World Card Making Day

You didn’t know that was a holiday??? Well, in reality for me it’s just a good reminder to take some time for myself & be creative.  I love making cards because they are something you can start and finish in a relatively short time.  These 3 are ones I made for the WCMD challenges over at Studio Calico, using some of my favorite kits and products from them.

Up first was the sketch challenge. Here’s the sketch I started with:

and here’s my take.  I omitted some of the layers as I was working on a small card size.

Notecard & Merci stamp – A Muse Artstamps

Tag- Martha Stewart, Bracket stamp – Impress rubber stamps

Background paper- Studio Calico, Flowers- Making Memories (Studio Calico kit)

Next challenge was to use leftover kit materials to make a card.  Here I used leftovers from the Back 40 kit (Sassafras Indie Girl line)

Notecard, stamp & pearls – A Muse artstamps; Chipboard shape – Maya Road (Back 40 Kit -Studio Calico)

Last challenge for the day was to use a Studio Calico stamp on your card. I’ve been dying to use this ruler stamp since I received the kit -yay!

Sentiment stamps – A Muse, Bakers Twine- Martha Stewart, Kraft paper – Bazzil

I don’t often make one layer cards, but am happy with how this one came out – and because it had no layers it was super quick.

Hope you find some time for a little crafting!

A Muse Calendar

I’m so excited to be part of the A Muse team, and love that every year they release a calendar with all of the proceeds going to charity. It’s always one of my favorite projects to make- especially for holiday gifts.  Read more here about Charley’s fund, the charity chosen for this year.

I was totally inspired by this calendar set I saw in the Paper Source catalog – I just love letterpress. But, it’s a bit pricey, especially when you want to purchase multiples for gifts. I knew I could make something similar, and add some of the texture that I love with glitter, pearls and twinkle stickers (or “sparkle gems” as Ryan calls them). Here’s the Paper Source inspiration….

And my version… For all of these I used the mini calendar, and stamped a bracket frame from the clear bracket frames set around the calendar, cut it out and mounted it onto a larger sheet (a bit larger than 4 x 6). I plan to put the finished pages in a cd holder.

You can’t really see in this picture, but I added some coarse Martha Stewart glitter that looks like snow to the larger snowflakes.

Here I used the branch from the clear Elegant Winter set and stamped it a few times to make a wreath (omitting the stem), then used some cranberry pearls to add the berries (and texture!)

And here I stamped a variety of flowers in Memento rosebud and Chalk tangerine – very similar to the inspiration calendar.   Hope you enjoyed these samples!

Please note: The A Muse Calendars are a download product only. Nothing will be shipped to you. Calendar orders are only processed during regular business hours {monday to friday 8a to 5p}. Once your order has been processed, you will have unlimited access to the file(s) you have purchased.

Happy May!

Happy May!  Here’s my calendar page for May…

If you’ve been here before, you probably are familiar with my obsession with bright pink.  Good thing I have two girls huh?   I cannot tell you how excited I was to find just the right color ink – not too pale, not too neon.  Memento Rosebud- I love it!

An afternoon with A Muse

Sunday I had the pleasure of hanging out with some of my fellow A Muse friends in the area at Ink About It. Each of us made a card for a shoebox swap. It was so fun to see old friends and meet some new people, as well as shop at the lovely store.  Here is the card I made, inspired by this one from Krystie Lee.

I used my favorite Martha Stewart butterfly punch, folding up the edges to pop them off the page.  I also added some bling with twinkle stickers – had to make sure my daughter would like it

Head over to the A Muse blog to see some of the 9th Anniversary celebration going on – so fun!

Week in the Life Update:

I enjoyed the process of this project so much more than I ever thought I would.  It was actually weird NOT to be taking photos and writing everything down. My daughter told me to take a picture of things several times today, so it’s weird for her too I completed all my journaling pages – I knew that was my least favorite part, so I tackled that first.  I’ve been working on my Week in the Life photo pages- I started with Monday is complete, and mostly through Tuesday. I just need to find a good way to photograph/scan in the baseball card pages and then will share those with you.

It’s a Pajama Party!

Last night was a virtual pajama party over on the A Muse lounge. Tons of fun chatting and creating for 4 different challenges. Definitely tired this morning as I got to bed at midnight. Luckily for me the baby slept in until 5:30!

Here are my cards…

challenge 1: create a card inspired by these cupcakes

So excited to use some of my Japanese masking tape that I’ve been hoarding. My new rule is STOP HOARDING things! What’s the point? By the time you actually run out of something, there will be something else that you’re crazy over.  Also pulled out my Martha Stewart medallion punch to make these cupcake shapes.

challenge 2: repetition. repeat something at least 3 times.

Used a Stampin Up punch and some A Muse pretty little paper …another thing I USED to hoard

challenge 3: card inspired by your favorite flower

This one I struggled with. My favorite flowers are peonies, zinnias, and hydrangeas. I started this whole thing with the solid zinnia stamp & cut it out, but didn’t like how it was coming out. So in the end, I decided to go with the blue color of my favorite hydrangea and grabbed some more Japanese masking tape (can you believe it???)  Used the McGill fancy label punch and some A Muse twinkle stickers.

challenge #4: create a card for a Mom

Okay so by this point I was getting sleepy… not getting a full night’s sleep for the last 4 months will do that to you   I decided to use this American Crafts letterbox paper that I’ve been dying to use. Cut out the label shape, and mounted it on some coordinating paper. You’ll also notice a sky blue theme here. I was trying to make it easier on myself since you only have 1/2 hour for each card (plus time to chat), so I was taking away some of my choices. Definitely helped! I also happen to love sky blue.

Hope you enjoyed the cards! I’ll be back later this week with some more cards- and even some that aren’t blue!

Happy Easter little chicky!

Hee hee- how funny is this guy?  I decided to put some of my craft supplies to good use yesterday.  While my daughter glittered up her eggs, I used my Doodlebug flock and A Muse papers & twinkle stickers to make this little chick. hee hee.

I even let her break into the stash of Martha Stewart glitters.  Who can blame her for wanting to use all those pretty colors? Plus, I bought them on clearance, and really- it’s not like I’m going to run out of glitter anytime soon.

Here are the Easter cards I promised the other day – hope everyone is enjoying the day!

April Calendar

Happy April!  Since I completely blew by March, I thought I’d show you my calendar pages for both months

Love this carrot car guy – he totally cracks me up.  Reminds me of Richard Scarry books from when I was little, don’t you think?

And here’s March…

Love the little bird and the bird cage.  I used Spica glitter pen in silver to add the chain up the page.

Hope you’re enjoying some nice weather- today the rain finally stopped and it was a great afternoon.  Finally!

I actually made TWO CARDS today…. holy cow!  Two Easter cards- can’t believe it myself.  Will have to take pictures and post them before Easter

Happy January!

Okay, so I’m a little behind on posting my January calendar.  I have a good excuse though – this little one has been keeping me on my toes!

Julia was born on New Year’s Eve, and her big sister Ryan is very happy to finally have her here!

It’s quite an adjustment going back to the newborn stage, but we’re loving it!  Might be a bit more challenging once my husband goes back to work – yikes!

Here is my calendar for January – I’m still working on finishing those that I was planning on giving for gifts during the holidays- and January is almost over!

I used Ice Blue chalk ink- one of my favorite ink colors, and added some chunky clear glitter with a Quickie glue pen.  My goal with the calendar this year was to make one that would be easier to mass produce, yet still very pretty and fun.

I’ve also been working more on my digital scrapbooking skills.  It makes it so much easier to get things done (especially these days!), but I still miss a bit of the feel of real paper textures and embellishments.  I think there is some happy medium in there for me.  Here are a few layouts I did digitially for my December Daily album.  I think it’s nothing short of a miracle that I actually finished that album before the baby was born.  Except for the cover- I don’t count that   I decided to go with Ali Edward’s “embrace imperfection” theory.  It was the only way I was ever going to finish

template: Ali Edwards @ Designerdigitals.com

template: Ali Edwards @ Designerdigitals.com

template: Katie Pertiet @ Designerdigitals.com, Paper: Ramona Williams, Michelle Martin, Embellishment: Art Warehouse

Christmas Gift Card Holder

Here’s a simple and quick gift card holder I made last year using some paper piecing on this Impress stamp.  I simply folded over the right side of the note card, glued on the edges and tucked the gift card inside.  I have some smaller versions that I made as well and will post those when I remember to take some pictures!

Notecard & ribbon- A Muse Artstamps

Image – Impress rubber stamps

Mini Gift Card Holders

Here are two versions of the mini gift card holders I made for this year.  These were inspired by Criminal Grace’s ones that she made for our A Muse Addicts get together, which were adorable.  I tried to keep these ones very simple so I could easily mass produce – no coloring!

For this one, I used a Christmas tree stamp from Impress in Memento pear tart ink, and all other images, notecard, ribbon and bling from A Muse.

This one used all A Muse images, etc. and Memento bamboo leaves ink.

To make these, you use a 4 bar notecard and simply score it to make a 3 1/2″ square card (so score 1 1/2″ in from either side of the original fold), bending the original fold to the inside of the card, gluing a little strip on the top and bottom before folding it in.  Then I used a square punch to cut out a notch on the inside to hold the gift card.  Of course, all this would be much easier to understand if I had a picture of the inside, but mine was eaten by my camera before I could upload it (operator error most likely).  I had already sealed my cards w/ the gift cards inside, but will try to make another one with a picture tomorrow to make more sense