Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter!  Gee, it feels like I already celebrated Easter since our Easter images were released about a month ago.  Makes it more fun to be able to celebrate Easter twice!

Made these Easter goodies for some of my friends. You may have remembered my Masa post with the green milk carton?   I love pastels and bright colors, so the Doodlebug mini printed cardstock was perfect for this project.  Cut each sheet using the milk carton Sizzix pro die, which made putting this box together oh so easy.  

Then I colored up some Akemi's to go on each box.  Didn't want them to be the same, so I colored up each one a different color.  Before putting Akemi onto the box, I added some grass using my MS grass punch (my fave!) and this Magnolia fence die that I've been dying to use!  Unlike other fences, it has hearts cut out of it!

Found these flower clothespins at Michaels for $1 for a pack of 3.  Love it!

So hope you and your family have a Happy Easter!  Gotta go hunt down some eggs now- have fun!

It's Release Day!

 Well, it's been a crazy week.. and it's only Thursday!  Just want to say thank you again to Debi and Donna for sharing their Release #6 projects with us. Hopefully our sample have inspired you to get these images and start creating!

Aunty Jan surprised me with some samples this week!  Yay!  Wanted to share one with you today- Akemi's back in this precious card.  I love this simple layout and matching sentiment by Hero Arts.  What you can't tell from this photo is that the Akemi stamp is popped up from the card base- a nice way to focus on the image without having to cut her out completely.

And look who decided to photo-bomb this photo shoot... It's none other than Daba himself!  I stole him from Akemi just as she was falling asleep.  He just wanted to pop in and say hi!

Oh- and the little chickies snuck in too.  I think they wanted to eat the jellybeans.

So I'm sure you popped in to also see if you've won any of our blog candies?  Well, wait no further...


Akemi Winner:  Dena
Daba Winner:  Expressions & Inspirations
Masa Winner:  Eva

Congratulations to all the winners!  I will be away on a trip, but please email me at [email protected] with your mailing address.  I will mail these off to you upon my return.  Thank you to everyone who entered!  Don't forget to check Facebook if you are a follower to see if you've won our candy giveaway there... AND don't forget to check out my personal blog if you've entered to win my blogaversary candy!  AND don't forget to check out Debi's blog later on if you entered her candy giveaway.  Phew!  That's a lot of candy!

Akemi Mini Album

 It's almost Release Day!  Woo Hoo!  Are you guys excited?  I'm bursting to share with you my final project for this release!  But before I do, just wanted to thank our Guest Designer Donna of 3 Umbrellas for helping us with this release.  Thank you Donna!  And thank's to my girl Debi, who did an awesome job as well!

On to my project.  As I mentioned earlier, you can use this image for other things besides Easter projects.  I decided to make Akemi a mini album for her and Daba.  I found this cool tutorial here... for a Pocket Page mini album. 

I've been dying to use these Basic Gray papers but tend to want to save them- for what I don't know.. so I broke down and finally decided to use them on this project.  I guess I felt safe since it was for a photo album and wouldn't be lost forever in a card that was given away. Stupid yah?  That's how I feel about most of my paper.  I think you also call that "hoarding".

Here's the cover of the album.  I really wanted to put Akemi on the cover, but it looked a little plain by herself.  So I added this cool new Memory box tree die and added on this mini flower by All Natural Accents.  I wanted to achieve the cherry blossom look but not sure that I did. To make the flowers pop a bit, I added some stickles to each flower.  I guess it's hard to tell from these photos, but they do sparkle in real life.

I also added Akemi and hand wrote "and Daba" under it.   Here's a close up of Akemi.

Here's the inside of the album. 

On each page, there are 3 pockets you can add inserts to.  I am thinking of adding photos and journaling on the inserts.  Or maybe I'll have Akemi add her own journaling while I add the photos and embellies.

Oh one more thing... the tab punch is by SU.  I love that punch!  Oh one more thing.... I finally used my Cinch!  I must say that I LOVE IT!  Anyone want to by my Bind It All?

I hope you liked all of our projects for this release!  Again wanted to thank Debi and Donna... don't forget to check out their blogs for more inspiration and candy on Debi's!  The wait is almost over!  Have fun stamping and let me know if you've posted any projects- we'll add them to our facebook page for everyone to see. 

It's Akemi-chan!

As my daughter would say...."FINALLY!"  She has been patiently awaiting this release for months now and the time has finally come for me to introduce Akemi to all of you.  Akemi means something to the effect of bright and beautiful, but according to Reverend, it also meant something about a beautiful child born in the morning?  Well, that's not why we picked that name... Initially, we wanted to name Akemi after my mom (remember Miyono?), but Mom didn't like that idea, so I asked her to pick a name if she didn't want us to name our daughter after her.  Her first suggestion was Kiyomi, but that was my sister's name, so we went with her 2nd choice,which was Akemi.

There is a very special reason why this image was named after her.  You see, I had asked my sister to come up with some images featuring kids with pets, and she took it a step further and transformed this idea and personalized it for Akemi.  My daughter's BFF is her stuffed bunny "Daba".  Daba has been a faithful companion since Akemi's first Easter and they have been inseparable ever since.  I just love how this image features Akemi showing her stuffed bunny to a real bunny... priceless!

 
Here's the very first project I made using Akemi.  I covered a pressboard frame with some of the washi paper I got from Japan.  Added a punched gold strip and then placed Akemi over it. If you are wondering why Daba is plaid looking and is colored pink, you'll see why in the next photo....

 

So here's Akemi with her BFF Daba.  This was shortly after she got Daba- I can tell because he's still pink and still has a nice bow.  Well, the bow is long gone and Daba is now a brownish pink color.  You can barely see his checkerboard pattern anymore, but Akemi can still tell it's him.. She just smells his ears and she can tell.  If you've ever read the story of Knuffle Bunny, you understand the relationship between Akemi and Daba.

Here's Akemi shortly after she turned 1.  Now that she was more mobile, she dragged Daba along wherever she went.  I have more stories about Daba that I'll share a little later.

So even though we are releasing this image at Easter, you don't have to use it just for that.  To me it's something I can use year round and also in my scrapbooking.


So now that you know a little about Akemi and Daba, you'll understand why this is my favorite image!  I want you to have a chance to win this stamp too, so here's all you have to do:

1. Publicly follow this blog if you haven't done so already.
2. Leave a comment on THIS POST by 02/29/12 11:59pm HST.
3. Just for fun, tell me if you had a favorite toy you couldn't live without.

I hope once you get Akemi, she will become your favorite image too!  Good Luck!

Coming Soon- Release #6!!!

Can you believe that we are at Release #6??!! It seems like we just started selling stamps a month ago, but now we are at our 6th release!  I know we are still around in large part because of all of you out there, so just wanted to say "Arigato" before I show you our Release #6 images...


So I'm sure you have already peeked at these kiddies already no?  Well formal introductions start tomorrow, so check back soon to get the scoop on these characters.

Oh and don't forget... each Introductory post will include some candy, so don't forget to enter!  See you soon!