A Few Hawaiian Highlights

Aloha!  Hello, friends!  I don't normally share lots of personal pics on my blog, but after a wonderful trip to San Francisco and Oahu, Hawaii, I made a few collages that I thought you might enjoy.

If this isn't your thing, no worries!  Thanks for visiting!

If you are interested, here are a few collages I put together from our vacation using a fun iPad app my daughter showed me called "PhotoGrid."  This was super easy since I used my iPhone as my camera the whole vacation!

We did so many cool things on this trip -- too many to put in collages -- including touring Pearl Harbor, hiking to the top of Diamond Head Crater, snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, jumping off rock cliffs at Wiamea Bay on the North Shore, and taking a day trip to the big island of Hawaii to see the volcanoes. We still had so many things we wanted to do!  Here are a few highlights.

First up -- Waikiki Beach, by day and night.  We enjoyed swimming, taking surfing lessons, shopping, eating beachside at Duke's...Waikiki is a fun place!

Next up -- our evening at Chief's Luau.  The kids enjoyed getting tattoos, weaving crowns from palm tree branches, and throwing spears in a contest.  The girls all learned a hula dance and my husband and I even got to dance together on stage with all the other couples there celebrating either their honeymoon or their anniversary.  (We were on this trip to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.)  They gave all the women on stage flowers (bottom right)...so beautiful!

The scenery all around the island is just amazingly beautiful.  This collage highlights one of our favorite beaches...Hanauma Bay.  I already posted a collage of the flowers I saw...the wildlife and trees and flowers were all so interesting and exotic!  We saw some pretty unusual fish while we were snorkeling here.

On our last day in Oahu, we went to the annual Hawaiian Ukulele Festival.  My daughter got her second ukulele for her recent birthday and she was really excited to go to this event.  Not only were there vendors selling every type of ukulele available, but the performers were amazing!  We saw bands and Willie K and Jake Shimabukuro perform...AMAZING!  Have you ever heard Jake play?  You must check out THIS YouTube video in which he plays Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the ukulele...it's hard to believe such beautiful sound can come from a four-stringed instrument!

We had such a great time on this trip, it was the trip of a lifetime.  However, I do have three regrets looking back on this particular vacation:

(1) I wish we could have stayed longer...there was still so much to do and see in Oahu!

(2) I wish I was able to meet up in person with the amazing Donna Mikasa (her blog is Three Umbrellas) while we were on Oahu.  We spoke by phone (which was wonderful) but circumstances did not work in our favor this time around.  Bummer!  I guess I will just have to go back, that's all!

(3) I was so close to being able to visit the Hero Arts Factory Store in California...we were actually on the same street on our way home from Muir Woods...but the store had already closed!  NOOOOO!  I thought about going up to the windows and pressing my face against the glass, but my kids assured me that would be weird. Oh, to be so close but unable to go in...sigh.

Thanks for stopping by...I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our vacation photos (trust me, there are plenty more where these came from!)!

Mahalo!
Judy

CASology #157: WINGS

Hello, friends!  I'm happy to be back after an awesome vacation as we pick up with our next cue card at CASology.  I have a feeling this one will be very popular!

Have you ever seen the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life?  There is a famous line in the movie stating, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."  (The clip can be seen HERE if you are interested.)  That line was the inspiration behind my card.

This image may not be an angel (maybe a fairy princess, not sure) but I liked her whimsical wings and thought they should be sparkly, so I filled them in with Wink of Stella. Tough to see, but trust me...they sparkle!  I masked the angel and added subtle watercoloring and splatters to add a little interest to the white space.

I'm thinking this winged fairy angel may go to my niece later this month...she will be heading off to kindergarten and she is so excited!  :)

Be sure to link up your clean and simple WINGS card by noon on Monday (Central time). You will also be inspired by the many ways our Design Team and Guest Designer interpreted the cue this week...be sure to check out their blogs, too!

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Gillian Ross
Hannelie Bester
Hazel Hodgkins
Jen Wills
Joyce Mehrberg
Judy Marino --> that's me!
Kimberly Wiener
Kymona Tracey
Melissa Chipperfield
Tracey McNeely -- taking a break

Our Sponsor This Week:  7 Kids College Fund

I'll leave you with a little collage of flower pics from our Hawaiian vacation...the flowers there were SO beautiful and attracted so many different winged animals -- I saw butterflies and birds I had never seen before!

Thanks for stopping by,

Judy

Muse: Christmas Visions #12

Hello, friends!  I'm so excited that I am finally able to play along with the Muse: Christmas Visions 12 challenge this week...I have wanted to play along since the new challenge began but have not had a chance to do so until now.  When I saw Marika's inspiration card, I knew exactly what I wanted to do!


Here is Marika's card...she used the most adorable Purple Onion Design stamps (designed by Stacey Yakula) and her coloring is divine!

For my card, I used a Hero Arts image paired with a sentiment from Hampton Arts and stamped an extra set of gifts to fussy cut and pile up at her feet.

Supplies:

Hero Arts "For You Gifts" (G5596)

Hampton Arts Diana Kovacs "Merry Christmas" (DF4858)

Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles dies

Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by!
Judy

Muse Challenge #125

Hello, friends!  Just playing along with the Muse Challenge #125 using this cool, graphic, clean and simple card by Anita Bowden as inspiration this week:

  

I was inspired by the two graphic "doodle" flowers on Anita's card, especially the stitch lines in the stems.  I also like the circle flowers and the polka dot pattern below the sentiment strip.  I think my card is a pretty close CASE of Anita's fun card!

Supplies Used:

Precious Remembrance Shop "Blossom" stamps

My Favorite Things "Circle Scribble Flowers" stamps

Hero Arts "Dots" cling stamp

Hero Arts inks: Soft Canteloupe, Tide Pool, Black

decorative corner punch

Thanks for stopping by...and thanks for the fun inspiration, Anita!
Judy

Addicted to Stamps #154: CAS - You Are My Most Favorite Memory

Hello, friends!  I'm stopping in today with a clean and simple card I made for the current Addicted to Stamps challenge to make a CAS card.

I embossed the blossoms from the newest Precious Remembrance Shop "Blossom" set in white on vellum and fussy cut.  I kept my card clean and simple by keeping the design to one main image and one sentiment with minimal layers.  My "white space" is light purple in this case!

Supplies Used:

Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday "Favorite Memories"

Precious Remembrance Shop "Blossom"

Memory Box leaf die

Hero Arts purple flower gems

Corner rounder

Be sure to check out the great CAS cards by the Addicted to Stamps design team...they are awesome!

Thanks for stopping by!
Judy

A Trio of Cards for Curtain Call - Celebrate!

Hello, friends!  I am home from a wonderful vacation and thought I'd quickly pop in to share a project I started right before we left.

I wanted to play with my new "Blossom" set from Precious Remembrance Shop and I made a trio of celebration cards for the month-long Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge - Celebrate.  I was definitely inspired by the theme -- and I need to have some celebration cards in my stash!

First, I stamped a variety of blossoms onto watercolor paper and colored/painted them with distress inks and water.  Once dry, I fussy cut all the blossoms -- I set aside the extras for future use.

Next I stamped the flower stems (and in one case I embossed a stem in white on black card stock).  Paired with  some Spellbinders die cut frames, various embossing folders, wash tape, and black gems, here are the trio of cards I made:

Sentiment is from the PRS Oh So Fun stamp set.

Stitching is from the PRS Positive Thoughts stamp set.

I really love these blossoms.  Easy to color, easy to cut out, so versatile!  I have several other card ideas for this set floating around in my head...I hope to be able to create some of them once I'm finished food shopping, doing laundry, and settling back in after vacation.   I have SO MANY photos to organize and I need to start working on our vacation photo book...a project I do every time we take a trip!

I may post a few vacation photos here but, as I said, it could take a while!  After four days in San Francisco and ten days in Hawaii, I have lots of gorgeous photos!  The time difference between Hawaii and New Jersey is six hours, so I am a little off...maybe I'll be making cards tonight while most other New Jersey residents are sleeping...it will feel like late afternoon to me!  :)

If you have some time this month, you should check out the challenge at Curtain Call...it is their third anniversary, they have some super designers and an amazing line up of inspirational cards!

Thanks for stopping by...it's good to be back!
Judy