A Butterfly Themed Swap

Last month's tea swap had the optional theme of making a card with a "butterfly" theme.  My friend Brenda and I were paired up to be swap partners so I made her a purple butterfly easel card.  It was so much fun making it for her.

Along with the card I sent over a few other surprises for her.

Brenda  made me two great cards with butterflies on them.  She said that she couldn't decide which one to send to me so she sent both of them.

She also made me a fabulous tea bag holder

with some yummy teas inside and one of my favorite Hawaiian cookies.

She also sent me a package of prima flowers. 

I love them all.  Thanks Brenda for being such a fun tea swap partner and friend.  Thanks for stopping by everyone! Have a fun and crafting weekend!

Cards, Gifts, and a Fun Time in San Francisco

A week ago my family and I were still in beautiful San Francisco having a great time.  We were there for 4 fab days for my kids' Spring Break.  Before heading there I was busy making cards and got some gifts for two friends that we will be meeting for dinner.  These are the two cards that I made for them.

The brown and pink one was for my friend Gail and her hubby.  (Unfortunately he was not able to join us for dinner this year.) This is the Disney themed gift that I gave to them. 

She gave us a SF Traders Joes bag full of delicious snacks from there.  I think the bag is super cool since it has the Golden Gate Bridge on it.  I am sorry I don't have a picture of the snacks.  My hubby already put them away in our pantry.  I am sure my kids have gobbled some of them up already.  LOL!

My family and I had a lot of fun having dinner with her at a Japanese restaurant.

The other card that I made is for my hubby's good friend Tina and her family. 

They surprised my kids with some fun lego toys and we gave them some toys and some of our favorite snacks from Disneyland. We had a good time with Tina and her family enjoying some ono food from The Gridz, a Hawaiian restaurant.  I surprised the owners of the restaurant with a tag and gave them one of our favorite Hawaiian snacks  just as a little "mahalo" for always being one of our favorite places to eat when we visit.

Before sharing some pictures of our trip in SF I want to share with you the cards that Gail and I made for each other.  A few weeks before leaving for SF Gail and I decided to do a swap using the Botanical Garden stamp set from Stampin Up.  This is the card and tablets that she made for me.

 Here is the card that I made for her.

Besides visiting friends while we were in SF we went to Alcatraz (It was an interesting experience going there.  We went on an audio tour and got to hear how the ceil doors sound when they open and close which is pretty loud.  It made me shiver a bit.  We even got to meet one of the ex-prisoners.),

Muir Woods (It is a beautiful national park with red wood trees.),

to the Gold Gate Bridge,

to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown (It was so much fun going shopping at different booths, shopping at the Hello Kitty Café, taking pictures with Donutella from Tokidoiki, and eating fresh potato chips on a shish kabob skewer sprinkled lightly with seaweed, a crepe with green tea ice cream and strawberries, and a musubi. We ate a late lunch at ono HI restaurant called Laina.),

 

and did lots of shopping (One of my favorite stores was Beverely's Craft store. I got some good deals on rhinestones and some glitter jelly pens.  Of course I purchased a few other items too.).

My family and I are thankful that it was not too cold while we were there and it only sprinkled from time to time.  It rained after we finished going to the festival and when we were driving home. On the way home we stopped in Fresno and spent the night at my hubby's uncle and aunt's house since it was raining.  Of course as we were getting closer to Fresno it stopped raining.  LOL!  Just to be safe we stayed in Fresno and had lunch with his aunt and uncle at a Vietnamese restaurant before heading home.  Check out the huge bowl of beef noodle soup with tendons. 

It was another awesome vacation to SF.  My family and I miss being there already.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful weekend!

A Fun Week, a Card, and Some Coloring

I hope that this post is finding every one doing well.  I just finished having a week off from work.  It was sure nice to be able to have fun and relax without needing to worry about getting home to do paper work for work.  :) It was a fun week having the opportunity to spend some quality time with family and friends. I also had a chance to organize my craft room and to do some crafting.   Before I share a some pictures of my week off I wanted to share with you what I made for my dear friend Fran's birthday.  I always think it is more fun giving a present to someone with a specific theme.  Her gift had a tea/tea party theme. I gave her a set of tablets that have tea cups and a tea pot on it. Each tablet was personalized with her name on it.  This is the card that I made for her.

This is how it looks when you open it.

As you can see to add the perfect finishing touch to my card that is shaped like a tea pot I added some rhinestones to it and mounted it to a doily.  I also want to share with you what a friend's 4th grade son and I colored with my Copic markers.  He wants to be an artist one day and wanted to learn how to use the markers.  I gave him a mini lesson.  Can you tell which page he colored and which one I colored?  :)

Okay now onto some fun photos from my week off.  Here is a photo of me at an Air Supply concert that my family and I went to with some friends.  Yes Graham and Russel walked in the aisles.

This picture is a picture of some friends and I out for lunch enjoying some poke.

Last but not least are some pictures of my final adventure on Sunday with my family before going back to work today.  We spent the day at California Adventure.  We met Judy Hops and Nick Wild from the movie Zootopia,

ate some ono food at the Wine and Food Festival (The dessert with mango pudding and coconut pudding with tapioca balls was one of my favorites.),

and meeting the artist Jerrod Maruyama.  It was super cool to get a toys designed by him and a print done by him signed.  His version of Mickey and Minnie are just too cute!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a blessed day and week.