Kokeshi Favor

Welcome to day two of our introductory posts!  Today we are introducing our Kokeshi doll image which makes a great addition to our collection.  

Kokeshi dolls remind me of Girl's Day.  Although they aren't the typical dolls that are displayed during the Girl's Day festivals, they still remind me of that time of year.  You can read more about Kokeshi dolls here..  I guess their main characteristic is that they don't have any limbs, just a head on a cylinder for a body. They come in all shapes and sizes too.

Since I have girl's day on the brain, I guess it inspired me to make a favor instead of a card.  I had bought this die from Papertrey Ink that cuts a fringed circle typically using tissue paper to wrap up goodies to make it look like a flower.  I used this die on a handmade paper I picked up at one of our retailers that has recently closed.  The paper was all white but had a sakura design (also in white) that appeared to be flocked or embossed.  I decided to try out my Lindy's Stamp Gang spray to give it some color.  Love how it turned out!  You can't tell from the photo, but the pink is actually a pearly pink.  It makes the sakura pop!

After wrapping up some candy, i colored up my Kokeshi doll image and adhered her to a punched heart and scallop heart and then to the favor.  So simple but cute for Girl's Day!  I think it would be lovely with some mochi inside... mmmmmmm...

So want to win this doll? Here's the deal:


1.  Leave a comment on THIS POST by Saturday, 1/26/13 11:59pm HST
2.  Tell me what your favorite kind of mochi is... I'm torn. I love the chocolate covered strawberry chocolate mochi (you gotta try it!) and I also love this awesome mochi cake recipe!  I added in some Raspberry flavoring to the pink portion and it was pretty awesome.  If you have any mochi recipes you are willing to share, please email them to me!  :)  I would be ever so grateful!

Oki doki.  Need to get to bed.  Check us out again tomorrow for more intros....

Encouraging Dar

Welcome to the week long festivities for our Release #11 images!  We have more images than normal, in most part because we are releasing 3 new images along with two additional Chinese Zodiac characters.  There's a lot to cover this week, so we need to get an early start in order to get everything covered!

Let me just give you some background to how these images came to be part of the Sister Stamps family... While brainstorming with my sis, we tried to think of "Japanese-y" characters and/or symbols that were identified as being Japanese.  They were initially supposed to be companions or props to the images we've already released.  But we thought they were so darn cute, we decided to release them on their own which would allow you to use them how you wanted.

The first of our lucky charms collection is the Daruma.  It's funny because whenever I hear that name, I always think of my high school friend's dog.  Her name was Daruma too, but they called her Dar.  I guess Daruma was too long to say?  Anyway, I always feel like I should call the Daruma character "Dar" too.  hee hee.

So in case you didn't know much about the Daruma or "Dar" as I'll be referring to him in this post (hee hee), you can read the back story here...  Dar is more commonly known as a gift of encouragement because he's commonly used in setting goals.  When you purchase a Dar from the store, he normally has two "blank" eyes.  When the recipient sets a goal, they fill in one eyeball.  Once the goal is accomplished, they fill in the other eyeball.  Neat yah?  Just thought I'd share that with you.

So on to my project... I recently took a class up in Volcano with a couple of friends.  We had a blast making several different types of boxes that can be used for gifts or favors.  I thought this one was nice, especially when used with this japanese printed wrapping paper.  When I came home from the class, I thought it would look cute with my friend Dar on it.  So I added him onto a black circle and then adhered him to the middle of the box.

Here's the side view.

So now that you have met my new friend Dar and know why he's so popular in Japan, here's your chance to win one of your very own.  All you have to do is:

1.  Leave a comment on THIS POST by Saturday, 1/26/13 11:59pm HST
2.  Tell me what your goal is for 2013.

I will pick one random winner to win Dar.  The deadline is earlier this time since I'm off to Japan soon, so I wanted to mail them out before I leave.  Good Luck!

Release #11 Sneak Peek

Happy New Year Everyone!  2012 was a great year but we are looking forward to what 2013 has in store for us!  We are very excited about all the new images that are scheduled for this year and hope that you will like them too.

To ring in the new year, we have some cute new images to share with you!  Take a look....

Come back tomorrow as we begin our introductory posts... you know what that means right?  Yep.. blog candy!  Woo Hoo!  So stop by to meet these cuties and enter for your chance to win.  See ya tomorrow!

A Wicked Thank You

Everyone in Hawaii has "Wicked" fever right now. I was lucky enough to be invited by Aunty Jan to go for my birthday.  All I knew about the story was that it was about the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North's friendship.  It turned out to be awesome!  If you have the opportunity to go and see this play, don't pass it up!  You won't be disappointed!

My daughter especially loved it!  Awhile back, I made her watch The Wizard of Oz.  She didn't want to, but I made her. I told her that she can't go through life without seeing this movie and that she would be missing out on a lot of famous references if she did not understand the basic story.  She was determined not to enjoy it, but I saw her peeking out from behind her book to watch.

So after we saw Wicked, she is crazy about the story!  I guess it helps that her dance studio has decided to do the Wizard of Oz this year for their big performance.

Since Aunty Jan treated us to the play, I decided to make her a special thank you card.  Kept it simple since it wanted the images to stand out.  Totally had fun with this one!

Oki doki... hope you all have the chance to see this performance!

Oh- and don't forget to check back soon for some sneaky peeks of our next release!

Release #10 Winners!

Happy Sunday!  Time to announce the winners of our Release #10 Blog Candy....


Year of the Snake:  Heidi
Year of the Horse:  Robin

Congratulations!  Please email me at sisterstampsllc@gmail.com.

And thanks to everyone else who left Sister Stamps and the Guest DT some love!

It's Release Day!

Yay!  It's release day!  

The end of the year is coming soon, which is normally my time for reflection.  What better way to reflect than to look at old projects?  I find this sometimes inspires me again either to copy what I did before or to never do it again!! Ha ha ha!  Whatever it is, I reflect to back to evaluate what I've done and see where improvements can be made.  So although this old calendar has some flaws, I've decided to share it with you today.

This is the first calendar I made using the Chinese Zodiac images. Please be aware that some of these images have changed from the ones that will be released, so they are not exactly what you will be able to purchase.

First, let me explain the order that I chose for the calendar... In 2011, it was Year of the Rabbit, so I decided to start with the bunny (my fave) in January.  Then following the Chinese Zodiac order, I added in the next images in the correct order.  Following the rabbit is the dragon, then snake, etc...  See for yourself...

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 All of these images are on separate panels for each month.  Then all the panels were adhered together onto ribbon for a wall calendar.  I was inspired by a sample I saw at Stamps and Memories years ago.  I've modified it over the years, but it's basically the same concept.  The first six months are on one side...

Then you flip the calendar over for the next 6 months.  Yes, people often think I forgot half the year!!  LOL!!

This calendar is much more detailed as it was my first and a gift for my sister for drawing these images for me.  It's now a collectors item since I haven't made one of these in a few years.  You probably noticed that the bunny used on this calendar is different from the bunny that will be released with the rest of the Zodiac image.  Let me also explain that the dragon you see has also been modified, so the dragon featured here will not be available.

Well, hope you enjoyed the projects that everyone came up with for this release.  These gals will be back for every Zodiac image, so we have lots to look forward to!  Many thanks to all of our guest DT who helped out- you guys rock!

Kung Hee Fat Choy!

Before I get into my project, just wanted to check if you guys checked out our Guest Designer's awesome projects yesterday!?  Well, in case you didn't, please go and check them out to see their creativity at work.  Our Guest Designers are:

Laura:  http://bytkg.blogspot.com/

Eunice:  http://astarforchiemi.blogspot.com/

Patti:  http://creationsbypatti.blogspot.com/

Linda:  http://simpleandsassycreations.blogspot.com/

Thanks to them for working hard to come up with some original designs! Now go give them some love and then come back for my post!

OK... did you visit everyone yet?  So I know it's a little early for New Year's, but I couldn't resist making another li see envelope since it matches the Chinese Zodiac theme right? You can find the tutorial on how to make the envelope here...

After making the envelope, I stared at the blank red paper for a few nights.  I guess there's no motivation like a deadline right?  I whipped this up in less than 1/2 hour since I only had a few hours to post it in time! Geez!  Talk about waiting till the last minute!  I guess I work best under pressure...

So I decided to use the horse this time since that snake was stealing all of the attention!!  To help me with this project, I decided to use the sentiment and corners which are laser cuts by Island Scrapbooking.  Added a black oval (cut from my Spellbinders oval set) and mounted the horse on top.  Ha ha ha! I just made a funny... get it.. horse... mounted?  Ok if that wasn't funny to you, then I must have had too much coffee.  

Can you believe release day is tomorrow?  Time sure flies.  OK so that means that you only have until tonight to enter to win some snake and horsey blog candy.  Go back to the introductory posts and leave a comment by 11:59pm HST tonight for a chance to win.  Not many entries so you have good chance this time!!!

And don't forget to go and visit our Guest Designers blogs (see above for addresses).  Stop in tomorrow for one last project share!  See you then!