Magnet Fishing

Ok, so I couldn't come up with a clever title for this post. :)

I love pastel washi paper and got a pastel rainbow of them while in Japan. This green one was one of my faves since it also included sakura. The gold waves in it reminds me of water, so I thought Yoko would match well- like she's fishing in a pond. Decided to color her up in pink this time instead so that she would pop.



One last board to share with you tomorrow!

Yoko Calendar

I only made a few Sister Stamps calendars for my upcoming craft fair. I'm waiting for my re-order to arrive so I can make more. This is the last one I came up with so far... Decided to use Yoko this time since she's bigger than some of the other images and would fill up the space nicely.

Here's a closer look at Yoko...


Supplies:
Yoko- Sister Stamps
Gold- Smooch
Red cardstock- Bazzil
Washi- Hanko designs
Binder rings- Office Max
Coasters- Papertrey Ink
2012 calendar
Ribbon

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

Dropping You A Line...

Included in my stack of goodies was this card... To thank Aunty for all her help, I had given her a gift card to one of our favorite stores... Vera Bradley! She sent me this thank you to tell me how much she loved her new bag. I gotta say that I love how she colored up that bow! I've been too intimidated or maybe I just forget to try to blend using 2 different colors. I think she did a great job. And I also love the layout of this card. So clever to have Yoko's line hold the sentiment.


Here's a close up of Yoko-chan.


Thanks so much Aunty! I love this card!

Friendship is Precious

Isn't this bridge just amazing!? I just love it when cardmakers incorporate a scene into their cards. Being that we are such a new company, we don't have accessory images (yet) and there aren't a lot of asian themed images we can use. So what do we do? Improvise! Here Aunty Jan used a Colluzze Cutter to make her bridge. I'm not familiar with that product, but I sure what to learn how this was done? I'm guessing you could probably get a similar result by using your nestibilities and some "i"'s or exclamation marks!

Here's a close up of Yoko.. I just love her kimono coloring!


The sentiment on this card "Friendship is Precious" is acutally a Hero Arts stamp. Thanks for all the great cards Aunty!

Getting Witchy

Two days and counting! Did you get a chance to see the samples on Debi's and Mama's blogs yesterday? I was blown away by their projects!! If you haven't checked them out yet, you won't want to miss out on their creations.

Ok, I don't always think outside the box when it comes to layouts or themes. In fact, you will notice that many of my cards often have the same layout cause I get hooked on it and can't visualize anything else. So this card was a real accomplishment for me!

As I was thinking about Yoko one day during my lunch break, it suddenly came to me that I could have something else dangling from her fishing pole... but what? Then the creative juices started working and I thought...I know.. she could be dangling a ghost from her pole! Then I thought, it didn't have to be a ghost, but practically any Halloweenish thing. Then I thought... I should make her look like a witch!? The challenge was finding a witch hat, which of course makes you a witch. So I searched through all my dies and found an old Sizzix die that had a witch hat, broom and shoes. The hat was a little big, but with proper placement, I think it worked out Ok. Added the bat to her pole and a few more bat accents (punch by Martha Stewart Crafts). To give the card some color, I added in a couple pumpkin Spellbinders. Finished off the card with the spiderweb boarder punch (my fave) and Happy Halloween sentiment (Island Scrapbooking).


Here's a close up of Yoko the witch. Can you think of other ways to use our images? If so, I'd love to hear what you've come up with! Or better yet, send me the link to your creation!


Don't forget to visit Debi's blog and Mama's blog to see what they came up with!

Good Luck Yoko

Happy Thursday! Oooh, just realized that in exactly one week, you'll be able to pick up your new Sister Stamps! Woo Hoo! I can barely contain myself! I am anxious to share a surprise next week with you and also see what you all come up with with our new images.
Here's another Release 2 card to share with you by Aunty. She kept this one clean and simple... just my style! Sometimes all you need is something simple to say what you want to say. Yoko is great for simple cards since she is larger than our other images and fills up most of the A2 sized card.
Aunty added a "good luck" sentiment by Savvy Stamps. Ok, I'm not up to speed on Japanese culture and history, but I'm pretty certain that the crane has something to do with luck. Don't we all fold crane after crane for weddings, Yakudoshi's and other celebrations? I guess I'd better go look that up before everyone comments about me being wrong. Hee hee hee.




See ya tomorrow with another card!

Meet Yoko...

Hi Everyone! Are you enjoying the sneak peeks so far? I have another gal for you to meet and she's not the girly girl type. Meet Yoko- she's named after my sister-in-law, who is the only girl I know who enjoys fishing. I know there's more of you out there, but she's the only one I'm related to. Guess its in her blood.


Instead of catching fish, Yoko is busy playing with an origami crane. I'm not sure why, but this reminds me of those fishing games we used to play as a child at our school's fun fair. I think they are now called carnival day, but when I was a small kid, it was called fun fair. Since we are on the subject... I just want to know... was our school the only one that had a pocket lady???? I find that really hard to believe, but I found out when planning my daughter's 1st birthday that no one else knew what the pocket lady was. If you know what that is- please let me know. I'm dying to find out if it existed beyond Enchanted Lake Elementary. (Les and Laura- I know you guys know).

OK back to the card... Here's a close up of Yoko... and for those of you who know a bit about Japanese names, you might think Yoko means "beautiful child", which it does, but in this case I found out from my mother-in-law that the kanji used in my sister-in-law's name means "ocean", so her name Yoko means "Ocean child". How perfect is that? I knew there was a reason I picked this stamp for her name!



So now that you've read through this incredibly long post, you deserve a reward! How's about a little candy? Look at the post about Ayako for more details on the rules, but post your comment to enter on THIS post for your chance to win Yoko. Oh- and tell me if you know what Pocket Lady is! Remember, everytime we introduce a new image for this 2nd release, that's another chance for you to win one of our stamps! Good Luck!

Supplies:

• Yoko stamp- Sister Stamps
• Flowers- All Natural Accents and Prima
• Dies- Spellbinders
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Washi paper- from Japan
  

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!