Collab: Chibitronics + My Favorite Things

Hi everyone,

I am so excited to participate in another fun collaboration.  Today the Chibitronics and My Favorite Things have teamed up to bring you some fun projects.  Today I'm sharing my project with all of you! I wanted to make a super interactive card.  My Favorite Things has these awesome stitched interactive windows.  Basically, you die cut the three windows and you let the recipient lift them up to see what's inside.  I already lifted them up in this card in order to take a picture to share with all of you.  It's kind of like an advent calendar.  Ooooh!  That's an idea I'm going to have to save for my Christmas card series... note to self!

In addition to the interactive windows, I incorporated the Chibitronics LED circuit stickers underneath each of the panels.  So the flowers and balloons light up.  Here's what the card looks like:

Materials:

• Chibitronics: LED Circuit Stitckers Starter Kit
• My Favorite Things: Somebunny Stamps and Somebunny Die-namics
• My Favorite Things: Inside and Out Stitched Oval Die-namics
• My Favorite Things: Interactive Stitched Window Trio Die-namics
• My Favorite Things: Tropical Teal Ink Pad 
• Doodlebug Design Inc: Flower Brads
• Distress Ink: Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass
• Copic Markers
• Teal Ribbon
• Foam Adhesive
• Adhesive Tape Runner

Directions:

• Please watch my YouTube video here to see me make this card from start-to-finish.  You can also click on the image below.

Click the image to watch me make this card on YouTube

More My Favorite Things and Chibitronics Creative Projects:

If you want to see more projects featuring My Favorite Things + Chibitronics, check out the posts on the Chibitronics blog here and the My Favorite Things blog for each day of the collaboration here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.

About Chibitronics:

• To learn more about Chibitronics, you can visit their website and see even more ways to use these exciting LED lights.  Some of my older card projects are posted on their craft page.  You can try out their tutorials and more advance techniques. Interested in trying it out for yourself?  Check out their shop too!

About My Favorite Things:

• To learn more about My Favorite Things, you can check out their website or visit their blog to see some amazing creative projects.  You can also find them all over the social media universe on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube. Flickr and even Periscope!  

More Chibitronics Inspiration from Bubblegum Paper:

• You can check out some of my other Chibitronics blog posts here. You can also watch some of my videos listed below:
• Light Up Goodie Bags
• A Light Up Mother's Day Card
• Scrap N Art Tutorial: Chibitronics

Have an awesome day!

Christina

A note about the products used: Both the Chibitronics starter kit and the My Favorite Things products were sent to me from both companies free of charge. I was given a gift certificate to select which products to showcase, so I definitely like everything I used in this project and would definitely use it again.  Thank you again for checking out this card.  

Another Birthday | Another Year | Happy Birthday to Me | Lawn Fawn

Hi everyone,

I love celebrating birthdays, and celebrating my own is no different. Yippee!  I know some people worry about getting older every year and I must say that my body has definitely challenged me this past year... but all in all, I still feel young, sound young and try to stay young at heart.  It's all a mindset, right?

When I reflect back on this past year, although it was filled with new challenges, it was also filled with some extremely happy and special moments.  I am grateful to the many friends who have called, checked in, spent time, visited and helped me through each stage. I'm grateful for my boyfriend and his family for their care and support. I'm also extremely lucky to have the most supportive, cohesive, caring, loving family.  From my parents who call every day to check on me and keep me on the right track to my brother & cousins who help me prioritize and focus on getting stronger and healthier to my aunts and uncles who have visited and helped out pre and post-surgery -- I am one very lucky girl and extremely blessed to have all these amazing people in my life. Thank you all!

For my birthday, I typically head to Disneyland (fun for kids of all ages) or Hawaii (so tropical and relaxing).  However, this year I had to take it easy.  So... I made myself a snow globe card inspired by Disneyland and Hawaii.

Materials:

• Lawn Fawn: Life is Good
• Lawn Fawn: Ready, Set, Snow Add-on Shaker Dies and Sentiments
• Lawn Fawn: Stripey Backdrop Dies
• Pretty Pink Posh: Clear Sequins
• Copic Markers
• Distress Ink
• Versamark Ink
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
• Foam Adhesive
• Adhesive Tape Runner

Directions:

• Please head over to my YouTube channel to watch me make this card from start-to-finish.  You can click on the image below.

Click the image above to watch me make this card on YouTube

Looking forward to a happy, healthy, carefree, stress free, super fun year ahead and spending more time with my amazing family and friends and all of you, my Bubblegum Paper supporters!

Love,

Christina

Happy Birthday, Ge! | Mama Elephant & The Stamps of Life

Hi friends,

It's my older brother's birthday today! Happy Birthday, Ge! He doesn't enjoy celebrating his birthday as much as I do, but then again, I love celebrating ALL birthdays!  I made this card featuring the two of us on a rooftop with a pig balloon.  He was born in the year of the Pig.  When I was a kid, I wanted to adventure onto the top of our roof... and become the ultimate Fiddler on the Roof.  My brother helped me achieve that goal.  He figured out a way to climb out the bathroom window.  We had two levels of roofs... a shorter one and a taller one.  I asked him to give me a boost to the top roof... but I don't think it was very successful because I was laughing the whole time.  We ended up staying out there for 5-10 minutes and came back in.  So sneaky!

I didn't have a rooftop stamp or die cut that was wide enough for a card, so I decided to use a scallop border die from The Stamps of Life to make my own roof.  I paired this with the Carried Away and Lunar Animals stamps from Mama Elephant.  Here's the card:

Materials:

• Mama Elephant: Lunar Animals
• Mama Elephant: Carried Away
• Mama Elephant: Sew Fancy
• The Stamps of Life: Candles4Birthday Stamps
• The Stamps of Life: Scallop Border Dies
• Copic Markers
• Distress Ink:
• Weathered Wood
• Hickory Smoke
• Tumbled Glass
• Foam Adhesive
• Wink of Stella Brush Pen
• Tombow Mono Adhesive Tape Runner

Directions:

• Please watch my YouTube video here to see how I made this card from start-to-finish.

Click on this image to watch my video on YouTube

Enjoy and Happy Birthday, Ge!

Happy Birthday Jiu Ma | Embossing & Watercoloring | Concord & 9th

Hello everyone,

Today's card is a special birthday card for my Aunt Nancy.  I called her Jiu Ma.  She's extremely talented and very generous. I was looking at my old photos the other day and realized many of my favorite childhood outfits were gifts from Jiu Ma.  She was always giving us thoughtful gifts, even if I wasn't old enough to appreciate them.  I was born in the Year of the Rabbit.  I remember being 5 or 6 years old when she and my uncle drove up to New England to visit us. I was taking an afternoon nap and when I woke up there was a stuffed rabbit hand puppet next to me.  Jiu Ma had the puppet over her hand and gently said "Christina, wake up, wake up!"  I not only woke up, but I freaked out and cried!!  I thought there was a real rabbit in my bed.  That puppet scared me and I wasn't able to look at it for years!  I think the rabbit is still sitting in my closet somewhere, but I'd probably still be scared if I saw it today.  Luckily, my time spent with her in my later years are much happier and we're always laughing and smiling.  That why this stamp set from Concord & 9th is perfect for today's card.

I'm using the Barnwood Background and Love You. Mean It. stamp sets from Concord & 9th.  I combined heat embossing and watercoloring in this card.

Full Card

Close-Up Image

Materials:

• Concord & 9th: Love You. Mean It.
• Concord & 9th: Barnwood Background
• My Favorite Things: Die-namics Inside Out Stitched Oval Stax
• Ranger: Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder
• Versamark Ink
• Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors
• Foam Adhesive
• Adhesive Tape Runner

Directions:

• Please visit my Bubblegum Paper YouTube channel to watch me make this card here or click on the image below:

Click here to watch me make this card from start-to-finish on YouTube

Happy Birthday, Jiu Ma!

Love,

Christina

Happy Birthday, Ming and Judy | Taylored Expressions and Mama Elephant

Hi everyone!

Today (well, it was supposed to be yesterday, so I'm a day late), I'm celebrating the birthdays of two of my closest friends.  I have a really close group of friends from college that are practically my sisters (in case you couldn't tell) and two of them share the same birthday: Ming and Judy.  I call Ming, Mingy (she calls me Chrissy, so that makes sense, right?).  When I first moved to LA years ago, Mingy and Judy came to visit me for a weekend.  I was still living in a corporate apartment (I think it was literally my first weekend in LA).  They explored the city with me, looked at apartments and they even endured an ant-infested kitchen.  A few years later, we all found our way to the Bay Area and our adventures continued, separate and together.  Some weekends, Judy ventured down to the South Bay where I lived and I'd put together weekend agendas.  She said as long as I incorporated nap time, she'd be open to anything.

 Mingy is super sporty and crazy creative. She's one of the most amazing travel buddies: we've gone to such exotic places like Alaska, Hawaii (and Detroit). Haha, she's actually a jet-setter and has traveled all over the world.  She always encourages me to try new things.  I learned to fish (once or twice) with her and she taught me how to snowboard! I grew up in New England, but ice and snow were not my cup of tea.  Ming, however, who grew up on the beaches of SoCal, can play hockey, snowboard and do tons of extreme sports.

Now, they're both moms of super cute kiddies and they're both still as fun as ever.  So grateful to have two amazing lifelong friends.  Here's the card I made for them (yes, you guys have to share it -- just kidding):

Materials:

• Mama Elephant: Girlfriends
• Taylored Expressions: Happy New Home
• Lawn Fawn: Stitched Hillside Borders
• Simon Says Stamp: Stitched Squares
• Copic Markers:
• Girls:
• Skin: E00, E11, E13
• Hair: C3, C5, C7
• Clothing: BG11, BG13, BG15, Y00, Y08, B91, B95, B87, RV21, RV23, C3, C5
• Houses
• Pink House: RV21, RV23, RV25
• Yellow House: Y000, Y00, Y09
• Aqua House: BG11, BG13, BG15
• Distress Inks
• Tumbled Glass
• Cracked Pistachio
• Pine Needles
• Adhesive Tape Runner
• Foam Adhesive

Directions:

• Watch me make this card from start-to-finish in this video on my Bubblegum Paper YouTube channel. 

Click the image above to watch me making this card on YouTube.

Here's a close-up of the card. 

Happy Birthday, Ming and Judy!

2,000 YouTube Subscribers | Thank You!!!

Hi everyone,

Wow, I'm so excited.  Yesterday, I surpassed the 2,000 subscriber mark for my Bubblegum Paper YouTube Channel and I have all of you to thank!  So, I made a really quick thank you card for all 2000+ subscribers out there.  Thank you so much for your encouragement, support and most of all for watching my videos.  I really enjoy making and sharing these projects with all of you.

I started my channel (account) back in 2014 but didn't really post a video until spring of 2015.  Even then, it was a test to see how publishing on YouTube worked.  I made a couple of test cards and that was pretty much it.  Then earlier this year, I took some time off work and told a good friend and former colleague that I wanted to post more videos during my time off.  I was hoping to get to 100 subscribers so I could secure a custom URL for the channel.  He encouraged me to reach out to friends for support.  Soon I went from 40 subscribers in mid-April to 100 subscribers in May.  I was completely excited!  Now, I'm so grateful and excited to have 2,000 subs.  I guess that means I should keep making more videos.

So, here's the card for all of you:

Materials:

• Mama Elephant: Sew Fancy Dies
• Mama Elephant: Calli Letter Stamps
• Mama Elephant: Number It Dies
• Simon Says Stamp: Stitched Circle Dies
• The Stamps of Life: Highlights4Planners
• My Favorite Things: Spotlight Sentiments
• Ranger Distress Inks:
• Picked Raspberry
• Abandoned Coral
• Ripe Persimmon
• Squeezed Lemonade
• Mustard Seed
• Wild Honey
• Mowed Lawn
• Pine Needles
• Peacock Feathers
• Ranger Embossing Powder: White
• Foam Adhesive
• Glue Pen
• Doodlebug Design flower brad

Directions:

• Here is the link to the video that shows me making this card from start to finish.  You can also click the image below.

Click the image above to watch me make this card on YouTube

Thank you again for your support.  Looking forward to making more fun stuff to share with all of you!

Happy Birthday, Gloria | Lawn Fawn and Mama Elephant

Hi everyone,

Today is my best friend's birthday.  Gloria and I met our first week in college and we quickly became lifelong friends. She hails from Los Angeles and I'm from Boston (well, a small town in Central Massachusetts).  Gloria was the first to introduce me to this amazing city of Los Angeles.  I visited her family one summer during college and we ate a ton, shopped a ton, sang Karaoke (or as our friend Winnie calls it "Dance Charades") on her dad's VCD machine, and saw all the awesome touristy sites.  Years later, she moved away and I moved here.  Every time I pass by her childhood house, I think of all the random adventures we had.  I'm lucky though, now she lives super close to my brother and his family, so I get to visit her quite often.

Gloria is a sister to me and my partner in crime.  In fact, I should say she's my partner in paper-crafting crime.  Gloria was the first to introduce me to heat embossing as we pulled late night crafting parties in prep for her wedding.  She also accompanied me to my very first Scrapbook Expo.  Oh boy were we inexperienced Scrapbook Expo-goers back then.  We had our handbags and tiny a plastic bag each... we figured, how much would we actually buy at this show?  Oh boy... at the end of the day, we were envious of those who brought along their rolling totes!

Anyhow, I have way too many adventures and stories to share, so I thought this card would depict our friendship.  No matter what we are doing, we always have "Loads of Fun" together.  Gloria has a way to make even the most mundane tasks (like reorganizing a play room) super fun. She has also been so incredibly supportive this past year as I dealt with health issue after health issue. Now I'm on the mend and have her and her husband to thank big time.

Here's what the card looks like:

Materials:

• Lawn Fawn: Loads of Fun stamps and dies
• Lawn Fawn: Scalloped Rectangle Stackables dies
• Mama Elephant: Girlfriends stamps and dies
• Simon Says Stamp: Stitched Rectangle dies
• Simon Says Stamp: Intense Black ink
• Ranger: Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder
• Copic Markers
• Versamark Ink
• Foam Adhesive
• Tombow Adhesive Tape Runner
• Acetate Sheet (for shaker window)
• Wink of Stella clear brush pen

Directions:

• Please watch this video on my Bubblegum Paper YouTube channel to see how I make this card from start-to-finish.  

Click the image to see me make this card on YouTube

Happy Happy Birthday, Gloria!  You're the best friend a girl could wish for.  Hope you have a wonderful day!

Hooray! Happy 1st Birthday, Camille | Mama Elephant

Hello everyone!

I am back and recovering from surgery.  Thank you all for the well-wishes and positive thoughts.  I'm convinced all of your thoughts and prayers helped me speed up the recovery process. I still have a ways to go, but I feel strong enough to make cards. After all, this is what I do for FUN, right?

Today happens to be my niece's 1st birthday.  Camille is my cousin's daughter.  My cousin is practically my little brother, so therefore, Camille's my niece. I think the official term is "first cousin once removed" or something like that... but I prefer niece.  Anyhow, Camille is a bundle of energy.  She crawls all over the place and seems to enjoy getting into her older sister's stuff. Haha. As a second-born child, I can relate. I LOVED playing with my brother's toys or following him around.

Camille was also born in the year of the sheep / lamb / goat (take your pick) as were her parents and grandpa. A whole flock of sheep!  So, I used my go-to Mama Elephant Lunar Animals stamp set to make this quick and easy card.

Materials:

• Mama Elephant: Lunar Animals Stamps and Dies
• Mama Elephant: Playful Pups Stamps
• Mama Elephant: Sew Fancy Dies
• Mama Elephant: Hooray Script Die
• Ranger: Distress Ink in Cracked Pistachio
• Ranger: Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder
• Copic Markers
• 0, C00, C1, C3, C5, C7
• Y000, Y08
• R20, R22
• Foam Adhesive
• Tombow Adhesive Tape Runner

Directions:

• To see how I made the card from start to finish, please head over to my Bubblegum Paper YouTube Channel to see the video here.

Click the image to watch me make this card on YouTube

Thanks again for reading this post and see you soon with my next card!  

Happy Yappy Birthday, Camille!