Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mothers and Grandmothers out there!  Today is your special day to do whatever you want! :)

My mom has grown to expect handmade gifts from me.  Store bought gifts are not real gifts- she only seems to like the ones I make.  I decided to book a last minute flight to spend Mother's Day with mom this year so I knew I had to make something special for her.  Here's what I came up with...

I realized that out of all the frames I've made for craft fairs, I don't believe I ever gave one to mom!  Since this one was made with her in mind, I decided to personalize it a bit and added in foam stickers to spell "grandma @ akemi". 

This photo was taken the last time mom visited us in Hilo.  We had her sleep in Akemi's room since that's our only other bed in the house. Normally Akemi sleeps with us when we have visitors, but this time she slept with my mom. It was rather cute that I could hear them talking and giggling together just like two girls at a sleepover.  I didn't have the heart to interrupt their "girl time" by making Akemi go to sleep, so I allowed her to stay up and bond with mom.  I know years from now they will both look back on those "sleepovers" with fond memories.  So now whenever we go to visit mom on Oahu, she tells Akemi to sleep with her!  I think its funny that when I was Akemi's age, I was getting kicked out of mom's room, but now that she's a grandma, she's inviting my daughter back in!!!

Decided to use the Miyono stamp to decorate the frame since she's named after my mom.

Here's a close up of Miyono.  Don't know if you noticed, but I cut off her bow in her hair and replaced it with a flower since my mom is always wearing flowers in her hair.  Accented the frame with some sakura die cuts from my Wikicaps die and added pink pearls by Kaisercraft for some bling.

I hope mom likes this frame!  Happy Mother's Day everyone!  If you didn't already call your mom- go ahead and do it now!!

Sister Stamps Mobile

When I got my hands on these awesome Sakura dies by Lifestyle Crafts (formerly Quickutz), I had a vision of this project. Its amazing how sometimes the image in your mind actually comes to life (and sometimes it totally bombs!). Anyway, since the sakura die has 5 petals, I thought I could hang something from each petal.

Here's the result...


My only concern was stability. Because paper is so flimsy, I was worried on how to stabilize the sakura so that it wouldn't bend or curl. Finally I saw this tutorial on the Papertrey ink blog that explains how to layer chipboard. Since the dies are wafer dies, they won't cut through thick chipboard, but they cut fine through my old cereal boxes. So I harvested 2 boxes from our recent shopping trip and they worked perfectly! After cutting several layers, I adhered them together and then cut out a red sakura for each side. Then smaller sized sakura in washi paper to add to the red sakura.

After adding each girl. I decided to add some beads to help with balancing out the mobile. In between the longer strings, I added in the smallest Sakura die cut. I just love how it turned out!

Here's close ups of each girl.








So I hope you enjoyed this project! If you were inspired to make a mobile, let me know so I can check it out!

Washi paper- Hanko designs
Sakura dies- Lifestyle Crafts

More Miyono

Hi There! Did you get a chance to pick up your Release #3 stamps yet? Well, as I was hard at work on Release #3, Aunty Jan sent me a box of samples of Release #2 images before she went on her trip.

I love this card featuring Miyono. It's too bad my camera didn't pick up those tiny flowers on the left. They are really cute! Aunty says they are by Orange Closet, guess I'd better find me some! The background she used was origami paper and she topped it off with baker's twine by the Twinery.




Here's a close up of Miyono...

Check in soon for more samples of Release #2 by Aunty!

Miyono Notepad

Woo Hoo.. only one more day! It's almost here! I really can't wait to see what everyone does with their new stamps.

Don't forget to check out Mama's and Debi's creations for today! You won't want to miss out on all the great ideas and inspiration they come up with.

I have another non-card project today. Saw these jr. legal notepads sitting on my desk collecting dust, so I thought I would decorate one using Miyono. Remember how I told you I had only a few layouts that I turn to all the time? Well this is one of them. Long strip on one side and circle w/image inside overlapping it. Sad yah? I guess I should check out those sketch blogs for more ideas.

Anyway, picked up this washi paper while in Honolulu at the last Rubber Stamp Expo. I must say, it was pretty interesting eavesdropping on customers as they chatted about Sister Stamps. I learned a lot that day and am grateful to get such honest, candid feedback.

Back to the project. You probably can't see from this photo since the watermark is blocking it, but I did stamp the Hero Arts Kanji Poem on the left side of Miyono and dusted it with gold mica powder. Border punch is by ek Success and flowers are by All Natural Accents and Wild Orchid Crafts.


Here's a close up of Miyono. The image was a little too large for this Spellbinder die, so I used the out-of-the-box method of cutting out an image that would normally get cut off by your die. Check out this tutorial if you don't know what I'm referring to.


Be back tomorrow with one more project to share.. Oh yah, and today is your last chance to enter into our giveaway! Please remember to follow our blog publicly so we can confirm you are a follower. Good Luck! We'll be announcing the winners within the next couple days.

I Hope You Dance

I'm sure all of you have heard that song "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack. That song came out awhile ago, but whenever I hear it, I always think of my mom. Once when this song was playing on the radio, she told me how much she liked this song and how it's everything she's ever wanted for us (her kids). While telling me about this, she starts crying (oh yah, that's another thing about my mom... she gets caught up in the moment and will cry uncontrollably). I guess I never gave it that much thought until I actually sat down and listened to the words. Now that I have a daughter, I understand what she meant.

OK back to the card... the reason why I brought up that song is because this card reminds me of that song. I guess its cause Aunty embossed the word "Dance" on the flowers... Or maybe its cause she used the Miyono stamp? Either way, it reminds me of that song, which reminds me of mom. Miyono does look like she's ready for the obon right? But I'm pretty sure that's not the kind of dancing my mom was hoping we'd do. hee hee. I know, I know, its just the concept.. thought I'd throw in a little joke to lighten the mood.



By the way- love the DP she used (by Creative Imaginations). Alphabet stencil is by American Traditions. Thanks Aunty for all the great samples! Check in tomorrow for a SURPRISE!

Fan-tastic

Received a whole bunch of samples in the mail today from Aunty. I just love getting fun mail! Here's one of the cards she sent... Its Miyono-chan dancing in the middle of a Spellbinder frame. I love how she used the negative image to frame Miyono. I never remember to do that and always end up just mounting my image directly onto the die cut. I'll have to remember to use that technique in the future.

I think its really cool that she included fans in this card. I've received comments on Miyono that she looks like she should be holding a fan. I guess Aunty felt the same way and added in some small fan accents. I love her attention to details as I would probably not remember to decorate the fan itself. I think she even inked up the fan to give it some depth and dimension. You can't really tell from this photo, but the fans are embossed (Dreamweaver stencil).


Check back tomorrow for another creation by Aunty. Don't forget to enter into our blog candy(s) on each introduction post! There's still time to enter before the deadline!

And Finally... Miyono!

I found out that Miyono is a very uncommon name. I tried searching Japanese names and couldn't find it. I think my Grandparents made it up when they named my mom. I like it because its unique, just like my mom. I don't know how she does it, but my mom can start up a conversation with anyone. I mean anyone! She can be in line at a store, on the bus or on the plane and she'll make friends. In fact, she asked me to bring back cookies from the Big Island to give to her friend who rides the bus... someone she met on her ride to work. She also made friends on the plane ride over to Hilo when she came by herself. By the end of the flight, she knew all about the person's family, where they were from, where they worked, etc.

I like this stamp because she is easy to color and easy to cut out! You will like working with her, just as everyone loves working with my mom! As my mom gets older, she has uncovered her inner child and now has an affection for cute things such as Hello Kitty (I think that's where I got it from!) and BLING! I don't remember my mom really wearing anything with bling on it until she got older. Now she loves it! So since Miyono is named after her, I thought I'd throw in a little bling on this card just for her.


Here's a close up of Miyono... I'm still practicing that hair!


Here's your last chance to win our new release candy. If you didn't already enter the other 3 candies, don't forget to do so by 8/31/11 11:59pm HST. You need to post a comment on each post to be eligible for each stamp. We will pull a winner from each of the 4 image introduction post, so there are more chances to win. Don't forget to post a comment on THIS post for your chance to win Miyono. Oh, and tell me something about your mom!

Good Luck! And check back soon for more surprises!

Supplies:

• Miyono stamp- Sister Stamps
• Washi paper- Hanko Designs
• flowers- Wild Orchid Crafts
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Crystal flourish- Prima
  

2nd Release Images Revealed...

Hooray! Its time to show you our 2nd release images!! I know a lot of you have already seen 3 of the 4 new releases either on my personal blog or on local retailer blogs, but I thought we should do an official reveal here on the Sister Stamps blog....



I told you there would be a surprise! Yes, it's a boy! You asked, we listened. In fact, my sis got very inspired by all the comments left during our last release, and went right to work on some boy images. (That's right, I said images... plural).

Along with our boy-san, we have three little girls that you've been waiting for! Stay tuned for introductions and samples using our new releases! We have some other surprises along the way so check back for all the fun!