Hi There! This blog will no longer have any new post or activities. Please click here to go to my NEW blog, as I've depleted all the memory on this one. I hope to see you there! I will, however, continue to keep this blog up, as there are tons of ideas and tutorials that you may want to search through. When you are done searching here, please head on over to my new blog and visit me there. Aloha, Teri

Friday, June 29, 2007

Another sale at J's

Oh boy, so much to post and not enough time...I promised Cheryl that I would post J's newest sale! This week, J's Knicknacks is having 20% off of ALL rubber stamps in stock! This sale is going on NOW until the close of business, July 3rd. I was told that the sale bin has some really good bargains going on there so you might want to browse in that bin after you load up on the stamps! One can never have enough stamps!! This pic is of Cheryl and I at the shop.
Remember to tell Cliff that you read about this cool sale on my blog!! He really wants to know if you ladies really read these blogs - haha! but I guess it's good to know where the business is coming from! Thanks for reading!!

It's been a while, but I didn't forget!!

Hey ladies! I know it's been a while since my last blog candy giveaway and I bet those that participated in my giveaway must be thinking that I forgot about giving you all something sweet. I didn't!!! I've been doing so many things that I just didn't have time to get stuff together, so...I'm finally getting my act together for this promise. Here are the ladies that participated. Hopefully you will check back here so I can get your snail mail address to mail you off your sugar. I won't post what I'm sending til I send them all off. It'll be a surprise! Don't you all love surprises?? okay, enough blabbing...here are the gals that I need to hear from:
Debi (Debi's space), Kimberly (Crafty Me), Angel (Angelosity), Kristen Thiessen (I know you're on SCS), Melanie aka batgirl (Melanie's Madness), Rita Bracy (L8bug Stamper), Cakvd (Engineered Expresions), Patty H (I think she's on SCS) and Cheryl - girl, I know where to find you :)
If you know any of these gals, let them know that I'm ready to send them something special! You all can email me at tsuzuki_2005@yahoo.com with your snail mail addresses.
I'd like to thank you again for playing and for being sooooo patient!!! Mahalo! (thank you)

Happy Aloha Friday!

Don't you just love Aloha Friday??? I do. But for me, it's not time to relax, it's time for my weekend job! Planning classes or working on projects and blogging. Well, tomorrow, we are having an open house at Jen's house. I'm so excited to be going to this open house because I missed the Tuesday one for the ladies of leisure group...I guess I'm not a lady of leisure since I have to work during the day - aw shucks! Going to this OH will prep me for the OH I will be having at my home on the following Saturday, July 7th. We're doing 3 make and takes and will have a display using the new stamp sets. And yay! we will also be displaying the NEW CATALOG!!! Now that Jen has hers! Did you guys watch her daily video? I love this girl, always brings a smile to my face. If you haven't watched her videos, go check out her blog called Pieces of Me.
Well, I actually was able to make a card. This cute wedding stamp is by Stampendous. I'm waiting for SU to make a really nice wedding stamp set. I used Pretty in Pink and Basic Black CS and a SU pink eyelet. Also used my crop-o-dile, which by the way, is being sold in the new SU catalog. I also used light pink gingham ribbon and dazzling diamonds on the brides veil. Anyway, I wanted to share this wedding card I made for my neighbor Aunty Lani. She's going to a wedding and has asked me to make her a card. Aunty Lani is a dear, dear friend to our family and the funny story about her is that when my son Nolan was 1 1/2 years old, Aunty Lani came over to return some Danielle Steele books she borrowed from me and she also brought over some delicious corn bread. We told him that the corn bread was "Lani Cake" and ever since then, Nolan only knows corn bread as Lani Cake. If you ask my family about corn bread, they will give you a strange look until you say Lani Cake and then they will know that you meant corn bread. Here's a pic of Nolan and Aunty Lani. I also took a pic of Nolan with the yummy "Lani Cake". Here's the recipe - this is a favorite breakfast food for my family. Hope you will give it a try. You won't be disappointed!
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 block butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups bisquick mix
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 Tablespoons yellow cornmeal
Beat eggs well. Add milk and melted butter. Fold in dry ingredients (I use a hand mixer). Pour into a 9X9 square pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool, cut and serve!
Enjoy!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

I feel like celebrating!

Okay sisters, I totally missed celcbrating for my 1,000 hits! So, here's what I'm gonna do...since you all liked my mini star books, I'm gonna give away not one, not two but THREE mini star books to three lucky gals! All you gotta do is post a comment here introducing yourselves to me. I'd like to know if you are a Stampin' Up!® demonstrator, and if you are, for how long. Please include any other interesting info like if you belong to or are an upline to a group and what your group name is. If you are not a demonstrator, please still make a comment and introduce yourself to me and tell me something interesting about yourself. I like making new friends and I'd love to get to know you better! Comments will be accepted up to July 2nd and the three winners will be selected randomly and announced on July 4th! Here are the books up for grabs.



I'd like to thank ALL of you for visiting my blog and for all the sweet comments you post. Makes creating and sharing even more enjoyable for me!

Yippee!! The wait is over! It's here, it's here!!!!

YAY! Finally, the wait is over! Got my new SU Fall-Winter Collection catalogs today!!! Gotta thank my sister, Monique for calling me this afternoon from work to tell me that she got her catalogs! She said, "Come over and get one now!" Well, wasn't that easy to drop what I was doing at work to run and get my catalog (although the thought did cross my mind), but I waited til I was done with work and stopped by on my way to the bus stop. I drooled over the catalog for the entire bus ride. My son caught the bus home with me today (his first bus ride and he was so excited!) and all the way home with me oohing and aahhing, he was rolling his eyes at me and I could hear the thoughts in his head going "oh brother!" He knows that I was waiting like forever for this new catalog...and I had to remind him without my getting excited about these products, we wouldn't have gone on that cruise!!
When I got home my catalogs are were waiting for me!! YIPEE! YAY! Check out the pics that my son took as I squealed with delight!

RAK from Jen!

Who doesn't like receiving something fun? I LOVE to receive special handmade cards and gifts! Looky what I got today! A special RAK from my sister Jen! The colors are so pretty and I just love those bees! This card is cool because it opens up like this:




This kind of started out because I keep seeing RAKs received by other bloggettes and I keep thinking to myself, "I gotta join one of those groups so I can get some awesome RAK's too." So...I have this conversation with Jen and she has her thinking cap on and ta-da! a monthly RAK club! If you haven't joined a group that randomly selects a person for you to send a special RAK but always wanted to, then you just gotta check out our monthly aloha RAK club...Jen and I thought that it would be cool to start our own RAK group, why not?? You can check out all of the details on Jen's blog. C'mon, join the group, it'll be fun! You're gonna love it!
By the way sister, THANKS for my RAK, I just luv it!!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

More star books (original size)

So, do you think I was on a roll?? Actually, I had help, I always need help! haha!! All of these star books are the original size and were from the extra kits I had from the class. Thank you Wini and Jackie for helping me assemble them so I wouldn't have those left over kits lying around begging to be assembled. I just wanted to share with you my color combos because they all turned out so nice and I was amazed that I had enough paper to do good color combos. I had to keep this pink one for me...

This blue one was given to my sister Jen...her favorite color is blue.







Do you love this Sizzix daisy die? it's so cute!
Thanks for looking!



Monday, June 25, 2007

Teeny weeny star book

I had another mini scrapbook session this past weekend for the gals who weren't able to make it on the holiday we had on Monday, June 11. We all had a great time! While the ladies were working on their kits, my mind was racing along with an idea (here we go again!) I've always wanted to reduce the star book size, so here's my teeny weeny star book..I love it! Don't you? I also was dying to use my cute Changito monkey stamp. I also used the "bff" stamp that I bought from sister Jean who is a independent consultant for CTMH. These stamps are sooo cute! This set is called *Top Secret* and it has all of these cute abbreviations that we all use today like lol, cul, bff, ttul...don't you love it? I colored the monkeys using ink refills and the blender pen (creamy caramel and blush blossom) I "shook shook" the edges to add some color to the circle and mounted it to the 3" scalloped circle. Does it look summery to you? Love the colors. This paper by Basic Gray matches the color theme going on here. So, now we're on a roll, Wini helped me cut up papers for these cute mini books and I'm working right now on putting them all together. Check back later for pics of the finished products.
Well, the QK card contest is over and I didn't get a chance to drop off my card, but here it is...I had problems putting my doggie together. I never used this cute dog die and of course, I threw out the packaging it came in, you know the one with the pic of what the die is supposed to look like when assembled? So, had to go online to the QK site to check it out. That's okay, now I've got a cute Thank you card waiting for use.
Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Who doesn't love a sale??

We love to shop and better yet, when there's a sale!! This week, J's Knicknacks is having all 20% off of all Cricut products! It's a good time to stock up on mats, blades or even break down and buy that cartridge you were eyeing up! Or, if you don't already own the Cricut machine, always good to let a little discount persuade you! This sale is good for one week so I think the sale ends on June 29th...

Now this is the catch, you gotta tell the owner that you saw this sale advertised on the blogs. You can subscribe to J's blog at www.timetoscrap.blogspot.com to get updates on new products or fun stuff on sale!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

My sketch for challenge #3

I find it great to be challenged to create stuff and then even more challenging to make the time to do the challenge...but, I'm really trying to keep up because there are so many times when I really want to do things, I mean too many things and end up doing nothing!! Can anyone relate?? Well, I did do my tag for Jen's sketch challenge #3. Here it is! I had to use a different tag than the one Jen used because I don't own that tag die. But, I got permission from Jen to use this jumbo scallop tag (a original sizzix die). I used the Zoofari set and the hostess level 1 set called Reason to Smile (and Jen gives us reasons to smile!). I also used the new rhinestone circle brads (they are so cool!). I used the circles from the Pick a Petal set and stamped them on the tag with Green Galore. I'm not too crazy about that color combo, but it turned out not too bad. Used the 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punches and SU grosgrain ribbons. Speaking of...did you all get to see the retired accessory list? OMG! I cried when I found out that all of the ribbons and even the cording (gold, copper and silver) will be gone! I sure hope we're surprised with something totally awesome. Only 10 days to order all of this stuff...is anyone stocking up on ribbon and other stuff retiring?? Okay, I'm signing off...I'm at peace right now, husband at a soccer meeting, son at a friends house...aahhh...time to get creative! Gotta get off of the computer first! The weekend is almost here!!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Better late than never! My Father's Day gift

Well, as usual, I'm a couple days behind. I'm meaning posting my Father's Day gift. Just had a ton to do so didn't have time to share with you my creation! I went to Tammy Shiroma's shop called "Once Upon a Blue Moon" on Sunday. She relocated and for the life of me, I just couldn't find her new location. So when I received an email from her advertising this cool spiral punch machine, I wanted to check it out. I had no intentions of buying that machine or anything else for that matter, but...........here's the rest of that story!
Tammy had a whole bunch of clocks on her table from her class the day before. They were so colorful and pretty and attracted my attention and I had to look closer and touch them and then I asked if she had any extras. Of course she had extra clocks! So "ding!" an idea clicked in my brain...I'll make a clock for Father's Day! I bought not only one but two...couldn't forget me! Here's what they turned out to look like (sorry about the glare on the pic). The numbers on the clock is an overlay by Heidi Swapp. Of course, everything else I had sitting in my stash!
My clock has my kitty's pic on it. Of course, it had to be pink with bling (from TLC) on it! I also used the ghost flower and chipboard flower that I distressed and painted. Added buttons on the flowers too. Chipboard alphabets from a Heidi Swapp bundle I bought from Costco a while back. TFL!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Nolan's 12th Birthday

No card making for me today. Today, we celebrated Nolan's 12th birthday!
This the first time in a while that he asked to have friends over for a party. Since he probably won't be seeing alot of his friends once the new school year starts, we said okay. He ended up only inviting 5 of his friends so it was nice. They decided that they would play video games in the garage and do water gun battling in the back yard. Pizza was on the menu as well as cake and ice cream. Here are a few photos I took from the days' event. Now that the party is done, time to create!!

Friday, June 15, 2007

Another birthday...

I not only had one friend celebrate a birthday on June 14th, but two friends. My friend Sherry also celebrated her birthday on the same day as Cheryl's. Here's the card I made for her. Sorry Sherry for not sending this out yet. With my card, I was gonna mail Sherry a Sizzix emboss die so I went over to Fisher to buy a padded mailer. Oh, duh! Don't know where my head was and how I managed to buy a mailer TOO SMALL!! So Sherry, so sorry this will be late. I ran back over to Fisher today at lunch to buy another mailer. This time, I brought the card with me. Oh brother! I used the stamp from "Eat Cake" stamp set, SU designer paper, close to cocoa and tempting turquoise CS, hodge podge and soft subtles brads. I also sparkled the cake with dazzling diamonds and of course the famous scalloped punch by marvy.

Jen's sketch #2, my submittal

Well, here's the card that I'm submitting for Jen's sketch #2 challenge. I was so thrilled to get my box of NEW SU products!! I had to use them. Here's what I used: Groovy guava and river rock CS, wild wasabi and river rock ink pad, Pick a Petal (I stamped and then cut out each petal and used a dimensional for the circle) and Hugs & Wishes stamp sets and the flower from the punchbox Three for You! I used my all-time favorite stamp set - Big Deal alphabet. Since I had little room to work with, I used my stamp-a-majig for the first time!! I love it. It totally helped me space out my lettering, so from now on, I'm gonna use this, why struggle? Here's the inside of the card - I used the sentiment from Hugs & Wishes and the little flower from Baroque Motifs. Thanks Jen, for inspiring us to create!!

Big Birthday for Cheryl

Yesteday (June 14) was Cheryl's birthday and we went to Ala Moana Center's California Pizza Kitchen for lunch to celebrate. It was very relaxing and the food was yummy! We had the Hawaiian pizza and Cheryl had a salad too. Of course, we HAD to have dessert..we split the chocolate souffle because Cheryl said she was full, but girl, looks like you did a good job eating your share. It was too yummy! Happy birthday!

We love comments on our blogs!

Some of us love to visit blogs and post comments (like me!) but others are a bit *shy* about it. For me, I know my blog is not one of those *big time* and *popular* blogs, but it's okay, cuz it's just for fun and I do have limited time on the computer. Okay, "where is this going" you're all thinking...okay, okay...what I wanted to say is that I know all of us bloggers out there love when people comments, cuz that's kinda an indicator that people out there are actually reading YOUR blog. Well, I finally convinced my friend Joy to make a comment! Thanks for commenting Joy, it means alot to me :) I also wanted to share with you these two cards that Joy made. She shared these 2 cards with me. TFS!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

By the way...J's Knicknacks is having a sale...

Before I forget, go check out Time to Scrap...J's Knicknacks has Quickutz dies on sale for 30% off! Visit the Time to Scrap blog to see location.

Blogger's Choice Awards

If any of you visit Jen's blog, you know how addicting it can be. You also know that after your visit, you feel inspired and entertained. I think it's like a variety show of some sort...I love it! If you haven't visited Jen's blog, go check her out. She's giving away some pretty awesome candi pieces for her 6K and 7K hits! You go girl!! To get the candi pieces for her 7K hits, she so unselfishly asked everyone to vote on the Blogger's Choice Awards for another wonderful blogger, whom we all love and visit daily, Allison (which I did cuz she so deserves to win!). Anyway, while I was on the blogger's choice awards site, I nominated Jen for best all time blog and best blog host...you can vote for Jen too. You must sign in to vote. Let Jen know that she is the best...thanks Jen for keeping us inspired and entertained!!!

And here's the salad dressing recipe...

For those of you who attended my class on Monday, here's the salad dressing that was served:
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup raspberry vinegar (I bought my bottle from Safeway)
Combine and refrigerate until ready to serve. This dressing is really yummy. Sweet, yet tangy...
I got this recipe out of a magazine "Taste of Home" and the actual recipe used spinach leaves and strawberries. I also added almond slivers and won ton strips.
Let me know how you like it if any of you try this out :)

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Mini Scrapbook class - you know me, last minute!

Sorry guys, had this in draft and got busy...here's how last minute I was in planning my last class...
Well, it wouldn't be the same if I planned my class a month in advance. No, not me! Right gals?? I'm chatting on the phone with Wini and it must be the guilt of not having any class in the works yet so of course, when I got off the phone, I take the plunge and said to myself, "what the heck, just do a class". I jump online and I decide to plan a class for Monday. Yup!, Monday, June 11th. Monday was a State of Hawaii holiday to honor King Kamehameha and since I'm a state worker, I get to have a day off! yay! Well, the idea for this class started off in the month of May to celebrate Scrapbook month, but of course in May, I was just getting back into the swing of things getting back from the cruise, going back to my job with mountains of work and then taking a last minute trip to San Francisco. And even though I usually have my classes on the last 2 Sundays of the month, this month didn't work because Father's Day falls on the 17th, a Sunday. So...all Saturday, I'm brainstorming with myself on the projects. I knew I want to make scrapbooks and I knew I wanted to a star book, an envelope book and a mini book using the transparent envelopes, but still...what should they look like? What stamp sets do I use? Decisions, decisions!! Well, I finally came up with these finished projects:

Here's the Star book - I embellished it using the cardstock stickers from the level 1 hostess scrapbook set Friends and Flowers. After I created this book, I thought, "Oh, do I have enough stickers for everyone?" So, back to the drawing board, or creating table...I simplified it and used a Sizzix daisy instead. See below for the actual book we made...



















The next book is the mini scrapbook using the transparent envelopes as pages. Stamp sets I used: Crab & Company, Open for Trade, It's a Date and Genuine Articles stamp set. My sample includes photos from my trip to San Francisco.










The last project is a scrapbook made out of 5 envelopes. I made this type of scrapbook a long time ago when I was teaching classes at Ben Franklin. Recently, I made an envelope scrapbook with my friend Cheryl. Stamp set I used Wild About You, also used the paper from the Palette O' Paper which promotion ended at the end of May. Used the cute tag punch and made it hanging from the envelope flap to add some interest. One thing I learned is if you're gonna use stamps that are solid, stamp on the whisper white envelopes...so smooth and the images come out so awesome!
Here's Wanida so proud that she completed her star book. You go Wanida!
Thanks to Jean for beating me and posting my projects as she was a attendee at my class! Thanks for coming and I'm glad you had a good time!

Friday, June 8, 2007

6th Grade Graduation - It's a big deal!

This is one of the reasons why I've been absent from the blog world. My son graduated from 6th grade at his school. Of course, being one of the class parents, I was asked to help with the graduation planning. Oh-oh! So a few of us parents met at McDonald's for 2 weeks planning all of the details for this graduation...we finalized the food for their 6th grade celebration party (which was held the second to the last day of school) and activties. I was in charge of the goodie bags for the class and this is what I came up with:
I made 49 bags which included a graduation rubber ducky (those are so popular now!), 2007 glow-in-the-dark glasses, bubbles, candies, pencil with an antenna ball (the ball was a smiley face with a grad hat - cute!). Then I made each child a luggage tag with a picture of a Kolea (the school's mascot) and their name on it. This picture was created using watercolors and was drawn free hand (this was not made by me).
In addition to all of that, as a tradition, I make the teacher a scrapbook consisting of one page with each child's photo on it. Each child had to write a message to the teacher. I also add teacher poems and finished it off with the school chant. I'm working on a slide show of each page of the scrapbook and of the graduation that I'll post for a short while on the side bar of my blog. Am I nuts? Somehow, I think I thrive on stressing myself out. But you know what made it all worth it to me? Last night, as I was cleaning up the mess I made in my workroom, I got a call from Nolan's teacher. She was still in school cleaning up her classroom. She was obviously crying as she spoke on the phone. She told me that she finally had a moment to look at the scrapbook and then she said she just HAD to call me to thank me because this meant so much to her. Wow!! It gave me chicken skin and I felt all teary-eyed too. This is why I do the scrapbook, to make memories, not only for myself, but for others. Here's the first page of the book:
Before signing off, here's a few pics of the graduation...in my days, I sure don't remember completing 6th grade a big deal like this! I don't want to imagine what the high school graduation will be like??????

Finally! Some new cards to share

I finally was able to stamp and create a few new cards. The first card is a baby card for my boss. Actually, it's for her son and daughter-in-law to welcome their baby girl! Background is a CB folder (baby). I just love the way these CB folders dresses up the card. The giraffe is from the SU Bundle of Joy set that's in the Spring mini catalog as well as the sweet heart (catalog expires at the end of June). I also used the 2 circle punches and added some pink gingham ribbon. Sweet!


I also made another graduation card using these cute stampendous bees...don't you just love those bees? It makes me feel happy when I see these bees! I used the cuttlebug background (the one with congratulations, etc.) and then I used "congrats" from the amazing to zany SU stamp set and punched it out using the two oval punches. I just love those punches! The brads dresses up the oval a bit. I added the gold cord just to finish it off. Cute!

The third card is a birthday card. We all know how difficult (or at least I know) it is to make masculine type cards. I'm sad that this Do the Hula set is retiring! I used the aloha shirt in Not Quite Navy ink and also used the CB dot background (just love those CB folders!). The card looked boring so I had to add some navy grosgrain ribbon. Simple!
TFL!

Quickutz Card Contest!

Okay ladies, remember when I mentioned a card contest?? Well it's time to dust off your binders of Quickutz dies and create something to enter in the **Creative Card Making Contest!** No excuses cuz I know most of you now have the Big Shot or the Big Kick machine and you can crank more than one die at a time! This contest is sponsored by Fisher Hawaii (sorry this contest is open to the for the island ladies). Here's the contest rules:
Submit your best original card in one or all of the following categories:
- Graduation
- Christmas
- Birthday
- Thank You
One finalist will be chosen from each category and one Grand Prize Winner will be selected overall. Finalists and Grand Prize Winners will receive Quickutz gifts valued between $33 and $223. Deadline to enter is Sunday, June 24, 2007. No purchase necessary. All judges ruling are final.
Submissions must use Quickutz Dies.
All submissions become the property of Fisher Hawaii and may be used in future promotions with no further compensation.

You can drop off your submissions to
FISHER HAWAII Office & Home Product Warehouse
1072 FORT STREET MALL /DOWNTOWN 524-0700 - OR
450 COOKE ST / KAKA‘AKO 524-8770

Be sure to put your full name and contact information on the back of your submissions. Submissions without contact information will not be considered. Feel free to pass on this info to all of your friends too! I know that there are lots of creative ladies out there and who doesn't want to win a prize??
Note: You can find this contest announcement in the Fisher Hawaii ad that came out in this week's MIDWEEK.