Crystal and Akiko

The Perfect Pair

Soooooo happy Akiko loved her bridal shower - phew!  Of course she has the WICKEDEST bridal party, so every single detail was thought of...brag much? haha  Kinda sad it's over though, making the decor really fed my crafting urges....your turn Mr. Bunny Wabbit...bring it Easter!!!

Coming up with a theme for her shower came to me quite fast, they met dancing so why not decorate with their dance shoes as "The Perfect Pair".  I got the idea HERE and was the perfect fit.  So of course I had to make banners and pom pom's in their wedding colours (I luv you cricut).  My black ink pad grew legs and went on vacation so I doodled everything on the banner by hand.  I ran out of ribbon after cutting out the hearts so I ran them through the sewing machine and Voila!

We brought our BESTEST pumps and decorated them with Bree's little pom poms - soooo darn cute!

The Perfect Pair Banner AKA "in-between-classes decor"
   
 
   
  
 

Gluten Free Cupcake Yumness!  What girlie party would it be without cupcakes?????  Mmm...de-lish!  I designed the cupcake toppers on my puter, printed them and punched them out with my wide oval punch from stampin up! then sandwiched extra long toothpicks in between the punch outs. 
 
 

Now I SERIOUSLY had to get creative with these bridal shower favours.  30 of them at a cost effective price???? hmmmmm  I wanted to keep the theme consistent so decided to do something for feetsies.  Every lovely lady left with a Moisturizing Foot Spa package....ohhhh yeah!  Each baggie contained a soft fluffy pair of socks, a bottle of cocoa butter foot moisturizer, two large bags, 2 rubber bands and a Spa Recipe Tag (read the tag to find out how the ingredients work together).  I couldn't find small enough containers for the moisturizer at a decent price, so I bought salt & pepper containers, punched out circles to cover the top and designed the bottle wrapper on the puter.  Time consuming, but finally gave Oprah and I some time to catch up =P

Bridal Shower Favours

 
   

After all this prep, it was the day before the shower, I was totally packed and ready to go decorate when I realized....whaaaat?  no card for the Bride????  How could I?  So I whipped up this simple card with my FAVOURITE little birdies - looks like I was a little intoxicated when I was stampin "for your shower" hahaha

Akiko's Bridal Shower Card from moi
 
 

Here we are!!....how ridiculous are those pom poms?????  Akiko's creative sis, Bree, slaved over those!

 

What a lovely day it was - now onto the Jack & Jill  =)  Psst.....don't forget about our giveaway going on...and come Tweet with me....tootles

MY DREAM BRIDAL SHOWER!!

Amazed beyond words

I had my bridal shower yesterday at my moms house, and all I can say is.....WOW. It was beyond anything I could have possibly imagined or dreamed of. The decor was absolutely stunning, the food was WICKED, and the company was full of love and laughter. There was not a single detail that was missed!!!

I am so grateful to have the bridal party that I have. THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH Mom, Tiffany, Sabrina, Crystal and Avalon for working so so hard and putting together the best bridal shower on the planet! Oh yeah, did I forget to mention they only had 2 WEEKS to organize it???

Talk about a creative, dedicated group of fantastic women. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

A special thank you to all who came to share this special day with me. It was nice to see the familiar faces that I dont get to see too often. Usually its an annual gathering of friends and family, so it was nice to break out of that routine!

I have A LOT of pics to post - there were just so many amazing aspects of this shower that I cant leave anything out! So give yourself a few minutes to scroll this post and get a taste of what I was "showered" in!

This was on the front door...the first of many beautiful decorations! They used our dance shoes because thats how we met ;)

This was right beside the front door...

This beautiful arrangement was in the powder room!

How cute!

This was the fireplace decor - The theme was "The Perfect Pair", with shoes everywhere!

 

This was my bridal throne!!! - above it is a picture of me in the same chair when I was 6 years old...:)

Puff, Puffs everywhere!

Look at all the food!!! This was round 2!

Let's not forget the gluten free delights!

Cupcakes and cookies and chocolates, oh my!!! ....MMMMM.....

A chocolate legend??? This is the detail stuff I was talkin about...

Its all in the details!

Lets not forget Sabrina's Jimmy Choos!! 

They even had a slide show displaying picture of Corey and I...how amazing is that!

Pics of us where EVERYWHERE

And now, the company...:)

Me and My MOMA!!

Fabulous Crystal, me, and her Sensational Mom Teresa ;)

Wait a minute!! Did we tie our scarves the SAME WAY?? Say Whah??

From Left to Right, Back Row: Aunt Laura, Cousin Kira, Me, Cousin Kristen, Avalon

Front Row: Tiffany and Sabrina

Me in my special chair ;)

Hailey making a funny face!

Me and my twin aka maid of honor Tiffy

My future Mom-in Law Betti and Aunt Sandi!!

Cousin Kristen and Aunt Laura :)

My Grandma Terez and Cousin Kira

 Ma Geeerls Kristin and Teresa!

These ladies have the best view! From top to bottom: Teresa, Kristen, Sarah and Norissa 

There are so many more photos I want to post, but I have to go to work now!! I will have to add on the rest of them later.....Thanks again everyone!!!

100th POST CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY!

"Happy 100th Post, Happy 100th Post, Congratulations crystalandakiko.coooooom.......HAPPY 100th POST!"

Can you believe its our 100th post today??? WOOHOOOOO!!!

Crystal and I were shocked at how fast this has creeped up on us.....Its crazy! We are so excited to have made it this far (so far, lol) and are looking forward to our 1,000th POST :)

To celebrate our excited-ness, we want to have a little giveaway. What am I saying.....THIS IS A BIG GIVEAWAY!!!!!

 POST A COMMENT ANYWHERE ON THE BLOG - multiple comments if you like - and we will select a random winner next week. Get your comments in now, because this is our best giveaway yet!!!!

And what are we giving away, you might ask? ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL WOOD MOUNTED VINTAGE LABELS STAMP SET BY STAMPIN' UP!!! Co-ordinates with the punch, this label stamp set is to DIE FOR!

ALSO DON'T FORGET - The Sale-a-bration ends on March 31st, so be sure to get your orders in before then so you can get some freebies!!! Spend $65 and get a free product. What could be better?

I WAS SO EXCITED TO post a HOW-TO VIDEO today - it is a video I have been wanting to do for a very long time, I was saving it for a special occasion like today - but my computer has decided to reject my vids....again!!! What is up with that??? :(

So instead I am posting a 3D cupcake box that I made for one of our classes :)

I got the template from a wicked template-tress named Kelleigh Ratzlaff, her templates are available at The DigiChick blog. It is the cutest box ever, with lots of room to play with your creativity to make the ultimate cupcake!

 
 
 I will post the video as soon as I get techie and figure out my comp problems!

 

Furry Nuggets

After Akiko's post about the Tobi eating machine, I couldn't help but browse through sweet pics of my furry little nuggets.  The mommy in me is needing to brag a little about how super fantastic my kids are....all they want to do is just snuggle and snuggle and....snuggle...ha!  Thank god Kiko (my dog not my bf Akiko...confusing, I know) is over his guitar eating, banister pole scratching and $200 BRAND NEW BOOTS chomping - it's all just snuggles and love from here forward....muah! 

Pssst....guess what tomorrow is?...............

My Little Girl "Kibi"
 

My Little Boy - Kiko (looks like I'm strangling him but really I'm just trying to get a kiss...hehe)
  

My Furry Nuggets were also our Ring Bearers for our wedding.....don't you wanna just squish them?!  And I know you're jealous of my bunny slippers....hahaha

 

My Dog Ate My Project!!!!

My Morning Surprise

This is a both funny and not so funny story. Coery and I have been training Tobi to sleep outside of his crate this week, hoping he would be a good doggie so we don't have to keep him crated. Well, looks like he is not quite ready yet. I woke up this morning to find one of my cards chewed up in a million pieces on the dining room floor!

It was my recent creation for my "Stamping with Bleach" video.....:(

Oh well, at least it was just a card and not one of my leather pumps - he would be hiding under my bed right now if that were the case, LOL!

This was my card before it met Tobi:

This is what I woke up to this morning:

Tobi is going to have a very unpleasant bowel movement, for no feathers or rhinestones were found - except for this lonely one! 
 
 

Mamma Mia

Bridal showers, bridesmaid dresses, honeymoon pictures, Jack & Jill fundraisers - MAMMA MIA IT'S EVERYWHERE!  No matter where I look, wedding shhtuff is sure to follow me.  At the dance studio, I was finishing decorations for Akiko's bridal shower....and, No, not on my break...in between classes!!!! HAHAHA....I even walked into my office this morning with a big heart stuck to my butt - buah ha haha...I'm crying of laughter right now!!  BUT (that's a big but) I'm loving every minute of it. 

Akiko's bridal shower is this Sunday and fingers are crossed that it's everything she ever wanted and more =)    Yippeeeee- I'm so giddy right now.

I'm using Akiko's bridal shower as my excuse for no how-to video today - HEY!  It's a good one! =P  But I'll make it up to you next week with some fabulous pics from her shower and the "in-between-classes decor" I've been making...lol

Mamma Mia is totally my theme for today and honeymoon pictures are STILL being scrapped so here's my LO about THE BESTEST PASTA EVER CREATED on our stop in Florence at a quaint "res-tor-ontay" Mamma Mia (now say it again with an intense Italian accent....."MAMMA MIA"...sounds so much better right?!) hehehe

 

 
SUPPLIES
Paper (Stampin Up!):  Soft Suede, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Whisper White and Basic Black
Paper (Other):  Patterned Paper from Costco
Inks (Stampin Up!):  White Craft and Soft Suede Classic
Punches (Stampin Up!):  Pretty much all the circle punches
Cricut Cartridges:  Alphalicious and Home Accents
Other:  Dots Embossing Folder, Black twine and Brads from Stampin Up! and Pearls, buttons, ribbon and flowers from Dollarama

HAPPY ABSO-TOOT-LEY BEAUTIFUL WEDNESDAY - smile =)

Approved!

Some slight sadness on our end but definate happiness for my bro.  He was finally APPROVED for his green card (his story about that is HERE) so my hubby, mom and bro met this morning for one last delicious Timmies before he ventures to Montreal to pick up his looooong awaited card and returns home to NYC to his wifey and furry girls.  I must say, we were selfishly enjoying every minute with him of his 6 weeks here - haven't spent that much time with him since I was 16 and it sure felt great!  Oh! and if you're close to NYC, he'll be playing live there tomorrow night.  Check it out HERE 

On his way to Montreal and one last pic with the mawja at Timmies - we'll all miss you...xo

 
And a check mark of approval for Tuscany!  The architecture here in Pisa was just perfect and so easy to catch the perfect shot with my unfortunate photography skills....haha  Although, these are postcards so can't take any credit here =P  Our ticket to walk up The Leaning Tower of Pisa made it on the page and I sanded the embossed dots on the designer paper to bring out the white.  TFL!

 

HOW-TO VIDEO: Stamping with Bleach

Stamping....with Bleach??

I know...normally I dont keep bleach in my home, I use all natural cleaning products. But I had to try this technique!

This technique I learned from a book that I have called "The Rubber Stampers Bible". It is a GREAT book, filled with lots of basics along with neat new techniques to try!

Stamping with Bleach can create stunning results, but there are some rules when you stamp with bleach:

-make sure you are in a well ventilated area - its gets smelly really fast!

-wear white! (in case of any accidents)

-clean your stamps immediately after - if you let your stamps sit in bleach it will ruin them over time. I just use a simple wet wipe to get the bleach off, scrubbing in a circular motion, and then dry with a paper towel, applying pressure to get in all the cracks.

-put bleach in either a ceramic dish, or a plastic container that you do not plan on using for food anymore. Make this container dedicated to bleaching.

-experiment and have fun! :)

 

 

 

Sunshine In Cali

I MISS CRAFTING!!!!

Sorry, just had to let that out, lol.... I feel like I have been so busy with life this week that i have been going through crafting withdrawals....

I am posting my HOW TO VIDEO tomorrow, sorry for the delay...but  my new technique vid will be well worth the wait!!! OH YEAH!!

BUT I did have my very first fitting with my moma for my wedding dress. SO EXCITING!!!! My mom is so crazy talented, sometimes I forget how blessed I am to have her as my mom! THANKS MOM - you are the BESTEST!!!!!!!!!!!!

On another note, This was my other LO project that I did during the CROP-A-THON. I had a lot of fun with this LO because I took my time! I allowed myself to get reconnected with my scrapbooking side and set no time limit. I just crafted my little heart out!

This LO is of my trip to California with a studio I used to teach at, Arthur Murrays. We had such a blast shopping and enjoying the beautiful Cali weather - a nice winter escape!!

Recipe:

Paper: Stampin Up! Not quite navy, old olive, so saffron, dusty durango, and Making Memories "Chloe's closet" set (patterned paper)

Ink: Stampin' Up! Not quite navy, certainly celery

Stamps: Sampin' Up! Sanded block stamp, paradise stamp set

Embellies: pearls, beads, and wire from dollarama

   eyelet from micheals - cant remember brand

   flowers punched from paper, "chloe's closet" flowers and frame

   chipboard for letter "C" - painted

Punches: Stampin Up! circle punches all sizes, scallop circle punch, trio flower punch, small and large tag punch

Die cuts: Stampin Up! top note die cut (for journalling) 
 

Nice & Eze

Exactly how it sounds....Nice & Eze (Easy), well, that's not how it's pronounced, but it's what Ben and I kept calling it.  The layouts turned out exactly how we felt....."nice & easy"  These cities are located in France.  Was one of the many places our ship brought us too.  A lot of window shopping in Nice but stunning stores, restaurants, homes and hotels nestled inside the rocks of Eze, gorgeous! 

Guess I was feelin' so chilled out that I really didn't put much effort into this one....hahaha  Not one of my favourite LO's but hey, another one done right?? 350 photos to go.....   =)

Now that's one UGLY eating face....haha...that pictures kills me with it's ugliness...lol