Meet Cappy

 Ok enough gushing about my first child... On to the next doggie!

Meet Cappy.... Cappy is a wire haired miniature daschund that joined our family when my daughter was born.  She shares the same birthday as Akemi!  Weird yah?

My father-in-law LOVED Kiki.  I guess he always wanted a dog, so shortly after Akemi was born, they got Cappy....  That's why Kiki is so grouchy... lost attention because of Akemi and Cappy!!!

My father-in-law tried to teach Cappy tricks.... But she was only able to master one...

Chodai!  We teach young children to place one palm over the other facing up to say "please" when they are young and can't really speak.   This term was known as "Chodai" in my household.  Whenever we said this, my daughter would make the motion and then we'd give her what she wanted.  Well, my father-in-law decided to teach this to Cappy.  Since she can't make the same motion with her paws, she sits up as shown to beg for food.... which is why our next image is named after her!

I decided to keep this card simple... Cappy is such a happy doggie, that I thought this sentiment by Hero Arts was a perfect match for her.  After stamping it, it reminded me of those old label stickers that everyone had.. then it reminded me of washi tape!  So I went through my stash and found a bunch of washi from Target that I bought awhile ago.  Love that they sell them in a pack with different designs of all the same color.  Makes it so much easier to match!  Here's a close up of Cappy..

So, would love to take Cappy home?  Well, not the real cappy, just this new stamp?

1.  Leave a comment on THIS POST by 06/30/13 11:59 HST; and
2.  What is the best dog trick you have ever seen? I'm sure I'll hear a lot of examples from stupid pet tricks.. Am I right?  Hee hee.. Can't wait to hear!

My Kiki

Hi Sister Stampers!!!!  Woo Hoo!  Still can't believe we are coming up on our 2nd birthday!!!  Yay!!!  It seems like we just started our little company and now we are on our 15th Release!!!!  Yowza!

For this special release, I chose to share some special friends with you.  We've had a lot of great response whenever we have animals in our release images, that I asked (make that begged) my sister for some domestic animals.  I really really really wanted a dog image.  Let me introduce you to my dog Kiki...

Yikes- that's an old photo of me!  Yes, we got our Kikigirl for Christmas the year we got married. I couldn't wait till we bought our own house so I could get my very own dog!  I really wanted a red haired daschund.  My friend's mom had a long haired red daschund (Pixie) that I just loved to death and really wanted one of my own.  So my husband bought Kiki for me for Christmas that year.  I don't think you can tell, but I put her in my stocking- that's how small she was!

I call Kiki my first child, cause that's what she is.   We had her for about 3 years before my daughter came along....

Then she got grouchy... cause she was no longer the only child!   I'll share more about that later...  

We found out that Kiki was really an alpha dog.  That really made things difficult in the house, because I am the alpha female (just ask my husband), so we battled it out, and I think she finally knows that I'm the boss.  (or does she?)

No wonder we are both alpha females.. we are born on the same day!

The thing about Kiki is that she's REALLY REALLY SMART!  You can see it in her eyes.  She looks into your eyes and tries to figure you out... can I get this person to give me food?  Hmmmm, maybe if I try barking... No?  Ok let's try giving them the guilt trip by giving them the sad doggie face...  She scans the room and her radar can detect who will give up the food the easiest.  My mom has to go in another room so that Kiki doesn't cast her spell on her. See how she tilts her head?  She's trying to figure out what you are saying...

So this is what happens when Kiki gets a stuffed animal.... Mission Unstuff!

A-ha!  Caught in the act!!!!

She knows better than to mess with Daba... she settles on snuggling w/Daba instead.

No matter what type of mischief she gets into, Kiki is still my doggie and I don't know what we'll do without her!

Wow- that was a lot about Kiki, but she is my first child after all... On to the project....

I had done a copic class last month and used Kiki to demonstrate blending to white using your copics. I love that technique and really should use it more often.  I decided to keep the card simple since the focus was on coloring.

The reason why I chose this image to name Kiki is because she always tilts her head when she's trying to figure out what you are saying.  Especially when she hears key words like "walking", "let's go", etc.  She is really asking... "Am I coming too?"

So... time for some Kiki candy!  (no not doggie biscuits)... here's all you have to do:
1.  Leave a comment on THIS POST by 06/30/13 11:59 HST; and
2.  Tell me if you have a dog and what you love most about him/her. Can't wait to hear!

Here Boy!

Can you believe July is almost upon us?  Where is the summer going?  Well, the good news is that we have another release scheduled for July 1st, which is just around the corner... Here's a sneaky peek at what's to come...

It's what you've been waiting for!  We got a whole litter coming your way, so check back tomorrow to meet the pack!

Galaxy's Best Father...

It's Father's Day!  Hope all the Daddy's out there is having a great day.  My husband is out running (yes he wants to do that) and had to go to a meeting (booooo!  who has a meeting on Father's Day?!).. Anyway, we are waiting for him to come home so we can take him to see Man of Steel.  He's been talking about going to see that for awhile now, so I thought we'd treat him to that on his special day.

While waiting, I decided to make him a card. He's a geek to the core- majoring in Star Wars.  Akemi is a geek in training, majoring in Harry Potter.  I'm also a geek but sometimes I have to turn in my geek card because even Akemi schools me on the intricate details of all things geeky.

Akemi has always been Paul's little Princess... Leia that is!  See!

See! See!.. Vader's little princess...

Even though Akemi is older now... she's still Daddy's little princess...  Here's what I came up with...

Used Miyako since she was holding a heart and her hair is in pig tails.  Instead of coloring up the pig tales, I just colored over it and made little buns on the side of her head so she looked more like Leia.  In the Star Wars movie where she has the buns, her outfit is very plain.  Had some issues with the kimono since it has a heart pattern on it, which didn't make it look quite right.  So I improvised and paper pieced another kimono over it by carefully stamping the outline of the kimono.  If any ink got on the inside pattern, I just wiped it with a baby wipe.  It seemed to do the trick.  After stamping the plain kimono, I cut it out and pieced it over Miyako's kimono to get the effect I wanted.

I found this cool Star Wars themed stamp set by Jaded Blossom... that I've been dying to use!!!  I've been cleaning my craft room and stumbled on it again, so I made a note to self to remember to use it for Father's Day.

 I also used one of the stamps for the inside of the card... It's so funny since he tries to talk like Yoda...

Well hope you liked my card and hope you are having a good Father's Day!  One last share... Here's the card Akemi made for her Daddy... Spot on right??!

Big Island Taiko Festival 2013

Although this is a semi-personal post, I thought I'd share this tidbit with you since it does have some relation to Sister Stamps....

My husband's Taiko group had a great performance in this year's Big Island Taiko Festival!  Yay!  They've come a long way from drumming on old tires!!!  Here's my favorite photo from their performance.

Since I made favors for my daughter's ballet performers, I had to do the same for my husband's taiko group.  Here's what I came up with at the last minute.  It's amazing what you can come up with if you procrastinate long enough... 

Since the M&M sticks were already made, I wanted to do something with the sticks.  I had already made a drum out of the candy stick bags before... see my old project here... so I couldn't do the same thing again right?  Especially since the same kids are still in the group.

So I had to use my brain cells to come up with something new and cool... Here's what I came up with.....

At the end of the performance, each group comes out with their group's banner like the one featured here.  All I did was print "Puna Taiko 2013" on the computer, cut it out and mounted them on black and red cardstock.  Although you might automatically think I should use Yoichi for this project, I opted for Katsura since he was already holding a long pole.  I cheated a bit and printed him up on my computer and just cut off the koi flag.  Since I thought everyone might want to save Katsura and eat the candy, I put everything on a BBQ skewer.

Here's a closer look at Katsura...

And here's a better look at the banner.. All I did was punch holes at the top and bottom of the banner.

Wow!  Looks like a parade of Katsura's!

Here you can see the banner I referenced.  The kids did a really good job this year!  It's amazing how much they've grown as players.  As my husband would say... "they must have a good sensei"!  I think he's semi-serious when he says stuff like that.  Bwahahahahahaha!

Release #14 Blog Candy Winners

Happy Sunday Sister Stampers!

Want to know who won some free stamps?  Ok, I won't keep you in suspense any longer....

Eliana:  Colleen

Simona:  Linda (since there was 2 Lindas- the one that commented, "Love the chest!!! It's very cute!!! Good job.  Hmm... I haven't really any great extent craft stories to share... I'm very fortunate that I have some really great friends that have been my main source of pick up of craft goodies!"

Aurora:  Kate

Boar:  The Cook

Rat:  Anne B.

Congratulations to the winners!  Thank you all who played with us... Be sure to check back next month for another chance to win....  Here's a little teaser to peak your interest...

It's Release Day!

We made it to Release Day!!!  Yay!   Now's the time to get these new mermaids and add the rat and pig to your zodiac collection.

I have one final project to share with you from this release... I think Eliana is my favorite mermaid.  I just love coloring up her hair!  It's not too curly or too straight- just enough wave in it to have fun playing with shading.

Decided to use Eliana to make some samples for our retailers.  I love the simplicity of small cards.  Because of the small size, you don't have to worry about filling up white space.  Decided to go with some bright beach prints by Imaginisce.  I recently picked up some new Copic colors- yes, I didn't have enough... ahem.... and thought they'd match well with the bright color pallet from the paper.

Here's a better look at Eliana...

As you can see, I had fun playing with their hair color!

Well, hope you enjoyed all the projects from this release!  Can't wait to show you what we have in store for our upcoming birthday!!!!