You Rock!

Today I had to make 3 birthday cards for a party. My nieces Cassi (14) and Sabrina (9), along with my great-nephew Max (4), celebrated their birthday at the local roller skating rink. Cutie pie Max turned 4 and I found a fun little pirate Playmobil set for him and thought my little Errol stamp from The Cat's Pajamas would make a great card for him. I had some cute pirate wrapping paper that I bought at Target so I used some to make the card, having got the idea from Leigh O'Brien's blog. I kept things pretty simple because he is 4, after all, and could care less what the card looks like. I actually drew in the planks and the side of the boat with a Copic multiliner and a ruler.




Now this card, that I made for Sabrina, looks a lot better in person than I could capture in the photo. I used a combination of the blue kitchen paper from A Muse, Pink paper from Stampin Up, the butterflies and sentiment from Inkadinkado, and the flourish trail behind the small butterflies from Memory Box. Princess Sabrina loves glitter so I made sure to sparkle up the butterflies for her.

The piece-de-resistance, though, is the card I made for Cassi. I put a lot of effort into her card because she's a little older and she really enjoys stamping with me from time to time so I knew she would appreciate it. Before she opened it I told her I worked really hard on her card and she wasn't allowed to throw it away....ever. haha. She loved it just like I thought she would. For this card I used Stampin Up papers (with exception of the A Muse black kitchen). This 'Just Jawing' set is the only set I've purchased from the new catalog and I got it when a friend had a party. I love it! The awesome background stamp is from B-Line Designs. Isn't it cool?! Inside, I tucked in an iTunes card.

ETA: the scalloped punch is one of the new Martha Stewart border punches. It's called Scallop Dot.

I'm a brat and I'm proud of it!

If you follow the A Muse News blog you know A Muse has teamed up with Operation Troop Aid to put a handmade card of appreciation into the hands of as many deployed military men and women as possible. A Muse is calling their part in the effort Operation Hero Mail. I am so proud to be a part of this because I'm a brat....a Navy brat, and I'm proud of it! My father served a 20year career in the United States Navy and fought in the Korean War. Many of his brothers also served some time in various branches of the military and one of them, his oldest brother, died in World War 2.

Won't you join in the effort to support our troops by participating in Operation Hero Mail? A Muse has created several card-making kits that make it fun and easy to do so. Stay tuned and watch for details to be released on the A Muse blog sometime today and show your support by purchasing one of these kits.

Sorry about the poor lighting in the picture! It's not quite sunny yet.

Halloween

I was browsing through the Splitcoast gallery last night and was intrigued by this card. I liked that the colors were a little different and not the traditional Halloween black and orange combo. I also liked that it wasn't really juvenile and I thought to myself...."Hmmm, I bet I could adapt this to some A Muse stamps." I also had this card of Heather's in mind when I created this.

I used my Martha Stewart Bat Punch for the bats but they didn't pop off the card like I wanted them to so I put them on top of white cardstock and trimmed them out. Then I mounted the bottom one flat, the second one with 1 dimensional, and the third one with 2 dimensionals so it would appear 3-D. I also used a Quickie glue pen to draw little dots of glue for eyes and sprinkled them with some black glitter. What do you think? Does this work for a 'tween?'

I hope to get a sneak peek posted later or tomorrow for the Operation Hero Mail set so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, check the blogs of the other A Muse Creative Team members and be sure to leave some nice comments. We love to hear from you!

Classes

Just wanted to post a quick reminder of my Halloween class at Stampin-In-The-Rain this Sunday, Oct 12th from 2-4pm. I would love to see you there! Be sure to contact the store directly for details. Here's a sample of one of the cards we will be making...

Have a great day!

Give Thanks

Wow! Beth, over the The Saltbox Studio, has really outdone herself with this latest release that debuted yesterday. I made sure I got my sets right away so I could start playing. How adorable is this cute little mouse from the Kid's Table set?! I stamped him first, then masked him and stamped the large pumpkin from the Pumpkin Oak set. I colored everything in, outlined it with my Copic W2, then went over the outlines with my Sakura Glitter Pen. In person, this card really sparkles!.

To give some added dimension, but not thickness, I re-stamped the mouse image on a separate piece of cardstock, colored him, cut him out, and mounted him over the original image. The picture didn't really pick up that I also distressed the white cardstock with some Antique Linen from my Ranger Distress Ink pad. It helps to make the white be not such a stark white.

I used my Stampin Up Designer Label punch to set my ribbon through and stamped the corn from the Kid's Table set onto some white cardstock, also distressed, and after coloring in the image, went over the outlines with the Sakura Glitter Pen. I mounted this layered circle with dimensionals. You'll notice the leafy pattern in the background. I did that with the flowing acorn/leaves from the Pumpkin Oak set by stamping it in Versamark over Stampin Up Old Olive cardstock. The sentiment is from the Give Thanks set. See, the awesome thing about this release is that so many of the sets can be combined together!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampin Up Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, GP White
Stamps: The Saltbox Studio (Kid's Table, Pumpkin Oak, Give Thanks sets)
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Versamark
Accessories: Copic markers, Sakura Glitter Pen, Ribbon (source unknown), Stampin Up Designer Label Punch

World Card Making Day

I started off spending World Card Making Day at my youngest son's flag football game. On the way home to get my oldest son dressed for his football game, we stopped at a fast food joint. Not long after, my little guy was complaining of a stomach ache and when we got home, he was getting sick. So, DH ended up taking our oldest son to his football game and I stayed home with the little guy, which is how I ended up actually making cards on WCMD!

Dawn, an A Muse Addict, is collecting cards for the troops. Her nephew is in Iraq and requested some cards to share with his fellow soldiers to send home. I wanted to get as many cards done as I could so I dug through my stash and found some designs that I thought were really easy to replicate and didn't involve a lot of coloring or detail. I ended up making 5 each of 6 different designs. Dawn, you have 30 cards on their way! If you want to participate, click here for details.

Just for fun, I played with the Hero Arts clear sets I recently picked up. Of course, I paired them with A Muse papers.

And one last note...did you know my fellow A Muse Instructor, Michelle Clark, is doing the 3-day for Breast Cancer? I know she could really use your help to reach, and hopefully surpass, her goal this year. I know times are tough but just think.....if everyone just gave her $5, how quickly that could add up! That's just one latte or even one stamp (most cost even more than $5)! If you can help Michelle, you can donate here. If you can't, then just think good thoughts for her to reach her goal.

Have a great week!

Stuff

Wow, it's been busy around here. Last week my kids had a half day, then a day off from school (already!). My oldest son's birthday was on Friday so we took advantage of the time off and celebrated both my kids' birthdays all at once. My other son's birthday is during the summer and lots of people are gone so he wanted to wait until school was back in session before having a party. We celebrated at a bouncy house place with about 17 kids or so, including mine. The younger kids went home afterwards but the older kids stayed at our house for a sleepover. Needless to say, I was exhausted and it took me a few days to recover from the mayhem.

My son had football practice on Friday night and injured his back but after a little TLC and begging from the coach, was able to play in his game on Saturday. After the game, I headed down to A Muse to see if they needed some help with the move. Well, I guess they did cuz my car was soon loaded up with all of this!!! I had time for 2 loads, then off to dinner for my son's birthday. Let me just say that Annabelle and Mack are GREAT helpers!!!

The new retail shop is not quite ready for business yet but I know the ladies are all working hard. Ross has done a fabulous job with the building! A Muse has resumed shipping orders so if you placed one, I'm sure it'll be in your mailbox soon!

I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to seeing some sneak peeks of the new Saltbox Studio sets. I'm not sure what day they release but Beth does a fabulous job with her images and I would really like to encourage all of you to check out her stuff. I need to start pulling out my SBS winter sets again and get playing but for now I'll share this one with you. I love the vintage feel of this.

Lastly (long post, sorry!), I have a Halloween card class at Stampin-In-The-Rain tomorrow night and again on Sunday, Oct 12th. I would love to see you at either or both classes so be sure to contact the store to sign up!