Questions About the Clock

Hi all!

I had a question about the clock & figured I'd post in case anyone else was wondering :)

To make the clock, I followed these steps:

1. Stretch canvas fabric over embroidery hoop.
2. Sew buttons (I sewed in this order to help with the placement - 12, 6, 3, 9, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11)
3. Cut a circle from a piece of cardboard to fit inside the back of the hoop. I used a recycled priority mail box.
4. Place the circle in the back and cut an X in the center of the canvas & through the cardboard. This is where the clock mechanism will go.
5. Insert the clock mechanism and hands according to package directions. I used the kit pictured below (even though I didn't need the numbers). I found that some of the material started to fray where I cut, so I applied a bit of clear nail polish and let it dry before attaching the clock.
6. After trimming the fabric around the edges of the embroidery hoop, I added some more clear nail polish to minimize any fraying.

If you flip the clock around to the back you would just see the cardboard with the clock mechanism box thingy (that holds the battery). You could cover this, but I kept it open since there's a hook for hanging on the mechanism.

Hope this clarifies it a bit. Sorry that I don't have any photos....the clock is now with the birthday girl :)

Time for a Birthday

Thursday is my good friend Mandy's birthday. I met Mandy through SCS a few years ago when she invited me to a local get-together with a small group of stampers. We've been friends ever since, and I'm so glad!

Recently Mandy hooked me up with an invite to Pinterest (so if I'm not working on my grad course, you can take a guess what I'm doin'). I'm totally addicted! Right now, I've been pinning a ton of stuff for my classroom. (Check it out here...& let me know if you need an invite) After seeing one of Mandy's pins a few weeks ago, I knew that I had to make this for her:

a button clock!! She loved it (and so did I....guess who may be making another)

Here's the card that I sent with it. Don't ya just love buttons?

Ho-Ho-Holey Smokes!!!

I'm crazy busy with a graduate course right now, but I had to pop in to share some EXCITING NEWS!!!

The A·Muse Studio Holiday Catalog & Inspiration guide is here for viewing!!! Products will be available starting August 22nd, but you can get your wish lists starting by browsing the catalog in .pdf form. I can email any the file - so let me know (stephaniestamps@comcast.net).

And let me just say.....HO, HO, HOLEY SMOKES!!!! The holiday catalog is 44 pages of pure papercrafting goodness!! There are 32 new holiday sets - I'm talking Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, winter, fall, and Valentines. We have 2 new colors - wasabi & pebble - offered in our fabulous cardstock, ink, and satin ribbons. MY FAVORITES in the catalog have to be all of the dies - oh mylanta!!! There's new patterned cardstock, felt, baker's twine, fun embellishments, and much more. You've gotta check it out!

and the good news keeps on coming because....

sales for the catalog start just in time for A-Muse-A-Palooza. I'll have more details on this in the upcoming weeks, but I will tell you now that there's a ton incentives (yep, that means FREE STUFF). Keep in mind - we can make a workshop happen even if you're not local. Email me and we'll work out the details :)

Pillow Fight

I've been searching for fabrics for my sun porch for a few months (enter semi-grumpy sigh here) - I have an amazing talent for envisioning things (typically home decor related) that do not exist. In this case, it was fabric. Ugh!!! I wanted an orchid purple in a Sunbrella-type fabric. My only other condition was that it needed to go with browns because I wanted to keep the same rug on the porch. I thought I toss in some orange accents to make it real fun & funky.....yeah, keep dreamin' when you can't find anything!!

So this week I rethought my search and decided to forego the Sunbrella-type fabric. Yes maybe it will fade faster, but at least I had some choices. Even though I switched from orange accents to chartreuse when I found this fun chartreuse print, I couldn't be happier with the results. I was even able to use some of my Simply Chartreuse ribbon from PTI as an accent on the chair throws.

I'm really happy with the results and I hope my mailman appreciates it tomorrow when he drops off my mail. I keep my margarita machine out there & I always wonder if he ever eyes it up :)

In case you're wondering, the fabrics came from JoAnn's. My chairs are from IKEA - I've had them for 3 years now and I love them more each year!! The bench was a clearance find from Marshalls - it has a funky fabric covering it, so I recovered it with a solid brown. My rug is also 3 years old and from Target and the wicker ottoman between the chairs is from TJ Maxx & More.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

You probably don't know this, but I live in a town of with some notoriety. It's home of the first banana split, the original home of Rolling Rock beer, and the first professional football game was played here. Natives include champion golfer Arnold Palmer (who still lives here) and Mr. Rogers. And training camp for the Pittsburgh Steelers is held here every summer. (well, maybe...depending on the lockout)

It's a great place to live and to go for walks. I have a standard 'beat' that covers 4 miles and takes about a little over an hour to walk. I love the older homes and beautiful landscaping. As well as the quirky tidbits here and there like seeing a toddler's sand and water table directly in front of a statue of the virgin Mary or a fenced-in area for a group of 6 shih tzu's that also had a large laundry basket inside. Definitely gives me plenty to think about :)

I made this card late last night to submit for the Gallery Idol contest (scroll to my previous post to see my other entry) & thought my observations would be perfect to share along with it in this post.

Happy Fourth!

I just finished a yummy dessert:

and I figured I'd show a card I made for this year's Gallery Idol sponsored by PaperCrafts magazine. Have you submitted anything? You have until midnight tonight to do so and there are some FABULOUS prizes....isn't PaperCrafts uber-generous!! I love seeing everyone's work.

The theme for this round is Congratulations. I was inspired to make Periodic Table name tags for my students this year, so I applied this inspiration to my card.

I created the elements on Word and printed them out. The beaker and test tube were hand cut while the graduation cap was cut on the Cricut. I threw in some real graph paper to really geek it out! I just love it and plan on using it for my graduation cards for next year.

Thanks for stopping by!

Throw Out Your Scraps!!

I don't know what it is about the end of the school year/beginning of summer, but it sets off my organization mojo like nothing else!! I've been working on the craft room which has turned into a bit a cave lately. I'm reducing, purging, cleaning out and guess what happened in the middle of it all?????? I decided to make some cards from the scraps I was about to toss.

I made a total of 5 cards thanks to some inspiration from SCS and from my blogger pal Siobhan's Use It Tuesday challenge.

And now....(in no particular order)

CASE of this card:

It works for the Use It Tuesday challenge (use the colors red, white, and blue) as does this next card. And yep, I broke out the sewing machine!!

Did you notice that I had a lot of scraps from this dp? I love the little strip of brown at the base of the card!

Up next, a CASE of this card on SCS:

And my final two cards from my scraps:

The best part was pitching the rest of the scraps......

or looking at this cutie pie enjoying the extra space!

Since I used scraps in these cards, I'm not listing the ingredients. Please feel free to email me if you're curious about something I used :)

A Typed Thank You (kinda)

'm a bit of a stinker about certain things. While I could care less if you wear white after Labor Day or if you park facing the wrong direction on the street (even if I have gotten a ticket for it), I do think thank you's should be handwritten. I'm not a huge fan of my handwriting, but I think it's this little bit of effort that really conveys your gratitude. Well, that is, unless it's illegible and that's another post.

Here's a card I made in about 10 minute (including the embossing) for today CAS challenge over at Splitcoast.

Hope you had a great Monday. I was super productive - measured out my new classroom (now I can break out my graph paper & start design - yes, I'm geeky), trimmed shrubs, baked a pie (strawberry - yummmmmm), and blogged :) Here's to a Tuesday where I have just as much energy...fingers crossed!

Ingredients (All products A·Muse Studio unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Just My Type

Paper: Sugar, Onyx, Cherry

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Versamark

Accessories: Embossing Powder - White, dimensionals

You're Berry Sweet

Don't you love lazy Saturday mornings? It's a bit cool here in western PA for late June, but I'm not complaining! The hot, humid days of July and August are right around the corner.

I've been busy making thank you's and have been loving the Fruit Fusion: Berry from PTI. I love strawberries and always have. When I was really little, my mom would send me to the garden with a colander to pick strawberries. I'd come back with 3 or 4 and a red stained mouth.

Recently, a recipe for strawberry pie came across my Google Reader. Can't wait to give it a try. At least enjoying these cards results in 0 calories!

The first card is fairly self explanatory. I really like the double banners die from PTI. I got the coordinating stamp set but haven't inked it up yet. Soon hopefully :)

This next card has a bit of an Oops...even though you wouldn't realize it at all. I wanted to go for a letterpress look, so I inked up my impression plate from PTI. I didn't get much of an impression because I totally forgot to place my embossing pad in the Big Shot. Oh well it did give me a nice polka dot background & didn't damage the impression plate.

You're Berry Sweet ingredients:

Stamps - Fruit Fusion: Berry (PTI)

Ink - Cranberry and Lichen (A·Muse Studio), Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Paper - Cranberry, Sugar, and Onyx cardstock (A·Muse Studio), Aqua Mist (PTI)

Accessories - Fruit Fusion Berry & Double Ended Banners dies (PTI), gingham ribbon (Bazzill), Onyx stitched ribbon (A·Muse Studio), silver pearls

Thank You Berry Much ingredients:

Stamps - Fruit Fusion: Berry (PTI)

Ink - Cranberry and Grass (A·Muse Studio), Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Paper - Kraft, Grass Gingham, Sugar, and Onyx cardstock (A·Muse Studio)

Accessories - Fruit Fusion Berry die & Polka Dot Basics Impression Plate (PTI), red felt, Onyx twine (A·Muse Studio), black Stickles

The end is here

Ahhhh....the school year is over! The month of May is always hectic for me with all the individual meetings with my students and their families to discuss their programs for next year, trips for competitions, and wrapping up the current school year. This year set a different stage - one that I hope to never encounter again. In the state of Pennsylvania, times are extremely tough for education. All employees at my school received furlough notices in May and six talented teachers came in for their last day a week ago. It's been a heart-wrenching and nerve-wracking time for everyone, so you can see why I haven't been in much of a bloggin' mood.

But we all need to look toward the future - yes, I'm one of those teachers that takes time over the summer to plan for the upcoming year as well as look back over the accomplishments of past year. I also can't wait to take time for myself - yea, more stamping....more blogging!

To start, here's a quick card I made to send to a student thanking him for an end of the year gift. I had the lawn mower stamp out making my father's day card, so I inked it back up to create this fun CAS card.

Ingredients:

Stamps - Hey Man (A·Muse Studio)

Ink - Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Paper - Sugar, Gingham Grass (A·Muse Studio)

Other - Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils

You Rock My World

It's been too long since I participated in a challenge, so you can imagine how happy I was tonight when I was scrolling through Google Reader & came across this fun color challenge at CR84FN

This is one of my favorite color combos - even if it makes me think of Dr. Seuss :)

Here's my take:

I even broke out the embossing gun...holy smokes - well, not literally (it's been a while since I've embossed, but it is like riding a bike)

I'm off to make some thank you's and a congratulations card - looking forward to sharing 'em with you :)

All products are A·Muse Studio unless otherwise noted. You can get A·Muse Studio products by visiting my webstore (www.amusestudio.com/stephanie - I'm consultant 1061) or by shooting me an email (stephaniestamps@comcast.net)

Stamps: Clever Girls, Grunged Sunrays

Ink: Sky, Cherry, Tuxedo Black (Memento), Versamark

Paper: Sugar, Sky

Accessories: Baker's Twine (Martha Stewart), Red Pearls, Red Glitter Embossing Powder (Ranger), Dimensionals

Lily of the Valley

I adore my flower of the month sets from Papertrey, especially now with all the beautiful colors popping up here and there. I'm so excited that spring is finally here!!

I created this card for my mom for Easter. It features the Lily of the Valley set. I first stamped a script background from Background Basics: Text Style using Rustic Cream on the kraft cardstock. I colored the leaves of the lilies with my copics and the blooms using a q-tip and Fresh Snow ink. And thankfully snapped the pic on my kitchen counter before sending it off :)

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I've enjoyed some time with my best friend (shopping, of course), went to see Water For Elephants (good - but read -or better yet, listen to the audiobook first), and relaxed. Now, I'm all set for the remaining (and most hectic) weeks of school.

To Dye For

My students created these fabulous entries for our 6th annual Egg Fashion Show. Enjoy!

L'egg'o Land

Despicable Egg

Peggupine & Reggcoon

A Deviled Egg (hee hee)

Happy Easter!

A·Muse Studio Open House

Hi guys!! Sunday was my open house, so I spent last week and the weekend getting ready. It was so much fun!! My regular stamping buddies came as well as one of their mom's and a few gals from work. Even though no one came as a direct result of the flyers I hung up, I'm hoping the word got out there about the newest company in rubber stamping!

Here are some photos of the make & takes from the day.

The first project was a calendar page. I printed this cute calendar onto our super smooth Sugar cardstock and allowed the gals to get inky with some daubers and the flower from Beautiful Botanicals 2 and the butterfly from Just Because. I just love the effect the daubers give & you should have seen the different versions made that day - GORGEOUS!!

Another project was a fun card. This showcased our cardstock (both solid & pattern), Nestabilities, and the Fast & Fabulous set - The Scoop. I loved showing off those nesties to the gals from work - they're scrapbookers & never saw them before.

The third make & take was a cute candy matchbook. I found some adorable gummy Easter bunnies at Target & had the gals create these fun holders using some Lemon Whip cardstock, our egg die w/the polka dot cardstock, some fun ribbons (both stitched grosgrain & organdy), and buttons.

I think everyone was happy with what they got to make & loved being able to see the products in person. Aren't we all a little touchy-feely when it comes to stamping projects!!

I offered the following 5 specials at my Open House & I'm offering them to my blog readers as well. If you are interested in these, please email me (stephaniestamps@comcast.net) & we'll get your order all set up. Special prices will be good until April 30th and do not include tax & shipping fees. Here's a link to the catalog - I've listed the page numbers of the items, so you can check each out.

Special #1 - $37 (plus applicable taxes & shipping)

Just Because stamp set (p.28)

Lemon Whip cardstock (p.84)

Lichen ink (p.84)

Heather ink (p.86)

Organdy ribbon - Sugar (p.94)

Pearl Stickers - Sugar (p.93)

Special #2 - $36 (plus applicable taxes & shipping)

Contemporary Greetings stamp set (p.67)

Assorted Summer cardstock (p.85)

Assorted Polka Dot cardstock (p.88)

Memento Tuxedo Black ink (p.103)

Twinkle Stickers - Mini Dots, Multi (p.93)

Special #3 - $33 (plus applicable taxes & shipping)

Smile Inside stamp set (p.10)

Assorted Summer cardstock (p.85)

Stitched Grosgrain - Onyx (p.94)

3 Tombow markers - Sky, Lime, & Bubblegum (p.97)

Memento Tuxedo Black ink (p.103)

Special #4

Buy 10 Copic markers, Get One Free (your choice of all colors)

Special #5

Spend $55 on dies, impression plates, and/or Nestabilities & Get one bag of buttons free (your choice of color)

*Please note: These are my personal specials for this month to celebrate my start with A·Muse Studio. They are not offered by the company but rather directly through me. If you are interested in them, you will need to contact me directly. As always, give a holler if you have any questions!

Hmmmm.....

Don't you love when you get everything you need to make that card you couldn't wait to recreate? Me, too!!

I love the new mustache craze - yes, I know it's silly but oh so fun!! I saw this card in the A·Muse catalog & couldn't wait to make my own stash of 'staches!! My fifth grade students are excited too because we're going to make mustaches on a stick later this week or early next...picturing them holding up their mustaches, deep in thought, and vocalizing "hmmmmmm" - I love it!!

I'm getting ready for my A·Muse Studio Open House this Sunday. I've posted so many flyers & I hope to get a good turnout. Now I just have to get some more examples created with my goodies that arrived in the mail today, prep for the make & takes, and type up my specials (which I'll also list online). Anybody know how to add more hours to the day?

My First Craft Show

This Saturday, I set up a table for the first time at a Craft & Vendor show. Unfortunately, the weather & lack of promotion by the show organizer meant a VERY small turnout (I'd say less than 40 people). While I was hoping to make more connections to share info about A·Muse Studio with local crafters, I did learn a lot from this show.

The lessons I learned: (sorry for the poor photo quality - my focus seemed off)

Font needs to be BIG and easy to read. I placed price labels next to all items & while I thought these were really good, there were people that struggled seeing them. This photo shows the left side of my table which held my Easter-y items: pencil packs, skittles purses, bunny poop, tic tac holders, bunny nuggets, and cards. In the back right corner of the photo, you'll see bags of donut seeds.

Here's a photo of the different types of notebooks I sold. I placed a sign on the crate listing upcoming holidays & events, thinking people would use these as a reference and make the purchases. Um...I don't think a single person paid any attention to this. Now this may have been due to the small crowd. The magnetic post-it note holders were a hit. Next time, I will place them on a cookie sheet, so people can see them 'at work' - again, no one seemed to read my little sign stating 'magnetic.'

This is the right end of my table which held more notebooks and information about A·Muse Studio. The photo below shows a close up.

Here I had a mailing list sign up, business cards, flyers for my open house, free water bottles with my business information, and a large sign about my open house. I will say that this did capture attention - too bad more people weren't there :( Especially when I had to lug a bunch of water outta there.

Now for my big seller...golly!

Leave it to dogs! While I figured these would sell, I didn't think they'd outsell my Easter stuff. I guess it's hard to judge because of the lack of traffic, but I will make these for any future shows I decide to do. The image on the bag topper is from the Cricut cartridge Create A Critter.

I'm really pleased with my first attempt at a craft show. I know it wasn't an elaborate set up like I've seen from others, but I was happy with it. After dealing with being sick all week, it's a miracle that I was even ready.

BTW...if you're in the western PA area and would like to come for my A·Muse Studio open house (Sunday, April 17th 12 - 4), please email me (stephaniestamps@comcast.net) & I'll send you more information. I have 3 projects (+1 for kids) planned along with specials, door prizes, food, and more.