Lantern Rin with No Lines!

*** If you're looking for Jo's Birthday Blog Hop and/ or to win MULTIPLE blog candies, please go HERE! ***






Good morning everyone!

I was going through my stamps the other day and wanted to play with some of the older stamps that I've been neglecting. I know we tend to just ink up the newer stamps we've ordered, especially if you're like me who hoards them.

And I couldn't believe I haven't inked up Lantern Rin from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps. She is one of my favorites from SCRS and not just because her name is similar to my nickname :).

I am also playing along with the sketch for SCRS Challenge # 59. I thought these papers from Authentique would be perfect as they have an Asian feel to them. The flower stickers are from Jolee's boutiques.

If you look closely, you may have noticed that Rin is colored a little differently than usual. Doesn't she look like a painting?

Ever since Carisa featured this style of "no black lines" on this The Greeting Farm post, I have been obsessed with trying it out. I think Carisa did such a beautiful job, and I definitely wanted to try something new.

I bought an Ippity ink pad in the color haystack from Susan. It's very light, and it was definitely a challenge not having those black lines. I really, REALLY LOVE how she turned out though. And will definitely be trying this technique again. If any of you try it out, I'd love to see please. I think we could learn with practice and from each other.

Next time, I'll do some things differently:

1. For Rin's face, I drew in her features with a Copic multiliner in black but I think I need to try a lighter color instead. (Carisa used a prisma color pencil).

2. I'll also probably fussy cut the image out instead of leaving that little white border around.

3. And if I had colored with a darker shade, the painting effect would be more prominent.

Ok, that's it from me for today. Am so glad my tater tot is feeling better!

Have a great one!

Art Inspiration & a Survey

*** If you're looking for Jo's Birthday Blog Hop and/ or to win MULTIPLE blog candies, please go HERE! ***




Good Tuesday morning, everybody!

It may mean going back to work after the long Labor Day weekend holiday for some of you. For me, it marks the midway point of my maternity leave... BOO!

Sure I miss my job, my co-workers, and my patients. But it also means less craft time, and I'm sure you'll agree that that kinda blows!

Anyway, no card today but I've got some inspiration and some random ramblings for y'all!

Some of you know that we had moved into a new home. It's been a year since then, and I'm sad to say that my craft room hasn't really changed much from this. Except the bins and boxes got moved alongside the walls :).

I told myself I'd get it organized during my leave (or as my friends who do not have kids call it, "vacation"), but that's not realistic really in our household of a toddler and a new baby. And procrastination, lack of funds, and lots of excuses, LOL.

What I am looking forward to going back to my job would be the full paycheck though. That means I'll be closer to affording my dream craft room :). Heck, I'm just grateful to have my own space after so long!

In my future craft haven, I already know that I'll be putting up frames (or at least a bulletin board) of some art inspiration. Shown above are pics that I bought from my favorite artists in the craft world:

1. Elsie Larson (formerly known as Elsie Flannigan), from Red Velvet/ Love, Elsie line from KI Memories.

2. My good bloggy friend, Amy Young from A Thousand Sheets of Paper & Sweet November stamps.

3. Kristy Dalman of Some Odd Girl.

Aren't their art prints and homemade cards just phenomenal?!! They all provide art inspiration for me and that works a lot for my craft mojo! How about you, who or what do you find most inspiring? I'd love to hear!

And totally unrelated, but I came upon this fun A-Z survey from Kristy's blog. I LURRRVVVE filling these out so I hope you get to play along. Make sure you post a self-portrait too and tell me that you've done it so I can come check it out.


(technically taken last month but you don't want to see me now at 3 am)

A - Z Survey.

A. age: Let's just say I'm in my early 30's :P

B. bed size: King. Love how it's so big and comfy!

C. chore you hate: Washing the dishes and cleaning the toilet. I'm so lucky that my hubby loves to clean! :)

D. dogs: I prefer them over cats except for Hello Kitty, haha! My sibs all have doggies so I get my pet fix that way.

E. essential start to your day: Breakfast! Without it, I get so cranky!

F. favourite colour: It changes every season, but my favorite color combo is green, orange, and pink.

G. gold or silver: Silver.

H. height: Short, a l'il over five feet! (shut up, Jo!)

I. instruments you play: I had piano lessons since school age but haven't kept up with it unfortunately.

J. job title: Registered nurse, mommy, wifey...

K. kids: 2, and my dream would be a third one that's a girl!

L. live: Bay Area, California.

M. maiden name: Reyes. I miss that name.

N. nicknames: Dooks, Corn chips, Crunchee, Yen, LadyGirl...

O. overnight hospital stays: 3. Two when I was preggers/ in labor and one as a child.

Q. quote: Love Life and Life Will Love You Back - by Arthur Rubenstein. I also love anything by Kahlil Gibran.

R. righty or lefty: Righty.

S. siblings: 2 sis, 1 bro.

T. time you wake up: With a new baby, I am up every 3-4 hours. *yawn*

U. university attended: college in California. I have a bachelor's degree and dream to have my master's someday.

V. vegetables you dislike: That bitter lettuce, I always forget the name. Brussel sprouts, yuck. You know I won't be making my kids eat those LOL!

W. what makes you run late: Getting the kids ready/ packing the diaper bag. Facebook (buwhahahaha!) and the internet.

X. x-rays: Multiple. From my teeth to my arm.

Y. yummy food: Right now, I'm craving some breakfast (a Filipino dish called Tocilog) but I probably won't eat till 8 or 9 or so, phoooey.

Z. zoo animal favourite: I always love watching the little critters -- frogs, butterflies, lizards.

Toot-a-loo!

Jo's Birthday Blog Hop: Party in a Book!

Good Monday mornin', y'all! And welcome to...



For her birthday, one of my BFFs, Jo, invited several of us to join in on this fun birthday blog hop!

You should have come from my new friend, the lovely Ashley Nguyen Newell's blog. If not, please head over to Jo's blog and start at the beginning.

Jo is offering up some awesome blog candy for this hop, and in order to qualify, you must follow each of our blogs (via Google Reader, a blog reader, or Google Friend Connect) and leave a comment on each of our blogs.

The hop will close on Sunday, September 11 at 5 pm EST. Pls make sure that you leave your name and blog address/ email at the Mr. Linky on Jo's blog.

I am also offering up a small blog candy of my own. You can see more below! Now onto my project:



As she is one of my BFFs, I wanted to make Jo something special. I saw Dear Lizzy's It's Your Day Board Book and wanted to make her my version.

It's pretty easy to make, and I love how "each page is each own's confetti filled present," as Elizabeth said.





I took a Basically Bare book and took out the envelope pages so that only the board pages were left. I decorated with some washi tape, Basic Grey, American Crafts, and My Little Shoebox items. The stamp in the front is TGF's Cheeky Beach, minus the ball (we both love Hawaii!). For the envelopes, I got some glassine favor bags from Michael's and filled them with pics, word confetti, bling, and punched out butterflies. You take the washi tape and seal the bags and out comes the surprises! The fun part is you can re-seal or even take out the 'party' embellies and use them to scrap or make cards.

I even upcycled and used the Basically Bare tag twine and re-used it to decorate the brad above the word "goodies" and the heart button on the left page. The green button is from an old shirt. I also get to enter this for the current Lessology project: The Altered Book.

Here is the second part.





As you can see, the book only contained five pages and two envelopes filled with goodies. But I can assure you, it is very fun and it's like having a party in a book! :) Hope the birthday celebrant likes it!

And here's my additional blog candy. All you have to do is leave me a comment below & follow my blog. I cringe when I ask people to do that but I promise to be somewhat entertaining, and I think it'll be a great way for me to meet new people/ new blogs. I'll make sure that the winner here would be different from Jo's blog candy. I'll use Random.Org by September 11th, 5 pm EST.



Included are the new Amy Tangerine's Mini Book by American Crafts, a Whiff of Joy stamp, and a TGF Cheeky Beauty stamp. All are new/ un-used. I will ship anywhere...you heard right, peeps...anywhere! LOL!

Anyway, you are to head over to Diana's blog next. In case you get lost along the way, here's the blog hop order:

Jo - http://joboogie.typepad.com/
Amber - http://my3escrapbooking.blogspot.com
Ashley - http://hearthugsdesigns.blogspot.com/
Corinne - http://rinnesbliss.blogspot.com/ <----- That's Me!
Diana - http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com
Jacilynn - http://jacilynndashwood.blogspot.com
Lisa - http://indymermaid.blogspot.com
Susan - http://cricutandgrasshopper.blogspot.com

Whew! Thanks so much for visiting and leaving some love! I know that my post was a long and picture-heavy one :). Happy Birthday, JoAnn!!

ABAC Jungle Tray

Good Sunday morning, everyone!!

It's my turn at PaperWorks Company's Anything But A Card Sundays. Today, I decorated this tray from Maya Road with Safari Friends.

I've got a couple of nieces and nephews whose birthdays are coming up and also some friends who are expecting babies. I'm not sure who this will be for yet but it could be used as a trinket holder or a hanging wall decoration. I left the top middle part blank for personalization with a sentiment or picture.

I kept the embellishments to a minimal (actually none). Just used the colorful papers and animals!

For the sentiment, I plan to use tiny letter stickers from My Little Shoebox. I may take a pic of the finished product and show it at a later time.

Hope you all are having a great weekend so far! And for those in the U.S., Happy Labor Day!

Supplies:
Stamps- PWCO's Safari friends (all four) and Jungle Jester (Timothy the Tiger)
Tray- Maya Road
PP- Echo Park (from PWCO's June monthly PaperCard kit)
Misc- Copics. Memento ink.

And don't forget to come back here tomorrow for:

Paper-pierced Pinwheel Pandas

Hello out there blog-o-sphere!

Today I'm showing you a card for the Some Odd Girl's Paper Piercing Challenge. I chose Pinwheel Panda..he is soooo cute!

A dear friend recently had triplets, and they are being Christened and will have their first party. My friend had gone through a lot before and during her pregnancy with the babies. And after their births...well, you can just imagine what chaos there was (and still is). But there is more than enough joy to compensate for it and go all around :). So I wanted to make her family a very special card.

At first, I was gonna make the babies individual cards. But I thought one giant card featuring all three pandas would be remarkable and would really showcase the triplets. Each part is unique enough but together they'd make a cool statement.

I don't know what it is about paper piercing challenges but lately, they've got me feeling a little ambitious and a lot ecclectic, LOL!

As you can see, there's a lot going on in this creation. My initial idea was to use the plaid Crate Paper for the Panda, to make him into a stuffed animal. I mentioned this before...I just loved the stuffed critters my Mom sewed for me when I was a kid. As you can see, my affinity for homemade goodies started early. And Pinwheel Panda sure made adorable toys! :) Oh, how I wish I could sew!

And then, I saw the flowery paper and the negative image created when I cut out the eyes, body, and heels for the first bear. Thought I'd make her into a stuffed animal as well. She was harder to put together as she was already 'cut through' in certain places, but it sure was fun (kinda like a puzzle!). I, then, outlined her body parts with my Copic multiliner.

By the time I got to the third Panda/ triplet, my fingers hurt! So I just cut out the stamped image from the SOG packaging (another upcycling moment!),

I tied in the three bears by using these cute, baby-themed papers from Fancy Pants Designs. I also colored their pinwheels with Copics using their three main colors.

Added some twine, misc buttons, and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Toodles,