A Muse Calendar

Have you seen the new 2009 A Muse Calendars that Linda has available on the A Muse News Blog??? My good friend Victoria is being honored through the sales of the calendars this year! All proceeds raised for the calendars are going to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society an organization that Victoria got to pick which is dear to her heart because she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma earlier this year.

I got to play around a bit with the calendar and use my Bind-it-All machine that I bought earlier this year and had never used!!! Here's what I made:

Victoria and I were working on calendars together one day and she showed me a calender she made a while back that she had a template for, to make these cool stands for flip calendars. I didn't have her template, but I got the idea from hers and made my own version. I put a piece of window sheet on the front of the calendar so it's protected and has some sort of cover. I also added a little bit of Stardust glitter pen to each page to give it some sparkle and unity throughout the pages. The "2009" numbers were stamped with A Muse's Birthday Builder clear set.

I realized after I bound it all together that I should've taken pictures of the pages before doing that so I could combine them, but I just made a little extra work for myself having to take pics of each page and uploading so many pictures!!

I hope you like the calendars and are inspired to get your own version and help support this wonderful cause!! There are 3 different versions of the calendar available for purchase through donation and 3 different donation levels for you to choose from!! So fun to have choices!! What a great opportunity Linda has given us to help support those in need!!!

Hugs and blessings to you all!

Step it Up Game

Hi!! I made a couple projects over the weekend for this month's Step It Up challenge on the A Muse Addicts site. The challenge is to make any type of game or toy using A Muse products.

I'll share one for today:

We sell these cute little tins in the A Muse shop for $1. It was super simple to make, I stamped the images (added some black glaze pen to the spider), cut them out with my CM circle cutter, punched holes where desired, added some double stick foam tape to the bottom of the circle, placed it in the tin, added some ball bearings, put the lid on and added some ribbon to decorate the outside. Maybe not all in that order exactly, but you get the picture! :D Super easy project but it's definitely a challenging game, those balls fly around so fast in that tin!!! :D My son was so sweet, he said, "You make such cool things mommy!" Gotta love him, boosted my ego for sure!! :D

I hope some of you will be able to try out the Step It Up challenge this month!!

Hugs and blessings,

Happy Friday!

Hi Everyone! Happy Friday to you!! I hope you had a great week and are ready for a fun or relaxing weekend!!

I finally got to do some stamping again yesterday. I feel so busy lately that I haven't even been thinking about stamping!! That's definitely a very sad thing!! Victoria came over again for a play date and we made a few cards together. I did manage to get one Stamp of the Week challenge card done for the A Muse Addicts site, this Love Bus card:

I put some Crystal Effects on the bus to make it glossy. While I had the Mushroom Trio stamp out I decided to do a mushroom card too!

While I was at the University Bookstore the other day I saw a super cute little notebook that had mushrooms on it and the sentiment that went with it was "Let Peace Grow", how cool is that?? I don't have a sentiment like that so Victoria and I were looking through the sentiments I had and decided we could put "Peace" from Peace on Earth MA and "grows" from Love Grows together to make "Peace Grows." I think it works well! I love it when an idea unfolds and works. I originally tried coloring in the mushrooms with Souffle Pens and they worked, but weren't giving a good variety of color, they looked too washed out, so I decided to paper piece them instead.

This is a donut card, even though it looks like a cupcake card!! LOL! (I try!) The cupcake image and black scallop are on the inside of the card and there's a punched out scallop circle on the front of the card so you can see the cupcake from the front of the card.

I have a couple ideas for Bernice, this one didn't quite work out how I hoped it would, I was hoping to do a quick easy card with her, but it ended up taking much longer to make this card than I expected. I masked off her lizard/rat and added the balloon. Doesn't she look just like me??? :D

And last but not least, I need to share these fabulous pictures of Victoria and I!!! LOL!!








We were playing with Photo Booth on my computer and trying to get a nice picture of the two of us to post on our blogs, but as I was adjusting the screen, I ended up focusing on our chests by mistake, so we decided to play it up and take a fun photo!! Victoria said, "Oh, it's one of those types of pictures!!" LOL!!

Then we couldn't stop laughing about how silly we are!!! And, yes, I was having a bad hair day and that is my messy office/craft room! That's ok though, sometimes we just gotta live life and not worry so much about what we look like, right?

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!!!

Hugs and blessings,

First Day of Preschool

Hey everyone!! How's it goin?? Me?? I'm wiped out!!! LOL!! Today was my DD's first day of Co-op preschool and I forgot how much work it is helping out in class!! It was a busy day, lots to do and clean up! I was in charge of helping the kids make gingerbread cookies (um, can we say messy??) Then with all the other activities and just keeping up with all the kids, I feel completely zapped! But, she had a BLAST and completely loved it and can't wait to go back! She had sharing today and I was so proud of her, she wasn't nervous at all, so excited to tell everyone about her toy kitty she brought in and even put it on the green mat so all the kids could play with it.

I'll share a simple card today. I made this a couple weeks ago for my mom cuz she bought these stamps and wanted an idea of what to do with them.

Then I saw this post by Jeanne S and thought I'd give the sponging a try!! I still need some help with it, but it did give the card a little something more than the original.

Stamps: A Muse Cow, Grass and Moo-chas Grass-ias
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Soft Sky, R20 Blush Copic
Papers: A Muse Fern notecard, black, white
Accessories: ribbon by May Arts?, dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous week!

Game On

Hi there! Today is the first day of school for my 2 older kids. So exciting!! My youngest starts pre-school on Monday so she's counting down the days!

I have a project to share! The Step It Up challenge for the A Muse Addicts group this month is called "Game On"!! :D The challenge is to make any type of game or toy using your A Muse products. This will definitely be challenging, but I have a few ideas I hope to work on this month. Here's what I came up with to start:

Pretty simple idea, a Memory/Match game using some of my favorite A Muse stamps! I think all 3 of my kiddos will have fun with this, but I was mostly thinking of my pre-schooler and giving her another activity to do while her big brother and sister are in school during the day. I made a simple Origami box to hold the cards in (thanks to Linda for sharing this box idea with me a few months ago). Here are some similar directions for an Origami box. The version I made is modified a little, since the cardstock is thick, I cut 2 sides before folding them in (I know, not true Origami). To make the bottom, use a square that's 1/4 inch smaller than the lid.

I hope you're having a wonderful week!

Hugs and Blessings,

Stamping with Victoria

Hello! Happy Friday! Yay!! This week went by fast.

Victoria came over yesterday and we got to stamp and chat again. I love getting together with her, she's so funny and we have a blast together. The funnest part was coming up with a bunch of naughty card ideas!! LOL!! Although we didn't make them yesterday, maybe sometime we will and share!!

We did work on the Stamp of the Week and Weekly challenge for the A*Muse Addicts site this past week.

Here's what I made:

This card qualifies for the Stamp of the Week Challenge (Stack of Books) and the Weekly Challenge (using office supplies on a card.) The pin on the ribbon is actually a T Pin from Staples. I put some clear glaze on the mug and some Spica Glitter pen on the steam and coffee to give it a little something extra too.

This card is also a Stamp of the Week challenge card (Superhero). So, maybe it qualifies for being a naughty card too?? Now you can see where mine and Victoria's head was yesterday??? :D This could be one of two things in my mind, either, Role Playing or A Costume Party gone wild??? Still fun, maybe I'm the only one who thinks it's funny though??? LOL!

And last but not least, I played with Bernice for the first time. She and Boris are quite the pair!! Victoria and I were trying to think of fun sentiments to go with them and we were thinking something like "We have chemistry," or "Instant Chemistry," or "Weird Science," or "She blinded me with science." Too many fun ideas!!! I did the Bouncing Brayer technique on this card, using 2 shades of orange ink, but you can hardly tell on this yellow notecard. I also used clear glaze pen on their glasses and the beaker and test tube.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!! Thanks for peaking in on my blog today!!

Hugs and blessings,

Girlie Birthday cards

Hi! Happy Monday! It's a cool rainy day here and I'm definitely feeling Summer coming to an end. My kids go back to school next week and I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not. I love the freedom of no schedules!!

I thought I'd share a couple birthday cards I made a week or so ago. My friend has 2 little girls with birthdays only a couple weeks apart, so she has joint birthday parties. I made these for her girls.

All stamps, papers, ribbon, twinkle stickers are from A Muse (other than black and white CS.) Memento Tuxedo black ink, chalk inks, Copic Markers, Marvy oval punches, and Stardust Stickles also used.

Hugs and blessings,