It's been so busy at work for me lately, that I haven't had a chance to do any crafting. I made this card a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd share it with you. Not everyone is a cat person, including myself, but one can still appreciate the imagery because I'm sure we've all seen a cat ready to pounce on a mouse, a bird, or a butterfly at some point, even if it was on TV or in a movie.

To create this card, I stamped the flower field image from the 'Sunny side of Life' cling set using A Muse Studio's Sugar pigment ink, then stamped the butterfly from the same stamp set and the cat from the 'At Least One Cat' cling set. I embossed it all with white EP. I did use my Static Buddy prior to any of my stamping to keep the EP from getting everywhere. Heat setting from the underside can help that problem, too, but I think I was a little lazy this time. Layered the Cobalt onto some Papaya cardstock and wrapped some lovely Papaya satin ribbon around it. The button came from my button stash. I think I need A Muse to make/sell wood buttons now. A little twine keeps the button from lookin' nekkid.

Anyway, back to the rat race. My kids have 2 more days of school and then I can sleep in for one more hour every day until summer's over. Hooray! Can't wait!

Next class is this Saturday, June 23rd at the A Muse shop. If you aren't signed up already, make sure you do!

One of my nieces graduated high school this weekend. I had made a cookie bouquet for another event and had some cookie dough and royal icing left over, so I thought I'd make her a graduation cookie bouquet in her high school's colors. The first bouquet I made for the other event, I had my friend arrange for me. She's a former florist. So she's good at it. I'm not good at it. I arranged these. Most were leaning forward. When I walked into my kitchen to grab the box on the way out the door, I noticed 2 of the cookies had fallen off their sticks. Right after I presented it, fallen cookies and all, another one fell off its stick. haha! Not to worry. I've run over Christmas presents before and they've forgiven me so what's a few cookies that have fallen off their sticks?! It's the thought that counts, right?

















I also got my new Stampin Up catalog this weekend. While I rarely order anything from SU these days, I do like to have the catalog for inspiration. I found this lovely idea at the bottom of p. 38. While the catalog was for a wedding set and they used sparklers in the envelope, I thought I'd make a graduation wand. You could put some money inside the envelope, too. That said, I gave my niece a store bought card. It just happened to say exactly the words I would want to say to her, which was essentially, you'll hear lots of inspiring speeches but just be true to yourself, be yourself, and success will surely come.

I recently ordered a milk carton die made by a well known manufacturer. I love it! It's really cute, but it's pretty tiny. I wanted a bigger carton, so using the same format as the die, I just made a bigger carton with a piece of cardstock and my scoring tool. Voilà! I have my desired carton size. Since I don't have the new mustache set from A Muse, I used the old one, Foiled Again! I also die cut a scalloped circle from my Petite Dot Cherry cardstock, a plain circle from Sleepy Hollow cardstock, then stamped, embossed, and trimmed the mustache and attached it with foam tape to the circle. I then taped the circle to the fun paper party straw from my stash with some lime green washi tape. I loooove me some washi tape!

For one of the days during Teacher Appreciation week, I actually purchased some new, unused milk cartons from a shop nearby full of random goodies, and filled it with mini homemade chocolate chip cookies. Takes milk and cookies to a whole new level, don't you think?

How do you close this carton, you say? Well! I purchased some small metal binder clips from one of my favorite stores, Tarjay (Target), then wrapped some washi tape over the metal binding. Close up the top, clip on the binder clip, and off you go! You could probably glue it shut, too, but where's the cute in that?

I just love it when the sun comes out to play. It inspires me to create. I've really been leaning toward clean and simple designs with a lot of white space lately. For this card, I cut a square of Sugar cardstock, put some strips of double stick tape across it, peeled off the backing, then covered it with some yummy Bubblegum pink glitter. I took another piece of Sugar cardstock, trimmed it to my liking, die cut the largest A Muse butterfly die out of the center and stamped a pretty sentiment underneath it. I took that pretty bubblegum glittered piece of cardstock and glued it behind the opening created by the die. Layered that whole thing onto some lime cardstock and popped it into a Sugar 4-bar notecard.

Of course you could always purchase some glittered cardstock to make life easier, but it's just not as fun, is it? haha! Now go create something fun!

Sorry for the last minute notice, but I've updated my class schedule page. Next class: Contemporary Greetings, Saturday, May 19th from 11:30-1:30. We'll create some lovely cards for your stash using some contemporary images and greetings. Come join the fun!

Cupcake Camp Seattle 2012

This Sunday, I'll be attending Cupcake Camp Seattle, which is a fundraiser for the Hope Heart Institute that I discovered last year. This is the 3rd year for the fundraiser and if you are a cupcake lover like I am, you need to be there!! Attending the fundraiser requires the purchase of a ticket, which not only gets you in the door, but works as a punch card for..... CUPCAKES!! All sorts of area cupcake stores come to Cupcake Camp with their cupcake displays. It's a great way to try out new flavors and see what the latest cupcake trends are. The bonus is that you're helping a great cause. No, not helping your waistline but really... who cares?!

Here's my ticket, which was designed by CakeSpy. Note the small icons at the bottom... that's the punchcard part.

This was one of the lovely cupcake displays. Can't remember who the vendor was on this one.

And then there were these gorgeous cupcakes. Yum, yum!! Salivating yet? Free on Sunday afternoon? Well, then get your tickets here. Be sure to arrive early or you'll be disappointed. These cupcakes disappear FAST. Oh, and bring a box to take your cupcakes home in because they don't supply them and you don't want any cupcakes taking a face plant onto the sidewalk as you walk back to your car. That would suck. Badly.

Had a fabulous Spring/Easter class and believe it or not, it's already time to plan on the next one! A Muse Studio has some fabulous boy sets in the current 2012 catalog and I was dying to play with them. We'll be making 4 cards, including an interactive one, plus this very fun box. I hope you can join me! See the Class Schedule page for details.