Creative Grace

Up to {a lotta} goodness - part {3}

Wow!  I really thought I'd get to this post a lot sooner - last week was a blur!  

I was so honored to be asked to teach a card class to a fabulous group of K-12 Alliance teachers (see previous post).  A couple weeks before the class, I got a text asking me for suggestions for a title for the class.  I admit, I was useless! I had my brain in *thesis land* and came up with a couple boring ideas.  So, apparently the team planning the professional development weekend proceeded to throw out random words, with two words being chosen as the title:  Scale and Design.  

Perfect for a bunch of math and science peeps!  

For the class itself, I had to take on the premise that no one would have any stamping or card-making experience, which led me to keep the cards very straightforward as I really wanted everyone to just have fun.  The most important thing to me was teaching everyone to properly ink the stamps (we all chanted, "don't squish!", LOL).

Soooo... without further ado, the cards:

I was really challenged to make a card that was "math" oriented, so after a few attempts this was what I ended up with.  I figured it would suit our math teachers well, and would be a cute valentine that the teachers could give to a loved one :)

This card might look familiar - it's one of my favorite designs I did a while back (click here).  I love it and I think it's so much fun to stamp on the maple cards. The sentiment, "you make a difference", would be the perfect card to give to a friend or teaching colleague.  It's amazing how just one person saying something positive can make a difference to a teacher.

I *HAD* to make a card with the sub!!! *HAD TO* :)  I love how this "Swiss Cheese" border punch from EK is the perfect bubbly companion.  Speaking of sub, did you know that Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute now has an Alvin Cam!!!!!  Alvin, the first "manned" Deep Submergence Vehicle - the first to discover living things at deep-sea hydrothermal vents and famed for discovering the Titanic wreck, is undergoing a multimillion dollar "facelift", enhancing the submersible's ability to explore the ocean depths, and you can peek in on the journey (click here).  Because I'm so in love with Alvin, and am a huge advocate of innovative scientific exploration and research, I'll also let you know that you can find out more about the project and even make a donation to this non-profit institution to support oceanographic research (click here).  

The final card is this cutie - I love this rocket and *really love* the sentiment.  Again, I figured this would make a great valentine.  The orange Washi Tape is a nice substitute for ribbon. 

So, what do you think?  I have to admit, I had a ton of fun designing cards for teachers!

Thanks for your patience in waiting for these cards to get uploaded and thanks to those of you who take a little time to leave comments on my posts - I appreciate hearing from you! :)  I'll be back in a few days to share a very special card for my *paper ho's* (I didn't get a chance to mail them until yesterday - and I figure they get first dibs on seeing them! LOL)

Have a great week everyone!

 

Up to {a lotta} goodness - part {2}

I had a great weekend! 

I had the immense pleasure of introducing card-making to a fabulous group of educators!

Last fall, I was approached by the K12 Alliance  to be their "Saturday night speaker" at their annual staff developer training.  (This is the grant-funded program I'm proud to be a part of where we work alongside math and science teachers, bringing best-teaching practices to classroom across California).  I immediately jumped at the opportunity!  The team of teachers and administrators who participate in the program work so hard all day on leadership practices, pedagogy, and unit design - an action packed day leading to inevitable brain exhaustion.  To help everyone recoup, the coordinators schedule something different on Saturday evening - something to hopefully help everyone recharge their battery.  Boy - were they in for a surprise! LOL

I was asked to develop a 90-minute card class for about 70 math and science educators!  

Yes, I said 70! Eek!

Following the initial excitement of the prospect, I'll admit I did freak out a teeny-tiny bit.  Fortunately, I was able to get a jump start on everything during my winter break since I'm so busy once school starts.  I started with the premise that no one had any paper crafting experience, so the cards had to really straight forward in their design.  I could expect people to make about 4 cards in the 90-minute time frame - but with so many attendees, I'd need two kits for each card to accommodate everyone. (Enter Jenn Shurkus of Colorful Creations in Cape Cod, MA to the rescue!!!  Jenn saved the day by loaning me an extra set of stamps! Jenn - you are a goddess!)  

The next challenge was all the prep - the hours and hours of prep! LOL  I was so lucky to get help from my hubby (the punch master) who makes punching 70 pieces of paper seem effortless, and my friend and fellow K12 Alliance peep, Susan for helping me cut paper.

The next challenge would be the ability to help everyone who needed it.  I made photographic directions for how to assemble the cards - you know, "scaffolding" - teacher lingo :)  I also expected that many people would need one-on-one assistance.  Enter the Paper Ho team!

Both Susan and Laura were generous enough to lend a helping hand.  These ladies are not only my professional mentors, but wonderful friends with crafty experience under their belts.  Perfect!

The end result was a really fun time!  I imagine it helped that everyone *needed* some time to play, be creative, and just laugh.  It also probably helped a lot that wine was served with dinner and somehow, most of those wine glasses followed several people back to the room.  

I think this was their first time handling such a large stamp! (you did fabulous ladies!)

I love how he raised his glass and card for the camera! LOL

A Paper Ho in action!

Touching a Copic for the first time *ooooohhhh!!!!*

I loved the creative *twist* so many put on their cards :)  I have a feeling some spouses will be getting some fun valentines.  I can't share all of them with you though, we had some creative guys in the audience, LOL

Everyone was completely fabulous and had a great time!

I want to express my gratitude to this fantastic group of educators who are a true inspiration, working tirelessly to transform math and science education in California.  It was a joy being able to give my time to bring them a little, much needed, play time!

I'll share close-up photos of the *teacher* cards made in the class in my next post - stay tuned!  

Big changes ahead!

Happy new year!  Can you believe it's 2011 already?  Mind-boggling I tell ya...

I thought this would be the perfect chance to share a couple little peeks of the calendars I love to give as gifts.  

I honestly lost count of how many I gave out this year.  

It was a team effort - I just didn't have time to do it all myself so my hubby printed and cut all the paper! What a great sport (well, he did give some away too, so that's fair, right?)  Despite all the work, I think they make a nice gift.  Even nicer is A Muse's recent announcement that the proceeds from the calendar template raised more than $6,000 for their charity of choice.  (If you are on Facebook, you can read more about this huge accomplishment here).

2011 will certainly be a big year for changes!  To start, I'm looking forward to completing my coursework and thesis and FINALLY earning my Masters this summer! Yahoo!  It will be a hard road getting there, but I can smell it! :)  

As I'm sure many of you are starting to ponder, another big change is A Muse dissolving their instructor program.  I expect that great things are ahead for A Muse, but I sadly won't be teaching any more A Muse classes, and without the wonderful support I received from them, I'm afraid it's rather cost prohibitive for me to teach at all.  I started out in the instructor program because of my own personal love of the craft and the products and people behind A Muse.  In the end, I've grown a lot and I've been so lucky to be a part of a dynamic team of amazing muses (I love you all!) in addition to meeting and teaching so many amazing people I'm proud to call friends.  I want you all to know how much I've appreciated that and how much you have enriched my life.  

So, with a new year come new horizons.  I'll likely maintain my blog as long as people still read it (a comment now and again does help with encouraging the blog author, by the way ;) and will keep up links to my fellow "former" A Muse instructors so you can continue to enjoy their work.  I will also forever be a die-hard A Muse fan and will play with them any chance I get :)

I'll leave you with  little homage to just some of the amazing women and little women whom I've had the pleasure of enjoying our craft with:

Here's to a new year full of new possibilities!

November classes added!

I've added a couple fun classes to my class schedule in November!  Including this adorable mini book:

You can find my class schedule here. Hope you can join me!  

{A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA} Classic Christmas

It's Christmas in July!  I got a great taste of that yesterday teaching some fun classes at Paper Tales in San Diego.  Some good friends that came to the class brought me a *handmade* stocking (you amaze me Diana!) filled with fabulous treats they all helped pick out.  Let's just say, everyone in the class enjoyed wearing their candy necklaces and bracelets!  

Isn't this the cutest stalking ever??   And this fun little guy was hiding in the stalking too.  He crawled around on our craft table all day!

 

I have more fun pictures from the class to share with you later, but I'm sure you are all here for a special A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA peek, aren't you?  Well, my friends, today I present the adorable *rudy* to you:

He is truly one of a kind!

You can see even more over on the A Muse site.  Be sure to check back later for more A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA goodness! :)

Card Recipe:

Stamps: rudy and one of a kind by A Muse

Paper: *NEW* fabulous candy cane paper by A Muse (are you drooling yet???)

ink: Memento rich cocoa

Copic: E13

Other: white polka dod sheer ribbon and red twinkle stickers by A Muse

swanky photos taken with the Hipstamatic iPhone app

{A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA} baby!!!

Eek!  It's finally here!  It's A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA and that means I get to share a fabulous peek at A Muse Artstamps biggest release of the year with you!  

Today's theme is Halloween (believe it or not, it will be here before you know it!)  I thought I'd share a "page" from the adorable mini book I'm teaching at Paper Tales in San Diego on Saturday, July 10th (the class starts at 1:00 and there are still a couple spots available if you can swing by).

 

 

Spooky-fabulous! :)  

What's also fabulous is that the stamps are available RIGHT NOW exclusively to participating stores! (see a list of participating stores on the A Muse blog - right hand column.) 

For those of you not close to a store, there's more to see on the blogs of the girls on the fabulous A Muse creative team (links to the right) so be sure to check them out.

Aaaaaannnnnd... 

Don't forget that the A Muse Pajama Party is here!

 

It's a blast!  Click on the above image for more info.

Happy A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA everyone!

Card Recipe:

Stamps: bare branch, owl silhouette, and trick or treat by A Muse

Paper: orange gingham and vintage black by A Muse

ink: A Muse black dye ink

Copic: smooch moonlight (owl eyes!)

Other: orange sheer ribbon by A Muse, circle punch

Sea of Friends

I had a great time these past two weekends teaching my Sea of Love Valentines class at Paper Tales in San Diego and Stampin EJ's in Costa Mesa.  

 This is a Shadow-box card we made in the class.

When you pull the side tabs, the inside image is revealed:

How fun! 

I always love meeting new people in the classes and spending time with those who share the love.  It was great at Paper Tales seeing some awesome ladies from previous classes return.  I appreciate the chance to bond and hear about their lives. I can see that for many, taking a card class is a nice escape from reality!

This weekend was especially fun for me as I got to teach some of my good friends how to stamp for the very first time!  My friend Susan and her awesome daughter, Jill came to the class.  I'm so lucky to have been a student of Susan's and currently work with her on a fun grant project where we do science education professional development with elementary teachers.  It was amazing to watch her daughter, Jill, she's a natural artist!  Karen and Caitlin also drove quite a distance to make it to the class!  Karen is one of our fabulous office-guru's at the school I teach and is one of a few that basically holds the school together (I would croak without her!  She's amazing!)  Caitlin is her daughter and also my student this year.  I'll be sad when Caitlin moves on to 8th grade next year, but I'm trying to convince her to be my TA so I can keep her around another year ;).  It was very fun to spend time out of our normal settings and play (although, I did laugh a bit inside every time I heard Caitlin say, "Mrs. Grace", in the card class!)  

 

It's always an eye-opener watching a beginning stamper and fun to see how excited they are when they create something.  I always chuckle a little too when at the start of the class the girls were making comments like, "I'm going to make this card for so-and-so", but by the end it's changed to, "I'm keeping these for me!  I worked hard on them!"    Fun times! :)

Stamps: Wild about you ma, clownfish, and coral stamps by A Muse

Paper:  Blueberry petite gingham by A Muse.

ink: A Muse black dye ink and Colorbox chalk orchid pastel

Copic: Y17, YR16

Other: Black Spica, Scor-Pal, 2" circle cutter, and hearts II Twinkle Stickers by A Muse

Stamping with kids

 

 

It turns out, my niece, a 4th grader, is pretty artistic.  She loves to draw and do crafty things.  She and her little sister often spend weekends with my parents and usually end up doing some sort of fun thing with my Mom like baking, making glittered gourds, etc.  Apparently, she loves the cards I make, so I decided to hook her up this past Christmas.  I was planning a visit to my parents for the holidays, and they live in the same town, so I thought I'd get her all the basic supplies she would need and teach her how to stamp.  Now, from experience, I know how hard it is to share things like this, and I knew my Mom would be the one working with her, so I decided to get Mom supplies too.  

I assembled a kit for each of them: a cutter, scissors, adhesive, ink pads, and a few fun stamps, embellishments, and notecards.  I tried picking sentiments and images that would have more than one purpose so they could use them for more than one type of card.  My niece is crazy about animals, especially bunnies, so I got her a couple bunny stamps and the Animal Wishes set by A Muse.  I also got her a wonderful colored pencil roll hand-sewn by Vi (awesome Mom of Linda, owner of A Muse).  I had a lot of supplies that I wasn't using anymore (loads of patterned paper, old stamps, embellishments, etc.) that I also passed along to the two of them.

Saying this was a hit, was an understatement!  She couldn't wait, and while her sister was opening presents she started to make cards! 

 

 

I work a lot with kids, so I figured the little sister would feel left out.  I had already gotten her something else for Christmas, but went ahead found a kid ink pad and a little set of stamps with kids on them (found them at a teacher's supply store) so she could make things too.  I also got her one of Vi's crayon rolls (you can see it in the picture below - isn't it adorable?)  I figured if she could show that she could listen and hang with the big girls, then her big sis and grandma could share their supplies with her.

 

 

Since Mom and the girls live about 1,000 miles away from me, I wanted to introduce them to a lot of things like how to ink stamps properly and how to care for stamps and inks (like, don't stamp on the floor again!  My nieces stuff got loaded with dog hair, LOL).   I also showed them lots of different techniques.  As I went through the techniques with my niece, I had her write "notes" on a mat for herself.  I figured she could keep the mat as a reminder of things she can do with her cards since she wouldn't have me around later.

 

This actually cracks me up now, looking at it.  I love her little notes like, "rub" and "don't touch after"

 

 Notice the smear marks :)

Mom got a little more specialized training later.  I advised her to join the A Muse Lounge so she could see the cards in the design studio, and also suggested that when she sees cards to pay more attention to the layout to get ideas.  We also got to sneak up to Seattle and go to the A Muse shop where we did some serious damage.  Oh my, that store is fabulous!  

Mom and niece will have to learn how to work together.  Mom is more like me and likes a neat, organized space to work in.  My niece is more of a spastic hurricane when she works. :) I really think it's just a difference in how brains work.  I advised Mom to take deep breaths and let the kid go for it.  As long as she is taking proper care of her stamps and putting everything away when she is done, let her go nuts and make a mess.  If she spills glitter, she'll realize her mistake and never do it again.  If she uses 20 twinkle stickers on one card, she'll run out and learn that less is more.  

So far, little sis is going great and may well be on her way to getting a "pro" kit like her big sister :)

In the end, this was a lot of fun and I'm really happy I was able to help teach them how do do something fun together.  Reminds me when I first learned to stamp with my aunt :)

 

Pajama Party on the Lounge! AMLPJFALL01

Tonight is a pajama party on the A Muse Lounge (you can link to the lounge by clicking here).  The first challenge of the night is to make a card based on your favorite Halloween candy.  

This is an easy one for me as the only candy I buy for myself for Halloween is either candy corn or reeces peanut butter cups (love the fall foils!)  So I'll admit I'm cheating here just a teeny bit.  I've been pretty busy all day so I thought I'd show a sneak of a card coming up in my "Falling Out of the Box" card class at Stampin Ej's on October 3rd, giving me a chance to finish my last chore and hopefully play the rest of the night!

Gotta run so I can participate in the other challenges!  Hope you are having a great night and get to play too!

What a weekend!

It's been a whirlwind for me these past few days as A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA draws to a close!  In fact, this fabulous new holiday release by A Muse is now available!  As always, we appreciate you supporting your local stamp stores and getting your stamps from them!  In addition to the fabulous stores that participated in A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA, many others will be receiving shipments of stamps in the next couple days.  There's nothing like seeing the stamps and sample cards in person.  However, if you don't have a stamp store near you, you can now find these treasures on the A Muse website.  

I taught three classes this past weekend at Stampin' EJs in Costa Mesa!  It was a lot of fun getting glitter everywhere, laughing a lot, and eating cupcakes!  I thought you might like to see a couple pictures of the treats I brought to our little kick-off party Friday night...

I used our brand new Mini Flake stamp, the sentiment "enjoy" (from the Baking clear set), a bit of glitter, a fabulous twinkle sticker and viola! Happy cupcakes!

I also figured that with the cupcake goodness, people would need to wash it down...

These were actually simple to make.  I just wrapped some grass green petite gingham paper and made a label using the new Wreath and Berries stamp and Have A Cool Yule sentiment.  

The weekend ended at Stampin' EJ's with drawings for the fabulous A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA prizes!  We were lucky that two of the winners, Rachel and Shannon, were there in person to get their prizes!

I hope everyone enjoyed all of the A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA festivities!  Today I have to switch gears in my brain as I will be a part of a team of great educators this week that will be putting on a professional development institute where we will teach chemistry to elementary school teachers!  Wish us luck :)