If you watched yesterday's video, you already saw this tag featuring the Kane Hula Dancer. Both of these images were colored up using my copics and added to these simple tags. Since the sentiments I had were too big for the tag and image to fit nicely, I opted for using the sentiments I had printed on the computer. Sometimes it's nice to have tags already made in your stash that you can just pop on a card or attach to a gift. I actually had Merrie Monarch in mind when I made these. I thought they could be attached to leis that are often given after a performance to the dancers.
This hula girl is so cute! Her costume can be for either kahiko (traditional) style or auwana (modern) style of hula. I also like that this set contained the uli uli instruments that are often used in performances. Oh how it brings back so many memories of when I used to dance hula. I remember all the feathers used to come off as we were dancing. I went with a simple look again with the watercolors, but added in the uli ulis to help fill up the blank space.
I really like how this card came out... Since there's a lot of empty space, I started digging into my die stash. I'm so glad I bought tropical flowers and foilage dies whenever I found them. And I'm even more glad that I didn't sell them! The fern die is an old Island Scrapbooking die that you can't get anymore. I paired it with some small plumeria flowers from a Mintopia flower set. Who knew Mintopia would make tropical flowers! The size was perfect for the fern. The sentiment is part of the stamp set. In Hawaii, we say "A Hui Hou" (till we meet again) instead of goodbye. I feel it gives you hope that you will see each other again- even if it's not in the immediate future.
Don't forget to visit my channel to watch today's video and enter to win one of two stamp sets from this release!
I'll be picking winners soon! And I keep forgetting to mention that if you go to the Italian site, you can change the language to English if you don't understand Italian (duh)... then you can see other images my sister created that are not featured in the Sister Stamps line! You can check them out here: Impronte D'Autore. And visit Hanko to order stamps in the US (Psssst, he also posted a pre-order for the next relase if you want to peek!)
So I have a confession to make.. its been quite awhile since I've blogged. I even forgot how to get into my account and posted on the wrong page! This re-launch of Sister Stamps has forced me to get back to blogging and re-learn how to do posts, etc. Its amazing how quickly you can forget something! Its not even that hard to do, but I had to re-think how to upload images etc.
So now that you've had a good laugh.... let's meet another new image. This handsome buggah is the newest addition to the family and it features a male hula dancer! Just in time for Merrie Monarch! On the big island, where I'm from, we host the Merrie Monarch Festival, where hula halaus from around the world come to compete in a hula competition. There are several categories in the competition, including Kane (male) categories featuring Kahiko, or more traditional hula style, or Auwana, which is more of the modern style. Our stamp is dressed in more traditional kahiko style costume, complete with the haku and wristlets. For both cards, I tried watercoloring again and utilized the extras in the stamp set to create backgrounds. Its not easy these days to find Hawaiian print papers, so its great that the set includes these options.
I kept it very simple since I felt like it matches the image better. Sometimes a simple, one layer card is best. Please check back tomorrow for our last image introduction! And don't forget to visit my Youtube channel and leave a comment for a chance to win one of two stamp sets from this release (US only please).
I hope everyone is enjoying the release so far! Today I'm featuring one of the new images! Isn't she so cute? I really love her pose and expression. You really know she is so happy!! Whether she is playing with the birds or just by herself, you know she's having a good time. It reminds me of when we were growing up and would chase the birds at the park until they flew away. Kids now days don't know the joy of chasing birds since they are always on their phones!!
So my first card captures the memory of the joy of playing at the park. The set even comes with the Joy kanji sentiment that can be used with your image.
This next card was done with my copics- although its hard to do the shading on the hair, I still like how it comes out. This time, I paired the image with a washi paper background and a larger kanji die cut that means Happy Birthday.
My final card share pairs the little girl with a busier washi paper. Since the background had so much going on, I decided to cut the kanji in black so it could stand out on the busy background. The kanji means "double happiness", which this little girl is definitely feeling!
Thanks again for joining me here on the blog. Please remember to visit my youtube channel and enter to win one of two sets of the new release! (US only please). You can watch the video here:
And don't forget to come back again tomorrow to see the new hula image!
Welcome back to more re-relase goodness! I have to admit that I totally forgot what this stamp's name is! Yikes! I feel like a bad parent. I actually had to go into the archives of this blog to see that her name is Miyoko! How could I forget?? I named her after my best friend!! We met in 7th grade and are still BFF's till today! I'm so grateful to have such a good friend after all these years and I'm so happy that they decided to re-release this image! It's like seeing an old friend again!
OK back to the cards. As mentioned in yesterday's post... I started out trying to watercolor the images. I actually really like how everything came out on this first card, except for her hair. I think I still like the way the hair comes out using the copic markers, but I really like the blending on the parasol and the sentiment! Speaking of parasol.... I wanted to feature all of the different images included in this set! The original stamp had Miyoko holding a cupcake since it was our birthday release. Since then, my sister removed the cupcake and added in other images that you could swap out and make her hold instead. I wanted to show you all the options this gives since it let's you decide how you want to use the image!
In this first card, I added in the parasol and made it look like she was peeking out from behind it. You will need to cut out the parasol and then adhere it over her. In this card, I added some foam tape for dimension. I felt like there was too much white space, so I added in some flower sequins to fill it up.
This next card is also done in watercolor. I didn't want to place the sentiment going straight across the card, so I decided to make it diagonal and thought it added more interest and filled up the empty space. Before adhering it down, I watercolored a small area so that the word could be placed over it. I liked the result cause it added more color to the card. Then I went to my sequin stash and added in a butterfly and a trail of flowers. In this card, I made her holding the fan, which is another stamp in the set.
The next card is very similar in layout. I again added some watercolor behind the sentiment. Then added in some sequins around it. I chose the word celebrate since she's holding the cupcake- which was the original design. See how versatile this set is now?!
Ok now for the copic colored images. Look at the difference between the card above and the card below! I'm amazed how nice the hair comes out with the alcohol markers. On this card, I printed the sentiment on the computer and mounted it on washi paper. I again used stickles- this time I used Stardust, which is an iridescent glitter. It gives it just the right touch without taking away from the image or washi paper. Then I added in more flower senquins to fill the blank space. Love how this card came out compared to the watercolored ones.
I think this last card is my favorite.. probably because I love red washi paper. I had found these washi paper flowers that I had die cut awhile ago in my stash. I had made a similar background in a Valentine's Day card for my husband, and wanted to do something similar for this card. Since the washi flowers had a busy print, I decided to keep the sentiment simple by adding in one of my computer printed sentiment strips. In this card, she's holding a fan.
Please check out my video below featuring these projects. And don't forget to leave a comment on the video for a chance to win a set of the new release (US only please). Our previous post has links to the shops where you can order this release from. See you tomorrow!!
Are you as excited as I am? With the re-launch of Sister Stamps, we are happy to feature old favorites and new additions to the family! For everyone who missed out on getting our images when they were originally launched, you are in luck! Two of our old images are now available in the re-launch! Do you remember Kiyomi? Well, she's being released again, but this time as a clear stamp and with extra images that can be used with other Sister Stamps!
I must admit, I haven't been stamping or coloring images in a long time. In fact, I intentionally tried to not use my copic markers when stamping these images... I thought it would be much easier to stamp on water color and then paint them up using my distress inks. So the first three cards are just that... I created scenes using the stamps and watercolored them in. They came out OK, but I felt out of practice and not happy with the end result. So you may be asking why I'm sharing them here? I just want to share my journey back to stamping. Although I've been away from it for a bit, as I went through this process, I discovered that I really do enjoy stamping and coloring and I was able to re-teach myself how to use my pens again!! Woo Hoo!
So let's take a look at the first card. It's one of the watercolored ones. I wanted to feature the cute flying squirrels that are included in the set. The original cling Kiyomi set included a butterfly, but now you can pair her with the squirrels too! I added in some flower sequins from my stash to fill in some of the empty space... I think it came out better once I did that. Sorry, these photos are not great since the weather was pretty dark all day today. :(
This next card is very similar to the first... I created another scene using Kiyomi, but this time using the bird stamps that came in another set that will be featured soon. I like that you can mix and match the stamps and they all work well together! It needed someting to fill the blank space, so I added in clear iridescent sequins as accents.
This last watercolor card features the original butterfly that she was with when we released her as a cling stamp. The set also includes other images you can use for backgrounds.
And now you can see what I was talking about... Yes, I eventually caved and went back to using my copic markers. I dont't know why I resisted. I guess I thought I could make the watercolor ones as nice as my sister does when she paints on the computer... but I guess I should stick to what I know works (for me anyway). In this card, I printed the sentiment on the computer and mounted it on some scrap washi paper. It was still too much white space for my taste, so I added in the birds (again) from the other set and added a thin line of gold stickles around the border of the white cardstock. I think that little bit of stickles made a big difference. I don't think you can even see the stickles in this photo, but hopefully you will check out my video where you can see it better!
The hair always takes me the longest to do. I hope you can see it but when coloring up the hair, I always try to mimic the way the hair grows or the way it is combed. In this case, I added in lines where her hair is parted and pulled back into pigtails. I also left some white highlights on her bangs. Its more work, but I like the results.
I guess the biggest lesson I learned is that although it may seem like a lot of work in your mind, it really isn't so bad. And although you may be out of practice, it comes back and is probably not as hard as you think it will be! So if you are like me and haven't picked up a stamp or a copic in awhile, I encourage you to just do it. Its not as bad as you think!
Please check out my video... I have two sets of the new release to give away to someone in the US! All you need to do is leave a comment on the videos posted for this release and you'll be entered! Good Luck!
So if you haven't already ordered your stamps, you can get them here:
Hello Everyone! It's been a long time since I've posted here... you are probably wondering what happened to us? Well, long story short, life got busy. Sister Stamps was a fun project with my sister where we were able to share her creations with the crafting world. I've always felt that she had a special talent for storytelling through her images, and wanted the world to be able to enjoy her artwork as much as I do.
You may not know this, but my sister continued to design images for another company in Italy, who makes their own stamps. This company, Impronte D'Autore (stampin.it) will now be carrying the Sister Stamps images through their site! They are bringing back some of our old favorites, but as clear stamps!! Woo Hoo!! In addition to the old favorites, they will also be releasing some new images too! Stay tuned for more information. (I'm dying over the new stuff!)
And wait! It gets even better!!! I know those of us who live in the US would prefer to order domestically, so we are happy that Hanko Designs (hankodesigns.com) will also be carrying these images! In fact, you can pre-order the first release now!! Click here for pre-order information. The first release will be in March, and if you pre-order your stamps before the end of February, you can save 10% off your order.
So although I am no longer running Sister Stamps, I'm happy that they are coming back and will be available to all of you who are only discovering these images now. I'll be working on projects to share with you for each release, so I'd better start practicing my coloring skills again! So please come back soon to see all the new images as we re-introduce them to the crafting world!
I'll also be updating the Sister Stamps Facebook page again, so please follow us there. And hopefully I can get some videos made too!
I hope you all are just as excited as I am! I look forward to connecting with our old followers and hopefully make some new friends along the way!
We made it to Release Day! Yay! I hope you enjoyed seeing all the previews of our images by all the Design Team members. A special Mahalo to Micah of Micah's Crafts for participating in this release!
On to my project.. yes, its another Christmas project. I have holiday fever right now and can't seem to make anything that isn't Christmas-y. Instead of a card or a tag, I decided to make some ornaments! Check out the video here to see how I made them:
I'll be back soon with the winners from this release! Thanks again for checking us out... See you for the next release!
So I'm continuing on with my holiday projects! Have you started any holiday projects yet? If not, hopefully my projects will inspire you to start getting ready for Christmas! Check out my video here:
Tomorrow is release day! You know what that means? It means you should check if you already entered to win our release blog candy! Deadline is 11:50pm HST on 10/02/15, so don't miss out! Stop by tomorrow for our last day of posts!
Yay! We can now finally reveal who our guest designer is for this release! I must apologize to him because he was asked to participate months ago, and only now he is revealed to everyone! Our Guest Designer is Micah from Micah's Crafts! Thanks Micah for being so patient with me!
And our design team has been hard at work coming up with projects using our new images. Can't wait to check them out myself! Here's the links to their blogs/YT Channels: Eva Debi Rina Linda
On to my project.... Yes, it's a Christmas card! I couldn't help myself! I am so excited about making Christmas crafts! I haven't had a lot of time to make Christmas projects over the past few years, so I'm very excited to be able to do so this year. So I'm getting an early start and I hope this will inspire you to start working on some of your Christmas projects too!
Don't forget to check out our DT's posts and check back here tomorrow for more release fun!
Yay! We made it to the last image in our release line up! Phew! Now I gotta go make more samples. LOL!
So, the last of our images is another bunny named Dixie! You'll laugh when you find out why I chose the name Dixie! Totally does not make any sense at all! Enjoy the story... and the card!
Last chance to win one of our release images! For a chance to win Dixie:
1) Leave a comment on THIS POST by 11:59pm HST on 10/02/15; and
2) Tell me if you have any plans during the upcoming Fall Break. We are headed out of town to sin city for some shopping and food!
OK peeps, don't forget to stop by tomorrow to find out who our guest designer is for this release!
OK I promised you some bunnies right? Yep, I love bunnies. Always have, always will. So I was pretty excited that my sister did some bunny peekers! Yay!
I had to get a bit creative when choosing all of these animal names as you can probably tell. This bunny has a funny name story. Totally not related to bunnies! LOL! Check it out here:
OK peeps, just a couple more chances to win our new images...
1) Leave a comment on THIS POST by 11:59pm HST on 10/02/15; and
2) Tell me what ways you could alter our peeking animals for the holidays... any ideas?
And don't forget to check back tomorrow for our last introductory post!
Well Hello Friends! Back with another Sister Stamps release image to introduce you to today. We have another peeking bear image to share with you and he has the cutest name ever! It's Boo Boo!
Don't laugh at the reason I named him Boo Boo. To find out why, check out my card share here:
OK ready for the chance to win Boo Boo?
1) leave a comment on THIS POST by 11:59pm HST on 10/02/15; and
2) Tell me which is your favorite peeking image of the new release?
Don't forget to check back tomorrow and the day after to meet the bunnies!
We are back and have another image to introduce to you today.. this time it's our side peeking bear... Bobo! I think the name Bobo is so cute and matches a bear for some reason... don't you?
To see the card I made using Bobo- check out the video here:
Want a chance to win Bobo? Here's all you have to do:
1) Leave a comment on THIS POST by 11:59pm HST on 10/02/15; and
2) Tell me why I named this bear Bobo. :)
We are only half way through our release images! For more release fun, stop by tomorrow to check our next image.
Hey Everyone! I'm back with another introduction from our new release! Today, I want to introduce our other dog image. His name is Buster.... he's named after our DT member Rina's doggie! Yesterday you met her other doggie Peanut. They are so adorable and make me want to get a beagle. Check out her cuties....
Are they not adorable? Sorry, I have no idea which one is which... they look like twins to me!
Now for my project share... Check out the video here:
Ok... now I know you guys want a chance to win Buster too right (not the real Buster... just the stamp!):
1) Leave a comment on THIS POST by 11:59pm HST on 10/02/15; and
2) Tell me what you will have Buster peeking out from if you end up winning him.
BTW- just want to say that I'm enjoying everyone's pet name stories! Don't forget to check in tomorrow for more peekers!
Hey Everyone! I am so excited to bring you our next release! My sister and I were brainstorming one day for new images and I was asking her to make images that "peek". She didn't know what the heck I was talking about and I somehow recall me skyping with her to actually show her what I meant by peeking. I'm sure you can just imagine me "peeking" from behind something in order to demonstrate. But I guess she got what my vision was, so she made up a bunch of animal peekers which made me one happy camper!
Our first image is a side peeking doggie named Peanut. Peanut was named after our Design Team Member, Rina Scrapstress' doggie. She has another doggie that you'll meet tomorrow. I swear, one of her dogs (not sure if its Peanut or not) can say "I love you". Promise.
So would you like a chance to win Peanut? Ok here's the drill:
1) Leave a comment on THIS POST by 10/03/15, 11:50pm HST; and
2) Tell me what your pet's name is and how you chose that name. For those of you with no animals... what would you name your pet? I already told you my dog's name is Kiki. I wonder how Rina picked Peanut?
Don't forget to check back tomorrow and go check out the Sister Stamps You Tube Channel for more Release fun!
Well well, it seems that I am finally able to release more images! Yay! Since its been awhile, I thought I'd go ahead and release a bunch of new images at once. I just couldn't decide which ones to release first, so I did them all at once!
Check back tomorrow to meet our new images! See you soon!
Just wanted to thank my DT again for hosting the surprise giveaway for this birthday release! Here's the list of winners from those who commented on specific posts:
Group post day 1: Debi's blog- Aulii: Tereese S.
Linda's YT- Halia: Tfriday77
Group post day 2: Eva's blog- Kaumaka: Christine
Rina's YT- Sandcastle: Creating with Aloha
Group post day 3: Rina's Blog- Kyana: Coleen Kwan
Sister Stamps YT- Makai: Crafty Come Lately
Sister Stamps BLOG- Hiilei: Lysa
Congrats to the winners!! Please email me your mailing address to sisterstampsllc@gmail.com.
And thank you everyone for playing along. We had such great feedback on this release. Enjoy your long weekend!
Hey Everyone! Hope you all like our new release images! Here's the winners from our blog introductory posts:
Halia- Daydream Creations
Sandcastle- Sommer Sin Fin
Kaumka- Lin
Aulii- Danielle Fukumoto
Hiilei- Lorene Yoshimura-Tanigawa
Makai- Tereese S.
Kyana- Amy
Congratulations! Thank you to everyone who stopped by to leave a comment. Don't forget, there are more chances to win as we pick winners from our surprise giveaways from the DT posts.
If you are one of our winners, please email me at sisterstampsllc@gmail.com with your mailing address and which stamp you've won. Thank you everyone!
We made it!! Can't believe that 4 years ago, we had the courage to take a risk and release a few images.. not knowing what to expect! So honored to still be around after a few years and a few loyal retailers. Many thanks goes out to them and our loyal customers! We really appreciate everyone who has supported us and followed us on this crazy crafty journey!
Ok stop getting emotional.. on to the good stuff! Today is release day!! Yay! Hope you all enjoy playing with our new friends! Today I continued on my watercolor experiments and came up with this card:
Embossed the sentiment in white embossing powder and then used my Zig Clean Color markers in rainbow colors over it. Achieved this look by applying clean water over the sentiment first then using my pens to add spots of color. Love how it came out. I'm totally in love with the watercolor pens!
After that, I colored up Kyana and cut her out. Added some Wink of Stella to the ocean background for some added glitter.
Here's a better look at the watercolor emboss resist technique.
Check out the video here!
And don't forget to check out the DT's posts and comment! We have a lot of prizes to give away this time, so don't miss out! Be back soon to announce the winners of the Introductory posts!
