Happy Birthday! ~ 9 months delayed post...lol :-)

This is the card I made for my godmother for her birthday. I used this week's Clean & Simple Sketch. When I met her during my high school years, she collected things with Strawberries, because her dining room's wallpaper was full of strawberries. ....it's a very Long Time ago...I hadn't used this strawberry stamp for a long time, and decided to Ink it again! :-) It's an old Posh Impressions. I heat embossed, and paper pieced. I used nestabilities label for the border. The sentiment is TPC Studio clear stamp.
Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Have a great day! :-)

~~~~~~~~ updated on 1/6/2013 ok, so, I had this in my Draft folder, and apparently I didn't finish it and realized it now. So here it is! :-)

another SHAKER card!

ok, this is my 3rd Shaker card this month! lol! After us, the house mouse group members have decided to have a Shaker card Swap this month, I've already made two, and at last, I made this card for the swap, and it's in the mail to the recipient :-) I made the INSIDE of the card first. This month, due to the warm weather at the east coast of US, Cherry Blossoms have started to bloom early in D.C. And this year is their 100th celebration after they received trees from Japan as a gift. Everytime I see cherry blossoms in D.C. in pictures, I remember my childhood when I was living in Tokyo, Japan. Cherry Blossoms to me are not only the symbol of spring but also "APRIL"! lol! "April" in Japan is the start of school year when many kids carry their Brand New leather bags, with their new textbooks & new school supplies, IF you are the first grader and 7th grader, and because of leather, they look so new! :-) The same can be said for many new employees, after they graduate from universities in March, and Japanese companies, schools, etc. hire certain number of newly graduates, and they wear New Suit, incld. usually new leather shoes, and they also look so fresh! :-) To me, those are the SET incld.cherry blossoms, in early April, every year. I love cherry blossoms! I used old hero arts' Inches (I think they don't call that stamp that. lol) of cherry blossoms, randomly stamped to make a frame so that I can write something in "that frame". I happened to have a left over rick rack in matching color so I adhered it and I trimmed another house mouse stamp image (the mouse carrying the jelly beans) and adhere it in the end of the rick rack. I used sakura glaze pen for jelly beans, and just used the matching color for the card; Pink only. On the front page, I used Posh Impression's cherry blossoms stamp, using markers to ink it. The sentiment stamp is Memory box. I adhered the left over cherry blossoms stickers (I believe it's Jolee''s, but am not sure without the packaging...) on the corners. I'm submitting this to Simon says stamp challenge ; "Anything goes" :-)

Thank you very much for stopping by my blog today. Although Guam (where I am right now) doesn't have cherry blossoms, hope some of you see beautiful cherry blossoms in your neighborhood :-)

My first St. Patty's day card this year :-)

I'm a "wanna be Irish"! lol ;-) I've always celebrated this day, with Green Cookies to Green Beer, even I'm FAAAR from Irish! lol! I don't have anything green to wear, except for St. patty's day shirt! lol :-) And I totally forgot that I'm now on the island where I can't find any Irish people, on this US soil... maybe only the military personel from US mainland. So, I couldn't find Shamrock confetti, which I've seen so often when I was in Pittsburgh.... I punched out some shamrocks, found a red heart, red LIP shape, and shimmery tiny hearts confetti from my old stash here, for the shaker box. Since those shamrocks are papers, I needed to put the real confetti which helps things in the shaker box to move, rather than stick.... oh yes, this is for my Special half Irish person (!!) and that's why I put those hearts & lip confetti :-) I used this week's sketch at CardPatterns challenge. Apparently I forgot to pack my fav. St. Patty's day DPs for layering, so I had to stamp & heat embossed! And for lighter green card stock, I embossed with swiss dots embossing folder. I used sakura clear star gel pen to give a bit of shimmer around the both edges on the green circle card stock for the shaker box. The main image is an old Posh Impressions Stamp, and the background shamrocks are old hero arts stamp. Two shamrocks in the background stamped paper above the shaker box are cut outs. I found the spaces there, and used the shimmery paper to punch out, the same one I used, inside of the shaker box, and adhered them for more shimmery look!:-)

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I really appreciate you to stop by in your busy schedule and leave some comments :-)

I'm also submitting this card to

Delightful Challenges

(http://delightfulsketches.blogspot.com/2012/03/weekly-challenge-st-patricks-day.html) where they are having "St. Patty's day project" challenge.

One Stop Craft Challeng (http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2012/03/challenge-172-button-it.html) where they are having "button it"! challenge.

Happy New Year!!

2012 has started! :-)
This is the new year's card I made for my mother who lives in Tokyo. It's their custom to send new year's card, rather than Christmas cards in US. And it's not really a card which they send, but rather, a POSTCARD. The sentiment says "happy new year" in Japanese. All stamps are from Posh impressions, except Tilda. Since it's a postcard, I couldn't put too much dimentions & embellishments other than glitter glue & tiny pearls using pearl pen.
Thank you for visiting my blog today. Wishing you all an amazing year!! :-)
I'm entering this to;
Allsorts challenge ~ New Beginnings
Cute Card Thursday ~ Happy New Year!
Magnolia-licious Highlites ~ Anything goes
Simply Magnolia ~ Celebrate

the Shaped Sketch Challenge at Moxi Fab!

When I saw this sketch, immetiately I thought about this Seashell Duest Stamp from Posh Impressions. So I stamped them (duet~solid stamp & outline stamp), and thought around this main image. I heatembossed the outline. I used the printed paper of "water surface", stamped the bubbles in white, and then heat embossed them. I used light blue cs, stamped fish, have drawn the all lines with sakura clear glaze pen to give more distinguished images. I have handdrawn the wave line, using sakura clear star gel pen. It's more subtle look than using the silver color. I used Viva decor Pearl pen for the pearls on the seashell and around the circle. The second picture shows you more where they are heat embossed, where I used clear star gel pen & clear glaze pen, with the flash of the camera I used. Moxi fab is running other sketches. Sketches are one of my fav. challenge! :-) Hope I can find time to make more cards for other sketches before the deadline.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today. Hope you all are having a great labor day weekend! :-)

4 Bookmarks for Travel the world Bookmark Exchange

Recently I joined this yahoo group, because I read this swap on their blog; Travel the world! Sounded Very Interesting so I joined this yahoo group, to be able to join in the fun of the swap! These haven't been my style, as most of my friends know ~ I luv Cute, Clean, a bit of Fancy... it took me a while to get used to tim holtz Distress ink cuz they weren't bright colors! lol! But I always admired the stampers who luvs to do the Vintage style, Collage, etc, and that was why I've been "following" this blog. It's also nice to get inspired from different perspective. Anyways, I enjoyed making these! They are different! One thing I noticed is that to make a piece like this, it's better to have all kinds of knickknack! lol! You'll never know what comes in handy, to finish the card. When I was deciding what places/cities/countries I want to make the bookmarks of, I could think of US (and Hawaii and guam), Japan, Australia & Germany where I lived long enough to get to know the places, but I don't have enough images for Australia & Germany. When I remember Sydney, Opera House & all different kinds of animals and birds came to my head and I even searched online for digis (so that I can just download right away) but no luck. When I think of Germany, all drinks & food & beautiful buildings/bridges but not enough images to make a card/bookmark. Then I remembered ONE 12x12 paper of the pic. of the collection of Stamps from all over the world, which I bought, like 2 years ago but never had a chance for my card yet. In fact, I was looking for a German postage stamp in there, but instead, I found the Jamaican Stamp!! I lived in Montego Bay for 3 months, so I got to know the place, just a little bit, and remembered Blue Mountain Coffee!! "Coffee/tea" theme has been my fav. for many years so I have those stamps. And other than coffee, I remembered the word; "ya man", and Beautiful beaches, which I have plenty of stamps of, from me living on tropical islands for 12 years. I made Jamaican flag, using the distress inks. I used the distress stickles for sand on both Jamaican & Hawaiian bookmarks. I made my Hawaiian card first. That was easy, from the recent memory. I still remember, being able to watch many turtles on the beach, like a couple of feet away, although this turtle stamp is from Guam. I used glitters on the flowers, incld. on hula dancer's heads. Small plumeria flower & "aloha" are stickers. All stamps for Japanese bookmark is from Posh Impressions' Japanese Collection. I used sakura clear star gel pen for wings of the butterfly, to give a subtle shimmer. It's hard to see it on pic. though... The small nestie label says "Japan" in Japanese, and RED in the middle, to imitate Japanese Flag. Those bubbles are stickers. I used stamps from different companies for US one. I also have many selection of Patriotic stamps. I used "liberty" stamp, trimmed them with stamp edge scissors, and attached them. "D.C" are stickers. So, here you have it! My long post on these 4 bookmarks! Those stickers I used are leftovers from my scrapbooking, which I hardly do, so i don't have that many, and when i found places to put, I was happy :-) Thank you all for visiting my blog & reading this long post! :-) You'll all have a great day! :-) ps. I'm submitting these to Simon Says Stamp and show challenge blog for this week's theme "Tags".

UPDATES; These are the returns I received; from the left Paula Akero, Gerri Herbst, Trisha Too, & Cathy Peper. They are fabulous!! I'm glad I joined in this swap! :-)

Birthday Card ~ Tilda

When I was thinking of making a birthday card for my "house mouse/magnolia" stamping friend, I remembered my Birthday embossing folder. Then I remembered that this week's challenge at Magnolia Stamp Lovers is "Dry embossing for background", and this is the card I made. I'd been wanting to make this Center Step Card after I saw this on tutorial. It's not as difficult as it looks, and I really like the card. I might make another Center Step Card soon. :-) Anyways, for the challenge, I also embossed the swiss dots on the background of gift boxes. Those gift boxes are attached with dimentional glue foams, as well as Tilda with a balloon image. Each gift box has ribbon tied, as well as the buttons with glitters. Recently I received a big RAK from my "house mouse" stamping friend, and Everything was in Lemons & yellow, and it really cheered me up, and now I want to send a Very Cheerful card to my friends' birthday :-) I even decorated a bit inside, which I hardly do! lol Well, my friends, thank you for visiting my blog today! Have a great weekend! :-)

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #107

This is my first card to this challenge. I stumbled onto somebody's blog, and saw this inspiration photo. I got so many ideas, looking at this photo. Unfortunately I found this photo very late. I just finished one card, and the challenge will expire in almost 2 hrs! Anyways, this is my card. The dress, the sentiment on the vellum and hearts are from Lawn Fawn, and Cherry blossoms is from Posh Impressions. Except the sentiment, all is heat embossed. I had this paper stack of Asian theme and found the chinese character which Japanese uses it for wedding, and cut it using my nesties. I used another paper with many butterflies from this paper stack for the background. I also did paperpiecing using another paper from the same paper stack, to match with the cherry blossoms. I've handdrawn the wavy stitches & dots around on the butterflies' background paper. I attached the dress & the chinese character with pop up glue dots to give a bit of dimention. I wish I had more time, and I would've made a couple more cards using this pic. I luv this inspiration pic.! I'm also submitting this card to Simon Says Challenge. This week's theme is "Embossing"! :-)

"HOPE" card for Japan

I'd been wanting to make a card, for Japan, to say "GANBATTE!". This word can be used in many ways but in this situation, you can translate as "hang in there", "Be Strong!". People say this word to cheer them up, others & themselves. Anyways I became to know this challenge through my "mouse friend" Mary Anne, and I finally made a card. For this week's challenge, the owners of this blog challenge are donating to the RED CROSS , depending on the numbers of people who plays for this challenge. Great timing :-) For the challenge, 1. I have to use Stash which has DUST on it! (lol!) and 2. I have to use color "RED" in honor of Japan. well, the STASH I used which I hadn't used is this DCWV "The far East Stack" 8"x 8" printed textured paper, which I found at Joann at Clearance section, over a year ago? I've hardly made Asian themed card but the price was soo good (70% off! ) to pass it up! lol... The crane stamp is Posh Impressions. I made a "Japanese flag" and stamped the crane over the center of the "flag". The sentiment is my own handwriting, "KIBOU" (meaning "HOPE"). There is always "hope" in everything...

Color Throwdown #129 & WMC44

Every time I see these colors (with white or no white), it reminds me of my tropical paradise life... so this is my card for Color Throwdown (#129)! Also, I'm submitting this card to Wee Memories (#44), for this week's challenge; Source of Inspiration! I get inspired by the NATURE the most, on my cards creation, and living in 2 tropical paradise for 12 years makes me to come up with the ideas with summer/beach/ocean/rain forest... anything to do with tropical islands life, very easily! The picture of the beach is from Guam, USA. So, "the sorce of inspiration" for this card is from my vivid memory of the islands & color challenge at color throwdown blog. For those butterflies, I colored the paper, using brayer with blending blox (multi colored ink pad), stamped the butterfly on the gradated blue card stock with versa fine black ink, then trimmed them. I used my latest addition of sakura glaze pen on those butterflies, here & there after everything dried. I cut & attached the center of the artificial flowers, for the large butterflie's antenas. I used dimentional foam for 2 front Banana leaves. Bamboo frame is Posh Impressions, Butterflies are Hero Arts, Banana leaves are Guam's original stamp company, and the sentiment is a dollor clear stamp from Michaels :-). These colors are really relaxing for me...

Tilda~Blue~My Fav.things...birthday card

I received another box from Guam, more of my stamp collection :-) This porthole stamp is one of those stamps which JUST arrived here :-) I'd been wanting to make a Birthday card for Audrey B. from Magnolia group I belong to, cuz she made me a BEAUTIFUL Japanese Tilda card for my birthday, and her birthday is coming. I also wanted to make a card for Magnolia Stamp Lovers' "Blues" challenge. I had another image, already colored in blue but after receiving this porthole stamp a couple of days ago, I changed my mind, and used my new addition, MINI Tilda Mermaid stamp. Good thing I did, cuz I just learned that at Just Magnolia blog, the latest challenge is "my fav.things", and One of my Fav. things is anything to do with the Beach/Ocean!! Esp. now, it's sooo tooo coooold here, and I miss my islands lives very much...when I'm making beach/summer cards, I'm very happy! :-) About my card...on the front, I attached stamped image of porthole with 3D pop up glue dots, after I used nesties to cut out the circle from the center of this stamped image, and other layers. I also cut the transparent sheet to make a "window", but when I took a pic. of inside of the card, because of this "window", you can see the reflection of my camera...lol... Inside of the card, I stamped Mermaid tilda, colored with watercolor pencils and glitter. For water bubbles, I used plastic stickers & glossy accent. I put some space between tilda and sea shells, to write the message to Audrey.

ETC #115

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge is from the store of Queen of Tarts Cakes. Like somebody asked in the blog challenge, I also get inspired by so many products/pics the stores have, and this week, i decided to combine 2 products/pics as my inspiration and made a card :-) Two small pics are the ones I was inspired by.

I paper pieced the dolls' clothes. I made a "quilt block" and "sew" (actually paper pierced!! lol!) around it :-) I punched many 1/16" holes around the oval nesties, on scallop nesties. I think this card turned out fun, cute, and cozy looking :-)

EIC #113

This week's Etsy inspired challenge is from the Putu Princess Escapes. I hardly make any asian type card but when i found this Posh Impressions' Japanese Stamp set, i had to buy cuz luved Dee's authentic Japanese designs! I was impressed with these designs, and i even e-mailed her husband (who is the CEO at Posh Impressions) through Club posh, and he e-mailed me back, saying that Dee stayed in Japan as an exchange student in her high school years! No wonder! Anyways, i particularly luv this stamp! The small pic. is the one i got inspired from. The carps & flowers are heat embossed. I scattered tiny pearls on the flowers & fern. I used water drop STICKERS all over too. I used glitter here & there, on the Wave design paper. The main image & flowers are attached with 3D glue dots to give a bit of dimention. I also distressed the edges of the main image & background cs, colored with the distress inks.

EIC #103 - 2nd card! :-)

My second submission to this week's challenge at Etsy Inspired Challenge is the ladybug Bling ring from the Caged Fairy Shop. I used Posh impressions ladybug stamps (outline stamp & solid stamp), heat embossed, and placed the gems where the ladybug's dots are, just like on the pic. :-) Flourish stamp is from Autumn Leaves, and heat embossed too. Layering Black solid paper has Shimmers in it. So is the paper for the sentiment/happy birthday. Colors of black stripes background paper looks a bit grey cuz of the flash, and the colors of RED card stock & Ribbon looks a bit orangish but they are more like Cardinal dark red.

Being Published back in 2004! Old cards! :-)

today, one of my yahoo club friend asked whether anybody has ever been published in the magazines. I had 3 cards in total, being published, but oh boy, those cards are rather simple compared with the cards in recent years! For the card with ship, i even got a phone call for the interview, like where i live, how long i've been stamping, where i get the inspiration from, etc. There was the interview details in the magazine beside the card. For the second card with fish ("under the sea" theme), i got the e-mail of "interview" (Q&A), and also some introduction about me, but shorter, and the 3rd card with the cat was published just in the READER's submissions page, without any comments, only my name. (NOT the shaker card one). Back then, lots of TECHNIQUES were introduced, and for the first card & the 3rd cards, i used Posh impressions' rainbow sponging. For the 2nd card, i used polished stone technique. I was living in Guam (US territory), the tropical island, tourist destination & the land of US Navy, all three cards were made from the inspiration, just me living there. no, cats don't fly there!! LOL but in rainy season, we get squalls every day, and we can see rainbows so often!! The colors of the ocean sometimes becomes the one with the polished stone technique. Water is clear & beautiful colored fish are all around! And the ship... not only Cruise ship sometimes stop by there but BIG NAVY ships stop by also. Anyways, i was inspired by the nature & life all around me, living in Guam :-), and that's how i answered to those interviews :-) They were all published in Scrap & Stamp Art Magazines by Scott Publications. I was getting excited but then the life took a turn to bad... and i had to stop stamping...

Cherry Blossoms Cards

Washington D.C.'s Cherry Blossoms festival inspired me to use Posh Impressions's Cherry Blossoms' stamp. Cherry Blossoms are soooo beautiful in D.C. & Japan in early April.