Happy Bee-Lated Birthday!

My kids have been out of school all week for Mid-Winter Break so I haven't had much time for stamping. I thought I'd share some other creations with you that I haven't shared before. This is the card I made for Katie Stilwater's birthday. I was a little late so I thought the bee-lated birthday sentiment would be perfect. My original card used the new yellow stitched ribbon from A Muse but I wasn't allowed to share it yet so I had to swap the ribbon out for this black gingham.


Card deets: (all supplies by A Muse, except ribbon) Blue Raspberry tinplate notecard, Papaya notecard cut for layer; Stamps: 7-4101B beehive, 3-4094A Tiny Bee, 9-8336B Bee-lated Birthday; Beehive stamped onto scrap of Papaya and then adhered to white piece; black Micron pen for bee trails; black gingham ribbon from SU

New Spring Goodness

If you visit Linda's blog there are links to all the new goodness in the Spring release today. There are new clear sets (have you seen those Sushi and Nature samples?!), A Muse wood mounted stamps, Elzybells wood mounted stamps, and new notecards.

Have some fun, go shopping, treat yourself! You've been good, right?! Remember that you can go from blog to blog and retain the same shopping cart with A Muse. How handy is that?!

The Excellent Award!

My friend, Dorinda (who named my blog) has passed me the Excellent Award! Such an honorable mention surely deserves to be shared, therefore, I am passing this award on to some of my favorite bloggers:

• Becky Rusher - {The Polka Dot Cafe}. She inspires me every day.


• Kimme - The Life of a Princess . She has the most adorable twins with a new baby on the way.


• Elena- The Stampin Shac. I love the way this girl stamps.


• Scoopy - Stamping Scoops . Without her, I'd be nothing!

So here you go, the Excellent Award:

You ladies rock!!!

Sneak Peek #4

We had a beautiful day in the PNW yesterday so I took the day off from blogging to spend some time outside. I cleaned out my car (badly needed) and then the garage. We have oodles of cleats between two kids and multiple sports. They never go beyond one season, of course, because they grow out of them. I don't like to save my older son's shoes for my younger son, either. One is a lefty, the other a righty so the way they put pressure inside their shoes is different and everyone's foot forms a different mold on their shoe lining. I will be donating these as they are in great shape.

Okay, stop with the rambling and get on with the sneak peek you say. Well, here you go. This is Sneak Peek #4. Only one more sleep and you can get your hands on these cute little chicks for yourself. This little chick with the lady bug is one of my favorites in this release. It's just the cutest little image! So fun to color, too. I used my Copic Buttercup Yellow on the chick, lipstick red on the ladybug, and Yellow Green for the stem, leaf, and grass. I highlighted sections of the white petals with my Cool Shadow marker. This helps the white to look more white. The image needed a sweet sentiment so I added 'You make life sweet.' I love this new Grass Green Kitchen notecard!!!

Sneak Peek #3

I love this little basket image. It's just so sweet! It's a very soft image to me so I decided I'd do a little shabby somethin' with it. I stamped the image onto some white cardstock, punched it with the Marvy blue scalloped circle punch. I then masked the image and stamped the Micro Oval in Colorbox Chalk Ice Blue to ground it a bit. Just a very light shadow. I distressed the edges of the scallop with my Colorbox Chalk Cat Eye in Caramel. The image itself was colored with my Copic markers. I used my clear atyou Spica Glitter pen on the yellow bow and added a micro dot Twinkle Sticker to the center. My base card is the cottage brown pinwheel. I took a Cottage Pink Reverse Dot Pretty Little Paper (PLP) and distressed the edges with the Cat Eye as well and layered it onto the card base. Popped the scalloped circle with some dimensional dots, added the greeting from a Saltbox Studio set, and Voila!

Only a couple more sleeps until these babies are available for purchase to you through A Muse. Make sure you pick up a package (or two, or three) of some Twinkle Dots. The colors are great for Spring! I've used both Mini and Micro Dots on many of my Spring cards. It's a great, simple way to add some sparkle and some dimension to your cards.

Elzybells Sneak Peek #2

Do you see it? Do you see what's new besides the image? Yup, you got it! It's a new 4-bar kitchen notecard color! When I first saw these notecards at the shop I immediately thought 'jellybeans!' The new 4-bar notecards come in the most delicious colors you will want to get them all! If you line them all up they look like a Skittles rainbow!

For this card I used the purple kitchen 4-bar notecard with a strip of the Cottage Green argyle notecard. I stamped the Chick Trio onto white cardstock, then punched and layered it onto a piece of Cabana Blue notecard that had been punched with the Marvy Scalloped Oval Mega punch. I mounted the layered and colored (with Copics, of course!) image using pop dots to give it some dimension. I then stamped the Happy Easter sentiment and placed 3 Twinkle Mini Dot stickers right below that. You probably can't see it in the photo but I also added some light blue glitter on the polka dotted egg.

I hope you are having fun chasing down the sneak peeks on the various blogs of the A Muse Design and Instructor teams. I sure have fun doing my own search every morning. I love that we can each use the same image in such a different way. I make mental notes about their layouts, color combos, and even their coloring choices. It really helps when I go into a creative block, to go back and look at their samples.

I have a class to teach tomorrow at Stampin-in-the-Rain but otherwise hope to relax this weekend with my family since I was gone last weekend. My kids are off from school all of next week for Mid-Winter break. I gotta get rested! LOL

Sneak Peek #1

I know you have all been anxiously awaiting the newest release from Elzybells. This new release actually does not feature Lizzie, but the cutest little chicks you've ever seen instead. I kept this card really clean and simple because I thought the image was really simple. It's just meant to be soft and sweet. The scalloped oval was stamped with Colorbox Chalk Ice Blue. I added some Sakura Glitter Pen to the bee's trail.

Be sure to check out the blogs of the rest of the A Muse Designers and Instructors as I know many of them will have sneak peeks of the new A Muse and Elzybells releases. The new stamps will be available on the 19th. Any LSS's that pre-ordered should have them in stock by then.

Card deets: Celestial Blue Notecard; Stamps: D0092 Mini Chick Bee, 3-5003G Scalloped Oval, 8-8401B Bee-utiful Day