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!

 

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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.

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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. 😉

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Supplies: A Muse Peace & Cheer Clear stamps and Holly Jolly Christmas MA; A Muse Notecard; Graphite Black, Thyme, & Rocket Red Brilliance Inks; Spica twinkling pens; EK Success Square punch. 

So here is my little corner of the interweb where I hope to kick my creative juices into gear. You would think this would be easy for me, working at a scrapbooking and rubber stamping store, but sometimes I get so overwhelmed by the constant stimuli that I can’t seem to clear my head and just… create. I guess we’ll see what happens!

The Short Story:

• I make cards and stationery with ink, stamps, tape and other fun stuff
• I love cats, cheesecake, obscure bands and making out like a bandit
• I create handmade invitations and assorted stationery for weddings & events

The Long Story:

My name is Meghan and I’m here to stamp.

On my first day of pre-school at a quaint little preschool called Happy Times, I strolled on in with my kitty cat backpack and announced “My name is Meghan and I’m here to paint”. You see, my mom had a hard time convincing me that I would enjoy preschool. In fact, I was very much anti-Happy Times until my clever mama said to me “but Meghan, you get to paint at Happy Times!” She has always known the way to my heart.

A similar situation emerged almost 20 years later in 2003 when my mom invited me to a stamping party.  Once again I was having no part of it, not the least bit interested. Mom neglected to mention the possibility of painting this time around, so I stayed home and off she went to make cards. Weeks later I was rummaging through my mother’s desk looking for a pen when I came across pages and pages of neatly stamped, crisp, clean Halloween images. Crayola-ahoy! I was on colouring cloud nine and haven’t looked back.

I’ve long since traded in my Crayolas for Copic Markers, Tombow brush pens, Zig Wink of Stellas, Twinkling H20s, water colour pencils and paints, and every other medium I can get my hands on. Colouring is still the most appealing part of stamping for me and I love it just as much as I did when I was 4.

I can’t promise I will update often, but I hope you’ll check in from time to time.