Magical Monday - Happy New Year!

Aloha and E Komo Mai to this week's Magical Monday challenge at TMITA with Paper Cupcakes!!! This week the designers got to pick an image from Nina's store and our challenge was to use "Something Sparkling!" Well I saw these guys (image is called "Faster Please") and thought they would be perfect under sparkling fireworks! Here in Hawaii New Year's is an even bigger deal with fireworks than the 4th of July so my inspiration was easy to come by (actually people start setting them off a little bit starting in October but the weeks before New Year's are crazy with'em!).

Hard to tell in the pic but I also used a pearlized paper for the snow which gives it even more sparkle and I edged the "Happy New Year!" 'moon' with platinum ink to give a bit of a shine too! Image was colored with Prismacolor Markers and fussy cut out. I reattached the sled to the big penguin with black embroidery floss.

Here's hoping you have a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve/Day!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Magical Monday - Merry Moose-mas!

Aloha and E Komo Mai to another Magical Monday challenge at There's Magic in the Air with Paper Cupcakes!!! Today Danielle challenged us with a sketch and I had fun with this one! Didn't change the basic sketch much but was inspired to make the main image with the sentiment into a bookmark! I attached it and the buttons with removable adhesive so the reciever can just pop them off. The main image is colored with Prismacolor Markers and I put some red fun flock on the scarf. Can't wait to see what you do with this one!

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka!!

Blog Candy WINNER!!

Thanks to all of you that played along in the TMITA/PCC Recipe Blog Hop last week! We have excellent entries to judge for the grand prize and many comments from which to choose other winners! Remember to check the TMITA/PCC blog on Saturday the 19th for all the winners!

The winner of MY blog candy was #23 - CAROL!!! Congrats Carol and I understand that you're traveling so let me know how you'd like me to get this package to you!

Everyone, please come back and play along with our regular Monday Challenges too (you'll still get a free image from Nina, so why not play along to say thank you to her!)

Aloha and Mahalo nui loa everyone! Kim

Magical Monday - Christmas Arrangement

Welcome back to another fantastic Magial Monday challenge at There's Magic in the Air with Paper Cupcakes (check it out, Nina's new store is open!).  Today's challnge was to "Glitz It Up" and I really did this but couldn't get a photo to show it all to it's full IRL splendar! So just to make sure you notice it all...here's some deets:

~ the ribbon is colored with a Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star pen,

~ the ornaments were covered in red stickles and the covered again with Glassy Accents (the berries were just covered with the Glassy Accents),

~ the greenery was colored first with the Clear Star pen and the colored over in green (that way the it's just a bit glittery).

Got the inspirations for the background of the image panel from Michelle Zindorf's site (check out this toot for more info). Layout was inspired by Stamping 411: Sketch Challenge #128.

Hope you have a magical week and are surviving the rush into the holidays!

Aloha!

PS I'll announce the winner of the blog candy later today. Thanks everyone for playing along and hope to see you continue with our regular challenges! :)

Recipe Challenge Blog Hop Introducing Paper Cupcakes!!

and

(Hello and Welcome) to the third stop on the Recipe Challenge Blog Hop introducing Paper Cupcakes!! You should've gotten here from Danielle's blog...if not, make sure to go there and to the TMITA page to catch up. I don't want to keep you long at this stop so here's the project I created using one of Nina's new images. It's call "Beach, Ball and Book"...I think you can see why :)

I paper pieced this one and made a super easy easel card (I see Danielle had the same idea! Great minds think alike!) :) The 'sand' is really styrofoam that was colored with SU! River Rock re-inker. Gives the look of sand without all the dust. Oh yeah, my mouse has a bit of sunburn as I always manage to get one when I go the beach!

Here's my recipe...I kinda cheated and borrowed one from a bag of Mauna Loa Macadamia Baking Pieces. But I love these White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut cookies and I hope you do too (I had a source check on the mainland (thanks Mom!!) and you should be able to find at least small bags of mac nut pieces at your local Super Wally World or similar grocery store)

1 cup butter/margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 12oz package white chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped macadamia nut pieces (I'm sure any nut pieces would work here)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Blend in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in white chocolate chips and macadamia pieces.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking pans. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Makes approximately 6 dozen cookies.

My 'secret word' is: CUPCAKES

Okay, so don't forget to leave me a comment before you head to the next stop on the hop, Patti G, our December Guest Designer! Can't wait to see what she has in store for you (both her project and recipe! I'm sure both are YUMMY!!) And don't forget to get your 'secret word' from her too!

WAIT, before you leave!!!

As a special bonus for those that leave a comment on this posting, I will pick a random winner on Monday December 14th to receive this 'blog candy'!!! (this is in addition to Nina's picking of a winner of the image I used on my project above and all her other GREAT prizes!!)

You will receive a box of Christmas Medley assorted macadamia chocolate confections (plus a FREE music CD inside), a box of 50th Anniversary of Hawai'i Statehood premium whole macadamia nuts covered in milk chocolate, a box of chocolate dipped macadamia shortbread cookies, and 2 Hawaii rubber stamps (hula girl and hibiscus flower)

I thought you all might enjoy some real Hawaiian candy and rubber! Thanks for stopping by and now you can head to Patti G's!

(goodbye)

and

(thank you very much)

Let There Be...Peace on Earth (with puppies!)

Quick post! I was inspired to use the image that Nina May at Paper Cupcakes/TMITA created of my puppy Malie entitled "Sweet Trouble". Check it out at TMITA this week, pick it for FREE (through 12/13), and why don't you play along with the challenge! Also there's an AWESOME recipe blog hop happening at TMITA through Sunday too that has LOTS of great recipes, fun, and PRIZES!! Okay, although I can't submit this for the TMITA challenge, here are some other challenges that I was inspired by!

1. Charisma Cardz Challenge #49 - Colour Combo challenge to use Red, Green, and white or silver (I kinda cheated and used both of the latter!) ;)
2. Crafty Creations Challenge #45 - Christmas for my pet (how could I get any better than using an actual image of MY puppy in a Christmas scene?!?)
3. Cupcake Crafy Challenge #69 - Sing a Christmas Carol (the sentiment is a carol title)
4. Digital Tuesday Challenge #36 - Christmas Song/Psalm + a digi
5. MOJO Monday #116 - sketch
6. Pile it On #27 - Glitter (think I stickled this one up pretty good, although I couldn't get it all to show up well in the photo) :(
7. The Pink Elephant #44 - Favorite Christmas Color Combo
8. Whimsy Stamps Challenge #31 - Die Cuts
9. 365 Cards - Day 285 - A certain sentiment - use the word "peace" for or in the sentiment

Magical Monday - Sweet Trouble

Aloha and Welcome to another TMITA Magical Monday post!! This one is even more MAGICAL for me as the image was inspired by something NEAR and DEAR to me, my SWEET puppy Malie!! (see here for the original post)

Fortunately, Nina made her look a bit happier and even cuter in the image!


I'm wanting to use this image for my Christmas cards this year, hence your challenge to make this a CLEAN AND SIMPLE (CAS) CARD with no embellies that would make it challenging to mail (e.g., no bow, brads, etc.) and use the color PINK somewhere on the card. Can't wait to see what you all come up with using the image of SWEET TROUBLE!!! I'm sure I'll get LOTS of great ideas that'll make my card even BETTER (wink, wink!).  In the meantime, here's my offering:

I ended up keeping this an almost one layer card as I wanted to keep it pretty simple and quick to mass produce. (Check out here for a toot on how to emboss a Cuttlebug folder and leave an unembossed spot on the card.) I added the scallops and pink cardstock as a backing for the front as it was a bit flimsy after embossing it. The cardstock is a pearlized white and I colored the base on the image in Paint, printed off on the cs and embellished as follows:

• Used a prismacolor pencil to color over the light brown of Malie and smoothed a bit with OMS.
• Colored over the pink coat with a white Prismacolor pencil
• Covered the candy canes with glassy accents
• Colored over the candy cane holder with a Sakura clear star gel pen
• Added Frosted Lace stickles to the hood, ball, edge and button of coat
• Added white Fun Flock and glitter at the bottom of the image for the snow
• Stamped "Santa's Little Helper" sentiment

Okay so that's the technical stuff. Here's a little bit more about my little puppy...

• "Malie" [mah - lee - ay] is Hawaiian and means "calm, peaceful, serene" -- I choose this name as she was the most reserved of her litter and I hoped she would live up to it. :) Usually she does, but if she hasn't seen you in awhile (like you go to the store and come back!) she is SUPER excited to see you!
• She is a Lhasa Apso, Miniature Pinscher, and English Toy Terrier mix
• She weighs about 8.5 pounds
• She HATES wearing clothes!! Well, she hates wearing tight clothes...she wore a dress at her birthday party all day with no problems but it was very loose. So why do I keep dressing her up? Well, she gets clothes passed down to her and I just have to try them on her! Actually I usually put them on long enough to take a picture and then she never sees them again :) And in the process I usually get a great laugh as she looks so disgruntled while getting her pic taken :)
• Yes, we had a birthday party with her siblings (my boss has her sister, her neighbor has her sister and brother and a friend of the neighbor has the other sister). See here for deets on the party! (you know you wanna look!) ;) Here's the gifts and cards I made to give to the siblings :)
• The name of the image "Sweet Trouble" was a collaboration between Nina and I. She came up with "Sweet Malie" and I offered "Sweet Trouble" as my nickname for her is "Trouble" :) She actually responds almost better to that than to her name! My mom warns me that calling her that will encourage her to live up to it, but I say she already does...I've got the gnawed on stuff to prove it (and that's with an abundance of appropriate toys she can play with!)
• Here are some pictures that I took of her today with a "Mrs. Claus" hat and collar from Target (she did not like wearing this either!)

This is last year's Christmas pic - she was only about 6 months old

And to just to prove that she doesn't always look so unhappy:

And here she is during play date with her sister. Malie is on the left, on the right is her sister, Pomai :)

TFL and have a WONDERFUL week! Aloha and see you back here Wednesday-Sunday for the Recipe Blog Hop and an extra special "candy" surprise from me!