25 Days of Christmas Challenge - Day 24

Hello!

I'm back to share day 24 of the 25 days of Christmas challenge with Linda & Kathy.  I hope you're having a nice time with your family and friends celebrating.  It's still super early (as I write up this post) so everyone is slowly beginning to wake up.

For day 24 I shared the card my mom picked to send to Grandma.  She had her pick of either the one I just shared (scroll down) or this one.  

She picked this one.  This is another combo of some of my favorite companies: Hanko Designs, La-La Land Crafts and Island Scrapbooking.  If you've been following this challenge with me you'll recognize the layout from another card I made using Haruyo from Sister Stamps.  I was planning on making the same card but decided not to.  Instead I used Paper Doll Marci Kimono from La-La Land Crafts.  I colored her up again with Copics and this time I left the dangling baubles.  They're under the gems.  (hahaha)  I loved the way Irina colored Marci's kimono on the packaging so I tried to do the same, yeah turned out better than I had hoped.  (hahaha)  Last but not least is the beautiful Island Scrapbooking laser cut sentiment.  It used to be a pretty light pink, but I colored it black with a Copic marker.  It made more sense to me.  (hahaha)

Thanks again for dropping in today.  I'll be back to share the final day of this challenge.  I just need to choose what I'll share.  Until then have a beautiful day!!

xoxo,
Leanne

25 Days of Christmas Challenge - Day 23

Hello!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I've been so darned busy these last 3 days that I forgot to post day 23 - 24!  So I will post each one today along with day 25.  So sorry you'll see 3 posts from me, I'll try to keep them short.

For day 23 of the 25 Days of Christmas challenge with Linda & Kathy.  I shared this Asian themed card featuring some beautiful La- La Land dies and image, an Island Scrapbooking laser cut sentiment and a Hanko Designs Tsumugi cardstock & washi paper...

I had some fun with washi paper and the La-La Land lanterns banner.   I used the adorably sweet Paper Doll Marci Kimono.  Colored her with Copics, including her kimono with the pretty details.  I trimmed off her hair baubles because I wanted to keep it CAS. About the card base, I had already punched out the bottom part of this card with an EK success border punch so just dressing up the rest of the card was what it needed.   The lanterns were paper pieced with washi paper from Hanko Designs and I used gold foil for the tassels.  Here is a close-up of the lanterns.

Adding the red gems to the snowflake centers also ties in to the flowers on Marci's kimono,  I love the layout and of course the Asian theme.  This is another one of my favorite cards for this holiday season.

Thank you for stopping by and I do apologize for all the posts today.  Merry Christmas!!  Hope you are spending it with family and friends and enjoying the time together reflecting on this wonderful day.

xoxo,
Leanne

25 Days of Christmas Challenge - Day 11 Lilo's Fun Friday #97

Alooohaaa everybody!

Happy TGIF!!  So happy it's Aloha Friday today!  It's also day 11 of my 25 days of Christmas Challenge with Linda & Kathy.  They are so cute, they are holding their own with this challenge and I am loving each reveal!  They make me laugh when they say it's so hard, but yet the projects they post are awesome!!  No sympathy from me, besides this was Linda's idea!  I just took up the challenge, but so very grateful I have.  (hahaha!)

It's been a while since I posted a Lilo's Fun Friday, so that's what today's share will be.  Here is LFF #97 and it's perfect for an Aloha Friday share...

This is a 5x5 card with some products from some of my favorite companies.  Front and center are the kiddos from Sister Stamps, Pua and Kaleo.  Colored them up with my current favorite Christmas colors, green, red and black.  Coloring Pua's muumuu was so tricky, hopefully you can see that there is a subtle red & green floral pattern on her dress.  I was going for the twinsies look, but couldn't move the colors after putting down the dark gray.  I still like how it turned out and will practice doing this again.  Kaleo was definitely easier to color.  The patterned washi paper is from Hanko Designs as are the black & green Tsumugi cardstock.  For the snowflakes I used a La-La Land die from the December club kit.  The sentiment is a laser die cut word from Island Scrapbooking.  I love the script writing and it was perfect for this card.  The final touches include two ruby gems and some white dots made with my white gel pen.   Oh you can see more details of Pua's dress in the picture below...

Pua & Kaleo - Sister Stamps, LLC.

I had a lot of fun putting this one together, especially combining these colors and patterns.  So much fun!  I'll be back for day 12 of the #25DOCC tomorrow.  Mahalo for stopping by today.  Have a terrific Aloha Friday and an awesome weekend!!

xoxo,
Lilo

PS -  This is the last week to submit your Christmas projects to the Aloha Friday challenge HERE.  Remember this is the LAST challenge of 2015, you don't want to miss out. 

25 Days of Christmas Challenge - Day 8

Good morning!

Hope you're all doing well today.  It's day 8 of this 25 days of Christmas challenge that Linda & Kathy enrolled me in to doing.  It's actually been quite fun.  Makes me get to the craft table to make stuff and I'm proud to say I'm using a lot of my old stash to create these projects.  (Yay me!!)

Over the weekend I tried to finish more projects from the La-La Land Palooza retreat as well as more Christmas cards.  I'll share more of the retreat projects once I finish the bigger projects.  Still have a few more images to color and last details to finish.  The Christmas projects will be shared but for today I thought I'd share this card...

Here's my Asian version of Christmas.  Featuring Haruyo from Sister Stamps.  I used some pretty pretty washi paper and matted each red & black Tsumugi paper from Hanko Designs.  I had some left over red snowflakes so I added one to the right corner with a green gem.  The sentiment is a laser cut saying from Island Scrapbooking.  I separated them from each other, which made it much easier to center.  I'm so happy with how this one turned out.

In case you were wondering about the supplies used, most are from Hanko Designs:
Holiday Plum Blossom, Green Sakura, bright red Tsumugi card, black Tsumugi cardstock, Island Scrapbooking laser cut sentiment, CC Cutters snowflake, Haruyo from Sister Stamps.

I'll be back for another Christmas share tomorrow.  Until then, thank you for stopping by!
xoxo,
Leanne

Arigato Linda!

Hello!

This is the last of three cards I made to give to some crafty friends for their kindness in remembering my birthday.

For this card I chose to stamp, color & fun-cut Kimono Marci with Fan from La-La Land Crafts, Hmmm, is there a pattern here?  (hahaha)  Yes, there is, and it all stems from me wanting to use my neglected LLLC stamps, that's all.  I colored her with Copics and only paper pieced her kimono (not the yellow parts) and her fan.  The patterned paper is from the same Colorbok paper pad and I chose those two pieces because they seemed to match with this Marci.  It all came together fairly quick, and adding the Island Scrapbooking laser cut sentiment and sakura flowers really finishes the card off.

I'm pretty happy with the way all three turned out and so happy the ladies liked them.  Thanks again Donna, Belia & Linda.  You gals are sweet!!

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Birthday David!

Hello!!

This will be a quick post, I'll be back in a few hours with my Spotlight post for Kitty Bee Designs.  I wanted to share this card I made for my brother who is celebrating his birthday today.  It's another shoe birthday card, yes he loves shoes!

I decided to keep it simple, and finally break open this awesome stamp and die set from MFT.  This die set is called Dienamics LLD All-Star high tops and it is so darn cool!  It makes the coolest All-Star sneaker!!  I had to watch the video to put this together, but it was worth it.  Sorry about the photo, I had to take the picture in another room where the light source is not so great.  The colors are way off too.  What looks like black is actually dark midnight blue.  The colors are for his love of  the University of Michigan.  The sentiment is from the companion stamp set LLD Be Original the set also includes the circular stamp inside the circle.  The rays are a Tim Holtz stencil and I used some Distress inks to ink it up.  Here is the inside of the card...

Again this is supposed to be midnight blue not black with golden yellow and white.  The sentiment is part handwritten and Island Scrapbooking laser cut sentiment.  We celebrated yesterday with Thai Bar B Q, it's what the birthday boy wanted to eat, a red velvet cake and scoops of Neapolitan ice cream.  Good times with good food and wonderful people, just missing my sister & her family.

Well time to sign off, gotta get up in a few hours to get to work.  Sigh.. hahaha!  Thanks for stopping by and if you come by later I'll have my spotlight post from Kitty Bee Designs up.  Night!

TBT - Happy Day Calendar

Hello!

For today's Throwback Thursday post I picked another way back when Amelia from The Greeting Farm OA Happy Day stamp set.  And guess what?!  I made another calendar with her.  hahaha!  I know, I know.  hahaha!  I'm slowly whittling away the big stack...

Each time I see her I always picture pink hair!!  Not just any shade of pink, but a light pink.  I think I pulled it off.  I colored the rest of her with greens, blues and yellows.  She is a doll and totally reminds me of a Harujuku girl.  hehe.  I used another of the washi papers my dear cousin SharGD sent to me and happy with another CAS result.  The sentiment is another Island Scrapbooking laser cut phrase which I colored to match her boots.

Hope you all have a terrific Thursday!  Thank you for stopping by!

TBT - Travel Anya calendar

Hi!

Today I have a fun and quick post for this Throw Back Thursday.  I have a ton of 2015 calendars that I inherited from my cousin, (thanks Shar!) and I decided I should try to make use of them.  So last night I was putting away some of my TGF stamps and came across this retired stamp called Travel Anya.  An idea came to mind and I decided to it would be perfect with a calendar attached.

I have to say I love this one!  Turning this in to a CAS Hawaiian themed traveling card/calendar was fun.  The Aloha print paper was sitting on my table from another project and the Mahalo sentiment is a laser cut from Island Scrapbooking (from my stash) that I colored to match one of the flowers on the paper.  I think anytime you use a busy paper like that one you need to do as little as possible around it.  I tilted the sentiment on it's side because it was going off the paper.  After fun-cutting her out I glued her down, no pop dots so that this could be mailed flat.

I have a friend who has a SIL that works for Hawaiian Airlines.  Maybe I'll give this one to her to give to her SIL. ^.^

One calendar down 27 more to go...  If any of you would like some, I don't mind sharing just let me know in the comments section.  I don't mind mailing them as long as it's within the US.

Travel Anya (Retired - TGF)

I'm going to enter this in the monthly TGF FFF challenge of Red, White & Blue for my second submission.

Thanks for stopping by! 

June Secret Sister Swap

Hello!

Today I wanted to share my June Secret Sister Swap.  The theme was summer fun.  My partner was Cyndi Kim.  I know she's been missing Hawai'i so I thought I'd make her a Hawaiian themed frame.

I was super tempted to keep this one, but I knew Cyndi would love it so off it went.  I broke down and cut in to some hoarded Aloha print patterned paper for this one.  I think next time I won't use the white gesso, it washed out the beautiful colors on the papers too much.  I had pictured something else in my mind, but alas once it went down there was no going back.  Again another learning experience.  The computer generated sentiment was printed on vellum paper and glued down.  It says, "No matter how far you go, Hawai'i will always be in your soul"

The kiddie images are Pua & Kaleo from Sisters Stamps.  I paper pieced their outfits using scraps from one of the orange patterned papers.  Fun cut them out and glued them down flat on to the bottom of the frame.  The hibiscus flowers and leaves were stamped and cut using one of my favorite (sadly discontinued) MFT stamp and die sets.  I finally got to use them.  Yay!  The Aloha is actually a cut up Island Scrapbooking word.  I cut each letter separately and glued them down on top of the flowers.  The flowers were staggered and popped up with pop dots so that I could do a layered effect.  I think I pulled off the vintage look I was going for, but need to figure out something else instead of the white gesso if I'm going to try this one again.

Not only was Cyndi my swap partner, but she was my secret sister!  Here are the adorable altered clothes pins she made for me and some fun RAKs that came with the package...

Funny story, I saw these on IG and told her they were cute and lo and behold they were for me!  hahaha!  She is so darn creative, always altering things into something fun, cute and functional.  Right now these are on the fridge.  Thanks again Cyndi!!

If you're interested in being a part of a fun group of swap sisters just leave a message in the comments section and I'll forward it on to our organizer, Kathy Dinh.  Thanks for stopping by!!

PS - Did you join my 1000th post candy giveaway?  If not click HERE. 

Throwback Thursday - Y&FH postcards

Hello!!

Today's Throwback Thursday post features two discontinued images from Y&FH.  Both were added to two more postcards.

First up is Summer Fumi.  I paper pieced her top with a small piece of washi paper, love the pattern.  The sentiment is a combination of an Island Scrapbooking sentiment that I colored with Copics and an MFT stamp that I clear embossed.  Because I wanted to use these as postcards I did this to the back:

Looks legit right?  When I mail it I'm hoping to keep it in a plastic sealed bag, wonder if I need to put the stamp on the outside?  I'd really hate to have it ruined before it arrives at it's destination. =/  I'll ask my friend to ask her mom who works for the post office for advice.  Next up is one of my favorites featuring Summer Chuckles...

I love the colors on this one.  The sentiment is another combination of a laser cut word from Island Scrapbooking and an AmyR sentiment.

If I look at him sideways he looks a little like Kelly Slater!!  hahaha!

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Before I sign off I wanted to announce that according to Blogger this is my 1000th post!  Woo Hoo!

I still remember way back when I first started this blog trying to figure out how it works and then to come up with my first post; remembering how long it took to write it, yikes!  Now 1000 posts later I'm still here.  It might not be a milestone for most of you, but it is for me.  As a thank you to those who visit here for inspiration or to leave me a friendly comment I'd like to offer up a give-a-way to 3 of you.  The prizes will consist of items I have but have not used.  Believe me I have a lot of stuff that have not left the packages so the winners will enjoy some nice (IMO) crafty goodies.

Unfortunately I have to add some rules to the give-a-way, but hopefully they aren't too bad. (Revised)

LILO'S 1000th post Giveaway:

1. Open to United States participants only
2. Pick a number between 1-3
3. Feel free to use one of the pictures above to post announcing the give-a-way. (Revised) 

This will be open until next Friday, July 24th and the winners announced on Sunday, July 26th. Good luck!!

I'll be back tomorrow with a new Aloha Friday challenge post.  Until then take care and thanks for stopping by!

LFF #91 - More postcards

Hello!

Today for Lilo's Fun Friday #91 I thought I'd share a few more of those postcards I have been working on.  Hope you're not getting too tired of seeing them.  I'm just happy to be sharing.  The backgrounds on the ones below were done on Canson water color paper, using the same Hero Arts stencil, different Distress Ink pads & some water.  The only elements not colored with Distress inks are the images & sentiments.  The images were pre-colored during the 1st #thedailymarker30daycoloringchallenge a few months ago and the sentiments are laser cut words from Island Scrapbooking.  I'm kinda stoked with the results...

I used two of the Hawaiian keiki from the last Sister Stamps release.  These were part of my colored images from the #30daychallenge.  I'm so happy that I am now able to add them to these postcards.  First up is Kaleo.  Below is Pua.  I love the colors on both of these cards.  First the fiery red/orange and below a cool, mellow greenish-yellow; both with touches of dark brown.  I really love the white border around the colored areas it gives it a nice clean finished look.

Both images were colored with Copics and then fun-cut with a white border.  Everything is glued down flat for easy shipping.  I really am enjoying the CAS design.  I have just a few more left to share.  Until then, have a fabulous Friday and thanks so much for stopping by!

Red, White & Blue Day Out

Hello!

It's been a while since I participated in a challenge, so I hopped on over to the TGF blog to see what the current monthly challenge is, red, white and blue.  Oh that is an easy peasy one.  I was flipping through some stamps to see which one I wanted to use when I realized that I had not inked up this Anya from TGF.  This sweet Anya is called Day Out.  I saved on time and paper pieced her beret and skirt.  The other parts were colored with Copics.  I chose a simple design with a few pieces of cardstock liking how much white was left.  The half circle is a die cut from Little Darlings and the sentiments are laser cut words from Island Scrapbooking.  The cool thing about the words is being able to cut the words or letters and as long as you trim them you can make a fun sentiment like I did.  Now I have another birthday card to add to my ever growing stash, woo hoo!

Challenge: Red, white & blue - FFF monthly challenge

TGF Mermaids

Hello!

Hope you all enjoyed a nice and safe 4th of July.  It was quite loud and colorful in our area.  With the drought & mandatory water restrictions I'm very surprised the Governor/Mayor has not banned fireworks throughout California except for the ones that are displayed by professionals.  Just sayin'...

Continuing on with my water-color postcards I picked the mermaids from TGF.  This first one I colored the image back in May.  The second one I just completed today.  Both of these were fun to put together.  Keeping both CAS was the key.

I added the Island Scrapbooking laser cut sentiment with the MFT sentiment right below it.  Colored the Aloha with an ombre effect using two different Copic colors. I really like the background on this one, and that pop of pink gives it that fun element.

Here the colors are bolder, but still fun.  I'm so happy I remembered this mermaid, she's still one of my favorites.  The sentiment is also another Island Scrapbooking laser cut word that I colored with Copics.  Two more under my belt and I'm happy with them both.  I worked on more today so will be sharing them over the next few days.  Until then, enjoy your Sunday and thanks for stopping by!!

Red, White & Blue

Morning!  Sending wishes for a safe & enjoyable Independence Day!

This is definitely not your traditional Independence day themed card, but because I used red, white and blue I deem it is. hahaha!  It's a postcard I made using the same technique on the background that I shared here.  I colored Pua from Sister Stamps during #thedailymarker30daychallenge a few months back and I finally get to share her on a card.  She is inked up with Copic markers & fun cut out, boy was this one a doosie!   The Aloha sentiment is a laser cut word from Island Scrapbooking and I think it adds a nice touch to the CAS design I was going for.

God bless our troops, families and friends but most of all bless the USA!!  Thanks for stopping by!

LFF #89: READY? 1,2,3...

Hello!

A reminder that you have a week left to link up your project to our current "Sew Cute" (faux or real stitching on your project) challenge over at the Aloha Friday Challenge blog, HERE.  Today the second half of the Bees team are sharing their mid-inspirations HERE.  If you're stuck on the theme then make sure to stop by and be inspired.

Today for Lilo's Fun Friday #89 I have a fun birthday card to share with you.  My mojo was flowing with this card, yay!!  hehehe.

Front of the card

This is the front of the card featuring the adorable Turtle set from Sister Stamps, a fun vintage Aloha print paper, laser cut flowers from Island Scrapbooking and some fun stitched speech bubbles relaying a message...  Next up is the inside of the card which relays the rest of the message... and look how excited this turtle is to shout out "Happy Birthday!!"  hehehe, so kawaii!!  >.<  The HB sentiment is also a laser cut word from Island Scrapbooking.  Boy do these come in handy!  I wish the store was a lot closer to me or visa versa.  hahaha!  Luckily they now have an online Etsy store so if I need any more laser cut designs I don't have to fly all the way there to buy some, although that does sound like a nice reason to go.  hahaha!

Inside the card

I loved this card so much that I really wanted to keep it!  Instead I handed it over to my friend/co-worker so that she could give it to her son to give to his teacher for her birthday today.  This is the same teacher I made the teacher's day project for here.  Because she's from Hawai'i I felt it was ok to use the turtles for her birthday card.  Did you notice that I inked up the turtles in blue and not black or brown ink?  Yep, I thought it would be fun to experiment for an underwater affect especially if it made them blend with that pretty vintage paper.  Mission accomplished!  I had fun coloring and fun-cutting them all out.

These are some happy happy turtles and they make for a fun birthday card.  Thank you mojo for showing up in the nick of time.  hahaha!   Mahalo for stopping by, have a great Aloha Friday!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Good morning!

This is the birthday card I made for my mom who celebrated her "22nd" birthday yesterday!  hahaha!  I used the exclusive newsletter, Gift Mermaid Anya, from The Greeting Farm and some beautiful new dies I just received in my April La-La Land Crafts club kit!!   Also included are one of my favorite Sizzix embossed backgrounds and a laser cut sentiment from Island Scrapbooking.  I have to admit I had no idea what this would look like in the end, but I'm so happy with the outcome.  Lucky for me I already had the mermaid colored up and using a few Copic markers the flowers were done in no time.  Used Tumbled Glass DI for the backdrop.  Here are a few more pictures from last night...

Dinner at Ai's a Japanese restaurant my parents like to go to

The birthday cake with only 1 candle

yum tasty!

Tulips and a Mermaid

We also got her a mini iPad so now she can face-time with her sisters and friends.  All-in-all a wonderful day to celebrate a wonderful lady.  Okie dokes, sorry to cut this short but I have a lot to do today so I'll stop right here.  Thanks for stopping by, have a fabulous Saturday!!

Challenges:
TGF FFF: Flowers
Loves Rubberstamps: Use 2 dies

Best Wishes

As you ride off into the sunset...

Good morning!  Today I'd like to share this cool card I made for one of my co-workers who's last day with us was Friday.  He's an avid biker so I already pictured what I wanted to do for his card.  =D

Besides using that cool MFT bicycle die I also used that MFT sunray background.  I had so much fun using my Prima color bloom sprays on the background.  The colors transformed the plain white paper to mimic a sunset.  I colored the Island Scrapbooking laser cut sentiment with ink from an MFT inkpad.  It matches the blue paper that is bordering the background.  I almost left it as is then I spotted a stamp that I had yet to color, Ian from the Together Anywhere set.  He was perfect here.

I used silver foil cardstock for the bike and created a shadow using some blue cardstock. Can't believe I hadn't used that bike die sooner.  It's so cool!

I've been consciously trying to add something personal to the inside of each card.  For this one I had some scrap strips left over so gluing them together I added it to the side and then using a few Walter & Winnie sentiment stamps finished off the card.

So sad that Son left, but we all wish him well in his next adventure.  As he rides off in to the sunset I think I'll also sign off before the sun rises!!  hahaha!   Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!!

LFF #85 - Hau'oli la Hanau

Happy Aloha Friday!

TGIF everyone!   Today for Lilo's Fun Friday share #85, I have a CAS birthday card that I made for my dad.  It's his birthday today!

Kaleo from Sister Stamps

He likes the no fuss kinda stuff so keeping this card clean and simple was definitely the way to go.  I picked the adorable Kaleo from the newest Sister Stamps release purchased via Hanko Designs, a laser cut word sentiment & that patterned paper which I purchased from Island Scrapbooking on my last trip to the Big Island.  All were matted to a plain dark chocolate brown card base.

Isn't Kaleo a cutie?  He's my new favorite little boy.  Here he doesn't look so young because of the silver hair, but even so he's still one handsome boy, yea?  Love this stamp!!  Ok I need to "hele on outta here!"  Have a great Aloha Friday (the 13th) and a great weekend!!  Mahalo for stopping by! 

Sending...

Mitsuyo & Crane

Happy Thanksgiving my friends!  

May it be blessed with good food, lots of laughs and happy memories to last a liftime!  

Big Hugs,

Leanne

Thank you Thursday

Hello!!

Hope you're all doing well.  It's been a while so thought I'd share some pics of my latest cards. Today should be a very short post. ^.^  My mom needed some "masculine" thank you cards, apparently all the Thank you cards I have are not manly enough!  hahaha!  Now not sure if these would be considered "manly" but she was happy with them.  Whew!  hahaha!

Quick and simple.  1 sheet of cardstock for the card bases, 1/2 sheet of cardstock for the mattes, two sheets of patterned paper (Kaiser Craft Seaside collection) and two laser cut sentiments make the perfect thank you cards for anyone even if the pattern is floral or in this case, Aloha print.  Thinking I definitely need to add more of these to my stash for future requests.  Best thing is they mail flat, so saves on postage.  :)

See done!  (hehe)  Mahalo for stopping by today!  Have a terrific Thursday!!