Earthquake In Japan And Tsunami In Hawaii

     What a small world we live in. Fran and I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to a news report on the radio about an earthquake of enormous magnitude. Then the news shifted to a Tsunami warning in Hawaii. Since our daughter and her husband live near Waikiki Beach we naturally were very concerned. Around 7:30 A.m. our daughter Amy called to say she had heard from Christine and Andy. They were safely huddled into a shelter. Along the shore on the island of Oahu, there are Tsunami evacuation signs directing people to higher ground. They have lived there for 2 years and this is the second time they have been through this. The first time was after the earthquake to hit Chile and we called and woke them up to get to higher ground. At that time it was just  around 8 a.m.They grabbed some drinks and went to a high mountain where they overlooked the beach.
     This time was different because it happened at night. They had to evacuate around 10pm. the safest place was in the shelter. (Of course they stopped at McDonald's first to get something to drink. personally I would have gotten something stronger to drink! lol.)
     Once I learned they were ok my thoughts turned toward my co-worker Tomomi. This kind, gentle talented woman is from Japan and has all her family there. When the earthquake hit Kobe years ago, I remember asking her if this was the area she was from. I remembered her saying "Oh no, we're from the Northeastern part of Japan. We live about 200-250 miles North of Tokyo." Needless to say when I heard where the epicenter was my heart sank. I knew she would have tried to contact her family so I decided to give her a call.
     Sure enough she had just gotten off the phone with them. The communications are sporadic but she was able to find out that the quake was felt in their area. They have cracks in their walls however, the house in front of them had their roof partly collapse. Her mom had to get off the phone because they were having multiple strong after shocks. She also was able to contact her brother. He had just gotten out of work and was headed for the train! Once the quake hit train service ceased. It took him 2 hours to walk home. At least they are all safe which is somewhat comforting to Tomomi.
     As if this world wasn't small enough, my daughter-in-law has a stepmother who is Japanese and moved back to Japan after Muirgheal's dad died. She takes care of her elderly parents but I wasn't sure which part of Japan she is from. Finally Muirgheal's sister Rachel was able to get a hold of Kobito and learned they were not affected by the quake at all. What a relief.
     I will be spending Sunday with Tomomi so hopefully I can learn more about how her family is doing. In the meantime I will continue to pray for  the people affected by this natural disaster.

American Girl Doll Mini Album

     My Creative Classroom has a color challenge that I just fell in love with. The colors are hot pink, orange and green. Since the next project I was about to start was for a mini album for my grand daughter's birthday, these colors helped me get a start. I just love taking these on line classes. They are reasonably priced, offer a wide variety of courses, and the best part is that you can go at your own pace.
     Over Christmas they went to New York for a mini vacation before the holidays and let her pick out her big present. Of course they went to the American Girl Doll store. Thus, AJ was born, lol. It reminds me of my girls when they got Cabbage Patch dolls for Christmas!

     This was done using Spellbinders Grand die cut. I was a little nervous to use my bind it all on this shape but it worked out perfectly. The tags were from Provo craft cuttlebug folder. I also added some smooch spritz as well as distress inks to the edges. The edges were all finished using a Zig paint pen, love how these finish off the edges.  Off to finish the inside pages that I'll share with you later!!

Yudu Card Shop Is Here!

     After much anticipation, I received my prize package with my Yudu Card Shop last week. I was so nervous that it took me 4 days to get up the nerve to try it! I'm such a chicken!!

     What on earth was I nervous about? This is such an easy machine to use. I only had to watch the video once ( a record for me!). I decided to use gunmetal Yudu paint rather than the black that came with the card shop.I love this look. The gunmetal paint has a nice shimmer to it that also gives a hint of metal to the birdcages.
     I used the Provo craft card stock which gives a nice texture to the card images.It is so quick and easy to use the Yudu that I did 5 cards in about 2 hours start to finish. I also was able to change it up a bit.

     I just made sure I had all my card stock cut and ready to print before hand. Each piece is cut @ 4.50 X 6.50. Once the image was printed I just put them aside to dry while I cut a border strip for the bottom and used a Martha Stewart punch. On the video Jinger put the ribbon around the card but I chose to add it to the border. I also decided to use pop dots on the tag and added a bow that is adhered with a glue dot. I also added some stickles for the jewels.
     Of course no card is complete unless you add something to the inside. I used Spellbinders fancy tags cut from the same paper as the outside and added a little sentiment.

     Don't you just love these sentiments? They are from a stamp set of sentiments by Lauren Meader @ My Time Made Easy.
     I really think this card shop is a valuable addition to my crafting supplies. It is particularly great if you are planning on making multiples of a particular design. You can always change it up by adding different tags or sentiments. For example I used the birdcage design but on different color card stock and a birthday sentiment on one and a thanks on the other.
     If you plan on doing your own designs you cannot burn your designs into emulsion film since this version does not have the light and also there is no fan for drying. I do have the Yudu that has all the capabilities and have burned several screens but have not tried them out yet. (Still chicken on my own designs). However, I burned the images at night and the card screens dried without using the fan and were good to go in the morning. They are a smaller surface so dry quicker than the regular screens. I do want to try cutting a design from contact paper and see if this works. This certainly would be cheaper than using emulsion film. I'll let you know how it works out since I have some wedding cards to design!

Gypsy and Imagine Update

     Once again I did it. I started the update using Mozilla Firefox, got most of the update done, and then nothing!It seemed to be stuck on the part where you update the gypsy imagine content.After about 90 min. I decided to shut everything down and then my gypsy would not shut off!
     So I left it on until the battery wore down (decided it was better to wear it down rather than myself, lol). So this morning I tried to remember what I had done the last time to get this thing to update and it hit me. When the very first update came out I had the same problem and finally decided to switch servers and used Internet Explorer.
     Sure enough, it worked! I followed the time frame Chris at Provo Craft recommended ( under his update at cricut.com). Even though the gypsy says "Do Not Unplug" after a certain amount of time, I did unplug the gypsy from the computer then plugged it back in and it just continued with the update. I had to do this several times to complete the update and was so excited when it said to restart the gypsy. Whenever I get this message I feel I am on the right track.
     As soon I turned it back on there was the icon for the Imagine!! I hope this helps someone else and next time there is an update I hope I remember to start with Explorer first and not Firefox..