CraftyEngineer

Bumper Cards are ALIVE again... Join us!

First a bit of history...
I started Bumper cards a few years ago with my SU! customers. It was a way for all of us to get something fun in the mail. Basically SEND A CARD to someone on the list, GET A CARD from someone on the list. It was a local thing and pretty easy to manage. Then came the Fab 4's amuseaddicts.com site. And bumper cards moved to that site. It went from using SU! images to using A Muse images but the concept remained the same. I even made one of those "blog badges" a few years ago for this purpose:

So, some 4 years later, I'm not ready to let this go... I'm very passionate about it because I feel like this stamping hobby that has allowed me to gain SO MANY new friends should be the perfect vehicle to spread some joy and make someone smile.

Please note... I would like to keep this A Muse centric (i.e. using A Muse only stamps), so if you're so inclined to join me, please do so.

Things are a bit different than on the addicts board... it's a bit harder to manage on my blog but I'll give it a shot. For security purposes, you'll have to email me your address and I'll email everyone back the list.

Guidelines for Bumper Cards

BUMPER CARDS are changing the world! Come join the fun! Well, how does it work, you ask? Would you love to get a handmade card in the mail? Would you love to send one? If you said yes to both questions, read on...

Do you want to spread a little kindness? Think of this as a RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS (RAK). All you have to do is send ONE card by the end of the current month. If you do not like it, you do not have to do it for the next month. There is no obligation. Just think of it as making someone’s day brighter. Not only will you make someone smile, you, in turn, will receive a NON-BILL, NON-JUNK mail, card to brighten your day.

The rules:

1. Post a comment here with your name saying you want to join. Deadline for signup: Jan 30th, 2009. You must have left a comment to play THEN Email me your snail mail address by Jan 30th.
2. I'll compile a list of everyone that wants to participate and email you the list of names and addresses on or around the first of February.
3. The 1st person on the list, sends a handmade card (ANY KIND you have - you can make a new card or use a handmade card you already have) to the person below her on the list (the last one sends the first) by the last day of the month.
4. Please use at least ONE A Muse stamp
5. Please only sign up if you are committed to playing along. No one likes to get stood up.
6. It does cost you the price of a postage stamp.

Hope you want to join! Let me know if you have questions

Thanks Stamp Antonio, Christy, SCSers and San Antonio!

WOW! What a weekend! I had to sleep most of this afternoon to recuperate from a whirlwind 5 classes down at Stamp Antonio in San Antonio, Texas! I started Friday morning by taking my youngest down to the inlaws for the day (on the way to SA, how convenient!) - my oldest son was pretty unhappy that he had to go to school and his brother got to go to grandma's house! I did a "slow-down to 55 and kicked my son out" and on to Stamp Antonio for two FUN A Muse classes for the Splitcoast shindig! It was great fun to see some friends from Splitcoaststampers.com that I met back in October at the last SCS Texas event. And it was great to meet so many new ones. Thank you ladies for travelling so far and coming in early to come to Stamp Antonio and spend some time with me. And special thanks to Christy for organizing this as part of the Texas gathering. Then back to the inlaws where I met my DH and other son. Had dinner, repacked kits and went to bed! Saturday was filled with 3 A Muse classes and again good to see some familar faces from my previous classes and great to meet some new ones! Special thanks to Amy, Carol, Mindy, and June, of Stamp Antonio, for making my 2 days there so warm and fun. June, thanks so much for making cupcakes ... how cool is that? She said to me "what's a cupcake class without cupcakes?" SO TRUE... In any case, I'm all rested and ready to start again...

Maybe I'll see you at this week's classes at Memory Depot or Stamp Salado! Hope so!

Masculine Birthday Card

So, as you know, I've been making birthday cards for the PTA to give to the 100+ faculty at my son's school. Well, my practice has been to make 10-20 at a time, pass them around at the PTA board meetings (gives us something to do while the treasurer report is getting read! LOL! - JUST KIDDING!) and we all sign them. Then I keep them in my car and when it gets close to a teacher/staff's b'day, I put it in his/her mailbox. I seem to be up at the school all the time for the website stuff and/or room parent stuff... Anyway, the other day I was putting the January names on the envelopes so I could deliver them. UH OH... "PAUL"... HMM... that doesn't sound like a girl's name... but I have these "pretty" yellow kitchen cupcake cards... Hmm, think Paul wants a yellow polka dot card? Maybe he wouldn't notice? Maybe he'd like the sunny, cheery, GIRLY card? Um, probably not. THANKFULLY, his birthday was still a few days away.

Back to the drawing board. speaks to self: "what was I thinking making a bunch of yellow cards?"

Red. Red is a good solid "boy" color. And um, well drums... yeah, that's manly. And fun. And my old standby.

So, this time around I made a few of these... we don't have a lot of men on our faculty but we do have some! They deserve they're own style of card!

Think Simple. Think A Muse.

Don't you love these new 4-bar sized Swiss Red cards? Love them. Love them.

The inside was stamped with this  "happy birthday".

I'm in charge of the cub scout craft tonight! Better get on that, eh?

Saltbox Color Challenge!

The Saltbox team has issued a color challenge using these colors and any Saltbox stamp:
Swiss Red and Cabana Blue

I picked up some Saltbox stamps sets when I was in Seattle back in November. I used this cute Saltbox Celebrations Sayings Set on this card because it has the best sentiments! You may remember that I'm pretty active in my son's elementary school. Well, of course, almost everyone I work with is there doing volunteer work. This sentiment is the best. I think I'll make up some thank you cards for the PTA to use to thank all of our volunteers!

A Muse Cabana Blue, Swiss Red; A Muse Cabana Blue Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Saltbox Celebration Sayings Set.

Check out the other team members that played:

elena

jen a

mary rose

lexi

lori

novell

rhonda
sherry
emily

I'm going to call this next part a "slick" trick but it's really a "oops, I gotta fix it"...
While stamping this card I smudged one side (the side I was going to use as the front) so I didn't want to throw it into the scrap pile. I turned it over and did my front. Then when done I put a strip on the back to cover up the boo-boo! I used the new Martha Stewart mini hearts border punch.
 

Happy Monday!

Stampin' Up!, PTI for Sale!!

After my 25 projects in 25 days, my studio looked like a bomb exploded in here. I'm trying to find the floor, let alone my desk today. In the process, I've found lots of stuff to get rid of. Check it out - there is a tab at the top of my blog that says "For Sale". Yes, I'm reorganizing my blog, too! Yippee.. got love cleaning up!

Would you vote for my friend?

My fellow instructor at my LSS entered a competition with Quickutz... and now he's in the top 10. But he needs your vote.

You can vote everyday until midnight on the 21st. You have to register to vote. It's painless to register though. I would appreciate you consideration. His project is awesome! He so deserves to win IMHO. Check it out:

Paul's Quickutz Entry

Thank you so much! Remember you can vote once per day!

Oldies but goodies: Lots of Flakes!

Did you see the A Muse News today?

The oldies but goodies this time around is Lots of Flakes block stamp. I'm such a snowflake girl...who lives deep in the heart of heat-central.

Anyway, my dear friend Sharon sent us a clear card as her Christmas card this year and it so reminded me how I love to make clear cards. So here is the card I made:

The next card I made for with this image was for all my Seattle buddies... they had a ton of snow this holiday season and that's what inspired this card:

I hope you can see all the glitter on this card. The tops of the buildings were covered in transparent glitter and I didn't like that too much. It was hard to see so I colored the already attached glitter with a white sharpie (paint pen). Likey much better... the texture and color seems right.

Well, I had fun making these two cards using the snowflake block. I *heart* snowflakes!

All images, notecards, twinkle stickers, ribbon by A Muse

Did you see this?

RECYCLE YOUR CARDS for a GREAT CAUSE:

http://www.stjudesranch.org/help_card.php

Solemn thank you cards

A dear, dear friend of mine is going through a very, very sad time in her life. So many people have showered her with prayers, thoughts, good wishes, flowers, and other significant items and for that I know she is grateful. One day last week, she and I were talking and I told her I'd make her some thank you cards since she's not up to doing that herself right now. (She is a stamper also.)

Solemn is hard. Again, I challenged myself to use A Muse to make some solemn thank you cards. In the past, I've used some of these images for sympathy cards so I was going for that same look, I suppose. Our best buddies gave me the Nestabilities labels dies for Christmas, so I got to try them out. Thanks S & B! Use more, hoard less. :)

I made her 25 cards total - 2 different designs:
  

I've had that friend sentiment for a long time now and I think that might be the first time I've used it. WOHOO... use more, hoard less. :)

All images and Moss notecards by A Muse.

What do you think? Solemn enough?

Did you hear the news?

A Muse has released the 2009 Valentine's images. You can see them here! SUH-WEET!!!

In addition to the release, A Muse has launched a brand-new Design Studio. What's the Design Studio, you ask? It is inspiration MECCA to me... it is card samples designed by the A Muse Design Team. WOHOO.

If that isn't enough, there is a new lounge to come hang out in. There is lots of fun going on over there including swaps, BRAKS, challenges and much more. The Creative Team is all there and we want you to come hang out with all of us.

Now, all of this is in ONE PLACE... go to amuseartstamps.com and check out the menu at the top...links to the design studio, the lounge, and even The A Muse News Blog are all there.

THINK SIMPLE. THINK A MUSE.