JAMSquared

Tag Archives: A Muse

Howdy from Austin

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Greetings! Welcome to another Texas Tuesday, hosted on the first and third Tuesdays of each month. James and I just got back into town yesterday from a little vacation to the Bay area of California, so I had city skylines and “Greetings from” on my mind. I then browsed the sketch blogs in my Google reader and the Mojo Monday Sketch #178 inspired me to create this quick little card. We enjoyed our getaway, but the huge smile that lit up Jessica’s face when we arrived home in Austin after 4.5 days apart was the best part of our trip. Stay tuned for pictures from our trip.

Howdy from Austin card

Stamps: A Muse Cityscape and Clouds; Deadbeat Designs Howdy
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Basic Gray, Real Rust
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Sweet Pea
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Versamark
Embellishments: orange brad from stash; Stampin’ Up black 5/8″ grosgrain ribbon and eyelets
Tools: cropadile; Nesties large circle and large scalloped circle; black detail embossing powder; black marker (handwritten “from Austin”)

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the posse’s creations and leave them some love (links in my sidebar –>).

Thanks for stopping by.

Treat Bags

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I like to give homemade Christmas goodies to a number of our neighbors. This year, I decided to make two styles of Christmas treat bags.

This first one is the one I liked best. It uses two stamp sets I received as birthday presents.

Snow Treat Bag

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Friendship Jar; Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers; Stampin’ Up Snow (wheel)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Marina Mist
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Marina Mist
Embellishments: liquid applique, Stickles silver
Tools: Papertrey Ink Friendship Jar die; Stampin’ Up Creamy Caramel marker

The second style of treat bag has a color flaw that is bugging me. Even though the green ink I used on the treat bag matches the green cardstock, they don’t look like the same color. It is probably because the treat bag is glossy, which is great for keeping the treats contained.

Yummy Treat Bag

Stamps: Stampin’ Up Yummy, All About Christmas (wheel)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Garden Gree
Ink: Stampin’ Up Garden Green, Real Red
Embellishments: the Twinery Maraschino
Tools: Nestabilities Labels Four

Both of the above treat bags are made using Window White Tin Tie bags from Paper Mart. I bought a package of 100 a while back and I need to find reasons to give gifts more often. Both of these treat bags are also made with a challenge in mind, Meljen’s Challenge #38 sweet as candy (or cookies). I have to say that goody bags filled with cookies quality as sweet.

This last treat container is actually one I made quite a while back at an A Muse workshop at Stamp Salado. My friend Geeta is a certified A Muse instructor and she came up with the design, but I wanted to share it, because it is super cute. I filled it with candy cane kisses and rollos to give to our baby-sitter. We’ve only used Maddie twice now, but I am super pysched about the implications of having a non-friend baby-sitter.

Penguin Treat Bag

Thanks for stopping by.

A Birthday Card and Gift for Lillie

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My good friend Jillan’s daughter Lillie recently turned three years old. She and her cousin Jacey (who is two months younger than her) celebrated by having a carnival-themed birthday party this past Sunday. I wanted to do something special for Lillie. Lillie is enamored with baby kangaroos. I recently bought this stamp set, because I knew it would be perfect.

Lillie’s birthday card was the other thing I worked on the last time I got together with Lori. It worked out well, because I was talking about grass and how I wish I had the Martha Stewart grass punch. Lori brought up that she had this grass-like wheel and it was perfect for the vision in my head, especially once I added the rhinestone flowers to the flowers in the grass.

Lillie's Birthday Card

Stamps: Stampin’ Up Build-a-Roo, Daisy Field (wheel); Hero Arts CL037 Clear Design Number THREE; Stampabilites Fun Alpha Upper, Fun Alpha Lower
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel
Ink: Stazon Jet Black
Accessories: Kaiser Scrapbook flower rhinestones; Stickles Yellow, Xmas Red
Tools: Xyron 5″ Creative Station

I also made Lillie a personalized picture frame with a mama kangaroo and her joey. I am very happy with how it turned out. I would have liked to put something in the lower right corner, but couldn’t think of what to put.

Kangaroo Frame for Lillie

Stamps: Stampin’ Up Build-a-Roo, A*Muse Polka Dot Letters
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa
Paint: Folk Art Christmas Red
Tools: Mod Podge Matte

I had plans for one more crafty thing, but I didn’t quite get to it. I rounded out Lillie’s gift with a stuffed kangaroo with baby joey and a book about kangaroos.

Unfortunately, Jessica didn’t care for the loudness of a toddler birthday party and we didn’t stay very long. Fortunately, Jillan pulled Lillie off to the side to open the gift from us (didn’t want to upset Jacey because he wasn’t opening gifts) and I got to see Lillie’s reaction to her present.

Lillie Looking at Her Card

Lillie Looking at her Frame

As you can see, Lillie very intently looked at her card and frame. Isn’t the little clown dress Jillan made for her perfect for the carnival theme of the party?

Two Cards with a Few Challenges

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Here are two cards I finished up yesterday and today.

The first card was made for two challenges: All That Scraps Weekly Wednesday Challenge #26 and Anyone for Anya Sketch #9. The ATS challenge was to use sewing on your card. I’ve never used sewing on my card because a) my sewing machine is in Jessica’s closet and I usually crafty during her naptime and b) punching holes and then sewing seems time consuming. And yes, it was a little time consuming, but not too bad. However, I ended up punching twice as many holes as I needed. Oh well, I kinda like how it turned out. I ended up flipping the sketch on its side to work with the image and shrinking it so it could be an A2 card, the preferred size for Operation Write Home. I’m not completely sold on the sentiment I chose, but hopefully the soldier finds it perfect for his recipient.

Anyone for Anya Sketch #9

Take Care of Yourself Card

Stamps: C.C. Designs Coffee Kiki La Rue; Stampin’ Up Sweet Little Sentiments
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Barely Banana
Designer Paper:
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Wild Wasabi
Accessories: DMS floss 469; Inkessentials Glossy Accents (on mug)
Tools: colored pencils; Fiskars All A-Fleur Embossing Border Punch

The second card (actually the card I started first, but finished second) was made for the Our Creative Corner Sketch Challenge #12. I had to modify it a little to fit in a sentiment. I’m not completely satisfied with how the embossing powder made the wings look, although it might be more from the Versamark marker muddying up the colored pencil.

Our Creative Corner Sketch Challenge #12

Heart to Heart, Hand in Hand

Stamps: C.C. Designs Swiss Pixies Heidi Among the Flowers; Stampin’ Up Sweet Little Sentiments
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Ballet Blue
Designer Paper:
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Wild Wasabi
Accessories: A*Muse grosgrain stitched ribbon Popsicle Pink; Stampin’ Up Iridescent Ice embossing powder (wings, flower centers)
Tools: colored pencils; Nestabilites Standard Circles Large, Classic Scalloped Circles Large

I’ve now got another eight cards ready to go for OWH, bringing me up to 14 for the year. They currently have a challenge going on to ship anytime cards. I’m going to try to get a few more cards made by the end of week before I ship them off.

Pirate Cards

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I got together with my friend Lori on Sunday. One of the things I worked on was a birthday card for Jacey, Jennika‘s little boy. Jennika is the friend who made Jessica the adorable little knited hat with flower, which I just realized I never shared with you. Isn’t that hat adorable? You can get your own at Beany Bling (Jessica is a model there).

Model Jessica, 3/22/10

Anyway, Jacey and Lillie’s carnival birthday party is this coming weekend. Jacey likes blue and green and I know that his bedroom is getting a pirate make-over, so I borrowed this stamp set from Lori. I made this card for this week’s Stamp Something Challenge, to make something layered. To qualify for layers (outside of the matted map), I used a technique to give the little pirate boy dimension. I ran him through my Xyron 5″ Creative Station three times. The first two times I adhered him to white cardstock. This made him three layers of cardstock thick. In addition to dimension, this technique provided stability. After the third run through the Xyron, I stuck him to the card. I thought it might be safer for the pirate boy this way once he made it into the hands of soon-to-be three-year-old Jacey.

Jacey's Birthday Card

Stamps: Stampin’ Up  Ahoy Matey, Matey’s Map (wheel), On Your Birthday (sentiment); A*Muse Waves
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Kraft, Pacific Point, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Versamark (waves)
Markers: Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Garden Green, Brilliant Blue, Basic Black, Going Gray
Tools: colored pencils; Xyron 5″ Creative Station

I ended up making some extra cards, but changed the sentiment. One or more of the extras will go to Operation Write Home.

First Additional Pirate Card

Second Additional Pirate Card

Third Additional Pirate Card

Additional Stamps: Starving Artistamps DoodleFactory Tropic Sentiments

I’m really digging these Tropic sentiments. I bought the tropic set and the 2 coordinating sentiments quite a while back and I finally got around to mounting them on EZ foam so I can use them.