Tag! You're it!

Christmas is probably my very favorite holiday.  I love the music.  I love the family time.  I love the decorations.  And let's face it, I love the presents.  A couple years ago I started making my own gift tags, which was an "a-ha" moment.  I mean, duh, if you're a card maker, you probably have everything (and more) that you need to whip out some gift tags.  Plus, your creations are about 1000 times cuter than those self-adhesive sheets you buy at the store.  I also started selling my little beauties at $0.25 and $0.50 each at local craft fairs.  The response has been quite good and even though I'm not raking it in, I really enjoy the process of making the tags.

I foolishly stocked up on Christmas stamps a couple years ago when A Muse offered some on sale.  Now, they're still in my inventory.  It's good and bad.  At least I have a few "cash and carry" items to bring to shows.  Now that most of the sets are retired, it might make them more saleable...we'll see.  If you are interested in purchasing any of the sets you see here, please contact me.  I have them on a GREAT SALE (about 40-50% off) right now.  For any sets featured, I've listed their sale price below.

Here are a few designs I made up for my fair last weekend.

Supplies:

Cardstock - Vanilla and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Ink - Cherry and Tuxedo Black Memento

Ribbon - Cherry Chevron and Onyx/White Baker's Twine

Stamp Sets - Making Spirits Bright ($10) and Christmas Joy ($8)

Other - 9mm Jingle Bell

The Making Spirits Bright set has a variety of old fashioned Santa's on it.  Very cute in my opinion.  Plus, it's nice that you don't have to color things in so it makes a quick and cute addition to any card or tag.  Don't you just love the jingle bell?  These guys are back in the Holiday Catalog and are very reasonably priced - you can get a 12 pack for $2.25.  Super fun for tags and gift packaging!

Supplies:

Cardstock - Sugar

Ink - Cherry, Wasabi, and Tuxedo Black Memento

Ribbon - Onyx Chevron and Cherry Baker's Cording

Stamp Sets - Nordic Noel ($10), Mini Holiday Messages ($8), and 

No Peeking ($6 - available with Nov. sale on website only)

Other - Cranberry Pearls, Classic Tag dies ($15)

Supplies:

Cardstock - Sugar

Ink - Tuxedo Black Memento

Ribbon - Cherry Baker's Cording

Stamp Sets - Santa Claus is Coming to Town ($10)

Other - COPIC markers

Have I mentioned how therapeutic coloring in the stamped images is?  The COPIC markers go on so smoothly and effortlessly - I just find the whole process very relaxing.  A good "quiet time" activity for us as adults.  This set is perfect because it features two different Santas and a couple different present options - all are perfect for coloring.

Hopefully I'll inspire you to try your hand at making some tags this holiday season?  And don't get too upset when the recipient just rips them off and throws them away.  It happens!  Don't forget to visit my A Muse website for TOTALLY AMAZING deals with our 2468 Sale - all items $2-$8!  This sale runs until all items sell out or the end of November, whichever comes first!

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  TGIF!  Happy crafting!

Winter is Coming...

If you live in the Midwest, winter is NOT coming - it's already here.  Yuck!  Snow and cold temps have officially made it wintertime here in Wisconsin.  The only good thing is that it's put me in the Christmas state-of-mind.  And who doesn't love Christmas?  I attended a small vendor fair in a nearby community last Sunday and decided to do a holiday theme.  I made lots of cute little gift tags and even some Christmas cards to sell. It wasn't an overly successful event, but I did have a great time preparing for it and actually spending some much needed time in my craft room.  I thought I'd share some of my favorite creations.

The chalkboard look is so "in" right now so I decided to use it on some of the cards.  This particular stamp set is one of my favorites from A Muse Studio, but is unfortunately retired and no longer available.  Sad.  There is a cute set in this year's Holiday catalog that I think would work well though, called "Wishing you the Merriest".

Anyway, this look is actually pretty darn easy to do.  All you need is a Versamark ink pad (or other suitable ink pad for heat embossing), white embossing powder, a heat gun, and some dark gray or black spray mist.  Oh, an a piece of paper to stamp on.

I used all A Muse Studio products:

• Sugar cardstock
• Versamark Ink Pad 
• White Embossing Powder
• Slate Splash! 

1. Make sure your cardstock is clean and dry.  Stamp your image using the Versamark ink.  It will be hard to see since this pad is a watermark pad.  I love the stickiness of the ink, though, and it works perfectly for heat embossing.
2. Put a scrap sheet underneath your stamped piece and pour your powder over the stamped image.  Lift up the piece and shake excess powder off onto scrap sheet.  Sometimes I even tap or flick the paper from the back to loosen stubborn stuck on powder (from where it's not supposed to be).  
3. Funnel excess powder back into container, don't waste it!  
4. Applying even heat, use embossing gun to heat up powder over stamped image.  The color of the image will change and appear glossy once the powder has melted.  Let it dry and cool down for a minute or two.  
5. Lay something down to protect your work surface.  I actually put a folded piece of my A Muse Studio grid paper in the garbage can and spray into it.  Similarly, you could use a cardboard box and spray into that.  
6. In any event, spray the stamped and embossed paper evenly with the Splash! ink.  Take a baby wipe and wipe off the embossed surface - the embossing will resist the Splash! so all you need to do is clean up the surface.  
7. Now, just let it dry for 10 minutes or so.  Done!

Other Supplies Used:

Cardstock - Wasabi, Mermaid, and Apple

Patterned - 6x6 Paper Pad (Christmas Sweater)

Ribbon - Onyx Chevron

Other Supplies Used:

Cardstock - Slate, Onyx, Cherry, and Vanilla

Sequins - Cherry, Pink, Silver, Lime, Bermuda

Diecut - AS Star Trio

Other Supplies Used:

Cardstock - Cherry and Vanilla

Patterned - Candy Cane Stripe

Pearls - Vanilla

Diecut - AS Snowflake Trio 

I hope you enjoyed my holiday preview.  Stay warm and happy crafting!

Don't forget, you can purchase any A Muse Studio products online 24/7 from my website!  

Or host a qualifying catalog or in-home party to earn FREE and DISCOUNTED product!

Oh Yes It's Ladies Night....and I Feel Alright!

Ok, so Ladies Night was actually almost two months ago.  I actually thought I had posted these cards, but much to my surprise, I hadn't.  Ooopsy.  Anyway, now that I'm a married woman again I thought it would be fun to have a monthly Ladies Night to get together and do girly stuff.  I was the host of the first event and decided to share my card making talents with the group.  Most of the ladies are crafty, either involved in cardmaking or scrapbooking, but others were strictly quilters, painters, etc.

To make things easy as pie, I cut all the pieces so that all we had to do was stamp, trim, and glue to complete the cards.  It was a super fun time!  Of course, lots of yummy snacks, a couple bottles of wine, and great conversation helped too!  Here's the low-down on the cards....

Card #1

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this donut set?!  Seriously, too adorable.  And the sayings?  Fabulous!

Anyway, for this card, we kept it simple but had fun coloring.  Seriously, coloring with Copics is super relaxing.  I did my Christmas cards two years ago with Santas that I hand-colored.  I thought it would be exhausting and boring.  Not so much.  It was kind of like going back in time to Kindergarten and using markers in a coloring book. Loved it!  Anyway, I showed them how to create subtle shading.  Everyone was impressed at how "professional" the coloring looked.  Copics are 'da bomb'!

Card #2

This one was probably the fan favorite.  I had this one all done actually.  (SCORE!)  It was supposed to be one of the cards for my class at the 2014 Stampede, but I got the stomach flu (um, gross) the morning off the event and couldn't teach my class or man my booth.  It was a sad day.  I did have all the kits made up though.  This card is so neat because you can cater it to any supplies you have on hand or to the favorite colors of the recipient.  I chose black, white and silver with the thought that it would be a great card for a guy or an over-the-hill party.  The stripe-y background is just various washi tapes placed over a white piece of cardstock.  You can wrap the excess tape around the back or cut it off carefully as you go.  The candles are a paper straw cut into pieces.  It's roughly one straw trimmed into thirds.  To create the flames, I used a leaf diecut, but you could easily freehand these.

Card #3

There are THREE, count them, THREE awesome coffee stamps in this year's A Muse Studio Catalog.  NO WAY!  I am a collector of all things coffee...and I drink it, religiously.

Do you see that saying?  I like big cups and I cannot lie.  How awesome is that!?!?  It was very difficult choosing which set to use, but I knew I wanted a cozy coffee card.  I decided on the big cup set, "Perk Up".  I have the matching dies (yes, dies that PERFECTLY cut the stamped image!) and I thought cutting the sleeve for the coffee cup in the limited edition cherry felt.  Then I tied a piece of twine around it for an added touch of cuteness.  To stamp the dotted circle, I used the "kiss" technique.  It's actually pretty easy.  You just need a patterned stamp and a solid stamp.  Here, I used a block stamp with big polka dots and a smaller solid circle stamp.  You ink up the patterned stamp then "kiss" the dry solid stamp against it, being careful not to smudge/slide the stamps against one another.  Take the solid stamp away and you will have transferred the pattern.  Huff to re-wet the ink and stamp away.  To make this card a little more fun, I used the gift card holder die so that this would make the ideal Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts card!

 Note: This die will work in many of the standard die-cut machines...Big Shot, Sizzix, Cuttlebug, or Grand Calibur.  It fits inside a Bar 4 size card and larger.

Card #4

I really can't take much credit on this one.  I say the design idea on Pinterest and knew it would make a great CASE (copy and share everything) card.  Mine is a little different, but not much.  I just liked the stamp set and thought it would make a super cute and quick card.  Another fun saying in the set, "You Rock" fits equally well in the space utilized on the front for the salutation.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing our creations.  Thanks for stopping!   Happy crafting!

And don't forget, if you LOVE the products used, you can buy anytime at my website...www.amusestudio.com/lauraleland.  Thanks!