I'm the Slice Queen!

Hey, look! I'm the local Slice Queen! You want to take this class. You know you do. 

When the power goes out....

It was a crazy, windy morning and we actually lost power for about a half hour. So what does one do when the power goes out? Hurry up and stamp a card!! Wohoo!!!!

Stamps: 2-4133E Open Zinnia, 2-4137E Leafy Vine, 9-8251B Happy Birthday Mix

Papers: white 4-bar, bark 4-bar notecards

This card design kind of came out of necessity. I started out by punching a large circle out of some lightweight paper. I used it as a reverse mask and stamped the two Open Zinnia images, then the Leafy Vine. The zinnias were stamped with Memento Brown and the leafy vine with Memento Bamboo Leaves. Before coloring in the images with my Prismacolor pencils, I kept the mask in place and inked the empty spaces with a dauber and Colorbox Ice Blue Chalk ink. Once I had the coverage I needed, I removed the mask and colored in the flowers. 

Now here's where the necessity part came in....I goofed up on the first try and had to flip the card over and start again. I liked the second try so much I didn't want to waste it. So, I trimmed down the white 4-bar notecard and adhered it onto half a Bark 4-bar notecard! I thought it needed some more so I scored across the top of the white notecard, punched some holes, and added some ribbon. 

I think I'm going to give this card to my co-worker, who is celebrating a birthday at the end of April. I hope she likes it.

Just had to give a quick shout out to my oldest son's baseball team. Had our first game last night. Two out-of-the-park homeruns!!!! My son's friend, Tristan, was the next up to bat. My son told him, "If you hit a homerun, I'll give you 5 bucks!" Well, Tristan has never hit a homerun but that ball went sailing out of the ballpark, straight past centerfield and landed in between two parked trucks (with the people inside). It was beautiful!!! Shortly after, my former neighbor, Tyler, also hit an out-of-the-park homer! Way cool! Great job, guys!

Scent-sational!

Stamps: long grass, mini flower, tiny daisy, scalloped line, skunk, scent-sational day

Paper: Lime band 4-bar

So what do you think about the new A Muse Love Blooms release? I gotta say I'm really thrilled to have these wonderful floral designs and I think the new bridal images are really superb. The new release is scent-sational! I'm looking forward to making some more time to play with them.  I haven't played a whole lot with the new Juliette papers, either, but I love how soft and romantic they are. So many stamps, so little time! Isn't that how the saying goes? LOL

PennyinPA asked if the card I shared in my previous post was inspired by a card in the SU Sell-A-Bration mini. You bet it was! I wish I could link directly to the card but if you have one of those minis I bet you can find the one that inspired me. I love to look everywhere for color and layout inspiration and SU (Stampin Up) is always a great source, especially for color combos. I also love PaperCrafts, Cards, and Stamp It! for their ideas. The bonus there is that sometimes I can find a friend who has a card published in those magazines. I just think that's so cool! 

Anyway, it's Friday (hooray!) and I'm looking forward to the week's end. I hope you all have a scent-sational weekend!

Dinner is served!

No need to tide yourselves over with these appetizers any more! Dinner is served! The new A Muse release, Love Blooms, is available for purchase today. As always, we encourage you to visit your local stamp store and support them with your business but if you don't have a store that carries A Muse you are certainly welcome to purchase online. To purchase from A Muse online you can click here. There are some cool, new fleece jackets in the 'gear' section that you should check out, too! I've ordered myself a lime green one. 

Today's card uses the new Modern Poppy, Eucalyptus, Leafy Vine and Thank You stamps. That's what I love about these floral stamps...you can combine them into so many combinations! You are only limited by your imagination. I hope you've enjoyed your amuse-bouche this week.

I'm going to go ice my back now. I tweaked it in my workout class on Friday and it's been annoying me ever since. Hard for me to sit in one place for any length of time. 

I am so glad we pay someone to clean up our yard for us! Our yard guy came yesterday and worked for several hours and my yard just looks fabulous! Everything has been edged, trimmed, raked, fertilized, the roof had everything blown off that didn't need to be there, and the gutters were cleaned. Worth every penny! My DH hates doing yard work and I'm highly allergic to trees, weeds, and grasses. I can tell the tree pollen has been astronomical of late as my eyes have been burning and itchy. Yup, Spring has finally arrived in the PNW! 

It's also been raining on and off the past few days. At work, it will be raining babies soon. I have 3 co-workers expecting babies within a short span of each other. We have one female co-worker that's pregnant and 2 male co-workers whose wives are pregnant. For the female co-worker we've had a monthly shower where each month the shower is a different theme. Like one month is socks, another month might be bibs, another tops, etc. I haven't participated in any because I work from home but I will show up at the last shower for her with my gift. The guys will each be getting a baby shower, too. So, today I'm sharing my idea for a shower card:

Stamps: 9-8545C Congratulations RM, 2-7169D Umbrella

Papers: Blush, brown kitchen, sage green 4-bar, Juliette (sage)

Accessories: clear Twinkle Dots

You could easily substitute an 'It's a Shower!' sentiment if you prefer, but I think this works great for either a baby shower card or a wedding shower card. You can just change up the colors to match any baby or wedding color theme. 

It's almost time for the new release! Just a few more days! Better yet, visit your local A Muse carrying retailer and pick them up today! 

Day 2!

Just a quick post today as we have a crazy busy day ahead of us. My oldest son has 3 baseball games and a basketball game back to back. We literally have 15 minutes between games! It's the baseball jamboree today and the last basketball game of the season. We'll finish everything off with the end of season party at a local restaurant tonight! 

Today's post uses the flower head of the Modern Poppy stamp. I inked just the head of the flower and randomly stamped it all over. Then I had to color each one. Obviously, this does not lend itself to mass production! haha! I'll update the post with the stamp/paper details later. Gotta run! Have a great day!

la premiere amuse-bouche

It's been far too long since taking French in school but that's supposed to translate to 'the first appetizer'. Today is the start of the sneak peeks to the new A Muse release, "Love Blooms." We thought we'd change it up a little and call these 'amuse-bouche.' I mean really.....aren't these just little appetizers to the main course?! 

Here's a little something to whet your appetite:

Stamps: 2-4137E Leafy Vine, 9-8548C Thank You RM, 2-4089C Astro Flower

Papers: Latte, Blush, Plum 

Accessories: Micro Twinkle Dot, scallop edge punch

Chalk Ink: Versamagic Pink Petunia, Colorbox Lime

I used the new Leafy Vine stamp along with Astro Flower to create a flowery, leafy vine. I added the lovely new 'thank you' sentiment, all using soft colors to coordinate with the NEW latte 4-bar notecards. Wohoo! Gotta love new notecard colors! 

Does this leave you hungry for more? Go scout out the other Creative Team blogs for some more amuse-bouche! Be one of those customers at Costco who travels around the store in search for little samples to fill their bellies on...you know who I'm talkin' 'bout! Oh, yeah!