Last post for now...

Our trip to Japan seemed such a long way off and now it's just a day until we leave. Double checked to make sure our passports were all in order and I've started packing some clothes that I know I won't be wearing here anytime soon. Just found out it'll be thunderstormy so I'm off to get some small umbrellas.

Some friends gave me a list of craft places to haunt--thanks, Lisa and Sharon!--and I'm hoping to find Copic refills since it's quite expensive in Hawaii, and many of my flesh tone colors are drying up quickly.

I'm excited about visiting craft stores, hubby is excited about electronics, and our daughter is looking forward to the little clothing boutiques. And we're all excited about the FOOD!

So....Sayonara for now. I'm sure cobwebs will form as I won't be auto posting but hope to share a ton of photos, and catch up on news when I return...

Altered ego

I'm sure we've all done it before. Trimmed off a bird's legs, lopped off a ponytail. But that isn't the definition of "altering". Amazing Amy (who should just change her name to Amazing) is a stamper I discovered a while back and I've been lurking her blog and only recently began leaving comments. Well, more like gushing comments. She is amazing with her altering!

She'll take parts of one Anya and combine it with another to create a completely different character. And during the "Design a Sprout" week, she dazzled us daily with new and incredibly awesome characters. And gave them the most perfect names! Visit her blog and you'll be dazzled, too.

I emailed Amy to ask if I could mention her here and she graciously agreed. I wanted to alter Geisha Anya and give her some opened eyes. I thought, okay, I can do this. I have a light table and a 0.3 Copic multiliner pen. Wrong!! Here are two results that I threw away and retrieved from the wastebasket. I think it's the head size/eye ratio that's so important. And having a degree in art makes no difference...

Land lovin' mermaid

Mermaid Anya arrived in the mail yesterday and Kelly was right--she's fast and fun to color! And trim. That's of utmost importance because these eyes and hands are not as young as they used to be.

I was looking for a background and found this water splotched piece in my scrap basket. Cuttlebugged the top portion with the Tiny Bubbles embossing folder and added some seaweed around her. Then I realized that she looks as if she's walking on land. Amphibian Anya. Will have to try this again...

I've gone digital!

Just wanted to share my first digital hybrid card! Lucy, Hero Arts' digital design member, shared an easy tutorial on how to work with digital images here. I was skeptical at first, and didn't want to fuss with Photoshop but she explained how to use Word and insert the images from your files. Not scary at all! And if I can do it, anyone can. Really.

So I tried it this morning and had to show my hubby how clear and crisp the details were. Best of all, Copics don't smear the images! That means you can color and shade them to match whatever cardstock colors you use. Fun! I'll be buying more digi kits from Two Peas after our trip. And the good thing about them is they'll never be sold out.

A quick post...

Just wanted to share a pic of what's sprawled on the floor of our den. I'm trying to put cards together after coloring a bunch of images. As I stood up to answer the phone, I looked down I thought, "That looks neat!" and snapped a shot. This just proves that I like to color but take forever to put a card together. Must ask Kelly how she whips up her cards so quickly. My brain is slowing down....

A MeMe award for me?

It's time to wean myself from this blog as I have to get ready for the trip! We got our rail passes and yen yesterday and now I have to focus on packing and getting the house ready (i.e. clean out the fridge) so it won't be a total disaster when we return in mid October. I also have a ton of things to mail out and tie up lots of loose ends, pronto!

I was presented the MeMe award from the very sweet Anne Gaal a while ago and I hesitated, not in the acceptance, but I have to divulge 7 secrets about myself and pass this award on to 7 others. Yikes! If I divulge secrets....then they won't be secrets anymore now will they? So I decided to share little known facts about me which aren't as juicy as secrets but here goes...

1. I am shrinking. I know it comes with age but I was shocked at my last doctor's visit to learn that I am 4 feet 9 and three quarters of an inch tall! OMG! I think I was that height in third grade!!

2. I am not overweight. I'm undertall.

3. I love pasta. Noodles. Carbs. Whatever you want to call it. Which probably contributes to number two.

4. My proudest memento is a POW bracelet that I wore in the 70's and the soldier whose name is on that bracelet returned safely home and wrote me a letter which I have till this day. I'm still amazed at how he managed to track me down.

5. This is probably the only true secret: I love to play "Animal Crossing" on my DS and the Wii. I blame this on my daughters and my niece who gave me everything and encouraged me to play this very addicting game.

6. I never thought I would be corresponding with friends in Malaysia, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Venezuela, Great Britain, England, Denmark--international friends!! The postal clerks are thrilled that I'm helping them keep their jobs and they love to guess where I'm sending my next parcel.

7. I never thought I would have a blog. Not me. Are you kidding? But now that I have one, I hope that I can keep it and maintain it for years to come if it means that I can keep in touch with all of you.

So now I must pass this award on to 7 others and they are, in alpha order:

- Alice

- Deborah

- Kelly

- Kiara

- Lucy

- Paula

- Tomo

Please visit their blogs for tons of fun and inspiration. A very big Mahalo to Anne for the honor of receiving the MeMe and for letting me share a bit of me.

Twelve days??

Thanks to my niece, Heather, for pointing out that I leave for Japan in TWELVE days! I didn't believe it until I used all my fingers and toes....yep, 12 days! Tomorrow we get our rail passes for the JR trains--love the bullet trains!--and our yen and cell phone which can only be used in Japan. If we use our iPhone in Japan, it's $1.69 per minute so the cost of renting the cell phone is well worth the $30.

I'm finishing up my cards for Kate and her family and will send them off to Jennifer this week. I made the surfer card for her brother, Will, and will probably put some stickers inside, and the round card is for her older sister, Olivia.

I decided to give the buttony one to her parents. I love the sentiment and it's my first card that I took to the sewing machine! Stitching was fun and I may do it more often and some zigzag stitching when I get a bit braver....

Thanks for visiting! Have a great rest of the week....

Phew!

Well, the desk is finally done and I'm sitting at it, typing on my laptop which seems to be really happy here. We finally finished all the details--putting on the glass doors, assembling the drawers, deciding how high I want the shelves.

Initially, my hubby was going to assemble it all by himself. But whenever I popped in for a look, he would ask, "You wanna screw these in?...." or "Can you put some glue on the pegs and pass it to me?..." I didn't mind helping him and it did go by faster with an extra pair of hands.

The desk and hutch were assembled separately and then we had to put the hutch on top of the desk. IT WEIGHED A TON!! We looked at each other and there was NO WAY I could help him lift it and line up the holes and pegs and screws! So we waited for my daughter's big, strong boyfriend to come over the following evening.

Here's a photo of how it looks one day after it was completely finished. Only my Copics have found a spot on the top and I did some stamping on it last night. I have to decide where my "go to" supplies will go and be accessible. I still found myself going to the den to use my paper trimmer......Will post a pic later when it's "pretty"!

Cleaning has its rewards

In the midst of getting ready for the delivery of my desk tomorrow, it sort of feels like Christmas! I'm finding tons of goodies that I ordered and set aside. I found my Papertrey Ink Everyday Button Bits stamp set! I loved them when I first saw Dawn McVey use them on her blog, and naturally they sold out really fast. I knew they were back in stock when Kelly used them to make some really cute cards.

I made these last night as I caught glimpses of Jerry Lewis' MDA telethon. There are a lot of cute designs--a bicycle, balloons, birdies--and all you have to do is stamp and add your own buttons. So glad that I found it. Sets of notecards would make great last minute gifts and the hardest part about making them is choosing the buttons.

It WILL be a Labor Day weekend!

My sweet hubby was intent on getting me a desk to do my crafting on. Something practical with drawers and cabinets and even if I won't be actually crafting on it, I think he just wants me to move out of the den and have it be a den again. Subtle hint. So we went to Office Max and we settled on this:

He was really determined to get it and even got me a new chair that can be raised to the highest level because I'm so un-tall. Can you see me using this?

Scheduled delivery is on Tuesday so I've been cleaning up and trying to organize and decide what exactly is going into the drawers and it's not going well. I'm getting distracted by things-I-put-away-and-forgot-that-I-have ("Oh! Here's my Ali Edwards word stamps!") and I'm trying to toss some things and then rescue them from the wastebasket 5 minutes later.

So, Happy Labor Day to all and think about me laboring this weekend! I'll probably be dripping with sweat as I go from clutter to clean in just 3 days. I hope.

Woo hoo!

Today announcements were made on the Greeting Farm and Club Anya blogs and two of my friends made the design team! Congrats to Kelly Booth and Lysa Rohrer for being chosen for Club Anya! So exciting to actually "know" them through the Hero Arts Flickr group! Kelly couldn't contain herself and let me know the day before so that I could share in her excitement! I'm happy for all who made DTs for both blogs. I've been lurking Amy's blog and she does amazing altering of Greeting Farm and Anya images with a light box and a Copic multiliner pen. Please visit their blogs for more amazing and inspirational work. Way to go, ladies!

Is it really September?

This week's challenge on the Hero Arts blog is all about men. There was a masculine challenge a while ago and this week's is a little different in that the man in your life can enter, too. I asked my hubby if he wanted to stamp a card and he gave me a look that needed no words. It was a definite "no, thank you"...

I'm planning to send this card to Kathy and her hubby as a get well card. He had a pretty scary ordeal (his car that he was working on slipped and fell on him) and luckily came away with just some bumps and bruises. Hope he's on his way to a speedy recovery with Kathy's TLC.