CraftyEngineer

Impromptu SCS gathering at Archivers!

Last night a bunch of my SCS friends got together for dinner (they had dinner, I had "get the boys to bed duty!") and then a short shopping trip to Archiver's. Fun, fun! Suzy had come in to town from Dallas for work so that was the impromptu part! It was fun to see her again, along with Brenda, Rae Anne, Karen, and Libby. It was great to meet new friends too: Rachel, Julie, and Lisa!

So,  would you look at that hair! OMG... it's outta control. Mine, of course. This picture was taken after the shopping trip in the parking lot before we all left. Karen and Julie had already left.

Back to Archivers... I went all the way up there (Northwest Austin is referred by us "south of the river" people as SOUTH DALLAS!!) to get a Hero Arts stamp set that my friend, Lisa Sprangler uses all the time. But did they have it?? No, of course not. But not to worry, I found some paper I *had* to have. And a few other things too!

Happy Thursday!

Project Hero Mail - Make 'em Smile Challenge

RE: A contest with a prize!

So, the make 'em Smile Challenge over on the A Muse Lounge ended yesterday. Now, I'm just waiting for packages of cards for the troops to come in the mail, created by my fellow A Muse Addicts.

I made some sample cards for the various places I asked people to make cards for this cause. In the end, numerous A Muse students, my son's 1st grade class, his cub scout den, and my stamping girlfriends got together and made some 160 cards. Each card will go to a deployed US soldier, with the help of Operation Troop Aid, to let our service men and women know that we care about them. Each card is hand signed on the inside with some kind of message of thanks, support, or hope of a safe return.

My 6 year-old wrote in one of his (all spelled correctly and w/o any help from anyone! Who knew? Yes, I'm proud!): "Thank you for fighting for America!". Brought tears ...

Okay, on to one of my samples...

All of these cards for this project were made with the AWESOME clear set by A Muse: Hero Mail.

I used my Koh-i-noor pencils on these with Versafine Black Onyx.

Happy Wednesday!

M-I-C-K-E-Y... MOUSE!

Who's the leader of the club
That's made for you and me
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Hey! there, Hi! there, Ho! there
You're as welcome as can be
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Mickey Mouse!

Mickey Mouse!

Forever let us hold our banner
High! High! High! High!

Come along and sing a song
And join the jamboree!
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Now, you'll have that song in your head all day!

Gotta love it when you can get 10 invitations done from start to mailbox in an hour - um, ESPECIALLY when the party is 10 days away! ACK! Luckily, it's a family party so everyone already knows about it! Whew.

My youngest turns 3 on March 7th! YAY! For this past year, Mickey Mouse clubhouse was big in our live! So, simple and quick is the name of these invitations. I've had the design floating in my head for a while, just no time to actually get it done.

So, I suppose the old Mickey Mouse song was the "M-I-C" version and the new hip, happening one is the Hot Dog song. And Toodles... you probably don't know who Toodles is if you haven't seen this version of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. But my son likes it. :)

I'm a bit of an electronics gadget freak (go figure). So I got myself a new printer the other day. One for my stamp room. We have one of those HP does everything already but I wanted a invitation printer that I could feed paper in without it getting bent. My dear friend, Edye, who owns LMNOPeople, is in the business of making invitations and personalized notecards (at an AFFORDABLE price!) told me about her Canon printer. So, I researched and researched and found a little mobile Canon that is SUHWEET. I like it. And made this invitations super simple. I just fed the A Muse notecards directly in and voila! I use MS Publisher. Oh, since I'm mentioning Edye... one of my most FAVORITE things she makes is the itty bitty people books with 12 pictures in it... GREAT GIFT for grandparents or teachers! OMG. Remember that.

The Project Hero Mail challenge/contest ends today with all items needing to be postmarked by today to be sent to me. So, I'm on the lookout for them. I've received quite a few already and can't wait to see how many cards we've made for the troops! More soon!

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...

Feb 20th????

OMG! How did it get to be Feb 20th?

I hope that this is not going to be a pattern but I guess I'll try to catch up again...

• TWO A Muse classes tomorrow at Memory Depot (check out the schedule at the top) - I did add another table to the room and there are 2 slots left in each class, I believe. Call the store 326-8045.
• Thank you to everyone that voted for my friend, Paul, in the Quikutz contest. He took 2nd place - only missed 1st by a handful of votes! Congrats Paul!
• I SCRAPPED! Oh, yes, I did. Seriously. It is a New Year's Resolution of mine, if you remember! 4 Pages! And I only challenged myself to do 1 page a month. Wohoo! I'm ahead ;). LOL. Oh, it was "with" my son and it's his 12x12 Cub Scout album. It counts. Right?
• Are you making Hero Mail cards for the A Muse "Make 'em smile Challenge" on the A Muse lounge? You still have time! There is a prize for whomever sends in the MOST cards. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here are more details... It's for a GREAT cause - send OUR troops a card today to let them know how much they are appreciated! Have them postmarked in the mail to me on the 24th! Go make some... or one... or two :)
• I've been making hero mail cards for a month now and have enlisted many to help me... If you've taken some classes from me recently, you've probably seen the table set up to make cards for the soldiers (THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!). My son's cub scout den (18 cards) and his 1st grade class (30+ cards) made some, too (THANK YOU!). And then last night, my girlfriends and I met and stamped out 79 cards (THANK YOU!). I can't wait to count up all the ones that I've received (and will still receive!). Just think EACH CARD goes to ONE SOLDIER to tell them "Thanks, we're thinking about you!" HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

Now, on to something crafty... our very dear friend, Bill, had a birthday, now a month ago... "Happy Birthday!". We got him a gift card to go shopping for new clothes. So, this card is what popped into my mind:
Get it? LOL.

Happy Friday!

Valentine's Day Cards!

So, I meant to post these yesterday and then time just flew past... I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day. We did. We had a super family day and it was nice to not have to go anywhere or do anything scheduled for a change.

Picture this... 11pm Friday night and I haven't started on Valentine's for my family yet. I know, I know... nothing shocking or surprising there... I know what my *issue* is... same as proscratinating on Christmas or Birthday shopping... IF I had an idea of what to get, then I would get it!!! So in the stamping world, IF I had an idea of what I wanted to make, then I'd make it! As my dear friend Veronica says, I don't do anything until I have pressure/stress to get it done. Humpf. Might (I said might!) be true.

In any case, I thought of something clever... at 11pm at night... for my DH's card. And I laughed. I think it's not as funny now as it was then but isn't that always the case?

    

I love him more than all of my addictions combined... that's saying a lot, right?

Then for the boys, I broke out my A Muse clear sets:

For my 6 year-old:

Diamond glaze on the window of the space ship!

Stamps from the Purr-fect set! Great for a boy, eh?

And for my 2 year-old:

Red Twinkle hearts covering up the heart smoke coming out of the train. And the train is covered in AtYou Red Spica.

Stamp from the Dino Set. I can't believe I just got these sets recently. Why didn't I get them sooner?

Hope you had a great weekend! We still have one more day off from school on our 4 day weekend! WOHOO.

It's Carnival Time over at Craft Critique!

Do you know about craft critique? It is one of my favorite blogs to read every single day. They review so many things in the crafty world and I just appreciate all they do. My dear friend and A Muse sister, Lexi is one of the reporters over there, too!

Anyway, it's Carnival Time over at craft critique! Carnival is a celebration of Valentine's ideas from all over the world. The craft critique girls have made 2 huge lists of things that they wanted to share. Check it out... I'm the last one on the first post for today! WOHOO!

http://www.craftcritique.com/2009/02/happy-almost-valentines-day-post-one.html

ENJOY!!!

Valentine Teacher Gifts

Okay, so I resorted to the old easy standby for this year's Teacher's Valentines. I decided at the last minute to expand my circle of teachers from the 30 that I do for my boys to the entire elementary school and half the preschool (only the ones I *know*). Why? I dunno why. Insanity, maybe? I figure the teachers really do deserve something and now that I *know* most of them at the elementary school and we work together on the technology side of things, it just seemed like something nice to do. Or insane? Hmm.

Front says "You deserve some chocolate" and the m and m stamp. Both from good ol' Mark Jetton of Deadbeat Designs! If you haven't seen his stamps, check 'em out ...especially if you're local. He has a great line of Texas stamps and then, well, his sense of humor is second to none. If you've seen any of his other stamps, you know what I mean.

Anyway, then the flip side says "happy valentine's day". That is one of the new V'day stamps from A Muse.

These are just little ziploc bags found at Michael's and filled with m&m's. Quick and simple. And delivered. Mostly. Some tomorrow. But the big batch is gone!

I have to admit the boy's valentine's are nothing exciting this year. I let them pick and they opted for Pokemon and Mickey Mouse. So, no sense making my life crazy if they don't want to do it, right?

Happy Valentine's Day!

*whoa...that's a whole lotta pink... egads.

Spring Sneak Peeks - Day 5!

Slow and steady...

Well, I'm definitely feeling *slow* today. Don't have time to be slow but oh well!

Here is my last sneak peek for this A Muse Spring 2009 Release, which should be available at your local stores now.

pssst Austin folks... I heard from Memory Depot that they have the new release coming...

I do like the way this card turned out. I might have to save it for my oldest son. I *know* that he'll need to hear this story!

Front:
 

Middle:

Inside:

Whole card:

I used the new cloud image as the oil slick ... used a glaze pen to make it "slick".

Happy Tuesday!

Spring Sneak Peeks - Day 4!

Definitely a quick card and a quick post this RAINY Monday...

I briefly looked at the sneaks and wondered if you had seen these images yet. I decided to make a "very" quick card to showcase them. Lots of new stuff on here...

Do you see the new note card? A familiar favorite now available in 4 bar! WOHOO! And how about that "hello"... I just love the font. And well, the carrot stand is just cute!

Check your local stamp store - They may have this release in stock already!

Happy Monday!