Friday, November 26, 2010

My A muse Teeny Tiny Calendar Book...

I love buying the A muse calendar every year...this year there are so many sizes available and there is always a good cause involved.  The proceeds this year are going towards Charley's Fund.
Charley

My calendar this year is an adorable teeny tiny mini book.  It measures 2 1/2" square.  Other years, I have used the 4" square calendar and made 6x6 scrapbook pages either put into page protectors and tied together with a ribbon or bound with my Bind-it-all.

But this one...it's so cute I could just about eat it ;-)


Here is how I made it:

1) Cut 12 pieces of patterned paper measuring 2 1/2” by 5”
2) Score and fold the first piece at the halfway mark lengthwise with the pattern facing inwards.  Repeat with the remaining 11 pieces
3) Open up the first piece
4) With patterned side of the first piece now facing you, adhere the reverse side of the bottom half of the first piece to the reverse side of the top half of a second piece of patterned paper (see picture below)



5) Fold the first piece back in half with the pattern facing in – you now should see the patterned side of the second piece opened up
6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 with the remaining pieces of patterned paper


7) To make a cover for your mini book, cut 2 pieces of paper 2 1/2” x 3”, scoring vertically along the long side at 1/2”
8) Adhere the 2 1/2” square portion of each piece to the front and back of the mini book (to the reverse sides of the first and last pieces of patterned paper)
9) Finally, adhere the 1/2” portions together at the top of your book to cover up the folds of patterned paper
10) Print out mini calendar and cut each month to be 1 3/4" square
11) Cut 12 2” square pieces of paper and mat each month
12) Adhere matted months to inside of each mini book page
13) Punch out year and adhere to front of mini book
14) Decorate and embellish as desired

I hope my instructions were somewhat clear!  Thanks for checking out my little project! 

Enjoy your day...

Supplies:

Paper:  A muse (gingham, eucalyptus), GinaK Pure Luxury white
Ink:  none!
Stamps:  none!
Accessories:  SU curly label punch, A muse mini calendar

Thursday, November 25, 2010

CASEing CriminalGrace...


Supplies:

Paper:  A muse (gingham, robin's egg, eucalyptus, shimmery white)
Stamps:  A muse (Holiday combo)
Ink:  Versamagic Turquoise Gem
Accessories:  MS snowflake punch & drippy goo punches, pop dots, SU silver glass glitter, a muse twinkle stickers


The Featured Stamper on SCS this week is CriminalGrace. Her card designs are always clever & inspiring, plus she loves A muse stamps! I made a card based on her Trio of Tulips...switched up the season and changed the colour scheme but kept the great layout.

I recently ordered some of the glass glitter from SU after using it at stamp camp...this stuff is heaven - glitter that actually only goes where the glue is and is really easy to clean up after! I can use it and not be a sparkling glittery mess afterwards!! I "cheated" and used the MS drippy goo punch instead of the more winter-appropriate icicle punch. Covered in glitter, I think they look close enough to icicles!!

Make sure you check out Sarah's wonderful gallery...and have a great day!


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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Organizing Copics & Ribbon...

I have acquired a new piece of furniture for my stamping area!  I got a gorgeous old (solid wood and super heavy!!) office mailbox with letter-sized slots for free!!  It's clean and ready be painted darker to match the office.  In order to fit it on the wall, I have to move just about everything in the office around!  The ball has started rolling big-time and I have started some major sorting and organizing.  So much fun!! 

Today, I thought I'd show you two of my recent organizing projects.

COPICS

I received some Copic Sketch markers for my birthday - love how they have the number on the end of the lids.  Most of my Copics are Ciaos which don't have the number on the lid.  Luckily, I discovered Karli's free download here and now my markers look like this:





They are stored in a sage green enamel bin from A muse...they are soooo pretty, right?!

RIBBON


I was keeping my spools of ribbon in the plastic ribbon holders from SU.  I found they didn't stack very nicely, it was hard to take the spools in and out and they took up a lot of room on my shelf.  I found this system from Best Craft Organizers and I have been working on winding up all my spools into tidy little rolls.  Some of my bigger spools have had to be wound into several small rolls...I have kept one roll for use and taped down the ends of the extra rolls.  I keep all the extras in a separate dispenser in the back of one of the storage trays.  I used my label maker to put the brands/colours of all the ribbons on the bottom of each dispenser. Here is a space comparison of a big spool vs. the tiny little roll:


Here is a stack of empty spools and all the ribbon rolled up and in the dispenser:


The space difference is amazing and I love how my ribbon is all sorted by colour and pattern!!  Once I get everything done, I promise I'll take a pile of pictures and post them...

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Pobody's Nerfect...


...and that includes me with my horrible handwriting!!  That is the challenge this month in the A muse Lounge - "Dashes, Dots & Doodles" -to include something handwritten on your card.  Sigh...

While he was working, my dad had a piece of art in his office above his desk that my mom made (with buttons glued onto cork - very 70s!!).  It featured several owls on a branch with one upside down and the saying "Pobody's Nerfect".  I just received a small shipment from A muse which included this owl stamp - I had to buy it because it brought back memories of visits to my dad's office...

This card is a re-creation of that kitschy piece of art featuring my own handwriting (which I think is a complete eyesore on this card)...I wish A muse had had a stamp for this, then I could have hand-drawn the "branch" for the owls instead...

Hope you enjoy this one and have a great weekend!!

Supplies:

Stamps:  A muse (skinny owl)
Ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa
Paper:  A muse (latte, shimmery brown)
Accessories:  copics, pop dots, SU curly label punch, SU markers
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Monday, November 15, 2010

What a Lineup...


I was in the mood of colouring so I stamped a lineup of A muse characters and went to town with my copics. I quite like the Xpress It blending cardstock from Copic. I matted the main image with yellow to make it stand out, grounded the lineup with some ribbon and mounted it on the blue base. I stamped the sentiment and punched it out in an arrow shape.

It could be fun to make different lineups...not only people - animals, food, vehicles (a traffic jam)....

Supplies:

Stamps:  A muse (scarecrow, policeman, robot kid, superhero, hello)
Ink:  memento tuxedo black
Paper:  A muse (cobalt blue), Copic (xpress it blending cardstock), SU (summer sun)
Accessories:  ribbon (May arts), SU arrow punch, pop dots, copics
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VSN - fun on Cloud Nine

This past weekend was the main virtual stamping night on Splitcoaststampers...this time the theme was "On Cloud Nine".  I was lucky enough to get to host the first challenge of the day on Saturday.  My challenge was called "Not a cloud in the sky"...to make a card with lots of white space.  There were lots of great cards made - feel free to check out the gallery for my challenge!  The great news is there is still time to play in any of the challenges...the deadline is Monday, November 15th at 10pm EST.

Here is the card I made:


This would be great for scraps in any colour combo you choose...I used a 1" square punch, fussy cut the sentiment and adhered it over the squres with pop dots.  To finish, I pierced a border around the card. 

Supplies:

Stamps: A muse
Paper: A muse, SU very vanilla
Ink: Memento rich cocoa
Accessories: paper piercer, pop dots, 1" square punch

I hope you can find the time to make a card for my challenge...I get to choose a winner when it's all said and done...it could be you!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

A muse Lounge PJ Party...

I am covered in glitter and my stamping stuff is everywhere, but I had fun playing along with the four challenges in the Lounge!

Jennie's Challenge: "Pirates of the Caribbean" - make a card for a kid




Stamps: A muse (airplane)
Ink: Memento black
Paper: A muse & SU real red
Accessories: sanding block, unknown ribbon, a muse twinkle stickers


Glenda's challenge: "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - inspired by the movie poster



Stamps: A muse (cityscape)
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Paper: A muse, GinaK pure luxury white, SU basic black
Accessories: corner chomper, pop dots, SU watercolour wonder crayons


Katie's Challenge: "Dirty Dancing" - use light & dark pink, black and kraft



Stamps: A muse
Ink: Memento black
Paper: A muse, SU kraft
Accessories: Sizzix hearts & brackets die, SU circle punch, black pearls (kaiserkraft)


Geeta's challenge: "Some Kind of Wonderful" - use glitter



Stamps: A muse
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Paper: A muse
Accessories: MS glitter, MS cupcake punch, Xyron X


Phew...bedtime!!
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