Holiday Thanks

When I was housebound during our big snow storm earlier this month, I spent one entire day making cards to have on hand for various holidays, birthdays, and thank yous. My final count that day was fifteen!

My friend JoAnne gave me a Starbucks gift card for Christmas. She was my high school French teacher, so every time I send her something, I try to incorporate something French into it, thus the "Merci" sentiment for her thank you note. I was inspired by Julie's card here, and decided to do something similar with the A Muse To Go cup image. I colored it in with a red Copic marker, then stamped the tiny snowflake from Memory Box in Brilliance Moonlight White, then cut it out and mounted it on top of the tiny blue oval stamped with Memento Summer Sky ink. I think it turned out pretty good! I created my own background on the A Muse note card by randomly stamping the Memory Box snowflake images (you get two separate images on one wood block!) on the paper with the Moonlight White ink. The blue scallop frame was cut out with a scalloped Nestabilities rectangle.

Thanks for looking! I'll be back again soon with pictures of the various calendars I worked on this year!

Merry Kissmas!

Last weekend the Pacific Northwest got its first big snow of the season. While I was cooped up at home, I was able to make a few cards that I needed for two of my guy friends' birthdays and then also just play around with some of my holiday stamps.

This first one I made just for fun. I love this Mistletoe Girl image from Rubber Romance! The "Merry Kissmas" sentiment is by A Muse. The greenery background paper is from Rubber Soul. Inside I stamped "Meet me under the mistletoe," an image by Hampton Art Stamps.

The second card I made is for my buddy Brian's birthday, which is today. He is a manly man--loves hunting, football, and driving BIG vehicles (like his Hummer and one of the big brown delivery vehicles!). I had fun making this slider card. If you pull on the Hummer, it goes "driving" along the tree-lined road! The original Hummer stamp looks like is the military vehicle with the cloth top. Since Brian has the sporty H2 vehicle, I masked off the back and hand drew in the hard top and window to make it look like his. I think it turned out pretty good! The trees image, Hummer stamp and note card are by A Muse. The "have an adventure" is from the clear set Tiny Words by Wordsworth.

Thanks for looking! To all my WA friends, I hope you're staying safe and warm during our Deep Freeze!

Stamping with Rhonda

It was so much fun to get together with Rhonda yesterday and stamp! I really miss having so much free time to play. It definitely makes me appreciate the time I do have to craft and take advantage of it to stock up on cards. We played along with the Addicts Stamp of the Week challenge--using the Alpine Hut and Cupcake Builder set. Here are my two cards, plus two more, just for fun! My Alpine Hut card is a slider card. The car with the tree moves along that track I cut at the bottom of the card. All stamps, note cards, sheer white ribbon and pretty little papers are by A Muse. The gingerbread border punch as well as the red dot satin ribbon is by Martha Stewart. Thanks for looking, and have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Celebrating Rhonda!

Rhonda's birthday was Monday, but I didn't want to post her card on here until I'd actually given it to her. I gave her the card and a special birthday present yesterday when we got together to stamp. So, this is for her! I'm so fortunate to have met Rhonda last spring at the A Muse shop. She is a fantastic friend and was so supportive while I finished up my cancer treatments. I'm truly blessed to have you in my life, Crafty Blessings!

The martini girl stamp is from Hampton Arts. The sentiment is from Rubber Soul. The note card is from Memory Box.

Warmth and Good Cheer

Wow, two posts in one day! Not only that, but I actually MADE a card! Mark that on the calendar! Anyway, I was thinking about what I was going to do for my bumper card this month, so thought I would draw on some inspiration from the Addicts message board. I really liked Jennie's gingerbread sweet holiday wishes card on this post, and decided to play along with her challenge to create a holiday card using non-traditional colors. I like the warm look of brown and red together. The brown started making me think of chocolate...hot cocoa! I have the A Muse hot cocoa stamp--it's one of my favorites (which one isn't?!) and I haven't used it in ages. I pulled that out and started to look in my drawer of holiday sentiments..."wishing you warmth and good cheer." That's perfect, and it's A Muse, too! The card just fell in to place. I used my favorite layout for 4-bar cards and pulled out my oval Nestabilities and SU! scallop punch--more favorites. I used Prismacolor pencils on the cocoa image and went over the swirls of steam and starburst with a clear Spica glitter pen. And...this card also qualifies for the December Home Page Contest--create a card that says WARMTH! A cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows says warmth to me! Thanks for the inspiration, A Muse Addicts!

Birthday Wishes

I'm back! Sorry for being the slow poke blogger. With my return to work earlier this month, it hasn't left me with much time or energy to spend on my crafting and blogging interests. Good thing I have a few cards banked to share with you, since it's been several weeks since I last made a card! Boo hoo. That should change, as Rhonda and I have a stamping play date next week! Yippee!

This card is a birthday card I made for my friend JoAnne (the stamp is Hero Arts, the note card from Memory Box). JoAnne is very special to me because she was my favorite teacher in high school--my French teacher for all four years! After I graduated, we kept in touch and became friends. She's also the one responsible for getting me involved in SEAFAIR and becoming a volunteer driver for the annual festival each summer. Every year for her birthday, I try to give her a French-themed gift. I've made her Paris note cards, found soap and lotion from Provence, etc. This year I found this awesome hot pink hat box with Eiffel Towers on it, and inside I will put a copy of a fascinating book I read in January, The Story of French, which chronicles the history of the French language and discusses its place now in an ever-increasing English-speaking world. It would be a great read for a current French student. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did! Joyeux Anniversaire, JoAnne!

November Birthdays

A lot of my friends have November birthdays, so last weekend I spent making cards for each of their special days. First up is my friend, Kelly. This year is one of those monumental birthdays, and I wanted to make her card classy and fabulous, just like her! I've had this image from Hampton Art Stamps for quite awhile, but this is the first time I've made a card with it. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I colored the image in with Copics and Prismacolor pencils, and added a few glittery touches with Spica pens (on her dress and shoes). The "celebrate in style" is part of a larger sentiment from Rubber Soul, and I just inked the one portion of it, stamped it on red cardstock, and punched it out with the SU! word window punch.

Thanks for looking! I'll be back next week with another birthday card!

Thank you, Cupcake!

When Rhonda came over last week, we participated in the week's Addicts challenges. I was moving slow that day, so I only got one card done. This one works for the stamp of the week, which is the party set, and it also applies to the weekly challenge, which is to make a thank you card. I plan to send this to Linda after Friday's Cupcake Social! Have a great week!

All stamps, note card, pretty little paper, heart twinkle stickers and ribbon by A Muse. Accessories: Stickles, Copics, SU! scallop border punch

Happy Halloween!

For the grand finale, I leave you with my favorite of all of the Halloween cards I made this year. The witchy woman image is from Ducks in a Row. I believe this stamp has been discontinued. I colored in the giant moon with a fluorescent yellow Copic maker. The rest of the image was colored in with Prismacolor pencils. The background paper is from Memory Box's Halloween collection, which is also discontinued. Thanks for looking, and have a safe and Happy Halloween!

I'll be back in a few days with a picture of my card I made during my last play date with Rhonda.

Count Down to Halloween--1 day to go!

This will be a quick post. These three three cards all use paper from this year's Memory Box Sparkle collection and stamps from this year's Halloween release. I love them all! Back tomorrow with my final card!

Count Down to Halloween--2 days to go!

Back with my next installment of Halloween cards. This first card uses stamps from the Fright Night clear set by My Favorite Things. The dot cardstock is from the Memory Box Spooky collection. I colored in the trick-or-treaters with fluorescent Copics. The oval was cut out with a standard oval Nestabilities die.

The second card features the new Cuttlebug Spider Web embossing folder. I love the effect it created with that silver cardstock. I punched out a spider from black paper with a Punch Bunch punch, then spread glue over the top and covered it with black flock. I finished it off with two eyes using orange Stickles. The ovals were cut with standard and scalloped Nestabilities dies. The "eeek" sentiment is from A Muse.

Back tomorrow with more!

Count Down to Halloween--3 days to go!

Well, I intended to start my count down to Halloween yesterday, but the time escaped me, so I'll have to start today. I decided to post pictures of the cards I'm sending to my family and friends. Some people pick one design that they like and make multiples to send out to everyone, but I like variety, so I make each card different. Besides, I have so many great stamps to play with, I need to make sure I use them!

Today I'm posting my "ghoul" friend cards. This first card I'm sending to my sister. My sister and I may share a great resemblance, but the similarity pretty much ends there! I'm the calm, quiet one, she's the drama queen. I'm perfectly content occupying myself with reading, stamping, etc. She has to be with someone and doing something all of the time. She is the fashion plate, and I'm happy with the basic classics. Despite our differences and the fact that we drive each other nuts some times, I love her to pieces, and I know she thinks I'm okay too! So, this card is for her. Black kitchen note card, orange sheer ribbon, cat woman and Sabrina stamps by A Muse. Ghouls rule sentiment is from a Studio G clear set.

The second card is for my good friend Kelly. Kelly is my beautiful, tall, blond, blue-eyed, stylish girlfriend. She looks amazing no matter what she puts on, and because she's so tall and trim, she can pretty much wear anything! The stamps are from this year's My Favorite Things release, Totally Witchin'. This is an awesome set! The dot paper is from Memory Box, the Spooky collection. There are three Robin's Nest dew drops from the Halloween collection. I punched out the standard and scalloped ovals with my Nestabilities dies. The witches images are colored in with Copics, some fluorescent. Inside, the greeting is "Hanging out with my ghoulfriend."

Back tomorrow with the next installment!

Fall Greetings

Happy Friday! Yesterday I met up with Rhonda and her friend Kim for a stamping day. We had a lot of fun! (Just check out Rhonda's blog for evidence of how much fun we had!) I worked on a couple of the A Muse Addicts challenges and started another card just for fun, but didn't get it finished. So, I'm just posting the two challenge cards I made.

Both cards work for the Stamp of the Week challenge and the Weekly Challenge--use tree stamps and make a fall card. The first one uses a tree and the sentiment from the Trees 2 clear set. I colored the tree image with Koh-I-Noor pencils. See the two frond punch outs on the left side? I punched those out with my new Martha Stewart frond punch! I like that a lot!

The second card features naked tree. I was just playing around with different paper scraps and was inspired by a card Kim made with four different patterned squares mounted on top of her card. This card is testament that it is better to cut your paper first and then stamp the image using a stamp positioner than it is to stamp the image first and then cut the paper (hence my not so uniform squares!). The more I look at the card the more this bugs me, so I may have to peel off the trees and start over!

Now, off to make some naughty cards so I can catch up with Rhonda!

Time to Celebrate!

I have great news to share. I finished radiation earlier this week, which means all of my treatments for Hodgkin's Lymphoma are done! My last CT scan came back negative for cancer, so I am officially in remission! Wooo Hooo!

I have much to be grateful for as we enter the season of giving thanks. Most importantly my health, and the support of my family, friends, coworkers and the incredible stamping community of A Muse Addicts. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: I know having this HUGE group of cheerleaders behind me is the reason I did so well and it played a tremendous part in my recovery. Thank you all!

I was so honored to be able to select the charity to receive the proceeds for the A Muse calendar this year. Thank you to all who have purchased the calendar. I don't have a current figure for how much has been raised for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, but I know based on the last update from Linda that the amount is impressive! Thank you so much for your support!

After being off for eight months, I'll be returning to work on November 3rd. Of course I will miss having the free time, but I am committed to making sure I do take time for me to do the things I love most, like spending time with loved ones, traveling, and of course, stamping! Before I return to the daily grind, I intend to do some celebrating!

I invite you A Muse Addicts to celebrate with me one more time! Make a celebration card of any kind, and post it to your blog or online gallery with a link to this post here on my blog. I will randomly draw a number from all who participate to receive two of my favorite A Muse products--the Eiffel Tower stamp and a package of blueberry kitchen note cards (I love Paris, and my favorite color is blue). You have until 6 pm DST on November 1st to play along. Bonne Chance (Good Luck)!

Brewing Up Some Fun

Happy Friday! I've had a pretty crafty week between creating gift containers, taking a Boxes & Bags class at Impress, and then playing along with this week's Stamp of the Week challenge on the A Muse Addicts site. The cup and saucer stamp was one of the featured images, and since I was in the Halloween mood, I decided to follow the same theme with my card.

I stamped the image onto Memory Box orange card stock and trimmed it out, then colored in the "tea" with a fluorescent green Copic marker (making it some bilious green witch's brew!), then went over that with a green glitter Spica marker. I think it achieved the right effect! Then I mounted the cup and saucer on to a square scrap of A Muse black kitchen polka dot paper and then onto an orange piece of cardstock I cut with my scalloped square Nestabilties die. To tie the green in a bit further on the card, I used a scrap of green stitched ribbon that came on a jar of Making Memories fall die cut embellishments (I love being able to recycle packaging elements). I used my Basic Grey slit punch to put a slit in the middle of the card to anchor the ribbon. Then, mounted the stamped image over the top of that. The orange band card is from A Muse. Finally I stamped the Memory Box sentiment in the bottom right hand corner. It actually took me longer to type out the description of this card than it did to make it!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Contain Yourself

It's Wednesday--Happy Hump Day! I'm having so much fun playing along with this month's "Contain Yourself" Step It Up challenge over at the A Muse Addicts site. The challenge is to create any type of container, box or gift bag. In the 16+ years I've been crafting, I haven't done much to create my own gift packaging. Boy, I've been missing out! This is a lot of fun!

Two of the containers pictured here are recycled items. One is a plain brown craft bag I received when I made my last purchase at a local stamp store. The other item is a soup can that I washed out and then removed the original label. The last item is the small black polka dot bag that was made from just one piece of 8 1/2 x 11" decorative cardstock.

The large gift bag I made as a Halloween goodie bag for my boyfriend's five-year-old son. Inside is a coloring book, Halloween maze activity book. a small Halloween puzzle, a package of spider hankies, and of course some Halloween treats. The bag was super easy to make. I used decorative papers from this year's Halloween paper release from K & Company. All of the papers are double-sided, so you actually get 24 different patterns! I cut the 12 x 12" papers down to various size pieces to fit the front and back of the bag, then glued them down. The tag is also made from the same papers, which I die cut with my plain and scalloped circle Nestabilities. The "T" is from A Muse's large polka dot alphabet set. I set an eyelet at the top of the tag with my Crop-A-Dile and threaded the green ribbon from My Favorite Things through and tied it to the bag handle.

The soup can treat container is for my boyfriend. The hardest part of this project was punching the holes in the can with my Crop-A-Dile and making sure they were equidistant from each other! The can was also decorated with the K & Company Halloween papers. I die cut the spider web label from the papers with my plain and scalloped circle Nestabilities. The 3-D spider sticker is from last year's K & Company release. The handle is green rick-rack felt, I think it's from Making Memories. The orange metallic wire is from my stash, I'm not sure of the brand. I cut the tag from a sheet from Memory Box's mixed cardstock Spooky collection. "TJ" is spelled out with black glitter alphabet stickers from Making Memories.



Finally, the little polka dot treat bag was inspired by Rhonda's creation here. I used the same 2,5,7,10 box template as she did to create the bag. The black polka dot paper, orange rick-rack pretty little paper, orange sheer ribbon, and the two stamps are from A Muse. (Extra special thanks to Rhonda for getting the "Sweet Treats" stamp for me--you're the best, girl!)

Have a great rest of the week!

Happy Friday!

Yesterday I met up with Rhonda for some stamping fun! Despite not really feeling in the mood to stamp, I still managed to crank out three cards. I played along with the A Muse Addicts challenges, as well as made a card for a friend's birthday on Monday.

This first card applies to both the stamp of the week (A Muse clear leaf set) and the weekly challenge to use orange as the predominate color. I don't do one layer cards very often, but I had fun with this one, and for such a simple card, it did turn out pretty well. Both the note card and the "happy fall" sentiment are from A Muse as well. I colored the images in with Koh-I-Noor pencils, which was very therapeutic. I did dab on some clear Spica glitter pen to the stems of the images, but it doesn't really show up in the picture.

The second card also applies to the stamp of the week challenge, which is the wine and cheese stamp, and the wine glass stamp. I used the wine and cheese stamp image not that long ago for an ATC swap so I wasn't that enthused to use it again, but I decided to stretch myself and try to do something a bit different with it. Note card, ribbon and "cheers to you" sentiment also by A Muse.


Finally this last card features three cupcake images from the Hero Arts Cupcakes clear design set. I love this super versatile set. It features six different cupcake images along with some fun add-ons for the cupcakes (a flower, a cherry and a candle) and some cute sayings: yum, delicious, you deserve a day sprinkled with fun, happy birthday, and seize the cupcake. Great for making birthday cards (which is what I did in this case) or for just fun greetings. The images are colored with Copics and accented with clear Spica glitter pen. The note card, pink stitched ribbon, pink paper and pink polka dot pretty little paper are from A Muse. The white polka dot ribbon is from May Arts. I also used the Stampin' Up scallop border punch.

Have a great weekend!

October Greetings

I really wanted to play along with last week's A Muse Addicts challenges, and I'm just making the deadline for the Stamp of the Week challenge, which is to use any of A Muse's pumpkin images. The challenge of the week is to create a card using mainly orange, so I created this card which covers both challenges! I don't think I've ever used the pumpkin stand stamp before, so decided to ink that up, along with the tiny pumpkin image. I also used the winter tree. The dark background was created by spongeing Memento Paris Dusk ink onto the paper (I still need to work on blending a bit more!). I drew in the ground with a Prismacolor sepia brown pencil. The pumpkins and stand were colored in with Copics. The "Happy Pumpkin Day" stamp is by American Art Stamp. Orange kitchen note card by A Muse.

Thanks for your support!

The response to the A Muse calendar project has been phenomenal. I have a very good working relationship with my manager at UPS. When I contacted him last week and told him about this special project with which I was involved (but specifically said I was not soliciting a donation from him), he surprised me by emailing me back telling me he had sent Linda a direct message wanting to make a special donation. I also came to find out through a friend at work that my manager had sent an email with the link to the A Muse blog post about the calendar project to our entire department!

So, I made this card for my manager to thank him for his support. Several months back I made a stack of thank you notes using purple, the color for Hodgkin's awareness, to thank people for supporting me. I can't bring myself to use those cards for my guy friends--they're too girly! I think this card with the orange and brown colors works well for male recipients, whether they work for UPS or not! I was inspired by cards Julie and Geeta made, so tried my hand at blending several different inks on a solid block stamp. I like the effect, but I definitely need to practice some more so I don't have any white splotches where I missed inking! This card also features the birch tree stamp from the new A Muse Trees 1 clear set. Hopefully this card qualifies, as I think I am just making the deadline for this week's challenge on the A Muse Addicts site to make a "Just Because" card! I couldn't do the Stamp of the Week challenge because I didn't have any of those stamps!

I have been hard at work doing more A Muse calendars, this time the 4 bar type. I have them nearly complete, and just need to take them to Office Depot for binding. Once they're all done, I will post pictures! Too many projects in my queue and I know this next and final month before I have to return to work will fly by. I still have to make my Halloween cards. A friend is getting married early next year and I am making the invitations (75). Plus, I decided I would make a few perpetual calendar books for Christmas gifts. My parents recently asked me what was on my Christmas list for this year. I know what I want, but it's priceless and can't be bought anywhere--More Time!!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! Is it just me, or did this week creep by? (And I'm not even back to work yet!) Anyway, yesterday I met up with Rhonda and her youngest DD at Impress, then we went to lunch and made a brief stop at Target before coming back to my place for a whirlwind craft session. We joked that we had our own VMAA going because we had only 30 minutes to make a card before she had to leave! We both started our cards together, and then finished them on our own. I chose to use the pumpkin tent stamp, which is one of the stamps of the week on the A Muse Addicts site. This was a super simple card to make, and really puts me in the mood for fall (not to mention the cool, gray weather we're having today!). Stamps, note card and ribbon by A Muse; Memento ink and Koh-I-Noor pencils.
I thought I was finished with my calendars for next year, but since I got involved with the A Muse calendar project, I can't seem to stop making them! I have two more I'm working on now using A Muse's 4bar template, but thought I'd post the cover of the ones I finished several months ago. I made twelve of these 6 x 6 versions. The paper is from Basic Grey, the Urban Couture collection. The sentiment is a stamp I had custom made for me through Impress. 2009 is stamped out using A Muse's Birthday Builder set.

Have a great weekend! Don't forget to purchase your A Muse calendar if you haven't done so already. Remember, A Muse will match your contribution dollar for dollar until Sunday! :-)

Tuesday Greetings

Just wanted to share a couple of cards I created recently. I actually made three cards using the same color scheme, but I sent one of them off before taking a picture of it. So you'll just have to settle for seeing these two! Both cards use the orange sherbet 4bar note cards and brown vintage designer paper from A Muse. The first card showcases the acorn leaf stamp from A Muse's Leaf clear stamp set. The thinking of you stamp is also from A Muse and was punched out with Stampin' Up's word window punch.

The second card uses the the larger flower and three small flower stamps from A Muse's clear circle set. This card has several of my latest purchases from Stampin' Up: The sentiment is from the Best Yet set; I also used the tab punch and the scallop border punch.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Monday!

Mondays normally aren't that exciting. When I return to work in a few months, I KNOW I won't be happy when Monday rolls around! However, even though today is Monday, I'm super excited! About a month ago, Linda Carnell, the owner of A Muse Artstamps, contacted me about being part of her annual calendar project. Last year the project raised nearly $1200 for Scleroderma Research. This year, she wanted the proceeds to go to another worthy cause. I was astonished when she told me she had received several suggestions to have me select the cause! ME?!

Since I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease earlier this year, I decided to direct the proceeds to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It is an honor for me to be involved with a company like A Muse that believes in the importance of social responsibility. If you are so inclined, please visit the A Muse website and order a copy of the calendar. You will truly be helping a worthy cause!

A Muse Addicts Challenges

Rhonda persuaded me to post the cards I made at her house on Thursday. The first one is for the A Muse Addicts weekly challenge, which uses the Mainly Men clear stamp set. The second one is for last week's Stamp of the Week challenge, which was to create a card inspired by your favorite sports team. I love the Seahawks, so I made a card using the Seahawk colors, blue and green. I inked enough of the pennants from the banner stamp (Fancy Borders clear set) so I could write in "Go Hawks" on them, and colored them in with Koh-I-Noor pencils. I mounted that on top of the green asterix Pretty Little Paper and then on to the French Blue note card, which I stamped with the A Muse football stamp. I hope the Seahawks win their first home game of the season today. Go Hawks!!

More Fun with Rhonda

Yesterday Rhonda and I had another stamping play date. I wasn't feeling very inspired, but I did attempt a couple of cards for the A Muse Addicts weekly challenges. They weren't my best effort, so I won't post pics of them. However, Rhonda and I did have fun playing around with Photo Booth on her computer, and then we had her daughters take pictures of us with her digital camera. This picture is one of those.

Today I had surgery to remove the port catheter in my chest that was used while I was receiving chemotherapy. Boy, was it great to get rid of that! However, the sterilization solution the nurse used on me turned my chest and neck a really yucky shade of GREEN! Now I look like some weird alien! LOL! Can't wait til I can take a shower and try to get rid of that! I start daily radiation next Tuesday.

Life Is About Who You Love

Earlier this summer my local stamp store started carrying these wonderful kid saying stamps from Inkadinkado. I loved them so much, I've bought nearly all of them. Some of my favorites are related to love, and I got this idea in my head to make an accordian card with them. Last weekend I finally put my idea down on paper, and these pictures show you the end result. The last picture shows what the inside of the card says. The stick people stamp is from Wordsworth. Note card is from Memory Box. Someone very special will be getting this card!

Better Than Ice Cream

I went to my friend Kelly's house for dinner last weekend and we had ice cream for dessert. I wanted to send her a thank you note for having me over, and remembered this new set of stamps I recently purchased from My Favorite Things. The main image was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and colored in with Prismacolor markers (I forgot Versafine is NOT a good ink to use with Prismacolor/Copic markers. The ink bleeds if you touch it with the marker). I then cut out the image and mounted it on several different pieces of colored cardstock (Memory Box). I added the pink and green dot ribbon around the base of the image, and then finally stamped the sentiment at the bottom of the card.

Sweet Scallops

This week's challenge over on the A Muse Addicts site is to create a card and use scallops on it. I just got this Hey Cupcake stamp, so thought I'd ink it up right away for a change (rather than let it sit in the drawer for ages, as I usually do!). It's colored with Copics and embellished with a red rhinestone sticker. I punched it out with the small yellow Marvy punch, and then mounted it on a piece of Kitchen pink card stock that was punched out with the blue Marvy scallop punch. Black Kitchen note card and black and pink stitched grosgrain ribbon by A Muse.

Afternoon of Fun

Yesterday I got together again with my pal Rhonda for an afternoon of stamping fun. We decided to work on the weekly challenges over at the A Muse Addicts site.

This first card works for both the stamp of the week (Stack of Books stamp) and the challenge of the week (use office supplies on a card, in this case a fancy paper clip). The book stack stamp is one of my favorites. It's colored in with Copics, with the colors inspired by the bit of striped paper from Memory Box. The aqua blue paper is also from Memory Box. Note card, Swiss Red paper and stamps from A Muse.

This second card is also for the stamp of the week challenge (super hero). I didn't have the stamp, so Rhonda let me use hers. I've always thought he was a little goofy looking, so I decided to make this a humorous card. A lot of you know I work for UPS (but I'm not a driver), and in my position I interact closely with customers. I frequently hear stories of how "our driver saved the day by getting us our much-needed shipment." I used that as my inspiration for this card. Super Driver has saved the day by bringing Elyse her birthday present from her grandparents who live across the country! There was quite a bit of masking done on this card. Elyse is normally holding a heart, so I masked that off, stamped out Tiny Present, cut off the bow, glued that to her and drew in her hands so it looked like she was holding the delivered package. The delivery truck is actually the Ice Cream truck stamp with the ice cream cone, music notes and driver masked off (this has been a favorite technique of mine to do for many delivery inspired cards!). I accidentally inked part of a music note, so when I stamped the truck, I had a weird mark above it. I figured I could hide it when I stamped super hero, but when he was finally put down on paper, the mark was still there right next to his boot. It sort of looked like a wing, so I decided to incorporate it into his "uniform," and added a similar mark to his other boot. Now he has winged boots so when he gets off the truck to make a delivery, his feet can fly him to the doorstep! LOL! All images are colored with Copics. The finishing touches were to create a blue sky using Rosie's Roadshow cloud template and an A Muse clear sticker to create Elyse's thought bubble. I also printed out two tiny UPS logos from the website to make the delivery truck and super hero's uniform more authentic (another favorite trick of mine). All stamps and paper by A Muse.

Finally, this last card was just made for fun. I used a couple of the new Seattle stamps from the latest A Muse release, the Public Market (that has quickly become another of my favorites) and Greetings from Seattle. The postage stamp up in the right corner is a color copy of an actual canceled postage stamp. Make an Impression, a local stamp store in the Puget Sound area, has come out with several collections of color copies of canceled postage. There are several coordinating images in each collection, and usually about 25 stamps per sheet. These are fun embellishments. The Seattle postage cancellation stamp is also from Make an Impression. Finally, the apple embellishment is a die cut piece of plain wood that I colored with Copics and then went over with a red glitter Spica pen. Note card and green stripe Pretty Little Paper from A Muse.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Fall is Around the Corner

Summer is flying by and fall will soon be here. Out of all of the seasons, fall is my favorite. I love the cooler temps, the crisp air, and the vibrant colors of the autumn leaves. Fall also means football! I am a huge Seattle Seahawks fan. Go Hawks!

I decided to play along again with the A Muse Addicts September home page contest. This time the challenge was to create a card using A Muse colors of Bark, Swiss Red, Orange Crush, and Palm, and to add some glitter. I decided to try out some of my new A Muse fall release purchases, so stamped three of the leaves from the new Leaves clear set on watercolor paper and embossed them. Then I pulled out my Twinkling H2os and painted each leaf with three different complementary colors. After the paint was dry, I went around the card border with a gold Spica glitter pen. I think it finished off the stamped images nicely. Then I mounted it on to each of the Orange Crush, Swiss Red and Palm Green cardstocks. I punched the bottom edge of the Palm Green with the Fiskars Threading Water punch. All of this was mounted on top of a Bark note card and then finished off with the new A Muse Lime Peel sheer ribbon.

Here is a shot of the card head on. I'm really pleased with this card. I love the simplicity of it. Thanks for looking!