Paper Trufflez

I did it! I made WINTER cards!

It's very rare that I copy another card, but, I was just so taken by this one, that I had to make a slightly modified version of it for my winter cards.

Look at these punches!!  SO SO PURDEEEE!!! 

I spied 'em at WalMart (we don't have a lot of options here on The Rock; I dream of the day Target might come, but, they tell me it's highly unlikely . . .  ) where we stopped on our way home from our Christmas trip, and clutched them all through the store, debating . . . I mean, Christmas was over and I never got my cards for this year done--oh, I had the grandest of plans, but, like the last 2 years, I just never got to the finish line.

Got up to the check-out, and whaddya know--they were 50% off!  I about fell down dead!  I love unexpected surprises!  Oh, Martha will prolly come out with others next year, and retire these, but, I don't care--they're so classic, so sophisticated and I know I'll use 'em GOBS!

And the sentiment from the Peace & Cheer set just complimented the whole design so perfectly . . .

Now, I guess I better get some (postage) stamps!

HAH! I know powaahful smaaaaht peeps!

OK, I'm a lucky ducky!!! A dear buddy o' mine rescued me, and explained ASPECT RATIO in QuickTime, in terms my poor pea brain could follow!!!   Yippeeeeeee!!!  Thanks, D!  You are the bestest!

Looky-looky! 

Oh yeah. There be lots o' gleeful chortlin' goin' on now . . .

Hmmm. I need to practice obviously . . .

Facebook Videos.

ROTFLMBO!  These were some of the better shots I took of our holiday trip to Seattle.  I was trying to make a slide show.  With music.

Thumbnail looks OK, but, when you click on it, the full size window is GINORMOUS!!! QuickTime and I have issues . . . If anyone knows the secret to creating a player that is about 450 pixels wide, and nicely proportionate in height, do tell.  Cuz, I'm about to stick a fork in my eye right now . . .

A Muse News: The Last 12 Days of Advent

A Muse News: The Last 12 Days of Advent.

Merry Belated Christmas!  I've been away from the computer, visiting family, and only just returned home to realize I had forgotten to post the contents of my box from our A Muse Advent project.  Hope you can forgive me for the delay . . .

IT'S A MINI SLINKY!!! 

I know today's kids are prolly more excited about all things electronic, but I like to think a good old fashioned Slinky is still good fun! *chuckle*  Do you remember the song?  (click HERE to hear it and see the old TV commercial)

OK, yeah--there is an ulterior (stamping) motive for having a Slinky around, too . . .

If you hook the ends together, and set it on a table top, you can slide cards that may have wet glitter glue on them into the rings; it keeps 'em upright to air dry, without touching each other or falling down, etc.

Cool, eh?! *wink*

I hope you had a wonderfully joyous Christmas--we braved the snow and icy roads to enjoy our annual trip in the city, just my hubby and I with our two kidlings.  This year, we decided to try Seattle.  The roads in downtown Seattle were HORRIBLE (total understatement)--we probably should have cancelled.  And then, call us crazy . . .  we decided to brave it even further and travelled down the state to spend Christmas with my parents, my uncle and Grams.  We sprang it on them very last minute--we haven't had snow and ice like this on the west side of WA state in about 18 years or so--unbelievable! 

It is literally "Over the river and through the woods" to get to grandmother's house--we crossed in the dark, or I would have gotten a pic to show.  It snowed and snowed while we were there!!!  Glorious!   My parents thought we were totally NUTS to travel down in that, but, they were so SO happy to see us--we haven't spent Christmas at their place for quite a few years.

Anyhoo, if I get a chance, I'll try to share some pics in a few days of our Christmas Vacation Adventure.

Happy weekend!

Noel

 

Just flashin' in with some quick eye candy today, using the Peace & Cheer set--this was a design we featured in the A Muse-a-Palooza online class.   Love this tree--it's so easy and quick to color-- I used Koh-I-Noor pencils on this one--I like the way they look with chalk ink.  I love these pencils-they blend beautifully--I used blues and greens to do the above. While I haven't tried it yet, Tara of Precious Memories mentioned that they also work fab with gamsol (Magic Colored Pencil Technique)!

Platinum Stickles were the perfect accent, on the star, for the color combo.  I'm not sure why the dark paper and ink show up as black--it's actually French Roast, a lovely rich brown, and Dark Brown Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink.

Have a fab day!

All stamps, papers, & ribbon by A Muse Artstamps

Today was my box day!

The worstest part of making this fun little box for the A Muse Advent project was trying to narrow it down to what I wanted to put on it--hard when you have so many favorites that instantly spring to mind.  I finally decided on Simple Snowflake, cuz it's my favorite snowflake.  I love the shape--so simple and straightforward!  I need to find a die in this shape, that I can use to cut chipboard with in my Big Shot.  Note to self:  research and see if one exists.

I think it would be fun to make a series of these to countdown to a birthday, or another special occasion, UKWIM?

Snow has fallen all day . . . it got a little tense in a few spots where the roads were bad, but, we made it  to the big city!  It's been 18 years or so since Western Washington has gotten this kinda snow . . . for me it is so magical to have snow before Christmas . . .  

Julie Ebersole: 01/24/09: Valentine Classes @ A Muse Artstamps, Seattle, WA

Julie Ebersole: 01/24/09: Valentine Classes @ A Muse Artstamps, Seattle, WA.

I'm purdy stoked about my coming V-Day classes down in Seattle!  GOOD TIMES!

Trust me, when you see the new A Muse Valentine images, you are gonna bounce big time!  They are so stinkin' cute!!!  I can't stop playin' with 'em!

Plannin' a New Year's Party?

We haven't been to a New Year's party in years--once the kidlings came along, we got in the habit of staying home to celebrate.  Of course, now we're old farts, and lucky if we can stay awake past 10pm.  HAH!

But, I remember how much fun it was to get all dolled up and ring in the New Year with great music, yummy finger foods, and Asti Spumante . . . good times! 

This design was featured as a Card Of The Week in the A Muse e-Newsletter a few weeks ago, and I really liked how it turned out.  OK, I *loved* how it turned out--golly gee, do I ever love a 5MQ like this!  Yippee skippeeeeee!!!

Stamps by A Muse:  Party Silhouette, Madeira, "Happy New Year"; Paper by A Muse:  Cabana Blue Note Card; Ink:  Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate; Clear Twinkle Stickers by A Muse

I'M SO HAPPY!!!

Yes, I am standing at the window right at this very minute, with a nice steamy cuppa. This is what I see.

 And, I am LOVIN' IT!!!

All I want for Christmas is this. 

And, world peace.

What little girl wouldn't love these???

my little mochi: Another breath freshening craft.

She amazes me, this gal.  So clever, she gives me heart palpitations!

What's In Your Wallet?

Download 4BarWalletJE

I love gift cards, but, sometimes they can seem like an impersonal gift, UKWIM?  So, I wanted to try making a fun wallet to present a Starbucks card.   Using the 4 Bar note cards made it pretty easy, because they were so close to the size I wanted the finished wallet to be.

Of course, I had to use the To Go Cup!  I love the holiday Starbucks cups this time of year, so I colored the image deep red, and then used a white gel pen to draw the snowflakes.

I decided to put a closure, but, I don't know that one is really necessary--still, it adds a bit of embellishment and interest, and I was able to use a few scraps up! The mini brads are there more for aesthetics than function; I secured those to the red strip and then glued that down with mini glue dots at each end so the brad butts (OK, really they're called "prongs", but, you knew that, right?) wouldn't show through on the inside of the wallet. *wink*

It does help when securing the inside panel, to fold it and press the sticky side of the flaps down on one side first, allowing for a little bit of "give" in the gutter crease, and then folding the other side of the cover down onto the remaining sticky flaps.  Otherwise, if you try to glue it down while entirely open and flat, when you go to close the wallet, it will "buckle"/crumple along the gutter crease, and it won't lay nice nice and flat.

If I felt *really* ambitious, I guess I could stitch the inside pocket panel on with a sewing machine, which I do have . . . but, naaaaaaaaah.  I'm just not that ambitious!    ROTFLMBO!!!   And, I have no place to set it up permanently to use on paper projects right now anyhoo . . . *sigh* . . .

Oh, and Lydia!  I only know how to do the grid thingy on Typepad, and this is how I did it, using Typepad's redesigned editor interface:

• When I uploaded the pics, I custom sized them, as per Em's directions, to 140 pixels wide; the size (width) of your pictures and the width of your main column will factor into this, and you may need to tweak things to make it work--I knew I wanted 3 pics going across, and I knew my main column width is set to 500 pixels and is NOT fluid.
• The first two pictures in a row have to be flushed left, and the last one "no wrap"
• After uploading all the pics, I double-clicked on each one, and an editing box opened up.  I added a border, and "padding" (spacing between them).  In the grid on the AMN blog, I inserted links in the URL field box so that when you click on the picture, it takes you to that address.  On the grid above, if you click on the pictures, they should just expand to full size.

Happy weekend--I'm so jealous that some of you are enjoying snow!  No flakes here, but, the temps are dropping . . . they say it will get below freezing and hold until Monday!  Eeeeek!

Stamps:  To Go Cup, "Merry Christmas", Tiny Holly by A Muse Artstamps
4 Bar Note Cards:  Madeira and Vintage Red by A Muse
Clear Circle Sticker by A Muse
1 1/2" Circle Punch and 2" Scallop Circle Punch by EK Success
Brilliance Graphite Black Ink
Copic Marker:  Lipstick Red
Uniball White Gel Pen
Copper Mini Brads by Making Memories

Doesn't it look purdeeee???

A Muse News: The First 12 Days of Advent.

I've been wanting to figure out how to do a grid thingy like that forever, and with Em's help, I did it!

I love learning how to do stuff like that.  Yay me!