Let your creativity grow!

Seattle Bound!

I'm going to Seattle.. and leaving my bubble at the Paper Garden Boutique.  I can't believe I'm leaving the city limits, but it's true!  I'm off to the NW to help Linda Carnell, owner and lead designer of A Muse art stamps.  She's opening up a new storefront and after Linda's 3 visits to Sacramento to help me out, I thought it would be fun to help her set up her new boutique and spend some time with my good friend!

I'm excited to go, especially since it's been crazy at the store this week.. we just finished three special orders for wedding invitations and birthday invitations and gearing up for the big holiday season!

Let me tell you, I am sleep deprived... I lost my atm card, I put my keys in my cousins purse and couldn't find them, I left my wallet in my aunt's car and I tried typing my pin number on my am ex card thinking it was a visa... oh yes.. and I put hair gel on my toothbrush thinking it was toothpaste and boy let me tell you.. it did not taste like mint.  It was more like something man vs wild would eat.. a combo of lysol and ajax with some flaxseed oil in it... and  I am really afraid of myself right now... I think I will be this creature for halloween!

   ok.. enough about me... here's a card I was actually able to make for our "Twinkling Christmas" class on November 3rd and November 7th.  Hope you can join us!  Snowman stamp and ribbon by A Muse and snowflake by Memory box.  I will have some fun pix in Seattle, hopefully I will be back to normal on Saturday.

Holiday Happiness!

Hi... this weekend we had a lot of fun holiday card making classes and a fun picture perfect class.  Here's the last of the two cards from the merry and bright class.

 

This first card is made with a clear vintage stamps set .. i stamped light pink ink for the background on white stardream paper and then stamped the santa and blinged him up with stickles.  The fun sentiment is stamped and cut out like a banner.

 

This next card is made with a clear stamp set by Tinkering Ink.  It's another fun vintage collection. 

 

These next three cards you will make in our picture perfect card class.  Everyone who took it tonight had a great time and are having a hard time figuring out which one they want to use for their holiday 2008 picture cards.

This first one is a gate fold... I used an a6 size card (4.5 X 6) and then used all stardream papers (of course!) and washi paper from Japan for the side panels.  The center is the new extra giga scallop rectangle punch and I printed the happy holidays from my computer and punch it out.

 

The flap stays closed by two magnets by basic grey.  When you open the gate fold you will see a generic greeting and my son Miles.

 

This next card is very easy..again, I just printed out a generic greeting and punch it out with the yellow scallop circle punch and stamped a fun snowflake by A Muse.  This card is also an a6 size.

And finally.. this is always the biggest hit whenever we make this card.  It's a waterfall holiday greeting card.

 

This card is a 4 panel waterfall card and it says "Peace, Love and Joy" so each panel has a pix and in the end .. there's the greeting. 

 

as you pull the card you can start seeing the last sentiment.

 

Isn't this so fun!  Your friends will be amazed!  If you're interested in taking our holiday pix perfect class.. we'll have another one on Sunday, November 2nd 5pm-7pm. 

cost:  35.00 don't forget to bring lots of photos!

 

Merry & Bright class

We hope you can join us for our Merry & Bright class on

Saturday, October 11th 6pm-8pm or

Monday, October 20th 10am-12pm

It's our first Christmas card class of the season!  Here's a look at 4 of the cards we'll be making.. we'll make a total of 6!

This first card is made with the new Marvy circle extra giga circle punch.

I punched out the circle then stamped a flourish stamp by Judikins randomly.  We have new stardream damask printed cardstocks and I used it for the top of the ornament and placed some pretty ribbon.

Sentiment and holly stamp by A Muse.

This next card also uses our new printed stardream papers.  I made some winter tree designs. 

This next holiday card is a simple square card.  I used the new memory box holiday 6X6 papers and stamped a savvy wreath/bird onto the extra giga scallop square punch.  Sentiment and ribbon by A Muse.

This last card I used some traditional fall colors.

I used a new background snowflake stamp by Memory Box and randomly stamped it in red onto kraft cardstock.  It looks nice stamped not in the "traditional" silver or blue or white snowflakes.  I then took a small piece of scrap papers and made a fun blue background and stamped a charlie brown christmas tree.  Ribbon and bird and single snowflake and tree by A Muse.

ATC class with Missy Ballance -- November 6, 2008

A Muse designer Missy Ballance will be teaching our first ATC class on

Thursday, November 6th from 6pm-8pm. 

Please join her in making 8 trading cards using her latest and greatest stamps by A Muse.  These mini works of art will also be used to inspire you to participate in a fun swap!  Sign up now at the Paper Garden Boutique.  please call the store at 916-487-2737 cost:  $35.00

also please check out Missy's fun blogsite at:

www.missyballance.com

Gift tag class

We have one of our most popular classes coming up!  Making fun holiday gift tags.  Friday, October 24th 10am-12pm and Saturday, October 25th 6pm-8pm  cost:  $35.00

Please join us, your gifts will be the sure bet this holiday season!  We'll make a total of 12 tags!!  yes.. 12!!  This first tag is made with A Muse art stamps and cardstocks.  I just cut a small piece of paper, corner rounded it and used some punches.  So simple.

  I knocked off this next tag using one of Dave Brethauer of memory box's cards and just shrunk it down to fit on a present.

I knocked this one off too!  hahahahaha.. I just love all of his designs that he made from cards that I just simplified them and added some pretty ribbons.

This next gift tag I used a corner rounder and the purple rectangle scallop punch by marvy and walllah... a cut tag.  All stamps, papers and ribbon by A Muse.

I love this next tag, I used acetate paper and created a square gift tag and punched our purple scallop square.  I then heat set the snowflake by Savvy stamps with white embossing powder.

This next tag is made by using a purple gift tag punch by Marvy.

I took the clear tag set by A Muse (this set is made to next into marvy punches!) and then stamped the to/from and pinecone on the side.

This is another way to use the same clear set.  This time I punched out a tag using the pink gift tag punch by Marvy. and then I used the blue gift tag punch to give a nice border.  It takes a few minutes to make a tag.

This next tag is made using the new extra giga marvy scalloped circle punch.  I then took the purple scalloped circle punch and stamped the new Cardinal by Memory box using white shrinky dink paper. The paper shrunk down to a yellow scallop circle punch. Which is only 1.5" in diameter.  So cool!

For this next tag I used a purple circle and pink circle marvy punch and made it into an ornament.  All stamps and ribbon by A Muse.

This next tag is made with

the purple scallop square punch and the pink scallop square punch.  I used Linda owner of A Muse art stamps technique of punching vellum onto white cardstock.  It's so pretty!  All stamps and ribbon by A Muse.

This next tag is using the purple star marvy punch.  I just folded in half a

4" X 4" square cardstock by A Muse and punched it right out to make an open/close gift tag.

Finally our last gift tag!

This is made with the new holiday stamps by A Muse I just took a 4 X 4 inch red paper and scored it in half and took some gold stardream cardstock used it on the border and punched out a yellow scallop and circle punch to make this beautiful tag!  Enjoy!

Make and Take Tuesday 11:30am-1:30pm

We have a make and take on Tuesday, October 7th!  Please join us from 11:30am-1:30pm and make this fun disc card.

The card is made with the newest Marvy punches.. Extra large circle and scallop circle punches.  I used my favorite white uniball pen to write invitation info and used stamps by Impress and A Muse to decorate the front.  As you turn the white portion of the card you will read the party information!  So fun and quick!  I used a small brad to attach the two pieces together.

Please stop by and make a free project!

Since Miles started preschool this year, I signed up to be room mom.  How fun!  I have already planned a birthday party for his teacher later this month and will put together a fun make and take for the kiddies and bring lunch, treats, cupcakes and goodies! 

Of course, I have to make something for his teacher as well.. so I put together these fun jars!

I bought the jars at Michael's for only a 1.00.. yes!  A buck!  These are really nice sizes too!  I put fun polka dot papers by A Muse and

used my blue scallop and ek success circular punches and stamped fun A Muse images on the top.

For the latch I tied ribbon for a nice touch. Inside the candy jars are eyeball chocolates, skull and cross bones candies, black  and white candy sticks and orange and black gummy worms.  I got all of these candies at Target.  So fun!

Thank You Dave Brethauer!

We had a busy and wonderful weekend with Dave Brethauer, owner and designer of Memory Box Inc.  Our fun-filled weekend began on Friday evening with Dave unveiling his winter line at our little boutique!  Dave lead two free make and takes and we had pizza.  It was so fun! 

He taught 3 sold out classes on Saturday and 3 other sold out classes on Sunday.

Many of our customers really liked the watercolor class.  Here's Tina, Miko and Erna concentrating on the colored pencil technique.

Dave signed books, catalogs and Miko's newly started collection of Memory Box stamps!

Even Lynn's father "daddy" came to the class and did the watercoloring technique.

We had a blast this weekend!

BUT....Of all the fans Dave had, I think my son was his #1!  He followed Dave all over the store and wanted to be his little helper, then, when Dave had to go to the bathroom, he sat down by the bathroom door and waited for him to come out!  He even woke up early and ran to the back of our house to see if Dave was awake so he could play, when we dropped Dave off at the airport, Miles said.. "Mommy, can we go on an airplane to see Uncle Dave?  He needs me to be his helper."

Thanks again Dave for everything!!  We all had a great time!

Dave has already committed to coming back to Sacramento, next October!

HOOORAY!

Memory Box trunk show!

The new memory box winter images are in!  They arrived today at the store and you can be the first to purchase them!  Please join me in welcoming Dave Brethauer, owner and designer of Memory Box stamps and papers.

Friday, October 3rd 6pm-8pm -- two free make and takes with Dave Brethauer

Free pizza

Between these hours, receive 10% off your entire purchase!

We hope you will join us and welcome Dave to Sacramento!

By the way, we recently had our halloween class and here's a look at some of the cards we made.

I love this stamp!  It makes me want to eat candy apples! The image is by Impression Obsession.  I colored the apples in different colors of copic pens and blinged the apples with liquid pearls, cinnamon stickles and black stickles.  Sentiment and banner is by A Muse.  I stamped it on a shrinky dink and baked it in my oven.  This little sentiment made into a tag really makes the card!  I love shrinky dinks!

This is another card we made, it's a Karen Stolper stamp.  The stick lady is so fun!  I added a layer of grey cardstock and punched out the sentiment and put glitter glue around the border!  As you all know.. I love glitter glue and ribbon.....

Finally... here's a look at Miles' halloween invitation.  Each year we have a fun halloween get together with hot dogs and hamburgers and trick or treating with young children in our neighborhood.  This is a waterfall card Ken made in one of his classes.  I used basic grey's clear stamp set and this tiny skull and cross bones is from Just Johanna.  I love this little tiny skull!  This is the first page.. then you pull the ribbon to get to the next line---

the skull is so small.. I was able to stamp it in the goblet by A Muse.

Then keep pulling--

and keep going....

finally.. the invitation information.  So fun!  We can't wait to have a fun trick or treating party!  Hope to see you on Friday night!  Please bring your appetite!