#cardsforukraine

 Aloha, 

One of the FB groups I belong to has started "#cardsforukraine" after Russia started the war on Ukraine. I just can't imagine, to flee from your home, with a suitcase of things....I don't have a friend nor family, neither in Russia nor Ukraine but this war, or "any war" really hits hard on me, so I decided to join. They are rather simple. When I have a heavy heart, my cards become rather simple, like sympathy cards. No recipients in mind. I just wanna the people of Ukraine to know that my thoughts and prayers are with them. According to the source, sun flower is Ukraine's national flower. 🌻

I just keep praying that it'll be over soon before many people get killed. 

Praying... Eve

Coffee card ~ February

Aloha!

This is the card I made for the card swap for February. I recently got this heart die, and wanted to use it for the Valentine's day cards. When I saw this die, I thought I could make the same design without having this special die, just having a heart die... I was wrong. lol. You would think it's easy, and I tried and failed..So, I bought it. With this, though, I can make another design. I already have some designs in my head. Anyways, then, I had to find some sentiment and design on the card front. .. I looked up and saw 2022 "coffee themed" calendar in front of me by the desk. You can see it below the picture of my card. I really liked the sentiment. But of course, I didn't have THAT sentiment stamp. But I used the sentiment on the front of the card and inside of the card 😊 I die cut the mug cups, adhered 3 die cut outs to give some dimension. I really wanted to have "steam" but don't have those dies, so I free hand cut them. I think they turned out to be good 😊 I used the wink of Stella to give a bit of shimmer on those "steam" cut outs. I also "hand cut" the banner with my handwriting. 

The little travel cup attached inside is a clay embellishment from Trinity stamps. Isn't it so cute?😍 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Hope your week has started out great!  Lov,e, Eve

Coffee card ~ January 2022

Aloha~

I'm glad that some NICE and "Caffeinated" people on FB have decided to "continue" this coffee swap card group under different group name, after the original admin. has decided to close the one which ran.. for 4? years?... It's not an easy task to run the group like this. I've done it before so I know, and I was just a moderator. So I'm thankful for the original admin and the people who took it over. In 2000s', when PC became more popular and back then, YAHOO groups became very popular, before FB nor My space (if you remember!) nor the Pinterest! There were so many "card swaps" going on, by "snail mails"! But things have changed. Not many people do card swaps any more...😢 I also learned that USPS will increase their postage rate TWICE a year from this summer!! 😞

Anyways, here is my card. 

I used yellow and orange ink for the background stencil. The coffee cup and the building die cut are attached with foam tape to give a bit of dimension. I placed the velum behind all those little cut out windows. I found those stars from the containers of embellishment. I planned to make a card for a "New" Year/January, but instead, I made the card for a "NEW" day 😊 

Hope y'all had a great starting month of 2022!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Love, Eve   

Playing with new stencils

Aloha~

I finally found the time to "play" with some supplies I purchased in last couple of months. 

"Bamboos" are one of my fav. memories from childhood. My parents house had some of them. I used a couple of different inks and papers and I love the way the "background" papers turned out to be. I love panda bears, too, and have some stamps, so I'll definitely be making a card or two, with panda bear images! 🐼 

When I saw these stencil set, I had to have it, and most of you know why 😉 I first made background papers with "the sun" stencil. Although I used different inks, both came out fine. I wanted to dry completely before stenciling the other one, I waited over night. Well... my mistake was the first thing it came to my mind. .. how to have "black" ink without having 'colors' through, from the sun. I tried some black inks I have, on scratch papers, and I applied the darkest which was "pigment" ink, of course. The thing I should've been much more careful about in next step was "to remove the stencil" from the paper... well... THAT particular stencil was very slippery, harder to lift up and I failed to lift it at once, a couple of times.. and that's how it turned out... on your right in this picture...usually I'm really good hiding the mistakes but so far, with this, I haven't been able to come up with the idea yet... the stencil set is from Newton's Nook designs.

By the way, I "injured" myself with this Palm tree stencil.😢 When I was washing the stencil, a pointy part of palm pricked my finger! .. I had to put an ointment and bandage... fyi... please be careful...

This is my last play for the day. The stencil is from Picket fence. I've started to like making Slim cards/mini slim cards. Not only I can have a different kind of designs but also I love, FINALLY using 12 x 12 papers I hoarded since 20 + years ago and still haven't been able to use for making the envelopes for the slim cards and mini slim cards! It's really satisfying! LOL, just like I use those little left over scraps in "color separated boxes"!! I really like the design of this stencil. Yes, I already own MANY stencils and stamps and dies for making waves and rainbows but I really like THIS particular design! So, usually I use Blue inks or rainbows colors to make the background paper for this design, I used totally different colors. I used 3 colors to make this background paper. 

I'm not sure about you guys but I've always loved to make background papers. The harder part is to make a card with it. I have many background papers I made, "for relaxation" over the years, and that's one of the reasons I don't like to BUY designers papers.. but yes, I do buy them cuz they are hard to resist, "to hoard"! lol 

Hope you are having a great weekend! Tomorrow is AFC & NFC championship games! 🏈

To my east coast friends, please stay warm and stay safe! Love, Eve

Coffee card ~ December, 2021

Happy New year! 

I know, it's a little late but hope you all will have a wonderful year! 

Since I was so exhausted from work in December, I couldn't make a card on time for my card swap group 😢 Anyways, I finally finished it. It's a mini slim card.

I recently purchased the "(long) border dies" from Sunny Studio for Slim card. I used two of 6 dies in a package on this card. Stamps are from Lawn Fawn, as well as the background paper. I used a coaster die from The Greetery. I love this die! Actually that is a square die but I cut it after I die cut, to give a bit of different look. Aren't those "coffee beans" resins so cute??!! They are from Trinity Stamps. Those two companies are my latest favorites. 😍 

I decided to send these ground coffee from Hawaii and a calendar with my card. There are several (if not many!) coffee companies in Hawaii. I chose one from Honolulu where I live, and another one, just because I liked the name; Sunrise! LOL I like their "cappuccino" flavor. 

Mahalo for stopping by today! Hope y'all are having a wonderful weekend! To my friends in east coast, stay warm and stay safe! Love, Eve

Happy Holiday ~ #2

Aloha~

Continuing to my yesterday's post, this is another Christmas card (tag) which I made to send it with a Christmas ornament I found at Hallmark store for my best friend. 

The stamps are mostly from Unity stamp Co.. Although I still don't like the way we "store" those cling red rubber stamps, I love some of their stamps! Designs are awesome! Snowflakes are CTMH. 20 years later, I still have their stamps (and many other woodmounted red rubber stamps which still stamp great!). I used Lawn Fawn paper to layer the front card stock. I initially thought to "glue" the front panel to the background paper, like we usually do for our greeting cards, but I realized it's fun to NOT glue it, so it has actually a loose front! Sometimes you change the way you make cards as you make. On the back of this tag, I also stamped Christmas tree, and wrote some personal message. 

And, the ornament I found for my best friend from college, she took a couple of pictures of it on her tree after she received it! When I saw this ornament at nearby Hallmark store in November, I thought of her, and I bought it. I wrote her name and my name on the back of this ornament in black sharpie with "2021". 

Sometimes, it's fun to make different shapes from just a regular, two folded card. 

Again, hope y'all had much better holiday season than I did. lol 😊 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Weekend is almost here! Love, Eve

Happy Holidays ~ #1

LOL, well, Christmas has come and gone, ... a month ago! I did make a couple of cards but I was super busy at work. Due to "ongoing pandemic", work made me even more tired in holiday season. I finally found some time to upload my cards... Hope y'all had a much better "holiday season" than I had. 😊 

This card was for my Godmother. 

Two years ago, I purchased this house die set, and made this card below, but this year, I purchased the "gingerbread house add-on" die set and made this card above. I put some paste on those yummy gumdrops to look little more realistic to the regular card stock. I would've put glossy accent or something on the berries but I found the paper which gives that similar effect, so I die cut that paper with the berry die. 

I love this house die! 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! And, Happy Australia Day to Aussie friends! 

Hugs, Eve