Just a little something ...

Oh how I love Makenna and the pink kitchen note cards and that fancy Martha Stewart punch!! 'Nuff said!

BTW - have you seen the new and improved A Muse News blog?? Go check it out, and be sure that you register for the newsletter - it's going to be new and improved, too!! Ch-ch-ch-changes!!

Crazy Kiddos!

Or - "It's all fun and games until ..."

Last week we got a box of goodies from a friend - think Carnival prizes - and before she gave it to me she asked if my kids were allowed to have those sticky wall walker things. Sure, why not, I said! The kids had a blast digging into the box ($2 worth of c-rap provided us with at least an hour worth of fun!)!

First Parker (3) & Lily (1 1/2) tried on all the jewelry.

Is he cool or what??
Then Henry (11) started playing with the wall walker thing. Threw it on the wall, on the fridge, on the table. I had a small freak out when it hit my new stainless steel stove, but no biggie. Then this happened:

It's all fun and games until you get your wall walker thing stuck in your sister's hair!

More Christmas in July

Just playing with the new A Muse Peace and Cheer Clear stamp set and kit! Have you gotten yours? Are you playing along in the free My Creative Classroom class with the amazing Julie Ebersole?? No - well, what the heck are you waiting for??

Details: All stamps, note cards, ribbons contained in the Peace and Cheer Clear Kit.

A Muse Addicts Stamps of the Week!

The amazing A Muse Addicts site turns ONE! this week!! I can't believe that it has been a year! If you aren't a member - check it out here! Every week, they pick a "stamp of the week" - this week, they picked 4!!

* Rock Star
* Vespa girl
* Elyse
* Coffee Break

Apparently, I got confused ... and made this, thinking to myself the whole time - "look at me, participating in a challenge, making a card on time!"

Except I used the wrong stamp!!

Oh well - I'll try again!

Details: Stamps, note card, paper, ribbon, twinkles by A Muse, black CS from my stash, colored with Copics.

Gettin' Dave Ramseyfied!

My husband and I have been taking a class for the last few weeks - Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. Mr. Ramsey has lots of great ideas, and we are doing really well with our Baby Steps! I have been really amazed how many people are out there blogging about Dave Ramsey, living frugally, etc! It's been great! Here are a few of my favorites:

Simple Mom
Frugal Dad
Small Notebook

One of the parts of the budgeting plan is to use an "Envelope System" - basically, you put cash into envelopes at the beginning of the month to spend on certain things. The thinking is that this keeps you on budget - if the cash isn't there, you can't spend it - and keeps you from reaching for a credit card (which Dave Ramsey never uses - ever, ever, ever!!)! For us, we are using the envelopes for Food, Household needs (Target runs!), Entertainment and Blow Money (I haven't had a Starbucks in a couple of weeks now because I don't want to get into my blow money!)

I know, this is a crafy blog - what's all this financial nonsense?? Well, I just COULD NOT put my money in plain white, boring envelopes! I couldn't do it!! So I made this:
I came up with a kind of "wallet" template, and used this pretty SEI double sided paper to make it! My measurements were based on the SU open ended envelopes that I put on the inside. The whole thing closed with ribbon and 3 velcro closures. Don't you think the the A Muse Shopping Gal is appropriate?

There are 4 tabs across the top, made with the SU tab punch. So, the envelopes are made, now I just have to work on staying on the budget!

Sharing my Holiday Spark

It's Friday - must be time to catch up on Heather's Share Your Spark from last week!! She challenged us to make something for the Holidays now! Easy, smeezy with all the amazing new stamps from A Muse!!

Cute new Cindy Lou, sentiment from the new clear Sentiment set, and the new Swiss Red Vintage Paper (love it!!)!!
Do you see those pretty snowflakes in the background? Those are in the awesome Peace and Cheer Kit available here! I'm planning all kinds of things with those!

Details: Stamps, papers, ribbon, twinkles by A Muse, colored with Copics.

A Butterfly Gift

My beautiful goddaughter,
Miss Mira,

turned 3 years old a couple of weeks ago.
We celebrated last week (a bit delayed because Mom and Dad were getting used to life with this one added into the mix!)

(Mr. Jonah Frederick Bertolino)
and had a great party with cupcakes and fun at the park!
I made her gift after being inspired by Ali Edwards here and Michelle Clark here!

I think the hardest part of this project was covering the mat with the paper. I used some of the pink Prism sparkly cardstock. The mat was longer than 12 inches, so I had to get creative. It worked pretty well to just miter the corners (lay both square pieces over each other, then use an exacto knife and a straight edge to cut through both at an angle). The butterflies are punched out of the tag pieces in the Basic Grey Oh Baby Girl! 12x12 paper pack! The scale on the tags was better suited to the punch than the bigger paper. And I had enough left over to make a card, too!!
This card makes me super happy!! The Gerber Daisy is stamped with the glue pad, and then covered with pink ultrafine glitter. **Tip: I think I have finally mastered the glue pad: Really soak 1/2 of your pad with glue, stamp into that, then blot the glue on the other half of the pad! Works great! **

Details: Stamps (Gerber Daisy & Happy Birthday Little Lady) by A Muse, ribbon, twinkle stickers by A Muse, punch by Martha Stewart, patterned paper by Basic Grey.