Happy 2014!!

Hello all!  Happy New Year!  We still have a few more hours before we welcome 2014.  The kiddies are trying to stay awake til then but we'll see how long they last before they fall asleep.  I may fall asleep before midnight too.  I am already getting a bit sleepy.  Plus my mother has planned a breakfast service at 8 am!  I'm not sure how we're gonna manage that.

I am still trying to play a bit of catch up from Christmas!  Because I was kind of poor at managing my time and made those stockings and gingerbread men, I didn't have enough time to make my goal of 20 calendars.  Yes, I know that sounds crazy as well.  I only had time to make 4 calendars for my daughter's teachers packed with a gift card by the time school got out for break.  I didn't even have time to take a photo of them.  But I've made 6 more since then.  This batch was all for the doctors and staff of my kids' pediatrician office.

I used Sister Stamps for all of these calendars.  They are the perfect size and plus they have this cute horse for 2014.  I bought the calendars online from Taylored Expressions.  I like that they are a neutral black color. 

These 2 calendars feature Sister Stamps Li-Li with a CC Designs sentiment.  I kept all the layouts the same to save my sanity.  Some gold cardstock so there is a bit of a reflection in the photos.

These 2 have Shin-Shin and Mieko. 

I was really happy I ordered this Sizzix easel die to attach to the back of all the calendars.  I used some chipboard so these are all pretty sturdy. 

I packed each one in a clear bag and tied them all together with twine.  I added a tag with a Happy New Year sentiment.  So technically I was on time with this New Year's gift.  Just 10 more calendars to go!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sister Stamps calendars

Hello.  It's about time I shared these calendars I made featuring Miyoko from Sister Stamps.  These are the same girls I colored up and shared in this post.

I made these for my kids' teachers.  I placed apples in Miyoko's hands instead of the usual cupcakes.

Two more.  These were pretty quick to make and coloring the Sister Stamps girls are simple and fast.  I love that I can a bunch in a short time.  I'm working on 5 more to give my youngest one's teachers. 

As promised, here are the Copic colors I used for their hair.  This one I used Y21, Y32, E31.

Y21, YR14, E15, E18 

E33, E35, E57, E59

C1, C3, C5, C8, 100

Here's the side view of the calendar.  It can fold flat for easy mailing and opens to stand.  Simple to make!

Be safe everyone!  And thanks for reading!

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!

Miyoko

Hello!  Just wanted to share a quick post.  Trying to get as much done as possible this weekend.  I was coloring Miyoko from Sister Stamps and playing around with making her hair different colors.

Excuse how they are cut out.  I wanted to share before I colored up the rest of her clothes.  She's missing her cupcake too.  I'm planning on adding a little apple since these will be for teachers.

I'll post them again when they're done.

Thanks for reading!

a wonderful Christmas

Hi!  Our Lego Robotics team participated in the state championship yesterday and they did so well!  Out of over 200 teams that participated in qualifiers, 56 teams were invited to the championships.  Out of the 56 teams that participated, our team placed 4th for robot performance and won a 2nd place Lego trophy for innovative solution.  I was so shocked!  Ha!  Not that I didn't have faith in our kids but the competition can be tough and we felt so lucky to have gotten so far.  I was even more impressed when the principal congratulated the kids and told them that was the best a team from their school had ever done at a Lego robotics state tournament.  Wow, what a proud moment!  The long day (waking up at 5:30 in the morning with the final awards done at 4 pm) was totally worth it!  Still feeling excited about it.  But I will finally share my card.  Hehe.

I made a card to be entered in the following challenges:  Paper Sundaes--Sundae Bar (color red and used die cuts), Wee Memories--Free for All, and Young Crafters Unite Challenge #4--use dies.

After Cheryl had posted her card using Sister Stamps Shimo-san, I wanted to use mine too!  I think I will make a bunch of these to give to the kids' Nihongo teachers.  I used Spellbinders rectangle die and the lattice rectangle that Cheryl gave me a little while ago.  Thanks!  I took this picture under our tree.  I actually wrapped some presents this morning!

The sentiment is from Wild Rose Studio.  I added some stickles to the snow on the ground and around the snowman.  Some liquid accents on his nose.  I also used a my black Prismacolor pencil and Copics for their hair.

Thanks for reading!

Pocket Calendars -- Mama Elephant and Sister Stamps

Hi everyone!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday!  I am just getting over my turkey coma so I thought I'd post a little something today.

I finished up all my 2 year pocket calendars.  I think I take a long time to finish projects sometimes because I think I have to make each one look different.

These are the three that I shared previously using Sister Stamps.

Here are three new ones with more Sister Stamps.

These calendars feature Mama Elephant stamps.  Love these cute animals and the fun sentiments.

Here is a close up of the bunnies.  Love the bunnies!  I think they are my favorite.

Here are the bears.  So I kept the Mama Elephant ones fairly simple by using the same Copic colors and sentiments.  Trying to do things a little bit faster.

Here is a sample page of a month.

All of these are for sale too.  US orders and PayPal only.  Feel free to email me if you have any questions craftingthisandthat@gmail.com.

I'll be sharing some Hello Kitty montly planners tomorrow!  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Holidays!

Hello, hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  We tried Eva's method of turkey in a bag, and it actually turned out pretty good.  Although I think the turkey breast could use some butter or something...hopefully one day if my daughter outgrows her milk allergy I can try that.  But finally I had some time to craft while Grandma kept the kids occupied.

Anyhow, here is my first holiday card finally, and the month of November is practically gone.  This Sister Stamp is so cute!  Thanks Eva for getting it for me (she's my Hawaii connection!)  It took me forever to color since it was difficult to get uninterrupted craft time.  Plus I was trying to figure out how to color with Copics.  I actually took the plunge and bought 5 Copics, only in the skin tones and cheek color, although I don't think I colored cheeks in this one.  I went to Michaels practically every day with a coupon to buy one Copic at a time.  I think I'm pretty much going to stop there with the Copics, because I think they're hard to use!  I had to color the faces twice, because I couldn't blend the colors nicely so I think I just used the one color in the end.  The rest of it was colored with pencils.

Pretty simple after that, just cut the image out and mounted it on patterned paper.  I thought the patterned paper was kind of busy so I didn't really add anything else except the banner with the sentiment, although it still looks kind of empty up there in that corner.  Oh well, I had to move on, so many Xmas stamps, so little time!

And here's one of my proud mommy photos.  Excuse the strange disguise, had too much fun in Photoshop Elements.

But my son and I have spent so many weekends going to chess tournaments for the last year or so.  Not that he's Bobby Fischer or anything, but since he started with his school's chess club in kindergarten, he has done reasonably well at our local scholastic chess tournaments.  So surprising since I don't like playing chess and am not very good at it, I feel kind of bad that I can't really play against him at home since he always beats me!  Anyhow, this is him after spending all last weekend at one of the bigger chess tournaments.  He was so happy to win a trophy (21st place).  Lucky for him they gave out 30 trophies, usually it's 20, but this tournament had about twice as many kids as usual in his section.  Anyhow, I was happy for him too since he had to play in the section with 1st through 3rd graders and after the first day, he was bawling his eyes out after losing the last game.  He was even 60-something going into the 2nd day, I didn't know if he even had a chance at a trophy.  I think as a parent, I was getting an ulcer for him.  I used to laugh about those parents who had kids in sports and took things so seriously, but I now I know why!  Even as a chess parent, I'm like checking the rankings after each game and trying to estimate where he and the school would end up for trophies.  It doesn't help when most of the other parents are like that too!  Anyhow, excuse my long rambling, I could go on forever about my kids!  I will actually have more to post later too, I think I got quite of bit of cards done yesterday (well, actually 2 and a half which I thought was great for me).

two thousand fifteen

Hi everyone!  Sometimes I think I am so crazy for making the things that I make.  I'm sure my kids and the hubby too wonder why I do the things I do.  I think this was one of those projects that I was just about to give up on.  So time consuming because I didn't just make 1, I made 6 sets!  Oh boy, I need to give my fingers some time to rest.

If you are one of my FB friends, you might have seen this photo that I posted using Taylored Expressions new 3x4 calendars and a whole bunch of Sister Stamps images (the little pumpkin is from PTI).  I guess the purpose of these calendars is to use in pocket scrapbooking but I wanted them to be a bit more functional as well so I came up with a desk top calendar idea.  Once the month is done, you can add it to your scrapbook too.

Excuse my poor cropping here but I didn't want to rearrange the cards again to take a better photo.  I know, I am lazy.  I attached each month to kraft cardstock and added the holes with my Cinch.  By the way, I do like my Cinch but it is the older version.  I think now you can use smaller rings with the newer version?  I know they have a square hole version too, but I personally like the round holes better.

This is the front and I added the sheep from Sister Stamps too.  I used Lawn Fawn's alphabet stamps to spell out the year.  I don't know if you can see the stitched detailing on there but I added that with Lil Inkers rectangle stitched dies.  I think it adds a nice detail.  I added that to all the pages actually so there was quite a lot of die cutting going on.  Seventy eight pages of stitched rectangles to be exact! 

I had to figure out a way for it to stand so I added that little easel part in the back with some lightweight chipboard.

Here's another view of the calendars.

Oh and it never fails that one would get messed up right?  Somehow this card got glued to another and when I took them apart the TH came off too!  I tried writing it back in nicely but I think my hand was all cramped and tired so the letters are all messy.

I'd like to sell these (except the messed up one).  I'll be putting up a page soon of the things I plan to sell on anther tab on my blog.  But you can always email me if you're interested in something at craftingthisandthat@gmail.com.

Edit December 5, 2014:  Thank you everyone for your comments and inquiries about these calendars.  They are all now sold.  Maybe I'll make more for 2016?

My next projects will be way less involved.  Maybe not as much coloring.  I have to give my Copics a little break!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Yuki ornament

Hello!  I feel sometimes scattered wanting to do so many different crafts.  I wish I had this huge crafty room where I had lots of large tables and each table would be designated for a specific craft.  Like sewing, coloring, paper crafting.  Then I wouldn't have to clean up everything to start another project.  Sewing definitely takes up a lot of space with the cutting of fabric, space for the sewing machine and even ironing.  That is the only ironing I am willing to do! 

Anyway, I finished this cute ornament yesterday.  You've probably seen them around blogland ever since PTI introduced their latest kit with the clear domes.  PTI's kits are so enticing with all the fun stuff included in them but they are just too expensive for me especially if I'm not sure I'd be using them often.  But I had seen the clear domes before at my local Ben Franklin store so I knew I could make those ornaments/tags without spending so much money.  Plus the domes come in all different sizes and pretty affordable. 

I colored up Sister Stamps Yuki.  She is one of my favorites!   I used maybe one of the largest ornament domes at the store.  I wanted to be sure that the image would fit nicely.  For the back, I used one of the largest stitched circle dies from Lil Inkers.  I even bought the fake snow from Ben Franklin's too.  These domes come in pairs cause they're supposed to fit together to make a round ornament.  So I have another one that I can play around with.

Here is a side view.  I used Glossy Accents to glue the dome onto the cardstock backing.  Then I added that ribbon all around.  This was a fun and quick craft.  My kids are gonna be making some of these for our annual ornament making tradition.  I bought them smaller ones and they are excited about what they can include in their little dome.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sister Stamps Release #26 is today!

Hi again!  Today is release day!  Thought I would pop in to share my latest 2 year pocket calendars featuring Sister Stamps Ai and Mitsuyo. 

First up is Ai, the girl Taiko drummer.  I printed up some of these sentiments that I first saw with an Uptown Girl stamp.  I loved the sentiment and wanted to buy the stamp cause of it but I thought twice and saved some money by just printing the sentiments myself.  As usual, I used washi paper to cover the calendars.

Here is Mitsuyo.  I love the color combo of this one.  So pretty!  And the same sentiment.

Here they are in their vinyl covers.  I love the practicality of these calendars.  I mean, you get 2 years worth!  But I notice the calendars aren't cut exactly straight.  So that makes me have to fiddle a bit with the washi paper to cover everything up nicely.  Not sure if it's just my order that was cut crooked but I think these are still cute and worth the bit of fiddling.

Really, I thought maybe this year I could try out a craft fair but I think I'm still not ready!  But I am willing to sell my calendars through my blog if anyone is interested.  Just send me an email and we can work something out. 

Thanks all!  Hope you got some yummy chocolates from Halloween!  That is one of the perks of having 3 children.  I can rummage through 3 bags for my favorite chocolates! 

Sister Stamps Release #19 -- Mochi Pounding

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Hello again!  Welcome to the last day of previews for Sister Stamps Release #19.  All of these cute stamps will be available November 1st.  We're continuing with the mochi theme.  The last image is called Mochi Pounding.  We celebrate New Year's by making mochi with my hubby's family.  They don't pound out the mochi but use the steamer and some modern mochi cooker I guess.  I don't know because I'm not involved with that phase of the mochi making.  Mostly the guys do that.  And the mochi is super hot when it comes out.  The ladies all wait patiently to roll and form the mochi into nice little mounds.  We have a list of how many to make.  We put one in our house and in each of our cars!  I don't know if you put them in your cars as well.  So the ones for the cars are smaller and pretty cute!  We put little tangerines on top too.  Then of course we eat some too!  It's pretty fun to watch the kids make mochi.  It's the only time they can play around with their food!

Anyway, today I'm continuing with calendars.  I wanted to make two but I didn't have enough gold paper!  So I made one.  

I added all of the images onto this wall calendar.  One of my blogging friends used to make these large calendar templates and so I wanted to do something like that.  I found the calendar online HERE.  There on tons of free calendar templates online so I'm sure you'll find something you like.  I reduced the size so I could print out 2 of these calendars onto one sheet.  I matted the washi paper onto gold and then onto black cardstock.  I added a light gold ribbon onto the back instead of poking holes through the calendar.  And I finally found a use of these black photo corners.

Here is a close up of the top scene.  The year was done in gold paper too and I used CC Cutters numbers die.

Here is a close up of the mochi pounders.  They look so happy doing such hard work.

And here are Hideo and Mieko making yet another appearance!  They look like they are playing sword fight with their mochi sticks.  As usual the kids play around while the adults do all the hard work! 

My hubby has already called dibs on this calendar so I guess it won't be going to a teacher.  His company has rules about giving gifts to the higher ups so instead of giving gifts to his boss, we give my hubby's boss' wife the gifts.  Kind of a way to thank the boss without really giving him anything and breaking the rules.

Please check out the rest of the DT and their creations!

Cyndi (Guest DT)
Jenny (Sister Stamps)
Debi
Linda
Linda's You Tube Channel

Thanks so much for checking out this release of Sister Stamps!  Sister Stamps will be back next year with new images!