Little C's Stamp n' Scrap Hawaii Aloha Keikis Winter Keala Card

Hello Friends!! How was your Christmas? Did you have a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends? Again, I have to let you know that I pre-scheduled this post two weeks ago. I'm assuming I'm in Italy or Switzerland right now! LOL! We spent Christmas in Rome but because this is pre-scheduled post, I can't tell you about it right now. If the Internet service sucks or I don't have the time to post, you are reading something I wrote two weeks ago. I'm assuming I had a wonderful Christmas! LOL!

Well today is my day to post a card for Little C's Stamp n' Scrap Hawaii and I decided to continue on with a winter theme. It's still chilly so I felt the Aloha Keiki's Winter Kehau image was a perfect image to work with. I have plans to continue on starting in January to make Christmas and Holiday cards because honestly, creating my Christmas cards starting in January saved my butt this year.


You can find this Aloha Keiki's Winter Kehau digital image at Little C's. Go check out the cute digital images at Little C's!! I colored the image with my Copic Markers and added Tulip Puffy Paint to parts of the image to give them a puffy look. It's really fun to work with the Tulip Puffy Paint. I had cut the ornament shape using my Cricut Expression. . .I'm having so much fun with my new Cricut Expression machine which I got for Christmas this year! Yay! I have grand plans to create all sort of projects using my Cricut starting in January. . .I'm really excited about it.


Okay. . .I hope you all have a beautiful New Years! Don't party too hard. We'll be spending New Years Even in Paris and New Years Day at Disneyland Euro in Paris! How exciting is that! Celebrating New Years at Disneyland is our tradition. We have been doing it for the past 5 years since moving to California so we just had to do it when we're in Europe! I can't wait!!

Anyway. . .be safe celebrating the New Year okay. . .an most of all, have fun! If I don't post anything by New Years! HAPPY NEW YEARS to all of you!!

Merry Christmas and European Trip Update

Merry Christmas, Friends! I hope you're having a fun time opening gifts and celebrating this wonderful day! We had Christmas dinner at an Italian restaurant. . .celebrating the Italian style. . .with lots of yummy Italian food and wine, singing, laughing and a lot of joy that's for sure, especially after some of the members of our tour group had a few wine. You know how that goes...

Well, we've been in Europe for 9 days and we've already visited London,drove through Belgium, visited Amsterdam, Germany, Austria, Venice and currently, we're in Rome. We have 2 more countries to visit (Switzerland and France) before we head back to the US.

I wanted to share a few photos with you of the different places we visited. I have a ton more photos to share but I'll share them when I get back to the US. So far it's been a wonderful trip. Unfortunately, time is very limited so I can't share much right now. We wake up very early in the morning and don't get back to our hotel room until almost 10:00 at night. It leaves very little time to post any updates. We were able to have a little down time today so I decided to take the opportunity to post a few photos.


We visited Munich and this building is a Gothic style building in a shopping square. I can't remember the building's name. When I return from my trip, I'll proviide accurate information of the pictures I'm posting. This square is a major shopping area surrounded by many department stores. During the holidays, the market is filled with various vendors selling Christmas products. It's very festive and you'll find lots of ornaments and Christmas figurines that you can buy. I bought several ornaments. . .I collect ornaments so it was nice to find many vendors selling beautiful ornaments. The department stores were busy with so many people. . .I guess doing some last minute shoppping.


This is a photo of a building near the entrace to the shopping market in Innsbruck, Austria. Innsbruck is a beautiful town and the mountains surrounding Innsbrook were covered with snow. It was beautiful. I'll post a few more photos when I get home. I need to resize all my photos before I post them because right now it takes a long time to upload the pictures due to the photo size. If I had to choose a country to visit again, I definitely would like to re-visit Austria. The mountains surrounding Austria are the most beautiful I've seen.

Here's a picture of St. Mark's Square with the St. Mark's Basilica in the background. Venice was flooded the previous day due to the rain but we were fortunate that there was no flooding when we visited Venice yesterday. It was wet and rained a little off and on but it was a fun experience anyway. The square was crazy busy even if it was Christmas Eve. I'll post a few more photos of the buildings during my boat ride to St. Mark's Square when I get home.

This photo is of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Wow, it's a beautiful building. I can't believe it was constructed in 828. That's a long, long time ago and I just can't imagine how they could build such a building during that period. It's a magnificent building. . .a work of art. Venice have many buildings that are amazing and it's unbelivable that the city was built on water. Our guide told us that the foundation is made of wood and has been deteriorating. Some of the buildings are tipping in different directions and when you walk around the surrounding area around St. Mark's Square, you'll see that some of the buildings are at an angle.



Towards the evening, it started to rain so I had to use my scarf over my head. It wasn't a fashion thing. LOL! Here we are pictured over a balcony in the shopping area in Venice. It was crazy busy but it was so much fun. There were so many shops. . .unfortunately, the American dollar is weaker than the Euro so the exchange rate was quite low. Ugggh! If you can buy it in the US. . .it's best to buy the stuff at home. We did purchase a few Murano glassware. . .we figured it was something worth spending on but otherwise, forget buying clothes and such. . .they are way too expensive.

It was raining while we were riding the gondola through the Venice. Not very romantic like you see in the movies but we just had to do it because we wanted to experience the ride. Honestly, it was smelly because you're basically riding through the sewer. LOL! Look at my husband looking absolutely miserable because it was raining and we didn't have an umbrella. It was a great experience nonetheless. . .viewing the buildings via the gondola is an experience you have to try once in your life. You just need to not breath in the sewer smell and you'll be fine. Too funny.

Earlier this evening we toured Rome and the Vatican by night. If you ever visit Rome, be sure to tour the city at night. The lights of the city just gives the city a beautiful illumination. We'll be touring the city and the Vatican tomorrow during the day. Our tour guide told us that Rome looks different during the day so he wanted to show us how it looked during the night. Well, I'm glad he did because the city is absolutely gorgeous at night. There is one thing that I found absolutely shocking when we first entered Rome . . there's numerous graffities everywhere. It's really sad that people actually deface the beautiful buildings around the city. The amount of graffities in Rome are astounding.

Honestly, I can't remember the name of this are. I guess I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy snapping photos. LOL! Isn't it beautiful at night? It's a major attraction in Rome. I'll be sure to ask our tour guide the name of this area and I'll let you know.

Before I go, I want to share a picture of St. Peter's Square with the St. Peter's Basilica in the background. Can you believe how empty the square is? Because it is Christmas day, many people are at home and because it was almost 10:00 at night, most of the visitors already left so we were able to take photos of the square without all the people in the way.

I'm sorry I can't give more detail of the attractions we visited. I'll tell you all about them when I'm back in the US. I have a lot of interesting stories to share. I have the good, the bad, the ugly, and the funny too. Well, I better end it here. . .I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas. I hope your Christmas is fillled with lots of joy surrounded by family.

Little C's Aloha Keiki's Santa Keala Shaker Card

Hello Friends!!! Wow, Christmas is right around the corner! In a few days as a matter of fact. How exciting. I'm pre-scheduling this post so it's really difficult to talk about something that hasn't happened yet! Why am I pre-scheduling this post 2 weeks in advance? Well, because I'm in Europe somewhere and I'm not sure how my Internet service will be like. I'm probably in Italy right now! LOL! We'll be spending Christmas in Rome! Whoohoo. Do you think I'll bump into the Pope when we visit the Vatican? LOL!

Anyway, it's really difficult to talk about something that isn't occurring yet so I'll get down to business and talk about my card. Today is my day to post a card for Little C's Stamp n' Scrap Hawaii and I decided to use Little C's Aloha Keiki's Santa Keala image. You can find the Winter Wonderland series at Little C's! They are so adorable and fun to work with!!


I decided to create a shaker panel for my card! I love shaker cards and I thought Santa Keala was a perfect image for this type of card. Do you see the snow? Well, they are actually shredded plastic. . .I found a package of them at a garage sale. LOL!

I created the puffy parts of the image using Tulip Puffy Paint and added the dots on the snowflakes using Scribbles Iridescent Paint.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas filled with love and joy surrounded by family and friends!! Merry Christmas, my friends!!

European Trip Day 1 - London

Hi Friends. . .well, we landed safely in London and on time too! Whoohoo! This is my very first trip to Europe so everything is new and different for me. For those who've been to Europe or live in Europe, you may think what I write may not be so interesting or fascinating. ..so bear with me! LOL!

An awesome thing happened on our way to London. . .British Airway bumped us up to Premiere seating . . .it's so much better than economy. Whoohoo. Our airplane seats were a bit wider and had their own foot rest. Furthermore, each individual video screen pulled up from the side of our arm rest. The 10 hour flight was bearable because it was a bit more comfortable and that really helped.

Above is a photo of the baggage claim area at Hearthrow Airport in London. The airport is designed sort of chic and modern with lots of metallic features as you can see in the photo. Very contemporary in design. I was impressed.

As we were being shuttled to our hotel entering the city, I really had a different "idea" of what London would look like. It's not as "cold" and "dreary" as I expected. I don't know. . .I guess all the movies I see of London is that it's dark and cold. . .I guess I see too many movies but in reality it was quite the opposite of what I expected. London looks very modern. . .and yes, although the city does lack a bit of color. . many of the buildings are grey or the color of red brick, many of the buildings are very contemporary. As we approached the outskirt of the city, it reminded me a bit of Virginia and the area surrounding Washington DC during the winter time.

We decided to eat lunch at a Thai restaurant after we dropped off our bags at our hotel room. It was the first restaurant that we came across after walking out of our hotel. First shocking thing. . .the food price, by American standards, is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. For a Thai lunch for 3 that would normally average $30 here in the US. . .it cost $65 in US dollars. Ugggh! I was sort of expecting something different as far as Thai cuisine. . .maybe a British flair, not so. . .it tastes exactly like the Thai food here in the US. LOL! I don't know why I would think it would taste different. . .Thai food is Thai food, right?

One thing I noticed here is the people dress far more nicely than we do here in the US. Nothing casual about how they dress here. On average most of everyone I saw were dressed in nice boots, nice coats, and nice slacks. I love the coats here. . .people were dressed nicely even at the local drug store and supermarket. Gosh, in my home town, I see people walking in with their sweat pants and some even in their pajamas and bunny house slippers. I don't think you'd see anything like that here in London but I may be wrong. . .being in the city and in the suburb are two different worlds so it's possible that people do wear bunny house slippers in the rural area of London. LOL! Who knows!

For dinner, we ate at an Italian restaurant and sat down for a while and drank coffee. While we were in the restaurant, it began to snow. It wasn't in the forecast so we didn't expect it but luckily I was seriously bundled up. It was beautiful. It really felt like the holidays. I heard on the news that it may snow up to 8 inch by tomorrow morning. Yikes! I hope it doesn't mess up our tour. . .we're going to go bus hopping and stop by different attractions around London tomorrow. Anyway. . the photo above is of me, my daughter and my husband. A gentlemen was kind enough to take our photo. We rarely ever have a chance to take photos together so it was wonderful to have a nice photo of us together on our first day in London.

I guess that's it for today's adventure. . .hopefully, I can take more photos tomorrow and have time to post a few of them. Anyway. . .I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays.

Angels Landing Shaker Ornaments Tutorial

Hey Friends! How are you all doing? Are you enjoying the holidays? I hope so! Christmas only comes around once a year so it's best to find the time to enjoy it because it goes by rather quickly!

Guess what today is? Well, today is the last posting for Angels Landing for this year and my last stint as a designer. I had a lot of fun working with Judi and the rest of the Angels Landing design team.



This week we were challenged to create a card or project that shows what Christmas means to us. Well, I decided to create a few shaker ornaments. Hanging ornaments on our Christmas tree is one of the highlights of Christmas and I have happy memories decorating our tree each year.

My plan is to create a bunch of these ornaments throughout the year and hang them on my tree next year. I had a blast creating them using the Angels Landing images. For this first ornament, I used the Ho Ho Holidays image.


With this second ornament, I used Polar Bear Cubs image. Aren't they cute? I think this is my favorite of the tree. It really has a winter feel to it! I love it!




Last but not least, I decided to use the kitty image from the Ho Ho Holidays digi set. I have a white cat and her name is China and the kitty image reminds me of her.

Just to let you know, I got the original template from the Martha Stewart site but I changed the size and modified it to create a window that will fit larger images. If you are interested in trying out the tutorial, I also provided the modified templates. Try it out!!! It's actually quite easy to create these shaker ornaments!

Be sure to check out the Angels Landing blog site to check out the beautiful projects created by the Angels Landing design team!!

Hope y'all have a beautiful Wednesday!

Shaker Ornament Templates and Tutorial

Little C's Stamp n' Scrap Hawaii Tilda Presents

Hello Friends!! Hey look. . it's Tilda! I haven't used my Magnolia stamps for a while now! I have so many stamps that I haven't been able to play with. . .it's a little frustrating because I want to use them all but there is no way I can use them all. I do try my best to create something on a daily basis. Well today is my day to post at Little C's Stamp n' Scrap Hawaii so I thought it is a perfect time to use Tilda!! You can find Magnolia stamps at Little C's. . .go check it out!

I paper pieced Tilda's dress and colored the rest of the image with my Copic Markers. I cut the Top Notes shape from my Cricut Expression using Sure Cuts Alot 2 program. I'll discuss more about the Cricut some time in January because I have exciting stuff to share with all of you.

Just to let you know, my post of my cards and projects from today until January will be pre-scheduled because we're leaving for Europe tomorrow. Yipee! Hopefully, when I get to Europe, I'll be able to post photos of my adventure there. I hope the Internet service at the hotels in Europe will be fast enough to upload photos on blogger.


Anyway. . .because this is a pre-scheduled post, it's really difficult to write about what will be going on in the future! LOL! With that being said, I will end this post here.

I hope you all are having a wonderful time celebrating the Holidays!!

Blog Candy Winner

I have a winner for my Holiday Blog Hop Blog Candy. Via Random.org. . .the number chosen was #30 and the 30th commenter was Mary of My Scrap Happy Life! Whoohoo! Thank you all for playing along in blog hop . . .it sure was fun, huh? Again, Congratulations to Mary!!!

Little C's Aloha Keiki Winter Wonderland Digital Image Release

Hello Friends!! Today is the release of Little C's Aloha Keiki Winter Wonderland digital images! Whoohoo! Aren't they adorable or what? It's really beginning to feel like Christmas looking at these cute images!!

I had a lot of fun making these cards. . .first because the images were so fun to color and secondly, because I was able to experiment with my new "Cricut Expression" and "Sure Cuts A Lot 2" program. My husband got me the Cricut for Christmas but we're going to be gone for Christmas so he let me open my present early! Oh my gosh. .. the possibilities are endless. I created the swirly background myself. I'll explain how I did it later when I have the time but right now I want to talk about the cute Aloha Keiki images.

I colored the images with my Copic Markers and added "Tulip Puffy Paint" to parts of the hat and beard to give them a puffy fuzzy look! You can find Tulip Puffy paint at any craft store at the fabric paint aisle. They work exactly like Liquid Applique.

This image is "Winter Kehau". I wanted to talk a little bit about the border around the image. The oval shape was not matted on to a red oval card stock. It was created using Microsoft Word 2007. I think only Word 2007 has this feature. If you click on "format", there are options to choose various borders and other effects. You can change the color, the shape, add shadows, glow, bevel, etc. So before you print the image, design the border the way you want it and you can have an instant shape/colored border around your image. I did the same thing to the sentiments. .. you can see borders around them.

I cut around the oval shape with a fiskar scallop scissors. No cutting was done using a shape die like Nestabilities. All I did was cut with a shaped scissors but doesn't it look like I used one of those Nestabilities dies? Boy, you can discover a lot of stuff in this world if you're the sort that is curious enough to click on all sorts of buttons on your computer! LOL!

Anyway. . .be sure to check out the cute Aloha Keiki images released by Little C's. ..there's several more than what I'm showing today! You can check out the other cards created by the Little C's design team: Click Here

Well, I hope you are having a beautiful day!!!

Holiday Gift Tag Blog Hop and Blog Candy

Welcome to our Holiday Gift Tag Blop Hop! We hope you will see some great tags today that will inspire you. Have fun! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can start the Blog Hop here.

There will be some surprises hidden along the hop, but we’re not telling you where so be sure to leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! The winners will be announced on Monday, December 14^th here and on the individual blogs where the surprises are hidden.

Well. . .for my tags I decided to go vintage! Yup! I love the vintage look to cards and tags. . .I think vintage screams romance, don't you think? Well I think so!! For all 3 of my tags, I created a polished stone effect by using alcohol inks. How fun!!!!


I love using lace on my cards and tags. They tie in really well with the vintage look. I added dew drops to the bottom to give the tag a little bling-bling. To be honest, these tags were really quick and easy to create. Other than heat embossing the Christmas tree and the sentiments on the 3 tags, the rest were basically adding the ribbons and lace.

Okay. . .now that you've gotten to this point. . .I just want to let you know that I am offering a small blog candy which consist of an assortment of designer paper, prima flowers, American Craft Ribbon spool, Inkadinkado clear stamp set, and K&Co "Thank You" stamp set. To participate in my blog candy, all you need to do is comment on this post and that's it! Simple, huh? You gotta love simple!! LOL!

Well be sure to hop on over to Danni's blog and who knows there may be another blog candy that you can participate in. . .you may never know until you hop on over!!!

Below is a master list of participants in case there is a break in the chain.

1. Monika Davis-M.A.D. Stamper

2. Cindy Haffner-Cindy Haffner's Corner

3. Karin Hoeve-Scrap Everything

4. Maria Bell-Stampin Inspirations

5. Danni Bindel-Danni's Dreams

6. Allison Fillo-Stampin' When I Can

7. Denise Marzec -The Paper Landscaper

8. Melissa Sauls-In Stamping Mode
9. Linda Beeson-PaperCutting Kind of Day

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!!!!

4x4 Mini Tunnel Album Tutorial

Hi Friends!! I know it's still the Christmas season but have you thought of your New Year resolutions already? This year the new year started off on a sour note due to the insensitive action of someone in our family. I was angry about it for a while, actually I still am to some degree, but it turns out it was a blessing in disguise. There were a few changes in our lives that resulted in positive things but at the same time, I've continued to harbor resentments that I really need to let go of.

One of my New Year resolutions next year is to forgive this person. I'm not sure how to go about it. I want to tell this person that I forgive him but at the same time, I think this person will think it's a bit arrogant of me to offer my forgiveness. I don't think this person intentionally or directly tried to hurt us but it was more of a self-centered act with no thought to how his actions would effect others. Furthermore, this person is pretty indignant and probably don't think he did anything wrong. Worse, he probably feels quite proud of himself which is the crux of my resentment. BTW. . .it's not my husband! LOL!

I think on a personal level, forgiving will help heal something that's been stuck in my craw for a while now. I can delude myself and continue to believe that it has no effect on me because of the positive things that have occurred since. But truthfully, I think I can't fully embrace the good things because I have this dark cloud that hangs over me when I think about it. From time to time, it'll creeps up on me and it diminishes whatever happiness I may have at the moment. . .it easily can suck out my positive energy.

Do you have something you need to let go of? Isn't it difficult to let go of them? It's something I really need to work on this new year. I think if I let go of my resentment over this incident, I will be a happier person. In all respect, life is good and I'm very happy with my life except for this one little thing that I need to unburden myself of. . .:)


Anyway. . .enough of my yip yapping! LOL! I actually created this project and tutorial last year on my once existing Stampin Up Only blog which I no longer maintain because I'm no longer a Stampin Up demonstrator. I wanted to post it again because the original link to the tutorial no longer works. I had added designer paper to the project because at that time, I was promoting the designer paper but if you don't want to add designer paper, you can create the mini album with just card stock. Check out the tutorial . . .it's not a very simple project but if you can follow my instructions, it's a fun project to create. LOL!


The album opens up to two tunnel pages where the photo is suspended in the center. Basically, it's creating two tunnel cards and attaching them together to create an album. If you already know how to create a tunnel card, creating this project should be a snap for you.

Well, in less than a week, we'll be in Europe. It seems a bit surreal, to tell you the truth. I'm not even excited about it yet because it hasn't quite sunk in. I have never been to Europe . . .and I may never return there again. It's not like it's cheap to go there so I really want to make the most of what I can when we're there. I will definitely take hundreds of photos, maybe a thousand or more. . . .:) My husband will be the video person and my daughter will have her own camera/video so we'll have a lot of photos and videos to take home with us!

Anyway, I have so many things to do before our trip so I better end it here.

Hope y'all have a beautiful Monday!
4x4 Tunnel Mini Album

Angels Landing Season's Tweeting Torn Mulberry Card

Hi Friends! Today is Wednesday and guess what today is? Well, today is my day to post a card for Angels Landing. Yipee! This week the design team's challenge was to create a card or project that has some sort of "tearing" or "torn" piece. I decided this challenge was a great opportunity to use my mulberry paper. Remember them? Gosh, I remember there was a time when they were popular. I still have a lot of them stored away with the hopes that they'll become popular again. . .:)

I think mulberry paper has a very elegant look to it so I decided to use the "Season's Tweeting" image. . .it's a perfect image for an elegant card. All I did was basically layer the image over the mulberry paper. I colored the image with my Copic Markers then heat embossed glittery embossing powder over it to give the image a shimmery glittery effect.

To further go along with the elegant theme, I matted the base and image panel over gold metallic card stock.

Anyway. . .I'm sorry I need to cut this short. I'm pre-scheduling this post and it's very late and I need to go to bed. . :) Be sure to stop by the Angels Landing blog site and check out the beautiful projects created by the design team!

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!!