2011 Taj Calendar

My first completed calendar.  I love taj characters--they are so cute!

Originally, the calendar came like this huge rolled up sheet.  I got 3 of them for free when I made a recent purchase at their store.  Every year I think the calendars are so cute but I don't know what to do with them cause I don't have a large enough space to hang it up.  This year I decided to cut each month out and attach to an easel card.  Click on the photo above to see a closer picture of each month. 

I like the sentiment--very fitting for the paper and for a calendar, I think.

The calendar was rolled up for so long that I had to smash it down after I cut the months out under a heavy container for a couple days.  Then I just put some glue on top so the pages would tear off.  The only thing that throws me off is that for January 2011 they have the "year of the tiger" since they print their 2010 shirt designs on the 2011 months.  2011 is the year of the rabbit.

taj has a blog but I don't think they update it much.  This site shows a lot of their card samples.  So cute!

It's been a long day.  My daughter's state Lego tournament was from this morning til almost 4 pm.  But she got a medal and her team won a teamwork trophy!  There were 56 teams today! 

Thanks for reading and hope you're having a great weekend!

taj Easel Card

Hi!  I made a little easel card to participate in ACLP's challenge. 

I had just bought these Doodlebug papers.  So cute and cheery.

I used a Sizzlits rainbow die.  Clouds are PTI felt as is the cardstock.

Remember these little guys?  My daughter had made cards with these stamps.  I had to used them too.  They are from taj, a local store here in Hawaii.  They have the cutest stamps, stencils, clothes, etc.  I used to buy taj stamps when I was younger too but hadn't for a while until I had kids and revisited the store.  Every time I'm in that store, I want to buy something cause everything is so darn cute!  And these stamps are small enough to fit on the rainbow.

The sentiment, frame, pink ribbon and label die cuts are all from PTI.  I bought the baker's twine from DCRU.  It's a fun little embellishment to use.  I should buy more colors but red seems pretty versatile. 

Well, thank you for reading and have a great Sunday!

Fat taj Stamps

Just wanted to share a quick post of the cards my daughter made.  We bought these cute taj stamps at a stamp expo.  My hubby used them as thank you cards.  They are really cute!

These taj characters are rounder and fatter so my daughter just fell in love with them.  Hopefully we can find the other characters like the bear.  They didn't have any at the expo or the store.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

This & That and Another taj Card

What??!! Me? An enabler? I don't know what Cheryl's talking about. I merely make suggestions when I see something cute and if it's a good deal. I've been ordering stuff from www.peachycheap.com lately. Today's deal is really cute but I don't think it's the best deal out there. Too much shipping.

And I just discovered that there is another blog out there that has almost the same name as ours! It's Crafty This and That. Hope people don't get confused between the two.

One more thing before we get on to the card. I wanted to mention that I actually won something. A Sizzix Bigz Spiral/Garland die from Sunghee over at www.creativityinprogress.com/blog/. She made a really cute flower with the die, something I probably would not think about doing. I think she makes some cute stuff especially her mini albums which I am going to try to make one of these days. Thanks, Sunghee!!


I wasn't sure if I was gonna post this cause I didn't know if Cheryl would mind her daughter's name being so out there in blogland. But since she posted the favors, I'm thinking it's okay. Is it weird that we're both kind of private but want to blog? Anyway, another taj stenciled card. I know I kind of messed up the bunny's cheeks/whiskers. Usually I'd redo it but I made this the night before her party. Her name is die cut. The cupcake and party hat have little flower brads.


This is the inside. Please ignore the money!! I didn't have a photo without the cash plus I wanted to show that you can slip some money or a gift card into the slot. I found the template here. Sometimes I spend too much time blog surfing but this is what I came across and thought it would be super cute. I just made mine longer cause my card was bigger. Anyway, thanks for reading through this long post. Are you posting tomorrow, Cheryl? If not, I promise I'll post something that's not taj related.

First Birthday Party Favors & Thank You Card

This is a thank you card I made for my daughter's first birthday party. I got the idea from a sample at Taj Clubhouse (the owner was also very helpful). The bunny and hands were stenciled then cut out. The face was then lined with markers...not sure what else would work better to color the face.

These are the favors. I tried to match the background patterned papers to the thank you cards (there was a 2nd version of the thank you card in a slightly different color but I must have mailed all of those out before taking a picture). The animals were embossed from a taj stencil using the bunny's body and different heads. The round tag was stamped with the event and date, then die cut (thanks, Eva, for making all those).

taj Gift Basket

This is a little gift basket I made last year for one of my former professors who was moving to Arizona. I filled it with lots of goodies from Lin's Market. Made the box myself from 2 sheets of 12x12 cardstock.


Here's the finished product all nicely wrapped again in cellophane. The card is made from a taj stencil. Took me a while to emboss the image and the letters in the scallop circle since I don't have all the right tools like a lightbox. Just used a large tupperware container and sat by the window. But the taj images are so cute it was worth the work!


Here's a closeup of the cute bear!