Who's surprising who? (LOL)

Good morning and Happy September!!

Yay! My very own Renate' Winter banner!! Isn't it kawaii?!! Si!  Had to add it to my b-day post! :)

It's my birthday today and there are a few sneaky fabulous ladies who are throwing me a surprise birthday blog hop on the Yumi & Fumi Handmade blog!  Yep, I accidentally found out about it when today's scheduled challenge post did not go live!  Needless to say I figured out why the post was not up and just how sneaky my teams and friends can be!  Gotta love them all, which I do!!  But I got the last laugh I think.  hehehe...  Popping in to say Thank you in advance for the wonderful surprise from all that participated in the hop.  You all touched my heart with your wonderful creations and definitely brightened up my day even more than it already will be.  So on my behalf...  Arigato!

Altered wooden picture frame featuring Fumi with Gift

While I was in Hawaii I spent some time at the local art supply store, Ben Franklin and a local scrapbook store, Island Scrapbooking. There I was able to pick up a few crafty items to play with from each store.  This awesome wooden frame was purchased at BF.  I also purchased the beautiful washi paper, mod podge, and mod podge spray and Bo Bunny pearls from there. The die cut sentiment and some of the small flowers were purchased from IS.  What a cute little store and the owner Michele is so awesome! If you ever get the chance and you're in Hilo, stop by her shop and check out all the cute items available for purchase.  You'll also see some very familiar projects inside.  Wish I could have spent a little more time to look around.  Yep after 4 trips I still think I could have looked around and found more fun stuff to buy! hahaha!

Anyhoos, I had so much fun altering this frame.  I actually went back to BF and bought a few more to bring back home.  I'll share the other two frames I made soon.  But thought I would get the jump on my team and let them know how much I appreciate their wonderful surprise with a surprise of my own! hahaha!!

Thank you ladies from the bottom of my heart!!  It's truly wonderful and thoughtful and I can't wait to hop around!  Please stop by the blog to check out the hop and please stop by everyone's blog and leave them some love, like I plan to later today.  *Who knows there might be a random give-a-way from me! :)

Fumi with Gift

To everyone celebrating today... Happy Birthday!!  May it be blessed and wonderful!

Hugs,

Leanne

Mariko's gift to you... Happy Birthday Sister Stamps!!

Helllllllooooo!!!

Today is day three of the Sister Stamps 1st Anniversary blog hop.  If you've just hopped from Amy's blog then you are definitely on the right path.  If not, head on over to the beginning at the Sister Stamps blog and enjoy the ride.  Each blog has a very special project geared toward this celebration and girls we are having so much fun sharing!  Now what's a hop without some fun prizes yea?  Well make sure you hop over to everyone's blog for a chance to win some secret prizes.

Today Mariko is making her way on to my blog with a bright and cheery Happy Birthday!!  When I first saw her on Jenny's blog, it was during a very special birthday blog hop for my Lollipop DT sista Kris.  When I saw how cute that little girl was, I knew that I wanted her.  hahaha.  You have to check out that adorable box she made its awesome!  Okie dokie sorry to distract you... hahaha!  Here is Mariko in all her fun orange glory...

Now you are probably thinking eh it looks like any normal CAS card yea?  Fun Happy Birthday die cut word (Thanks Jenny!) with cool white frosted accents...

or the same frosted white border on the orange dp and the yellow bubble border up the side, which btw is another cool C.C. Designs cutter die.  Not to mention the white and black oval/scalloped oval Spellbinder dies and on top the adorable Mariko, right?  Well I really wanted to do something a bit different so let's turn the card on it's side and see what I did...

Tada!!  She is actually 3-D!!  Surprise!!  hahaha!  Did this take long?  Yep it certainly did, but I love how it turned out and definitely worth it.  I think I used a total of 4 layers.  It was definitely something I've never tried before and boy you really have to have tons of patience.  I received a beautiful card from one of my swap sisters, Malise, with a similar technique.  She totally blew me away with all the details.  I will definitely share that card soon.  I've also seen this technique done on the ATS blog by Mariska.  All her projects have 3-D images and they look soo cool.

Now before you hop on make sure to come back tomorrow for the last day of this awesome four day event.  It's release day and we all have one more creation to share featuring one or all of the new releases.  Make sure to start at the Sister Stamps blog.

Alrighty, it's now time to hop on over to Nadine's lovely blog.  She's got a very special creation to share with you.  Don't forget to leave her some ALOHA.  Mahalo for stopping by!  See you tomorrow!!

Hugs,
Leanne
*: )

Supplies not listed above:
Ink: Memento Tuxedo black (Tsukineko), white pigment ink (Color Box), clear embossing powder
Orange cs (Hanko Designs), white cs (Neenah), black cs (Recollections), yellow cs (Bazzil), orange dp (Konnichiwa - Basic Grey)
Pop dots
Copics:
Skin: E50, E51, R20, E01
Hair: W6, W7, W8, W9
Clothes: YR02, YR07, YR09, Y15
Gift: B21, B24, YG01, YG03, Y15

Flutterby Wednesday #189

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: