Weekend of crafting

Aloha everyone,
It's been an uneventful weekend in that my daughter did not give birth yet. We're waiting patiently, hoping she'll give birth before we leave on our trip.
In the meantime, I was able to enjoy a couple of fun crafting days. Ben Franklin Crafts threw a wonderful Super Party of make and takes, a demo of the Eclips machine and a One-stroke painting demo on Saturday at their Pearl City Store.  Eileen Tokita, formerly known as the "Egg Lady", now known as the "Bling Lady" was there teaching you how to bling whatever you want with Swarovsky crystals.

notebook, box-card, slider-card, glass-tile pendant

 What's not up in the photo is a bracelet that was made using the Kumihimo wheel and seed beads that was taught by Raynette. I'll post that photo later 'cause I made more that one.  Hehehe.

Then on Sunday the Pacific Coast Stampers' had their end of Summer stamp camp. I look forward to these events, seeing friends and enjoying their company, the fun of creating with each other and the surprise of who wins the silent auctions, raffles and door prizes.

three darling boxes and a bookmark

Check out the goodies that we got as we checked in at the door.  Some were in or on our kit package .

goodies just for attending, YUM

That's it for now, have a great time and be safe.
Aloha,

Reunions, BFF, and Turtles

Aloha everyone!
It's been a fun summer, though very busy.  Summer seems so hot on the mainland, so being here was a treat for my BFF, Cyn.  She arrived on the 4th of August and flew home on the 16th; home being TX.  Can we say HOT?
We did some serious crafting and sewing.  Cyn must have cut about fifty tags with the Cricut to take home for her "Ladies Night"meeting; they'll be decorating them when they meet.
We took some time to visit Cyn's cousin, my classmate Priscilla.  She and her husband Bill own "A Place In Time" located in Kailua.  I hope to have a button on my sidebar for their place soon.  In the meantime click here to see their site www.ptcraftshop.com Their store is spacious and full of sample cards, scrapbooks, boxes, tags etc. along with all the tools and supplies.  If you find the time, you must visit their store; definitely eye candy. While there we learned how to make a 'forever card', otherwise known as an infinity card.  (I'll  tell you more on that in another post).
Back at my workroom we also played with my Bigshot.  Now Cyn is going home to buy herself a BigShot and some diecuts after she saw samples of things I made using the Bigshot and after she learned how easy it is to use.  I did try to talk her into getting either a Cricut or an Eclips, but it was just one of those TMI things for her.  I'll let her get used to the Bigshot for awhile. 
We didn't spend all of our time indoors, we went to the beach too.  No, we didn't swim, I don't think we even went into the water.  We picked up coral, driftwood and a few beach glass and shells.  Would you believe she took home a gallon size zip-bag of coral and shells? The driftwood was packed separately. We're not in love with the stuff, but we do craft with them.  Always thinking about and doing something creative, that's us.
While out along the north shore we stopped at my favorite place to watch the turtles play along the shoreline.

phone photo-click picture to enlarge

Back at my workroom we did some sewing.  One of the things I showed Cyn was how to make a pareo so that it wouldn't flap open while wearing it.  So off to the fabric store to pick up Hawaiian print fabric.  Don't tell, but some people in TX will be getting them as gifts.
Forgive me, I don't usually post long, but I had such a wonderful time, I just had to share.
Now in between my BFF's visit, my husband had a 60th birthday class reunion.  You know us local people, we think of anything to get together and have a celebration.  Well, DH was part of the planning committee and volunteered my services to make one of the centerpieces.  Since this was a birthday reunion, what better thing to make than a birthday cake.

Happy 60th!

This is made from a set of nesting gift boxes that I covered in the school colors. I used the Cricut design studio to weld the letters together at the top of the cake and the CHS. 
Well, Bff is home in TX,  reunion is done and I need a rest.  However, DD is about to give birth any day now.  Traditionally, I'm either in the birthing room with her or I'm with her other children.  This time (5th) I'll be with the children until they can visit mommy in the hospital.  Let you know the outcome, for now....
Aloha,

Aloha Japan

Aloha everyone,
I think I caught my GCs bad cold. My head is splitting and my chest is full of that congestion stuff; yuk!
But, because I've already uploaded a picture of a card I made for BenFranklin Crafts (BFC), when they were doing a card making fest for Japan, I'm able to sit up and post today.

I know that Japan people love the hula, so I thought Hula Anya would be appropriate to send some love and care their way. The sentiments are inside.
I hope all the greeting cards that everyone made those two weekends in July would lift these people's spirit.
I need to go back to sleep, hah, or  at least lie down again.
Aloha,

 

Memory Crafting With Grand Daughter

Aloha Everyone,
It's been a fun couple of weeks blog hopping with Karen Valentine's "Where Bloggers Create" party.  I've met so many people, fell in love with their blogs and learned new fun ideas.  If you have a chance, click  here to get to the link if you would like to check out some or all of the blogs.  And for those of you that are still partying, just scroll down to the next post for part of my creative space.  If you want to see the rest of my space, click on the title "Where this blogger creates" on the right sidebar under 'home'.
My grand daughter started school today, so last week she wanted to work on a mini album project with me.  I bought a K & Co. kit along with a bunch of other embellishments.  I helped her cut the dp for the pages and she did a great job of gluing it to the album pages once I showed her how.  Then I let her do what she wanted, use what she wanted on each page.  Prior to getting started I downloaded pics of her favorite celebs for her to use in her album.  I had to use photoshop to resize the pics.

La`amea's Memory Album

Field trip to the Waikiki Aquarium

What young girl doesn't like JB?

A soccer player at age 4

TS--her favorite

There was a total of 8 pages; these are just a few.  La`a, as we call her, said she had fun and would love to do more. 
Have a great fun filled week!
Aloha,

Where Bloggers Create 2011

Aloha,
This year is just flying by so quickly I can't believe it's mid July!
So, it's Blog hopping time and I'm so grateful to be participating again in Where Bloggers Create.  Thank you Karen!
Well I haven't made any major changes in my little corner workroom.  My dear husband put in awning windows which by the way was a second-hand from Craigslist; just doing our part in staying green. So glad to be rid of those jealousy windows; always having to close them when it rains.

Craigslist awning windows

 He also changed the door to my hideaway to an old french door which was one of two that use to be in our bedroom; yes, repurposing.  How's that for an oxymoron; hideaway, french door (glass)?

I took out the treadle machine/table and moved it to another part of the house so that I could put this fold-away table in its place.   We had a store here in Hawaii called Liberty House and when they were bought by Macy's, they were getting rid of some of LH stock. This table was one of them; cost only $15 and also came with a folding chair. This is a great work station for papercrafting.

This has been moved

Now this is in its place

I also did a few changes with the wall unit above this table. I've heard that it is better (?) to have our markers, whether copics or otherwise, resting horizontally than vertically. I've been shopping for a unit I once saw in a stamp store where the cubicles were slightly slanted towards the back, but couldn't find one.  So, since my wall unit has adjustable shelves with those little plugs you insert into the sides and the shelves rest on the plugs, what I did was insert the back plugs one hole below the front.  Oh yeh, problem solved! Now when I grab a marker when I'm working, a bunch won't come tumbling out.

Another thing I wanted nearby when papercrafting was a ribbon station.  I just don't have enough wall space so again, I took part of the wall unit and made some minor adjustments.  I took some chair/stool leg caps, cut a portion of the sides off; about a half inch, screwed them into the wall sides with the cut-open side up. Just loaded the ribbons on the dowel that I cut to the measurement between the section.  Now I can lift the dowel to add more ribbons or take off the empty spools. Love it!

I still have my work/cutting table, but I've had to use it lately to hold the overflow of equipment for papercrafting.

Easy to get to instead of hiding it in a box

 I'm running out of room in here. I've moved one thing, just one, into the guest room, my Bigshot pro.  My dream is to turn the guest room into the papercrafting room.  One of my dear friends just said to me a few days ago that, "dreams don't expire; dreams don't have deadlines".  I'm inclined to believe her. I'll be patient.
Another addition to my workroom is this lovely free standing cupboard.

I got it from Ross's for about $139; the color was perfect and I knew just where it would go. It took the place of the plastic Iris drawers on wheels. This piece holds most of my jewelry making goodies. I also got these plastic containers that have flat containers inside. They're sold as 4"x6" photo keepers, but...they hold my seed beads by color and other fun glass beads and gems. The thing is, I got the first two containers from BFC using the 40% coupon which brought the price from 21.99 to 13+.The coupons now are every other month; I wasn't going to wait.  I actually found them at Simple Living for about the same low price without a coupon.

My workroom may not be magazine, drool-to-die for, but I do have fun working here. And if Nate Berkus should ever come to Hawaii, I would love to have his crew decorate a good working space right here in this same space with a budget I could afford.
You can click on last years Where This Blogger Creates to the right on my blog to see last years post.  I noticed that on these separate pages you can't leave a comment or question, but if you do want to leave a comment or have any questions, my email is pharbottle@gmail.com.  
Thank you for stopping by for a visit, see you at the party hop!
Aloha,