Hello Kitty calendars

Hi!  Anybody else scrambling to get Xmas gifts done?  Geez, I feel so rushed this year.  I think I procrastinated too much with blog hopping and Lego and not to mention some late nights fighting with my youngest.  This is the last week of school before Xmas break!  Where did the time go?? 

Anyway, I came across some cute Hello Kitty calendars on Jenny's (Sister Stamps) blog HERE.  I love that they were simple to put together cause I wanted to give some calendars out to the teachers but didn't want to make it too complicated since I was short on time.  And I had Sunghee's 2012 calendar template too which is pretty easy to use and so economical. 

Yup, I pretty much stuck with the same design except my calendars are a bit taller.  I used PTI's coaster board and wrapped it with some washi paper.  I haven't used my Hello Kitty sizzlits in a while so at least I got some use of it.  Then just added a small magnetic strip on the back.  These are all for my kids' Nihongo teachers.  Yes, they have 5 teachers for Nihongo. 

I also made 4 more cards using Sister Stamps Shimo-san.  The one I made earlier is HERE. 

A little close up.  The circle sentiments are all different and from Wild Rose Studio.  I added a mini Bath and Body Works hand gel too into a goody bag and called it a day.  I wanted to make a little memo pad too but there's just not enough time.

Thanks for reading!

Hello Kitty Monthly Planner

Hi everyone!  Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?  I can imagine it will be getting a bit crazy from here on out.  I still have a few things to get on my list and then it's wrapping everything that will take a bit of time.

Today I have the rest of my monthly planners that I finished up to share.

These are large planners that I made pretty with some washi paper.  So usually I would try to make them all different by using different washi papers but it is so much easier just to make them all the same!  Plus I really like this pink washi paper.  I added Hello Kitty made from a Sizzix die and the year made from PTI numbers die.

This is the back.  The front piece overlaps to the back if you can see it.

Here is a different one I made since I ran out of the pretty pink washi paper.  I like this one too. 

This is a sample of the inside pages.  They all have vinyl covers too.

The past couple days I've been doing some sewing.  My intention was to start this project in the beginning of November but some how the days just flew by and only now did I get to it.  It is probably my biggest sewing project!

Here's a little glimpse of it.  I have to say I am really proud of how far I've gotten with sewing this.  If I had the rest of the materials I could finish it but I haven't been able to get to Walmart to get more fabric.  Gotta love these Doodlebug fabrics!  In any case, can you guess what I'm making?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hello Kitty birthday card

Here's a pretty simple birthday card, actually I guess all my cards are pretty simple, because after putting together the Hello Kitty, I was exhausted! The Hello Kitty is from a Sizzix die, paper pieced using PTI plum pudding cardstock and patterned paper from one of the paper pad collections. I tried paper piecing the whiskers on this one, it was a little easier since the Hello Kitty is rather large. She is supposed to be holding a "happy birthday" flower. I used a swirly border die for the stem. The sentiment is a Stampin Up stamp, plum pudding ink on sweet blush cardstock, don't know why I picked that color. And I don't know why the bitty dot paper looks like a slightly different color than the plum pudding cardstock, but they seem to match better in person. The background is lavendar moon cardstock cut from a Nestability label.

Hello Kitty sticker book

Hi everyone!  It is so humid here that I get all sweaty just washing the dishes!  I hope that counts as some kind of exercise.

I've switched gears back to paper crafting and put my sewing on the side for a bit.  I wanted to make something fun and it was inspired by some sticker shopping.  I bought these cute stickers and instead of just mailing them to my friend's daughter, I thought it'd be cute to make a sticker book too.  Plus I had this idea of using clear contact paper on the pages so the stickers would be removable.  I bought the roll of contact paper for the Pokemon wrappers that I had sewed up.  Such an economical roll of contact paper!  I think I can still make a lot of projects.

Here is the cover of the book.  I used my Sizzix Hello Kitty die for the cover.  I had this one sheet of HK paper for a while too so finally I was able to use it.  I covered this page with contact paper as well just to kind of protect it a bit.

The next pages have little pockets to put stickers in.  I used the same paper scraps to decorate the pockets.

The next pages all look similar to these two except the Hello Kitty stamps in each corner are different.  I got this stamp set a while ago but only now am using it.  I hadn't realized how many were in the box and they are all so cute.  All of these white pages were covered with contact paper after I stamped and colored the images with Copics.

Here's a little close up of one of the stamps.  Adorable! 

This is the back cover which uses the same paper and is also covered with contact paper.  This book is 5.5 x 8.5 inches and I used my Cinch to bind it.  Each page is sturdy too.  The covers are thick chipboard and the inner pages are thinner chipboard covered with white cardstock.  Oh, I think you could probably even draw on the pages with a dry erase pen too.  I'll have to test that out.

Hopefully, she'll like it!  I remember I used to have a huge sticker binder when I was a kid and would even sell them to my friends for like 30 cents or something.  I would label the cost of each sticker!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Teacher Cards & Gifts

Hi everyone!  Yay!  Sister Stamps previews will be starting soon!  Did you see how cute the stamps are for the June release?  I'll be back later to share my Sister Stamps creations.

Today, I have some cards to share that I made for the teachers.  These are all very simple since I made about 12.  Then I realized that I usually don't make special school themed cards.  Most of the time I give the cards I've been making through out the year.  Otherwise my stash of cards is just out of control.

See, simple right?  I used MFT's apple die and cut the apples with some red felt.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn.

A couple of other Thank you cards with different sentiments, also from Lawn Fawn.  I really liked how the felt apple turned out.

Then I made some washi paper apples for the Japanese language teachers.  I made 5 of these.  These apples turned out so pretty!

And more sewing!  These are longer than the ones I made for the children and also more complicated!  Instead of ribbon, I cut strips of Japanese fabric which is so time consuming!  Plus you have to fold over the edges and iron them down so they are nice and straight.  Well, sometimes it's not always straight so hopefully the teachers aren't eyeing the stitching too closely.  Ribbon usually has a ridge near the edge so I used that as a guide to sew straight but the fabric doesn't so I really had to concentrate.  But I really do love the look of this key chain.

And this is for all the Hello Kitty lovers!  This one was even more complicated than the above because the fabric is mostly white so you could see through the material when you folded over the edges.  So I ended up using some fusible webbing and a strip of white fabric under it.  But of course that made it bulkier and sewing was a bit trickier.  I have a couple that I ended up tossing to the side.  And yeah, sewing straight and near the edges was difficult on this one as well.  I need lots more practice!  But I think these turned out super cute!

If you're wondering how to make these, there are tons of tutorials, just Google it and etsy has lots of supplies.  Just search for the hardware on etsy and you'll get lots of stores. 

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!  Thanks for visiting!

Last Set of Teacher Gifts

These are little boxes I made for my daughter and son's main teachers.  It's a little caddy box.  I was inspired by this picnic caddy.  See HERE.  Problem is I didn't have any nice 12x12 cardstock so I made mine a little different by using 2 pieces of 8.5x11 cardstock.  I scored each 8.5x11 cardstock at 3 inches all around, trimmed off the extra bits to be able to fold the ends into a rectangular box.  I glued the 2 finished rectangular boxes to make a square caddy. 

I didn't make my caddies with a handle like the picnic caddy tutorial.  I basically followed the tutorial to make the inserts except cut the paper to 3.5x7 and scored at 0.5, 3.25, 3.75, and 6.5 inches.  Hope that makes sense.  I made these some time ago and sometimes when I'm making stuff I don't always write things down because I think I'm going to remember but I don't. 

The labels are PTI's Fillable Frames stamp set and die and alphabet stamps are PTI's Simple Alphabet.  I filled the caddies with more Bath and Body Works hand gel.

This is the last one I made.  I thought the little ladybug Hello Kitty was cute.  Then of course I wrapped everything in cellophane. 

That's it for the teacher gifts.  I can't believe school is almost done and my kids will be moving on to another school year.  It goes by too quickly.  Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Mini Magazine Holders

Yay!  I'm finally all done with end of the school year teacher gifts.  I made 8 mini magazine holders for my daughter's Nihongo teachers and some of the teaching aides/former teachers at my son's preschool.  I found the template for the holders HERE.  Mine are just a little smaller cause I wanted to put little Bath & Body Works pocketbacs in them.  The great thing is that each holder only uses one piece of 8.5x11 cardstock. 

The stamps on the tags are from PTI.  I love the Fillable Frames stamps and die.  So cute and fun.  And the Hello Kittys are sizzlits.  And they are all wrapped in cellophane. 

I bought all those BBW pocketbacs while they were having a sale and special promotion online.  I even bought some of the holders (pink in photos) that you can attach to your bag.  But living in Hawaii, we always get the worse shipping deals.  I signed up for emails from BBW to be notified of their sales and they have some great sales if you live in the contiguous 48 states.  It's pretty irritating when they announce in their emails that there's $3 shipping or even free shipping but not valid for Hawaii folks.  I've already complained to them twice!  Yes, I'm a complainer.  Anyway, I bought these because they had a $10 off of $40 purchase so I figure that would take care of the $12.50 shipping that they charge to Hawaii.  The only good thing is that the package arrives fast.  They recently had a $10 off of $30 deal too so I ordered more cause they make cute little gifts.  Plus teachers can always use anitbacterial hand gels.

I have more teacher gifts to share later.  Thanks for reading & have a great weekend!

And the Winner Is ...

ME!!!! Yay!!! I'm so excited--I won a Wild Card Wednesday challenge over at Club Anya and Friends.  See HERE.  A picture of my card is on the post below this.  So that was fun and exciting.  I have some thinking to do about which digital stamp to choose.  So many cute stamps, I'm gonna have a hard time deciding.

So I thought I'd just share a short little project.  This is a variation of the notepads I'd made for Xmas last year.  This one I made for a little girl so she can keep herself busy while her Mommy takes care of their new baby.  I had written her name on the heart but covered it in the photo.  And what little girl doesn't like Hello Kitty?  The template is from PTI.  See HERE.

Here's a picture of it opened.  Lots of paper for her to doodle in.

By the way, our watermarks on our photos have been incorrect!  I didn't get a chance to fix these photos--it should read www.craftingthisandthat.blogspot.com.  Gotta have the blogspot.  Alrighty, that's it for today.  I'm off to do more projects.  Thanks for reading!

TGF Class of 2010

Happy Furlough Friday!  Actually, it's not a "happy" time when your kids don't get to go to school cause the state doesn't have enough money.  My daughter had a 3 day school week this week.  There is something really wrong with that.  Back to my post--here is a picture of my son's graduating preschool class as represented by TGF stamps.  Stuck a picture of my daughter in there too.  Can you guess which one she is?  So, obviously I don't have a lot of boy TGF stamps.  The only other one I have is Edward, and really he shouldn't be allowed to go to preschool.  I made these to tie onto a little goody bag for each of the kids as the school year is coming to an end and they will all be going to kindergarten soon.  I stamped their names using Simple Alphabet from PTI but blurred it in the photo to protect the innocent. 

This is the back side of the boys' tags.  I felt I had to cover up the back cause of the pen showing through.  I stamped the initial of each boy's first name on the back with the Outlines Alphabet set from PTI.

This is the reverse side of the girls' tags.  Cute Hello Kitty!!  I decided not to stamp their initials.  I did a test on my daughter's one and thought against it.  I try to do my kids' ones first in case I make a mistake or it doesn't look right then hopefully I can avoid doing it on the others.

Here's a pic with them all laminated.  I have a really old personal laminating machine (at least 10+ years).  I thought it was going to die on me but it made it.  I was so happy that they all made it through the machine and didn't crinkle or anything.  I wanted to post something TGF today because they are having their new releases tomorrow on the 1st.  Such cute stamps!  Lauren Meader has her release on the 1st too and she has lots of cute new templates.  Gymboree and Old Navy sales too.  I'll be shopping this weekend!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Back With More Teacher Gifts

I made all of these covered notepads for the rest of the staff (teaching assistants/former teachers) at my son's preschool.  I also made some for friends and family as part of their Xmas gift (not pictured).  I can't remember but I must have made about 30-something of these.  I started early.

Then I wrapped each in cellophane and tied with a ribbon and a little tag that I stamped and punched out.  It was a long process.

This is a Hello Kitty set that I also made last Xmas.  I embossed each note card with Swiss Dots and used a Hello Kitty embosslit.  I really liked how this set came out.  Last Xmas pretty much everyone got some kind of stationary/notepad set.  The year before that I made sterling silver/beaded cell phone chains.  This year I have a theme too but I have to keep it a secret.  Hopefully, I'll finish in time.  That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by!

A Hello Kitty Happy Spring

I actually have another card!  I was debating about posting it, but I figure since I actually spent time making it, I might as well, otherwise who knows when I'll get a chance to make anything again.  Plus it took me so long to die cut the Hello Kitty.  So again, I found a sketch, this time at Card Positioning Systems #213.

I wanted to use my Sizzlit Hello Kitty that Eva got me probably from a year or 2 ago, along with the Easter eggs.  I actually used this die cut last year, but my son used it for his own crafts, then before I knew it Easter had passed.

So I mainly got to work first on die cutting Hello Kitty and giving her a hot pink bunny suit.

And then I pasted her suit on and realized I had forgotten to color her whiskers!  So I penned it in and it looked messy...so I had to cut everything again!  The second time I used a tip I read on someone's blog a while ago, and sorry, but I forgot who it was.  I think it was someone from Hawaii and I found it by googling something to the effect of "how to Sizzix Hello Kitty whiskers."  But essentially she recommended die cutting the face first in black, then layering a white face with the whiskers cut out over the black layer.  Although I guess since these whiskers are hiding under the bunny suit, I could have just taped a black piece behind the cut out whiskers.  Hello Kitty was also holding a cute basket full of flowers, but there didn't seem to be enough room on the card.  Plus those flowers were tiny, my stubby fingers and nails would have had problems trying to glue them down.

Anyhow, then I used PTI New Leaf cardstock for the base and some Spellbinders paper that I had bought from somewhere, possibly the Bazzill warehouse sale from years ago.  The main problem was deciding what kind of paper to use for the rounded rectangle.  Initially I considered a PTI bitty dot paper in light pink, but wanted something more contrasty, then ended up using the embossed lemon tart cardstock, which blends in with the green paper too much.  So I don't know, I should have looked up a color challenge somewhere to help me out with colors, or else I shouldn't have glued down the green paper so soon and picked a different pattern.  I inked the embossed parts with Antique Linen distress ink, but I guess it's not too obvious in the photo.

I used another PTI Tag-Its sentiment on the egg.  Then added some stickles to the wavy strips.  I am also going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Spring/Easter.

Hello Kitty Boxes

Hello!  Happy Monday!  Can't believe there are only 2 more months of school left and it'll be summer soon.  This year is really flying by and my kids are growing so fast!  Wish everything could slow down a bit.  In between some DT projects, I've been trying to make some Hello Kitty boxes.

This is the first box I made using La-La Land's Trinket Box Kit.  I love these little boxes and it does take some time to put everything together but so worth it in the end.  This Hello Kitty is from an older Sizzix die and it's all pieced together with some crushed velvet cardstock.  Sorry if the photo seems a bit bright.  All that gold cardstock seems to throw the color off.

Here is a different angle to show the layering of Hello Kitty's heart and arm.

This is the inside.  I used some washi paper I purchased online from Hanko Designs.  These are so pretty!

Here's another box using a different Hello Kitty die but same idea.

The inside of this box.

I've been hoping to make more of these but time is always a factor and I don't even have a regular job!  Wish I could manage my time better in between all the housework and kids' stuff. 

Thanks for visiting!