Coffee Card Swap ~ November, 2021

Aloha~

This is the card for November. Although it's still hot in Hawaii, the place where the recipient lives is getting cold, so I used Concord & 9th's Turnabout stamp to make the background with sweaters in it, as well as mug cup with steam. For a change, I used Gina K's orange colored paper instead of "white" card stock. The sentiments and mug cup dies were heat embossed with Tim Holts' Distress glaze. I love this product! When it first came out, I made some swatches, but NOT for the colors, but the inks underneath of the glaze. Most of the inks underneath have bled, from a little to a lot. For black, I really don't like to stain my clear stamps but Ranger's archival jet black works the best. 

Inside, I looooove this fox stamp! I used it two years ago, and I had to use it again! There are other animals in this stamp set but I've only used this fox stamp! lol I love coloring the stamped image with colored pencils when the background card stock isn't white/cream, so that's what I used. This is my 3rd PUMPKIN SPICE themed cards this fall! lol YES, I LOVE PUMPKIN SPICE for fall! 😋

Hope y'all are having a beautiful fall! 

A little early but Happy Thanksgiving! 

Hugs, Eve

Happy Halloween #2!

Happy Halloween! 

The 2nd Halloween card I made this year. I read someone's post saying that she bought more stamps and stamp supplies for the season but ended up not using them all and making cards with those ones she didn't use on the release year, and ended up using in next couple of years. Think of that for a moment, if you've been doing that for 20 years! lol .. Anyways, I bought this Lawn Fawn's stamp set a couple of years ago. I colored them with Copics. I stamped directly to the navy color card base, inside, and used colored pencils to color the moon, stars and clouds. The sentiment is from also Lawn Fawn's stamp set but much older set. I again used the distress embossing glaze over white card stock and black ink for stamping. I'm really liking on how to use the distress embossing glaze! 

The spiderwebs on both sides were die cut from the black shimmer paper, from Lawn Fawn, too. 

Lighting on these photos aren't that great but those spider and webs are much more black and shiney...I found the "pumpkin" button in my stash to finish this card off. 

Hope you all are having a Spooktacular Halloween! Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Love, Eve

Happy Halloween! #1

Aloha~

This is my 1st Halloween card this year. Last year, due to the family emergency, I was out of the state for almost 3 months, and missed entire "fall" season which is my most fav. season to make cards. 

I bought this Haunted houses dies of TH last year. And, I saw the release of the SSS's sky scene making stencil set this summer. I had to use them together for my 1st card! It's always a challenge to work on the "dark" color card stock. Mostly you can use "white" ink underneath and it works much better but sometimes, you can't know exactly what kind of color you would get. For white clouds, they look fine. For the moon, I used 3 different colors and brands of ink pads. For the ground, that was the hardest. I used the "grey" tone ink, starting from the lightest grey. I really like how the color turned out to be. I used stamps from LF's stamp sets (a couple of them) from the past. For the sentiment strip, I recently read the tip on TH's distress embossing glaze. I love the colors, and I've "collected" 12 colors so far, but had never found the chance to use them. SSS sells the white sentiment strips these days, and Nina Marie, one of the DT's at SSS mentioned this. So, I didn't buy the sentiment strips but stamped the sentiment on white card stock, and used the glaze over the sentiment. I love how it turned out! I don't like using Archival inks on clear stamps cuz it usually stains but from my experience, trying several different black inkpads I own, I like the Ranger's Archival black ink for embossing TH's glaze the most.

I couldn't fit a black cat die cut so I place it inside 😊 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Hope you are having a nice week!

Love, Eve

I'm playing along in these fun challenges;

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge ~ Spooky/Halloween *challenge with SSS exclusive products

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge ~ Spooky/Halloween

Coffee card for October swap

Aloha~

This is the "coffee card" for the October swap. 

I already had this idea when I was making last month's swap card, it didn't take that long to finish it. Only the problem I had was to make a slimline card and have a die cut on the front panel because I only have a regular size die cut machine. So, I had to make the front first and attached it to the card base. Since I decided to do so, I used another color/kind of card stock for the base. But I also didn't want the color of card base to show from the "windows", I attached lighter color card stock for those "windows" first. So basically I have 3 layers for the front of the card, with the look of the one layer. lol. I wanted the tone on tone for the front and I used my NEW versa mark ink! Oh boy, I had my versa mark ink pad for over 20 years (since they first introduced!), and have been reinking it but I just thought it was the time to buy a new pad, and I'm glad I did! Sometimes, just buy a new tool, even the one you have isn't broken, you can tell "new" tool (this case, new ink pad) would do a better job! 😊 Those leaf stamps are from Concord & 9th. The actual leaf die cuts are from Lawn Fawn. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I used "Tis the season for" again. Those cute moose and a fox with coffee cups are from MFT. Oh, and that little pumpkin which I fussy cut was one of the images I had for maybe 20 years...? and I believe it's from CTMH. 

Inside, I stamped MFT's pumpkin, and stamped the Art Impression's sentiment over it. 

I love when I finish the card with the idea in my head, Quick! lol 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Tomorrow is "World Card Making Day" but I'll be working...😑 Hope you can enjoy the day of card making tomorrow! 

Love, Eve

"Coffee card swap" for September

I got this PSL idea at the end of August but I had too many "ideas" in my head... when that happens, it takes more time to finish the card. ... Anyways, this is the card! I love the font style of Sunny studio's alphabet dies. I "cut (!)" a sentiment stamp in half to get "'Tis the season for" only. I know I would be using this part a lot and this would be easier to ink and stamp. Pumpkin images are from Waffle flowers. Coffee cup dies are from Lil' inker designs. Papers are from Sunny studio and Pebbles. The base card stock is from Lawn Fawn, "canned pumpkin" color. Trying to match the "stitched" pumpkin images, I used MFT's stitched frame die for the card front. Glad that Lil'inker design's coffee sleeve die also has "stitching" to match! 

Inside, the sentiment is from the same stamp set of Art Impressions. I attached the scrap paper from Sunny studio on the bottom. 

I love PSL. Even I've lived in Tropical islands for many years, I still find PSL to be a comforting drink for me 😊 How about you? 

Hope you are having a nice week! Thanks for stopping by my blog today! 

Eve 

Coffee card swap for August, 2021

Aloha~

I recently purchased these "tropical leaf stencils" and "hibiscus die" from Lawn Fawn's new summer release and have been wanting to use them. I was off island in July and finally got home to be able to make a card! I used Distress inks for the stencils, on kraft color card stock from Lawn Fawn, too. Frappuccino stamp is from Lil'inker designs. It's been so hot, and have been drinking lots of iced coffee and Frappuccino! How about you? Those coffee bean's embellishments are from Trinity stamps. "aloha" sentiment is from "dandelion designs". I can't remember exactly where I found this cling stamp but I'm glad I did. 👍 

Forgot to take the picture of the inside before "writing" to the recipient. 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! Hope y'all are staying safe! 

Hugs, Eve

Happy Birthday to a Coffee lover!

Aloha~ 

I made this card for a birthday girl in our FB "Coffee card" group. 

I was actually making a similar design INSIDE of another card, but thought, Hmmm... I CAN make another card with this design, so I did! Most of the stamps are from Concord & 9th but I also used two stamps from a local brand. On the back of the package says "Designed in Hawaii. Made in China". They are not high quality photopolymer clear stamps but thanks to Misti, I can stamp a couple of times to get better impression, and I can also use markers to fix it if the stamp images aren't great. I don't think they make dies and I fussy cut the hibiscus on the mug to make it as the design of the mug. Again, I used a couple of mug dies to make it pop instead of the foam tape, because I couldn't decide which color card stock to make this mug design on the front. Not to mention, if you have round designs on the dies, it's harder to cut foam tapes. I colored palm tree and hibiscus stamps with markers to stamp. 

For the background papers, I really love this brown shimmer card stock from Lawn Fawn, and this is the left over from a card I made back in January and wanted to use it. The diagonal stripes background is stamped using Pink Fresh studio back ground rubber stamp. The trend for stamping for last 10+ years are clear stamps but I love rubber stamps when I find a good design 😊

Well, the inks I used for those stripes are something I had for like.. 20 years! You might know and remember "Kaleida color ink pads"! This inkpad line is probably my most favorite. I bought this Cappuccino delight ink pad, USED from a stamping friend 20 years ago. I haven't used it often and still inked pretty well! Back then, "ink blending" wasn't a thing but this pads gave us a chance to stamp, similar to the recent "color blending". 

At last, it was time for me to finish this card, and placed the base cardstock inside of the new Misti. Someone did this to make it easier to line up. I had to make the top panel closer to the right hand measurement, and aha! I could layer it to the side, not center, as I planned and always did! So this is my final card. I love "aha! " moments when I make cards! It's more fun! lol 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Have a nice weekend! Love Eve 

Butterflies...

Aloha~

As soon as MFT released this butterfly stamp set, I had to order. I have seen many butterfly stamps in the past and own some but these butterflies...they reminded me of my childhood. There was a cabbage field near my parents house where I grew up. Every spring, I saw many, 'this' butterflies! My mom told me that because cabbage was very nutritious, they lived there,  ate the vegetable, and became butterflies. For mom, it was a good teaching to her child to "eat cabbage". To this day, I buy and eat a cabbage as often as I can. Here in Hawaii, they sell many Bento box. They even embed the shredded cabbage underneath of other food, like fried fish.

I also fell in love with this 6x 6 "Team Tie-dye" paper pack from Honey Bees. I can make these background with watercolor mediums but I bought this for mostly alcohol ink background paper in the pack. I love to work with water color mediums but not so much with alcohol inks.  This paper pack is full of alcohol ink background papers and they are lovely! But funny that my first card I made, I used "water color" background paper. lol! Apparently I love "water coloring"!😊 I stamped 3 different size butterflies of the kind I used to see when I was a kid, heat embossed one in white embossing powder and another in silver pearl, both from WOW!. And this is my first MINI slim line card. The card size is 3.25" x 6.25". According to the google, the size of mini slime line card can be varied a little... I love the simplicity of these cards, yet, pretty, in my opinion, thanks to the beautiful butterfly design and beautiful paper! 🦋🦋🦋

Unfortunately the smallest butterfly flew away... can't find it anymore... 😓

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! Hope your new week and new month have started out well. 😊 Love, Eve 

Coffee card swap for May 2021

 Aloha~ 

Well, this card may looks familiar to some of you.. Yes, I was inspired by the USPS's newly released stamps (last month)! I was making a different card for this recipient, but I got stuck with the idea of finishing that card after coloring the design. So I took a break from making the card, and started to think of what I would write inside, and I remembered that this recipient was asking for these postage stamps cuz she didn't live in US. So I grabbed the stamps to enclose, and it hit me. I would make a card, being inspired by these stamps! I have more ideas from being inspired by these postage stamps but this is my first! What do you think?   

This is the "inspiration" 😀

I always loved collecting postage stamps, so I have bought a couple of "postage stamp shape" die sets, but haven't really used them before.. I'm happy I could use them! Since this is a slim line card, my huge collection of 6 x 6 pretty background paper wouldn't work, and went through my much smaller stash of larger designer's papers. Well, I found this. I think I had this paper for like 20 years!! LOL! I think the colors and design matched the most among all the larger papers I had. If I didn't find the match, I didn't mind, making one but I like how this paper worked out for this card. 😊 I used the foam tape for the sentiment on the top but used 5 die cut background card stock under "Coffee" sentiment, because it was easier than using foam tape for curved shape, not to mention I couldn't decide which color would be the best for dark brown "coffee" sentiment on top, at first, so I die cut 5 different colored card stock.lol They became in handy! 😊

"Inspiration" is everywhere! Thank you for stopping by my blog today! 

Hope your week has started great! Love, Eve

Happy birthday!

I made this card for my Godmother. I usually make birthday cards with birthday designs, like balloons, cakes, etc., but I really wanted to use this new die (add-on) set from Lawn Fawn, and just made it as a birthday card. It's very spring like where my godmother lives now. She told me that they had lots of flowers! I made this as close to how this add-on is originally intended to be used and it didn't take much time to make. I used Lawn Fawn's woodgrain white card stock for this shadow box card base. I used Lawn Fawn's sky blue "watercolor" paper from their paper pack. It's hard to tell from the picture but die cut shimmery card stock from my paper collection with their dies of tree top (with leaves) to make "clouds" as a DT of Lawn Fawn suggested and made a card with. Others are self explanatory. Those lawn and hills are die cut, using Lawn Fawn's papers, too. I'm not really into interactive cards but I really love this Original shadow box die set and their add-on die sets, as well as shaker cards.  

Happy mother's day, to y'all who is a mother. :) You deserve this special day to celebrate for your hard work! 

Love, Eve

Coffee card for monthly swap April 2021

Aloha~

This is the card I made for April for my Coffee card swap group on FB. Most stamps are from LF, and I colored them all with Copics. The bear on the screen doesn't hold a cup, so to make the theme to be "coffee", I looked for a perfect size cup image stamp from my stamp collection, masked and stamped. That tiny cup belongs to Miss Ink stamp set. I also masked the sentiment in the picture frame, so that I could stamp the hibiscus from Hero Arts, to give a little touch of Hawaii/tropical Island.🌺 I love doing something a little different, and doing so, I spend time to look for a perfect match, mostly size and sometimes the design. When I find it, I get excited! lol The fox stamp is from LF but from a different stamp set. Background paper is also from LF. I used Wink of Stella shimmer pen on the steam from coffee but very hard to see.. The sentiment which I heat embossed is from Neat & Tangled stamp set. Even in pandemic, we can have a coffee time with friends, thanks to the technology! 💻Can't imagine the people's lives during the last pandemic which is Spanish flu..I used the foam tapes to the fox and the pile of books to give the dimension to the scene I made. Also I used it to the sentiment strip. 

Hope y'all are having a wonderful week! Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Hugs, Eve

Happy Easter #2!

 Aloha~

So, I "collected" these dies and finally could make a card! LOL Bird nest, chick dies, fence and gate dies are from Memory box, and bunny dies are IO. I recently saw someone used a colorful paper for the base, and I was inspired by that. You know, we all "hoard" pretty papers and not use them. .. 😅This card is "odd" size, too. After placing all the elements, I decided to make the card base as what you see, I'm not even sure the exact size. .. sometimes, I just cut little by little to make a card look better. I had to use a bigger size envelope, though. I used "cloud template" for making a background paper. I realized.. although I bought 2 more "clouds" stencils/templates, this one was my oldest, and it says 1997 by PrintWorks. There is a price tag on it; $2.79! Good Old days... lol I recently found a "stencil paper" at $1.50 shop and made a stencil for the grass, using MFT's grass field die. It's a thin paper x 2 in a package. I'm sure, though, I can use it several times at least! I only used, like 1/5 of this stencil paper, so I have plenty left to make more stencils! I found a branch stamp from Altenew stamp set, and stamped on the card front. I attached a gate die over the fence die to give a bit of dimension. Sentiment is heat embossed, and the strip is also attached with a foam tape to give a dimension. Oh I water colored the bird nest. 

I painted "eggs" many years ago, and I display with Easter decorations every spring! 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! Hope your week is off to a great start! Hugs, Eve

Happy Easter #1

 Aloha~

I'm a bit ahead of time, making cards this year. 😊 This card is for my Godmother. This looks rather simple but to finish it, it took a lot of time, changing my mind, one after another. Only things I wanted to use was my new die of large cross and lilies. After arranging the die and the stamps, I realized that I needed to make a larger size card instead of regular 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card. First I cut Lawn Fawn's yellow shimmer card stock for the base. Then I cut the Lawn Fawn's white shimmer card stock on the front. Then I cut the cross from different kinds of gold papers. I chose this most glittery paper cut. Sometimes I can't tell which goes the best, and I had to cut them, and place them before choosing one. When I placed it on the white shimmer card stock, it didn't look right, and grabbed the Lawn Fawn's sun beam paper. But then, with the yellow shimmer card stock on the base, it didn't look nice.. so I started to make lilies. Sometimes when I get stuck and don't come up with the perfect solution, I just forget it and do something else. 😁 For this card making, I focused making lilies. These lilies look kinda natural but to make it natural, with "layering stamp set", that was a bit hard. Later, I thought to myself, maybe I should've water colored the outlined lilies.. lol.. I needed to mute it down after stamped some layers, so I used distress ink/picket fence all over the lilies. It worked quite nice! For pollens, I remember Jennifer McGuire used embossing powder, but it didn't work well for me in my head, but she inspired me to use something gold, and I used gold uniball pen to just make dots, and it worked great as I imaged in my head. I fussy cut two lilies. The sentiment stamp is from Vivid Jungle from Guam, USA, from like...20 years ago! Red rubber stamp rocks! 👍 I attached it with the foam tape for a dimension. When I was trying to come up with the idea of "muting" the lilies, I thought of "vellum". I didn't have to use it but I had it in my hand, and voila! I used it under the front paper, and it worked as I imagined how it looked. I'm really happy with this card although it took a long time to finish it!  

So, when I found the right thickness/color of vellum, I realized I had several different colors of vellum!! I think back in early 2000's, the vellum became a trend, and I "collected" different colors, and still have most of them, except the white I sometimes use. I bet some of you also still have those beautiful vellums in different colors in your stash! I should start using them! ... somehow... 😄

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Have a nice week! Hugs, Eve

Birthday, Easter, Coffee, all combined card! :)

 Aloha~

A card making friend's birthday is coming up and it falls exactly on Easter Sunday, so, I decided to make a card, combining, birthday, Easter and "coffee" since she is the admin.of "coffee" card swap group on FB. I think I combined them in one card pretty good, don't ya think...? 😉 This is also my first Slimline card which is trending lately in card making industry. I even made an envelope to fit this long card, using a designer's one sided paper which was one of "hoarded for so long papers" stash! lol I've been making cards for like 30 years and have ended up to "have/hoard" many papers! lol I bet some of you can relate...?! Now I'm eager to make more envelopes for slim cards! lol 

The hardest part was to secure the very thin gold threads. I had to think first.. I decided to tie through the parts of the nest, pulled a little, put the liquid glue, to secure them first. Then, attached balloon over them, again, using strong adhesive. I used Lawn Fawn's glitter papers. I used Lawn Fawn's papers on the background; sun beams and grass field. I hope this card will reach the recipient in Europe without any damage, and will make her smile, with lots of "coffee" on this card! 😄 

Hope y'all are having a relaxing Sunday! Hugs, Eve

Coffee/St. Patrick's day card for March swap!

 Aloha~ This is the card I made for the Coffee card swap group for March. I really enjoyed stamping clovers with colored pencils on kraft card stock. It's pretty therapeutic, esp. in this stressful time.. 

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! Hugs, Eve

Happy St. Patrick's day! (2 cards!)

 Aloha~

Every year, I make cards for St. Patrick's day, one of the occasions I enjoy making a card for! It makes me "happy". Hope the recipients will feel the same! 

Finally I got this stamp set from Pretty Pink Posh, colored with Copics. I've been coloring with water color mediums but now, slowly my copic collection is increasing.. 😀

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! Have a nice weekend! Hugs, Eve

Happy Girl's Day!

Aloha~ I posted this picture, 11 years ago, but since I happened to be on blogger on March 3rd this year, I decided to post it here, once again. Happy Girl's day! I'm copying and pasting what I wrote, 11 years ago, first.

"Today, March 3rd is GIRL'S DAY in Japan, although it's not a National holiday, while Boy's day/Children's day on May 5 is a national holiday...not fair, huh??!! Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain the bad spirits, and they started to display these special dolls about 1300 years ago. ...yea Japan has a long history... if you want to know more about it, you can find it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinamatsuri You can see the pics of those dolls display there too. The pic. I've attached here is the dolls I made, some years ago, imitating those top two (couple) of many dolls, usually being displayed on the red carpets, but I made them in my CUTE way! When I visited Japan about 10 years ago, I bought Chirimen (special fabric for making, like kimono - Japanese traditional dress, although it's not the same) which is beautiful! They have different kinds & colors of Chirimen. Someone asked me to sell it, and I said I wouldn't sell even they pay me $1,000! 😅 Those dolls I made are small, taking the space of maybe, 8" wide & 6" tall. Not because those fabrics were rather expensive, but I made them in details. It was difficult to sew that chirimen which is rather slippery, like silk. Anyways, I just remembered it today, on March 3rd."

I love these dolls, and since I only display for a couple of days every year, they still look new after like 20 years. 

Have a beautiful Girl's day! Love, Eve

February Coffee Card

 Aloha~

This is the Coffee card I made for February swap for the group. Someone mentioned in the past that she expected "warm" breeze from the card I make, in her winter weather before, so I made this card. Hope the recipient in Illinois will feel the warm breeze! I used Newton's Nook designs' stamps to create the scene. It is the Diamond head in the center, and plumeria flowers I "no outline" colored with color pencils.   

By the way, this mugcup die is new. In 2000's, I remember I drew this kind of cup, cut it from the card stock by hand, using a scissors. When Trinity stamps made this die set for purchase, I was so excited but had to wait for Black Friday sale. 😉 I'm so happy I have this die now and the shape I die cut with the machine is perfect than the one I drew and cut it by my hand! 😄 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Hope you are having a nice week! Love, Eve

3 Coffee cards, to start the new year!

 Aloha~ 

I made these 3 cards in January, all 3 for different reasons but the recipients are all in the same coffee card group on FB. Yes, I'm behind to post these as usual.. lol.. 

I love these coffee stamps from Lil' Inker Design! I can "customize" them a lot! 💓

Wishing all of you the MUCH Happier 2021!!! 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! Love, Eve

Coffee card for December, 2020

Aloha~ 

This is the card I made for December swap for the "Coffee card" group I belong to. The card is rather simple, although coloring all the coffee cups and little "steam" stampings and hand dotting on the card took a little time. I did this on craft paper. While I was making this background paper, I really liked how it turned out, I took a picture before making it into a card. For December swap, we usually enclose gifts, and I enclosed some Hawaiian coffee, Hawaiian tea & "Breakfast" post it which had "take out coffee cup" design. The last picture is "inside of the card". 

Hope y'all are having a nice weekend! Hugs, Eve

Merry Christmas #4!

Aloha~ 

This was my #4 Christmas card to another card maker, who also loves House Mouse. I used the water color paper, and colored with Prismacolor pencils. Sometimes, it's relaxing to color with colored pencils. I cut out the sentiment and the design with a circle die from designer's paper, attached it with the foam tape. I die cut and placed the berries and pine needles on the branches. I cut thin strips from gold colored paper. 

Inside, I stamped my new house mouse stamp and the sentiment, again, colored it with Prismacolor pencils. 

Sorry for delayed posting for Christmas. 

Hope y'all are having a nice weekend! Hugs, Eve