sumo...

The birthday party was a huge success last night, everyone had a great time! I'm still suffering today so I've been blog hopping and catching up and all the amazing work out there. The title post comes from a crazy idea my sister had. She rented inflatable sumo suits and it was hilarious. There are tons of pictures but I promised to protect the innocent.

Here's the card I made for my hubby's B-Day...

dreamy...

There's a fun challenge over at the addicts to send a card to someone just because. I'll still play with my A muse stamps but I also wanted to get some use out of another stamp. This stamp is so sweet to me, of course it reminds me of my husband. I thought he would get a kick out getting something in the mail from me! The party planning is going really well but work has been equally crazy. I can't wait for Friday to let loose!

Images: Rubber Romance. Paper: A muse & American Crafts. Ink: Memento, Copics, Prismacolor Pencils & Stickles.

what the flock...

Ha! I've been waiting to use that title ever since I bought some flock a few weeks back!! This was a card for Tracy's sketch challenge this week. This colors on this card remind me of McDonald's, the fuzzy red hair on this bird doesn't help much either.

I used the Sakura glue pen for attaching the flock and it actually stuck really well. The other glue I used didn't really work out too good for me!

Images: A muse, PTI. Paper: A muse, American Crafts. Ink: Memento, Doodlebug flock. Ribbon: A muse

cake birthday...

I couldn't stay away from my A muse stamps too long! This was a another quick birthday card for one of my co-workers. I stamped the cake on another piece of paper and popped the cake off the image to give it a 3D look.

I got to travel a bit this past summer and found a new show to watch on the flights. I got up on three seasons of 'How I Met Your Mother' and thought it was hilarious! It's starts tonight so I'm off to catch up.

Images: A muse & Stampendous. Ribbon: A muse. Ink: Memento, Copic, Prismacolor & Stickles

spoke too soon...

I had a few hours to myself last night so I was able to whip out a few cards that I needed this week! It felt really good to play with some of my other stamps that haven't seen much ink lately. I was defintely in the groove when it came to creating these cards, I thinked it helped going to Hobby Lobby for a quick shopping trip.

I recently placed an order from the Stamping Bella to get a few stamps that were on my wish list. I picked up some EZ mount and had a hot knife night! Unlike my shrinky dink experiement I got thru the evening without any burns. I mounted most of my Bella and Rubber Romance stamps so hopefully I can use them more.

Here's a quick birthday card for my SIL. I used my glue pen to add glitter to her wings and added Stickles to any empty spot.

Images: Stamping Bella. Paper: A muse Kitchen Papers, Papertrey Plum. Ink: Copic, Memento, Stickles, Spica Glitter Pen.

busy being sneaky...

It's been quiet in my craft room lately, actually I haven't even stepped foot in there in over a week. I'm planning a super bash for my husband's birthday next week. I was trying to come up with a theme and was really stuck. I asked some friends of ours what comes to mind when they think of him, they said...trucks, beer, tough. Which is basically all things 'Dude' and the theme was born. I found some really cute invitations with beer bottles all over them. I didn't have any beer stamps or I would have tried making them myself. I picked them up from Party City and they were ready in an afternoon! I found a cute beer mug cake pan so I'll be practicing with that next week. Hope to get back to crafting soon!!

About the title, the party was supposed to be a surprise party but am I unable to lie to my husband. It's a sickness. I turn into a 5 year old and he can see it all over my face that I'm not telling the truth. So the cats out of the bag!

another baby girl...

It's been a few quiet days around here, luckily we missed Ike stopping through town. I've been glued to the TV watching the coverage and it's always so scary thinking how close we were to it all.

I needed another baby girl card this week. Women are taking over the world one birth at a time, this is the fourth baby girl card in the last 3 months. I used the rectangle nesties, which I totally love but I think they have me in a rut. Hopefully I'll have time to play with some other layouts sometime this week.

Images: A muse. Paper: A muse, DCVW.

go spurs go...

Happy Wednesday! Just a few days closer to the weekend. Life is fairly quiet right now which is alright with me. This card is for the addicts weekly challenge, create a sports card or use your fav team's colors. So living in San Antonio I bleed silver and black for the San Antonio Spurs! They are such an amazing team and great role models for the kids here.

My little stars were stamped with versamark and then covered in A muse simple stick. After that was heated I added glitter and voila super shiny stars! Though I'm still trying to get the glitter off the floor of my craft room. I did the same with the moon and added the a quick sentiment on the bottom right of the card.

friends were flowers...

Still working on sketch challenges to keep me busy! This another one from Tracy at Eat, Sleep Stamp. I went a little crazy with rhinestones, I added one to the center of each flower. This was also the first time I used the cool shadow marker to highlight around the image!

Images: A muse. Paper: A muse & DCWV. Ink: Memento & Copic. Misc: Martha Stewart punch

cozy...

I still can't believe it's already September, that means Christmas is already breathing down my neck!

This card was for the addicts stamp of week, I had to use 'hippie chick'. I thought she needed some company so I masked her flowers and gave her a boyfriend.

Images, Ribbon & Paper: A muse. Ink: Memento & Spica Pen

a shrinky dink experiment...

So one of the Addicts, Jennie, posted a tutorial on how to use shrinky dinks. It was really easy to follow along but I think I'm going to need more practice. I used the clear shrinky dink film and that may be my first problem. The clear one left a lot of finger prints smudges so I had to be careful with handling it. After that it took a few tries to shrink it down to size without the edges curling up or third degree burns on my fingertips! Now the tutorial warns about this but my brain choose to ignore this tip the first two times I tried it working with the hot little charm.

On to the card, this idea was floating around in my head and I'm 100% sure if I like the end result. I wanted to use the angel and devil from the most recent A muse release as the typical good/evil situation. Obviously the bandit chose the latter! To make the bank I used the Surf Shop and masked the surfing supplies. In the end I might try to rework this later with a little more color.

Images: A muse. Paper: A muse & DCVW. Ink: Memento, Copic, Prismacolor Markers, Sharpie markers.

to the rescue...

This card was a CASE by Julie HRR. A friend of mine was celebrating her 29th birthday and was taking it pretty hard. She felt like the fun of her 20's were gone so I wanted to do something goofy to make her laugh. This did the trick!

I goofed a bit on the some of buildings so I covered it with my super woman. My favorite touch is the little green sticker as an olive in the martini.

Images: A muse. Ink: Memento, Colorbox, Copics, & Stickles. Paper: PTI shimmer paper & DCVW.

bad me...

I've been meaning to post but things have been super crazy! Tonight I actually watched the new 901210 and I didn't totally hate it. Then at work they announced that they were giving away a pair of tickets to see New Kids on the Block. Queue me squealing like a child at work, so I go to submit my name and the tickets were supposed to be for my team. DENIED!!! Seriously my inner teenager is dying to get out!

So on to the fun stuff...this card was for a baby shower this week. I went shopping for a gift and was able to find what I needed. Luckily my husband caught the fact that everything was blue and I was supposed to be shopping for a girl! I'm not used to picking out pink and purple stuff...it's all denim and khaki for me.

This is a little lady from Rubber Romance took me a while to color, I'm still not too great with shading with alcohol markers so I fall back on color pencils quite a bit. I colored her dress with 3 purples and her hair was done with 2 browns. I tried to keep it simple so I didn't add too many other elements.

Images: Rubber Romance. Paper: A muse & DCVW. Ribbon: A muse. Ink: Memento, Prismacolor Pencils & Stickles.

finally...

It took a few days but my stamping mojo is back. Maybe it was the long weekend but every time I came into my craft room I could not stamp. I organized, blog surfed and did everything but stamp.

I guess it took me realizing that I needed four cards by tomorrow to get me up and going.

So here's the first card, this is for a new baby girl. For the first card I created my own background paper with a clear stamp from A muse. I've been experimenting with glitter and different glues. I think I found my favorite, it held up the best after drying. I think it's called scrappy glue. I may try another glitter brand to see if that's my problem. For now this stuff works!

Images & Paper: A muse. Ink: Memento, Copic markers.

blocked...

I am having the worst case of stamper's block ever!! So the house is quiet now and I'll have a few hours to myself. Hopefully I can get some cards made because I need three before Tuesday! Off to stamp...

curious george...

So I was playing with my seaweed stamp yesterday and wanted to see if I could make anything else out of it. So I made vines for this cute little monkey! My little one loves Curious George, we watch it every morning before we head out the door. He was so excited when he saw it that I had to give it to him, he keeps it next to where he sleeps at night.

Images: A muse & Rubber Soul. Paper: A muse, DCVW & PTI.

Watercolors

Yet another challenge to keep me focused. This one is from Heather's blog, one little spark. I really wanted to play last weeks challenge but I was waiting for one of my new Halloween stamps. When I saw it was water coloring I wanted to do something easy, what's easier than water?! Well not so easy, I had to paint the background three times before I got it just the way I wanted it. I used my green spica marker to add a little sparkle to the seaweed.

Images: A muse. Paper: A muse & DCVW. Ink: Memento, Stickles, and prismacolor markers.

need more ideas!

I tried another sketch challenges to keep me stamping. Some days it harder than others to sit down and create something from nothing. So I'm leaning heavily on these to keep me on track!

Today's sketch from a fellow A muse Addict, Tracy.

I'm really loving blue and orange together right now. It was also a chance to play with the Vintage paper from A muse. The grass was taken from the mushroom stamp and masked next to the school house. I colored the grass a light green and accented the tops with a darker green.

Images: A muse. Paper: A muse & DCVW. Ink: Memento, Koh-i-Noor & Prismacolor Markers

sketch challenge

I needed something to kick start me today so a sketch challenge took care of that for me. I came across a blog, Taylored Expressions, that had fun designs so I thought I'd give it a try.

This is one of my louder cards but I really love the vibrancy of the teal I went with you! The inside pink is a border I drew with my copic marker, the white was a bit stark without it.

Images: A muse. Paper: A muse, DCVW, PTI white. Ink: Memento, Prismacolor, Copic, Stickles & Rose Art Metallic Marker.

Cleaning Day!

I spent yesterday cleaning so I thought it would be a good time to take pictures of my craft room while it's clean. The pictures are on the sidebar somewhere on the left of the blog. I tend to organize by the colors of the rainbow, ROY G BIV. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, & Violet) It was a trick I learned in elementary school and it's always stuck with me. Since that leaves out black, brown and white I put them in the front of what I'm trying to organize.


I've seen lots of fancy light kits but I'm not ready to spend the money on these just yet. So I want to post my very low tech solution. It's two pieces of white paper held up by my desktop organizer. Very simple but it works

baby shower bella

I've been showing tons of love to my A muse stamps so I thought I'd break another one out. This image is a bella and I think these are really sweet images, and fun to color. She was colored with Copic markers and the bear was done with gamsol/color pencils. Then for sparkle I added some Stickles to her bow & rattle. Finally I used the Spica glitter pens on the sides of her bag for even more sparkle.

I'm also really loving the nestabilities, it has been a really great purchase. They have become a staple in my card making, no more measuring for me!

Images: Bella & Studio G. Paper: Amuse Kitchen Paper & PTI white. Ink: Memento, Copic, Kohn-I-Noor pencils, Stickles & Spica glitter pens.

Shopper...

I picked up this little shopper a few weeks ago and had been floating this idea around. I'm not the greatest at these little buildings since they are so intricate but they work. I popped the little shopper off the page by cutting her out and using pop adhesive. I also used liquid applique to add some dimension to the bottom of her jacket. For the last touch I added sparkly dots to the top of the cake, the ornaments and the shop window!

Images & Paper: A muse. Ink: Memento & Copics.

Blue screen of death...

There's a reason we bought two laptops...I don't share very well! Last year our computer went kaput and we decided to replace the PC with a shared laptop. That lasted all of two days, my husband went out and bought his own. Apparently he wasn't getting enough time on the computer!

Fast forward to now... and his laptop is on the fritz. He took it to Best Buy and it has to be sent off for 2-4 weeks. Which means we have to share one, so let the torture begin.

Images & Paper: A muse. Ink: Memento & Copic.

Officer...

I bought the officer A muse stamp because of a really cute card I saw by Elena, one of the A muse designers. Yes, I'm swayed that easily.

I thought the Officer could use a car. So I took the 'Holiday Car' from the AP release this year and masked the hood wreath. I drew in the lines to make it look like a regular car. Finally I drew the lights on top to make it look official!

Images & Paper: A muse. Ink: Memento, colorbox, prismacolor markers & Stickles.

Patiently waiting...

It's only days until the release of the new Halloween images. I can't wait!! So while I was waiting, I came across all the cool sneaks that the A muse design team posted. One of my absolute favorites was a sentiment 'You're Bewitching' in the old Bewitching font...love it! So I made with the card with the intent of buying that stamp and adding it later, hence the tons of white space.

The hardest part about this card was the background. Again I asked my husband's opinion about the card and he felt the white was too stark. So I played with a few options. First I used pencils and gamsol but it was too much space to blend nicely. Next I tried Copic brush strokes but it was too streaky. Finally I settled on a combination of Copic brush strokes and color pencil on top. To color the fence and grass I use a sponge dauber to tap brown/green chalk ink for a smoky look. The harvest moon was done with gamsol and color pencils, I added a glow using the yellow Spica glitter pen.

The little witch is a cute $1 stamp from Michael's, I picked it up during my covert operation for the MS punches! It couldn't be more perfect for soon to be mine A muse stamp.

Images: Studio G (witch) A muse (House). Ink: Colorbox Chalk, Memento, Spica glitter pen, copic marker, koh-i-noor pencils. Paper: PTI white.

Lemmings

So someone I knew a hundred years ago once told me story about lemmings. I don't remember it exactly but the main part was one lemming jumping off a cliff and all the others followed. So a lemming I am, at least when it comes to the newest gadgets! For the last week I've been hearing about new Martha Stewart Halloween punches. A first it was just a buzz then it became full on pandemonium so I had to find them for myself. It took three trips to Michael's, two 40% coupons and a bit of sneakiness on my part. In order to buy the two punches I wanted I had my Mom buy my second punch. So there...I have them and all the world is right. That is until the next super fabulous thing comes out!

So I had some good stamping time today, I wanted to play with my new punches so here's my first attempt playing with the goo punch. I wanted to see if I could turn it into something else so I made fire!

Images: A muse. Paper: A muse & PTI white. Ink: Memento, Koh-I-Noor pencils & Stickles.
Drippy Goo Punch from MS Crafts

tonsils-n-things

My poor baby, it's been a rough week for him. He came down with another case of strep throat so his tonsils are now in question. Juggling sick baby and work left little stamp time this week.

This card is a little plain, I think I'll go back and add glitter to the dress. Overall I like the soft muted colors, it's a departure from my loud purples and greens! The sentiment stamp on the bottom really irks me because it's crooked on the wood block. I pulled it off and remounted it but it's still crooked.

Images: A muse, my sentiments exactly. Paper: A muse. Ink: memento. Flowers: Prima. Brads: MM

Holy You Tube Batman!

I am officially in love with You Tube, it taught me how to tie a bow. This is actually the first bow I tied without cheating. I usually hand tie the bow and glue it down! I'm still practicing but it's not too shabby for a first time.

Still working on the inspiration challenge, I choose to use this super cute card from Julie HRR. I really wanted to play with this layout because I had never done anything like it. I added some pink to make the girl owl girly...granted I never seen a pink owl! I look forward to trying this out again.

Images: A muse. Paper: PTI & DCVW. Ink: Memento, Koh-I-Noor pencils. Ribbon: American Crafts

Purple Flowers

What a weekend, we had a packed house from Friday night thru Sunday evening. I love our place but it is exhausting having people over every weekend. At least it helps me keep my house in order!

On to stamping this week is a challenge to use one of the cards from the VMAA's and use it as inspiration. I choose this card from Ottchix at SCS. I loved the subtlety of the pink, I didn't want to make the card exactly so I choose to mix up the colors. First I made my own background paper using a small flower from one of the A muse clear sets. The flowers are stamped in a random pattern. Then I stamped the dress onto lilac paper and then again on white vellum. I'm not a big fan of vellum because I can never find the right adhesive. Look closely and you can see it underneath...the search will continue. Then I added the green ribbon and a sentiment.

Images & Ribbon: A muse. Paper: A muse (Green) PTI (White) Ink: Memento & Colorbox.

tree & flowers

Not much going on here, I made a quick card for the stamp of the week over at the addicts. The choices were tire swing or lemonade. I received a lemonade card in the mail so I thought it would be in my mind subconsciously, then I would copy it! I wanted to add a little something extra so I went for the flower brads and tried to add stems.

I picked up these new note cards but I'm not sure how to use them just yet. I need more practice with them! Here's a start...

Images & Paper: A muse. Ink: Kohn-i-Nor pencils, memento, spica pens & colorbox

b-day for little girl

This is a quick card for a birthday party we attended last weekend. I colored her dress with gamsol & color pencils. This is my favorite new technique by far. I'm still working on marker shading but it comes a lot easier with the pencils for me.

The Studio G stamps are fun and super cheap at Michael's, it's easy to pick up small sentiments for a $1.

Images: A muse & Studio G. Paper: A muse & American Crafts. Ink: Memento, Koh-I-Noor Pencils. Extras: A muse ribbon

who me?

I got the nicest surprise the other day. Pamela, a fellow A muse Addict, nominated me for a Brillante blog award. So let me show some blog happiness to a few other nice ladies in cyber land.

Now for the details and rules of the award:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated.

So here's who I am nominating:
Victoria
Rhonda
Lori
Nancy
Kathy
Allison
Tobey

Super blogs and super nice ladies!

halloween on the brain...

So I'm trying to keep the stamp mojo following by working on cards when I can. I have a lot of work stuff to get thru so hopefelly I can get some stamp time at night. I find it easier to stamp when I have an end goal in mind so I'm going to try a few challenges to keep me fresh. This challenge was to use stamps are that new to me. I picked a few stamps last week that were all about Halloween. I masked one of the jars and stamped the grasshopper in it to make it look like a roach. I also masked the sparkler behind Boris' head to show his crazy brain working!

Images & paper: A muse. Ink: Memento, Prismacolor Markers & Spica glitter pen

The afternath...

need I say more

Bonus Round w/Julie

Just when I thought it was over, they threw out a bonus challenge and I think it's my favorite. Create a humorous friend card...



Images & Paper: A muse. Ink: Memento, Koh-I-Nor pencils & spica yellow glitter pen

VMAA Challenge 4

This one was the hardest for me, you could only use one stamp!!! The ladies during the chat gave me great advice...think simple, think A muse. After that it came to me...

Images, Ribbon & Paper: A muse. Ink: Memento

VMAA Challenge 3

This challenge was about your favorite things. I have to say that I really love everything A muse! I've been stamping for 2 years now and my collection has grown to monstrous proportions. I think that's why I had such a hard time with this one there was too much to chose from.

My newest non A muse purchase was the nestabilities from Spellbinders. I picked up a set from cutathome.com for 40% off, how could I resist. I picked up the rectangle but was wishing I got the squares also. They really could have come in handy when cutting the squares on this card. I ended up using my scissors and made a total mess. I will retry this card when I get the squares ones.

Images & Paper: A muse. Ink: Memento & Copics

VMAA challenge 2

This next challenge was all about love, using this as a place to start. To be honest I've never seen this show so I was pretty litteral in my interprentation. I used the colors in the pictures as inspiration and then choose the Dr. stamp. A little obvious but that's you get with 30 minutes!

Images: A muse. Ink: Memento & Prismacolor Markers

VMAA Challenge 1

So this is the first of a couple of posts today, last night was the third VMAA and it was fun!. Two hours of stamping and chatting. I wasn't able to chat much because I used every minute of the time I had for each card. My mom asked me what I was doing last night and as I tried to explain what it was and rules involved, she came to the conclusion that it was the equivalent of 'Iron Chef' for stampers.

The first challenge was called 'Passport to Europe', use the picture to the right as inspiration. What a beautiful picture, the colors really pop off the page. I was a little stumped at first but after reading I could use the colors as inspiration I was off! I choose to use orange, purple and blue as the main colors. Then I used the red from the building on the right in the flowers. I was really happy with the end product.

Images & some paper: A muse. Ink: Memento, Prismacolor markers & spica clear marker

everyone's a critic

I didn't stamp for a few days and lost my mojo...it comes and goes so easily. So I've spent the better part of this last week buying stamps and not actually stamping. I scored some A muse stamps that have been on my wish list for a while.

Tonight I decided to play with some of them...

It's very plain but I think I was trying too hard to use the new stamps. Last week with the 'Rock Star' stamp this came naturally...this one felt a bit forced. Maybe it's because I'm not a nature girl, I'm an air conditioning kinda girl. :-)

Back to the title...I showed this card to my husband and he did not feel it was one of my best. His contribution to the card was the grass, he felt the deer was hovering and needed to be grounded. I'll get him stamping one of these days!

Images & Paper: A muse. Ink: Prismacolor, Copic, Memento, Tombow, Kohn-I-Nor pencils & gamsol.

not too hot...

quick post since I'm not feeling too great...card is for Addicts challenges, yet another rock star...

Images & Paper: A muse. Ink: Memento & Prismacolor Markers

Ode to John Mayer...

My friends and family know that I obsessed about one thing in particular, John Mayer. I was able to go to one of his concerts late last year and sit in the fifth row. So after playing with the 'Rock Star' stamp this week my thoughts turned to John Mayer and that concert. In the past, if I'm on floor at a concert I can weasel my way to the front. Unfortunately the Mayer concert was an exception, there were tons of police separating the stage and the front row. This card is my memory of that night...

Images: A muse Ink: Memento, Prismacolor, Spica pen

Technique note: I found the tip on how to do the spotlight from Julie E.





The other funny thing about this design is that in came to me this afternoon while I was at work. I even got out a piece of paper to sketch it so I wouldn't forget. Here's a picture of the sketch which clearly appears to be drawn by my three year old.

dude...sweet!

This is officially my favorite I've ever done!!! The A muse addicts challenge is to use 1 of 4 stamps on your card. Of the 4 I only have one...rock star. So this week will be devoted to all things rock staresque. To create this image I masked his strumming arm, then stamped him on the page next I inked up his strumming arm and flipped it upside down. I couldn't have done it without my stamp-a-ma-jig!!!

Paper & Images: A muse. Ink: Memento, prismacolor markers, spica glitter pens & stickles

when the cats away...

I was almost where I wanted to be with this card, the only thing I was stuck on was the sentiment as usual. I might still try and figure it out!

I used the rock star stamp and masked him over the couch to make it look like he was jumping off. Then i used the girls night out and masked the girl piece, I wrote in boys to finish the idea.

Paper & Images: A muse. Ink: Memento, Koh-I-Noor pencils, gamsol.

Coffee Cup

I created these cards for the Amuse Addicts Weekly Challenge...the coffee cup is really cute and had been waiting to use it!

This first card was a fun for me, my husband loves his starbucks in the morning. Luckily where we work there's a Starbucks on site, it's rare to see him from 8-11 without a cup in his hand. It doesn't even have to be warm, which I find pretty gross!

I cut a slit in the back on the truck to slide in the cup of coffee. Then I used a pop dot to give it some dimension.

Paper & Images: A muse. Ink: Memnto, Koh-I-Noor pencils w/gamsol, and prismacolor markers.

This next card was actually the first card I made, I had stamped three cups but could only fit two so the previous card was born! I'm still working on the AP online class and my favorite take away so far has been the brown paper I used for this card. It really makes an image pop so I'm going to try and pick some up! Other than that I got to play with my new color pencils, they were nice but I'll need to learn to have a lighter touch. I'm one of those people who get blisters on their writing hand from pressing so hard on the pen/pencil.

Paper & Images: A muse. Ink: Memnto, Koh-I-Noor pencils w/gamsol.

Marker Storage

I'm in love with my new marker storage. I picked up a tip on splitcoast about using the Quickutz Magpie storage, upside down. It's just the right size and it allows me to see all the colors without going thru my pencil box, which was my previous storage! The great thing is there's still room to grow my marker collection.

when inspiration strikes...

I got this and 10 other cards from the Paper Garden Boutique in Sacramento, CA. I believe it was part of the make-n-takes from the AP party going on. I really liked it and wanted to do something similar so here's my take below...

















It's raining candy!!! I used the cloud stamp and masked the snowflakes. Then used the candy stamps that came with kit to fall from the clouds, I also put one in the elf's hand. The last thing I did was use the 'home sweet home' & 'warm wishes' to get 'sweet wishes'

Paper and Stamps: A muse. Ink: Spica Glitter pen, prismscolor markers & memento ink