Cupcake, Take 5!

Click to enlarge

For my fifth and final cupcake this week someone gave me a brilliant idea to make cupcakes with faces which made me step back and look at all of my cupcake stamps in a new light. For the cupcake top I inked around the edge of the stamp omitting the line in the center of the frosting so I could draw the face in the blank space after I stamped the image. Now, if I could draw I probably wouldn’ t be stamping so please forgive my modest smiley face. The top is coloured with Copic markers and the bottom is coloured with Gelly Roll Glaze and Metallic pens.

I used another “frosting” top from the Cupcake Builder set to make the little “thought bubble” and the sentiment is also from that set. I actually cut the sentiment apart so I could stagger it – my acrylic block has a grid on it, so whenever I need to line up my stamp all on the same line it’s easy peasy – I cut apart 90% of the clear stamp sentiments I own whether they are staggered or all on one line – I find this adds a lot of versatility to the stamps.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend! Don’t forget to check out the Get Baked Art Exhibit on February 5th-7th at the Arts & Culture Center if you’re in the St. John’s area.

Geeta posed a challenge to everyone on the A Muse Lounge to use the same stamp on five different cards. Since I have to make 99 Cupcake cards for an upcoming Art Exhibit I decided I would use one of the images from the A Muse Cupcake Builder clear stamp set. Here is my first card…

Click to enlarge

I used Copics to colour this cupcake – I was aiming for a chocolate cupcake with lemon cream icing. This first card is pretty dull but I’ve been having fun using a ton of different A Muse sentiments with this cupcake so stay tuned throughout the rest of the week for more cupcakey goodness.

If you’re in St. John’s you should check out the exhibit – Get Baked: Art for Your Sweet Tooth. The show is going on from February 5th to 7th at the Arts & Culture Center. Click on the link for more details!

A Muse Stationery Set – Monday, January 25th (6:30pm)
Join me at The Paperie to create a beautiful Stationery Set of 6 matching cards and envelopes featuring the new A Muse Shimmer Couture Paper and stationery stamps. Keep it for yourself or give as a gift – these cards are perfect for any occasion and will be enclosed in a matching portfolio. Included in the cost of this class is one of the newest clear stamp sets from A Muse, the Monogram Frames Set! You will love the versatility of this stamp set and you’ll be able to use it again and again to create gifts and custom stationery any time of the year.

Check out the beautiful Christmas Card that Beth made using this stamp set:

http://astampingoodtime.blogspot.com/2009/11/fast-fabulous-holiday-cards.html

And here are more great cards that Julie designed with this set:

http://amusenews.typepad.com/a_muse_news/2009/12/monogram-frames-galore.html

——————————————————————————————————

February Class:

Something’s Fishy Valentines – Tuesday, February 2nd (6:30pm)
Join me at The Paperie for my third class as an official A Muse Instructor – we will create a bundle of coordinating Valentines that are sure to make a splash! Featuring the latest A Muse Release: Sea of Love, we will be diving into fun techniques – experimenting with Copics, Spicas, and using A Muse Simple Stick powder to make those valentine’s glitter and shine! Even if you don’t typically make valentine’s cards, you won’t want to miss out – we’ll have a variety of birthday and other sentiments on hand that you can use in place of  “Happy Valentine’s Day” greeting if that’s what floats your boat!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, unless you count the world wide web. In keeping with the theme of 2009, technology has failed me once again. My laptop died shortly before Christmas and I have been without a home computer – I might just have to bite the bullet and save up for a new computer.  

Have you seen all of the amazing new stamps from the new A Muse Sea of Love release? Oh my! I live on an island in the Atlantic ocean, so this oceanic release is right up my alley. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more versatile Valentine’s release – can’t wait to get my hands on these stamps, especially the Seahorse and the Jellyfish!

The Muses really outdid themselves with their fantastic cards and projects this week – each blog is worth a gander, so click on the links below “A Muse Creative Team” for lots of inspiration.

I managed to make all of my cards. I’ve got nothing else done, but at least I have a few satisfied customers. This year I am promising myself to get started in January. I will not put away my holiday stamps – I willl make 10 a month. It’s never too early to make New Years Resolutions.

Here’s a smattering of the cards I’ve made…

A Muse Stamps: Tree Lot, Fetch the Tree, Big Bl. I saw a similar idea on someone’s Blog somewhere at some point… they used the car with the tree on top driving away from the Tree Lot. So my little truck had to make the trip to “fetch the tree” as well – note that there are no layers on this card, which is unusual for me.

Here’s another…

Click to enlarge

Don’tcha just love the glossy accents on the bulbs? I’ve been going a little crazy with the faux stitching this year… on almost every card I made! Here’s a close-up of the bulbous beauty…

Click to enlarge

 Okay, one more before I go wrap presents…

While in Seattle in October I had the privilege of taking a class from A Muse Yoda herself, Julie Ebersole. Julie taught us how to make a cute little tri-fold card with the Scor-Pal and when I got home I knew I had to adapt her idea to teach in a class of my own.

Here is the card that I made, inspired by a fall themed card that Julie taught…

A Muse Stamps: Cool Yule, Snowy Peaks, Squirrel on Skis

Unfortunately I didn’t have a Martha Stewart Winter Trees punch – that would’ve come in handy. Instead I used an AccuCut die to cut out 5 of those little trees. Then I cut out 65 more for the class. Yikes.

Hope you’re all enjoying your holidays so far – hard to believe Christmas is just 12 days away. Merry Merry!

Remember when I mentioned that I lost all my pictures from my other computer? Well this photo was one of the casualties, but luckily I was able to snag it from the A Muse Blog once it went up today – thanks Linda!

 

Click to enlarge

 

A few tips to note when making multiples of this card:

1) When you’re stamping your houses on the Petite Red Gingham paper, why waste precious time stamping out 100 images if you’re making 100 cards? There’s five houses in that little row, so cut out a different house for every card – that way you only need to stamp 20 images on the gingham paper which can easily be done on one sheet of 8.5×11 paper with scraps to spare!

2) Use your white Signo Uni-ball pen (best white pen on the market!) to add a bit of snow to the eaves of the red gingham houses before applying glitter or cutting them out.

3) Use your Quickie Glue pen to add glitter to the eaves and to the snowbank below the houses, or use a wider chisel tip glue pen for the snowbank. Do this before adhering your little gingham house to avoid glitter build-up around the dimensional foam tape.

A Muse products: Winter houses, Winter wishes hand, Sky blue band 4-bar notecard, red petite gingham paper.

It has been really hectic since I returned from Seattle and doesn’t show any signs of letting up anytime soon. As soon as I got back from my trip I launched into prepping and planning for The Paperie’s TENTH Scrapbooking Retreat out at the Wilds and haven’t even had time to put up Christmas decorations at the store. You know you’re busy when!

This year I actually attended our Retreat with the intention of participating and making some cards but I felt so scattered and overstimulated that I seized every opportunity to help out Chris and Janna as much as possible instead. I took WAY too many stamps with  me and every time I sat down to create something I just pawed through my belongings in futility. Has that every happened to you? It happens to me more than I care to admit… I just sit down and reorganize everything, hoping inspiration will hit and instead it hits the road, Jack.

I suppose it didn’t help that I had a miserable week – that never supports the creative process. To make a long story short, my mom allowed my brother to reformat her harddrive without backing up any files, and EVERY picture I’ve taken in the last two years was wiped out. I just got my own laptop three weeks ago and I’ve been so busy that I hadn’t had a chance to transfer my files from her computer. As a Scrapbooker and a total sentimental fool, this was kinda devestating.

There’s no use crying over spilt milk, so they say… onward and upward and all that. I thought I’d share the rest of the cards I submitted to the A Muse Instructor Call back in September. Unfortunately my camera broke recently (I am having a very technologically challenged season) so I haven’t been able to photograph the cards I’ve made lately.

Click to enlarge

A Muse: Open Zinnia, Solid Zinnia, Happiness always, Ribbon, Notecard. The flower is painted with Pool Smooch ink.

This was one of my submissions for the A Muse Instructot Team – I’ve posted two submissions which can be seen here:

http://creativelicense.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/a-muse-submission-2.jpg

https://driventoink.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/a-little-bird-told-me/

These cards were all created in the very same corner of the room where my friend wrote two award winning short stories, and his first published novel. GO BUY IT. This corner shall henceforth be known as the BIG BREAK CORNER, and I will happily rent it out to those of you seeking fortune, fame, and your next big break. 😉