Coffee & "summerween" collab.!

Aloha~

My coffee swap card for August! I'd been wanting to make "SUMMERWEEN" card. This is my first ever (in my whole life! and 35+ years of card making life!) "Summerween" card. In fact, I'd been seeing the coffee mugs in dies and stamp sets since last fall and I got an idea. No, I don't own this die which I used for this card. I "improvised". We, the old card makers used to "improvise" A LOT because there were not many products available back then. But I enjoyed coming up with ideas and shared those with other card makers, in "snail mails" and some via emails, like in the Yahoo groups, remember those?? Years before Facebook! Now, you CAN BUY almost everything... kinda lost fun for the creativity but the businesses have to thrive so I understand. Things EVOLVE over the time. 

The pumpkin & ghost dies are from Spellbinders. I went through all my dies with "handles", for this size and shape of pumpkin and found one from my MFT collection. I attached the handle. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good, don't you think? The background "sandy" beach and waves are from Honey Bee Stamps. I also used the "sandy" stamps on the kraft card stock before die cutting/imprinting. The top sentiment is from NND, used the die cut after stamping. The bottom sentiment in gold was with a little work. See, this was my first ever SUMMERWEEN (collaboration) card and didn't have the sentiment, so, I went to my sticker book and found this cursive alphabet stickers, so, I used them, trying to lining up as much as possible. I'm glad it worked well, with that particular color and thin font. The shell dies are from both IO and HA. 

Inside, I stamped the sentiment and the ghost cup from NND. I really like how I did to my first ever "summerween" coffee card! 😊For next year, though, I plan to buy stamp set which has "(happy) summerween" sentiment, on this year's Black Friday sale. 🤞

I'm content with "Summerween" cuz I love summer and Halloween but usually I couldn't combine those, for many years but thanks to the industry(!!) they came up with the idea from most liking Christmas in July idea! 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! I really like this card. Let's get "improvised", once again! Love, Eve

Happy Birthday #2 in August

Aloha~

Have you ever order directly from Honey Bee Stamps? I received this design printed on the white card stock, in the package as a freebie. They do that, mostly, different designs. This one, as you can see, looked right for one of the birthday cards I was going to make. 

I used watercolor pencils to color the image. I fussy cut the image and attached on two different designer's papers. I stamped the sentiment from Waffle Flowers. I used the sentiment strip on the bottom, from Simon Says Stamps. Oh, the steam are from Concord & 9th. 

Inside, I stamped My Favorite Stamps sentiment and attached the stenciled strawberry shortcake from Waffle Flowers. 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Hope you are having a pleasant weekend! Love, Eve

Happy Birthday!

Aloha~

I made this card, remembering the sender for June card to me loved Hawaii vacation and mentioned it again in her card. I also received a paper pad of Hawaii from Echo Park very recently. These days, I can't stop buying paper pads cuz they are so good!! I cut the two designs from the paper pad, attached to the postage stamp die cut outs, using Hero Art's die. I attached the bottom one first, and "postcard" one with the 1mm foam squares. I really love these 1mm foam squares. It's easy to use, and only a little dimention, which is great for mailing. Most of my cards are mailed out. I stamped "Happy birthday" (Waffle Flowers) on the "postcard". I used another paper from the same paper pad as the base. I'd been itching to use my new die set from Taylors Expressions. In the same set, there are small plumerias, too, so I used a couple of them, too. 

Inside, the sentiment is from Hero Arts, and the turtle is from Pink & Main. Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles (Honu) are another sea animal famous in Hawaii beside the Hawaiian Monk Seals. I wanted to send the "Hawaiian vibe" so I chose this turtle.

I still hear the severe weather from US mainland. The typhoon is still coming this way but the course is taking to rather north of the islands and it downgraded to tropical storm. I heard though that all beaches in Hawaii are closed. You know, those high surf and all...please take care wherever you are. Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Love, Eve  

Coffee card for the swap (July)

Aloha,

I had so much fun, making this card! I got this "cute" die set from last November's subscription. I wasn't sure how to use it but well, I made this card, using them for the first time! I'm very happy with the result! 

Beside the die set from Spellbinders, I used sentiment from Honey Bee stamps. I added some "coffee beans" on washi stickers which I had on hand.

Inside, I stamped Technique Tuesday's coffee mug image and the sentiment but not full sentiment. I masked the first line so that it goes better with the sentiment on the front of the card. Hope this card will bring a smile to the recipient as much as it did to me! 

I still hear the severe weather from many places. Hope you are all safe! 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Love, Eve

Happy Birthday! #2

Aloha~

My BFF's birthday is coming up and I made this card. I've known her since early 80s, and I decided to use this fun dies from Trinity Stamps which was released in April. This set really makes me remember Good Old Days in our lives. But, many of these great die sets are very intricate and the card becomes "labor intensive" and this was one of them. 😅Of course, you can make it simpler and can adjust in different ways which is also a lot of fun, but this one, I made it close to the "original" pac man (original release in 1980, 5 months after the release in Japan). I also chose to stamp "25c" from Newton's Nook Designs in the middle of two coin slots. That was actually the amount we inserted (a quarter) back then, and I wanted to emphasize that, instead of just hand writing on the coin slot buttons.

Inside, I really wanted to use this fun stamp from Riley and Company. When they released this stamp with big "80s", I HAD TO GET IT! 😄But, since this is the birthday card, so I had to adjust how to use it on this card. This is the result. 

I used some sentiment strips from Simon Says Stamps. I love these strips. They are easy to use! Nowadays, several companies make them. 

This is how much I love Pac-man. I'd like to brag here a little (!!) that I spent a quarter to play Space Invaders for 35 minutes before Pac man was released.😁I never forget that! Fun time! 😀

Hope you are having a nice weekend! Severe weather continues. 🌩🌪Stay safe! Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Love, Eve 

Happy Birthday!

Aloha~

I made this card for the daughter of my BFF. She hasn't been around in US much after graduating college, and will be leaving for Italy for her 1st year in an American grad school. She was in Peace corp for two years and decided to go to grad school, and she got full scholarship! We are so proud of her, so when this Spellbinders die set was released back in March, I already knew I was going to use this one for her birthday card. She is "unstoppable"! 

I stamped the sentiment of Lawn Fawn on the top. The background building stamp is from Concord & 9th. A little hard to see but clouds are from Concord & 9th, too, die cutting vellum, and attached using Xyron. The hillside is made using My Favorite Thing's die, with stamping Hero Arts' grass stamp on the die cut out. The initial is for both her first name and "Superwoman"! It worked perfect! 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Hope you are all safe from the severe weather. 🙏Love, Eve 

Happy 250th, America!

Aloha~

I made these cards for 2 of my dearests. I bought this paper pad from Honey Bee Stamps when it was released 2 years ago. I often buy paper pads because they are so pretty but don't use them right away, but place them by my craft table and go through, just looking at them, time to time. That makes me smile and happy! lol. Anyways, I'm using these papers for the1st time! lol! They are so beautiful, and I didn't have to add too much. I used TH's number dies. I love these dies. I die cut once, and I get these 2 style of dies! How cool is that?!

I also stamped the sentiment from looong time ago (Stampendous!), year 2000 release!! It's a wood mounted "grey" rubber stamp but it surely lasts long! It stamped as brand new!!😀

I forgot to take a picture before writing to the recipients so I covered that up. This dark blue card stock I found in my stash has "white" inside, in case, some of you are wondering. It has slightly textured and probably from Michaels or Joann. I don't know who makes those papers, or even they make those card stock anymore. 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. If you are off on Juneteenth, have a nice long weekend!  Love, Eve