Finally, a new post...

Hello!!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Finally, a post... after a long time. Christmas has come and gone and just when I thought things would finally get back to normal and I had time to breathe...yesterday, we had an island wide power outage. Aaaaah! I was just about to post some pictures and zzzzzt... the power went out and I lost the internet connection. We didn't have power from 6:30 pm. I still could've done a lot of other things, but just being in the dark made me sleepy, so I went to bed quite early. It was nice to catch up on some much needed sleep. Other parts of the island got their power back by 3:30 am...but not us, we didn't get power back until around 11:00 am or so this morning. My brother-in-law jokingly said that our area must not be "essential"... no kidding.
Anyway, I wanted to share with you first some pictures of the other jars I made this Christmas. I just need to make a few more non-Christmassy ones and they will be put away for another year or until someone asks me to make them again. A couple of my friends needed some gift card holders, so I used the pull out card pattern that Jean from Dandelion Designs shares and altered the pattern to perfectly fit gift cards. Instead of having a stamped message on the pull out part, I attached the gift card. These are two images that I just bought this year. The bear with gifts is a Whipper Snapper image and bear with snowman is a C.C. Designs stamp. They were both too cute to pass up and they were the perfect size to decorate this holder. That's about all I have to share right now, but for Christmas, I received a book that had patterns for some handmade cards. I can't wait to start using them.

Two Winners....

And so, I'm back tonight to do a quick post to announce that I will be giving both Cathy Y. and Joy a jar since they were the only 2 that commented. Ladies, please email me at ohhnicky@yahoo.com with your addresses so that I can mail them to you. In your email, please state which character you'd like to receive. I've showed you a gingerbread man and a snowman...I also make a penguin, cat, dog, and a bear. I don't have a picture of the cat, dog, or bear right now... I forgot to take a picture of before I gave my friend her order. I do have a picture here showing the penguin. This was another order that I delivered to another friend. Well, I'm off the finish up the rest of the jars, and then I'll get back in to the papercraft scene. Someone asked me to make them some gift card holders, so I'll need to get that this week as well.

It's Snowman Time!

Hope you had a nice Sunday! I'm back, a little late... and I didn't get to finish all that I wanted to today. I did pack the cookies, wrapped the gifts, went to my party, didn't finish ALL of the jars, but instead did some laundry, and did a little bit of Christmas shopping. Not bad...but could've been better.

Anyway, as promised I'm posting another giveaway. You will have until Tuesday, 11:59 pm Hawaii Time to leave a comment on this post for your chance to get this Snowman. He'll be trimmed with a scarf when he's dressed up. I'll be randomly picking the winner on Wednesday.

I am now officially starting to feel the stress of the holiday season. And the countdown begins, 11 days until Christmas! Are we cheery yet?

And the Winner Is.....

And the winner is.... Charlotte! Please send me your address via email to ohhnicky@yahoo.com so that I can mail this out to you. You are the winner of my Gingerbread Man Jar. I hope you like Gingerbread Men. He stands about 6" high. This particular jar is a pint size, mason Kerr jar, so you can unscrew his top and wash the rest of the bottle. He still needs to be fed, so I'll fill his tummy with some sweets and of course he wants to be dressed up when he meets you, so he'll wear his best duds, a ribbon and jingle bell. He can't wait to meet you!

That was fun! Thanks to the rest of you who left comments. Since there is still some time before Christmas, I think I'll do that again. So, now that you know what it really looks like instead of a sea of body parts, later today, I'll set up another announcement to give away another jar. I still haven't decided if it will be the same jar or a different critter.

I first made these years ago. The last time being around 2003. My friend remembered them and had requested some of the jars to give away for Christmas, the order wasn't too bad, only 7...and that friend mentioned it to a couple of our other friends (adding another 23), and then I was working on it at home and another friend who comes over regularly to my house saw it, so she wanted 5 and she told someone else, so now I my total count is up to 42. Thus the box of stuffed heads and arms. Who knows, if I have enough time after I finish these, I may even do a third giveaway.

Be sure to check back! Now I'm off to finish up some more of these jars, pack the huge amount of cookies a friend and I made yesterday, and then wrap my gifts for a Christmas brunch today. I hope I have enough time. 2 hours and counting, to be a little more realistic, maybe I have to hold off on the cookies til this afternoon. It really is a busy time of the year!

What I've Been Working On...

Hello! Sorry for my absence. I thought I would have enough time to set up a couple of posts pre-loaded to share while I was gone on my short trip to Vegas... but that didn't happen, so here I am back in Hawaii with at least 1 card to share for now and some pictures of what's been keeping me busy. This card is a re-do that I got the idea for from Stamp Camp. The card slides open and reveals something hidden. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up and the inside is Dandelion Designs' Snowman. This snowman is so cute!!! I used it at Jean's make and take for her Candy Cane favor and I just had to buy it after that!




I haven't been working on too much cards lately, but need to get back into gear, and in a hurry too... I have several projects that I need to finish in the next week and a half. The last couple of weeks, I've been working on this and I hope to be done by Sunday. Here's a sneak peak. You must be thinking... "What is this?" Take a closer look, I think you can guess. If you're interested, leave me a comment on THIS post by Saturday, 12/13/08, 11:59pm Hawaii Time and I'll have my other half choose one person randomly on Sunday, to be the receiver of one of one of these. Don't worry, it will be a completed one, not in pieces like this. I'll post the winner on Sunday afternoon.

Aloha RAK for Chris

In November, I made this for my RAK partner. It was the first RAK that I participated in. My RAK consisted of a folder with pockets, with a memo pad and card hidden inside, and a mini note card with my message to her. I really enjoyed making this for Chris. I sure hope that she really liked it.

Here's a picture of the folder opened, sorry, bad lighting. Chris has some pictures on her blog as well. She has some really nice projects on her blog as well, so if you haven't been there...go check it out.


Still need to take pictures of my snowman card, plus I wanted to post what's been keeping me busy this week, my non-paper craft project. I'll try and get that posted tomorrow... gotta get some rest now!

Happy Monday!

I caught a cold and hadn't been feeling too well since Friday night, but I did manage to make this card to enter PCP's 12 days of Christmas, for Day 2. In the traditional 12 days of Christmas, "On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two turtle doves...." I didn't have a dove, so I used two turtles. You were supposed to use a turtle, dove, or any other amphibian in your card. So, I chose Dandelion Design's turtle image. I had just bought those plastic watch covers to make the shakers, same idea as the paperclip that Lianne had made (several posts down). Added some plastic bubbles, ribbon, and did some faux stitching. It took me awhile, but it was fun!

I also made this gingerbread man mini card, but I missed the deadline to post the entry, "Ohh Nicky". This was for a challenge on MDC, but I didn't follow the guidelines anyway, another "Ohh Nicky" moment. It was a color challenge and you got bonus points for using a gingerbread man image. I only had the idea of using a gingerbread man, and forgot about the colors. Plus I wanted to use the rest of the red gingham paper and the same ribbon. Thought it matched the gingerbread men so well. Oh well...I still enjoyed making the card. This was a Penny Black stamp.

I spent the rest of my weekend finishing up another card using Dandelion Designs' Snowmen image and making a non-stamping craft project. I'll share that later this week...I still need to take pictures of it. Christmas is right around the corner...are you ready?

Whiff of Joy Blog Candy

Blog candy alert! This time it's from a Whiff of Joy. Bev is giving away a cute Herb with Baby Stamp... super cute snowman. You can enter it on Bev's blog, All the Things I Love

You have until December 4th to enter!
Good luck!

Aloha RAK from Chris

I arrived home late from work today... it was a long day. I opened the mailbox expecting to see bills and more junk mail, the usual. But to my surprise, I received a box from Chris, my partner for the Aloha Monthly RAK Group. Woo hoo! She had perfect timing... and it really made my day. I wanted to get this posted right away...so here it is. I sat down and immediately began tearing the box open to reveal a nicely wrapped package. Enclosed was a thank you card with her message tucked inside. I carefully removed the ribbon and found these beautiful cards and monogram mini notecards and envelopes. Her colors coordinate so well and her work is always so neat. These are so pretty that I want to just keep them all for myself... but she made a bunch...so I guess I can use some of them...but definitely not all. Thank you so much Chris!!! I'll post what I sent to Chris a little later. If you'd like to participate in this month's Aloha RAK Group, Tracy just posted the sign up on her blog. You have to sign up by November 30th to participate in December.

Hello Kitty

I made this Hello Kitty box for my friend's birthday. She LOVES Hello Kitty, so I used the Sizzix die cuts to create this box. I saw this cute pink gingham fabric, so I wanted to use it for her shirt. I ran the fabric through the Zyron machine to make the back sticky and then ran it through the Big Shot to cut the pieces. Next time though, I need to remember that I should probably mount the fabric to a piece of cardstock first, then run it through the Zyron machine. The fabric was so thin that when I peeled the backing off, the fabric pulled and distorted the gingham print. Eeee...I had to cut it again and I tried to be more careful, but the gingham is still a little distorted. I used a glitter tip that Cheryl of J's Knicknacks taught us at one of her make and takes. I ran Hello Kitty's ribbon through the Zyron upsidedown and then pressed it into the glitter... it really beats trying to put glue on the whole thing and then sprinkling the glitter over the glue. I think the sparklies really added to it!

PCP Sketch Saturday 112208

I made this card for Paper Craft Planet's Sketch Challenge Saturday for 11/22/08. This is a Whipper Snapper image. I bought this image because the polar bear and penguin were soooo cute. I couldn't resist. I tried to take a picture of this card at an angle so that you could see the fuzziness of the polar bear. I used Fun Flock on his entire body. I really didn't do a good job taking the picture...you probably have to click on it to see it enlarged. Also used the scallop ovals and ovals from Spellbinder's Nestabilities. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up. You can view the other entries for this PCP sketch challenge here. Paper Craft Planet is a neat website... they have a lot of different groups that you can subscribe to, there's even one for Blog Candy Giveaways...Happy Monday!

It's Sunday!

Hope you had a nice weekend. I've been so busy... this past week was a blur for me. I have several things to share in this post. First off, I wanted to show you the gift that I received on Thursday from someone I work with. She's retiring at the end of the year and she gave me a thank you gift. Go figure! I was very honored to receive it. What a nice surprise. I knew she was crafty, but I didn't know that she stamped as well. This is a picture of her thank you card envelope and the pocketbook calendar that she decorated. Now Joanne will have lots of time to do her crafts, enjoy spending time with her family, and do volunteer work. What a wonderful person she is!!! : )


The next picture is a Make and Take that I did at Cute Stuff with Jean from Dandelion Designs. You can make one too...she has posted the template and instructions on how to make it on her website. It was a little challenging for me...but do able. I'm happy with how it came out. Her images are too cute!!! When I showed it to my other half, he said "Oh, that's nice, Nicky!"...but you could tell that he was just saying it to be nice...then when I told him to pull the tab and it revealed the colored image, he said "Wow, that's cool!" He thought I had gotten lazy and just decided not to color the image. It was a lot of fun to make. Thanks Jean!


This next picture is of a large paperclip that was decorated by Lianne of Cute Stuff. If you haven't been to her store, you've got to check it out. She's located in Puck's Alley. Lianne has loads and loads of "Cute Stuff". The image on this clip is a "Cute" snail by none other than Dandelion Designs!!!


The last project that I'll share tonight is a card that I made with one of the stamps that I won last week from Jean's Make and Take at J's Knicknacks. I'll be making more projects with her stamps, but thought I'd share at least this one for now. I used her cupcake image...frosted it with some stickles (i love stickles), and layered with stampin' up circle and scallop punches. The "You're sweet" image is also from Dandelion Designs. Had to add a cute little ribbon, because it reminded me of Jean... she used this kind of ribbon in the last two make and takes that she did. It's such pretty ribbon! Well, that's all for tonight. Have a good week!

Rina's Blog Candy

Not much time tonight, but I wanted to tell all of you that I came across this site as I was visiting Jen's blog. Her site directed me to Rina's blog...check it out... she has some neat stuff posted there. She's also giving away some blog candy...but you gotta hurry! Check out the details here.

PCP Sketch Saturday 111508

I made this card for Paper Craft Planet's Sketch Saturday 11/15/08. It was a little challenging for me to decide first of all, how to incorporate what I wanted to use for the sketch. My next challenge was taking a picture so you could see the details and then post it on their website...Whew! You can view the other entries for this particular sketch, here.

Happy Birthday Cute Stuff!

I hadn't had a chance to download this image and post this until today. The resolution on this camera is rather poor, so I'm sorry that you can't see too much detail. I made this card for Lianne at Cute Stuff. This past weekend, Lianne celebrated 11 years in business! Woohoo! What an accomplishment! The image was a brass stencil by Lasting Impressions and I used a product that I had bought last month at the Mainland Stamp Expo. Fran, The owner and demonstrator of The Stencil Collection made using her "Icing" look so easy. The "Icing" looks like cake icing. You just spread it over the stencil, scrape off as much as you can (like silk screening), pull off the stencil carefully, let it dry (at least 10-15 minutes), and ta da, you have a raised image. I waited longer to be sure that it set though.

Look at what I got today!

I stopped by J's Knicknacks today after work to pick up the "ohh" so generous giveaway prize that Jean from Dandelion Stamps gave out to one lucky person of those who attended her Make and Take on Saturday. I can't believe that I was the lucky winner! The giveaway included 8 of her cute stamps wrapped in a pretty pink box. I can't wait to unwrap them and start using them! If you've never seen her stamps before, you really should stop by her site http://dandeliondesigns.org/ and take a closer look at all of her images. They are adorable! I posted the project that she shared on an earlier post, here. Stay tuned, later this week, I'll use her stamps in one of my projects. :o) Thank you, Jean!

Stamp Camp - Nov 16

What a fun day! 4 hours of crafting! : ) Attended another of Jacque's Stamp Camps... I love attending these. You go at your own pace, so there's no pressure and you are provided the supplies to make 4 different project. My favorite of the 4 was the Let it Snow Card. You pull the two brown tabs to reveal a hidden message, gift card, or I guess you could put in some cash.

We also made a package to hold our Snowman Soup, a box using the Big Notes diecut, and a pocketbook calendar.

Peek - A - Boo Card

I made this card earlier this week. If you haven't been to Jenn Muraoka's website yet, you don't know what you're missing. She's listed in my favorites. Jenn had a video that showed her creating the Peek-a-Boo Card and she made it look so easy that I had to try it. I just bought some golf paper from J's Knicknacks and it was still sitting out staring at me, so I decided to go with a golf theme. The stamp is from Juju's Tiny Treasures, now known as Create in Me, by Julie Fujii. My Mom is an avid golfer and I made this for her to give to a friend. The left panel is blank so that she could write her friend's name there to add her own personal touch. So, you pull the two sides of the card and there's the hidden message! The message stamp is by Darcie's Country Folk. Golf anyone?

MnT - 11/15/2008

Just got back from some shopping and a Make and Take at J's Knicknacks. Jean from Dandelion Designs put together this cute, ohh so creative, Christmas project. Two big candy canes taped together to form a heart...perfect for a party favor! It was a fun project... then of course I had to get the snowman stamp. He's a cutie! What a nice way to start getting ready for Christmas!!! Are you ready?

Hang in There

I made this card for a friend. She needed a pick me up because she had had a rotten week. The pudgy kitty hanging onto the branch seemed to say "Hang In There"... so I really wanted to use that image. I had bought the Provocraft stamp a long time ago, but never used it. I think I helped to make her Monday a little more bearable. To color the kitty in, I wanted to make him seem soft and fluffy, so I used color pencils and gamsol to get a softer look (I'm horibble at coloring and shading). I used some scrap printed paper to give it a little more color. Again... a simple card, but made with a lot of love.

RAK from Cathy

I just received this RAK from Cathy. She's so sweet : ) and so is her RAK. I feel so fortunate to be the receiver... she added a lot of detail...the bow holding it closed was handcut and it really added to the box. She even stamped some background spider webs on the inside and hidden below the candy treat was a fully colored stamped image inside. All together now "ADORABLE"...

Thank you Cathy!

FIRST Post

This is my first post ever. A good friend gave me some pretty design paper. I love this color combination...pink and green. I cut 3 strips of the design paper, and used stampin' up circle punches and the stampin' up scallop punch to punch and border the turtle. The cute turtle is a stamp made by Dandelion Designs. Added some crystal stickles to the flower for a little sparkle and a little bling to the bottom corner. A simple card...you will see as I post my projects that they are very simple...nothing really fancy. Many times it's a matter of trial and error.