Happy Anniversary!

Before I get to my post, I just wanted to announce who our guest designer is!!!!  This FAMOUS lady is STAMPING ROYALTY.. any guesses?  Let's just say I was flattered when she found us and thought she'd be a great addition to the SS family!  Please check out her blog here and give her some love... 

And don't forget to check out Debi's blog!  She's been a busy girl and made some neat projects just for you!  And we also have the Chinese Zodiac team back with some neat stuff featuring our year of the dog and year of the rooster stamps.  Please check out Laura, Patti, Eunice and Linda to see what they've come up with this time!

You are probably thinking.. what the heck?  Why is she saying Happy Anniversary?  And why is Miyako on the project? 

You guessed it... it's my anniversary present to my husband.  We've been married 12 years!  Crazy.  Time sure flies and now we are really growing old together!  This box was the wrapping to the present I made for him.  I thought Miyako was fitting since she was holding a heart.  She's not just for Valentine's day! This is a view of the top of the box.

And here's a side view...  I used the Graphic 45 Bird Song paper.  Love it!  And the cherry blossoms are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Here's what was inside....

It's Yoichi!  I made a film reel using the new Tim Holtz Picture Wheel (viewmaster) die.  This project was totally inspired again by Live Love Scrap.  Check out her video here...

First I cut two of the picture wheel using chipboard and then 4 of the same using more Graphic 45 Bird Song paper.  I love this kanji paper!  I decided to mod podge the paper onto the chipboard, so its a bit glossy. Then I distressed the edges using my distress inks.

Here you see Yoichi that I colored and cut out. What you don't see is that I mounted him on some acetate so he's a bit stronger and will stand up.  Added more cherry blossoms by Wild Orchid Crafts next to him.

Here's a better shot of the film strip.  I cut the border using another Tim Holtz film strip die using more Bird Song paper.  Then I printed up some photos from our recent Japan trip and placed them into the strip.  I also added a strip behind it so that the pictures could be mounted onto the strip.  Sizzix needs to make a coordinating die for the back of the film strip yah?

Here's a close up of the film strip.  Here you can see all the small photos I printed.  I think you might be able to also use photos from an index print?  Not sure though as I haven't tried that.  I only print on my computer.

My husband loved this present.  I'm glad since it's almost like a mini album of our trip to Japan.  We had so much fun that I thought that's what he would like the best.

Hope you are enjoying our release so far! Don't forget to check out our guest designer and the rest of the designers that have prepared special projects just for you!  See you tomorrow!

Introducing... Yoichi!

Yes, the day has finally come where I can share our Taiko player image!  I think a lot of you probably already know that my husband is a Taiko player and heads the group Puna Taiko here in Hilo... well, actually Puna.  He started off as one of the students in this community group that mostly contained senior citizens that were also church members.  Rev. Ikeda taught the group what he knew, and then he pretty much handed the group over to my husband.  They have been around for about 10 years now and it has evolved to be a youth group and a recreational adult group.  Gee, has it really been almost 10 years?  Time sure flies.

To say that my husband loves taiko is an understatement.  He lives and breathes Taiko.  In fact, he has a bumper sticker on his car that says "Eat, Sleep, Taiko". That pretty much sums it up.  Our neighbors knows us as the Taiko house because our garage becomes a drum building, stand making, skin stretching workshop throughout the year.  Whenever he has a free moment, he is listening to taiko, reading up on taiko, watching taiko videos, chatting with the kids about upcoming performances, etc....  I guess that's how I am with craft stuff, so I can't complain.

On our first trip to Japan, we went to the Miyamoto store in Asakusa.  He was literally a kid in a candy store.. pure heaven!  After we left with several bags of supplies, he turned to me and said... "now I know how you feel when you go craft shopping".   FINALLY!  

I guess you could say my husband was the inspiration for this image.  When my sister sent me this image, he was pretty much drooling over it... so how could I not name the image after him? Yes, Yoichi is my husband's name.  I think it kinda looks like him when he had hair.. HA! (Please note that he is bolo head by choice).

So I turned to my husband for more inspiration when making this project.  We were throwing around ideas of what I could do for a project using Yoichi and it evolved to this....

He told me that the group needed a message board to hang in their store room at the church.  I had bought a bunch of $1 wipe boards from Target when I found them in the dollar bin, but never did anything with them.  So I dug around in my closet and finally found them buried in some boxes.  Yay!  The board is not very big, looks like it's a little bigger than an 8 1/2 x 11" paper.  (Sorry, I didn't measure it).

I decided to keep it simple and added a strip of washi paper to the right and then crossed over it with a red "flag" across the top.  Then I got some foam Thicker letters and spelled "puna taiko".  At first I added Yoichi over the cross section, but Yoichi himself suggested I mount him on a circle. I think he stands out much better now! Thanks Paul!

Here's a better look at Yoichi.

I guess Paul was happy with the sign because before I could even take a photo, he had taken it to the Hongwanji where they practice and mounted it in their storage room.  He had to take these photos for me.

Ok... now for more candy!  If you would like to win Yoichi, just do the following:
1.  Leave a comment below on THIS POST by  March 31, 2013 11:59pm HST.
2.  Tell me what you are passionate about!

Good luck!  Don't forget to stop by tomorrow to check out our next Chinese Zodiac installments!

Sister Stamps Release #12 Coming Soon!

Well Hello there!  I've been busy getting ready for our next release, which is coming up on April 1st!  We have more boys for you this month to help you prepare for boy's day coming up in May, and we also have a couple more installments of our Chinese Zodiac series.

Here's a sneaky peek of who's coming up....

Couldn't be more excited to bring these images to you as they have been waiting patiently for their time to shine.  Check in tomorrow to meet these guys and a chance to win some candy!