Remember when I mentioned that I lost all my pictures from my other computer? Well this photo was one of the casualties, but luckily I was able to snag it from the A Muse Blog once it went up today – thanks Linda!
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A few tips to note when making multiples of this card:
1) When you’re stamping your houses on the Petite Red Gingham paper, why waste precious time stamping out 100 images if you’re making 100 cards? There’s five houses in that little row, so cut out a different house for every card – that way you only need to stamp 20 images on the gingham paper which can easily be done on one sheet of 8.5×11 paper with scraps to spare!
2) Use your white Signo Uni-ball pen (best white pen on the market!) to add a bit of snow to the eaves of the red gingham houses before applying glitter or cutting them out.
3) Use your Quickie Glue pen to add glitter to the eaves and to the snowbank below the houses, or use a wider chisel tip glue pen for the snowbank. Do this before adhering your little gingham house to avoid glitter build-up around the dimensional foam tape.
A Muse products: Winter houses, Winter wishes hand, Sky blue band 4-bar notecard, red petite gingham paper.
A Muse Stationary Gift Set – Monday, December 14th (6:30pm)
Need a last-minute gift for a hostess, teacher, family member or friend? You can scour the malls for hours, or you can come to The Paperie to create a beautiful Stationary Set of 6 matching cards and envelopes instead! An ideal Christmas gift, the cards will be perfect for any occasion and will be enclosed in a matching portfolio. INCLUDED in the cost of this class is one of the newest clear stamp sets from A Muse, the Monogram Frames Set (a $20 value)! You’ll love the versatility of this stamp set and can use it to create gifts and custom stationary for years to come!
Sneak peek coming soon!
It has been really hectic since I returned from Seattle and doesn’t show any signs of letting up anytime soon. As soon as I got back from my trip I launched into prepping and planning for The Paperie’s TENTH Scrapbooking Retreat out at the Wilds and haven’t even had time to put up Christmas decorations at the store. You know you’re busy when!
This year I actually attended our Retreat with the intention of participating and making some cards but I felt so scattered and overstimulated that I seized every opportunity to help out Chris and Janna as much as possible instead. I took WAY too many stamps with me and every time I sat down to create something I just pawed through my belongings in futility. Has that every happened to you? It happens to me more than I care to admit… I just sit down and reorganize everything, hoping inspiration will hit and instead it hits the road, Jack.
I suppose it didn’t help that I had a miserable week – that never supports the creative process. To make a long story short, my mom allowed my brother to reformat her harddrive without backing up any files, and EVERY picture I’ve taken in the last two years was wiped out. I just got my own laptop three weeks ago and I’ve been so busy that I hadn’t had a chance to transfer my files from her computer. As a Scrapbooker and a total sentimental fool, this was kinda devestating.
There’s no use crying over spilt milk, so they say… onward and upward and all that. I thought I’d share the rest of the cards I submitted to the A Muse Instructor Call back in September. Unfortunately my camera broke recently (I am having a very technologically challenged season) so I haven’t been able to photograph the cards I’ve made lately.
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A Muse: Squirrel with gift, Wishing you delight, Ribbon, Papers and Notecard.
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A Muse: Open Zinnia, Solid Zinnia, Happiness always, Ribbon, Notecard. The flower is painted with Pool Smooch ink.
I’ve posted my other two submissions which can be seen here:
http://creativelicense.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/a-muse-submission-2.jpg
http://driventoink.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/a-little-bird-told-me/
These cards were all created in the very same corner of the room where my friend wrote two award winning short stories, and his first published novel. GO BUY IT. This corner shall henceforth be known as the BIG BREAK CORNER, and I will be happy to rent it out to those of you seeking fortune, fame, and your next big break.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions from Paperie patrons and class participants about my trip to Seattle – guess what the most common query has been…
WHAT DID YOU BUY?!
“A lot” is the answer, but a picture is worth a thousand words so here’s a glimpse of my loot (sorry for the glare – I was too excited to take a decent picture)…
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See those awesome Monogram frames (acrylic stamps)? Julie Ebersole designed those for A Muse, along with a few other stamps from the latest release – how cool is that?
YES! It’s true… I am now a Certified A Muse Instructor! I attended training in Seattle last weekend and got to meet most of the FABULOUS A Muse Instructors at the A Muse Artstamps Headquarters. I’m thrilled to join the A Muse Creative Team and I hope to spread the love of stamps throughout Newfoundland & Labrador. If you live in the area and are interested in card making you should definitely sign up for some fun classes – I will be teaching classes every month at The Paperie in St. John’s, where I’ve been a store manager for over 4 years. My first “official” class as an A Muse Instructor is listed below – hope to see you there!
A Muse Christmas Card Class – Tuesday, November 10th (6:30pm)
Join me - The Paperie’s very own official A Muse Instructor, for my last Christmas Card Class leading up to the big Holiday. This class will feature three beautiful card designs that will be quick and easy to mass produce for those of you in a time crunch, PLUS one “snazzy card” inspired by a class Julie Ebersole taught in Seattle. We will stay true to the A Muse Artstamps motto: Think Simple. Think A Muse, focusing on their clean, classic style! This class is great for stampers of all levels, even those who are just starting out!
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Me and Julie Ebersole at the A Muse shop.
Don’t I look like the happiest little Newfoundlander you ever did see? The whole weekend was a pretty monumental event in my life… I hadn’t been off the island since 1998 – 11 long years ago! Thanks to all the Muses for being so warm and welcoming, it was really great to meet everyone and I hope this was just the first of many travels to come…
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Welcome to the world baby Sarah Emily Baird Locke! This gift was a real crowd pleaser at Ally’s shower, I did up two matching portfolios, each with 12 annoucements in them (24 total) and I decorated one annoucement in each portfolio so she would know what they were going to look like. I had to take them back so I could print the details inside when Sarah was born, but that could be avoided by leaving a line for the mom to fill in the information herself. The elephants on the cards are all hand stamped and cut out of Bo Bunny double dot cardstock. I included a pack of pink photo corners with the gift so All would be able to attach her own chosen photos before sending out the annoucements. I’ll have to remember to post a picture of the inside as well when mine arrives 
Holy Mackrel, it’s SNOWING in St. John’s, Newfoundland today! It’s actually a combination of snow and torrential rain – eeeew. I’m tucked away in the cosy office at The Paperie waiting for my ride. I made this card for a Halloween Tricks & Treats class I’m teaching on Sunday…
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A Muse Stamps Used: Crooked House, Tiny Witch, Parade, Happy Trails. When I was doing the ordering a few weeks ago I totally messed up and forgot to order the new A Muse “Boo” sentiment. It would’ve been absolutely perfect for this card because of the nice bold font - most of the sentiments I had didn’t show up on the green Gingham paper. I ended up using an acrylic alphabet set to spell “Boo” which turned out okay, but still wasn’t quite what I had envisioned. The Happy Trails stamp worked out great with the little Parade of costumed kiddies – love that stamp so much!
Here’s another card I made for the aforementioned class….
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A Muse Stamps used: Boris, Be Scary. I always refer to interactive cards as “trick cards” – this was my first-ever attempt at a spinner card and I was surprised by how easy it was. The tutorial I watched recommended you use two pennies, but I didn’t have any and was eager to try it out so I cut out two chipboard circles that were roughly the same size and it worked perfectly (and it was 2 cents cheaper! 
)
I made a quick congratulations card for my friend who just eloped – now that’s the way to do it! Part of me thinks it would be nice to tie the knot in front of all my friends and family, but the other part of me thinks… I’d rather spend that money on stamps. And maybe a honeymoon, but stamps most importantly. Maybe I will end up a crazy cat lady, with a hundred cat stamps and one cat (I’ve discovered that I am not too interested in scooping up after more than one kitty cat every day). But enough about me! Here’s that card I mentioned…
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A Muse Stamps used: Flourish frame, Bride & Groom, Congratulations MA. I saw this Flourish frame on a sample that A Muse sent to The Paperie and I knew I had to have it. The stamp is actually half of a frame so you can make your frame as wide as you like – or use it alone as an accent. Gotta love versatility like that! The Bride & Groom is one of my go-to stamps for almost every wedding card I make.
I am a big worrier when it comes to repeating the same images on cards that are for the same people – that typically won’t happen for a wedding card, but for birthday’s and Christmas it’s nice to know who got what. For the last three years I have promised myself that I would make a book of my stamps so that a) I would know which ones I have (not that I could ever forget, each one is like a child to me) and b) I could record who has received what images.
Basically, the idea is to have an index card for every three stamps with the image/words and name of the stamp on it, then put the name of the people who have received a card using those stamps on the back. I started to make this book once using a 4×6 photo album and I hated it so I gave up. I think the only way is to make one from scratch – I should really get started on it soon because as my stamp collection grows it becomes an even bigger undertaking.
My goodness, I’m rambly today… since the theme of this blog entry is Congratulations, it seems only fitting to congratulate… MYSELF! *hehe* My card for the A Muse “No Coloring Zone” Challenge made it to the A Muse Challenge Round-up on their Blog! YAY! I also had some projects featured over on the AccuCut blog on Thursday – pretty exciting stuff!
I can’t wait to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family tomorrow, this has been such an incredibly wonderful month and I truly do have so much to be thankful for. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
Here’s another card I made for the A Muse “No Coloring Zone” challenge.
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Ok, even *I* impressed myself with this idea (although I’m pretty easily impressed). I printed off a wintery Starbucks cup from the internet and stamped the “To Go” cup over it, then cut it out and popped it up with dimensional foam tape in the center card. The sentiment is originally all one line on the actual stamp but it didn’t fit as well so I staggered the sentiment by stamping one word at a time.
Here’s another card I made with the same idea, but I cut out the logo from the cup above and adhered it to the plain white cup – unfortunately I did not have the right size circle punch for the logo, but I made do… as you can probably tell, I never use a stamp positioner so my cups aren’t all aligned perfectly.
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I’m kinda sad that the Mod Dots Notecards are discontinued, but the plethora of beautiful new papers coming out definitely makes up for it.
Look for more Blog postings from me in the near future – I have gratefully inherited a laptop of my very own! Watch out Internet – here I come!
A Muse Challenge: No Coloring Zone
I’ve been without a personal computer for the last few months which is why my online activity has been limited, at best. It has been maddening, but now that I’m back in action I thought I would make a card for the latest A Muse challenge over in the A Muse Lounge…
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A Muse Stamps: Elephant & baby, Tiny bird, Little bird told me.
For this card I paper pieced both the Tiny bird and Elephant & baby using A Muse papers. My friend just had her second baby girl on the 17th and I used the Elephant stamp to create her Birth Announcements as well (I’ll post pictures later).
I’ve been trying to come up with a clever Header for my blog – something to match the name, but I have been thus far uninspired. Luckily my friend Marg loaned me all of her A Muse stamp today and I spied the Octopus in there so inspiration might just be an inkpad away…
I used a reverse masking technique for this card by punching a 1.25″ circle out of a post-it note (near the sticky side), then stuck the reverse-mask down over each dot one at a time so I could stamp each bird inside of the dot without going outside the lines.
Birthday Birds
Supplies: Hero Arts Decorative Birds, You Hoo Owls, Birthday Messages, Bird Greetings, and Clear Smooth Gemstones (coloured with yellow Sharpie); A Muse Mod Dots Notecard; Tombow Dual Brush Pens; EK Success Circle Punch, Signo White Uni-ball pen; Onyx Black VersaFine Ink
I made this card for another Paperie class a few weeks ago – I thought it was a stroke of genius to add some micro beads to the liquid applique before heating it. Then I googled the “liquid applique” + “micro beads” and saw many other bloggers who had the same flash of inspiration. Ah well, I am still waiting for that ONE perfect, original idea to strike. Someday…
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Happy Cupcake Day
Supplies: A Muse Cupcake Builder Set; Marvy Punches and Liquid Applique; Tombow Dual Brush Pens; Stix2 Microbeads; Onyx Black VersaFine Ink; various cardstocks.
Supplies: Hero Arts Happy Day Animals, Three Stitched Hearts, Birthday Messages, Celebrate Simple Joy (tiny heart); Signo White Uni-ball Gel pen; Pinecone VersaColor Ink; Frost White Colorbox Pigment Ink; Watercolor Pencils; Kraft cardstock; miscellaneous buttons & ribbon.
I’m slowly easing into this, maybe I’m overly ambitious to attempt the daunting task of updating two blogs… I also maintain the blog for The Paperie, where I work full-time. Most of the cards seen here have likely appeared on the Paperie blog as well.
Here’s one card I made recently… who says you have to stop making Christmas cards once Christmas is over?
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Supplies: Hero Arts DesignBlock Flourish, Script Writing & sentiment; Basic Grey Winterland (Wreath); X-Mas Red and Lime Green Stickles; Pinecone VersaColor Ink; Spanish Moss & Crimson VersaFine Ink.
I love the technique of using Stickles to colour in the berries and leaves instead of markers or pencil leads. I learned that little trick from an A Muse card sample that was sent to The Paperie.
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Supplies: A Muse Partridge Tree stamp; Hero Arts Peace Holiday Word Border; Basic Grey Offbeat 6×6 Paper Pad; Marvy Punches; Spica Twinkling pens; Golden Star Gelly Roll metallic pen; Onyx Black VersaFine; Brown Tombow Marker
