Tuesday, March 29, 2011

coming this weekend...

it's time! this weekend is my big online a muse studio launch! crafty peeps may already be familiar with a muse's stamps from your local craft stores, i know that i have used them in pretty much every class i've taught. after 10 years, a muse has made a huge shift over into the world of home sales. now, the only place to nab some a muse goodness is through an a muse studio independent creative consultant like yours truly.

if you're in my area you can feel free to contact me about hosting a workshop, open house or catalog party. or, if you are close by, but not necessarily up for the hostess thing, although i assure you that it's easy-peasy, you might be interested in one of my 6 month stamp clubs. i won't type you're ear off with all the details right now, but e-mail me if you are interested! missmorganteaches@gmail.com

one of the best things about this new a muse studio launch is that if you aren't close by, you can still join me for some a muse studio fun! as of april 1st, friday, you will be able to shop for a muse studio goodies on my consultant website! so, even if we only see each other at trade shows or scrappy events, or are just blog friends, i can still help you out! i'm also planning on posting lots of little tutorials, projects and tips on my blog to get you as excited as i am about this stuff!

to celebrate the launch of my consultant website, which won't be visible until april 1st, i'll be posting a muse studio fun all weekend. here's the planned schedule;

friday, april 1st - friday five (a muse product edition) & giveaway details
saturday, april 2nd - i'll show you how to create a cute card start to finish
sunday, april 3rd - more great a muse studio samples
monday, april 4th - giveaway winner announced

i hope you'll join me this weekend!

Monday, March 21, 2011

spring wish list 2011

(note: clearly i wrote this a a couple of days a go when it was 60something and not snowing again, like it is today! come on spring! why you gotta tease us like that?)

finally! instead of just raining like it's spring, it is spring! and, it's actually beginning to feel like it! it couldn't have come soon enough. spring is possibly my favorite season, mostly because of all the associated feelings of fresh, exciting things to come. i've been carefully cataloging possible spring necessities for a few weeks now, and with today being the beginning of the first week of spring, and my very first day of work at anthropologie, the timing seemed perfect. here's (just) 26 of the items on my spring wish list (of which i will probably end up with 7 or 8, haha)

spring wish list 2011

01. share a sweet tweet bag 02. encircled effulgence posts 03. military henley 04. paige roxley high-waist trousers 05. word of the year necklace 06. after party flats 07. spangled stripe sweater 08. pierce eyeglass frames 09. gold chevron dangles 10. joe's denim shorts 11. ecote knotted fan thong sandal 12. fossil limited edition tote 13. autumn mixtape necklace 14. blurred chevron scarf 15. decade-by-decade skirt 16. fennec fox 17. urban ears plattan 18. equinox spectators 19. chelsea crew carly peep toes 20. liberty convertible satchel 21. tuileries dress 22. columba necklace 23. your sweet self socks 24. totes ditsy umbrella 25. borrowed boyfriend cardi 26. sheswai perfecto laquer 27. wooden heel oxford 28. striped grass fedora 29. eastpointe garden top 30. grey star canvas plimsoll 31. sunny soiree dress 32. p.s. i made this diy pom pom necklace 33. monster family flip video camera 34. sugar work skirt 35. raised teardrops hoops 36. matte is murder manglaze

Friday, March 18, 2011

friday five #41

friday five #41

01. i work at anthropologie!!! - well, i start monday! yes, after 3 months of pretty much totally freaking out, feverish attempts and business plans and a lot more freaking out i am crazy stoked to have been offered a job at anthropologie! i'm the new assistant home department manager and i can not even freak out enough about it! we all know how much inspiration all of us crafters, nesters and clothing & accessory addicts get from anthropologie, and now i get to be surrounded by it. the word, "blessed" comes to mind! i'm so excited to start on monday, and so relieved to not be freaking out anymore!

02. instagram - here i was all hooked on the hipstamatic app, but then sarah and simone put me on the instagram path when they were here for the martha stewart show. i love how easy it is to share your photos and really love that you don't have to pick your "film" and effects before you shoot and then chance it, you just take the photo and then try out a whole bunch of effects/"films" before you post it. plus... you get a square "viewfinder" rather than having to guess where it's going to crop it down from a rectangle. love it. oh! and it's free!!!

03. on my way - with my little home sales venture, a muse studio, and i love having the catalogs and product in my hands! i'll be able to sell from a consultant website also, which will go live on april 1st, so i'm going to have a whole launch weekend on my blog (with a giveaway) during the first weekend in april. more details and nerdy crafty gushing to follow.

04. the essie train - i'm officially onboard and, now that i am, i can't believe how long it's taken me to buy a ticket. okay, done with the train metaphor now, promise. i've been drooling over the colors on various tumblr's (and now pinterest) and i can identify a lot of the colors on people when i see them, but for some reason i hadn't purchased any until a couple of days a go. i'm currently rocking "sew psyched" and i also got "chinchilly"and, even though lavender is not usually my thing, i think i'm going with "nice is nice" next. love.

05. my first publication! - my, "walking on a dream" layout is in the april scrapbook trends, and my "london rain" layout will be in the create: embellish idea book also out in april/now! this is my first scrapbook magazine publication(s) and i'm so excited to see it in actual print, so far i've only seen the online version of one of the layouts. i'm really flattered that northridge picked my layouts, and love the little scene they shot the layout i've already seen in. i can't wait to see the set they shot "london" rain in!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

inside my craft room: part two

welcome back! i hope you liked the peek into my craft room itself, but now onto organization! i know that most crafters are always looking for the best way to organize or reorganize their stuff, so i thought i'd share what's been working for me lately. my way is nothing close to the end all be all, but maybe it will inspire you!

this is a trick that's been around forever and something that a scraptasia customer told me about. it's just a simple over the door shoe organizer (although it was not so simple finding a clear one!) these aren't all my punches, but they're my basics (marvy plain circles and ovals and scalloped circles, ovals, squares and rectangles) i use them on so many of my cards!

since so many of my cards use these punches i wanted them close at hand. cheiron carries around a ring of these punch samples with her so that she knows what she has and what size punch will be perfect for each stamp or project.

then i took it another step and also saved and labeled the pieces i punched the shape samples from so that i can just hold them over a stamped image to figure out exactly what size punch i'll need!

i scored this stamp cabinet when we cut down on the amount of sample stamps we had at the store. i organized all my woodmounted stamps in the cabinet by season, occasion or theme and labeled each drawer.

here is what one of the drawers looks like just partially open! there is room for a ton of stamps in here. these cabinets are quite and investment, but i really love the look and how easily they store so many stamps.

i use 6x6" cropper hoppers to store my clear stamp sets that are 4x6"ish and of course have them organized with labeled dividers.

5x7" protect n store containers are the perfect way to organize all my smaller clear sets, individual clear stamps and completely unmounted rubber stamps by theme (yes, those categories are pretty ridiculous.)

for my cling mounted rubber stamps i use the thin stuftainers from stampendous and trim down and punch a hole in the stamps packaging so that i can attach them to the top of the stuftainer using a binder ring and easily leaf through to see the stamped images going the correct way.

this cute little panda container is from target and 2 rows of 6x6" paper pads fit perfectly!

for my pre-made card bases i use wood media crates from michael's! they are super easy to grab with a coupon and then just attach a fun piece of patterned paper to the visible bits to snazz it up a bit.

for my glitter, flocking and embossing supplies i use the two different depths of rectangular snapware.

both variations of the doodlebug glitter kits and the flocking kit all fit in just one shallow layer!

and you can also store 2 rows of stickles in each of the shallow layers and you are still able to see the colors from the side of the snapware. (i'm also working on color swatches of these to hang next to my desk!)

my buttons and brads are stored by color in those little supply organizers that you can easily find in the bead or sewing section of most craft stores.

my twinkling h2o's are stored in these cool nesting wooden trays from a shop called stamp hideaway that makes them themselves and ships! i love having them all in one place, and in rainbow order of course!

my ribbon bin is a little shameful as far as "organization" goes, but i don't mind sifting through for that perfect piece. i don't think there's really an end-all-be-all answer to ribbon organization quite yet.


for my paper i use 12x12" cropper hopper paper files. i gave them a general label on the front and then they are divided and labeled by company or holiday. i've gone through a ton of ways to divide my paper;bagged by project (back when i began), by color (in an idealist faze) and now this. i think this is the way i'll be sticking with.

cheiron also turned me onto these little copic shelves from studio 3 and i was really impressed when they came in the mail. they are so nicely constructed, and i love how the "shelves are mounted just slightly lower in the back so you're not accidently knocking markers out.


i think that the square snapware is the best way to store the dew drop sized ink pads.

and when you mount a little stack of scrap chipboard in the center and place your dew drops around it you can easily see all your ink colors while the container is still closed!

i use an old repurposed cd case to store my nestabilites. i bought a box of adhesive backed business card sized magnets and attached them to squares of paper labeled with each die sets name and then they slide perfectly into the cd sleeves!

ronda inspired me with her cutlery ink samples, but i tweaked them just a little bit and stamped an outline stamp with a more solid stamp inside so i could get the best representation of each color of ink that i have. these hang on the rail right next to my spot for easy reference.


last, but not least, i use the good ol' cropper hopper wheeled tower (i think from costco) for projects that are in progress, or at least pulled together already.

like i said, there's always some new organization idea out there, if you have one you think i'd be into, let me know! i'm clearly a sucker for organization!

Monday, March 14, 2011

inside my craft room: part one

the boy and i moved into our apartment in august and i've been pretty happy in my crafty room. until recently though, i had not been spending a ton of time in there since scraptasia closed and i wasn't designing classes and samples all the time. but with my newly (semi-) launched a muse studio venture (more on that soon!) and my new staff reporter status over at craft critique (yay!) i've found myself spending more and more time in my craft room and "that's," as martha would say, "a good thing!" as i've been spending more and more time in there i've also just about finished all the little touches and organization, and i've been wanting to share for a while. i was originally going to shoot a little video because i couldn't get pictures that were very helpful, but when sarah and simone visited at the beginning of the month simone luckily had a wide angle lens and shot these great pictures for me. thanks simone!

01.

this is the view when you walk in the door. those little doilies on the side of my shelf are hambly and they always make me smile when i walk in the room. i'm lucky enough to have the corner room and therefore two nice windows for a whole bunch of natural light. oh! also, that couch there is actually a futon for guests, and that galleria quilt from garnet hill was actually my color inspiration for the whole room (and is currently on clearance.) you can't quite see, but the two walls with windows on them are a hot stone warm grey and the other two are the robin's egg-ish blue-teal.

02

i really, really lucked out this past christmas and my mom got me that wall mounted flat screen and the boy got me a new ipod dock and a tiny little dvd player, so my crafty time entertainment is totally covered. my "L" shaped desk is 2 unfinished ikea table tops that i painted just the edges of, and i love wheeling around in my fancy (not really, it's cheapie ikea) chair to get to my different table top tools!

03.

those little cubby shelves (ikea) work perfectly for so many things and the fabric bins are all from target (including those 2 liberty of london ones.) the gallery lights mounted on the top of my cubby shelf are great for nighttime crafting! (do you like my cuttlebug doorstop? haha. i swear i use it for it's intended application as well!)

04.

we all know that i'm a total organization junkie, and this rail system (ikea) and all that table top space really helps me out with that. those paper sphere lanterns are from ikea and those metal birdcages are from the good ol' dollar section at michael's, the stone grey/brown & white worked perfectly for the room, and for the third birdcage i just spray painted one that was originally orange!

i'm going to share a little more about all my little storage & organization set-ups and tricks on wednesday!