Okinawa Bound

Well, here I am moving again! After leaving the beautiful island of Okinawa 10 years ago, we are once again Oki bound!

I cannot explain it any better than Virtual Okinawa so let me quote them for you:

An ancient kingdom of glittering seas, lush green islands, and fields of sugarcane, Okinawa enjoys a measured pace of life that's far removed from any hectic city routine. A sub-tropical climate keeps Okinawa pleasantly warm even when the rest of Japan is shivering, and in the scorching summer months it is a kaleidoscope of brilliant flowers, dazzling white beaches and stunning coral, making the islands perfect for diving, water-skiing, sailing and every other form of ocean recreation. Okinawa also has a proud artistic and musical tradition, and is home to many unusual and beautiful species of flora and fauna.

You can see why this Florida girl is delighted to return. The culture of Okinawa is so different from that of Japan and I will miss life here on the mainland immensely. I leave a peice of my heart here in Japan, but look forward to what the future holds in sunny Okinawa. While I sort and pack and make my arrangements I may seem missing in action for awhile, but check back because you know I'll have lots to report.

PS: Like my mosaics? Check out Mosaic Moments for tips on making them and for purchasing the grid paper. This month's featured paper is Cypress Green.

Divas Spring Break Online Crop!

I just realized that I am about to make my 100th post here at Sunshine Memories! So what could be better to post about than the Spring Break Crop that we are organizing at Creative Scrapbooking Divas!

Join us on Feb 20 -- We've got a brand new DT and lots of fun and exciting games planned!

Joining Luisa, SheShe, Toccara and me are

Lora, Ann, Lori and Alecia!

We are all so pleased to be working together and have such an exciting crop planned. There's Bingo, Photo Hunts, Steal the RAK, Sketches, Scraplifting, Recipes, Altered Art, Card Making, Stamping, Color Prompts

PLUS

Lots of Tips & Techniques to help you learn and grow while you are having fun!

PLUS

PRIZES! PRIZES! PRIZES!

Where do you go? Creative Scrapbooking Divas!

What is happening? Spring Break Crop!

When?  Feb 20th!

See you there!

Silly Time!

This week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch arrived about the same time as these cute pictures of my grandsons. The sketch calls for 3 photos on a patterned background as you can see here:

But since I had four photos I decided to blow one up, turn it to a green duotone and use that as my base for the other photos. The little cameras are die cuts from paper-intelligence.com and the clock face is a Making Memories Vintage Findings. It just happened to fit perfectly in the hole in the die cut.

Since I'm such a sloppy scrapper I had to use the white camera to cover a big glob of something-or-other that stuck to my page. I think because I kept it white it does not distract too much from the design of the page. LOL! A little black backing behind the die cuts, main photo and patterened paper grounds the page. The stripe is made with one of my favorite scrap items right now - MT masking tape. It's sold everywhere in Japan in about a zillion colors -- but if you have deep pockets, you can buy it online under the name of Happy Tape. Click on the link on the right to be taken to MT's home page. They do have an English Menu so you can translate and read all about the company. Kind of a fun read! Customer Service par excellence! (And while you are there, check out my LO in their gallery made with a rainbow of MT colors.)

I love that my daughter-in-law Jenny shares moments like this with me. She is a military wife whose husband is deployed and it helps me to worry a little less about her and the boys when I see their playful smiles. We must never forget that those who wait also serve. God Bless them all!

And thanks to Sketchy Thursdays, another page in Jenny's 2010 album is complete!

Grooviest Birthday Bash Ever!

What a fun month it has been over at If It's Groovy! Celebrating the site's first birthday as been so fun and I've gotten so much inspiration from all the challenges over there. And because Groovy Deb opened up a Ning site we have all had so much fun chatting and getting to know one another while ooohing and aahhhhing over all the birthday pages. Of course Groovy Deb is still keeping the blog open and that is where you will find the names of the winners in the Birthday Bash Challenge.

My challenge was to add a birthday card to your LO. One of my favorite albums is the one I made for my husband in honor of his 50th birthday. I took all the cards he received and added each one to a page with a photo of the sender and sometimes an extra message or a cute embellie. To view the cards in the album, I just cut a slit in the page protector that goes around the card. Now, instead of throwing out those cards - you know that is what happens to most of the cards we receive, such a shame - the cards are kept for future enjoyment.

The winner of my challenge coincidentally made a 50th birthday page! Here is Kathy Williams take on my challenge. Head on over to If It's Groovy to see the other winners from the other fun challenges! Congratulations Kathy! Look for your RAK in the mail.

Sketchy Funday?

When I saw the Sketchy Thursdays sketch this week with all those circles, I immediately thought of the setting sun. And I knew I wanted to use my new Martha Stewart Glitter to bring those circles to life. I just love the way colors sparkle on a black background. My photo is of a favorite sunset viewing spot in Indialantic Florida (recently in the running for Most Romantic City in the USA - vote here).

I had a bit of a mishap gluing the circles to my page. I was using Scotch Scrapbookers Glue which has really great hold, but the top fell off and the glue smeared all over the bottom of my page. I'll never be able to enter the page into a contest with that glob on there, but I will still cherish it in my own album. And because I love the

 black and the bling, I'm challenging you to show me your own Black and Bling on Creative Scrapbooking Divas.

Come on over to my Funday Monday Challenge to play along!

Making a Mosaic Hybrid page.

I love creating mosaic pages and - with the help of Mosaic Moments Grid Paper - I find it so fun and easy to do. I guess you could call this a hybrid page as I sized my own photos, printed my own journaling and combined them with patterned paper enhanced with a little stitching. It was quick and easy to do and proves that most anything used on Grid Paper produces such a pretty effect.

I chose a patterned paper that matched the background of my main photo. This one is from DCWV glitter stack. I love how the color pops off the Black Grid Paper. You can trim your patterned paper into squares with either the Paper Shapers 1” Square Punch or, as I did, cut the entire sheet by placing it on the Mosaic Moments Self-healing 14X14 Cutting Mat and cutting along the lines with the Fiskars Craft Knife. Once you have your squares cut, adhere your main photo directly into the center of the grid and fill in the page with the patterned paper squares, leaving room for the corner photos.
To bring even more focus to the main photo, I decided to stitch a daisy chain around the photo.
I used a Bazzill In Stitch’z template to create a circle centered around my main photo. Simply place the template over the photo and tape it in place with masking tape.

If you would like to read my tutorial on exactly how to do this, check out Design Each Moment for the details.

And to purchase your own Grid Paper and other fun mosaic tools visit SnapNCrop.
I would love to see your Mosaics, so reply with a link and I'll leave you some love!

Funday Monday Challenge and a Blog Hop Winner!

Funday Monday is in full swing at CSD! Those of you familiar with the challenge from MAF will be happy to know I've moved it over to Creative Scrapbooking Divas!  This month, there are two Funday Monday challenges and an RAK for one lucky person who submits to both challenges. This week we are focusing on Winter.
I know many of you have had some ferocious winter weather this year - either piles of snow, or frozen crops. Are you documenting your winter in photos? For the Funday Monday challenge, show me how you are spending your winter - show me your snowmen, your favorite fuzzy sweaters, your steaming bowls of hot soup or your ski trips. It's a Winter Wonderland!
 
For my page, I documented last year's New Year's Day trip up the fabulous Mt. Fuji in Japan. I live quite close to Fuji though my daily view is blocked by the Tanzawa mountain range. Either mountain view is breathtaking to me, but driving up the majestic Fuji was such an awesome way to begin the New Year. It was really not that chilly, though there was snow. It was the first time I had seen snow in many years as we don't get much snow in our area.
 
This was the perfect chance for me to use some snowflake embellies I had gathered! The title is made with Heidi Swapp Ghost letters, backed with foil paper and sprayed with Glimmer Mist. I really like the effect I got.
 
I know you have a couple of tricks up your scrappy sleeves, so show me your winter photos- post them at the Funday Monday Challenge at CSDivas for your chance at an RAK. 
 
Now let's get on to the winner of CSDivas' Blog Hop. My challenge was to create a slider on your LO. If you missed the hop but still want to give it a try, the tutorial is posted below. Meanwhile, help me in congratulating PaperDiva on her fun page - Gettin' My Choo Choo On! That little train makes the perfect sliding element, don't you agree?