Oh, Canada!

Last Thursday I finally got my friend Constance's package in the mail. You would think that a package from Canada wouldn't take so long since it's just above us......go figure on the postal service.

The two packages I sent to her got there last week too! I loved the fact that when I tracked the package online it said it was in Miami before waiting to go to its destination. Why does it go down to go up? I have no idea!

Constance sent a lovely package full of things from Canada and New Zealand.

Chocolates and cookies, all maple flavored! Yummy!~

I thought the name on this tin was hilarious!

More yummy chocolates!

Two craft sets, one for a bracelet and the other is for a flower felt brooch.

Also included was a set of bath salts, a beautiful wooden bookmark from New Zealand and an Native American themed photo album from Ontario.

Thank you darling for the lovely package! I divided the chocolates/cookies up on Friday morning and took some of them to work for my coworkers to try. They loved it!

Until next time ^_____^

Yumminess That Glitters!

Lovely, soft pastel colors in an assortment of yummy cakes, cookies, and ice creams!

I'm having fun with Japanese clays this month! The texture of the clays are silky and soft and a joy to work with for sure. I'm in love with the colors and the ability to accent the charms with clay hearts, whip cream dollops, and berries and glittery rhinestones.

I've got to put some varnish on these charms later on before adding them to my Etsy shop.

Until next time ^____^

Fun with Felt

Please excuse the horrible photo!

While I was at Michael's this month, I saw a fun kit for making a felt cell phone case! I couldn't resist buying it as I had a great coupon, which made the kit only $3. Isn't it cute? One advantage to these felt kits is that they are perfect for kids who want to learn how to sew by hand or create something using felt. The kit comes with instructions on how to backstitch and blanket stitch.

Definitely check out Michael's selection of felt kits! Well worth the investment and it gives your child an hour or so of fun creating something!

Until next time ^___^

Extra, extra, read all about it.......an Etsy shop!

Good afternoon, everyone! I hope you are having a great Memorial Day with family and friends. We are getting ready for dinner later today. My aunt is making a spicy pork recipe from the Pioneer Woman's new book. My mother is making cole slaw and for those of us who don't eat pork, hot dogs! Yum!

In other news, which is BIG NEWS! My friends and I decided to start an Etsy shop called Cherry Blossom Cute. That's why you haven't heard from me in the past week or so. I've been taking pictures of our merchandise, writing descriptions, etc. to add to our shop. All the crafts are handmade by either myself, Amanda, or Kristina.



While we sold some of our crafts at Mobi-Con, we thought it would be great idea to start an Etsy shop for everything that didn't sell there.

We have all sorts of kawaii in our shop. Cell phone charms for Sailor Moon fans, various geeky felties for your cell phone or keychain, and some adorable amigurumi plushies!

One of items that I would like to talk about here is this one since it is perfect for my cross stitch readers:

A lovely beaded pastel butterfly cell phone charm which doubles as a scissors fob!



My friend Amanda made me a butterfly scissors fob like the pictured above as a gift in August of last year.

I had told her about the couch in our living room that was literally a scissor eater! To solve my problem of losing track of my scissors, she made me a beaded butterfly fob using Swarovski crystal beads with a tiny bell on top. So every time I lose my scissors in the couch, I just have to listen for the tingling of a tiny bell.

In addition to the pastel colored fob in our shop, we also have a lovely one in shades of pink and another in shades of purple!

So come and have a look around! We hope you find something that tickles your fancy!

Until next time ^____^

A week in crafts

Earlier in the week I made another kitty plushie and this afternoon I made a heart feltie, but instead of using a ribbon loop, I dug out my grommets from my cross stitch finishing supplies. Now the heart is keychain finish instead of the usual cell charm lanyard.



I received my package of bow and stars beads in the mail this week so I finished the SM charms as cell phone charms ;) For the smaller SM group, I used a keychain.



I used the wing beads I got in the mail for finished the SM symbols into cell phone charms! Cute! I need some black cell lanyards for the red and orange charms on the right.



The seller on eBay who I bought all my beads sent me a freebie in the package, a cute polymer clay ice cream charm! I made that into a cell phone charm along with a leftover tiny paper stars charm that I had in my stash from last year. I also made one of the scallop edged Alice in Wonderland charms into a cell phone charm using a light blue bow since it reminded me of her dress ;)



Last night I made these caged pearl charms into French back earrings. I found the charms at HB a while ago and was debating on how to use them in my crafting. I thought of using them in an earring finish yesterday morning when I was at HB.



We have been enjoying some gorgeous weather this weekend. This morning I got up in order to do some hair accessory finishes. I used the bunny and bear flat back beads on bobby pins. With this finish I used E6000 glue, which is best used outside due to its odor.

I hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend with family and friends ;)

Until next time ^____^

A Spring Panda Package! Woot!

Hi, everyone! This afternoon after a morning of running errands I came home to a very large package.....possibly XXL in size! My friend Amanda said she would be sending me a package that was large, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite so big!

Inside the box was a white basket wrapped in purple cellophane, two Chia Te bags, and a Wal-greens bag. Look what they contained:


All the gifts together!


Gifts in basket ;)


Pineapple cakes!

I received two boxes of pineapple cakes. They expire soon so I'll have to share them with family, friends, and co-workers to eat them all up!

I think one of things I miss from CA in terms of yummy food is Chinese baked goods. I fell in love with pineapple cakes on my first trip to see Amanda in CA back in 2001. Wow, that's quite a long time ago! At the time she was living in an apartment complex in Walnut, CA and there was a small Chinese bakery nearby. They have all sorts of yummy things to eat. You could spend alot of money trying to buy one of everything to try it all ;) Last year when I was in CA, we were able to make a trip to that bakery. I'm so glad that it's still there >__<


A container full of candy!~

I have a notorious sweet tooth so this was more than welcome. The container had Skylar bars, cookies, and candy in it. In another part of the package, she sent me some chocolate candies! Yum!!!



Crafty goodies for me!! Mwahahahaha! A milk carton cell charm, a steampunk donut cell charm, and an egg tart amigurumi plushie! I've seen the first two items on her blog and I thought maybe she was making them for herself or for sale at the convention, but nope, they are mine! Woot! I hadn't seen the egg tart, he is a surprise ;)

I love egg tarts! The last time we were in CA, we stopped by a dim sum restaurant for a traditional Chinese breakfast. I don't think I ate that much.....I'm picky when it comes to strange foods, but I did partake in an egg tart...sweet and so yummy >___<


My Alice bracelet and a surprise for a friend of mine!



I had sent my bracelet to Amanda to fix for me. I was using jump rings that were too large and made the bracelet pop up from my wrist. She used small jump rings linked with a small oval ring. It fits nicely now ;)



A bookmark, Target gift card, and cute bunny gift clip ;)



LOL A funny chocolate bunny and a lantern bunny craft kit!



Another funny bunny that 'poops' candy! And a sock coin purse with a surprise!



A small jade bunny! Isn't it cute? I'm thinking about making a cell charm with this little cutie ;) I just need to find a black cell lanyard.



Letter sets! Sugarbunnies and assorted magical themed one with kitties, unicorns, etc.



Now this threw me for a loop. Is this even sanitary? A box full of pork?



Luckily it contained her amigurumi crafts for our booth! My sister has named the octopi >___<



Introducing Sir Sassafras



And Miss Petunia



A cup cozy! Don't you love it? Super cute and easy to care since it is made from acrylic yarn ;)



Assorted colors of amigurumi fortune cookie keychains ;) They are so tiny and adorable!



Lastly, she sent me an assortment of reusable bags! We were talking about that in an email recently so she sent me several ;) I love the bunny bag the best (you know me!) and I plan to use it as a library bag! My old one that I bought from the local library has seen alot of use and it started to get a hole at the bottom O_o"

Thank you darling for the awesome package of goodies!

Until next time ^____^

I LOVE ROBOTS!

I have been eyeing this robot watch charm at Hobby Lobby for a while now. Today they finally had a sale on Metal Gallery jewelry so I bought this and a red glass heart to make a nerdy keychain! LOL You can tell what time I took the photo! >____<

Until next time ^___^

Too cute!

This afternoon I decided to make some of my Shrinky Dinks into cell phone charms using the beads I got in the mail this week from eBay!

I love the bow beads! They are so adorable and work well with the charms! I also used some of the stars I got too :)





I'm almost out of the bow beads O_o" I'm definitely going to order more soon >___<

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend with all your plans :)

Until next time ^___^

Storybook bracelet

Close-up (Sorry for the horrible color; the colors in the first photo are closer to the truth!)

This evening after a trip to Hobby Lobby I decided to make an Alice in Wonderland bracelet. Over the weekend I had made several scallop edged charms with holes on either side with the idea of making them into a bracelet.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought the larger jump rings. I wonder if I might impose on my friend Amanda and see if I can send the bracelet to her for a makeover with the correct rings? She's a beading/jewelry expert and has all sorts of findings. I think I should have bought oval shaped jump rings......assuming they even make those!

Until next time ^___^

Resin Experiment

Yesterday morning after I finished reading The Hunger Games, I decided since it was lovely weather outside that I would experiment with some Easy Cast resin that I bought at Hobby Lobby a while ago.

What a disaster!

1. While mixing my resin I accidentally knocked over the cup and poured resin in my mold.
2. Starting with a new mold, I poured too much in each mold because of how fast the liquid came out of the cup. I had to use a spoon to scoop some of the resin out of each mold.
3. Letting the resin get tacky, I left out my cup of resin for the next layer. It hardened completely!
4. Due to the spilled resin (see #1), my ice cube tray stuck to the wax paper.

So yes, quite an eventful morning!

But after curing the resins overnight, I got these results this morning.



Since this was my first experiment using the Easy Cast resin, I didn't go further with other layers in the mold, I poured only one layer. I waited about an hour and half for the layers to get tacky before adding stickers.

So researching this morning for troubleshooting on using Easy Cast resins, I found out why my resins still set up correctly despite spilling some of the contents while stirring. Apparently if you mix a large batch of resin, you don't have to measure exactly. If you make a smaller batch, the measurements must be exact.

Silly me! I only wanted a small batch of resin, but I poured 3oz of each mixture out in the cups......and so the resins set up correctly!

I also found out why my resins came out cloudy. When you stir your mixtures together, you must stir for two minutes and transfer the mixture to a new cup and continue to stir until the mixture becomes clear. I was so flustered by knocking over my cup that I neglected to stir completely.

Despite all my mishaps, I hope to experiment with resin charms again in the future! I just have to wait for another weekend of nice weather!

Until next time ^____^

Charms Trois

Charms Deux

Charms