CraftyEngineer

A Muse Class Schedule

• May your Holidays Shimmer and Sparkle!, Sat, Nov. 14th, 2009 10am-12pm, Memory Depot, Austin, TX (512) 326-8045
• Winter Wonderland, Sat, Nov.14th, 2009 1pm-3pm, Memory Depot, Austin, TX (512) 326-8045

• May your Holidays Shimmer and Sparkle!,  Sat, Nov 28th, 2009 10a-12p, Stamp Antonio Arts, San Antonio, TX (210) 342-6217
• Marvelous Monograms, Sat, Nov 28th, 2009 12:30pm-2:30pm, Stamp Antonio Arts, San Antonio, TX (210) 342-6217
• Santa's Toybox, Sat., Nov 28th, 2009 3pm-5pm, Stamp Antonio Arts, San Antonio, TX (210) 342-6217

• Santa's Toybox, Sat,  Dec 5th, 2009 1pm-3pm, Memory Depot, Austin, TX (512) 326-8045
• Marvelous Monograms, Sat, Dec 5th, 2009 1pm-3pm, Memory Depot, Austin, TX (512) 326-8045
  

click here for more info...

NEW MOON DAY!!!

See that count-down timer over on the right side of my blog? See what it says? 0 DAYS... TODAY is the long-awaited release day for New Moon!

Yes, I'm going out with all the other crazy twi-fans out there to watch it at midnight tonight. Actually my friends and I are making an entire night of it and seeing a double feature... first Twilight then NEW MOON! We're seeing it at my favorite movie place in town...the Alamo Drafthouse! WOHOO!

I don't anticipate getting much done today or tomorrow... ;)

My good friends, Jennie and Rhonda, and I have been talking about this day and all that goes with it for months now. Luckily, the two of them are actually seeing it together tomorrow in Vegas. How fun would that be!

Anyway, I had to *finally* break out this Twilight set from Barnes & Noble that I got a while back and make a few cards for my friends:

 

Everything but the stamps are from A Muse. I love the creative candy stickers - fit perfectly over the Team Edward crest. I should use them more!

Have a great New Moon Day!

Holiday Photo Cards - part 2

Hey Happy Friday the 13th!

More photo inspiration...

okay so the story goes like this... I love to do photo cards. Love to figure out the "design" for this year's card. And I try many different layouts and stuff so that I don't send the same thing every year. Great. So then I go to make this card and then realize that I can't show my kids - because I'm freaky paranoid that way... you all know that by now... um, well how am I supposed to do a photo card w/o showing my kids? Hmm. Hence the dog picture yesterday. And then today...

So, today's photo card inspiration is dedicated to ALL of you that don't have a warm winter... in Texas, some Christmas' are shorts weather...

It is a picture from Mexico this summer. The resort we stayed at had one of those endless pools, which look like you're swimming in the ocean.

My card is an A10 size. Same size of those Sam's, Target, etc. type cards everyone gets. I got those once and then put it in a sized card like this. Still handmade and still different than everyone else's ;).

This card is made with the New A Muse Shimmer Couture Papers. One side of the paper is blue and the other is white... both shimmery. I folded it over at the 2" mark to make the overlay. Then on vellum I stamped "warm winter wishes".

May your Friday the 13th not be spooky and may your winter be warm and cozy!

Holiday Photo Cards - part 1

Have you seen the holiday photo cards on the A Muse blog?  Such inspiration.

We always send a photo but I always have to figure out how to make a card design to include that and our holiday letter.

Here's a style I really like and it's simple to mass produce:

This is an A2 size card made from A Muse's new Shimmer Couture Papers. That's a picture of my oldest dog when he was a puppy. He's 11 years old now. Wow, how time flies.

The measurements for the paper are 5.5x11. Score at 4.25 and 8.50 on the 11 side. I used an MS punch on the outside along with the new A Muse Classic Alpha set and the monogram frames set. The inside are images from A Muse A Palooza this summer: Elegant Ornaments and Merry Christmas RM.

All stamps, papers from A Muse Artstamps.

Have a great day!

Sympathies. Ugh.

Needed to make a sympathy card. So sorry that I had to make one. But here it is...

All images, note cards, black dye ink, ribbon by A Muse Artstamps; Colorbox chalk ink; Copic Markers;

Learned something cool...

Well, cool to me. Probably not so cool to the rest of the world.

As you may remember I got an accucut die cut machine earlier this Spring. Turns out, I ended up upgrading it (for my bday! this summer) to the bigger style. And I am so in love. I *almost* use it everyday. Seriously. It was the machine I should have bought many years ago (instead of the sizzix, zipemate, cricut, cricut expression, probably the slice (although I'm keeping that one)... and my cuttlebug - that one stays too!). Anyway, my die collection is a bit out-of-control already but I seem to find lots of deals here and there or I'm just crazy.

Anyway, so I have this die I wanted to use for some baby shower thank yous that I needed to make. Then I really wanted to use my CB swiss dots embossing folder but that wasn't going to be big enough. Hmm. So last night I'm digging around in my embossing folder drawer (gah, did I say that aloud?), and I find these really old fiskars texture plates from years past. One of those is dots! and it's huge. Hmm, how's this going to work - not in my cuttlebug. And I'm certainly NOT using that stupid hand-tool to emboss that. Hey I wonder if it can work in my accucut? A google later... YES. Let's try it. And I have the embossing setup for accucut so I just had to figure out the shim to work for the fiskars (since they are thinner than the accucut ones). OH WAIT. The CB ones will fit. Moments later... I got it to work! Did you hear me scream with glee? LOL.

A whole new world....

This card is 5.75 x 5.75. See my dots? I love that I found something to use in my own stash. That never happens! ;)

Well, I hope all is well with you. 10 days until New Moon. And some days after that is Thanksgiving and Christmas. LOL.