A Super September!

Wow! It's been a long time since I've been in blogland and I must say it feels good to be back. September was full of adventures for me, Fridge and Flat Leilani.

We started off the month celebrating Mapunapuna BFC's renovation celebration on Saturday Sept. 4th. We were so happy to see our company's founder, fondly called Mr. K, there to help bless the store and untie the ribbon!

I had a lot of fun at my make and take table (recognize anybody!LOL!)

The following week I headed to Las Vegas for the Ho'olaulea held in Henderson on September 11 and 12. When I got there Thursday night, I had a long wait at the rent-a-car, so I couldn't resist taking this photo...I didn't know that you could "rent" money in Vegas (Yeah , right!) I just don't know about the "returning the cash" part!

I had a lot of fun showing people how to make leis and the Vegas ACE Crew kept people happy with the a local kine snacks. Flat Leilani helped me sell some flower hair picks.

We even had a special guest visit us at the booth, Miss Hawaii 2010, Jalee Fuselier.

Monday morning I left for Salt Lake City, Utah. Met with a bunch of other "crafties" and spent a couple of days sharing great ideas. Can't wait to share them all with you in the coming months.

I spent a few days in Orem visiting my niece and I got to see some other places around Utah. Here Flat Leilani checked out the plants along the walking trails leading to Provo Canyon Falls.

Another place I visited was in SLC, an area called Sugar House. I came across this beautiful park. There was a pond with a whole bunch of geese.

Fridge pointed out the beautiful mountains of Utah. My windshield's still dirty because it got splattered with bugs when I drove up to Idaho (it was more than a 3 hour drive to get there!)

It was a wonderful two weeks but I am glad to be home. And although Utah is the birthplace of scrapbooking, I say Lucky we Live Hawaii, because we have so many more paperarts stores to choose from and so many FUN Bloggers who share!

Thank you for stopping by today! Speaking of sharing, in the next few days, I will share a few more adventures Flat Leilani had with some friends. Then, please visit back this weekend, as the Joy of Crafting celebrates our One Year Birthday. Until then, Happy Crafting!



Second JOC for September

We start our second September show with Darling who is back to show us another great punch project!

Can you tell Darling likes Owls? Here, our little feathered friends are lollipop holders. It's a real cute project!

Next, we have a Hana Hou segment to help us get ready for Halloween. Penny Teruya shows us how to use the Accu Cut candy box to make a cute bat treat holder!

We top of the show with Puna, who shares another great idea that you can use for gifts. Puna demonstrates the Engraving tool on a ready-made  frame, it's so cool you just gotta see it!

Thanks again for stopping by today and checking out what we have going on. We really appreciate your support for the show and our stores. Have a great Holiday season!

September JOC first show

September is a great month to start on your Holiday crafts if you haven't started already. In this first Joy of Crafting show for the month, our first guest shows us a great project that you can make and give as gifts.

Puna from our Enchanted Lake BFC shows us how to make a great home decor piece with the etchall etching creme and a frame.The Bird of Paradise is from a Hawaiian Quilt stencil.

Next, I show my version of the Side Step Card. I make it a little wider so that you can add a pocket on the inside to hold a gift card. Here's a project sheet if you want to make one, too.

Our show stopper is from our next guest, Darling. Darling is one of our company's talented Graphic artists. On the show, she shares one of her cute card projects, a whimsical Owl card, done with punches!

And just to let you know, Darling is also a talented photographer. She did all of the photography you see along the walls of the recently renovated Mapunapuna BFC. Check them out the next time you visit the Paa store.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you get a chance to catch this episode of the JOC. Until next time, Happy Crafting!

HELLOOO Kitty!

Well, Hello Kitty, so glad you're finally here!Yup! Yup! Miss Kitty is in da House! Talking 'bout the new line of stamps at Ben Franklin Crafts. Got Smirk, too!

Flat Leilani had so much Fun with Kitty at CHA!

 Okay gotta go...get me some!Thanks for stopping by today and Yes, I'm still cheering for UH!

Weekend Fun!

Last week Saturday, I was at the Pearl City BFC's Paper Party! This annual event is always so much fun and there's always a lot of make & takes and demonstrations going on.

Flat Leilani slipped into my box of supplies and she was happy to meet Keala, our favorite Hearty Clay crafter!

Flat Leilani just had to admire her flowers up close and personal!

Besides all of the fun make & takes, at the end of the day, Gloria staged a Craft Challenge! Four brave contestants had 15 minutes to use the supplies provided to create "anything but a card or scrapbook"

Here they are crafting away! I got to be the monitor to make sure they didn't whip out any supplies from their bags (you know us crafters, we carry stuff around!)

Look it's Jenny V. from Jenny's Creations and her son!

I think they thought I was going to be a judge because 3 of the 4 had "Joy" on their projects! LOL!

In the end, Brenda, the Hawaiian Librarian, took the top prize. But each contestant got some goodies, too, including a pack of core'dinations cardstock!

Well, that was last weekend's fun...now, I just can't wait for this Saturday's celebration at Mapunapuna! There'll be lots of make & takes, demonstrations, prize giveaways and more as the store celebrates the completion of their total store renovation. We'll start with a blessing at 8:30 am and then the crafting starts all the way until 3pm! Lots of good stuff on sale, too!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope to see Saturday!Happy Crafting!

August JOC Show #2

We're back with another new JOC show featuring some fun and exciting projects! Lynn Hashino is back with a beautiful jewelry line, Vintaj...

Flowers, fairires, birds and more are in this line that people are using to make into jewelry as well as embellish their mixed media projects. On the show, Lynn shows how to make shape a piece into a stunning ring. Right now, this line is available at the Hilo and Mapunapuna Bead Shoppes.

Next, I had a lightbulb go off in my head for an idea...literally! We have some cute glass lightbulb jars that open up so that you can fill them. I turned it into a photo holder and colored them with alcohol inks for a fast and easy project.

Gloria uses Alcohol inks with her project, too. She'll show us how to create a beautiful background for cardmaking and more!

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you get a chance to see this episode. Hope you had a great summer! Happy Crafting!

Flat Leilani ends her vacation with Jenny V.!

Jenny V. from Jenny's Creations invited Flat Leilani to join her and her family on some fun adventures on Oahu.

They went out to the Makapuu Lighthouse. Look at the beautiful ocean below!

They took her all the way out to Laniakea Beach to see the Honu (sea turtles).

Lucky Leilani got treated to some ono grinds at the original Giovanni's Shrimp truck... my mouth is just watering looking at those tasty shrimp!

Well, Flat Leilani's vacation has come to an end and she truly enjoyed all of her wonderful adventures with her new friends. You'll still see her from time to time, vacation is all pau but not the fun times!

Thanks to everyone for stopping by today and visiting all the time! We hope you had fun and learned a little about the different places she visited. So until the next time, Happy Crafting!

Flat Leilani meets the Chickens!

Flat Leilani is still vacationing all over the place. She recently got to go to Kauai with Jayne and her family. They took her to the Swinging Bridge in Hanapepe...yup, it's still swinging!

And Black Pot Beach in Hanalei...

They saw lots of birds flying around and nesting at the Kilauea Lighthouse.

And speaking of birds...well, you know, Kauai and their famous Chickens! They are everywhere!

I can see that Flat Leilani had a great time visiting Kauai with Jayne and her family. Hmmm...wonder where she'll show up next?!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you're having a FUN week!

Crystal Cupcake Update

For those of you that were interested in making Lynn H.'s beaded cupcake with Swarovski crystals, here's the project sheet.

Sweet Happy Crafting!

Luvin' that Bohemian Style!

Geez, gone for a week and I almost missed out on all the great new stuff in the stores! I checked out the aisles and I really love that Bohemian collection of Clear Stamps...

Notecards, just add a few more embellishments to dress them up!

Stationary, for when a card doesn't have quite enough room to say what you want to say...

Note Pads, the perfect size to carry around for notes and shopping lists...

Jotter Mouse Pads, great for writing down a new blog address when you're surfing the web!

Or use the calendar one to keep track of your busy crafting projects, love the new cute litte gift cards, too.

Wow, I can see a lot of possibilities with these goodies, good thing they are all only 4 for $5.00, mix and match! Hmm, think I need to get more...

Thanks for stopping by today and hope you all have a really SUPER Weekend! Happy Crafting!

Flat Leilani does the CHA CHA in Chicago!

Sorry, I've been MIA but I was traveling with Flat Leilani last week. We had a really great time, even though we spent a lot of time in airports, 5 states in a week! In the middle of our trip, we spent a few days in Chicago for the CHA show. The show is actually held in the city of Rosemont.

And whenever we're there, we just gotta have some famous deep dish stuffed Chicago style pizza at Giordano's...it's soooo good!

Because it's summer, all the pretty flowers are everywhere! Flat Leilani found herself a good spot to cool off from the heat.

One of our first stops at the show was to the Flower Soft booth. What a great surprise to learn that our Mapunapuna Ben Franklin store had won First Place for a Retailer's Display contest. Congratulations to Caroline and her creative staff! Go visit the store to see the beautiful samples that they have made.

As we walked around the show, we bumped into some of our crafty friends. Here's Lindsay Ostrom with her Flat Fanny. Lindsay has been very busy, she had some lines of really cute scrapbook paper that she designed over at Pinecone Press. She's so talented!

Speaking of busy and talented, Flat Leilani was so tickled to meet  my friend, Tim Holtz! Tim is everywhere at the shows because he has so many companies he designs and creates for. He and I talked about maybe him coming over for a visit...wouldn't that be fun!

All in all, we had a great trip and I'll be sharing more photos a little later. Thank You All for taking time out of your busy schedules to stop by and visit. Have a great week and Happy Crafting!

August Joy of Crafting Show #1

On this first August JOC show, it's all about jewelry making! First, we have Gloria from our Pearl City BFC introducing you to the fine art of Kumihimo.

We have the simple foam disks in our stores to make creating beautiful braids super easy! You can add beads and other special fibers to make beautiful pieces of jewelry.

Then, by popular request, we brought back Lynn Hashino and her sweet Crystal Cupcake. It's a really easy beading project and we do have a project sheet to make a beaded cupcake which you can convert to the crystals.

Lastly, I'm still loving the buttons, so I show you how to make those cute and simple Button Rings. And we have a project sheet for that one, too!

Hope you can catch this episode and get some ideas so you can start fashioning your own one-of-kind jewelry pieces, too! Thanks for stopping by today and hope you have a great week! Happy Crafting!