Blessings Ink

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Just a Number…

Christina Franco — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:37:17 +0000

card supplies:

Eat Cake {free Hostess set during May!}, Cherry Chevron cardstock, Onyx cardstock, Kraft cardstock, Onyx button, Cherry Silky Crush ribbon, Versamark ink, White embossing powder, Cupcake Toppers die set - all items from A Muse Studio

Here is a card I made this weekend and I couldn’t wait to share it with you. I love everything about this, especially that fun flower! I don’t think I went overboard on the chalkboard technique here – it turned out so elegant looking!

Flower “how to”– I made this by cutting out some coffee filters with my Cupcake Toppers die; this is four layers stacked on top of each other. I sewed the button down in the center and through the layer of ribbon to help keep everything in place. Next, I lightly dampened the flower layers and pulled , scrunched and pushed them into place. Finally, I set it aside to dry.

Challenges I am entering today:

Make it Monday – anything goes
Eclectic Ellapu – anything goes
Gingerloft Challenge – Birthday
Pile it On – Fabric/Felt (how about coffee filters?)
Inspire Me Fridays – anything goes
Sister Act Card Challenge – anything goes
Everybody Art Challenges – flowers
Shopping Our Stash – use your tools (haven’t used these dies in forever!!)

~ Chris

Interested in building your Copic marker inventory? Join my Copic Marker Hostess Club & get 4 markers for free!

Free set during May only! Ask me how to get it!

May only: Pick out a free stamp set!

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Now that Google Reader is going away, what reader will you use? I’m debating between bloglovin’ and feedly!

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National Scrapbooking Day!

Amusing Challenge winners

Christina Franco — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:36:59 +0000

card supplies:

First in my Book rubber stamp set, Seattle Chevron cardstock, Onyx cardstock, Papaya ink, Versafine Onyx ink – all supplies A Muse Studio

Here’s a fun, CAS card I made for my Open House and haven’t shared yet. It features First In My Book which is one of the new stamp sets from the A Muse Studio 2013 catalog. Have you checked it out? There are so many fun new sets with matching dies, we’re featuring party supplies (perfect for graduation and summer parties!) and lots of other fun things…plus, this month you can get the FREE stamp set, EAT CAKE, when you hostess a party. I’m closing out three parties this week for folks who really wanted to earn this set! It was easier than they thought! Let me know if you want to try – you’ve got until May 31 and the neat part is that all orders for $35 and more get a free set of onyx notecards as well! wowser!!

And now for some other great news. Congratulations to my Amusing Challenge winners!!

4. Melissa SunshineHoneyBee

1.Allisa

2. Dorothy S

3. Melissa SunshineHoneyBee

I love what you three ladies did with the sketch! Thanks so much for playing along with my Amusing Challenge this past week – I hope you’ll join in for the paper flower challenge going on now!

~ Chris

All for Love Glassine Packet

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Amusing Challenges winners

Amusing Challenge – Paper Flowers

Christina Franco — Sun, 19 May 2013 04:38:06 +0000

Welcome to this week’s Amusing Challenges – today we’re playing with Paper Flowers. A Muse Studio carries a variety of flowers, both big and little, but you can use any you happen to have on hand (if you “need” some though, give me a holler!). Throughout the month I’ll have different sorts of challenges…”use it”, themes, sketch, etc. I will have a Weekly Winner and at the end of the month, those 4-5 winners will go into a prize drawing for one lucky Grand Prize winner. The May prize is a package of twinkle stickers (gems) your color/size choice from the A Muse Studio catalog from me.

For my card I grabbed an assortment of the smaller sized A Muse Studio paper flowers and colored them with a copic marker. I used a ton of different supplies from A Muse Studio! You can’t see some of the finer details stamped on the label in Sky: the swallows from Clever Girls and the dotted outline from the Vintage Labels matching stamp set.

card supplies:

You’re Too Kind, Clever Girls, Vintage Labels rubber stamp set, paper flowers, Sky buttons, Sky dot gems, French Roast baker’s twine, Vintage Label die, Toffee/Slate/Sky ink, and kraft cardstock – A Muse Studio

My design team is on a break this week – life sure gets hectic sometimes, eh? So, I dug out a card of mine where I sprayed my paper flowers with Splash!

and here is a fun papercrafting idea for packaging from the A Muse Studio designers:

PS. Don’t forget, you have until midnight Sunday to play along with the “sketch” Amusing Challenge found here. There are already some great entries but we’d love for some more players to join in!

It’s super easy to play along with Amusing Challenges, and just as a reminder: 2 entry limit and no digis please!

■Link your creation to your paper crafts blog, gallery (SCS, twopeas or Flickr, to name a few) before midnight of the following Sunday.

■Use any product but please follow the challenge criteria.

■Double your chances to win by using A Muse Studio products (just leave me a reminder in the comments please)

~ Chris

Interested in building your Copic marker inventory? Join my Copic Marker Hostess Club & get 4 markers for free!

Free set during May only! Ask me how to get it!

May only: Pick out a free stamp set!

Join my team! Email me to get the conversation started!

Now that Google Reader is going away, what reader will you use? I’m debating between bloglovin’ and feedly!

In case you missed it:

Blog Inspiration!

Under the Big Top Birthday Invite

Christina Franco — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:08:51 +0000

card supplies:

Under the Big Top, Splash: Winter Sky, Orange, Washi, Cherry, Tombow marker (red), Versafine Onyx ink – all supplies from A Muse Studio

I had so much fun making this card! I think it’s the perfect birthday party invite and the BEST part is, the kids can help you make it! I took assorted colors of Splash and just untwisted the spray bottle cap. Then, depending on how much liquid seemed to be hanging in the tube hanging below the sprayer, I either:

shook the end over the paper (be sure to protect your work area – Splash is permanent!!) or,
touched the end tube to the paper very quickly to leave dots precisely where I wanted them.

Oh, this image and sentiment are part of Under the Big Top – it’s one of the stamp sets that A Muse Studio has on sale during May for it’s Spotlight Specials…you can check them out here. The special paper pack is pretty awesome too this month!

Challenges I’m entering my CAS (clean and simple) card into:

Crafty Creations Challenge – Keep it Simple
Charisma Cardz – anything goes
Southern Girls Challenge – Going Spotty
Bastel-Traum – Birthdays (I love that I can read this even though it’s German!)
Craftroom Challenge – stamp your own background/background paper
Lady Anne’s Challenges – anything goes

~ Chris

Interested in building your Copic marker inventory? Join my Copic Marker Hostess Club & get 4 markers for free!

Free set during May only! Ask me how to get it!

May only: Pick out a free stamp set!

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In case you missed it:

Heaps of Peeps!

Here for you...

Have a Beautiful Birthday

Christina Franco — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:08:46 +0000

card supplies:

Papillon, Beautiful Botanicals, Extraordinary Background, Essential Sentiments, Forget Me Not paper flowers, Black embossing powder, Buttercup cardstock, Sky dot gems, assorted inks – A Muse Studio (ribbon – other)

This card was created when I started CASEing my upline, Angela Kelley’s beautiful card. She is so talented and inspiring! I added the yellow panel of cardstock which I scored and sanded for some added interest. The flowers are white paper flowers from A Muse Studio and they are perfect for inking up with copic markers or as I did here, with ink and a sponge dauber.

I have a tutorial on coloring this butterfly here in case you missed it!

I had a great Birthday card making class yesterday and I think everyone had fun! You still have time to place an order for the Mystery Hostess to win this set, Eat Cake for free! And…there will be a second prize drawing for $25 in free product. Yay! Just send me an email with your order by noon on Saturday, 18 May to enter the drawing…order for $35 or more also get a free pack of onyx notecards. Double yay!!

There are quite a few challenges I am entering into today with this card:

Created With Love – Birthday Bling
Love to Create – flowers
Make it Monday – Anything goes
Songbird Challenges – flowers
Three Scrappy Gals – flowers
Use Your Stuff – flowers

~ Chris

Interested in building your Copic marker inventory? Join my Copic Marker Hostess Club & get 4 markers for free!

Free set during May only! Ask me how to get it!

May only: Pick out a free stamp set!

Join my team! Email me to get the conversation started!

Now that Google Reader is going away, what reader will you use? I’m debating between bloglovin’ and feedly!

In case you missed it:

Mystery Hostess!

Christina Franco — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:37:26 +0000

We are forever losing Iphone and Ipod chargers in this household so when my daughter had her 17th birthday, I got her a new plug and decorated it with some A Muse Studio washi tape! She rolled her eyes at me but her friends all thought it was neat…and guess what?!? She hasn’t lost her phone charger in over a month…tee hee…see, Moms DO know best!

I’m so nervous because tomorrow I’m having 15 ladies over to the house to stamp birthday cards – we’re celebrating A Muse Studio’s second birthday! I’m having a Mystery Hostess drawing for the Eat Cake set and if you’d like a chance too, just send me your order via email NLT Thursday, 17 May, midnight! If your order is $35 or more, A Muse Studio will enclude a free package of Onyx notecards for you so either way, it’s a great deal!

and don’t forget to check out this Spotlight Specials while you are putting together your order!

~ Chris

Interested in building your Copic marker inventory? Join my Copic Marker Hostess Club & get 4 markers for free!

Free set during May only! Ask me how to get it!

May only: Pick out a free stamp set!

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In case you missed it:

virtual Open House

Amusing Challenge winners!

Christina Franco — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:31:17 +0000

Yikes! Last week I forgot to draw for the random winner for the bottle of Splash from the A Muse Studio catalog! Please contact me with your color choice or I can also help you find where to look for your options!

April winner – Kevin

and now for our regular program (tee hee…it’s early and I got zero sleep so I’m a bit punch happy. Yay, work should be fun today!)

#9 Debi B

2. Samantha Klaebe

11. Kim L

19. Maria F

all three ladies combined stamping with something “else” – beautiful work from everyone! I know there are a LOT of happy Moms out there today with these cards!

~ Chris

Interested in building your Copic marker inventory? Join my Copic Marker Hostess Club & get 4 markers for free!

Free set during May only! Ask me how to get it!

May only: Pick out a free stamp set!

Join my team! Email me to get the conversation started!

Now that Google Reader is going away, what reader will you use? I’m debating between bloglovin’ and feedly!

In case you missed it:

Heaps of Peeps!

Seize the Birthday!

Amusing Challenge – Sketch

Christina Franco — Sun, 12 May 2013 04:15:47 +0000

Welcome to this week’s Amusing Challenges – we’re back with a really neat sketch! I hope this one inspires you to play along! Throughout the month I’ll have different sorts of challenges…”use it”, themes, sketch, etc. I will have a Weekly Winner and at the end of the month, those 4-5 winners will go into a prize drawing for one lucky Grand Prize winner. The May prize is a package of twinkle stickers (gems) your color/size choice from the A Muse Studio catalog from me.

Sketch 11

Wow, Juliet was really inspired this week! She wrote me…”I decided to make some paper today by smashing the wilting azalea blooms I could gather between two sheets of cardstock in my Big Shot.” What a wonderful result of homemade designer paper! I love it. Juliet used the set, All For Love, from A Muse Studio.

Cyndi had some great colors and texture going on her card…wow! I wouldn’t have thought of the pink and orange and they look great together. Cyndi used Make A Difference from A Muse Studio…it’s a set I don’t have yet.

My card is the marriage of two different inspirations…one card I saw onPinterest this week that had 3 tags which were mini collages. The other card I saw online from fellow A Muse Studio consultant, Lyn Bernatovich, where she created a mini collage on the “stub” from our ticket punch die. I used a lot of different supplies from A Muse Studio and I think the new color Mermaid goes beautifully with Toffee and Vanilla. Yum!

card supplies:

You’re Too Kind, Friend to Friend, Sunny Side of Life, Just Because rubber stamp sets, ticket die, Bermuda/Toffee ink and cardstock – A Muse Studio

PS. Don’t forget, you have until midnight Sunday to play along with the “Mother’s Day” Amusing Challenge found here.

It’s super easy to play along with Amusing Challenges, and just as a reminder: 2 entry limit and no digis please!

■Link your creation to your paper crafts blog, gallery (SCS, twopeas or Flickr, to name a few) before midnight of the following Sunday.

■Use any product but please follow the challenge criteria.

■Double your chances to win by using A Muse Studio products (just leave me a reminder in the comments please)

~ Chris

Chalkboard Technique Card

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Free set during May only! Ask me how to get it!

May only: Pick out a free stamp set!

Join my team! Email me to get the conversation started!

Now that Google Reader is going away, what reader will you use? I’m debating between bloglovin’ and feedly!

In case you missed it:

iSpy Sketches...

Mother’s Day is coming!

Christina Franco — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:10:02 +0000

It’s been raining here in Northern VA so much that Cyndi had a hard time getting a good picture that captured these lovely colors. I love her Mother’s Day card – those stamped layers are wonderful! Are you ready for Mother’s Day? My card is in the mail but I’m sure it’ll get there late – something my Mom won’t be surprised about, sigh…

If you have a card done, how about playing along with our Amusing Challenges this week? It’s all about Mother’s Day!!

Don’t forget that in May you can also get this great stamp set, EAT CAKE, for FREE from A Muse Studio… Cyndi really wanted the set and is the second person to set up a long-distance workshop with me. She’s spread the word via her Yahoo Groups, Facebook and email – if you are curious on how you can earn this limited edition set get in touch with me!

~ Chris