Mahalo Pineapples

Aloha dear friends,

Are you having a good day?

I made a stack of Pineapple Thank You cards for a friend, and some for me. It was just plain fun to lay here and color images again. Since they are the same image, it went quickly. The inside of the cards have a simple pineapple stamped into a corner, as well as the envelopes. Simple dimple, easy peasy!


Stamp Set: Avery Elle "Stay Fresh" and matching pineapple die
Inks: Copic markers, Memento Tuxedo Black & Versafine Onyx Black
Sizzix Embossing Folder "Flourish Corners"
Foam tape, Score Tape

"Mahalo nui loa" for stopping by

& taking a peek!!!

Aloha ♥

Our 23rd Anniversary - A Spinning Good Time

Hi there friends,

Yesterday was our 23rd anniversary. Bruce really pours on the romance and we feasted, exchanged gifts and this is the card I made for him. It took 3 tries with multiple surgeries to get this baby spinning and not sagging. No matter how much tape and glue I used, the weight of the two-sided 80# card layers caused the silver string to pull out from the top. ARGH - hair pulling ensued. And yup, there is a boo boo in coloring but I'm not going to fret about this card anymore. Hey, it's handmade, not perfection.

The third card later, I figured out how to create a spinner without the strings loosening, not even a millimeter. The trick? Add little squares of chipboard above and below the negative space where the image will spin. Before adhering the chipboard squares, poke a hole thru the centers. Take the string and thread it through both holes. Tie a gigantic knot on the opposite side of the chipboard holes to prevent the string from sliding back through. Tape that baby like there's no tomorrow. Add lots of glue and / or adhesive right at the edge of cardstock where the strings emerge just in case there is slippage (but there won't be now). See the last picture because I sketched out how to keep this image from sagging out of the card. I even hand punched a mini flower and glued it to the back of her hair, with Perfect Pearl dot in the center because Hawai'i ♥ And I put a bit of Wink of Stella to her pants, eye shadow and lipstick and Ranger Stickles in Diamonds to her shoes. I even created gold circle hoop earrings on both sides by drawing with Liquid Pearls Buttercup! I drew lines down the man's shirt with a marker and used Ranger Pico White drops for polka dots on her top lol! Boy, was this a blast!!!

Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart. I didn't post on FB because a dear friend just lost her hubby to cancer a few days ago. I just couldn't post our joy during her loss. So I'll just keep it quiet here ♥

Stamp Set: "Love Spinner" by Art Impressions
Cardstock by GKD
Inks: Copic Markers
Spellbinder Circle and Scalloped Circle Dies; Cross-stitch Label Dies by Gina Marie
Paper and Cardstock: GKD
Minc Machine gold foiling for sentiment
Thread: Silver Metallic by DMC
Wink of Stella clear, Stickles Diamonds, Ranger White Enamel Accent liquid, Perfect Pearl Buttercup
All kinds of Scor Tape, Adhesive Runner Tape, Liquid Glue (short of welding and stapling)

Front

Back 

Fool Proof, Sag Proof, Spinners

More instructions in description above

Sympathy Card for Doug & Short Story of His Goodness

Aloha dear ones,

It has taken me a while to get this picture edited and posted. I already battle depression. So it is with tears I finally face this post.

Thank you everyone, for all the kind words, cards and support. Seems with each close loss, I am unable to "bounce" back like when I was a young whippersnapper. Now I am just an old whippersnapper.

Basically, I just used distress inks to create a sunset. I dropped some water and some tears onto it and lifted the drops with a paper towel. I used Sakura gel pens in various metallic colors for planets and stars, shimmering in the twilight sky. Using a white gel pen I tried to create a shooting star but I was crying when I did it so it looks shaky. I sprinkled glitter over the wet ink so the shooting star would sparkle with little gold bits falling behind and around it. I stamped a few pine trees along the bottom. The focal for me is the night sky. I cut a window out of white card and laid it over the sky layer. Inside are our heartfelt words printed and then run through the Minc machine in gold foil, as is the sentiment.

Doug loved astronomy and the sky. He created and controlled all the minute details of the giant mirror and telescope on top of the highest mountain, Mauna Kea on our island. Here are links to their beautiful views of the night sky from 14,000 feet --

The Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea

The Stars and Planets from Keck

One day Amy called me to invite me to go up to the top of Mauna Kea to see special highlights for that evening, certain stars and planets, shooting stars. Bruce was on the mainland. I met them and they drove me all the way up there. Doug told me to dress as warmly as I could because it would be below freezing and windy. OM goodness, was it ever. We got out of the vehicle and Doug and Amy had brought me all kinds of goose down and other blankets, a sleeping bag had me lie down on them, zipped me up, tucked me in, piled all those blankets on me and had me look up at the black sky. It was filled with diamonds!!!! There were even red, blue and yellow diamonds! We saw planets and shooting stars with absolutely no light to distort the view. I realized we were looking at light from when Jesus walked the earth. Some of the light takes that long and even longer to reach our eyes here on earth. It will be a night never to forget, ever. And Doug was behind this whole plan because he knew I had a little telescope to look up at the wonders of the universe. That was a tiny bit of Doug.

A few years ago Doug and Amy moved to Seattle and he went to school to learn computer animation and then started a company for a video game, all his own. The man was a genius. I didn't even know what mensa meant until after Amy and he began dating. You see, our family was not very intelligent, at least on our side. The rest of my dad's siblings' children and grandchildren are all brilliant doctors, professors and attorneys, etc. But our family? All military, and me, the lowly nurse. So Amy marrying such an intelligent man was both an intimidating and very humbling experience for Bruce and me. We are truly grateful for all the love and hard work Doug always did to care for Amy and his family. Thankfully, we have a deep belief in Bible promises and long to see him again soon, when there will be no more sickness, death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more wars, nothing evil. Doug will be healthy again.

(Rev 21:3, 4; Isaiah 33:24; John 11:11-27; Psalm 37:10, 11 & 29 and so much more).

Thank you all for being there for me

when life can be so

very hard ♥

Aloha Hibiscus

Hi everyone,

I hope all is well with each one of you. Thank you everyone for your kind words, cards and sympathy for the loss of our son in law. For those of you who are not on Facebook, Doug Morrison, age 34, passed away unexpectedly and suddenly during a planned cardiac surgery to repair a valve in Seattle. Our daughter is still visiting with her father in southern California. His mother and daughter should be back here on Big Island now or shortly. It's been a very hard time for us.

This is a card set for friends to say thank you for all of their hard work for our island congregations. I have not been up to making cards lately, but today was the last day of their current visit. I put these together today, a lightening speed for my usual snail pace.

The flowers and sentiments are colored with Copic markers, the easiest and fastest way for me to color and blend. Not sure if you can see but there is a bit of clear Wink of Stella brushed onto the flower petals and some leaves. The "Aloha" sentiment is a die cut by Avery Elle. It's the only Aloha die cut I have, really! I just colored a gradient of the same markers over white cardstock, die cut it and glued it to each card. I did not add any embellishments other than a touch of Liquid Pearls for the hibiscus centers.

Just to make them a little more interesting, down in the left corners I fussy cut some of the flower or stem and leaves out. I used simple sketching to add the leaves and stems onto them because the "Aloha" stamp set by GKD only has flowers.

There is a set of four colors in this card set, an extra envelope (stamped with a medium size flower on the back), some stamps and a pen all grouped into a clear box with silver cording. The inside of the cards have a mini hibiscus colored in the same as the front flower. I just love this stamp set designed by Theresa Momber. It has three sizes and styles of hibiscus :)


Stamp Set: "Aloha" by GKD, designed by Theresa Momber
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black pad and marker
Wink of Stella in clear
"Aloha" sentiment die is from Avery Elle, "Stay Fresh" stamps and dies
Copic Markers
Liquid Pearls
Multi Matte Medium
Corner Chomper Crop-a-dile 1/2" side

Thank you for your visit, your lovely

comments & encouragement ♥

Watercolor Daffodils

Aloha dear friends ~ I hope you are enjoying spring weather and new flowers everywhere. We have been going through a rough patch in life over the last couple of weeks so this post is over a week putting up. Technical troubles abound here, as well. This card has been ready to go for over a week and I'm just now getting it packed to send out.

I learned that my favorite medical doctor of all EVER died unexpectedly. This woman took as much time as needed with each patient, up to an entire hour if needed to examine, test, listen, write orders, and had a close to photographic memory for each of her hundreds of patients. 

Paki believed everything the patient said, ordered appropriate tests, filled out oodles of paperwork if someone was truly disabled, proved her findings to support each of the diagnoses and treatment required for every patient. She never made people feel like they were a burden or exaggerating. What will we do without a true one-in-a-million Paki Myers, MD? She spent over 30 yrs in emergency medicine on the mainland then here in Hawai'i. She then opened her own private practice at Midori Wellness on south Kona coast of Big Island. She was and still is loved and appreciated by me and everyone who ever knew her. Big big big sigh. Moving forward...

I used the latest kit by Gina K. Designs, "Sending Love." It is filled with amazing stamps, card stock, new colorful envelopes, printed designs ready to foil or color and sumptuous pattern paper! I've just started to get this inky!

Now don't flip out but I cut off the top of the daffodil stamp. I wanted the image to look finished on the top without the partial flowers and stems on the top. I stamped this in VersaMark then applied clear embossing powder, heated it and began the painting, wet on wet technique.

Gina has various butterfly images in this kit. I used two, stamped onto vellum, sprinkled holographic embossing powder (it's iridescent and sparkly!), heated, then fussy cut them out. "Dries Clear" adhesive dries super fast so I used it to put the butterflies onto the card and to hold all the pearls and vellum.The sentiment is stamped onto yellow cardstock then covered with vellum. I die cut a straight stitched strip above and below the sentiment and cut the ends into fish tails.

This is a bigger card, 9-1/4 x 6 inches. The stamp set has a large corner flourish which I stamped onto two corners of the inside with VersaMark then heat clear embossing powder over them. The sentiment is stamped in VersaFine and heat embossed with clear embossing powder over it.

Stamp Set: Sending Love by GKD
Card stock also from GKD
Inks: VersaFine Gray, VersaMark Clear
Paint: Gansai Tambi Watercolor
Vellum: Grafix 24# Iridescent
Die: Paper Smooches Straight Stitched edge
Ranger Embossing Powders: Clear and Holographic
White half pearls
Dries Clear Liquid Adhesive

• Memento Bamboo marker to add signature along leaf. I tried New Sprout but it disappeared into the watercolor. The signature really is not as bold as it appears in the picture.

front of card

9-1/4 x 6 inches

inside--- (remember to use your pattern 

stamps with clear embossing powder whenever possible,

as well as over inked sentiments to add glow)

close up---

Thank you to each of you

for encouraging me with your sweet comments.

Aloha ♥