A Kawaii Hello

This bunny card was made for my friend Rachel. When I first started crafting years ago, her website was one I would go to for inspiration. She was always winning card challenges and for a newbie like myself, getting to her level was something to aspire to! Fast forward a couple of years, I realized we actually had more in common than just crafting (including living quite close to each other!) We'd leave comments on each other's blogs but with the introduction of social media, we actually started having real conversations. She's such a close friend at this point despite the fact that we've never actually met face to face! Hopefully if this pandemic ever calms down, we can leave the kids with their dads and have a proper craft day.

I wanted to send her a card to say hello and Happy Spring. I was also sending her a Tuxedo Sam memo pad because we talked about how much we like Sanrio and I honestly don't know anyone else into Sanrio and Kawaii stationary. (Pochacco 4 lyfe!) This cute set was from Darcie's Stamps and it was quite fun to copic color. The sentiment, cut from glitter paper is from Lawn Fawn. 

Happy Spring from Pochacco!

Oh Boy!

These next two cards were really exciting for me to create. I had two separate friends tell me they were pregnant and it made me so happy because I know they are both going to make the most wonderful moms. 

For the first card, I used the WaffleFlower Be Him stamp set. I am seriously having a love affair with these stamps (as you have seen in the past few entries) I put the sunglasses on this one since my friend lives in Florida so I'm sure this kid will have his fair share of sunnies! The distress background was created using Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio. I embossed the sentiment from a MFT set I got for free with one of my hauls. I used the Cool copic family markers for him and I did another one with the Warm colors. Both were challenging tbh. I'm still trying to make those grey blends look flawless. (P.S.- it's hard)

For my next one, I cracked open my Hugs Make Everything Better set from MFT. I used this for my Father's Day cards and thought this was one would be great for this too. This background was a lot subtler and I used a small sentiment from MFT as well.

Here's hoping this pandemic gets under control soon because I would hate to miss meeting these brand new babies!

Birthdays, Galore!

Since I am so behind with these cards, I'm just going to put all of the birthday cards I've made in one post! Summer is a busy time around here!

For this card, I used a Waffle Flower stencil and the Be Her stamps which I love. 

I added some sparkle to her bow with a Wink of Stella pen. No idea why I haven't been using one this entire time!

For this card, I again used Waffle Flower stamps with a stencil. These cards are simple but I love how they come out.

I forgot about this Colorado Craft Company ice cream cone stamp that I bought forever ago. I took out my copics and with this large picture, it was a great blending exercise. 

For my brother-in-law's birthday, I used the Harry Potter stamps I got from The Sassy Club. Hagrid is his favorite character, but he looked lonely so I added Dobby and Hedwig since Hagrid is a lover of all creatures. I used a Waffle Flower stencil with Gryffindor colors. 

For this card, I used a Lawn Fawn ice cream stamp to create multiple scoops. The background was created with Shaded Lilac, Picked Raspberry and Cracked Pistachio and I used the stamp to create my own pattern. I really like how this one came out, but it look a long time to make it look right. 

Oh Mickey, You So Fine

In college, I had a second home with my best friend Kevin. His house was sort of like a safe haven where a bunch of us would retreat to when we needed a breather. His mom is one of the nicest I know and I loved to color with her. Long before Copics, I used to color with good old fashioned Crayola crayons and she'd have tons of Disney coloring books to choose from. It was so therapeutic and relaxing which is probably why I still love doing it today.

Kevin's parents are DVC members and I have so many wonderful memories of going to Disney World with his family. They were always the most fun vacations. So when I wanted to make something for his mom, I knew these Mickey stamps from The Sassy Club were perfect. There are no dies for these stamps so I had to fussy cut it, but I don't think it came out too bad?

I created the background with Festive Berries, Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar distress oxide. I used one of the background stamps to create a border and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.

Dude, I Miss You

I was making some cards for the Cards for Kindness organization (yes, I didn't forget my pledge! More on that later) and I decided that I wanted to make something for my three best friends who I haven't seen in months. Lately, I've been hitting what everyone has been referring to as that "pandemic wall" and I just miss my girlfriends and all the fun we used to have together. Hopefully with vaccine rollouts, I'll be able to see them soon.

I had asked what what their favorite colors were and they all gave me the same answer which made this very easy for me! I had recently purchased some word die cuts from Simon Says Stamp and I wanted to try them out.

Distress oxides I blended for the backgrounds: Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire and Cracked Pistachio.  

For this one, I used a heart stencil I got from Simon that works perfectly with A2 cards. The die cut is from CZ Design and Cathy is honestly one of my favorite crafters to watch on youtube now. I learned to create dimension, you should cut three pieces and glue them together. I like these dies because they have the shadowed background too. 

I used some washi tape to create a clean line with my blending here. I also used one of the Simon sentiment strips which was a little tricky to cut in a straight line, but I did my best. I couldn't resist this die cut either. I call everyone dude so I just had to have it.

For my last one, I blended a larger background with the distress oxides and I included a cat from a Michael's stamp pack I bought awhile ago. These cats are fun to Copic color so I've been practicing with them for awhile (and I knew my friend Monique loves cats). 

They all looked really nice when you put them together (much like my beautiful friends)

A Crafty Shower

When it came time to have a bridal shower, my first instinct was to pass. Everything about my wedding up until then had been rather small and unconventional so I felt having a shower would contradict that. Then the combination of my mom insisting I have one and me realizing that it was my wedding and I could do whatever I wanted, changed my mind. What was important was that I stuck to my guns: no restaurant brunches and no shower games.

Instead I wanted to do something fun and different. Obviously, crafting is such a large part of my life and it was something I thought the other ladies would enjoy too.

Off to Paper Source we go! The store on the Upper West Side has a large side room and since my shower would be in the summer, I wanted my theme to reflect that. We went with a Moana/Lilo and Stitch tropical shower. I chose a basic card making class that people at all levels would be able to do. The folks at the Paper Source let us bring lots of food as well as decorate the space and honestly, it was the best time. Not everyone knew each other, but the activity was something fun they could do while chatting.

 I'm so glad I decided to try something different because it was such a great afternoon with the most important ladies (and gentleman) in my life. Below are some pictures of the day.

Here are the supplies for making the invitations!

Embossing and washi tape made for simple and quick invites. Also, Disney font because, obviously.

Our treat table/favors table! I created decorations based on Moana and Lilo and Stitch quotes.

Tiki brownies and Tamatoa treasure cake!

This is from his song, Shiny which is one of my favs. 

Kevin is one of my closest friends from college and also my officiant!

Table set up!

We're all busy crafting!

All the smiling faces was exactly what I wanted.

My creations!

My wedding party!

This handsome guy showed up at the end to help with clean up.

Champagne favors with my personalized tags.

Everyone's creations for the day!

The Mommas!

My lovely group of women (and Kevin <3)

Bride Tribe

Surprises are the best. The BEST. I love them. I’m a hard person to surprise though. I get nosy and suspicious really easily. I like to bug and bug until people crack. I’ve been told it’s not fun for the other person, but I just can’t help it!

So imagine my surprise when I walked into my apartment last August and found a million balloons scattered around the place. The soundtrack for Pixar’s UP was playing and my very sweet boyfriend was standing holding a bouquet of sunflowers. I would like to say my first reaction was sweet- I cried, I laughed, I grabbed him. But no- my first instinct was to say, “What the fuck?” (If you know me then you aren’t very surprised by this) But then the speech came and the ring and then I started jumping and crying so eventually, I got there.

Fast forward a couple of months later- it’s time to pick my wedding party. BRIDESMAIDS ASSEMBLE!

There wasn’t a question of who I would ask- just a question of HOW. I wanted it to be special and personal and Disney related of course.  My girls are all Disney fans themselves so I knew I wouldn’t have to ponder too much on this. I decided to create a Disney Princess box for each of them showcasing their favorite princess. I was sly about this, randomly taking a poll for a Disney Blogger online (which isn’t too much of a stretch since I used to be one once upon a time) and pretty soon, I had my results.

I wanted the outside of the box to be the wedding colors of red and navy blue. Off to Michael’s I go! I found these great boxes with room for a picture on the lid and painted them all accordingly. I covered them with blue ribbon to give them a sense of “opening a present” (I covered the photos for this blog just to give them some privacy).

Once you open the box, this is what you would find:

• Will you be my Bridesmaid postcard from Papersource
• Bottle of champagne with “I Love You” written in different languages and cute cartoons. I also made a special tag for each of them
• A Ring pop (featuring Sid the Sloth from Ice Age since JP worked on that movie!)
•  A mini clipboard for notes
• A figurine of your Disney Princess from the Animator’s collection (TOTES my fav!)
•  A Little Golden Book of your Disney movie which I took a part and added pages of notes about the wedding after the story

I was able to deliver them personally to each girl and it was so wonderful to see their reactions. I was so glad they all said yes and have started this crazy journey with me!

From L to R: Michelle (Aurora), Me (Belle), Rachael (Ariel- also my Maid of Honor!), Tana (Pocahontas), Monique (Mulan) and Gale (Jasmine)

Valentine's Day 2016

This year, I took the rest of my crafting supplies out of storage. One of the things I uncovered was my Cuttlebug! I forgot how much I loved that thing and along with some Spellbinder Nestabilities dies, I made most of my Valentine's this year with them. JP went to New Jersey one weekend to hang out with his cousins, so I watched girly movies all Saturday and Sunday while making these.  Along with die cuts, I used lots of powder and glittering embossing. Overall, I was very happy with how they came out!

Also, if anyone was wondering, the movies I watched were as follows:

• Sabrina (my all time favorite girly flick ever. (The remake though) I'm a sucker for Harrison Ford in a bow tie!
• Bridget Jones' Diary
• The Wedding Date
• Notting Hill
• Cruel Intentions
• Mystic Pizza
• Hannah and her Sisters