Hello Leilani!

Flat Leilani is so Lucky! As Berenice's blog says...she is having one Sweet Escape! Look who she got to hang out with!

Isn't Berenice's Hello Kitty collection so cute!

Thanks for stopping by this week and following along on Flat Leilani's adventures. Have a GREAT Weekend Everybody!

Friendship Across the Miles!

We were so excited when Berenice from Sweet Escape, invited Flat Leilani to Mexico. Rushed her passport through and before you know it, she was there. Lucky Girl!

Berenice took her to some awesome places like this famous archaelogical zone near Mexico City called "Teotihuacan".

Then in Mexico City, they visited a children's museum called, Papalote.

Lastly,  she got to see a famous monument called "The Angel"

What a beautiful time she is having in Mexico with Berenice. She also is getting a wonderful tan since she's been there (if you noticed in the photos). For those of you who don't know Berenice's blog, you should visit the Sweet Escape. She is very talented and her projects are really inspiring!

Hmmm...think I want Mexican for lunch today, at least I can be there in spirit! Thanks for visiting the blog today and hope you have an awesome weekend planned!

Movie Time!

After all that fun with Creative Grammie, Flat Leilani went to visit Jayne. They went to the movies and let's see if you can guess which one she voted for...

Honestly, don't know how Jayne found time for the movies with all of her cute but very intricate crafts she makes. Check out her blog, HandmadeCuteCrafts. BTW, Flat Leilani Loves Jayne's Toyota, too ;)! Well, I know this is just the beginning of her adventures but she sure is having FUN!

If you and your friends want to meet Flat Leilani, just drop me a note at joyofcrafting@gmail.com!

Thank You for stopping by today and hope you're enjoying your summer, too! Check back tomorrow, Flat Leilani told me a little about where she was heading next and call I can say is WOW!

Flat Leilani got Creative with Grammie!

Creative Grammie knows a lot about crafts and she also knows how to have a good time! CG and her family treated Flat Leilani to a really fun-packed day this past weekend. First , they showed her around the backyard.

Grammie grows her own lavender!

And look at the delicious strawberries! Yum!

Ahhh... a little chillaxin' before they hit the road for an adventure. Flat Leilani really loves the cute outfit CG made for her!

Grammie took her to the Hale'iwa Arts Festival! Mr. H chose this beautiful carved mermaid for Leilani's backdrop.

See the details of the carved wood.

Leilani had a great time because Hoku, the furry family member, was able to join them. She loves animals!

After a long fun day, it was time to get some grinds at Windward Mall. Since she's watching her figure, Leilani shared her plate with Mr. H.!

Thank You Creative Grammie for treating Flat Leilani to some fun times!

Thank you all for stopping by today and you really should check out Grammie's blog. She really does some AMAZING crafts! Hope you are all having a great week!

Flat Leilani starts her adventures!

Hope you all had a Great weekend! Looks like Flat Leilani already started having some fun with her new friends. Chris from Crafts in the City took her along to the Relay for Life at Magic Island.

Here she is with Coby(left) and Jenny(right) from Market City BFC and Chris(center).

Here she is taking a break from walking the relay, checking out the beautiful luminarias that line the track.

Flat Leilani is having such a great time with everyone, please tell her "Hi!" when you see her! Thanks for stopping by today and have an Awesome Week!

July 2010 JOC Show #2

Summer is sure going by fast! Hope you can slow it down long enough to join us for the second new show of July. We start the show off with a new guest for JOC, Joan Burrick from our Pearl City BFC. Joan contributed the Silversword Lei design to our Lei Book #8. We're lucky to have her share her lei making tips with us!

Then, we welcome back Cheryl Miyashiro to show us how to make cute 3-D paper flowers using the Sizzix 3-D Flower die. Earlier this year, Cheryl taught this to a lot of people at Market City BFC's paper party. So, I asked her to come on the show to teach the rest of us!

Then, we have Deb Zeleznik from Rubber Stamp Plantation continuing her watercolor technique, this time on a beautiful frame.It's fun to see how she adds so many different textures and elements into this collage design. This is definetely a must see!

Thank You ALL for taking time out to visit today! Hope everyone is having a Fun and Crafty Summer!

Host a Vacation Guest and get a chance to win!

Can't believe it's already July! Hmmm...July. Seems like the summer is slipping away so fast and I don't see a vacation on my calendar anytime soon. Then, I got this idea from my friend Lindsay Ostrom. I'm thinking I'll have to settle for vacationing vicariuosly through the adventures of Flat Leilani!

Who's that, you ask? Well, Flat Leilani is a Hawaiian cousin to Flat Stanley. For those of you who don't know Flat Stanley, I'll explain. Flat Stanley started as a 1964 storybook by Jeff Brown.

In 1995, Schoolteacher Dale Hubert turned it into a project to promote letter writing. Many school teachers particpate in this project and it connects students from schools all around the world. You never know, one day, a Flat Stanley might even show up in your mailbox for a visit!

The idea is for the letter recipient to take Stanley along and document the visit with pictures. Then, mail all of that back to the sender. The students then make a scrapbook journal of where their Flat Stanley went, including the letters and photos.

Since the start of the project, Flat Stanley now has a lot of different relatives and friends.

And so, here she is,  Flat Leilani!

If you'd like to play along, here's what you need to do. Email me at joyofcrafting@gmail.com with your mailing address so I can send you a Flat Leilani to play with. You can color her and dress her up any way you want. Then, take her on some adventures with you and take some photos. Email me the photos, so we can share with everyone where she's been hanging out. Flat Leilani's got a lot of vacation time, so we'll do this until Sunday, August 15th.

Of course, Flat Leilani and I will be so thankful that we'll be sending some omiyage(gifts) to a few random host participants!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you all decide to invite Flat Leilani to spend some time with you!

By popular request...Cheryl's Pulley Card!

Hi Y'all! After Cheryl did that amazing Pulley card on the Joy of Crafting, we've had many requests for the instructions. So, Cheryl wrote them up and we now have a project sheet for you.Have Fun and Happy Crafting!

July 2010 JOC show #1

Wow! Half the year has already gone by...guess time flies when you're happily crafting! Well, on the first JOC show for July, we have some new and exciting crafts. We start off with Cheryl Miyashiro! She'll show us the great new crafting wonder, the Creatopia from Xyron! This machine does so many things like laminating, adding adhesive and cutting all different ways. Cheryl goes through all the fun possibilities with this cool new machine!

Next up is me! As I'll  tell you on the show, I've seen a lot of those tea bag dispensers but no instructions. So I decided to make my own version of these dispensers and at first I just replaced the tea bags with Ghiradelli squares. Then, I decided to make one for my favorite Hershey Kisses with Mac Nuts! I even wrote up some instructions. Here's the link, I call it the Sweet Shoppe Candy Dispenser

And last but not least, we have Deb from Rubber Stamp Plantation who shares the beautiful technique of coloring with watercolor pencils.Your stamped designs will look so cool with very little effort!

Thanks for taking time out of your holiday to stop by. Hope you can catch the show before all the firework shows! Wishing you All a safe and Happy Fourth of July!

Help a worthy cause and have fun, too!

Our company's ohana of stores includes the ACE Hardware stores on the neighbor islands. ACE is a big supporter of the Children's Miracle Network which benefits our local Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children.

This year, they have decided to hold a charity golf tournament. You and two of your golfing buddies can form a team to support this worthy cause. You'll be helping a lot of people while having a good time!

The 3-person Modified Scramble Golf Tournament will be held on Friday, August 13 at the Moanalua Golf Club.

If you are interested and need a registration form, contact me at joys@mvlhawaii.com.

I know you crafty people got lots of other skills, too! Hope to see you there!

It started as an idea for Sherri...

On Saturday, I was at the Mapunapuna BFC helping them out with the Bag Sale. In the Paperarts dept., I was showing Sherri A. how this one paper from pebbles inc's Twitterpated collection would be great for a wood block project. So, we agreed Sherri should make one.

Well, we wanted swirly wires on top so that we could hold photos or cards. Naturally, we thought Lynn H. would make it the best, so I took the project over to the Bead shoppe. Lynn was eager to help with the swirlies!

To make one is really fast and easy. You paint the block edges with some paint. Use some wood knobs for feet. Cut out some squares from the paper and glue them to the block. Here's some of the supplies...

Twist two colors of thick Londy wire together and shape into swirls or hearts.Use the drill to make a nice hole for the wire at the top of the block. Glue the wire in. All Pau!

Ok, so what really happened is Lynn ended up making the whole project all by herself! Isn't it really cute!

Thanks for stopping by today and hope you have a great week!

BYBF Recycle Bag Sale tomorrow!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is our Summer Bring Your Ben Franklin Recycle Bag Sale. What's that, you ask?

Just bring your Ben Franklin Crafts recycle bag to the store on Saturday, June 26 and get 20% off your purchase!

Forgot where you put your bag? You can get a new one for
just 99 cents and get the 20% off! It's easy peasy!

BTW, did you know that the 20% off is good on our
Ben Best Values, too? Yup, time to get that Big Shot Pro!

Thanks for stopping by today! I'm looking forward to a great weekend, maybe I'll see you at the store!

A Sweet Summer

Summer officially started this week and with it came

a Sweet collection, now in the Ben Franklin Craft stores.

I couldn't resist the goodies and bought a few of eveything!

There are wood stamps...

And mini clear stamps...

There are jotter pads so you can plan out your ideas

or just write a note...

There are mini notebooks, great for shopping lists

 or keeping track of your supplies...

There are stationary sets with 8 papers, 8 matching envelopes and 8 stickers!

And I love the die-cut cards. The circle is a cut out and the design is actually on the inside of the card.

Sweet and simple, you can dress them up with ribbons, buttons and other embellishments.

You get 8 cards and envelopes in a pack!

But I must admit what makes this collection REALLY SWEET is that they all are only a $1.25 a piece!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you all have a REALLY SWEET Weekend!

Here Kitty, Kitty!

I saw some really cute Hello Kitty baking items at the Ben Franklin Crafts stores, perfect for any occassion! There were cupcake liners and treat bags, even Miss Kitty's own icing colors set.

Whether you bake your own or buy your cakes, there were toppers and a candle to complete your

Kitty theme.

But my favorite was the Hello Kitty Cake Pan! I have some no calorie craft ideas to use this one for!

So exciting!

So now, you can Really have your cake when it comes to

Hello Kitty!

Thanks for stopping by today and hope you're having a Sweet Day!

And the Winner is...

Today, we had a bridal shower for one of our co-workers who is getting married next month. So, I had Noelle, the Bride-to-Be, pick the winning name from my little baggie.

And the winner is...Jenny! from crazyforpaper.blogspot! Yup, the crazy one who wrote:
"Uh, If I don't like basketball, does that mean I can't enter??? :) hee hee. OK just re-read the post... my team colors would be pink and brown! Though I don't think any guy would want to wear it!"

I think pink and brown would make great team colors...hmmm but what would the mascot be? Cupcakes?

Well, Congratulations to Jenny and to Noelle, too. Thank You to all who took a shot at winning! And thanks for always taking the time to stop by, I really appreciate it. I love reading your comments, too, you crafters are so funny!Take care and have a great week!

The Game ends at Midnight!

Don't forget, today's the last day to enter to win the Laker-licious Purple and Gold(yellow) prize package. Go to Friday's post to enter!
I picked up some purple M&Ms to add to the prize as well as a purple Flexi-Vase.
So, what's a Flexi-Vase?

Well, it's a vase made from soft flexible PVC. It stores flat and you just add water or water marbles to it and drop in your flowers. (So, you'll always have a vase to put flowers in if your sweetie surprises you at work!)

Not a great photo, but, the bottom of the vase comes in different colors and right now you can find this vase only at our Market City store.

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to enter!

June 2010 JOC #2

The second Joy of Crafting show for June has some really cool stuff! We start off the show with Cheryl Miyashiro. She gets things going with an exciting action design card. It's a Pulley card that features some cute Hero Art stamps.

See, when you pull the top out, the bottom message slides out. So cool!

Next, we have Jenny from our Market City BFC who shares our new project for this year's Relay for Life at Magic Island. We are helping people make their Luminarias that are set up along the Relay track.

Each one represents sweet sentiments and thoughts for someone who has been affected by cancer. There are memories for those we have lost and encouraging words and support for those still fighting the battle as well as for the cancer survivors.We encorage you to come out and join us at Relay for Life at Magic Island on Saturday, July 17th 6pm to Sunday, July 18th 6 am.

But wait!There's more! We are so excited to have our next guest come on the show. Brandon Tavares from our Enchanted Lake store showed us today's hottest craft, the Yudu screen printer!
That's right with a Yudu, you can screen your own t-shirts, bags, pillows, even paper!

Isn't this a cute design on his shirt?! It's for his cupcake business. Yes, Brandon is mutli-talented, go check out the yummies at Brandon Cakes!

I hope you get a chance to watch this episode of the Joy of Crafting and learn some new crafting ideas! Thanks for stopping by today and until the next time, Happy Crafting!

P.S. - Don't forget to enter my FAN-tastic Friday contest by Tuesday!

It's a FAN-tastic Friday!

I know a lot of you out there Love Basketball, just like me. Now that the NBA Finals are over, I'm celebrating by making one of you a winner, too! I got some Laker-licious purple and yellow stuff to give away!

Okay, I think I know who Linda's team is, but what about the rest of you? Leave a comment and tell me who your favorite NBA team or player is. That's all. Don't have to do any 3-point shots or awesome slam dunks. Just post!

And, if you don't have a favorite, here's a free throw question...If you had a sports team, what would you make their team colors and mascot be?
The shot clock is set and you have until Tuesday morning to take your shot. Good Luck and have a Great weekend!

Blingin' Buttons!

I'm So Happy that our fun buttons finally arrived, been waiting for these babies to come in! We have a fun assortment of fashionable buttons to use in all types of crafts.These are just a few of the designs.

They are perfect for making rings, which is what I did. For my first ring, I wanted to show off the design on the button so it just has a little wire wrap swirl, like a cinnamon roll.

This pink one was  a little more flirty, going with the flowery design. First, I added a bunch of dangles.

Then, I changed my mind and just left one heart dangle so you can see the wire wrap flower top.

These are really fun to make and they are quick to do. The only hard part is trying to decide which one to make first!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you are having a great week!