Thinking of Makai...

Did you miss our Design Team?  I sure have.  It was nice to see everyone back and crafting again!  Be sure to stop by their blogs again today so you can see what other projects they've come up with featuring our new images!!

Here's the link to all of their sites:

Eva

Debi

Linda's YouTube

Rina 

Rina's YouTube

And don't forget to leave comments on all their posts!!  We'll be picking winners randomly from each DT's blog/YouTube posts during this release!

On to my project for today... I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to pull off this card.  I have been wanting to make a card like this for awhile now.. I'll admit.. I'm not very good at having a lot of "white space" on my cards, so this was a bit of a stretch for me.  I love how it came out though!! I feel quite accomplished!  Ha ha.

So, I used my Zig Clean Color markers again.. I think this is the BEST craft splurge I've made this year.  Yes, I said it.  I love these pens.  Right now I love them more than my copics!!  Anyway I colored up the entire card using them- yep, even including the part by the sentiment.  Yippee!!

Super duper excited about how that came out. I've been studying how to do that for awhile now... not sure why it has taken me so long to try it!  But I'm so glad I did as it is my new favorite technique!

And didn't forget to pair up Makai with one of our turtles from our turtle set.  Love how you can mix and match them with our old sea creature pals.

Well, hope you enjoyed my project share as much as I had fun making it!! I'm so excited I was able to execute that technique!  I guess I was nervous and just needed a little push to get myself moving.  Now I want to use up the rest of the cards I had embossed earlier.  I gotta go make more with the sentiment on the other side of the card!!!

Don't forget to check out my video on the Sister Stamps channel and the DT's projects for today!!

Life's A Beach!

Hey Everyone!  I'm having a lot of fun with this release.  I think it has something to do with everyone's enthusiasm for these new images. I gotta tell ya... you guys make me like these images even more!  So thank you all for sharing how much you like them with me.

Before I get to my card share, just wanted to remind you to be sure to visit our Design Team's sites to check out their projects.  I know they are very anxious and excited to share them with you.  I can't tell you how many times they emailed me asking me when the next release was going to be cause they wanted to work on their projects!!

Here's the link to all of their sites:

Eva

Debi

Linda's YouTube

Rina 

Rina's YouTube

Oh!!!!!  And please leave a comment on each of their posts!  You never know if you'll be eligible for one of our surprise giveaways during our birthday celebration!!

So today's card was a little slow in coming to me.  I had "crafter's block" after I had made the initial samples.  But I guess procrastination is the best motivator for me, cause I just finished my card in the nick of time!  So here it is....

I wanted to show you how you can use these images interchangeably by placing Halia and Aulii together on this card.  Earlier you saw Aulii with Kaumaka, and Halia with just the sand castle, so here you can mix and match them together!  Love that flexibility.  

Oh, and also wanted to point out the background was made with my water color markers.  It really makes the background so much easier to do!!!  I love love love watercolors!!  Here's a closer look at Aulii.  Between the two girls is an Island Scrapbooking sentiment "Life's a Beach".

Oh, and its really hard to see in the photos, but I used my Wink of Stella pen to give the card some shimmer.  Check out my video here to see more on how I made this card:

And don't forget to check out everyone's projects!!

Introducing Hiilei, Makai, and Kyana!!

I've been enjoying reading everyone's favorite beach memories!  Thank you for sharing them with me.

I have more introductions for you today! Its the last of our images... which is still a lot.... Like I said... I'm trying to make up my absence here by sharing up two releases in one!  Hope you are enjoying them so far.

I decided to make more shaker tags today.  On our first tag is our swimming girl Hiilei. Hiilei and her sister Kyana (see below) are the sisters of my daughter's BFF. They treat my daughter like she's one of their sisters.  

Hiilei is the first of our water kid images to share with you today.  I love how her hair is swept back to make it really look like she's underwater.  I wanted the images to be able to interact with our older sea creature images, so they were size to work alone or with our older stamps.  Decided to pair up Hiilei with our blow fish image that was released a couple of years ago.

On a watercolor kick right now, so used my Zig markers again to color up this image.

And here's our old friend Mr. Blowfish!  I think he wants to get together to chill. LOL!  The waves and the seaweed were cut from shimmer sheetz using my Doohickey Dies from the volume 1 set.

Next up is Makai who is named after my nephew.  In Hawaii we often refer to the ocean (Makai) and Mountains (Mauka) for direction instead of using north, south, east west.  I guess when you live on an island, you are surrounded by either the ocean or the mountain, so its easier to figure out where to go base on that.

I love the hair on this guy.  It kinda reminds me of those troll dolls. LOL!  Or those frustrated pencils that had the furry hair on the top.  I'm sure everyone loves to snorkel but me.  LOL!!!  Bet you didn't know that about me.  I think it's actually better if I don't see what living things are around me in the water.  I might freak out!!!   True story, on the last weekend that my husband was on Oahu before he moved to the big island, I took him to Hanauma Bay because he had never gone the entire time he lived on Oahu.

Now, the last time I had gone was when I was a child, so I remembered how cool it was with all the fish.. etc.  But dang!!! Those fish are waaaaaaayyyy bigger now and there are so many of them.  You pretty much couldn't move without touching one of them.   My husband enjoyed every bit of snorkeling while I rode on his back freaking out.  LOL!  Anyway, this tag reminds me of that day.  Maybe my sister needs to draw me an image of a girl freaking out in the water like me. hee hee hee.

Again, paired up Makai with one of our older sea creatures- this time I chose a turtle.  Don't they look like they are talking to each other?

I think he's telling Makai to "Stay Cool".

Finally, we have little Kyana.  I think I mentioned above that she is the sister of Hiilei and sister of my daughter's BFF.  I love this image.  This reminds me a little of me as I like to just float around in those tubes and chill when I go to the beach.

This sentiment and the rest used in today's projects are all from and old PTI set.  The sun and clouds are Lawn Fawn dies.  I love those for the faux stitching!

Again, water colored up the images... Just loving how easy is its compared to Copic coloring.  I guess I needed a Copic break.

OK peeps.. want a chance to win one of these images?  Tell ya how:
1)  Leave a comment on THIS POST by 6/30/15 11:59pm HST; and
2)  Tell me if you prefer the beach or the pool... I don't think I told you mine, but I think you can guess based off the story I shared above! LOL!

Here's Kaumaka and Aulii!

Hello again!  Are you liking the images so far?  Well, there is still much more to come, so let's get to it!

Today I'm back with two more introductions for you... meet our little sand boy- Kaumaka, and our starfish girl, Aulii.  They love to play in the sand, but I have a feeling Kaumaka is a little mischievous!  I have visions of him ruining a nicely created sand castle!! LOL!

So I really wanted to pair these two up with the sand castle image, so I ended up making a longer card.  It actually measures 3 1/2" x 7" which was wide enough for me to fit all three images, albeit they do overlap a little.

The card base is made from watercolor paper since I planned on using my Zig markers again.  I love those things!  Anyway I stamped the sand castle first and then used my markers to color it up.  Then used my waterbrush to draw out the ink and water it down for a nice background effect.  These make making backgrounds a breeze!

Then I placed my already stamped and colored up Kaumaka images next to the sandcastle along with stamping the sentiment (PTI).

I added Aulii on the other side of the sandcastle as she looked like she was going to place the starfish on the castle.

This card was surprisingly quick to make!  These watercolor markers are actually must easier than the copics to use and you can still achieve shading if you want.

So, do you want to have a chance to win Aulii or Kaumaka?  If so,here's what you need to do:
1)  Leave a comment on THIS POST by  6/30/15 11:59pm HST; and
2)  Tell me what your favorite beach is!  I like Lanikai beach in Kailua but I think everyone knows that secret by now.  That used to be our go-to beach back in High School.

Don't forget to check out my video on this card and stop by tomorrow for our last introductory post!

Sister Stamps Release #28- Meet Halia & Sandcastle

Wasssup Everyone!  Yes, yes, I know its been awhile since our last release.  Did you miss me?  I missed all of you!  In addition to this long hiatus, it is also our birthday!!  So to make up for the long absence and celebrate our birthday, we are releasing a ton of new images!  You can actually call it two releases in one.  But they all do have something in common... they are all local kine kids at the beach!  Since we have so many images to introduce, I'll be introducing them to you in groups.

I've told you before that I asked my sister to design some local style images and she came through with some awesome stuff! These images really take me back to the "hanabata days" (aka small kid time) when we used to go to the beach all day.  I remember whenever our family planned beach days, my mom would wake up early to make musubis and corned beef hash.  Yum! It's still some of my favorite food till today.  Then we would load up the car- you would think we were leaving for a week with the amount of stuff we packed.  I think we used to also pick up some okazu (other picnic food like tempura, chicken, etc.) to go along with our musubis and hash.

Then we would head to Ala Moana Beach Park, find a shady spot and make house for the next few hours.  We loved Ala Moana beach and I still have fond memories of those picnics till today.  I guess we are spoiled living in Hawaii, all of our beaches are beautiful and sometimes I take it for granted.

So the first of our images is Halia... she is named after my niece (actually my cousin's daughter) who lives in the mainland.  Whenever they come home to visit they practically live at the beach!  I hope they come to visit us again soon.

Confession time.. I actually made this card with the intention of using it for a swap.  Its supposed to be a tag with a beach theme, so I thought this would be perfect!  I'm not sure that I like it that much, so I'm thinking it might not be used for the swap.  I thought the sequins around the shaker tag was a good idea but not so sure now that its completed.

So I started off with a #8 sized tag that I cut from an old Tim Holtz die.  I cut one out of watercolor paper and the other out of kraft cardstock.  Then I stamped and colored up the sandcastle shown below.  This is also a new image from this release.  It is the perfect accompaniment to our sand images!  I also stamped the sentiment Enjoy Summer from an old PTI set.  Used my new Zig Clean Color real brush markers to color up these images.  Loving these new markers by the way!

Since it was a shaker tag, I added the foam tape around the edges of the watercolor paper and added in the sequins and glitter before closing it up with the top piece.  The top piece was the kraft cardstock that I cut a window out of and put some acetate to make the window.  Then it was time to decorate the top.  I first added some shells then added Halia.  Halia was also colored up using my new Zig markers.  I wanted a softer look than the normal copic coloring.  Doesn't she look like she's all ready to play!!!

So there you have it... the first two images from this release!  If you would like a chance to win Halia or the Sandcastle image, here's what you need to do:
1)  Leave a comment on THIS POST by  6/30/15 11:59pm HST; and
2)  Tell me about your favorite beach memory!  I already shared mine with you!

Please check out my video with this project share and don't forget to stop by tomorrow!!

Release #28 Is On It's Way!

Hellooooooooo!  We're back with a LOT of new images to share with you! It's also our birthday so we wanted to do something extra special by releasing two sets of images at one time!  Woo Hoo!  Meet all of our new friends....

Introductions will start tomorrow! Release day is July 1st so please join us every day for more information on our newest friends!