Saturday, February 26, 2011

Diaper Shower Fun

Hello and happy Saturday! I hope you all had a good day whether out in the sun or inside because of the cold. Can you believe we actually got some hail that could be mistaken for snow here in sunny California? Yup, but then the weather turned out beautiful. I'm glad, because today was my beautiful friend's diaper shower. Yes, not baby, but diapers.. hahaha.. So the main presents were the diapers and wipes, and anything else was a bonus. We were very lucky that the weather cooperated and the sun was shining after the major shower we had all day yesterday.
I made some table tent decorations and my very first flag banner for the occasion. I actually made the banner because I had gone to Party City and the Dollar Tree stores and thought the ones there were so cheezy looking. Plus, I wanted the decorations to match. I used my Cricut to make the flags, you can't see the brown border around the pink polka dot paper, but it's there. It's the same kind of cs that I used to make the table tents.

I had so much fun making each and everyone one of the table tents and especially love the banner I made. I used the ever adorable HG Snuggle from The Greeting Farm as the main focus for all the projects. The sentiments on the banners are from Hero Arts and TGF. HG Snuggle reminded me of the soon-to-be parent's daughter. HG Snuggle is definitely one of my absolute favorites. Just love her serene expression. Colored her up as a light brown-blondish little girl and as a brown haired little girl because the new baby could end up looking like her daddy, with light brown-blonde hair or like her dark haired HAPA mama. Their daughter, MG, is a sweetie with hair like her daddy. (In the picture above you can see MG sitting on her daddy's lap. Her mama is the one standing next to me. Also in the picture are my mama and our friend Janelle holding her dog, Ace.)
Being a new big sister I wanted to do something fun for MG. I found this adorable (fluffy & soooo soft) pink and white doggie with a purple bandana @ Target! SCORE!! I was @ Joann's and purchased a few photo memory buttons. I was stoked because an idea to make MG a special button because of her new role as a big sister came to mind. (Love it when that happens) I used the same stamp and colored her up as close to MG's hair color, which right now is more blonde than brown. She was really happy to get the doggie and when she gets older she might actually like the button. hahaha..
Ok my friends, I think I'm going to call it an early night. I've gotten about 7 hours sleep total for the past 3 days and need my energy for tomorrow's trek to the Anaheim stamp convention. Sending wishes for a great Sunday to all of you. Mahalo for stopping by!
Hugs,
Leanne

Monday, February 21, 2011

Waiting patiently

Hello, I'm back for another share. I just finished this one and will be submitting it over at the Lollipop Crafts challenge which is black & white with a pop of color. The pop of color means to use one other color. I chose to go with the same stamp I just used, Amelia, from the OA Little Dreamer stamp set from TGF. I picked light pink as the other color besides the black and white. I tried to do something different with the card itself so I made a modified gate card. Used a MS border punch on one side and for the dp I chose to go with some black and white pieces from MM.
It's been sometime since I played in a Lollipop Crafts challenge, this one was pretty fun. Thanks for stopping by and hope you are enjoying your Monday!
Hugs,
Leanne

Little Dreamers

Happy Monday! I'm off today (whoo hoo!) so I'm getting some much needed laundry done and while taking care of that I plan to do some crafting. YAY!!! It's always nice to have a day off from work especially when the weather is gorgeous outside. Hope you're doing something fun today as well.
For my share today I decided to play along with Jen's Saturday Sketch over at the CA&F blog. As you know with any TGF or CA&F challenge you have to use a TGF stamp. And for any sketch challenge you have to have the elements there even if you choose to flip it. Well I had to flip mine to fit but I think it turned out nicely and I was still able to fit in all the elements. I chose to go with the newest OA set called Little Dreamer.


This is such a cute set even though you can't see their faces. I decided to use both Oliver and Amelia in my card. I masked Oliver and stamped Amelia to create that side by side look. I wanted to go for a tranquil setting so I colored in some grass and then colored the sky a very light blue trying to make clouds. I need practice as you can tell.. hahaha.. I used paper from MME (Twinkle Twinkle Little Boy), K&Company (Berry Sweet) and some green floral paper from MM. I love giving a small vintage look to the paper so I sponged the edges with some brown ink. To add dimension, because the patterns weren't dimensional enough for me (hahaha), I dry embossed them with some fun Cuttlebug folders. I also used some dark brown paper to give it a little bit of pop. I used diamond glaze on parts of the image including the eyes on Oliver's backpack, the strawberry on Amelia's backpack as well as the strawberries on the top right corner. For the sentiment I added the "s" on the end because there is not only one dreamer but two. :)
Okie dokie, time to wrap this up and get crafting, o yea and finish some laundry too... hahaha! Hope you get a chance to play today. Have a great Monday and a fantastik week!!
Hugs,
Leanne

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Friends Share Laughter

Happy Sunday!! Today is the NBA All-Star game and it's here in L.A. I'm so glad I'm not in downtown right now.. hahaha.. It would have been very cool to be there, but it's even better not to be. hahaha.. On to my share... Today's card was a birthday card I made for my co-worker Desiree. Her birthday was yesterday, but I gave this to her on Friday. It's a girly card but not too girly. She's not a girly kinda girl. The fun thing about this card is the sentiment, paper and the image I used. This little gal might look familiar if you're a TGF fan. Her name is Summer and she's so adorable especially when she's trying to hide her smile. I chose her and the sentiment because Desiree is ALWAYS making us laugh at work.
The card is very layered with some pretty paper I purchased last week. It's called Linen Closet by DCWV and I just fell in love with it. I think I'm planning to go buy another paper pad. Here's something I very rarely do, create an inside spot for the card. I think it looks like a card within a card. lol..

Okie dokie, it's time for me to sign off. I'm heading to my one of my bestie's for cake pop decorating and hopefully some crafting. Have a wonderful Sunday and hope you're either crafting or watching a little NBA basketball and rooting for your favorite player.
Hugs,
Leanne

Friday, February 18, 2011

Happy Birthday

Happy Friday!! I'm so glad the weekend is finally here.. Long 3-day weekend for me and boy do I need one. I have been wanting to share this card however I wanted to try to find the artist first. The image by Sesshy Kun, I found on Deviant Art and I wanted to use it to make a birthday card for my bestie Renate. When I saw this line art sketch I first thought how awesome and how much it reminded me of Ren. I didn't use any dp, but decided to go with a Stampin' Up stamp and some embossing folders. I also chose to use my go to spellbinders (oval and scalloped oval). For the paper colors I chose to go with dark brown, turquoise, kraft and a peach colored ribbon. I blended blues and greens for her top, love the color and how it looks a little textured.

I colored in her bangs and also her eyes. I wish I could color like the Manga artists, gotta practice!!! Gotta admit that I really like this one.
Well it's late and time for me to hit the hay... Have a wonderful Saturday!!!
Hugs,
Leanne

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Store Training

Hello and happy Thursday. I hope you're all enjoying the weather where you are at. It's beautiful today after yesterday's rain.
Today I'd like to share a card I made for my GM trainer at work. If you didn't know I work for a little company called Panda Restaurant Group. If you've never heard of us I'm hoping you at least have heard of one of our restaurants... Panda Express. Well we do what is called store training every year so we can get in touch with the restaurant associates and their duties. We each have a trainer and can be assigned to do any part of running a restaurant. My station was #2, entrees. My trainer just moved from Illinois to L.A. and is currently an associate in our training department. I was very lucky to get assigned to her. Her name is Norma and she was fantastik. We got along right away. After we completed the training I decided I wanted to show my appreciation by making her a card to say Thank you and welcome to the Support Center. I altered Lizzie from Instyle stamps and made her look like a Panda Express employee, namely me. I love how she looks and so much like what a Panda associate looks like in the restaurant. Used a white gel pen to write in the characters matching the apron above. I couldn't get the full Panda Express on the apron so used the shorter version of PX. Kept the rest of the card simple and clean. When I gave it to her she was very happy and surprised. On Tuesday when I got back to work there was a beautiful orchid with a card on my desk. Aw... Inside the envelope was our team picture that we took right before we opened the restaurant.

I included another fun picture of me and my two co-workers. We are done with store training for the year and were really happy about it.. hahaha...
Have a great Thursday and Mahalo for stopping by!
Hugs,
Leanne

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day Darby!

Hi, I'm back with another Valentine's Day card I made using the adorable Darby and her friend Bumbles from the Sweet November line. I had colored up Darby a while back and finally decided to use her on a card. I know it's not your typical Valentine's day colors, but I just loved the colorful embossed hearts dp from the DCWV Rockstar stack and hearts = Valentine's day right? hahaha...Thanks so much for stopping by for my second post of the evening. Have a great evening and a wonderful Tuesday.
Hugs,
Leanne

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! I know this is a very late post and most of you are probably already enjoying your day or starting the new day. I wanted to share a couple Valentine's Day cards I made. The first two I chose to use Sweetheart Marci from La La Land Crafts. Isn't she sweet and perfect for any Valentine's day card or project? In the first card I went with a pink palette, with a touch of white and orange. I just love the heart flags she's displaying because you can write any 5 letter word inside. I chose to write "HAPPY" then used some hearts, which were left over punches from the MS border punch, to spell out "Valentine's" and then wrote in "Day!" with a white opaque marker. Tried to make the Valentine's hearts into a flower bouquet so I drew in stems behind the pink bow. I cased one of the make & take cards from CHA because I loved the simple layout.
For the second card I used Sweetheart Marci again and chose a mostly red and white palette. I used a Copic marker to draw in the hearts as well as the fake stitches within the circle behind Marci. I did use the same border punch and used the leftover hearts to make a fun heart image with flourish on the other side. Inside the heart sign I wrote "Hello".
I also used a lot of my white gel pen. I sometimes forget that I have one. Decided that I needed to use it prominently this time around. hahaha.. These were both fun cards to make and I had a lot of fun coloring up Marci with first orange hair and then giving her a brown do. :)
Mahalo for stopping by and where ever you are.. Happy Valentine's Day!!!
Hugs,
Leanne

Monday, February 7, 2011

TGF-CHA Relay

The Greeting Farm had a really cool challenge last week and boy was it packed with fun stuff. There was a recipe and in order to get all the ingredients you needed to go to each DT's blog and get the item. It was cleverly done and each post had tons of inspiriation. Since the challenge was a one-day affair I had to think quik and figure out what I was going to do. I decided to go with a Valentine's Day theme and went with simple. I loved the color of Ebony's hair and her little friend is super cute yea? I sparkled his tail in case you were wondering where that part of the recipe is.
The 10 ingredients included:
1. TGF image
2. Copic markers
3. patterned paper
4. cardstock
5. buttons
6. ribbon
7. edge punch
8. stitching (real or fake)
9. flower
10.touch of sparkle
Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful week!!
Hugs,
Leanne

Thursday, February 3, 2011

More La-La Land pictures from CHA

Hi! I just woke up from a nap, and can't go back to sleep so why don't I post more fun pictures from CHA? These are a few of our wonderful new friends that stopped by to place some orders and do our make & takes as well as some of the beautiful displays from the La-La Land DT. Sorry about the picture quality, I was using my cell phone so some of the images might be a bit blurry and a bit bright! hahaha...


Well that's all I have for now. Aren't these just some fun pictures as well as some beautiful creations from the DT? I hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed being a part of it. Irina, Eric, Lisa, Kim, Gen, Ching & Renate, Mahalo for a wonderful time!
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week!!!
Hugs,
Leanne