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