Fuji

The winter is the most wonderful time of year to view Mt. Fuji. For most of the year, the mountain is so high that it sits surrounded by clouds. But the crisp winter air offers up the most clear blue skies and so the fabulous Fuji is visible from most everywhere in central Japan.

My hubby and I drove up the mountain as far as we could on New Year's Day, until the snow prohibited our ascent. I love the way my photos turned out so of course, the next step is to scrap them.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite on this page. The Bo Bunny Winter Whisper papers are gorgeous and I love the shine of the Virtual Metal accent from Magic Scraps. It has been a very long time since I have seen snow so I couldn't wait to use the snowflakes from Jolee's Boutique and Imaganisce on a layout.

But if forced to pick a favorite, I would have to say it is the Heidi Swap ghost alphabet. Here, I traced them onto the Virtual Metal, then trimmed out the metal to back the letters with. I very lightly sanded the letters, sprayed them with Glimmer Mist and topped them with Stickles before using glue dots to adhere the Virtual Metal to the back.

Of course you know there is so much more you can do with the ghost letters - you can use rub ons, paint them, tie ribbons around them, or just leave them plain. They are so versatile. Give these fun alphabets a try and be sure to show me what you come up with!

Here's my supply list:

Bo Bunny Winter Whisper papers in Swirl and Frost

Bazzill brown cardstock

Magic Scraps virtual metal

Queen & Co felt fushion

Jolee's Boutque snowflakes

Imaginisce snowflowers

Stickles silver

Heidi Swap ghost alphabet in Reason lower

Darice rhinestones

Jewel glitter - mulit

Glimmer Mist - sea glass

Stickopotomus letters and numbers

Doodble Bug Fancy That swirls

Happy Birthday Abe Lincoln

This February 12, Springfield, Illinois is celebrating the birthday of our 16th President in a big way. Though born to humble beginnings in Kentucky, Springfield is where Abraham Lincoln lived and worked as a lawyer. We are all familiar with the legacy of honesty and integrity that Mr. Lincoln imparted. But he also taught us that we should keep believing in ourselves, keep working to overcome our defeats and rework ourselves to fit our new dreams. It is no wonder that Springfield would want to honor this great man on his 200th birthday. They are hoping to receive handmade greetings for Mr. Lincoln from all around the world. For anyone who would like to send birthday greetings to be displayed during the Springfield bicentennial, here is the address:

Abraham Lincoln
Old State Capitol

1 Old State Capitol Plaza

Springfield, Illinois 62701

In honor of this occasion, I made a folding screen card and am rather proud of myself for figuring out the design without the benefit of a template or directions. If you would like to make a folding screen card like this, I can break it down for you.

1. The main part of the card consists of 6 panels that are 3 1/4 wide each. Choose a sturdy peice of cardstock and cut it to 19 1/2" x 9". Score every 3 1/4 inches and accordion fold.

2. Cut out a 10" x 5" square from the center. This should fall directly in the middle of the four center panels.

3. Cut slits in the center of each panel, top and bottom, for the inside card to fit into. Each slit should be 1/2" deep.

4. The inside of the card is made from a 13" x 6" peice of cardstock. Score and fold into 4 panels - each panel is 3 1/4 inches wide.

5. Decorate your card and assemble. It's as easy as that and the whole thing will easily fit into a legal size envelope! Have fun with it and show me what you come up with.

Elf Yourself

I finally completed the scrapbook page with my Elf Yourself picture from JibJab.com. Thanks Office Max for hosting this fun trend again this year. It was easy - just upload photos of your friends and family onto the elf bodies. Once completed, you can choose between a variety of dances. It is such a hoot!

I uploaded the photos of my son and his wife. Brandon's direct quote was "We sure look gay!" I know he means gay as in happy!

Once the elves are dancing, do a screen print and you can have the picture to scrap. This LO was influenced by an online friend whom I can't remember. So whomever you are - if you are reading this, thanks for the inspiration. I hope you don't mind that I changed it up and made my own LO out of it. I love how my trees all mimic the shapes of the elf hats. The journaling block was made digitally. I didn't even realize I could type my journaling in that shape. We learn something new all the time!

Happy Moo Year Nengajo

New Year's is a very special time in Japan—a time for people to return to their ancestral homes, spend time with their families and get in touch with their roots. Perhaps the most honored and celebrated of the Japanese holidays, New Year’s (Oshogatsu) is a three-day event beginning with New Year's Eve and lasting through the first three days of the year. Preparations begin long in advance as people clean their homes from top to bottom, prepare traditional New Year's foods, and write nengajo, or New Year's greetings.
Nengajo are pretty postcards, either preprinted, or handmade that are sent to friends and family, in a similar fashion as a Christmas card, to wish them happiness in the New Year.
What is amazing to me is that the post office guarantees to deliver the greeting postcards by the first of January!
Prepaid New Year's postcards with lottery numbers are commonly used by Japanese people. The lottery's winning numbers are picked in mid-January. The prizes aren't money but are various household goods, such as electronics, stamps, and so on. Those prepaid postcards are basically plain, so people print photos or images, draw pictures, and write messages on their own.
Most of the postcards have the Chinese zodiac sign of the New Year as their design. Japanese people have a cycle of 12 years. Each year is represented by an animal. The animals are, in order:
Mouse, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Bird, Dog, Boar
The order cannot be moved. For example, 2009 is Cow (sometimes referred to as Ox) and 2010 will be Tiger. Those animals are traditionally incorporated into the New Year's Card design.
Though one can buy a card premade, the stationery stores are chock-full of cow stamps and stickers, colorful glitter pens and stamp pads, and pretty paper accents so that one can make their own nengajo. I can spend hours in any stationery store as I love office supplies ... notebooks, pens, sticky papers … but still, it’s the Japanese stuff that really make my heart sing. They’re practical, but they’re also cute and whimsical. I could not resist buying these delightful stamps to make my nengajo.
As a card-carrying gaijin (foreigner), I am theoretically exempt from the rules of sending nengajo. But I’ve decided to surprise my friends with my astounding nengajo knowledge and skill. The same gracious people that praise my ability to use chopsticks and poor attempts at speaking Japanese will be thrilled – I hope - with the consideration and effort of my handmade nengajo.
I wish all who receive one and all who read this blog a glorious New Year that rewards all your future endeavors with success. Happy Moo Year!

Elf Yourself

Office Max has this fun program on jibjab.com where you can upload your loved one's faces onto the bodies of elves. Once you have the elves you want, you can make them dance a variety of dances.

While the dance videos themselves are really cute, I wanted to take a screen shot so that I can scrap the picture. The way to do this is to click the little button on the top right of your keyboard that says 'print screen.' Here is the photo of my son's beautiful family. I really can't wait to get it scrapped!

Photo Mobile

These plain acrylic frames were for sale at Ikea in Yokohama and I thought they would make a great scrapbooked mobile. My son had been sending me tons of photos of their Great Dane and my two grandsons. Astro is a beautiful dog and he is so obviously a wonderful family pet. One look at any of the photos proves that fact. So, Astro and the boys were my inspiration for this project.

In Ikea, the frames were shown simply with two photos back-to-back so that a photo could be seen on each side of the acrylic frame. But the frame's square shape lent itself perfectly to mini scrapbook pages. I matted the pictures on either side of 6x6-inch squares of cardstock then sandwhiched them in the acrylic frames. The rest of the embellishments - including the journaling blocks - were placed on top of the acrylic. I used plenty of bling embellies so that when the mobile is hung, it will catch the light.

I really liked the idea of the pages being from Astro's perspective, so the project is entitled "Things I Taught My Masters". Each page showcases a different lesson, such as "When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close and nuzzle them gently"; or "When it is in your best interest, practice obedience".

My daughter-in-law takes some awesome pictures, which made this project enjoyable and ultimately attractive to display. Let's face it, scrapbooking is fun, but it's all about the pictures!

Jenny in Naha

Well, I know it is Christmas and you want to see some Christmas projects, but I don't want to give away any surprises. I'm going to show you a LO I did for Jenny from last Christmas that turned out to be one of my favorites. And it's sooo easy for you to recreate!

I used a big bloom stamp from Stampin' UP and stamped on Bazzill cardstock to make the border. I love the textural effect that the Bazzill gave that stamp. Added a few punched blooms and a bit of doodling with a sparkly bronze pen to complete the look.

I drew some wavy lines for the journaling and made each letter touch the top and bottom line. I am quite happy with the effect. What do you think?