Photobook pages update

It's been awhile since I've shared any digi pages, so I thought I'd give you all an update on the photobook I was putting together for my BFF Brandi. I finished it up JUST in time for the holidays and she was able to order several copies from VioVio (my new favorite printer!!!) for her family and herself. I'm so glad I was able to be part of this special project for her. Happy Holidays Brandi!! We love you Balin and one of these days you'll be so glad your Auntie Jen forced your Mom to send her all these beautiful pictures of you so she could put them in a proper book (and get them OFF of that darn camera!!!).

So here are 4 more of the pages from Balin's book. And a little background for you (I don't think Brandi would mind)....Balin is a very special little boy with a very special life. His Mom and Dad waited a VERY long time for him and in June of 2006 they finally received word that their little boy had been born!! Balin joined his new family a few weeks later and Brandi and Mike were instant parents. Several LONG months later Brandi and Mike finally received the legal paperwork that their adoption process was final...it was a very long road, but so worth the trip!! And Balin just might be one of the most loved little boys on the planet!! He doesn't yet know just how fortunate he was that his birth mother chose Brandi and Mike to raise him. I can't tell you what it means to me to be able to be part of the process of preserving these early memories for Balin!

Ok, on to the pages....(credits are below the pictures. Some shopping links can be found in the credits. Others can be found by finding the store name in the right-hand column of my blog and searching for the kit). I'm having trouble linking in blogger this evening - sorry about that!

Credits:

Gimme Some Space template by Sya's Blueprints (Scrap Matters)

Bratty Brother by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Meghan Mullens (Sweet Shoppe)

Alpha from A Man Named Brady by Libby Weifenbach (Sweet Shoppe)

Wordart by Ali Edwards (Designer Digitals)

Credits:

Gimme Some Space template by Sya's Blueprints (Scrap Matters)

Bratty Brother by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Meghan Mullens (Sweet Shoppe)

Alpha from A Man Named Brady by Libby Weifenbach (Sweet Shoppe)

Wordart by Ali Edwards (Designer Digitals)

Credits:

Stripped Set 3 template by Sya's Blueprints (Scrap Matters)

Retro Boy by Fee Jardine (Sweet Shoppe)

Squiggly Grunge 2 by Fee Jardine (Sweet Shoppe)

Wordart by Ali Edwards (Designer Digitals)

PCP Sketch Challenge 12-27-08

Lynn is our amazing hostess this week for Papercraft Planet's sketch challenge and she came up with a super great sketch! Check out Lynn's sample and sketch here in the Sketch Challenge Group. And here's my take on it:I used some yummy DP I picked up at my local craft store, Ben Franklin, a few weeks ago. I've never heard of this paper company before. It's called Paper Intelligence and is made in Japan. It's a very dense "fiber-y" paper that feels like heavy rice paper (and FYI it was also EXPENSIVE - like $2.50 for one 12x12 sheet - but it's BEAUTIFUL). I made a pact with myself NOT to hoard it, so here it is. I stamped the vase from Verve's Abundant Blessings onto the DP and paper pieced it over the flower silhouette, stamped in More Mustard. The Sentiment and circle stamp are from Verve's Asian Flair. The base for my card is More Mustard and I added some Baja Breeze ribbon across the center. Each of the stamped panels is popped up on dimensionals.

Well, I had a few of my afternoon patients cancel so I ran home to post this but now I better get back before my last patient arrives wondering where I am!! Enjoy the rest of your Monday!!

CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!!

Here. Right Here. Yep!!! That's right. It's official!! I'm a real live Verve Diva!!!! Can you believe it??? I'm about to pee my pants over here I'm so excited!!!! And it's been KILLING me to keep this to myself!!! OK, I'm at work so I should probably get back to pretending to work!!! ha!

Belated Holiday Cheer...

Ok, I know I just said I was sick of all things Christmas, but somehow I totally forgot to post this card last week!!! And that snowman is too cute not to share!! So here I am...The layout for this card was heavily inspired by this card by one of my very favorite papercrafters, Kimberly Crawford (sorry Kim, I don't think I did your original justice...oh well!!). Anyway, I used my new Herb with Christmas Pudding stamp by Whiff of Joy, colored with Copics. (by the way, Whiff of Joy is having a Release Party on January 3 in their Papercraft Planet group that you do NOT want to miss!!!). The Holiday Cheer sentiment is from Verve's Ornamental Christmas. I used a Kraft CS base and DP from Imaginisce along with Gina K's Pure Luxury 120 lb paper (AWESOME for Copic coloring!!!) and some textured American Crafts CS. My circle nesties, Marvy snowflake punch, a button and some twine finished it up!

I have lots of good stuff to share with you this week, including some REALLY exciting news!!! Hopefully I'll have a minute to pop in tomorrow with some news and another project! Have a great week!

Cheers! to 2009

One of my stamping heroes, Julee Tilman, is the hostess this month over on the Our Creative Corner challenge blog. I was so excited when she asked me to be her guest designer for today's challenge!! The challenge is to use something clear on your project and she told me that pretty much anything goes! So ummm, does Vodka count???

I was so sick of Christmas-themed projects (and by this point could really use a stiff drink!!)...so I came up with this fun little New Year's gift.The gift contains all of the essential ingredients to mix up a nice, strong Cosmopolitan to toast the New Year...1 oz of Vodka, 1/2 oz Triple Sec, 1 oz cranberry juice, and 1/2 oz lime juice...poured into clear test tubes (found in the floral section of my local craft store)! The box was somewhat inspired by this project I saw on Andrea Walford's blog. She has a wonderful tutorial available, which I used as a starting point for building my gift box.I used Scenic Route DP for the gift box base and added a little Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss and Pumpkin Pie to the mix. The super fun star stamps are from the Seeing Stars set by Verve. My other clear element (besides test tubes themselves...and the Vodka) is the acetate covering the "windows" in the box! LOVE that! I added the Whiff of Joy "Cheers" sentiment to the circle punch layered onto a scallop circle punch and hanging from the box lid with silver cording. I added a Baja Breeze scalloped border and some Riding Hood Red ribbon to the box lid and VOILA! I'm all set to Ring in 2009!!So what do you think?? Be sure to head on over to the Our Creative Corner blog to check out the fabulous projects Julee and the other regular designers came up with this week!! (and then give it a go yourself - I can't wait to see your CLEARly awesome projects!!!

SK122008

I'm the hostess for this week's sketch challenge over at Papercraft Planet and let me tell ya...I am soooo NOT a sketch artist!! Man did I struggle coming up with a sketch! Finally I gave up and stopped thinking about it. Instead I just sat down and made a card that I liked and then drew up a sketch based on that card. I will have to ask my sketch idol, Julee, what her process is because I SUCK!!!!!! Anyway, here's my sketch:And here's my sample:As you can see, I flipped the sketch vertically and chose to use an embellishment rather than a large main image. The sentiment, framed with some Hodgepodge Hardware, is from Verve's Snowflake Splendor. I added some Imaginisce DP (are you tired of this paper yet?? It's just about the only cute holiday themed paper I found on this entire island this year, so I'm making the most of it!!), some SU ribbon and twine, a Marvy snowflake punch (my new toy), a button and some machine stitching. Overall a pretty simple card that will be finding it's way to a very special home real soon!!!! ;-)

We'd love for you to play along with us this week - anyone is welcome to join in the weekly sketch challenges at PCP!! Just be sure to use the tag SK122008 when uploading your photo so I can find it to pull it into our album!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention how excited I am that Joel and I have a date tomorrow morning!! We're going to the beach by ourselves!!!! We haven't been to the beach by ourselves in over 2 years! I don't know what it's like anymore to go to the beach and just sit with my book and RELAX and listen to the waves (and the humpback whales have arrived, so we'll be doing some whale watching too). It will be so different from our typical exhausting Saturday morning at the beach dodging thrown sand, chasing Dean up and down the beach, making sure Dean doesn't drown in the surf, lugging 57 pounds of crap with us (extra diapers, wipes, juice, snacks, super duper sunscreen/hat/long-sleeve rash guard, sand toys, etc etc etc). I am soooo looking forward to taking a nap on the beach! The last time I remember taking a nap on the beach was probably when I was 8 months pregnant with Dean and so incredibly uncomfortable! Joel would dig a big hole in the sand for my belly and I would blissfully lie on my stomach with the baby magically NOT pressing on all my innards for once and almost instantly fall asleep!! I can't believe this is the first time since those days that I've been able to take a nap on the beach (one of my favorite things to do in the whole world!!!!). Needless to say, it doesn't take much to excite me!!!!!! :-)

Whiff of Joy meets Verve

I was so excited to receive my Whiff of Joy guest designer kit in the mail yesterday with NINE new stamps!!! YAY!! When I was ordering my stamps, I had to resist the urge to order all Christmas sets - I knew they were coming from Europe and might take quite awhile to reach me in Hawaii - leaving me very little time before Christmas to play with new Christmas stamps. (although I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't take long at all - only about a week!!). However, I absolutely could NOT resist Santa Charlie!! Isn't he just the cutest little guy EVER!?!?I colored Santa Charlie with watercolor pencils and used my SU blender pen to blend. He was stamped in black Stazon on my new Pure Luxury Brilliant White cardstock from GinaK (LOVE this stuff!!). The sentiment is from Verve's Ornamental Christmas - I used my SU markers to ink only the "Season's" first, stamped it, then inked the "greetings" separately and stamped it below so I could punch it out with my circle punches. Worked out nicely I think! The card base is some textured dark brown cardstock from American Crafts and the DP is from SU's Ski Slope. I added some Baja Breeze ribbon and some silver cording to the sentiment for some "faux hangage". I wanted to use some liquid applique or white puff paint on the trim of Santa's suit, but the stuff is non-existant on Maui and it's not worth the exorbitant shipping costs for such a small purchase. I'll have to wait until I'm placing a larger order with one of the big companies and pick some up...

So what do you think? I'm still fairly new to the world of coloring and am experimenting with different techniques. I definitely find watercolors easier to control than Copics, but the colors aren't as rich. (but I do have to mention that this photo doesn't do my coloring justice if I can toot my own horn for a moment!! - the colors are much richer in real life). I'll be doing lots more experimenting with my new Whiff of Joy stamps in the coming weeks and would love some feedback as to which method you prefer...thanks!

Holiday Gifties

Happy Monday! As I mentioned yesterday, I had a very productive crafty weekend!! We got lots of rain here in the Aloha State (much needed here on Maui), so I enjoyed the opportunity to cozy up in my craft room and got lots of little giftables completed for the neighbors, coworkers and friends. I thought I'd share them with you today.

This first project is for our neighborhood families - I filled a clear paint pail with See's candies and wrapped a "belly band" around. The sentiment is from Verve's Snowflake Splendor, stamped on Kraft CS and layered on Imaginisce DP and textured Chocolate Chip CS, then cut out with my oval nesties. The top of the pail has a Marvy Snowflake punch with a button center and I added some ribbon to the handle. Turned out pretty cute, yeah? And so easy!I bought a few Border's giftcards for my coworkers and our babysitter and made these quick little giftcard holders using a template by Kristina Werner that I found on Two Peas. For the first giftcard holder, I used another Verve sentiment, this one from Ornamental Christmas. I used more yummy Imaginisce DP for these projects as well.These last two projects, Snowman Soup and Magic Reindeer Food, will be given to the neighborhood kids and I think they turned out super cute!! They're pretty self-explanatory so I'll let the pics do the talking. ETA: someone asked about the font I used for the Snowman Soup. It's Traveling Typewriter, I think downloaded from dafont.com.So that's it...Between my craftiness yesterday and my shopping on Saturday I think I'm mostly ready for Christmas. I only have a few stocking items to get for DH Joel and to pick up a spa gift certificate for my Mom (hmmm, sounds like I need to make a gift certificate holder....)

PCP Sketch Challenge

I've missed out on a few of the weekly sketch challenges over at Papercraft Planet, but I had some crafty time today and love Adela's sketch, so I just had to whip something up!! You can check out the sketch and all the challenge details here in the sketch challenge group on PCP. If you make a card, be sure to upload it to PCP with the tag SK121308 so we can all check it out!! Here's mine...I used Verve's Abundant Blessings for the main image, paper piecing the vase. The DP is from Scenic Route and I paired it with Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and Wild Wasabi CS. The sentiment is from Verve's Artful Elegance. I added some half pearls from Island Paperie and ribbon to finish it off. That's it! I hope you all have time to participate!

And don't forget about Island Paperie's Inspiration Challenge going on over at PCP for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Island Paperie's online store!!!

Island Paperie Inspiration Challenge #1

Alooooha!! I'm so excited about this post!! My LSS, Island Paperie has recently launched their online store and in celebration they're hosting a super fun challenge over at Papercraft Planet (with a $25 gift certificate going to the winner)! I'll be doing some design work for Island Paperie in the months ahead, so you'll be seeing more Aloha projects soon!! Here are the challenge details and my sample card:

Island Paperie is a locally owned scrapbook store located in historic Wailuku Town here on the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii. Island Paperie specializes is Hawaiian / Tropical themed paper crafting supplies and recently launched their online store. To celebrate and help promote their new online store, Island Paperie is hosting this fun Inspiration Challenge, open to all participants. There will be a random drawing from all participants to win a $25 gift certificate to Island Paperie!!! (each participant will have a chance for their name to be entered twice into the drawing).

The Challenge details:
1. Join the Island Paperie group on Papercraft Planet
2. Check out the Inspiration piece here in the Island Paperie store - it's a piece of 12x12 paper from Island Paperie's signature line.
3. Create any type of papercrafted project that your heart desires (scrapbook page, card, mini album, altered item, etc) using the inspiration piece as a starting off point for your project - maybe you're inspired by the colors or basic design elements of the paper. Whatever. Be creative.
4. Post a photo of your project on PCP with the tag IPIC1 (for Island Paperie Inspiration Challenge #1) so I can find it and pull it into our album.
5. To be entered into the drawing a second time, post your project on your blog with links to the challenge and to Island Paperie (Don't forget to link us up to your blog post in the Island Paperie group so we know you did it).
6. HAVE FUN!!!

Deadline is 11:59 pm Hawaii time December 27, 2008. Winner will be announced December 28.

Feel free to message me if you have any questions!

Island Paperie products are not required, but we'll be giving out special RAKs randomly to anyone sporting Island Paperie goodies in their projects throughout the next few months - so if you got 'em, use 'em!! (be sure to use the tag IP for any projects using their products on PCP so we can find them)!!!

OK, here is my sample card:
I actually used the Inspiration piece of paper, pink and green hibiscus, cutting out the large hibiscus, bottom border and some leaves and layering them with dimensionals on some yummy textured bazzill paper. I stamped the Aloha Sentiment in Versamark ink and embossed with white powder.

So what do you think?

Hand in Hand Challenge

Melanie Muenchinger, one of my fellow Papercraft Planet Supernova Designers, is also a rubber stamp illustrator for Gina K Designs. Melanie's 14th release, “Hand in Hand”, available for purchase this Thursday, December 11th at 10PM CST, is a celebration of life, love and friendship!

Catch a special sneak peek of the set TODAY on Melanie's blog, and then continue on to the rest of Gina K's talented team of designers for more samples using her newest stamps.


Would you like to win this all-occasion set of stamps for FREE? To celebrate this new release, Melanie would like you to create a new card, page or 3-D paper craft inspired by special milestones (birth, love, wedding, etc) or special moments in your life (just being with your child, a friend, …) in some way. You can use any stamped images, photos, found objects, whatever to help "tell the story"! Your entry must be uploaded to Papercraft Planet by 5PM CST on Thursday, December 11 with the tag GKDMMSJ to be eligible, one winner will be randomly chosen and receive the signed "Hand in Hand" stamp set and a handmade card directly from Melanie. Winner will be announced on Melanie's blog tomorrow, Thursday, 12/11 at 6:30 CST before the big release party, see her blog for details! One more prize: Melanie will also choose one FAVORITE project from the challenge, and this person will be receiving her JANUARY set and guest designing for her NEXT month (the first guest designer of 2009)! EEEEK!!! How exciting is that!!?? Anyway, here's my card for the challenge:With my baby turning 2 this past weekend, I was feeling a bit sentimental for those early tantrum-free baby days, so I decided to make a baby card inspired by my son's fresh first days for this challenge. I used my new Paperworks Co stamp Gordie the Giraffe, colored with Copics. One of my clearest memories of Dean's first days home from the hospital is of him lying in his bassinet in the living room of our old condo in Kihei (man am I glad we sold that place!!!), soaking up some Maui sun. In my memory of that day I can still hear the waves crashing and smell the ocean breeze - our condo was about 3 blocks from the beach and we had a big South Swell that day (normally we couldn't hear the waves at our condo). Anyway, Dean was wearing this cute little onesie with a giraffe on the chest. Gordie reminds me of that giraffe!!! {sigh} (and to think today he screamed for 20 minutes because he broke the blue crayon and HAD to have THAT blue crayon to color with - never mind that there were 7 OTHER blue crayons in the ginormous box of crayons - NO, instead he found it necessary to throw himself on the floor and scream and cry and yell "color broke" and "blue gone" over and over and over and over....is this really that same child????). I reminded him he's lucky he's the most adorable kid in the entire world!!! Sorry, I digress (again)...

Anyway, I used a textured dark brown American Crafts CS for the card base along with some So Saffron DSP, Baja Breeze CS and the AWESOME Gina K Pure Luxury brilliant white CS as well as some Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip ribbon and Hodgepodge Hardware.

Happy Anniversary to Me!! (and a MoJo card)

Yep, today is mine and Joel's 3-year anniversary. We were married on the beach at sunset at the White Orchid Beach House in Makena on December 9, 2005. I can't believe it's been 3 years!!! Actually, I can't believe it's been almost 7 years since we started dating!!! WOW. Time flies, huh!?!? We don't have any exciting plans (at least none that I'm aware of) because our babysitter is unavailable and Joel coaches wrestling until late evening today (it's a weight-cutting day...yuck). I think we'll probably go out to a nice dinner Friday night, then we're going on a quick family camping trip up Haleakala Saturday night.

So I thought I better make my hubby a card today. I used Julee's MoJo Monday Sketch, but stretched it a bit creatively. I think it still works though. I wanted to use the Anniversary Birds set for this card, so I needed to turn the image panel and then I needed to turn the long narrow panel to make it look right and then I just decided to turn the whole thing while I was at it!!! Here's the card....sorry for the poor quality photo...it's been a blustery, dreary overcast day here on Maui today - the temperature right now at 3:45 in the afternoon is only about 76 degrees!!! brrrrrr! that's just downright chilly for us! In fact, I've had a sweatshirt on all day today! Anyway, here's the card (for real this time):I used Kraft CS along with some yummy Basic Grey Granola paper. I paper pieced the birds' bodies (the blue is not quite so bright in real life!). Joel has no appreciation for "foofy" cards as he calls them, so I tried to keep the "foof" to a minimum on this one. I think he'll like it!!

And while we're on the topic of my Anniversary, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite wedding photos with you all.....enjoy! Check out my hottie husband.... :-)

Monday already???

I don't have any projects to share with you today, but I wanted to quickly post this before I fall into bed! What a busy busy weekend!! Yesterday my baby turned two! I can't believe it. We had his birthday party last weekend, so it was a pretty mellow day - we went to the beach in the morning as a family, then came home to watch the Sooners kick Mizzou's ass in the Big 12 Championship game!!! Wooo Hoooo!!!! :-)

Anyway, I really wanted to participate in this week's MoJo Monday challenge because I love the sketch AND it's a contest week. I'm so sorry for the late notice if you didn't know about it already, but there are still a few more hours left to participate and get your entries done for your chance to win some Verve bucks!!!!! Unfortunately for me, there just weren't enough hours this past week....

I have been extremely busy for what seems like FOREVER completely a digital photobook for my BFF Brandi and I FINALLY finished the last page tonight. I love how it turned out and I know it is something she will always treasure, but man! I am soooo glad to be done with that thing! I'll be sharing some of the pages with you over the next several weeks.

Oh! Remember that guest DT call that Whiff of Joy was having over at Papercraft Planet?? Well, if you're a regular reader of my blog you know that I NEVER post copic projects - because I absolutely suck at coloring, or so I thought...until I got the right paper!!! WOW!! What a difference paper makes! Remember when I mentioned that my friend Jodi sent me some images to color? Well, they were stamped on the most awesome paper EVER - I seriously thought I had thrown away hundreds of dollars on those darn copics until I got those images from Jodi!!! I'm just waiting on some more info from her, then I'll share the source with you. I do know that it is locally made here in the islands (gotta love supporting my local Hawaiian businesses!). So be watching for more details.

OK, on to my exciting news....Apparently I DON'T suck at coloring!!! My card was one of 3 selected in the Whiff of Joy challenge and I'll be fulfilling a 2-month guest stint on their Design Team!! I am just thrilled (and a little intimidated as my coloring experience is SERIOUSLY lacking - but what better motivator to get in some practice!?!?). I'm anxiously awaiting my first set of WoJ stamps and then I'll start sharing some goodies with you.

OK, I really do need to get to bed. Back to work for me tomorrow - and I actually have to work a full week this week (which for me means 3 whole days) after 4 weeks of only working 1-2 days each week....it's gonna be rough. Thanks for sticking with this loooooong creative-less post. Here's a couple more super cute pics of Dean from his birthday party last week...

Whiff of Joy DT Call

Whiff Of Joy is having a Guest DT Call!!! You can read all about it here on Papercraft Planet. I just found out about it late last night, so sorry for the late notice. The call ends in just a few hours I think. I only recently discovered Whiff of Joy stamps when my blogging buddy Jodi told me about them. She is so sweet - she stamped a bunch of images and mailed them to me last week!!! (Thank you Jodi!!! I received them Thursday in perfect condition!!) It was funny because the same day I got her images in the mail I also received my first Whiff of Joy stamp, the adorable little number I used in this card:I colored the image with copics and used Chocolate Chip textured CS for the card base along with some yummy DP from Imaginisce, some double stitched Chocolate Chip ribbon and hemp twine, and hodgepodge hardware. The sentiment is from Verve's Ornamental Christmas (on sale now!!) To finish it up, I added some chunky Mica Flake glitter flakes from Martha Stewart to her hat & handwarmer.