Tagged X's 3!!!!

I've been a bad girl and not been posting my tags (not on purpose, promise!)..I got tagged by three gals, so I think it's about time I get on the ball and post them, huh! This tag was given to me by Malieta (aka Risa)...You Rock my Socks...Wow, thanks for the tag, Malieta!! You rock too, sistah! Head on over to check out all of Malieta's rockin' work. She is the layer queen, I tell ya, her cards really do rock!

I was tagged today by Shir Benovich all the way from Israel! Holy smokes! I love the internet, connecting all of us stampers all around the world. Check out Shirl's blog HERE On this tag, I have to reveal 7 random facts about myself.

1) I'm only 4' 11" tall (short) and have been this size since 6th grade! Always the shortest when lining up by size-hmph!

2) I never refuse desserts, I have a major sweet tooth and would skip a meal to eat a large dessert (so bad!)

3) My favorite color used to be yellow and it all started because of a lollipop. When we were little, we used to fill gasoline at this station that gave lollipops to the kids and the three sisters used to fight for the color, what else, red!! My mom convinced me that yellow was a clean color and was better. Wierd! Since then, my favorite color has changed to Pink. I think because my child is a boy, I didn't get enough pink girly stuff out of my system...haha!!

4) I don't watch TV. Not that I don't like TV but I'll never get anything done!

5) I don't like my bed blankets messy. I HAVE to straighten them out every night! Can't stand those lumps. Do you think I'm a princess?? (Princess and the Pea) - yeah, right!

6) I used to be a preschool teacher - until I realized that I needed to make more money to survive!!

7) I have to have my toenails painted the same color as my fingernails except if I have french manicure done, then it's pink polish on the toesies!

Corie tagged me here. Corie is such a sweetheart. Thanks for the tag girl! Okay, the "rules" of the game for this tag: each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Ten years ago: Gosh, ten years ago is a long time ago. I just started my job at the state with the Department of Commerce. I started off in the Office Services Department and the highlight of my day was running the mail machine. Can you believe that??? After I passed my probation period, I was asked to join the Office of Administrative Hearings in the Medical Claims Conciliation Panel - we process the medical malpractice lawsuits at the state level before it goes to court. I was still a consultant for Creative Memories and my son was only 3 years old at that time...how time flies!

Five things in today’s to do list: Only five??? that's hard!1) finish up June's card kits for the gals who ordered them; 2) create more birthday cards to send out (because I didn't finish what I said I would make!!); 3) finish making the 2 custom flip albums for Jenn and Rita (you girls are gonna be surprised!); price my craft items to sell at my big craft sale happening this weekend; 4) visit and post comments on my favorite blogs and 5) work on next month's projects!

Snacks I enjoy: I'm not really a snacker, but I do love chocolate and my sweets! I never refuse desserts (I said that already!)

Things I would do if I was a millionaire: Buy a house with a gigantic craft room for so I can have classes indoors and with A/C!!; Put aside whatever $ it takes for Nolan's college education, maybe own a craft store :) Hmm, and possibly build a center for disadvantage kids to come to for recreation and maybe have a decent bank account! haha!! wake up from this dream!!

Places I have lived: I've only lived in beautiful Hawaii and love it here!

Here are the people that I am tagging for both tags: Rita, Jodi, Malieta, Jean Y. and Maria. Don't worry ladies if you can't do this...getting tagged takes alot of time, but fun to read! Also, if you want to join in on the fun, you don't need to be formally "tagged" - just do it!

I hope I didn't bore you all with these tags. I personally like to read tags as I learn more about my friends out there! Hopefully, I'll be able to post a new project tomorrow and then I'm taking a short blog break so I can work on my craft sale and projects to post! Have a terrific Thursday!

Spreading the word...

I got an email from a faithful blog reader and I'm proud to call her my "friend"...girlfriend Gina Wrona emailed me a link to this blog in Sweden who is running a really generous blog candy right now. Check out the candy HERE and post a comment to get a chance to be a winner!

I love these images, so I went to check out the other images they offer and loved them more! My favorites are from the Doodle Factory. I just love these creatures and animals because they are so whimsical, I just want to get some to ink up!

Go on over to sign up for that blog candy and check out the images!!

Scrapbook reminiscing and a blog to share!

I'm trying to get my scrapping mojo back. I really have good intentions to scrap but somehow, I can't get out of the over commitment I made to do all of these card classes and such. Sooooo, I decided to reminisce a little on a couple of scrap pages I did a while back. I don't think I've ever posted them on my blog although they are on my slide show. I did, however, post them a long time ago on Jen's site called For the Love of Stamping, and Scrapping too! Remember that?? I loved that site. Unfortunately, we all moved on to blogs, which is a good thing! Here's a couple of pages that I dug up. Nolan and his cousin Matt (from San Francisco). Matt came for a visit and the boys had a blast!

This next page is one of my favorite pages. It was taken at one of our Stamping with Friends gatherings...everyone was in a silly, fun mood! My BFF Jen is such the life of the party, hey girl! Miss you coming over!

Finally today, my faithful friend and customer, Judie C. (Hi Judie!) shared this blog with me as she told me how much fun she had shopping at for her Copic pens at Hawaiian Graphics! If you have Copic pens and want to know more on what they can actually do besides just color, then, you gotta check out this awesome blog! This blog is called "I Like Markers"...let me know what you think! I can't wait to go back to read some of the articles this gal wrote.

I was tagged by Malieta and Corie, so I will be posting that soon. Thanks girls! Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

BIG craft sale this weekend!

A group of island girls are gathering at my place this Saturday, June 28th for a BIG CRAFT SALE! We call it the Bargain Craft Hunter's Treasure Shopping Day! We will be selling retired Stampin' Up! stamps as well as from other companies - Close to my Heart, maybe some TAC stamps (The Angel Company), Hero Arts, TLC stuff as well as many individual stamps from various companies. Sizzix stuff and lots of Accessories too! (ink pads, magazines and books). The majority of these items are gently used and will be sold at bargain prices!! The bargains begin selling at 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Please email me for more info as far as information on how to get to my place.

There's no RSVP to send, just come on down for some bargain hunting and be ready to shop til you drop! You're welcome to invite your friends too! Hope to see you all on Saturday!

More Copic pen sale info and a couple shout outs!

Good evening!! Can't believe that it's after 8 PM and I feel like I didn't do much in the craft/creating department. Where did the day go?! I had planned to post early this morning, but got side track with other things before I left to take mom to her appointment. Then it's grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning and finally, blufing!, yay! Here was one of my morning distractions. This is one of Mochiko's favorite spots in the morning. She loves to sit in Nolan's window sill to sniff the air. It's quite hilarious to see her cute little nose twitching as she basks in the sun. We have a mongoose that lives in our yard, so I'm always thinking that she's sniffing out for him (or her) and probably being so grateful that she's a house kitty :)

A note about the post I made yesterday regarding the Copic pen sale. I've had a bunch of gals email me to ask what the regular prices of the Copic pens were at Hawaiian Graphics. Since I only bought the sketch and Ciao pens, I only know those prices. The regular price of the sketch pen is $5.75 and the Ciao pens regular price is $3.95. The pens are 25% off and the gal at HG told me that the sale is until Friday, June 27th. I was told by Val (a blogger) that there was a crowd in front of the Copic pen display when she went today, so I guess the word is out! Hope those of you who plan to go, go down there soon so you can make sure you get the colors you want!

I finally can do my shout out to a very sweet friend that alot of us in blogland know and love. Allison from Stampin' when I can sent me a RAK of these cute kitty stamps from Pink Cat Studio. Here, I used one of the images...love this! Maybe I can turn Mochiko into a craft kitty eh? Hey Allison, sorry for the belated acknowledgement of this thoughtful rak, but I really wanted to ink up the stamp and make a card to properly thank you. So, girlfriend, THANK YOU so much for the stamps, it totally made my day and I apologize for not creating sooner. Don't want to seem ungrateful, or think that I forgot to send my Mahalo the right way!!!!!Supplies: Real read CS, gold cardstock (company not known), Stamp by Pink Cat Studio, Fall Flowers DSP by SU, Three for You flower punch, rhinestones. You can't see too well, but I used gold stickles for her crown and the bottom of her cape.

Got this "sweet" rak from Denise. Denise came to my card class yesterday and surprised me with this RAK. A yummy Dove chocolate bar was waiting for me inside of this really cool wrapper. I opened up the wrapper carefully so I can save the idea! I love how she crimped the ends of the wrapper, super neat. Thanks so much Denise!!

Thanks for coming by today even it the day is almost over!! See you all tomorrow :)

Catch Copic Pens on sale and another peek!

Mochiko says, "I love looking for bargains and I think I found one!!"

If you like copic pens but have a hard time swallowing those pretty prices, they are on sale at Hawaiian Graphics! Actually, HG is having a storewide sale, 25% off so I picked up some new colors but didn't go too crazy. Bought some of the Ciao style pens instead of the Sketch like I have picked up in the past. Guess why? They are a little cheaper! The tips look the same, but I was told that you cannot change the tips. I'm really okay with that. I'm so excited, I can't wait to use them! Another reason why I bought the Ciao style pens is because I'm "pah ke" (of chinese ancestry, thrifty, cheapo - well sort of, but not really! hahaha!)

I don't use these pens for everything, but I like them. I'm still in love with my SU stampin' write markers cuz they match everything!

Today was my demonstrator session...I know it's summer and everyone was busy because we had a full house of three demonstrators! Nah, really, it was still alot of fun with just the four of us and we finished pretty quick considering we made 12 cards! Tomorrow, we'll have a little more girls since it's customer class day! Here's another peek at one of the wedding cards we made. I love using those embossing folders really add to the card background.

Supplies: Very vanilla, blush blossom, groovy guava cardstock, Heart stamp from the Year after Year stamp set, Mr. & Mrs. from the All Holidays stamp set. Double stitched groovy guava ribbon. Swiss dots embossing folder. The hearts were glittered with dazzling diamonds.
Time to sign off, I'm so tired, I'm getting a little wacky...Hope you all had a great Saturday. See you tomorrow.

Another Zzzzzzzzz card!

Happy Aloha Friday!! You all know that I'm good at getting stuck on making something I really like, can you tell? I'm loving this "Z" card. Here, I made one for my sweet friend Wanida at the Hawaii State Federal Credit Union. Wanida celebrated a birthday last week. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANIDA!! Wanida and I share a love for cats, so this one's for you!

Supplies for card: Pretty in pink, chocolate chip and white CS. DSP by Junkitz, Stamp is by Whipper Snapper called "Leah". I got this stamp from Cute Stuff...it's one of my favorite stamps of late. Check out Cute Stuff cuz I think she might have a couple left. The stamp "Sweet" is by Stampendous. Large star punch. The star is from the In the Stars stamp set. If you like this set, hurry!, this set is only available through the end of June is from the Occasions Mini catalog.
And of course, I had to make her, what else?, a flip album! I used these Hello Kitty stickers that I found in my stash. Papers are by Junkitz and were a part of a kit I ordered through Jen's store - Little C's. Check out Little C's online store through the link on my sidebar and say hi to Jen! She's got some of the latest and greatest stuff there!

Thanks for coming by! Hope you all have some fantastic plans for the weekend!!

Tomorrow (Saturday) is our Stamping with Friends Demonstrator gathering. We will be making the 6 wedding and 6 sympathy cards. Customer class on Sunday, June 22 to make the same cards. There are still a few seats left for this Sunday and a handful of seats for my June 29th class. Class kits come with all supplies needed. All materials are cut out and ready to stamp and assemble to make the 12 cards including envelopes! Remember, all attendees make a bonus project! Email me if you are interested. I am also selling class kits if you cannot attend the class.

Flip Album winners!!

So......you want to know who won?? I know who the winners are!!!

I always have a difficult time when it comes to selecting a winner - I hate losing. But, I only have three books to give away so here are my winners. I did base my winners on the links/projects that I felt I would most likely make. I did check out all of the links and I must say that these were my favorites. Thank you to all of you who played.

My first book goes to Jenn S. I love the tutorial she linked me to to make these cute 3D scallop circle posies...I'll be trying it out soon! Check out the tutorial for the cute posies HERE. Thanks for the link!

My second book goes to Jodi Lee. I loved this tutorial by Andrea Walford to make this cute treat note holder using the Carousel note cards. I already made one and here it is! The image is by Dandelion Designs. I just loved this cute penguin and his ice cream cone, don't you?? Oh!, BTW, Jean will be at J's Knicknacks this Saturday, June 21st for a make and take from 10AM. Stop by to say Hello to Jean! (Hi Jean!, love your stamps!!)

Here's a pic of the little insert tag I made...Supplies: SU carousel notes, wild wasabi and vanilla CS, wasabi double stitched ribbon, DSP - Afternoon Tea and a leftover piece from the chocolate DSP from a Spring catty (sorry, forgot the name of the paper!!!), scallop circle punch, white gel pen, circle stamps by Hero Arts and Yipee! stamp by Wordsworth.

You can check out Andrea's tutorial for this cute treat holder HERE.

My last book goes to Rita. I just fell in love with these ornaments and can't wait to try making some. Here's the link to the ORNAMENTS

I'll need to get your addresses ladies so I can send you your flip albums! Thank you to all who played in my give away!!

Andrew Wilson Interview

My good friend and assistant Andrew Wilson was recently interviewed by his buddy Ben Dugas... I was in the room too so I say a few things, but I sorta come off as a tool... Its a good interview though, a couple shots of Andrew's art and a few shots of our studio... I think Ben really has a talent for this.... Anyway, check it out here!

Winners and a new card to post tonight!

Hi everyone!

Nothing to post this morning, too many crisis going on. BUT, I will be posting tonight! Have my three winners for the flip album and another Z card to post!! See you tonight!

Official Teenager

I'm posting tonight instead of tomorrow. I really have to get cracking on completing my kits (just finishing touches) as the demonstrators are coming on Saturday and my class is on Sunday!
Well, my son turned 13 yesterday (June 16), OMG, the official teenager! I hope the ride on this teenager rode is not as rocky as I could imagine it to be.
Here's the card I made for him. When I saw this "Z" fold card, I knew I needed to make one! I'm pleased with the way it turned out. Oh!, BTW, I got all of the dimensions for this card from my sweet friend, Dawn Griffith. Click here to see her sample and all of the measurements to make this card. Thanks Dawn for the inspiration!! Here's a side view of the card - see the "Z"???

Thought I'd give you a peek at the inside of the card. I inked only the "birthday" on this happy birthday stamp so that the card would say Totally Awesome Birthday...

Here's the supply list:

Cardstock: Cool Caribbean (retired), very vanilla, chocolate chip, black

Designer Paper: Striped paper from SS kit Friends & Flowers (sorry, retired again...)

Stamp sets: It's Your Birthday, So Cool, Fun Pun, In The Stars

Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Chocolate Chip

Markers: Tempting Turquoise, Copic Marker -Cadmium Yellow Y15, Ruby Red, Green Galore

Accessories: Large and Small Star punches, gold mini brads, dimensionals

Mochiko is singing to Nolan .... "Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuu!"

Actually, she was yawning and Nolan caught her right in the middle. I just cracked up when I saw this picture!

So, what did we do to celebrate?? Nolan's request was to go fishing, so we walked down to the beach as we live only a block from the beautiful beach...he managed to catch one Papio but because it wasn't 10", we had to release it back into the ocean. It was a beautiful day! After fishing, we went to eat lunch at Grace's - ono (delicious) chicken katsu and then to play games at Dave & Busters. I had to rush back to cook dinner. His request was ribs with Dad's "secret" sauce. It was a good thing mom helped me watch the pot while we were out. Everything worked out and I had one happy birthday boy. Happy Birthday Nolan! My baby is a teenager!

Thanks for stopping by! I took a bunch of pics at the beach, it was such a pretty day, I had to take a few shots of the scenery...I'm going to post a slide show on my side bar.. go check it out!! Another Z card tomorrow!

I didn't forget Father's Day!

Hello! What a busy weekend! I had to do so many things I dare not log onto my blog to post because I would never get off!!!

I didn't forget about our Dear ol' Dads...I saw a similar card while sifting through my google reader a few days ago which gave me an idea to create my Father's Day Card. I really liked how it turned out. This was the card Nolan gave to his Dad. Supplies: Stamp is from the All Holidays stamp set. Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Night of Navy (and the little green star is not SU cardstock). Designer paper from Fall Flowers. Large and small star punches, orange striped grosgroin ribbon.

Hope all the Dads out there had a great Father's Day!! My sisters and their families came over for dinner. I ended up cooking tons of tomato beef over noodles...Dad's latest growing obsession are tomatoes!! Lots and lots and did I say lots? of tomatoes! So, I cut them all up and boiled them and strained all the seeds and skin out and made tomato puree in which became the sauce for my meal. It was yummy! We all had a fun time.

Here's a pic of me and my sisters with mom and dad. Pardon, but we were all not "dressed up" since we were all relaxing at home!

Here's a pic of the grandkids with grandma and grandpa...

Have a grand day everyone! Thanks for coming by today! I will be posting pics from Nolan's bday tomorrow...I loved the way my "Z" card turned out!!!

GizMag

I have my work featured in the first issue of GizMag... here's the link...

They are ready to retire!

Here is what everyone is waiting for! The 2008 retired list is out! Everyone is buzzing about the retired list and it is here! Click here to view the list of what is retiring from the Spring Summer Idea Book & Catalog. This means is that there will probably be a mad rush to get your hands on these stamps that will soon be gone forever! Email me to place your order so you don't miss out on getting what you've been just thinking about getting before it's too late! Thanks for reading! I'm going to check out the list to see what I need to order :)

This was easy

June is a busy birthday month!! I have five more bday cards to make for this month!! Let's see...did one for Cheryl already :) - need to make one for Sherry, Leilani, Susie, Joyce and can't forget my son, Nolan. He will be 13 on Monday! The official "teenager" - I better buckle my seatbelt! I took off from work on Monday so that we can do something special for his bday. He requested to go fishing. Hmm, I haven't done that in a while. Maybe Nolan and Dad can fish and mom can take pics and relax???

Well, after creating the 6 wedding cards and 3 sympathy card designs for this month's class, I've run out out creativity!! oh no! Thank goodness for my google reader. I was so happy that tonight, I was able to finally view all 500 posts! I used to think that it was super cool to just subscribe in a reader that I will take my time to check out each fantastic post and then it started to back up when I didn't log in to check daily. I think the highest amount of posts I've gotten that I didn't view was like almost 1,000 - whoa, that's alot of posts!! I have since started to subscribe to alot of blogs just so I can check them out on my email and not miss all of the good stuff!

Sorry to drag on about readers, but this brings me to the reason I was so happy for the reader! I fell in love with a birthday card made by Taylor VanBruggen so I ran over to my table to make one while I kept my computer on her blog! Thank you for the inspiration, Taylor! Click here to view other fantastic projects by Taylor. Here's what I made. I won't spoil who it's for so I won't mention her name. I love the way it came out and it was so easy! I'll be posting more birthday cards in the days to follow.

Supplies:

Cardstock: close to cocoa, purely pomegranate

Designer paper: Fall Flowers

Stamp sets: Big Bold Birthday, Eat Cake

Accessories: pomegranate double stitched ribbon, silver brad from the silver hodgepodge, dazzling diamonds and gold stickles.

I'm exhausted! Today, Wini came over and helped me cut all the pieces for my 30 card kits for this month! Thank you Wini for your help! Wini is the cutting queen...she loves to cut paper. Also, thank you to my sister, Cheryl, for being my supply back up! I borrowed a load of supplies from her. My order will be arriving sometime next week but we wanted to do it all today!

Hey! there's still room to reserve your spot for my class this month. Email me if you are interested! It's late and time to hit the pillow...Stampin' Up! retired list is probably out already!!! I'm so excited to see what is retiring. Thanks for looking in - Goodnight everyone!

Birthday lunch celebration and a sneak peek!

Yay! We made it to Friday! Even though we had a holiday on Wednesday, this week seemed to have been dragging!! Yesterday we celebrated Cheryl's 39th birthday (wink, wink!) at Ryan's at Ward Center. We celebrated early - her birthday is tomorrow (June 14). Here we are ready to share a yummy dessert!! Can you believe that we didn't finish it?? Lunch was yummy too! Here's a pic of what the restaurant looks like

This month, my class is focusing on wedding cards and sympathy cards. We will be making 6 wedding cards and 6 sympathy cards. Here's the first of the wedding cards that I created and it's my favorite. This is the sneak peek!

Formal email announcements go out tonight or tomorrow. Email me if you'd like to get an email with the details of my class! Class kits will also be available if you cannot attend in person.

Thanks for checking in today. Hope you have some grand plans for the weekend!!

Reminder...if you are playing in my giveaway

for the flip album, don't forget, if you post an anonymous comment and I cannot identify who you are, those entrants will not be considered because I won't be able to find you if you are one of the winners!! Please post your real name and at least an email address so I can find you. If you don't want to post this information because others could see (privacy issue), you may send me a personal email. On the subject line, please write flip album giveaway info. Thanks! I've been checking out the links that some of you posted and the projects are cute! I can't wait to see more!

Sorry, nothing to post today craft-wise. I've been working on my projects for this month's class which we will be making 6 wedding cards and 6 sympathy cards. I'm so happy with the results of the wedding cards and I know that you will too! Please email me if you are interested in attendng this month's class (June 22 and 29) and I will fill you in on all of the details. For those of you who have never taken my class or purchased a class kit, all of the pieces are prepared for you and pretty much all you do is stamp and assemble the card/project. Part of the neat thing of attending a class is that you get to learn techniques and different ways to use some of the common supplies. Plus, attendees also get to do a bonus project!

Happy Thursday everyone! I will be back tomorrow with a sneak peak of the class cards!!

300th post giveaway!

I'm on my way out the door. Nolan and I are heading out on this Hawaiian holiday. Today is Kamehameha Day and it is a State holiday! Since I'm a state worker, I get the day off! yahoo!
Well, in honor of my 300th post (a few days ago), I will be giving away three (3) flip albums...one album to mark each 100 posts!

I decided to give away flip albums because I'm having just too much fun making them. Why am I stuck on these albums?? Help! I need to move onto another project!!
Here's what you have to do to enter to win...post a comment here linking me to a fabulous project to make so I can move on from these albums!! I will select a winner in one week!
Here's one I made for Lianne at Cute Stuff...(Lianne, I'll be dropping this off soon)
Here's the supplies scoops: Bazzill cardstock, DP by American Crafts, Autumn Leaves Clear Stamps - Mindy's Zoo, certainly celery 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, photo corner punch, silver mini brads, circle scallop punch, marvy scallop oval and mega oval punch.

Hope you all have a fantastic day today!! Good luck to everyone!

A cute tilt card

This was the free make and take at Cute Stuff back in May. I just love the DP she chose and isn't that penguin looking so summery?? I can't believe (actually, I can) that Lianne cut out all of the images, even the teeny weeny birdie... that's patience!! The tutorial for this cool tilt card came from Charmaine over at Oodabug Alley. Here's the link for the tutorial - TILT CARD. OMG, Charmaine is so talented and she has soooo many cool cards and projects. Go check out her blog HERE
While I was on Charmaine's blog, I caught sight of, I swear, a card she received from her neice and the image was 2 lady bugs hugging...could it be a Dandelion Design stamp??? Jean Y., you gotta go check it out!
Here's what the inside of the card looked like. Don't you just love the paper insert with those circles? Those circles are from a Hero Arts stamp set. Love it! Thanks Lianne for letting me make one of these cool cards!!

Well, it's summer time and hopefully everything that has been causing me alot of stress will subside. At one point, I think I've reached that overload and I am now trying to deal with eveything without taking drastic measures.

Even Mochiko is feeling a little blue because she hasn't been featured in my blog for a few weeks - sorry my sweet ktty!

Have a super Tuesday! I will be posting a fun give away tomorrow! Come back to check it out!!