Martha's Blue Glittered and Pearled Pumpkins

Years ago, Martha Stewart poured some pretty blue glitter on a foam pumpkin and created a whole new kind of elegant fall magic. At least in my mind. :) I seriously fell into deep like with glittered pumpkins and have never looked back.

The A Muse Lounge Challenge for the month of October is to stamp out whatever October means to you...for me, nothing says October more than blue glittered pumpkins. (Try not to read too much into that.)

So here's my card for the A Muse challenge. Stamps are A Muse and the metallic lustre inks are by Colorbox--the cat eye collection. Those are the handiest little things.

Happy fall!

Treasures from the Recycle Bins

Look what I pulled out of the Mixed Paper Bin at the Recycling Center over the weekend! Isn't it a beauty? Better Homes and Gardens from March 1968!! It even has that vintage magazine smell. :)

Check out some of the advertisements inside:

It's rainey and damp here...but this made me smile. Tomorrow the recipes section.

Winter AMuse Cards

I enjoyed attending 2 A Muse Art Stamps classes this weekend where this was one of the cards we completed. Note the use of Fabrique Applique aka puffy paint (leftover from the days of embellished and painted t-shirts and sweatshirts--hello 1985) on the snowballs. How fun is that?




This tag was a project from the tag class that I modified a little, making him into a card, with Stickles. :) Glittery Stickles makes me happy.

All stamps are AMuse Artstamps. Color was added using Copic markers...wow--those are some luxurious markers.

Slow Times bring Stamping

Things are slow these days...blogwise. I've been busy doing all the little projects that had accumulated on my "wish I had time to do this" list while I was getting the cruise scrapbook done.

I have organized stamps--meaning that all the clear photopolymer stamps are now housed in clear CD cases. Watch for more stamping to come to my little blog--mainly because I need to use the stamps I like to look at. I suspect that stamps multiply amongst themselves when I'm not looking.

I have, as I already pointed out, become enamored with A Muse Stamps lately. Such good stuff there. I love the clean lines of their signature look. The A Muse gallery is fantastic. I especially fell in love with the Jeep, the ipod, and this card.

And finally, have you ever watched Stamp TV? I just found this channel of youtube videos this evening and have been enjoying them so far. The hostess has a very calm and soothing voice and is well-rehearsed but not up-tight. I like that in craft videos. I do not enjoy video stars who haven't thought about how to present their instructions, causing them to hem-n-haw and fumble around. Bugs me. But I digress.

I realy like the technique shown here using wax paper. Need to try this.

Happy Friday!
--Sarah

Ribbons and Buttons...Oh My

This is what a girl does to celebrate her newly organized ribbon. I've been saying "I want to do that project" for months, after seeing a fellow pea create a similar display of buttons under glass. Blues and browns of all shades...these are a few of my favorites. :)

Speaking of buttons, have you seen this blog called *BUTTONFloozies*? It's shh-weet. Don't miss out.

Happy Monday morning!
--Sarah

Ribbon Redemption

It took until almost 4am, but the ribbon has been redeemed! Around 1:15 am, I realized that Capri Sun boxes could be cut in half and make the *perfect* holders for rolls of ribbon. As it just so happened, there were 8 empty Capri Sun boxes in my area, waiting to be recycled. (It's a long story.) So, I chopped them all in half and used them. Four boxes will fit in a large Iris Cart drawers, which is the same place I used to store the scads of disheveled ribbons...the boxes serve as sorters...there is nothing so soothing as ribbon arranged by color.

I didn't realize how much I apparently like red ribbons! Below shows reds, pinks, oranges, and purples/yellows/greens (because I don't use those alot).

Below shows boxes for black and whites, blues, sea colors, and browns. This drawer will get the most use...Black and white is almost always my first choice.

I organized each of the roll-less, by-the-yard ribbons this way. Each piece is rolled neatly and secured with a strip of paper. I used a tape adhesive to secure the end. Because I need to be able to see what's there, I stood each bundle on it's end. This basket from The Dollar Tree sits neatly on my desk now...reminding me to use the pretty ribbon and making it easy to do so.

And shhh...did you notice that there's a little room for a few more additions?? Hmm.

The paper strips are secure but not tight and they are easy to slip off. It was important to me not to damage the ribbons by using adhesive or pins on the actual ribbons. (Stores that poke a pin into their ribbon rolls really make me unhappy.)



There are a few carded ribbons in my collection, so I just left them as they were. One other little basket hold all the carded ribbons, on my desk, easy to flip thru.

The rest of the ribbons have been a) tossed b) recycled or c) moved to the Christmas bin.

I would love to have the space to keep them out where I can see them but wallspace is just not real estate I can afford right now. So drawers and baskets will have to do. I get a little giddy about the recycling aspect of repurposing the Capri Sun boxes. (If they were going to be sitting out, I would cover them with paper or paint them.)

I feel so much better now that my ribbons are accessible and easy to pull from.

Happy Sunday!

--Sarah

My Ribbon Storage is in Need of a Makeover

"Chaos" has to be the only word appropriate for describing the current state of my ribbon storage. It's unruly and outrageous. And something has to change.

How did I ever let it get this bad?

Help!!



In other news, sometimes it all just comes together. Don't ya love it when that happens? Case in point: When Joal and I were in Bar Harbor, I found a book called *Best of Bar Harbor*. It's basically a small photo book, like a coffeetable book, only small. It has all the requisite photos of Bar Harbor's most famous sites. I first glanced thru it while waiting in the lobby of our hotel. Later, while shopping in a local bookstore (one of the things I really like about Bar Harbor is the *local* businesses), I found a copy of the same book, autographed by the author. Score one. Then as I was paying for the book, I overheard the bookstore owner talking to a man about how well his book was selling...yes, it was none other than Greg Hartford, the photographer of the book I was buying. :)

How cool is that?

So on the plane ride home I was looking thru the book, reliving a little of the magic, and it struck me. Why couldn't I use this book as the base of my Maine scrapbook? I could tear it up and incorporate the (ahem) scraps into my scrapbook. Ha. Is that allowed?

I've been mulling on this since June, while I finished the cruise book. I finally came to the conclusion that this particular book is just too lovely to tear up. And then I pulled out a ruler and discovered that my sweet little book of photos from Bar Harbor is none other than 8x8...a very common size of albums in the scrapbook world. Can you say delighted?

The theme for this album is "life in a northern town" and it will have two sections--Bangor (where the boys stayed with their grandparents) and Bar Harbor (where Joal and I went). I can't wait to get started--it's so nice to be working on my own things again without time restraints.

Happy Saturday night.

--Sarah