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

My favorite color

is Purple! I use it whenever I get the chance. I usually pair it with green for a nice combo. For this card I was able to pull out my prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I'm totally hooked on this method...color, blend, color some more, blend some more and so on!

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

Wishing You...

AP is winding down for the year, one of the last things being offered is a stamp kit with a free online class. This is the first card I made from the class and it took me forever to finish it. I think I got hung up on looking at how great the original card looked and I over thought the placement of each stamp. Hopefully the rest will go a bit faster...

Images & paper: A muse. Ink: Memento, Colorbox, Prismacolor.

AP Clear Challenge

This is a quick card for the AP clear sticker challenge. I used two of the new stamps from the most recent release. I also got the chance to play with a new punch I picked up this weekend.

Images& Paper: A muse. Ink: Versamark.

I really have been stamping...

I just haven't had the chance to update in a while. I was able to take a day off from work and I had the whole house to myself. So I spent the afternoon stamping, which was perfect since it was raining outside.

I made a few cards for last week's AP challenges but each took an hour. It truly takes me a while to get my ideas together. I always read about people that knock out cards in 5-10 minutes but it takes me that long (or more) to figure out what stamp I'm going to use. Here are the ones I worked on this past weekend.

Images: A muse. Ink: Memento Paper: A muse. Images: ScrappyCat Ink: Memento Images: A muse, Studio G. Ink: MementoImages & Ribbon: A muse. Ink: Memento

AP Goodies

Here are my goodies from this year's AP, time to get stamping!

home again!

It's great to be home again, last week wrapped up my travel for the summer. I had a wonderful time in San Francisco. We ate dinner on the pier 39, which overlooks Alcatraz island. I missed taking a tour this trip but I hope to go back soon. Thursday night we were able to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the SF MOMA. It was amazing to be able to see it in person! It was a lot of fun but I couldn't wait to get home to see my boys.

Here's a quick card I did for the glitter challenge over at the AP blog, it's also going to double as a birthday card for a friend tomorrow. I showed my mom, husband, and my sister the card and none of them got it. Basically any mariachi in town sings, the happy birthday song by repeating 'to you' a few times. Once they thought about it they got it, hopefully I won't have to explain it too much. Also I'm not much of a flower girl but I messed up and they were the best thing to hide my mistakes.

Stamps & Paper: A muse. Ink: Momento, Prismacolor & Stickles.

A muse Stamps for Sale

So I came home from my trip this week with an additional 30 A muse stamps, so it's time for a little house cleaning. Most of the stamps are brand new, never seeing ink in their lives. A few have ink stains on the wood but that has no effect on the stamped image. All rubber is intact! Please email me if you are interested in buying any of these, they will go to the person that emails and pays through paypal first.

Here is the shipping info to the continental U.S. ONLY, sorry no international orders!

1-2 stamps - $2.00
3-5 stamps - $3.00
6-10 stamps - $5.50
10+ stamps - will send invoice thru paypal

A Muse stamps for Sale

bbq

This was a quick little card for the AP challenge this past weekend. The background paper reminded of the 4th of july so I went with the BBQ theme. I didn't originally want glitter on the pit but I used it to cover up a mistake I made. I had initially colored it blue but it didn’t really stand out. So I colored it red, of course it turns purple! Stickles to the rescue, it covered my mistake perfectly.

Shopping...

I made this card for a challenge over @ 2Peas, I've been wanting to play with this stamp for a while but I could not get it to work for me. I finally gave up and drew in the spots that would not stamp clearly.

Today I was lucky enough to visit the Paper Garden Boutique in Sacramento, CA. My local stamp store has a really small selection of stamps so I was completely blown away by the inventory at Paper Garden. It was truly a stampers dream, I picked up quite a few stamps on my wish list, paper and a couple of Copics. I can't wait to get home and play with my new goodies!!!

Stamps: A muse, Rubber Romance. Paper: Paper Studio. Ink: Colorbox, Stickles.

father's day

I was working in my craft room on Saturday and my son asked if could make his dad a card for Father's Day. How could I say no?! I had punched out a few some scalloped circles for a project I was starting and he decided to use those. This is his creation...

happy things...

I was in a major stamping mood last weekend, and this is another of the cards I came up with at the request of my son. He was looking at my stamps and picked out the ice cream stamp! When I finished it, he carried it around all day...so sweet! I picked up a new camera so excuse the incorrect date!

Stamps & Paper: A muse. Ink: Colorbox & Tombow.

The worst two days ever...

Ugh...I thought I was an independent girl. Thought I could handle things on my own but I was wrong way wrong. Apparently when I got married I forgot all my single girl skills. Just to give you a reference point, I don't remember the last time I even pumped my own gas.

Long story short, there's a big rash of 'vandals' in my town breaking car windows and slashing tires. I was lucky enough to have my window broken and my husband out of town. Fast forward to a day and half of arguing with my insurance company over glass in the car, a flat tire, glass filed car seat, a breakdown at the Honda dealership and way too much money spent, the damage was fixed. I'm exhausted!!

As you wish...

There's a new challenge over at the AP Blog and this one got me thinking. I could not come up with an idea so I thought I would keep it simple and focus on the colors...red, shades of blue and white. I remembered reading in a magazine this week a quick article about 'The Princess Bride' and it listed some of the most used movie lines. I laughed the hardest when I read 'Have fun storming the castle' so I went to look for my castle stamp. The hardest part of this card was stamping the movie quote. It took a few tries and it still came out a bit crooked but what can you do. I leave you with this...INCONCEIVABLE.

Stamps: A muse. Paper: A muse. Ink: Colorbox & Tombow & Stickles

Bday Card

So this is the card after I came up with after I finished the margarita card. A bit more appropriate I think! I cut out the cake and mounted it on 3-D glue dots. Love it when cards pop off the page. I seem to have some creativity back...I'm excited!

Stamps: Amuse. Paper: Amuse. Ink : Colorbox, stickles

I crack myself up...

I was supposed to be working on a birthday card but I let my mind wander and ended up with this card. Needless to say it was not given out but it made me laugh...

Stamps: Amuse, Stampin Up. Paper: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox

While I was waiting...

For my creative juices to kick in I painted a cool mural on the wall of my craft room. It's not perfect by any means and it was pretty rough to do but I think it turned out okay. I used my laptop skin as the inspiration for the mural. I used a projector to trace the image onto the wall and traced away. The hardest part was realigning the chandelier each time I had to move the projector. I had practiced initially by painting 'Diego' the animal rescuer on the wall for my son and I think that one turned a bit better. Regardless I'm happy with, try not to stare at the lines not really lining up! Also I used Stickes on the tops of the candles to simulate a glow...love those things!

A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA 08 Challenge 1 - Take 2

I committed myself to working on another card tonight and came up with this...

For some reason I think I've seen a layout that is similar so my apologies in advance! The challenge for this round is to use the colors, purple, blue and brown on the card. I seem to be taking the easy way out by using hints of blue as opposed to blue paper in the card. I'm getting adventurous so I might try blue paper later in the week.

Stamps: Amuse, Studio G. Ribbon: Amuse

A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA 08 Challenge 1

Here's hoping that Amuseapalooza helps me get my groove back, here's my first challenge card!

Stamps: Amuse, Studio G. Ink: Colorbox

Where does time go?

It's been super crazy the last few weeks. I was preparing for a week long business trip, mother's day and a birthday. It was also really stressful for me since it was the first time I was going to be away from my son. I can't complain, the class was in Las Vegas and I got some alone time with my husband! The first night we went to see the Phantom of the Opera and I loved it. It was really beautiful and I have become obsessed with the soundtrack since that night. The rest of the week went by in a blur, late nights and early mornings for class. I couldn't wait to get home, I missed my little one so much.

I dragged my sister out at midnight on Thursday night to see 'Sex in the City'. I had mixed feelings about the way the movie went but it was funny. Four hours of sleep is not a good way to start any work day.

I'm still having a hard time trying to get creative, we've spent most of the last few weeks poolside. I'm hoping something strikes me soon....

They really are listening...

I made a get well card for my sister this past weekend, it seemed to be out of my comfort zone with the colors but I think it came out okay. When I showed the card to my Mom she noticed the embossing on the flowers and thought that I had missed the bottom of the card. I explained to her that I bought the paper that way and there was no embossing for me to do. So when my sister opens the envelope she says the exact same thing. Man, these chicks are really listening when I talk about embossing and scalloped edges...love ya!

Stamp: Bella, Amuse Art Stamps. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor Markers. Stickles.

Rubber Romance

I came across this company, Rubber Romance, a while back and really liked their stamps. This was the first time I got to play with them and I was really pleased with the outcome. Who doesn't love a girl with tons o' sparkly?

Stamps: Rubber Romance. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor Markers

A Failed Experiment

I'm still the newest of stampers so I wanted to play with a stamp I had just ordered from Amuse. I loved the idea of taking two stamps and seeing how I can get one new image. So during nap time this weekend I was able to play with the new tutu stamp. Don't get me wrong when Amuse released the tutu they also released the ballerina. I wanted to see if I could get my own ballerina. So first I went of Hula Girl and found that her frame was too thin. Next I went for one of my personal favorites, the mermaid. She almost worked perfect but she doesn't have any legs, then I tried to draw new legs on her....needless to say it did not work. I will continue to to play but here's what I've got so far.

Bonus Round _Weekend

This is the most stamping I've done in eight months or so. By the time I got to the bonus card my brain was mush, hence a super plain card. The challenge was to create a card that was inspired by 'weekends'. I choose the theme of this card because I regularly drag my husband to craft/stamping places. I wish there was a sentiment that said 'One more stop' I think that would have captured what I was going for. Then I thought about colors and I thought I would embrace the black and white theme of the previous challenge. It works for me!

This was a lot of fun I hope this will set me on the path back to the creative side of my brain!

Images: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox

Saturday Night Fever

This challenge was about using black and white only on the card. I had a sentiment (Save the Date) to use but ran out of space on the card. It's hard to edit myself sometimes but I think it worked in my favor this time.

Images & Card: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox. Brads: Making Memories

Do the Hustle

This was a sketch challenge which I've done before. It was nice to not think about a layout and focus on the colors. I kept it pretty simple with the blue and yellow...can't go wrong there. I also masked the 'Super Dad' stamp to put the focus on the 'super' part.

Images: Amuse. Punches: Marvy. Ink: Colorbox.

Disco Ball

So this one went a bit better for me I got to use some sparkle! I went to use my punches and I found I had two plain rectangle Marvy punches, not a scalloped one like I had thought. So I used two squares and made a quick scalloped rectangle.

Images: Amuse. Glitter: Making Memories. Puches: Marvy. Ink: Colorbox.

Let it Be

Here was the first challenge of the night, create a card with no embellishments. Let the images stand for the themselves. This was hard because I always try to add a little sparkle somewhere, so it's seems to be missing something.

Images & Paper: Amuse Art Stamps. Ink: Colorbox

Back?

It's been a while, a long while. I took a hiatus due to moving, job change and losing my creativity in the process. It's funny the moment I was able to organize all my stamping stuff into a room I could call my own is the moment I couldn't come up with anything. I've been lurking on other stamping blogs but it never seemed to come around for me. I thought I would use the Amuse Addicts stamping night as an excuse to get back into the swing of things so we'll see how it goes...

Is the glass half full or half empty?

So last week I mentioned we were stuck on two houses and we finally made a decision. We went for the great house with a smaller yard. After looking at the big yard house it just need too much work. So we are anxiously awaiting to see if our bid was accepted, we are so nervous! So that means moving time, which I am totally dreading! I will also not be blogging about cards for a while because I have to pack up my craft window in my kitchen so that people are not turned off by the massive amounts of stamping products. We outgrew our house right after we had our son so the place is packed to the gills. We've decided that we are going to rent a storage unit for a couple months and unclutter before we start showing our house to sell. Hopefully my four readers while stick around while I'm in transition because I just won't be able to make anything until we move to our new house. (I'm being very optimistic!) The cool part about moving is that there is a small study that I am going to use as a craft room for a few months or until we are able to add to our family. Once that happens the study will go back to a spare bedroom and I will have to find a new craft window to perch on.

In addition to moving our little family also received some great news...my husband got a promotion! This leads into the title of post, here's a some background and then you can decide. My husband and I met at work a few years back then got married. We were both in the same area but not in the same team. We've worked this way over the last five years and have managed to keep our private life separate from our work life. I love the expression on a person's face when they realize we are married, it takes people a while to even figure it out. So fast forward to the present, today we manage two teams and report to the same person. Insert fabulous news about hubby's promotion...my hubby will be managing the managers who manage the teams in the area. Does that sound weird? Basically my husband will become my boss and that's a no-no in our company. To be fair I think it's this way for most companies out there. So I need to find a new job, which is scary in itself. Don't get me wrong I'm not being shoved out the door. The people we work with are very understanding and are really trying to help me find a place to go. I've worked in this area for 8 years so it's hard to say that this...but this is all I know how to do and starting over is a daunting task. I'm so proud of my husband but I'm super freaked out for myself. Wow, I guess I needed to get that out. In the end I think the glass is half full, we are in a partnership and what ever happens wonderful happens for him is wonderful for me as well. Congratulations, Honey!

Party In My Tummy

Nick Jr has a new show called 'Yo Gabba, Gabba!' they have been running the promo for a month or so and it debuted this week. Every time the promo would come on my little one would stop and run back to the TV to see the little things dance. I say things because I'm not exactly sure what these things are supposed to be. Anyway I've seen the premiere no less than 10 times and I cannot get this song out of my head. I sing it in the shower, while I load the dishes, when I try to sleep at night!! So I thought I'd post a link and hope to pass on this crazy song. The show is pretty freaky but I really like the music so does the little one!

So Yummy!

Stress

I'm not sure why I came up with the genius idea of moving but I did. We've spent the last two weeks looking for the perfect place for our little family. I think at this point I'm really overwhelmed and want to be done with it now. From what I understand we've done things backwards, we went looking before we put our house on the market. We're stuck between two houses so I hope we can come to decision soon. The first house is amazing but the yard stinks, the second house is not so great but the yard is amazing. Choices?!

Pull Out Card

This is my first attempt at the pull out card and I really liked how it came out. First off the color note card I used is a beautiful lime green but somehow my kitchen lights turned it a nice pukey green. Better yet baby food green...yuck! I did not take a picture of the inside because it's blank. I went to use my 'birth announcement' stamp and the rubber was all warped so I couldn't get a clean image of what I wanted. Looks like I'm taking a trip to the closest stamp joint in town. Finally I added the clear Stickles to the stork last. I originally had it just plain white but everything looks better with a hint of sparkle!

Images, Paper, Ribbon: Amuse Art Stamps. Ink: Colorbox

Rock Star

So let me start off by saying this is not my personal design. I CASE'd it from another talented stamper named, Stilwater. Real names were not used to protect the innocent. :-)

I first saw this card during the Amuse challenges this summer and I knew I had to have the Rock Star stamp. So here is my version of Stilwater's super cool Green Rock Star...hope I did it justice! Here's a link to the original.

Green you Rock

Nice Matters!

I was tagged earlier this week but it took me a while to figure out how to get this on my blog so my apologies for my lateness. I was super excited when I got this from Simone, it was my very first tag in the blogosphere! So here are my tags, please check them out!

1. Daily Dose of Spazz
2. ascrapaddictsblog.blogspot.com
3. Stampindamour.blogspot.com
4. cardsnstuff
5. ManyBlessings from Splitcoast Stampers (She doesn't have a blog but I didn't think it was fair to exclude.)

Ghostly Greetings!

It's Friday already and I have created nothing since Monday so I thought I better get busy. No matter how hard I try I cannot get to stamping during the week. I think it's my job that just leaves my brain mush after 5. I guess that's why everyone loves Friday a chance to relax for a few days before the craziness starts all over again on Monday.

Here's a quick card to get ready for Halloween. I love the color of this paper because of the addition of non traditional Halloween colors!

Images: Paper Salon, Hero Arts. Paper: American Crafts. Ink: VersaMark.

Sums it up...

I bought this stamp not really knowing what I wanted to do with it. I finally got a chance to play with it and I think this card really describes the way I feel about my new favorite hobby. I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who has stopped by the last two months and left their comments. Your kind words, your presence really keeps me going. It's really wonderful to be part of such an amazing community of ladies....THANK YOU!

Images: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox & TomBow. Misc: Marvy Punches

Ohhhh..sparkly

I made this quick card last night because I could not get any sleep. It's like my stamps were calling me...'Stamp Me'. 'I'm lonely...must have ink!' I finally got to sleep around 2 am, 6 o'clock came around real fast.

So I'm waiting on my stamp-a-ma-jig to get here because I cannot stamp a straight sentiment to save my life. Other than that I used some stickles to brighten up the ring on the card.

Images: Stampin Up. Sentiment, Paper, Ribbon: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox. Misc: Marvy Punches

Pencils N Things

Yesterday I had the chance to attend a class at my local LSS, Stamp Antonio. I learned about blending and coloring with Prismacolor pencils. I didn't think it was going to be my style but I really liked the look of the pencils on the stamped images. So of course I cruised them on ebay and I picked up a set of 72 pencils for $20! Wooooohoooooo! Happy Monday!

No Layers

One last card for the Amuse challenge, no layers. I kept it simple, I kept it Amuse!

Image & Ribbon: Amuse. Ink: Memories Direct.

Over the rainbow

This is another quick for card for the Amuse challenge. It took four tries before I got the rainbow right on this one. First I tried Colorbox cateye chalk inks and I didn't like the coverage. Second I tried my tombows, too streaky. Third was my prismacolor markers, the purple markers busted while I working on it and purple ink was everywhere. Besides that I still didn't the intensity of the colors. So finally I went for my Pebbles chalks....WINNER, WINNER, WINNER!!! The chalks gave it the haze of a fresh rainbow. I really wanted to do this card because it reminded of my son, he saw his first rainbow a few weeks ago.

The second lesson for this card was using the embossing buddy if I use any other powder than the clear. You can see a slight residue of the gold powder around the sentiment but after the rainbow experiment I wasn't willing to start over.

Images: Amuse. Cloud: Rubber Soul Ink: Pebbles & Colorbox. Ribbon: Amuse. Extras: Stickles

Relax

Ahhh....back to the world of stamping. I made this card for the Amuse lover group over at SCS. So far it sounds like a lot of fun and sometimes it's easier for me create when I have a jumping off point. Pop on over if you can...

Images: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor & Tombow markers. Paper: Amuse

Birthday Bella

I wanted to work with a Bella today because the Stamping Bella announced a new product that I'm really excited about. It's little baubles that add sparkle and dimension to your card creations. I hope they get here soon!

Main Image: Stamping Bella. Sentiment: Amuse. Outline: Stampin Up. Punch: Marvy Uchida. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor. Flowers: Prima. Paper: HL

Weekend Stamper

It seems like I can't stamp during the week, too much craziness going on. Thursday night into Friday morning was especially terrible this week. I get home on Thursday and something doesn't feel right with the AC in our house...meaning it's about a thousand degrees in my house and if I move I will surely melt. My husband does his best to get things going but no such luck. Off to Home Depot for a new thermostat, gets home still no luck. It's now about 10 at night and we have a choice to make...deal or go to a hotel. We choose to deal and sleep in the home now loving called 'The Furnace'. No biggie, we get thru all that and awake to a new morning.

It's about 6:45 am, we're trying to get ready for work and hear a knock on the door. This is very strange being that it's super early and no one ever stops by. A nice lady had come to our door with my checkbook, she had found it in her driveway on the way to work. Yes folks, my car was broken into the previous night...DRAMA! No it wasn't that bad, luckily my husband had recently cleaned the car and it was spotless. The only things in there was the checkbook because who writes checks and some CD's. At this point I think I'm even a little offended that they didn't take the CD's. What criminals don't like...The Muppet Show soundtrack, John Mayer, Michael Buble or my super fantastic mix of my favorite songs?

Again not too bad because it could have been a lot worse, so here we are waiting for the AC people to show on Friday. When they did get here they proceeded to tell us that he could fix the AC right now but it would only be a temporary fix. Basically we were on borrowed time and it could go out any second...right. Obviously we went for the quick fix and will look for a second opinion. Fine, great the AC is finally starting to work and the slow burn it beginning to wear off. The last kick in the behind was a power outage that lasted about two hours completely shutting down the AC we had just paid to get fixed. All I have to say is thank goodness for Saturday!

N Things II

My sister told me a few weeks ago she was having a small gathering for 'National Night Out'. It was a chance to meet her neighbors and get to know them better. So nothing she does is small, next thing you know the police are sending McGruff, the fire department is sending a rig and her local council person is coming to her party. So my contribution is my world famous sugar cookies, she's been begging for them since her B-Day in May but better late than never. Here's to getting to know your neighbor's, fighting crime and taking names!!!

Bunny Part 2

Being the eternal optimist I felt I had to make a sequel for the other sad bunny card I posted today. In case you were wondering they lived happily ever after. Hooray for Bunny Love!!!

Images: A Muse. Ribbon: Strano Designs. Punches: Marvy Uchida. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor. Paper: American Crafts.

The saddest card...

I wanted to work on my masking technique so I pulled out these stamps. After I put the card together I thought this was the saddest card I had ever made. Maybe I'm reading too much into this but the bunny looks so lonely! To redeem myself I created a part 2.

The little cloud stamp has to be my favorite part, it came in a set called 'Bon Voyage' from Rubber Soul...cute!

Images: A Muse and Rubber Soul. Paper: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor Markers.

Turkey Day

It's still early for Turkey Day but I wanted to try this one out. The turkey was watercolored using my Tombows. I didn't have a thanksgiving sentiment but I thought this one was funny!

Image: Paper Salon. Sentiment: A Muse. Paper: A Muse. Ink: Colorbox, Tombow Markers. Accent: Liquid Applique.

Where it all started...

When every I take on new hobbies, I immerse myself in the 'how-to' aspect of it. So when I took up stamping I bought a bunch of stamping books and began studying. I read a particular book a few times because I felt like I learned something new each time. Each time I read it I always went to the page with this stamp on it. So I hunted it down and bought it but sad to say I never used. So I decided to take it out for a spin. The other thing about this is one is the fact that I finally figured out how to do scalloped edges using the corner rounder punch. I found a lot of great tutorials on SCS but this one was the easiest for me to get. Scallop-border-tutorial

Images: Stampendous. Ink: Colorbox. Glitter: Stickles. Punch: EK Success

The price you pay

of taking care of a sick little one, last week he was sick and this week it caught up with me. Unfortunately kleenex and antibiotics leave no room for card making. Hope to be up and around soon...