. Big thanks to Renate, Zach, The Winters (Renate's parents who brought them back from Switzerland), Darnell, Kat & Char! So now that I had my coloring medium I had to choose a stamp. I picked Yoko because she had the best accessory with her fishing pole. How fun would it be to wipe away the crane she usually comes with and add a heart to the end? Pretty cute.

Here's the heart I added by wiping away the crane :)

It turned out a little bit lighter than I expected but still cute! I don't know if you can tell, but I did use a Copic marker here. After I finished heat setting her, I didn't like how her hair turned out so I experimented with coloring with a Copic marker on wax. It turned out a lot better and now you and I both know that you CAN color on wax with Copic markers. Although I wouldn't try to do it like you would on paper, the ink might transfer from one marker to another especially if you are using a light and dark combo. I think I'll experiment with coloring with markers next. I kept the back blank in case I wanted to either add another image or sentiment, so I just decorated the bottom with a really pretty pp (Brambleberry blossoms - Imaginisce) and some white rafia.

See the glass stand the candle is on? Well I got it for a $1 at the Dollar Tree! Score! It makes a really nice stand and when turned over it would probably make a really nice bowl. Alrighty, I'm gonna finish up a card I am making for the Tiddly Inks blog hop tomorrow. If you have time, here are the details, it should be a lot of fun! Have a good evening and if you made any candles please leave me a comment and link to your direct post.

Mahalo for stopping by! Have a fantastic Friday!

Hugs,

Lilo

Supplies not listed above:

Copic marker: 100

Memento Tuxedo black ink

White tissue paper

Candle (Joann's)

Candle Fun!

2012-01-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Hoping you're having a good week. So far it's been a pretty cool week for me. Work is not so stressful this week and I had a really fun craft session with my work buddy, Kathy, Tuesday night. The result of our efforts is what I wanted to share today. I'm going to TRY not to make this too long, but there are no guarantees. I understand if you just scroll through without reading, I have plenty of pictures . No worries, just so happy you stopped by to visit me. :) Please make sure to stop by Kathy's blog and leave her some love too. :)

During Christmas I saw a few of these wonderful images on candles popping up here and there and I REALLY wanted to make some of these for Christmas, but time ran out. :( I asked Kathy if she wanted to experiment with me and she said of course! hehe, she likes to experiment as much as I do. I found an easy tutorial on the Digi Bell DT blog by Lydia Bancroft and made sure I bookmarked it for later when I would have time to work on one.

The supplies: Good sized candle, white tissue paper, stamp of image you want to use, coloring medium (markers, colored pencils), wax paper, embossing heat gun.

Lydia's tutorial incorporates how to print digis on tissue paper (pretty informative) and then add them to the candle. She has pictures with detailed instructions. Kathy and I decided to use rubber & clear stamps for our first attempts. We didn't want to try to use our Copics so instead we used colored pencils. Believe me it was a good choice, I'll tell ya why later on. We both chose our images, she chose Sweet Thinkin' Mae from Some Odd Girl and I chose Birthday Monkey from C.C. Designs. We inked our stamps with Memento ink (Black Tuxedo) and stamped it onto the tissue paper. We then started to color. (Tip: Make sure if you have some extra sheets of scratch paper underneath the image you are stamping & coloring. It helps create a good stamped image as well as smoothe strokes when using colored pencils) When we were done coloring we followed the rest of the steps: cutting out our image, placing our image on to the candle, put the wax paper over it and gently heat set it. Kathy went first and we were both so excited at how fast it took to heat it. The cool part was seeing the image melt into the candle!! SO COOL!!! I noticed that you can put your image on colored side up or down. Either way it picks up all the colors. It just gives you another option to flip your image which is what I did. Here's our first images, me up first:

Hehehe, he turned out so cute! Here is Kathy's:

Doesn't she look awesome? We both were super excited to get our first ones done and friends, let me tell you, it took us a total of 15 minutes to do this! From picking the image to heat setting it onto the candle!! So easy and fun. Kathy did another one using the same image, but colored her differently.

Here they are side by side:

I went a different route. I decided to add the same cute monkey to the other side of the candle and I colored him a bit different. This time I flipped him with the colored side up then heat set him. Much more vibrant yea?

Here we are side by side:

When I got home I had already decided that I was going to gift my candle to my cousin's son who is turning 1. My parents are going to LV to attend the party and I'm sending this little guy with them. I wanted to add his name and maybe write Happy 1st Birthday to commemorate the occasion. So I used a Copic marker (and this is where I was so glad I had scratch paper underneath the tissue paper) to write his name, it looked really cool. When I picked it up to cut it out I noticed that the ink had gone through to the scratch paper as if I wrote on that paper! Whew, luckily I had that extra piece of paper to catch the ink, else I would've had to explain why Aaden's name was "tagged" on the dining room table! LOL! Anyhoos, I know when you transfer words you would usually write it backwards, but this time I heat set it with the ink side up. Worked out perfectly! And just below I wrote Happy 1st BIRTHDAY!

Now I didn't want to just send the candle without a card, so I made a small card to go with it. I used the same cute Birthday Monkey, my newest Spellbinder, star circles, regular circles, C.C. Cutter balloons, distress inks and some twine to create this card.

I am so happy with this card. So bright and cheerful. The frosting on the cupcake turned out better than I expected. It's actually two different colors, B21 on top and BG11 underneath. I don't think Aaden will know what it is, but hoping his mom and my cousin will like it. Here are a couple more pictures (stay with me! I'm almost done! ~ hehehe) of the candle & card, can you see the cupcakes peeking out from the sides in the first picture? :)

I'm probably going to dress up the bottom part of the candle with ribbon so it doesn't look too plain. As expected, I dressed up the bottom of the candle not with ribbon but found some corrugated paper and a blue piece of rafia.

Whew, and there you have it! A 30 minute candle project, an hour card project and this post - all pau! If you're still reading this you are so sweet, Mahalo!

Alrighty, I'm tired now, so I'm going to get something to drink and maybe veg in front of the tv for a bit before heading to bed. Have a fantastic Thursday!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies & Copics:
Distress Inks: Vintage Photo, Wild Honey & Crushed Olive

Flutter By Wednesday #185

2012-01-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hello!
How's everyone doing this week? It's been a good start to the week so I'm looking forward to the rest of it. I did get to Disneyland on Sunday and it was fun. Not so crowded, which is always a plus. I'll post the 3 pictures I took at the end.

Before I get to today's post, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for all your lovely comments on my debut post last week as a new member of the Flutter By Wednesday team. I really appreciate all your wonderful comments and look forward to fluttering with you all. ;) Now let's get to today's challenge at Flutter By Wednesday. Today we are shaking off the winter blahs and playing with some nice bright colors! For more details about this week's challenge head on over to the FBW blog.

I chose to do another quick mini calendar. These are getting to be a fun/favorite of mine. I chose a fun background with browns and hints of orange & blues. This time I used a chipboard coaster, courtesy of my LP teammate Cyndi Kim, to create this calendar and used Fairwee Jilly from Sweet November.

She's as bright as bright can be! hahaha! I tried a different skin tone this time and I think she doesn't look too bad. With the brightness of her orange dress and her turqoise shoes, she's ready to start off the New Year with pizzazz. I'm gifting her to my mom's co-worker as a Thank you for always being so nice even when she's having a bad day. :)

If you're ready to play along with us at Flutter By Wednesday make sure you play by the rules:

your entry must have a butterfly, fairy or angel on it
when we have a sponsor--like this week- only ONE entry per person. Danni will remove all extra entries before she chooses a winner.
Please leave a direct link to your creation post vs. a link to just your blog, unfortunately those will be removed.

Here are the three pictures I remembered to take while leaving Disneyland. Sorry I was pretty far away so the first two are pretty blurry. This was the last day of the Christmas decor.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle all lit up. My picture does not do it justice.

The Christmas tree at the entrance to Main Street

This was in a window in Downtown Disney. Had to take a picture of it!

Here's a couple bonus pictures from my trip on Dec. 17:

Decorations at Small World

Pretty Wreath on the tower at Small World

My cousins in front of Small World

Small World at night, all lit up and so pretty!!

It's so pretty during Christmas. I wish I had remembered to take more pictures! I missed the Haunted Mansion. It's a pretty cool sight. The theme is A Nightmare before Christmas based on the Tim Burton book and movie. Maybe I'll remember later this year.

Fairwee Jilly

Alrighty, time to show off your bright colored creations and remember to use a butterfly, fairy or angel. Mahalo for stopping by! Have a fairy bright day!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies:
Copics:

Vintage photo Distress ink

Happy Birthday Makenzie!

2012-01-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Hi!!
Popping in for a quick post. Wow, can't believe I've actually posted something without missing a day in 2012! Gonna try to keep up with that since I have several projects to share. I admire and am in awe of those that do it every day. I will try to do that if I'm not too tired. :) Today I have a very CAS card to share. It's CAS because I made it at work and although I have some craft stuff here I still try to do the minimal amount to the card. I guess it's because it's usually last minute and I need to get it done quick! LOL!

I made this for my co-worker's daughter. She's my crafting buddy when she visits. She likes the color blue so I wanted to incorporate that color into my card. I also wanted to pick something that I could color pretty quickly. I don't have any of my cool stamps here at work, so that meant pick a digi. I looked through my digis and found Bee Tia from SOG. I have been wanting to color her up since I bought her. I thought she would be fun and definitely easy to color.

I added a pretty corny sentiment on top of the image. I did add stickles to her head piece, wings, shoes and the white part of her dress. Unfortunately you can't tell too well here. I don't have very many Copics here, so for the blues I used B04 & B05, skin is E00, E21. For her hair, I used a combination of black colored pencil and a black sharpie. Hey when you're desperate you gotta use what you have right?! hahaha. The ribbon is from my stash. Happy to say this is truly a one level card, a first for me.

Alrighty, bee seeing you! hahaha! Hope you stop back tomorrow for my FBW post. Mahalo for popping in! Have a great day!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Lollipop Crafts - We're baaack!!

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hehehe, yes, we are back from our holiday vacay and everyone is ready to start off 2012 with a "New" challenge. We want to thank all the Lollipopers for their wonderful December submissions. Hoping you are all ready to get back to challenges with us. For today's challenge (#62) it's everyone's favorite, Anything goes! The theme is "New." Create a project using something "new" - new technique, supplies, etc.. or "New" in general - New Year, new baby, etc... Be sure to head on over to the Lollipop Crafts blog because both Teams are playing today. You'll also find all the details on the challenge including the prize up for grabs.

For my "new" project I decided to case my fellow DT, Cyndi Kim. She makes some really cute coaster calendars and I was lucky enough to receive one of them. I just love how CAS it is. Some really pretty paper and a cute colored image. That's it and voila!

She also sent me some extra calendars so I decided this is something new, so why not try it? It was super easy and these little calendars are awesome gifts, I mean who can say no to something that cute and it's functional. Everyone needs a calendar right?! hehehe...

Here's my calendar version using a "new" stamp that I bought from ATS, Gorjuss Girls New Heights. I did alter her a bit because I wanted it to be a carefree little girl who looks like she's celebrating by dancing on top of the calendar. Sorta like she's celebrating the new year. lol... Well at least that's what my plan was.

It's a bit bigger than the one Cyndi made but still with the same elements. I used some chipboard as the backing and adhered the dp over the top. Rounded the corners and added some glass dots to the corners. I also rounded the corners on the calendar to make it flow. I paper pieced the main part of her dress and colored the rest with a Copic marker. The rest of her is also colored with Copics. I added a punched flower to her hair, it covers the heart barrett underneath it. Doesn't she look carefree and ready to dance? hehehe.. Oh yes, I also added her mouth, thought it would look cuter if she was smiling. hehehe. Now the only thing that isn't new here are the glass dots. The dp papers are from Cosmo Cricket's, Clementine that I purchased from ATS, looks like they ran out.

So let's see, new image, dp, calendar, project, I think this more than qualifies for our challenge. :)

Here's our calendars side-by-side. I think I case'd it pretty well, yea? I forsee myself creating a few more as she gifted me with 4 more calendars. She's so generous! Mahalo Cyndi!! :)

Now it's time to create! Remember it's anything goes and the theme is "NEW." We hope you're as excited as we are to be back and ready to take on 2012!

Mahalo for stopping by!! Have a wonderful day!!
Hugs,
Leanne

Supplies/Copics:

Another Thank you card

2012-01-08T10:45:00.000-08:00

Morning everyone!
It's such a beautiful morning here in California. So much different than yesterday's gloominess. It's a perfect day to go to Disneyland, so guess what I'm doing today? Yup, heading to the happiest place on Earth! Woo Hoo! Hope you're doing something fun today too. :)

Now I know I said I was going to post the last image to complete out the sets of the Sister Stamps cards I've made, but I just noticed I don't have a picture of it! (GASP!) Don'tcha just hate when that happens?! Luckily I gave it to my sister so I will ask her to send me a picture of her card then I will post it. Until that day I do have another CAS Mei Li thank you card I share.

Mei Li - Sister Stamps LLC.

This card is not as elaborate as yesterday's, but I think it definitely makes an impact, what do you think? After choosing the washi paper I wanted to use, I decided to trim off the lantern. Now it looks like she's picking one of the flowers, maybe, to add it to her collection of hair pieces. :)

I colored her up with Copics and as you can see only used a few strips of paper (washi & gold cs) to adhere to the black card. The sentiment was handwritten by me.

Alrighty, pretty short and easy today. If you haven't seen any of these stamps before, you're very behind! The newest images for release #5 are set to come out this week and Sister Stamps is previewing them here. Just in time for Valentine's day!

Release # 5

Don't forget, tomorrow Lollipop Crafts will be back from our holiday "vacation" to bring you the newest challenge for 2012. You don't want to miss out! Until then have a fabulous day and Arigato for stopping by!! ;)

Hugs,
Leanne

August C.A.T.S. share

2012-01-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

Hello, yes I'm back. haha!
As I was going through my posts and some pictures, I noticed that I never posted the card & tag I made for my August C.A.T.S. partner Michelle. Unfortunately since I made this back in August I don't really remember all the colors or papers I used. I do remember which stamps and that's about it. lol! If you have some time to look I believe this might be a pretty long one with lots of pictures.

Here are a some pictures of what I made using Sister Stamps, Mei Li and the lantern set from Stampin' Up! (Kimono Kids).

Aha! It's sort of a peek-a-boo card. Yes the image is actually adhered to the band. It slides off to reveal the lanterns at the top of the card. I had to make sure that the band itself was snug enough to cover the lanterns when it was closed. Some pictures of the card:

Band with Mei Li on

Peek-a-boo I see some lanterns

The card w/out the band

I stamped the lanterns on the dp, stamped again & colored/stickled them
I popped the 2nd & 4th one up. The 4th one acts as the closure for the card.

The band with Mei Li
Her outfit & lantern were paper pieced, the rest was colored with
Copics and sparkled with Stickles

Next up is the tag. So when I made the tag I wanted it to be similar in style to the card. I used two of the lanterns from the SU kit. Used some scraps to finish this off. This also has a slider band, but instead of an image I punched out some flowers and added those for a cute decoration. I cut a slit in the top of the tag to slide the ribbon through.

The tag

Here is the tag opened with the slider still on.

And there you have it. If you made it to the end thank you for sticking through. Now, I think I've shared almost all of the projects I've made with the Sister Stamps I have. I have one more to share that will complete the ones that are out but I think I'll post it tomorrow as this is my second post for today and I don't want you all to get bored. :)

Arigato for stopping by today!! Have a wonderful Saturday!! ;)

Hugs,

Leanne

SSS swap with Colleen Kwan

2012-01-07T11:32:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!
Hope you are all enjoying your weekend so far. I'm not doing so shabby, it was a long/short week at work and I am so happy that the weekend is here. Last night was a really fun night with some friends, fish and kalua pork tacos, a Laker game (on tv) and lots of laughs. That's how you want to end a tough week at work, yea? Good food, gr8 friends and lots of laughs.

Today I wanted to share some happy mail I received from my Secret Santa Sister. It was Colleen Kwan. She made a really cute card with some really pretty gold embossing on the sentiment and she included some fun goodies that I can use for my 2012 Christmas cards. Mahalo Colleen!

Hope you're all having a great Saturday. I'll be back later to post more. :)
Hugs,
Leanne

A very sweet surprise!

2012-01-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

Hello I'm popping in again for an unexpected post. I had to share this awesome frame I got just before lunch from my crafty buddy, Kathy, of Pixie Boutique. Yes, we happen to be co-workers and lunch buddies. She is so funny & sneaky! She left a white paper bag on my desk while I was talking to one of our managers on the phone and of course snuck away before I could ask what it was! So after I hung up I read the card then I opened the gift and this beautiful set of frames was inside featuring some Sister Stamps images and beautiful origami papers. Totally love all the details on each frame, especially the embossed backdrop for each little girl. The embossing folders are all from the Cuttlebug Asian set. Love this set, and of course I have them all. :)

Here's Miyono, Ayako & Yoko

Here is a close up of each frame. Check out all the details she did to create these cute, cute frames.. I have the perfect spot at work to put it. ;)

Miyono, lantern stamp from Hero Arts.
Love how she added the lantern inside Miyono's hand

Ayako, I love the papers and love that bridge from the Pagoda Cricut Cartridge.
I'm gonna make a card like this one. Love how the embossed sakuras
blend with the pretty paper. :)

Yoko, the bamboo on the left side is also from the Pagoda Cricut cartridge.
Lovin' the embossed white background she looks like she fishing. :)

She's got me wanting to leave work to make something!! hahaha! Here's the card that came with the gift, it's not handmade, but still pretty and so matches the theme of the gift:

I also have to share that she got me some sentiments from AmyR with the frames. She is so sweet, she didn't have to give me any more, but I so am not giving this back.

Here's the adorable card featuring Anya (Xmas Sweeties) from TGF that she gave to me on Christmas day along with the new Some Odd Girl, In Stitches Tia...

Aw, this girl spoils me too much I tell ya! hahaha! I told her I had to post this up so everyone could see it. She laughed and said she couldn't post it because then I would see and spoil the surprise. I so appreciate all the creativity, details and time it took her to make the frame and the card. She's a keeper. This is the perfect way to end my rough week at work. ;) hahaha!

Okie dokie, gotta get back to work. She not only left this awesome gift on my desk, but some work for me to do too!! I think she was trying to butter me up! hahaha!! Well worth it tho! Happy Aloha Friday everyone!!

Hugs,

Leanne

Lilo's Fun Friday (#13) with Wryn

2012-01-06T02:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday everyone!! Well we made it through the first week of 2012. How did it go for you? Boy this was a tough week. With our having to close the books at work for the year everyone was on edge and a bit irritable. Me included and boy did I feel bad. The only thing that kept me on an even keel was this fun little "hobby" we all enjoy. So thankful to have an outlet to release some steam. (lol)
Looking forward to the weekend and playing with some old and new stuff and maybe a trip to Disneyland can be worked in. We shall see.

Have you seen the new Wryn & Friends images over at Tiddly Inks? I couldn't help myself, I just had to grab a few of them. You'll have to read the story behind Christy's new line. It's so cute and shows that inspiration is found everywhere. Super cute and adorable. I've already seen a bunch of cards with her throughout blogland as well as on the Tiddly Inks blog and boy is everyone creating some really fun and inspirational projects. I couldn't wait to print mine and color one up. So for today's Lilo's Fun Friday #13 for 2012, I wanted to share this card I made using Wryn - Grow a little love.

Image: Wryn - Grow a little love
Sentiment AmyR Magical wishes

Fun image to color and I'm so happy with how the card itself turned out. I colored her with Copics and tried my hand at giving her dress a bit of movement. As you can see it's back to the coloring board for me, but it's a fine. Practice, practice, practice yea? Used vintage photo distress ink, I distressed most of this card. The rectangle, scalloped rectangle, circles & heart circle are all from Spellbinders. The dp is from the Circa 1934 mini deck by Cosmo Cricket. This Wryn image comes with a fun sentiment to match, I added it to the inside of the card.

I'm thinking this can be used for any occasion. Thinking about sending this to my Secret Sister for January if the other card I started for her doesn't pan out. I hope to link up to the following challenges:

Tiddly Inks - New celebration, create a card for a celebration
Mad 4 Markers - New color combination (Red & brown)

Alrighty, hoping you all have a fantastic Friday and a gr8 weekend. I'm hoping to get more images colored and hopefully on to some cards. Need some for my stash at work. Seems like everyone is going to need cards this year. Yay for me. hahaha! Mahalo for stopping by! ;)

Hugs,
Lilo

Copics used:

Yoko

2012-01-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone for your wonderful messages from yesterday's FBW blog hop. I am really excited to be on the FBW team and I hope you all get a chance to play in this week's challenge. :)

Today I wanted to share one of my finished Thank you cards featuring one of the Sister Stamps images. This card features Yoko. She was so much fun to color and I had fun paper piecing her kimono and bow. If you can believe it, this is a one-layered card! Well it's mostly a one-layered card. (hehe) Tried making something different this time.

I know I need tons more work on the dots around her, but for now I'm ok with how it turned out. Baby steps for me. The colors on her hair were fun too. I wish I could remember what they were. I actually finished this card a few months back. I used different levels of sakura punches for the flowers on the other side to balance it out. The origami paper was purchased from Hanko Designs and one of my favorites. The sentiment is from a retired sentiment set from The Greeting Farm.

Yoko from Sister Stamps

Mahalo for stopping by today and if you have some time, stop by tomorrow for my Fun Friday post. Happy Thursday!

Hugs,

Leanne

Flutter By Wednesday Blog Hop

2012-01-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!
Welcome to the 2012 Flutter By Wednesday's Blog hop! If you've come from Amanda's blog then you are definitely on the right track, if not, please go to the beginning of the hop at the FBW blog here.

Today is a very exciting day for four of us. Karen, Lynette, Suzanne & I are the newest members to flutter with the fabulous DT of Flutter By Wednesdays. We hope you are inspired by our creations for 2012. A special shout out to those of you who played in the December challenge. Thank you so much for your inspirations!!

For our first challenge of 2012 we are being sponsored by Bugaboo Digi Stamps. For more details on the prize & the rules jump on over to the Flutter By Wednesday blog. We also have two of the Bugaboo DT members joining us so make sure to head to the FBW blog to see their cute cards and leave them some love. Michelle & Mary are featured on the Bugaboo challenge blog, so make sure to leave them some love too. We were lucky enough to receive a cute digi image and sentiment to play with from the talented artist of Bugaboo digi stamps, Jodie. Today I am using Bugaboo Angel - Anything is Possible.

Bugaboo Angel - Anything is Possible

For my card I decided to go CAS. Printed her out pretty big and colored her with Copics. The dp is from DCWV (Countdown to Christmas stack). The rest is kraft, red and stormy blue cs from Bazzil. Did some distressing around the image and added some stickles to her wand, belt, heart and bows on her shoes. I think on the inside of the card I'm going to write, "If you believe." :)

Mahalo for stopping by, now head on over to Kristie's blog for more wonderful inspirations. Have a wonderful day and be sure to leave a comment on each of our blogs to let us know what you think.
:)

Hugs,
Leanne

BTW, If you get lost here is the full list:

FBW Blog http://flutterbywednesdays.blogspot.com/
Michelle VP http://mybearybest.blogspot.com/
Karen http://creationsbykw.blogspot.com/
Suzanne http://sparklingscrapper.blogspot.com/
Lynette http://mystampingaddiction.blogspot.com/
Amanda http://cardscatsandcopics.blogspot.com/
Leanne http://liloshaggymoto.blogspot.com/ (That's me!)
Kristie http://kreativekristie.blogspot.com/
Mary http://maryjdesigns.blogspot.com/
Nancy http://southernyankeecrafter.blogspot.com/
Michelle http://michellescreativejourney.blogspot.com/
Danni http://dannisdreamscrafts.blogspot.com/
Harriet http://allycatcards.blogspot.com/
Anna http://scrapandcrap.blogspot.com/

Copics & other items used that are not listed above:

Starting 2012 with a birthday card

2012-01-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone!! Hoping you all had a fantastic and safe New Year. I'm watching the Rose parade and really enjoying it for the first time in a long time. I hope that you all enjoy this last day of vacation and the start of a great year! Today, for my first post of 2012, I have a birthday card to share.

This is actually my first creation for 2012. I made a (not so CAS) birthday card Ifor my friend's niece. She's turning 7 on Tuesday, but we always celebrate her birthday on New Year's day. I had a lot of fun creating this card. It's called a zig-zag card and I found this sometime ago just searching for different card tutorials. I'm sure I've seen it on some of your blogs as it is a really cute way to add a 3D affect to any card.

I did a swap of two of my favorite TGF images (Fleur & Holiday Anyas) to create this Anya. Before stamping Holiday Anya on my paper I wiped away the holly branch with a wipie and drew in the lines for her hair and eyebrow. I learned that technique from Amy from A Thousand Sheets of Paper and have used it a lot. It works better than water on a paper towel.

As you can see I paper pieced her dress using the same dp (K&Company Olive tree kraft) that is on the card. The card base is kraft cs (Recollections) that I distressed with vintage photo ink. I also did it with the balloons, and the circles. I used sakura & sun punches for the flowers in her hair. The balloons are made from the C.C. Cutter balloon die, I cut out 7 to represent her turning 7. I used a white pencil on the ballons and gold pieces of string that I recycled from some Lindt candy I got for Christmas. The sentiment is from a retired TGF set and I added gold pearl pen dots underneath.

I wish I had taken a side view picture of the card so you can see how 3-D the balloons are. The smaller balloons on the inner part of the card are adhered to the top part of the card and the other balloons on to the side panels. The flowers are adhered with dimensional mounting tape with the middle one being the highest of the five. I love how she turned out, and I hope to do more of her. Who am I kidding I just love doing swaps! hahaha!

Mahalo for stopping by and I hope you've all had a wonderful start to 2012. Now it's back to the craft table to work on more cards.. lol! Have a great day!! :)

Hugs,
Leanne

Lilo's Fun Friday #12 - C.A.T.S. & SSS

2011-12-29T00:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Aloha Friday, or if you are in Samoa, Happy Saturday! :)
Appreciating and enjoying all the wonderful comments! Thank you all so much for your support! :)

For today's LFF I plan to share my Secret Santa and C.A.T.S. swaps. (Sign up for January's SSS is on now and ends today at midnight 12/30/11 so if you want to play make sure to head to Kris' blog and leave her a message.)

First up is the card I sent to my Secret Santa Sister, Shirl Nases. I was so happy to get her as my SSS, she's so sweet and talented. The card features one of the new Holiday friends from Sweet November, Tess.
Created a snowy scene with some none traditional colors and paper pieced her outfit. The sentiment is from AmyR's, Snowman sentiments. I tucked in a Joann's gift card because I know she likes to shop nline. Can't wait to see what she buys. :)

Next is my C.A.T.S. swap. I was paired up with Gail Woo from SF, Ca. I don't know if she has a blog, but she's really sweet and it was really nice to read her note and catch up on what's been going on in her life. Here are her card & tags - they are so cute! Mahalo Gail!!

Love the cute Hawaiian snowman, her tags are pretty cool, and how cute is this tea bag holder? What a terrific idea for next year! Thanks Gail!! Here's what I sent to her. An easel card and tag. I also threw in a Christmas card from me. I hope she likes it. Yikes, sorry for the bad pictures! :(

Dec C.A.T.S. with Aloha flair.
Featuring Fairwees Jilly & Emaline

Used more of that green & white Aloha print paper and created a few wreaths to go with the scalloped circle card & tag. I threw in a CAS card featuring Fairwee Daphne and AmyR's, Snowman sentiments.

These Fairwees are so darn cute and the perfect size to add to any small kine card.

These swaps and are so much fun. Giving and receiving from crafty friends across the country is always nice. Wanted to say Mahalo to Kris & Joy for all their hard work and coordination. You ladies are awesome!!

I have a couple more posts before the end of the year. Some birthday cards and 1-2 more Christmas posts. Yep gonna try and sneak them all in before Sunday. :)

Mahalo for stopping by! Have a good evening or good morning!!

Hugs,

Lilo

Christmas cards with TGF

2011-12-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Are you ready to welcome the New Year?! I can't believe how fast 2011 has come and is almost gone. It's been a good year, and as sad as I am to see it go, it just means more wonderful things to look forward to.

Before any more time passes I wanted to share the last of the Christmas cards I made. I couldn't leave out my beloved TGF images. Besides the gift card holders and tags I made, I also had some time to make some Christmas cards using some fun TGF images. Some of these I posted in the TGF Gallery, and the ones I didn't will be poppin' over there shortly.

As with the last couple of posts, I probably won't have too much to write about except for captions with links to the stamp(s) & possible challenges. :)

Holiday Anya & Clear Christmas stamp
Sketch from Monday-Funday

Beanie Anya - Retro Fresh Blue/Berry challenge

Swap: Beanie Anya & Sunshine Anya
AmyR sentiment

Cheeky Christmas - Spellbinder wreath
Used felt for the reds

Holiday Anya & AmyR sentiment

Boho Anya w/ Keep Cozy sentiment

And lastly here's my window at work. It's been the same for the past couple years. I need to add more TGF friends...

Xmas Sweeties & WS - Edward

Alrighty friends, thanks for taking time out of your busy day to stop and leave lovely comments. I really love reading them, they keep me going when all I want to do is sleep or watch tv. lol.. Enjoy the rest of your day!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Snow fun with the Fairwees

2011-12-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

Hello! (yep this is my second post today, just scroll down to see the first one from today)
Just had to pop back in to share this fun scene that I'm thinking about putting in a frame and keeping. It features a snowman & three Fairwees, including an altered one, I wonder if you can tell which one.. (hahaha) This is very CAS which has definitely been my style lately.

Sweet November's Fairwees:
Piper with Snowman, Snow Flurry Emaline & Mia/Piper combo
AmyR sentiment

Ta-da!! I absolutely love the dp (2009 WRMK Merry & Bright) and how the rest of the scene came togther. Using the pinks, grays, blacks and whites really made this scene come together nicely. Doesn't hurt that these images are so darn cute and the perfect size for the dp. If you didn't guess yet, I did a swap with Piper and Mia! She turned out pretty good. The scene is mounted on white cs and then onto black cs. I like the way it's framed, so thinking it would look really nice inside a real one. Just gotta choose one that works. Here's are some close-ups of the images:

Here's the swap image of Piper & Mia :)

Don't they just make you smile?! :) Can you blame me for wanting to keep this to myself? (lol) I have one more Fairwee project to share. Just need to finish it up. Mahalo for stopping by and leaving me lovely comments. You all know how much I love them. :)

Hugs,
Leanne

Christmas cards with Sweet November

2011-12-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day, we did and spent time with our adopted family the Ontiveros' who spent the day with us, opening gifts, baking cookies, crafting for an hour and yes, eating amazing food prepared by my momma. Today I think it's a time for recovery and possibly some shopping, but the latter might be just too much for me, even if there are some awesome sales going on out there.

I wanted to share a few more Christmas cards I made using some of the cutie patootie Sweet November Fairwees and one of the Sprites. I have quite a few pictures so there won't be too much writing except for captions.

SN - Penelope & Juniper with a Spellbinder wreath

SN - Fairwee Josie's Mistletoe & AmyR sentiment

SN - Piper & AmyR sentiment

SN - Fairwee Mia's ornament & SN sentiment

I used scraps of dp from the Christmas paper pads I've been using for this year's Christmas/holiday cards, always nice to use those up. Most of the images were colored with Copic markers. Sorry I don't have any of the colors handy. I will try to do better in the future. Here are some close ups:

I stamped the image on kraft and then stamped Josie on white
cs, colored her up, cut her out and glued her on top.

I have a few more Fairwee Christmas cards and projects to share, but I think these cuties should get their own time to shine. Mahalo for stopping by and hoping today is either a day of recovery for you, a day of successful shopping for some really awesome deals for next year, or maybe you can sneak in some crafting. Not sure yet what I want to do, but relaxing sounds really nice. lol.. Whatever you decide to do, have fun doing it!

Hugs,
Leanne

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-25T04:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!
You're all either fast asleep, already celebrating and eating breakfast or just getting to the stroke of midnight to celebrate Christmas. Me I'm gonna post a few more cards and then head on to bed. The day is going to come really quickly and I still need to clean up my mess! hahaha!

Here are some Christmas cards I made using the Christmas stamps from Sister Stamps. I waited to post this first one because I was planning to give it to my crafty bestie & her bf. Didn't want to spoil the surprise. I gave it to her and I'm really happy to say they loved it. I really enjoyed creating this one and the other two.

Shimo-san & AmyR sentiment

Yuki

Setsuna

I really have to admit these were a few of my favorite ones. Alrighty, here are some close-ups...

Shimo-san

Yuki

Yuki - AmyR sentiment

Setsuna in his black gi

Setsuna - Used an AmyR sentiment

Alrighty, time to get some sleep, it'll be morning too soon and I still have to clean up the craft/dining table and make a few more small cards. Hope you have a wonderful day filled with fun, food, family and friends!!
Merry Christmas and Mahalo for stopping by!!

Hugs,
Leanne

Christmas cards with CC Designs

2011-12-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

Wanted to send a shout out to my little cousin Alexis, Happy 10th Birthday Lexi!!

Happy Christmas Eve Everyone!

So who else is scrambling to get everything done besides me? Last minute shopping or last minute crafting and cooking? Well I hope that it's a merry time doing all of those things. I'm going to finish posting and then finish up some last minute crafts for some friends. I'm listening to the Hawaiian radio station (Hawaiian 105) right now and they are playing Christmas music so I'm definitely in the mood and motivated.

Here are some cards I made using some of the older C.C. Designs Pixies & Sugarplum images and some
AmyR sentiments. I didn't get to use any of the images last year, so this year I wanted to make sure they got onto some cards. I was picturing an easy kine wreath to go along with the images, and a CAS layout. For the wreaths I used two Spellbinders (scalloped circle and inverted scallop circle). It actually came out just as I envisioned and it was super easy to do. For some I used kraft & white cs, which I embossed. I also made some with dp. Dotted the wreaths with either white or cream colored pearl pen around as ornaments interspersed with some actual half pearls to make it more festive. Some are colored to match the card. Lastly I added either twine or bakers twine to the top. I am definitely thinking of doing this again next year.

Santa Birgitta
Sentiment by AmyR

Nora, I gave her a Santa hat courtesy of Santa Birgitta.
Sentiment by AmyR

Cocoa Emma & AmyR sentiment

Santa Emma

(Digi) Christmas Angel(s) I added the smiles :)
Sentiment is from TGF Merry Tags

I don't know which of the wreaths I like more, the ones with dp or embossed. I think they turned out pretty good. This is the year of fast and easy so I think this qualifies for me. hehehe. Here are some close ups:

Well that's all for me right now. I need to finish up some last minute crafts for tonight and tomorrow. Yep, the procrastinator again.. lol! So for those of you preparing dinner or just starting breakfast enjoy the next few days and cherish the time spent with your loved ones.

Mahalo for your lovely comments and here's wish you all a very Merry Christmas Eve & Happy Holidays to all!

Hugs,

Leanne

Lilo's Fun Friday #11

2011-12-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

Oh my! I'm super late. It's going to be a short one with lots of pictures. I made a few giftcard holders for my co-worker's this year. Needed something simple and couldn't really find anything on the internet that wouldn't take too long. I forget where I saw this one, but I decided to wing it and give it my own spin. I might do a tutorial, will shall see... If anyone recognizes please leave a comment with a link. Thanks!

Each gift card holder has a Starbucks & Panda Inn gc inside. I used the cute clear stamp set & the Keep Cozy (retired) set from TGF. They were perfect for this project. I also used a few other stamps from Recollections and Gorjuss girl image. That was for my co-worker who doesn't celebrate Christmas. I used up some scraps as well.. YAY! Here are a some close-ups:

This is the inside of the card.
I cut a slit in the center to stick the giftcard
I used the TGF Merry Tags here.

Used an AmyR sentiment for this one

Had to reinforce this one with a cute snowflake. Worked pretty good.

Well, that's what I have to share today. I'm hoping to share some Christmas cards I made this weekend. I first wanted to say Thank you to my crafty friends who sent me cards and lovely RAKS. I also wanted to apologize to some of you. I dropped mine to you in the mail and I hope you don't mind that they are a little bit late.

In case I don't get back here before Christmas, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Best wishes for the holiday season!! I am blessed to have you all as friends! Mahalo for stopping by!

Hugs,
Lilo