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! 

Clear sets

'

Stamps: Trees I, 9-8246B Thinking of you hand; Tiny Bird

Papers: Cabana Blue, Grass Kitchen, Chiffon Green

Do you get the A Muse Newsletter in your email box? If you don't, you should! Then you'd know about the Blue Light Specials. All I'm going to say is that if you aren't already signed up, you should click here. In honor of this week's Blue Light Special I'm using one of my favorite clear sets. It's NOT the Blue Light Special but there's no reason why it shouldn't jump into your shopping cart anyway, LOL. 

Here's a hint for the day: tomorrow starts something you all look forward to, only with a new name. Amuse-Bouche (ah-mooz boosh)! 

I had quite the weekend! I missed my son's basketball game on Saturday to attend my best friend's sister's baby shower. It was at the most beautiful home, with the most fabulous food, and the cake was scrumptious!!! She was given the cutest little pair of baby slippers that I just had to take a picture of to share with you. I just haven't had a chance to upload it yet. LOL. Unfortunately, I missed a good game and the boy's lost their first game of the season by 2 baskets. Darn it!

Sunday night I attended a geriatric convention...... I mean, a Barry Manilow concert. It was as Vegas-y and cheesy as you'd imagine but it was so fabulous!!! When you walked through the doors to the events center, they were handing out glow-sticks. No lighters or cell phone lights for this event! It was like a sea of blue glow sticks during those favorite slow songs. Barry looked and sounded fabulous. So glad I went. 

I thought I'd share a card from tonight's cancelled class with you. You can see what you missed, LOL! Hopefully I'll see some of you locals at the next one. The Easter samples are on display at Stampin-In-The-Rain. Drop by and take a look! 

Stamps: 2-2229F Carrot Car, 8-8531C 24 carrot friend

Papers: French Roast, Grass Kitchen, Orange Crush

Accessories: Marvy Yellow scallop circle punch, lime edged sheer ribbon, orange stitched grosgrain

Spring is in the air

Jennie M regularly hosts challenges over on the A Muse Lounge. I always want to participate but hardly ever have the time to. The day that I noticed this Spring is in the Air challenge, we had hours of snow falling at my house and I thought, "Boy, do I need to see Spring!" so I made this card as part of the challenge. I just haven't had any time to share it. The snow has stopped and it's mostly melted off. We are supposed to get some rain this weekend which means that things will be warming up a bit. I'm so glad 'cuz I've had a really hard time getting warm the past few days! 

Busy weekend for me ahead! I'm so looking forward to Sunday 'cuz I'm off to see Barry Manilow with my friend, Lisa. Yup, I'm a Manilow Fanilow! LOL 

Hmm...no title today

I'm not creative enough for a title today. I just woke up. Not quite together yet and no coffee, either. Went to stamp club with my friend, Lisa, yesterday. I just couldn't decide between SU's Trendy Trees or the coordinating wheel. That wheel would go so well with some other cute nature-y sets I have (think owls and deer) but the set had some sentiments in a font I liked. I have actually run out of wheel storage (I have a Craft Locker for wheels) so I went with the set. Now let's see if I use it, haha!

I have a few other cards done that I wanted to share but haven't had a chance to take photos so you get this one today. I just love the bunny in the carrot car! So fun! I think this design would definitely fall in the clean and simple category. 

Stamps: 2-2229F carrot car, 2-4131D Clouds, 9-8236B Journey

Papers: Green chiffon 4-bar, palm ricrac PLP, cabana blue

I'm a little behind due to preparing tax information but I'll have my Easter class samples at Stampin-In-The-Rain this week. I have two classes this month and would love to see you. I also have my Slice class this Friday and I think there are a few spaces left. Come join me!! 

Ballerina Bunny

Ballerina Bunny has to be one of my favorites from this last release. She's just so stinkin' cute! I wanted something bright and fun so I paired together orange kitchen, popsicle pink, a tiny flower PLP, and some cabana blue. Look at that cute ribbon I found at the shop!!! It's more like paper ribbon...not really something you can tie, but super cute nonetheless. I picked up 5 yards in every color! Plenty to use, plenty to hoard. 

I gotta try to be like Katie. She doesn't like to hoard. I have a hoarding problem. 

Look, Ma! No stamps!

Oh well, that's not entirely true. There are no stamps on the front but there's a lovely sentiment inside. There are a couple of wonderful ladies I know that are in need of a pick-me-up due to some health issues they've been faced with. I thought this butterfly card might bring them a bit of sunshine while they get through these tough times. Both ladies have a great prognosis for a full recovery but we all know that doesn't happen overnight. 

The Majors draft for our Little League took place on Monday. Official calls went out yesterday. I'm so excited because my son ended up on the team we were hoping he'd end up on AND most of his friend are on his team. That means most of MY friends are with me, too! LOL. Tonight is our parent meeting so I'll be catching up with my buddies then. Wohoo! I'm so ready for Spring and for baseball to get started. I suppose we'd better finish up our basketball season first, huh? Only a few games left...

All supplies by A Muse Artstamps unless otherwise noted:

Stamps: inside sentiment 'sending you sunshine'

Papers: Kitchen blue 4-bar notecard, buttercup yellow. Butterflies punched from buttercup, passion, palm, surf, orange crush, popsicle pink

Ribbon: grosgrain stitched pink ribbon

Butterfly punch from Punch Bunch

New Layout

Do you ever get stuck for new layouts? I picked up the latest copy of Cards and found some really fun layouts that I thought I could incorporate with my A Muse stamps. Magazines and books are also a great source for color inspiration. Are you a patterned paper hoarder? Chances are you'll find a card sample using some patterned paper you have in your stash, especially in a magazine/book like Cards. I don't buy them often because they are pricey, but I do flip through them regularly to find one that I particularly like and buy it. I let my PaperCrafts subscription expire but now I'm considering re subscribing so I have a new, constant source of inspiration. I have to think about it some more, though. I was running out of space to store these and I hate to let them go once I have them. 

I found this layout near the front of the book. The sample in the book was for a square card but I think it also lends itself quite nicely to a 4-bar notecard. What do you think? Try it! Link your card in the comments section so I can see what you created. 

Stamps: Chicks In A Row, favorite peeps MA

Paper: 4-bar Palm Green notecard, kitchen green, buttercup yellow

Accessories: Stampin Up Scallop border punch, Marvy Purple scallop circle punch, Pink circle punch, A Muse Orange crush grosgrain stitched ribbon