Sunny Days

Here we are, already at the end of July. This month has gone by in a blur. The Pacific Northwest has been experiencing a string of super HOT and sunny days recently. We aren't used to these high 90's and low 100's degree temperatures. Personally, I find anything above 75-80 degrees too warm for me, and I get cranky! I am so thankful I invested in a heat pump several years ago. Now when I come home from work and open the door, I am greeted with a wave of nice, cool air. Aaahhh!

Speaking of work, I have some exciting news--I accepted a new position with another company and am leaving behind the stressful sales job that I've held for three and a half years. My new job is a complete departure from sales and the transportation industry. I will be doing project management and customer service within the health care field, ensuring clinical research trials are conducted ethically and the well being of the research participants is protected. I know this will be a much more fulfilling position for me, and I am really looking forward to starting later in August!

I leave with you with three cards I made recently, the first which I sent as my A Muse bumper card for the month. I was able to make the three cards with one sheet of the 8 x 8 hibiscus designer paper. It's from the "Destination Paradise" paper pad from Me & My Big Ideas. All of the stamps are by A Muse, except for the large hibiscus stamp on the second card, which is by Impress.

Thanks for looking, and hope you're having a great summer!

Pajama Party Challenge #4

The final challenge was to make a card inspired by a favorite movie. One of my favorite movies is "French Kiss" with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline. It always brings a smile to my face when I watch it. Of course, I love anything where France is the setting! For this card, I broke out my beloved Eiffel Tower, Ooh La La, and Kissing Couple stamps. I even got to try out the new banner die from the Studio Essentials Slice cartridge. I had to cut out the red banner free hand since my Slice machine didn't seem to be calibrated right, but I didn't have time to try to troubleshoot it.

Paper, stamps by A Muse; Memento ink; Copic markers; Spica marker; Slice machine and cartridge.

Pajama Party Challenge #3

The third challenge was to make a card for a girlfriend. I have several girlfriends that I like to meet up with over coffee, so this card came together easily. I even broke out my new brown polka dot ribbon!

Paper, stamps, ribbon by A Muse; Memento ink; Fiskars small heart punch; Spica pen.

Pajama Party Challenge #2

The second challenge was to create a card inspired by a favorite game. I remember I loved to play the "Go Fish" card game with my grandmother and sister when I was little, so this card was inspired by that fond memory. I thought the fishing pole stamp would make a fun frame for the fishing boy. My Stamp-A-Ma-Jig made it easy to get precise placement on the first try. I couldn't bear to cut up my new wood grain paper, so I used a scrap of brown note card to create the "gone fishing" sign, and swiped the edges of the sign and post with brown ink to give it a distressed wood look. I inked only the small fish from the "Gone Fishing" image and stamped him at the end of the boy's line so it looked like he was about to catch something!

Paper, stamps by A Muse; Memento ink; Copic markers.

Pajama Party Challenge #1

Although I missed the party last night, I still made time to participate in the virtual A Muse Lounge Pajama Party challenges. The first challenge was to make a card inspired by your favorite snack or drink. Honestly, I don't really have a favorite, I like a lot things! When I opened up my drawer of food-related stamps, the first to jump out at me was this ice cream cone, which I'd never used on a card before. This seemed like the perfect reason to try it out. I recall seeing one of the A Muse designers, Elena I think, who had made a card and scored the background with lines that imitate the pattern of a waffle cone, so I decided to try out that technique. The Scor-Pal made it super easy.

Stamps, paper by A Muse; Memento ink; Copic markers; SU! word window punch.

AMAP Spot Challenge

Hope you're having a great weekend. This week's A-Muse-A-Palooza challenge is to create a "spot" inspired card. A couple of things came to mind when I thought about "spot." First I thought of spots--or dots, and then I also thought about the technique where a portion of a stamped image is the focal point and punched out to give it dimension. I decided to combine the two and this card was the result. I had just purchased the red mod spot paper earlier this week, and thought it was a great complement to the gumball machine image. I chose to highlight the heart amongst the gumballs, so I stamped and colored the gumball machine a second time and then punched out a 1/2" circle of the area surrounding the heart. I attached it over the first image with a pop dot, and then added a red twinkle heart sticker to further enhance it. Unfortunately it's hard to see this in the photo. I also added dimensional glaze to the red top and base of the gumball machine to give it added interest. I like how it turned out. Thanks for looking!

Hope you're having fun with the A-Muse-A-Palooza festivities. I went to the preview party at my LSS last night and had a great time. I love the new 4-bar note card colors and the polka dot ribbon. I even won one of the cute pink A Muse water bottles in a drawing!

White square note card, orange and pink Pretty Little Papers, Creative Candy heart sticker and stamps all by A Muse; Red dot background paper by Bo Bunny; Marvy Uchida and SU! punches; Copic markers; Dimensional Glaze.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! Where is the year going? I can't believe it's already July. Anyway, I was just playing around with one of my newer purchases from PaperTrey Ink (love that company!), and ended up with this. I don't make very many 4th of July cards, but they are fun.

The firecrackers and swirly images are from PaperTrey's Let Freedom Ring set; note card, Pretty Little Paper, Creative Candy twinkle star, Happy 4th sentiment from A Muse; inks by Memento.

Thanks for looking, and have a safe, Happy 4th!

AMAP Twilight Challenge

Happy Friday! This week's A-Muse-A-Palooza challenge is to create a "Twilight" inspired card. Rather than follow the crowd and create a vampire-related card, I chose to create a card in the more literal sense of "twilight." For all of you Twilight books and movie fans out there, I apologize up front--I am one of the few people who has not caught on to the whole craze. I have seen the movie, but not yet read any of the books. The movie was good, but it did not inspire me to rush out and read the books. I know, GASP, but please don't hate me!

Anyway, being the Seattleite that I am, I decided to create a Seattle at twilight scene. I suppose this also just looks like a typical gray Seattle day. I once saw a Seattle postcard that said we have 20+ versions of gray here! I have to agree with that. At least I didn't add rain to my card, though!

I created the twilight background using gray and blue Copic markers along with the Copic airbrush system. It was my first time trying the airbrush effect, and let me just say that it is addicting! After I finished I was looking for other projects to try it on. I was just disappointed that the air can was so small (guess that explains why it's the starter kit!). I can see I will need to get some more very soon!

All paper, stamps and embellishments by A Muse. Inks by Memento and Copic.