Class this Saturday!

Get ready for the holidays this Saturday Nov 14th at Crafter's Connection!
We'll create festive A Muse designs - perfect for the season. I'll share tips for mass-producing your cards and also show you how to tie your holiday bows like a pro! I'll also share some Copic tips including how to refill and change your marker nibs. Hope you can join me!

Crafter's Connection, Canyon Country CA
Saturday, November 14th Make it Merry 10:30am
661-297-4005

As with all of my classes, please bring your preferred adhesive and sharp detail scissors.

November Calendar

Hope you had a fun Halloween! Continuing in my monthly calendar series.... here is November!
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Images, Black Dye ink, and calendar by A Muse. White cardstock, SU cardstock, Bind-it-all and 3/4" wire. Copic markers: Raw Silk, Sand, Lipstick Red. Triplus fineliner orange pen. Memento Tangelo ink.

Halloween catch up!

I had a great visit to Seattle last weekend - so fun to see my A Muse friends! Then came back and volunteered at my son's school yesterday and today. I can't believe Halloween is tomorrow already! I had a few more Halloween designs to share with you and since we are running out of time, you get to see them all at once! I made these little necklaces as a fun idea for kids. Super easy with a circle punch, crop-a-dile, ribbon, and clear stickers!

Then the next few designs are some you've probably seen on the A Muse news blog or as the Card of the Week in the newsletter. (If you aren't receiving the weekly A Muse newsletter, you can sign-up here!)

Love the parade kids with the crooked house! Then the witch crashing into the tree below was fun to create with the wood grain paper and a scallop oval punch. I used the retro rectangle, some stars, and some sections of one of the scallop ovals in the oval frames clear set - all stamped in black ink near the tree - to give it an "action" look.

One last card featuring the cutie mouse peeking out of the pumpkin. Hope you have lots of fun planned for tonight and tomorrow! Happy Halloween!

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Images, ribbon, black dye ink, clear stickers, and notecards by A Muse. Copic markers, circle punches, scallop oval and circle punch, crop-a-dile, fiskars scallop punch, Memento lulu lavender and tangelo ink.

Halloween Activity Sheets

You might remember seeing these on the A Muse News blog during the Halloween sneak peeks. Thought I'd share them here so you could see them more closely. My son brings home worksheets from school everyday, so this idea came to me pretty easily once I was thinking about creating something for kids. These are actually a little advanced for him, but he loved seeing them when they were done! I printed the text on cardstock and then stamped in black so that they could be colored in if desired. Here is each page individually:

It was so fun to use the writing paper lines from the School Time clear set one this one:

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Images by A Muse. Versafine black ink, white cardstock, Memento Lulu Lavender (for writing lines).

amuse-bouche - Monogram Frames!

Today's sneak peek features two new clear sets - Monogram Frames and also the Classic Alphabet! I thought it would be fun to create envelope seals out of the largest stamp in the frame set. This stamp fits perfectly with the EK Success 2" scallop punch - love it! The other four frame stamps in the set also work with punches and there is also a beautiful border and four different word stamps! Now, you can probably tell that I didn't actually seal the envelope here because I plan to put something in it first (LOL), but you get the idea. All I'd need to do is run the punched seals through my Xyron machine to make stickers out of them and I'd be good to go! They would be the perfect touch to dress-up your holiday envelopes!
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Images, envelope, and notecards by A Muse. Memento ink in Pear Tart and Bahama Blue, Spica Melon glitter pen.

amuse-bouche - Flatware!

Two fabulous new stamps to see here - the flatware and the modern wood block! Then I used an older stamp for the sentiment. There is a new sentiment "please join us" that is great for invitations as well! And here is the new Mango Shimmer Couture paper! Stay tuned for another peek tomorrow!
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Images and notecards by A Muse. Versafine black ink, Memento desert sand ink, foam tape.

amuse-bouche - maple leaf!

It's time for sneak peeks (or as we like to call them amuse-bouche!) The new A Muse stationery release is just beautiful with gorgeous shimmery paper and fabulous organic fall images. Colorful fall leaves are one of my *favorite* things. Since I live in the desert, the show of colors isn't as spectacular as in cooler climates. I delight in the *one* tree that is turning red on the way to my son's school - but I'll take it - better than none! So here I used various colors of dye ink to color the new Maple leaf stamp using the "rock 'n roll" technique. The green and brown layers are two of our new Shimmer Couture papers - in Grass and Espresso. And I thought this sentiment from the back-to-school release fit perfectly! Stay tuned for another amuse-bouche tomorrow and be sure to check out the fab creations from the rest of the team (and you can see another of my designs over on the A Muse News blog today as well)!
ETA: forgot to mention that this card is a slightly different size - worked out to be around 3.75" high and 4.5" wide. And the black ink that I used is Memories black - heat-set on the shimmer paper.
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Images and notecards by A Muse. Memories black ink (heat-set); Memento ink in Canteloupe, Rhubarb Stalk, Bamboo Leaves, Tangelo; Spellbinders label die cut; Big Shot.

Holiday class - November 14th!

Had a great time at Crafter's Connection yesterday - so fun to hang out with the girls for a while! And back by request - I'll be teaching Make it Merry at Crafter's Connection on November 14th! We'll create five festive A Muse designs - perfect for the holiday season. I'll share tips for mass-producing your cards and also show you how to tie your holiday bows like a pro! I'll also share some Copic tips including how to refill and change your marker nibs. Hope you can join me!

Crafter's Connection, Canyon Country CA
Saturday, November 14th Make it Merry 10:30am
661-297-4005

Please bring preferred adhesive, sharp detail scissors, and a pencil.

October Calendar

Continuing in my monthly calendar series... here is October! You can't see them very well in the photo, but I stamped a few lighter webs in various spots on the page. The webs are all dusted with glitter of course, so they sparkle!
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Images, Black Dye ink, and calendar by A Muse. White cardstock, SU cardstock, Bind-it-all and 3/4" wire. SU Going Grey ink and marker, Art Glitter.

Class this Saturday!

Celebrate World Card Making Day with me at Crafter's Connection this Saturday, October 3rd! Here is a sneak peek of the five Asian inspired cards we'll create using slick tricks and techniques. Hope to see you there!

Crafter's Connection, Canyon Country CA

Saturday, October 3rd, A Muse Asian Inspiration at 10:30am

661-297-4005

Please bring preferred adhesive , sharp detail scissors, and a pencil.

2010 Calendar is here!

The 2010 A Muse calendar is here! This year, the proceeds from the calendar will go to Water 1st.

I'm excited about this calendar because I've had a theme in mind since last year! I was inspired by Julie's cover page on her 2009 calendar and thought it would be fun to make an entire calendar using a theme of Birds & Trees. The A Muse birds and tree stamps are some of my favorites and it was fun choosing stamps for each month! I decided I needed a little more space for stamping the trees, so this year I made an A2 size calendar. As usual, I plan to share one page each month throughout the year. But here is September 2010, to give you a little taste of what is to come. I backed each page with different colors of Juliette patterned paper - which gave me an instant color palette!

There's sparkle on both the cover page and the Leafy Tree leaves. (I hand drew the little falling leaves.) I can't wait to share the rest of the pages with you next year!

ETA: For the stand, I used the same stand design that I used last year - which is Julie's slick design and she shared details on creating it - here.

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Images, black dye ink, calendar, and paper by A Muse. Copic markers, Adirondack Espresso ink, Memento Tangelo and Bamboo Leaves inks, Art Glitter Angel Dust, quickie glue pen, Spica glitter pens, Spellbinders Nestabilities die, foam tape, Bind-it-all, 5/8" O-wires.

World Card Making Day - Class on Oct 3rd!

Celebrate World Card Making Day with me at Crafter's Connection on Saturday, October 3rd - one month from today! We'll make five Asian inspired A Muse cards using slick tricks and techniques!

Crafter's Connection, Canyon Country CA
Sat, October 3 A Muse Asian Inspiration 10:30am
661-297-4005

Please bring preferred adhesive , sharp detail scissors, and a pencil.

amuse-bouche - *Bella and Edward*

We are down to the final day of A Muse Halloween sneak peeks! And last but not least, here are Bella and Edward - based on the Twilight book series! *grin* If you visit some of the other A Muse blogs, you'll also find Jacob (well, as a wolf anyway!) and Bella's truck - so fun! For this design, I pulled colors from the meadow scene for their clothes. But I also wanted to give it that earthy twilight time of day look - so I used a new Paprika notecard and then sponged ink around the edges of the white layer. Tomorrow is the day to see all the new stamps over on the A Muse website!
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Images, black dye ink, and notecards by A Muse. Copic markers, Memento ink in bamboo leaves and potters clay.

September Calendar

Continuing in my monthly calendar series...
I had fun playing with the Leaves clear set on this one!
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Images and calendar by A Muse. White cardstock, SU cardstock, Bind-it-all and 3/4" wire. Memento Dandelion, Tangelo, Rubarb Stalk, Rich Cocoa, and Bamboo Leaves ink.

amuse-bouche - crooked house

Today's amuse-bouche features the crooked house - which is one of my favs from the new A Muse Halloween release! And I am excited about the new slate notecards - they are definitely going to come in handy. There have been times where I needed a hint of black, but black cardstock just seemed a little too "heavy" for the design - so these should be perfect! Stay tuned - I have one more sneak peek tomorrow!
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Images and notecards by A Muse. Memento lulu lavender and bamboo leaves ink, Versafine black ink.

amuse-bouche - Vintage Halloween

Spoooooky! For today's A Muse Halloween sneak peek, I am featuring the new tiny witch and spooky tree! I decided to leave off the sentiment on this one... and add it to the inside before sending. This was inspired by this design by my friend Sarah. It is really easy to add the background sky - dye ink and sponge daubers! Makes a really cool effect... and made me realize that I need to revisit more techniques I haven't done in while!
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Images and notecards by A Muse. Versafine black ink, EK Success Whale circle punch and scrap paper, Memento Lulu Lavender and Grape ink, sponge daubers.

amuse-bouche - halloween!

Time for some sneak peeks of the A Muse Halloween stamps! This is almost the same as my design posted over on the A Muse News blog - but I used a Fern green notecard instead! This was actually my "first take", but I decided to change up the colors for a little more "pop"! BTW - the crow is one of the three crows in the A Muse "crows" stamp!
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Images and notecards by A Muse. Versafine black ink.

Hungry Caterpillar

Told ya I had another idea for the solid apple stamp! *grin* One of my favorite things is making cards inspired by children's books, and it's been a while since I made one so I was excited when this idea hit me! This was inspired by Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Did you know that this year celebrates the book's 40th anniversary? Little did I know I was making this in honor of that too - bonus!

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Images, black dye ink, ribbon, and notecards by A Muse. Copic markers in Bright Parrot Green, Veronese Green, and Carmine. Triplus fine liner yellow pen, Black cardstock, 1/4" circle punch, 1" and 1 1/8" circle punches, glue dot, foam tape, Fluid chalk ink Warm Red.