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