Fun Cards With Copics

I hope that everyone is having a good week so far.  Mine has not been too bad.  :)  Today I will be sharing with you the tea swap cards from last month.  I was once again paired up with a friend.  This time I was paired up with Fran, the person that organizes the swap every month.  The optional theme was to make a card that has some sort of coloring with Copics, color pencils, etc.  I was so excited when I saw this theme because I love coloring.  I find it very relaxing.  :)  This is the card that I made for Fran along with a matching tea bag holder.

Here is close up picture of the card.

The stamp is from Alota Rubber Stamps and the embossing folder is from SU (I chose to use the embossing folder so that the background can resemble a bee hive.)  I was not completely happy with the card after I put it together so I decided to make a bow using a bow die from My Favorite Things.  I think the bow adds the perfect finishing touch to my card.  What do you think? This is the super cute card and matching tea bag holder that Fran made for me. I love them both!

Each month I always have lots of fun participating in the tea swap, but this month I found it even more fun since the optional theme is some thing that I really enjoy and of course because I was paired up with one of my friends.  I hope that you enjoyed what I shared today.  Have a wonderful and crafty rest of the week!

A Beautiful Anniversary Party

Over the weekend, my hubby and I had the honor of celebrating the 10th Anniversary of two friends. On their invitation they asked that their guests not give them any presents.  I honored their request, but made them a special card.

I was a little stumped with making the anniversary card.  I don't think I have ever made an anniversary card for anyone except my hubby.  I did some research online and was able to come up with the above card without CASing anyone's work beside the two hearts.    The banquet was beautiful and have the most amazing food.

Their cake was beautiful too.

Best of all I got to see two of my friends from grad school.

Before leaving the celebration my hubby and I took a picture with the special couple

and took a picture together.

For those who live in SoCal try to stay cool.  It's been unbearably hot!!!!!!!!  I sure hope that it cools down soon.  Thanks for stopping by!

Thoughtful and Generous RAKs

It is always fun receiving "happy mail" rather than bills and junk mail.  I don't know about all of you, but when I get the mail I always look through everything to see if I received any "happy mail" before I look to see what else was received.  Recently I received "happy mail" from Robyn,

Karen,

and Gail (Inside the watermelon decorated box and envelope are Jambo gift cards and a box of green tea pocky sticks.  She put the stamp set in the decorated cello bag.

Beside receiving "happy mail" my friend Susanna surprised with an ono RAK

She put the goodies in a bag (in my favorite color) that she tied with super cute ribbon and attached a loom bracelet that she made using loom bands that are in my favorite colors.

Here is a close up picture of the loom bracelet.

I think it's pretty fancy.  One day I need to figure out how to make fancy ones like this.  I am a beginner when it comes to loom bracelets. A big hug and mahalo to Robyn, Karen, Susannna, and Gail for thinking of me and for surprising me with such thoughtful gifts.  I love them all!  Before ending today, I wanted to share a picture of my new pet.  :)

When I was shopping at Downtown Disney I could not resist and had to purchase Rocket the Raccoon from "Guardians of the Galaxy."  Isn't he cute? If you have not seen the movie yet, I strongly encourage you to watch it.  I am not usually into superhero movies, but I loved this one.  It has a variety of scenes full of humor, action, and sentimental parts.  Thank for dropping by to check out what I have to share.

A Card With a Speech Bubble and Other Fun Craft Creations

Happy September!  I hope that all of you had a relaxing  Labor Day weekend.  Today I would like to share the cards from July's tea swap.  My friend Fran is always coming up with fun optional themes for our tea swap cards each month.  The optional theme for July was to make a card with a "speech bubble" on it.  I sure had fun making the card.  My favorite part was coloring with my Copics.  I find coloring very relaxing.

Since my swap partner was my good friend Gail I sent her a few extra goodies.  One of the goodies was the magnet above.  When I saw the magnet at the store I couldn't pass up getting it since it's so cute and matches so well with the card that I made.  I also sent her

Here is the fun items that Gail made for me

along with these goodies that she included.

Gail and I both love Asian stuff.  I think it's so cool that both of us decided to make each other items with an Asian theme.  Thanks Gail for making July's tea swap extra fun.  Before ending this post I wanted to share a picture that my hubby and I took with the writer and inspirational speaker Christopher Yuen.

We had the privilege of listening him share his testimony two weeks ago at church.  It was such a blessing to hear how God has worked in his life. He was once gay and through the example that his parents were to Him help lead him back to God.   I hope that you liked I had to share today. I hope that you have a good rest of your week and have some time to craft.

Beginning of the School Year Treats

Wednesday was officially the end of Summer Break for my kids and I.  It's always bittersweet for us during this time of year.  On Tuesday night I was crazy busy trying to finish up all the beginning of the school year gifts for my co-workers and for my kids' teachers. Some of my co-workers I gave them a post-its with an apple magnet on the topper.  I also attached a tag with an apple magnet on some of the gifts.  I wrote an inspirational quote on each of the magnets. My hands were sure cramping up with writing the quotes on the apples.  LOL!

Other co-workers received

and my co-workers that I am closer friends and the secretaries received

Here are the mini buckets with the tags.

I decorated a bucket and filled it with goodies for my kids' teachers too. (The backpacks in the picture are my kids new backpacks.)

I always think it's fun to bring a smile to someone's face by surprising them with a special treat. I know I love surprises  They definitely bring a smile to my face.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful 3 day weekend!

Good Times In Oahu With Cousins and Friends and RAKs

One last post about my trip to Oahu.  I hope that you aren't getting too bored with my pictures of my vacation in paradise.  I could probably go on for weeks posting pictures of my vacation, but I won't bore you by doing that.  LOL!  Before I go on with the post I want to warn you that this post will be a long one. You may want to grab a nice cold drink or two before you continue reading.  :) During our 10 in Oahu there as I mentioned earlier my family and I got to visit with family and friends. During our first week there we had dinner with my cousin Candice (She was studying abroad at the University of Manoa.).  We had dinner together at LikeLike.

Next we had dinner with my cousin Deannie at Zippys.  It was super nice to get to see her since we have not seen each other ever since I was in junior high school.  We hooked up about a year ago on Facebook and have kept in touch since then.

I started off the the weekend with having breakfast at KoKo Head Cafe with my friend Grace.

We had a fab day together enjoying each others company, catching up on things, and going shopping at J's Knicknacks (Here's a picture of me with Cliff and Cheryl. Cheryl and I have chatted online, but this was the first time that we met each other.),

Celebrations, and at 2 of the Ben Franklins (At one of them we ran into Jenny from Sister Stamps.  She was nice enough to take a picture with both of us.)

Our last stop after having lunch at the Wards Center was at Taj Clubhouse.  We made a make and take there.

On Sunday my family and I had dinner with Fran and her family at Side Street Cafe.  Both of our families had a blast together.

The last friend that we got to see was Michelle and her family.  We had dinner together at Highway Inn at their new location in Honolulu.

Before ending this post I want to share the RAK that my family and I were given by Candice,

Grace,

Fran and her family (She gave us the two yarn leis that Stitch is wearing.),

and by Michelle and her family.

It's always a blessing and the highlight of our trip to Oahu when we get to visit different people that we know. We had a wonderful time seeing everyone and miss everyone very much already.  A big mahalo to you for taking time to look at my long post.  Until next time happy crafting and God bless!