Two "Boy" Themed Cards

Happy Wednesday! I hope that all of you are doing well. I am taking it slow today since I have a huge headache.  I hope and pray that it goes away soon. Today I will be sharing with you the cards and RAKs from the July/August Secret Sister Swap.  I had the privilege of having my blogging pal Karen to send a card to.  I was a bit stumped with making a card with the theme "boy."  This theme is always a challenge for me.  As I was thinking about what stamp set a light bulb turned on in my head  to use the "Hanging Loose With Kona" stamp  set that a good friend recently gave to me.  Thankfully as soon as I decided to use the set my Mojo took off and I was able to make a card that for Karen that I was pretty happy with. 

 Here is the card partially open.

Along with the card I sent her a RAK. 

Cindy was my SS.  She sent me this awesome card.  I love all the detail that she put into making it.  The scene that she made me have mixed emotions.  On one hand it brought a smile to my face because it reminds me of all the happy times I have had with family and friends in Hawaii.  I was a bit sad too because it reminded me of how much I wish being there. 

This is the generous and thoughtful RAK that she sent to me.  The hand towel is way too nice to use.  Maybe I will just frame it instead.  :)  (Sorry the die cuts of the "hello" is backwards.)

Thanks again Cindy for everything.  Before I end I wanted to share two pictures from my last visit to Disneyland with my family.  We went last Friday to make 60th Anniversary flat pennies and watch the fireworks.  It was cancelled the last 3 times we wanted to watch it.  We wanted to be sure to see it before it ends on Sept. 5.  While the fireworks are going on music is being played in the background along with projections of different characters onto Small World, Main Street, or at the castle.  We were in front of Small World.

The show is amazing.  It is so sad that it is all coming to an end.  Before we headed home we took a picture in front of the castle.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day and rest of your week. 

Handmade Gifts and Tags and Shopping at Maido

Last week was my first week back to work.  Boy was it tough.  I thank the Lord for giving me the strength to get through.  As a tradition I surprise my friends/co-workers with back to school gifts. Here's the steps that I did to make their gifts.   First I glued on the erasers on the clips with super glue. (I initially hot glued the erasers onto the clips with hot glue but they were very easily taken off.  So instead I glued them on with super glue which was some what of  pain especially when it got on my hand.  The feel of crazy glue on my hand does not feel very comfy.  It will come off in a few days.)

Then I cut the sentence strips into smaller pieces, punched the scallops, and stamped and punched the apple out. Next I wrote names on the apples, glued the punched apple on the scallop, and glued the apples onto the sentence strips.

The final step was putting the clips onto the sentence strips.

The erasers and the sentence strips were purchased from the dollar bin at Le Target.  I got the clips from Daiso.  For principal, VP, and office staff I purchased a box of chocolate that is in the shape of shells.  I stamped and punched out a tag and wrote "Shellabrating UR Awesomeness!" 

It's always fun surprising friends at work with a gift. One of them said that out of all the gifts that I have surprised them with this is her favorite.  This really touched my heart and brightened my day.  Before I end I wanted to share a picture with you of the super cool store called Maido that I went to visit.  They have all my favorite products there pens, pens, and more pens (I think this is the biggest selection of pens I have ever seen in one store.),

rubber stamps, bags, professional markers, books, cards, and stuffed animals.  My newest interest are fountain pens.  It was super cool to get a brief tutorial at the store about them.  I purchased two different types of fountain pens and got different ink cartridges to put inside.  I can't wait to get to use them!  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Mail and A Japanese Festival

Today marks the last Friday of my summer break.  :(  What a bittersweet week it has been.  I look forward to seeing everyone at work, but of course do not look forward to doing all the paperwork again.  I wish I had a little more time off.  Every summer seems to go by faster and faster.  As my summer comes to an end I thank the Lord for the fab summer that He has blessed my family and I with with together and spending time with family and friends at fun places and enjoying good food.  This week I received several pieces of "happy mail" to bright up my mood.  I received this super cute card from my friend Cathy all the way from New York along with a Starbucks NY gift card (She remembers that I collect the gift cards from around the world. )

She also sent me these delicious biscottis. (She sent me two dozen.)  She is a very good baker and chef.

In the mail I also received the "Year of the Monkey" monkey from Bear the Bear that I ordered.  Isn't he cute?

Before I end I want to share some pictures with you a festival that my family and I went to last week for Nesei Week.  Even though it was hot we had a fabulous time.  My favorites were taking a picture with Hello Kitty,

meeting a Pop artist that draws Hello Kitty,

seeing Frances Yip (She is the designer of one of my favorite t-shirts. Since she is retiring soon I asked her to autograph one of her stamps,),

seeing the Kubo exhibit (I can't wait to watch the movie.),

and seeing the huge Japanese kites. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a blessed weekend! 

A Tea Party, Fun Gifts, and Disneyland

I have been meaning to write a post all week but was either too busy or too tired to.  In the past two weeks my family and I have gone to Disneyland 30+ hours with my cousin and her family that are visiting so when I was home this week I did not want to do anything but relax.  :)  My body and especially my feet are still recovering from all the walking and fun.  I will share a few pictures of my fun times there after I share some crafty stuff with you.  Today I will be sharing with you what I made and gave to the friends that I had a tea party with last month at A Cup of Tea in Oahu.  I made purses using a die cut I believe from Tonic and I embossed the front and back panels of the purse to make it look like a designer purse. I made the purses in colors that coordinate with the hat pin cushion that I purchased.

I took pictures with each friend with what they made. Under each picture is a close up of what the friend made.

Here is Dori and I.

Here is Fran and I.

Here is DeAnna and I.

Here is Brenda and I.  I am sorry I am having a hard time downloading a the close up picture of what Brenda made for me.

Robyn has joined us at tea for the past few years, but since she moved to another state she was not able to this year.  Although she was not able to join us she surprised us with a gift. 

Thanks again Robyn for your awesome gift.  We all missed you but we know that you were with us in spirit. Before we enjoyed our delicious teas, scones, sandwiches, and desserts,

we made a toast. 

It is always lots of fun getting together for tea each year with friends and talking story.  As promised before I end my post here are two pictures from Disneyland.  Here is a picture of Benson and I with my cousin and her hubby.

Here is a picture of the beautiful scenery we see on one of my favorite rides "Radiator Springs."

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fun and relaxing weekend!

Finally, I'm Back Blogging Again

Yikes!  I have not posted on my for 2.5 weeks.  My apologies for that.  My summer has been a busy but fun one.  By the time I get around to sitting down or if I don't have much planned for the day I am not in the mood to do anything but relax.  I am a bit tired today from spending the day at Disneyland with my cousin and her family that are visiting from Seattle but I thought it would be good to write a short post.  Since my last post I was planning and prepping for my annual family vacation to Oahu.  My family and I love Oahu!  Since we have several friends that live in Oahu I always like to get some of our favorite snacks and get them some of their favorite things.  I also like to make them a little some thing from my heart.  I die cutted each friend a card/tag in the shape of a sakura and cut one more out for the center.  I used my stamp set from Dandelion Designs with different little girls holding different letters.  I choose the letter that matched the first letter of each friend's name.

I made the "friends" tag for one of my friend's daughters and the one with the little girl on it for another friend.

Here are the fun goodies and products that we surprised our friends with.

The first two friends that we were blessed to spend time with were Dori and her hubby (We went to a Japanese restaurant.  Here we are with our Okinowan pies for dessert.)

and Michelle, her hubby, and her daughter (We had dinner at Mac 24/7 at the Hilton.)

Dori gave us these thoughtful gifts

and Michelle gave us these thoughtful gifts.

Both of them treated us to diner to too.  We feel very fortunate to be able to have such good friends that we get to visit with each year.  Stay tune for more pictures soon of the time we had with our friends when we were in Oahu.  For the next few posts before I end each one I would like to share with you some thing that I purchased (I purchased these purses from Balli at the swap meet.),

one of my favorite ono foods (My daughter and I went to the Gelato Bar at Nordstrom.  She ordered green tea and oreo gelato and I ordered a Pineapple lee hing mui one.),

and one of the favorite places that we visited while we were in Oahu (This is the sunset that my family and I enjoyed at Hale'iwa Beach). 

Wow!  This post ended up being a lot longer than I though it would be.  Thanks for stopping by!