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.

AMAP Ribbon Challenge

Hope you're having a good weekend. Yesterday was the Rock n' Roll marathon here in Seattle. In conjunction with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and its Team in Training program, I was a volunteer at their water station for the marathon. It was a lot of fun, but boy am I tired. My upper body feels like jelly after toting around cartons of 6 gallons of water and keeping my arms extended holding out water for the runners for eight hours! Once I got home I felt like I'd done a marathon myself!

Anyway, you're here to see a card, so enough of my personal ramblings! I made this card for the A-Muse-A-Palooza ribbon challenge. I recently got this beautiful flower ribbon as part of a grab bag at Packaging Specialties. I thought the flower design in the ribbon resembled the A Muse gerber daisy image, so I pulled that out, and the card just fell together. I wanted to color the flower like one in the ribbon, but I'm not sure I like the finished result. Anyway, I was too tired to come up with something else, so I'm sticking with this! Thanks for looking, and hope you have a good week!

A-Muse-A-Palooza Square Challenge

Hard to believe another countdown to A-Muse-A-Palooza is upon us! I had so much fun playing along last year that I just had to make time in my crazy schedule to participate again this year (while it was no fun being home for eight months last year due to cancer, I do miss the unlimited time for my creative pursuits!). The first challenge is to make a card that is an interpretation of "SQUARE." I was very pleased with how this card turned out, just wish my photo of it was better. I had fun practicing my shading techniques with Copic markers on the tulips, and it felt good to use my recent purchase of the beloved petite green gingham paper! Thanks for looking. Can't wait for the next AMAP challenge!

A Muse Challenge

Even though I now see I missed the deadline, I still decided to post my entry for the "Hit the Books" challenge over at the A Muse Lounge, which is to create a card inspired by a book. I recently purchased The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz. It's a delightful accounting of this pastry chef and cookbook author's adventures in Paris. So, this card is my interpretation of the book. All paper and stamp images by A Muse. Cupcake brad by Doodlebug.

I'm Back!

Long time, no post. Shortly after my last post in January, my personal computer crashed. I had every intention of getting it fixed or buying a new one in a timely fashion, but life got in the way! I finally have the computer up and running again. My digital camera is connected, I loaded the copy of Photoshop Elements that I got as a Christmas gift two years ago, and I set up my light tent so I could attempt to take better photographs!

The "Life's a Breeze" card reflects my first efforts at taking a photo using my light tent and editing the picture in Photoshop. I think it turned out pretty good. The sail boat and sentiments are from the new A Muse summer release. I lucked out and a local shop here in Seattle had the entire release in stock when I dropped in yesterday.

The next two cards feature photographs from a very talented photographer here in the Pacific Northwest, Kathy Fox. For several years now she has been selling her photographs that are the perfect size for card making. Once I find a background paper and card base that complement the photograph, the card comes together easily. Both of these cards are for a couple of people at work. One retired a few weeks ago, and the other one is moving on to a new position.

It's good to be back in blogger land. I'll try not to stay away so long again!

Hope you're having a great holiday weekend.