Thursday, May 30, 2019

Papale Lauhala

So, "Papale Lauhala" translates to Lauhala Hat. Lauhala is the leaf from the pandanus tree.Once dried and softened it can be stripped to the width you wish to use and weave it to make many different items. The leaves also dry in various shades, depending upon the tree. Some are more white and can go to a deep red and even a chocolate brown. For the last 20 years I have been attending the Ka Ulu Lauhala O Kona conference in Kona, Hawaii. It is a lauhala weaving conference that takes place in May with many different classes and levels, depending on your skills and interests. This year I made a lauhala hat with an overlay, that is, placing a different fiber on top of the lauhala, to enhance a pattern. The pattern I used/learned is a switch-back. The fibers I used are black banana, white bamboo, and bamboo leaf. The bamboo leaf came from another participant at the conference who harvested it in Japan. She weaves bamboo in Japan and brought the dried leaf to share with others to use. The conference was so much fun - seeing friends I've made over the years, making new ones, learning new things! Here is the hat I made - I placed a shell necklace around the brim to decorate it.
I've been talking with a friend about her making a lei hulu (feather lei) for the brim. I'm excited to see what she will design, as she makes beautiful feather leis!
I hope you have a wonderful day!

Monday, May 20, 2019

Feed The Birds

Masculine cards are always the hardest for me to make. With Father's Day coming up I was struggling with what kind of card to make for my stepdad. Then I saw a card on one of my FB groups (Bella and Bronte's Clubhouse) and fell in love with the possibilities of these images.
The images are a combination of Little Birdies and Feed The Birds, both from Mo's Digital Pencil. Really, the image could be used for masculine or female, boy or girl, and lots of different sentiments could go with it. And she carries many images that can be used for masculine cards, so go take a look!
My mom and stepdad LOVE to keep birdseed out, year-round, with a bird book at hand to help them identify all the different kinds of birds they see. So, I thought this would make a great Father's Day card. My stepdad loves the color blue, so I used my favorite blue combo in copic markers for the coat and birds, B99, B28, B24, B32. I used some yellow copic markers for the rest of the birds, Y28, YR23, Y15, Y23, Y11. The boots did not turn out quite like I planned - I wanted a brown/yellow color, but I am still learning how to use those markers! I used some lovely greens for the scarf, G29, G07, YG03. For the ground I used E11, E13, E15, and E18. Then I wanted the birdseed to stand out, so I colored a sliver of my paper with the browns and yellow copics, cut it into tiny pieces, dampened them and then rolled them between my fingers to make tiny birdseed. I glued them on wherever there was birdseed on the picture, including in the palm of the mitten. Then, after it dried, I colored lightly on top of the birdseed with a white gel pen, then a yellow glitter gel pen. I know, a lot of work for some birdseed, but it was kind of fun to play with and added a little dimension/3D to my card! The sentiment I used is from the Little Birdies set. So, here is my card, let me know what you think!
I am going to enter this in the current Mo's Blog Challenge, "Anything Goes."
Remember - It's the little things that make a big difference! Have a wonderful day!

Thursday, May 16, 2019

French Lilac

I don't know about you, but I just love the smell of a lilac bush! I think they might be blooming around this time, but I am not sure, because we don't have them here in Hawaii (at least I haven't seen any). Lavender/purple is my mom's favorite color, so when I saw this beautiful French Lilac image from Power Poppy, I knew I wanted to make it into a card for my mom's birthday. Power Poppy has both clear and digital stamps, with awesome detail, and they come with beautiful sentiments! I colored it with copic markers, the V09, V06, V04, V01, V000 group for the flowers and used G28, G07, and YG03 for the leaves. I used just a couple of the E markers for the stem. I added a small sheer lilac ribbon around the stem - it was a really light color so I lightly went over it with my V04 marker to make it show up better against the background; and it allowed me to enter my card in Power Poppy's Blog Challenge!!! I used an RV000 marker to color the background of the image, except for the area of the sentiment. I used my Silhouette Cameo to diecut around the image and a lattice background and added a paper with lilacs on it behind the lattice diecut. I then added four little pearl hearts in each corner of the image. Take a look and let me know what you think!
Have a beautiful Spring day!

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Flowers In Watering Can

There are SO MANY great digital stamps these days and many artists have a certain style that you can see throughout all of their images. However, Illustrations by T has a diverse group of images that can feed all your moods! I'll just let you click on the link and you can check out her line of images. For this post, I am using a free image that she offered those of us in her FB group, Flowers in Watering Can. She gave us fourteen different color swatches to choose from, and asked us to color up the image and enter it for a chance to win 2 of her images FREE! AWESOME! So here is my image, made into a card. I used the Citron Breeze color swatch. Take a look and enjoy!
Have a wonderful Spring Day!

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Valentine Derek

Maybe you've noticed in some of my previous posts that I participate in the Outlawz Challenges Progressive Freebie. It is a monthly challenge that involves an image sent to you every month - FREE! You have until the end of the month to use that image in a project. Many times I am working on it up until the last day of the month because, well, it has just been one of those months - lol! But this month I was able to finish my card early - YAY! And I really like the way it turned out, it was super-fun to put together. The image is Valentine Derek from Doctor Digi. But who said it has to be a Valentine-themed card??? I colored the image with copic markers; paper-pieced his tuxedo from some pineapple print paper and cut out 4 extra bowties to layer on top of his one bowtie just to give it some depth; printed my message on vellum and placed it behind a diecut photo frame; added a little bow I made from a shear ribbon to the candy box, and added a diecut hibiscus to go with the background paper. Take a look and let me know if it doesn't make you want to SMILE!
Doesn't this make you want to run out and get a box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts? Have a great day!

Monday, May 6, 2019

Graduation Boy

Have you every heard of Saturated Canary? Years ago Krista Smith created these amazing images under her business name of Saturated Canary. Unfortunately, she closed that line, but has since opened a new line on Etsy! The image I used for my nephew's graduation card is from Krista's Saturated Canary line. My nephew's school colors and black and gold. I used copic markers (W's for the cap and gown, YR's and E's for the hair, Y's and E's for the shoes, B's for the jeans) to color the image and then used a sketch layout from The Outlawz Challenges Wednesday Sketch Challenge. Every month I participate in the Outlawz Progressive Freebie Challenge. But I was having trouble deciding how to use all the graduation papers and embellishments I had so I turned to their Wednesday Sketch Challenge and gave it a try! It really helped!! Take a look at my card:
Have a Grand Day!

Friday, May 3, 2019

Thank You Tulip Block

I've been trying to get ahead on some cards lately. Sometimes I procrastinate and end up in a bind to get all of them done, and then I don't really have time to do some other crafts that I enjoy. So, here is an anniversary card I just finished for my sister and her husband. I used a Bugaboo Stamps image called Thank You Tulip Block. This week's Catch A Bug challenge is to use this photo as an inspiration:
Even though the original image says "Thank You" on it, I enlarged the image so I could just use the tulips and butterfly. I colored the image with spring colors: the tulips with some BG copic markers and then put dots on the petals with these same BG colors; the leaves with G's and YG's; the butterfly with RV's and BV's (for a pink and purple combo). Then I used a white gel pen to place more dots on the tulip petals. Lastly I made it into a shaker card. Did you know the one thing you need to remember when making a shaker card is to put the transparent piece down BEFORE you put the foam adhesive pieces on it? Well, I found out the hard way - so I carefully had to remove all the foam pieces, add the transparent piece with it's own double stick tape and then the foam pieces (two layers to make enough room for all the beads, glitter and sequins!). I diecut a little scallop frame for the window, covered a heart with deco-foil and then added my sentiment on a heart on top of that - Whew, done! Take a look and let me know what you think! And I have to mention the coloring classes from Kit and Clowder - they are awesome!
Have an amazing and colorful Spring!