I dusted off my sewing machine....

Here is my entry for the A muse Addicts' Home page contest. In my recent craft space re-organization, I moved my sewing machine to a more accessible location, hoping to get more use out of it. I found a neat sketch on the Card Positioning Systems site (it's # 22) to start me off. The contest requires either a Thanksgiving card or a Thank you card...here is my fall-themed thank you card:

I cut out the circles with my nesties and stitched all around them as well as the card base. I sponged the edges of the card base, vanilla circle and die cut flower to dirty them up a bit. I tried to find a thank you sentiment from A muse in my collection, but I don't have one (gasp!!). I will have to remember that on future shopping sprees!



Stamps: A muse (crow), PTI (little lady)
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink (walnut stain)
Paper: SU (very vanilla, pumpkin pie), A muse (vintage orange, brown madeira)
Accessories: Nestibilities, sewing machine, flower die cut (provocraft/cuttlebug), SU chocolate twill ribbon, button

A muse challenges got me stamping at last!

I finally got a chance to stamp...I have been busy running around like a chicken from one thing to the next as well as organizing various parts of my house. I've reorganized my stamping space/home office - I added 2 shelves to the bookcases to make more room for my growing collection of supplies. I reorganized my plants...repotted some, threw some dying ones out and moved my orchids to a less sunny spot in hopes they will rebloom. I've been decluttering toys and kid's clothing slowly as well.

Anyways, onto my stamping! This is a card for the A muse Addicts weekly challenge to make a one-layer white card:



Stamps: A muse (innertubing), PTI (holiday treats)
Ink: Palette Hybrid Noir
Paper: PTI white
Accessories: Copics, Lasting impressions piercing template, SU! Accents & Elements little felt flurries, corner rounder punch (EK Success)

Amazing...

I was on Google reader earlier this afternoon and came across a post on Carolyn King's blog...
It is amazing to see the outpouring of support that so many stampers and companies have shown for Alzheimer's, The Alzheimer's Association and World Alzheimer's Day. These stampers and stamping companies have donated towards an enormous prize that Carolyn will be drawing for...you are eligible for the drawing if you make a card and send it to a caregiver of someone with Alzheimer's.

Here is the card I made...I immediately thought of an older Italian gentleman who comes into the facility where I work every day to visit his wife. She is in the later stages of Alzheimer's and is no longer able to communicate. This gentleman lovingly pushes her around the facility in her wheelchair and feeds her at mealtimes...so touching to see his dedication. He is only one of so many who show so much care to those affected with this disease...
Stamps: Poppy Silhouette by Starving Artistamps, Paisley BG by CHF
Ink: Palette Hybrid burnt umber, SU cranberry crisp, versamark
Paper: SU close to cocoa, very vanilla
Accessories: SU mat pack, SU cranberry crisp ribbon, pop dots, clear embossing powder, nestibilities

Fall is in the air....

I love Fall and Halloween...they are the most wonderful time of the year for me! Not just because my birthday is near Halloween...I love the crisp air, crunchy leaves underfoot, the gorgeous trees in the bush and piles of pumpkins for sale on the roadside.

I made this card with my new A muse stamps from the fall/Halloween new releases...

The table is made from the bird bath stamp (I just taped the top of the birdbath prior to inking, then removed the tape to stamp only the base) plus one of the ovals from the A muse clear oval set. The candelabra was stamped first before the oval and masked off at the base. Boris and his galpal Bernice completed the scene with their spooky offerings. Not really visible in this photo are the crystal effects I added to B and B's eyes and Boris' test tubes as well as the glittery accents with the Sakura gelly roll stardust pen.

Stamps: A muse (Boris, Bernice, Candelabra, Bird Bath, clear oval set)
Paper: SU (marigold morning), PTI (white), A muse (vintage orange)
Ink: Palette Hybrid noir
Accessories: Copics, Sakura Gelly roll pen (stardust), SU crystal effects, SU elegant eggplant grosgrain ribbon, pop dots

My poor neglected blog...

September...everything starting up again makes it so hectic! Papercrafting has suffered as a result. Thankfully the A muse addicts weekly challenge "Go Team" gave me an excuse to make something! I love A muse's jogger girl stamp, Runner, especially now that I am a jogger girl myself! The girls at work that I run with have decided it's time to challenge ourselves and enter a 5K race...daunting for me as we are only running 3.5K right now and the race is on September 20th! The course that we run near work has nasty hills though, and the race is all flat, so that should help! Here is my card featuring Runner jogging past the Sweet Shop ;-)


The scene is coloured with my copics...I then masked the runner and sweet shop and airbrushed the background using my new toy from Ellen Hutson, the Copic ABS-1 set. I had trouble figuring it all out at first, and ended up calling and talking to Ellen herself...what a lovely person...can't say enough about her customer service! The path in front of the store was done using the colourless blender...see Marianne's blog post here for how to's...

Stamps: A muse (runner, sweet shop, journey)
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Paper: SU (kraft, basic black, very vanilla)
Accessories: copics, copic airbrush

A last minute birthday card

Due to predictions of bad weather, the birthday party Mr. T. was supposed to go to on Friday was bumped up to Wednesday...yes, that is tomorrow. Luckily, I went present shopping yesterday at noon...the card, though, is a total last minute card. Quick and easy!



I used my stamp-a-ma-jig (perhaps that was too many hyphens???) to position the gymnasts in a pyramid, then added the happy birthday banner to the top gymnast. Coloured with copics (no shading on this one!) and it was done like dinner!

Stamps: a muse gymnasts, simple wishes
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Paper: PTI white, SU night of navy
Accessories: copics

A dirty dozen challenge card...

Geeta on the A muse Addicts board challenged members to do the Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen Challenges for the month using A muse stamps. You can only access the Dirty Dozen gallery and challenges if you are a fan club member...well worth it! Of all challenges, I like sketch challenges the best, so I went for that one.



I had stamped and coloured the main image while I was away camping. I thought Flower Girl looked a bit suspicious (0r pleased with herself) after walking by the Flowerpots and helping herself to a few! Love it when a big chunk of work is done already! I cut the main image and mat with my oval nesties. For the rectangle panel at the bottom, I took inspiration from Julie's card featuring 3 lines of ribbon. Lots of sponging to dirty up the vanilla paper helped to make it less bright and stark. The rest explains itself!

Stamps: A muse (flower girl, flower pots, life is good)
Ink: Palette Hybrid burnt umber
Paper: SU (barely banana, close to cocoa, very vanilla), a muse (brown kitchen)
Accessories: copics, oval nestibilities, SU hodgepodge hardware, SU large and small oval punches, brown velvet ribbon by SEI (I think), pop dots.

brand new a muse for sale!

I have a few a muse stamps for sale. They are all brand new and have never seen ink. Due to a mix-up, I got doubles in my last order, and thought I'd sell them here, rather than try and return them. I would like to get what I paid for them as they are unused. Most of them are 1/2 price from the anniversary sale. Prices are in US Dollars. Please email me if you are interested and I can quote shipping for you. I prefer paypal for payment. Thanks!

Mushroom Trio $7.25
Mower $4.00
Simple Dress $4.00
Bridal Shop $4.00
Roses are Red MA $3.40
Baby $3.40

Or all of them for $25.

Life IS good!!

I have been thrilled with my jogging efforts lately...a few of us at work try to head out during our lunch hour. We have a 3km course through the neighbourhood near the hospital that we run...we aim to get out at least twice a week. I only started doing this in May of this year and we have been soooo sporadic, but we are making progress. Only one teeny walk in the middle of the entire 3km last time we went!!! So, to celebrate, I made this card which just happens (wink!) to fit the criteria for the September Home Page contest over at the A muse Addicts forum. The card must have at least 3 of these colors: Swiss Red, Bark (brown), Orange Crush, Palm (green).... AND add glitter to it. Here's to fresh air, exercise and feeling good about yourself!!

Stamps: A muse (simple wishes, life is good, runner).
Ink: Palette Hybrid Burnt Umber.
Paper: A muse (palm, green madeira), SU (chocolate chip, only orange, real red, very vanilla).
Accessories: SU (chunky glitter, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punches, word window punch, 2 way glue), copics.

30th birthday x 2!

I got in a groove the other night and made 4 cards (mind you I was up till midnight ;-)
Two were for a birthday party we will be attending this weekend...DH's cousin and his wife are both turning 30.

Here is her card:


I stamped the alpha directly on the madeira paper and added a dot of liquid pearls to each polka dot. The card looks soooo elegant IRL.

Stamps: A muse polka dot alpha
Paper: SU barely banana and basic black, a muse pink madeira
Ink: Palette Hybrid Noir
Accessories: PTI twill ribbon (berry blush), SU mat pack & paper piercer, Ranger liquid pearls (silver pearl)

and here is his card:

This stamp set rocks for boys...I will be getting a lot of use out of it for sure! I made double score lines on my card, leaving enough room in between for two rows of the rounded square stamps from the set. I initially tried to line them up using my SAMJ (which I love for perfect positioning), but it really didn't work out in this case. I had much better luck just eyeballing! The gear stamps were cut out, and with the two small gears, I added a 1/4" circle of the same colour under the brad (I thought there was too much white space inside the gear otherwise!). I suppose if it hadn't been midnight, I could have rigged it so the gear actually spin...that would be too cool!

Stamps: Lizzie Anne Designs Gizmos and Gears
Paper: SU Basic Black, Taken with Teal, PTI white
Ink: SU Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Green Galore
Accessories: MM brads, Scor-Pal, Dymo labeler, SU 1/4" circle punch

Trouble with scallops...

I got a wee shipment in the mail today...a few new-to-me amuse stamps including Present bl. It so happens that we will be celebrating my mom's birthday tomorrow night, and I needed to make her a card, and those teeny tiny cute presents from the stamp were begging to be used, sooooooooo....



I got Houdini and his magical presents all done (presents stamped on vellum, coloured on the reverse side so as not to smudge the ink), the ribbon in place and the sentiment stamped when I started having second thoughts about the balance of the card. I likely should have stamped the sentiment on the madeira part of the card, but too late!!

So I decided to make a scalloped edge on the bottom to lighten up the pink. Because it was 2 layers of paper, my corner rounder punch would not co-operate. I went for my scalloped edge scissors. They promptly broke!!! It was 11:30pm and I was not re-doing this card!! I used my exacto knife to slice off the white cs under the madeira paper just enough for my corner rounder punch to work. I added a bit of vellum on the bottom to make the card stand up properly and to kind of hide the mess that was on the inside of the card and Voila!

Stamps: A muse (Houdini, Presents bl, Magical day)
Ink: Palette Hybrid Burnt Umber
Paper: PTI white, A muse madeira, vellum
Accessories: a muse clear scalloped circle sticker, SU mat pack, paper piercer, ribbon from Michaels, EK success corner rounder punch, copics

Away in the bush

10 days of rest and relaxation, 2 dirty boys, 3 days at the beach, 400 photos taken...enjoy a few of my favourites!

After mountains of laundry...

We are back from camping! We enjoyed 10 days of nice weather...lots of hiking, biking, building sandcastles and roasting "M's"(what the boys call roasted marshmallows)! I brought a few supplies along with, but didn't get much time to
stamp. I stamped 5 or 6 images one afternoon and did some colouring...that's it!! I did take some pics with my new Iphone and attempt to post them here, but technology did not cooperate.

Our wonderful neighbour looked after watering my flowerpots and a few other things while we were away, so I used one of my coloured images to make her a thank you card and a card set to match.





Stamps: a muse (friends blossom, flower pots)
Paper: SU very vanilla, artichoke, artichoke dp)
Ink: Palette hybrid burnt umber
Accessories: copics, ribbon (May arts), dimensionals, corner rounder punch, SU colour spritzer

What I am drooling over...

I would love to own one of these Mini Stackables from Best Craft Organizers. To see the details, scroll down till you see Kit C in Maple...only I'd chose black drawers instead, and add the inserts to the 2" drawers. I would keep my assorted wood mounted stamp collection in the 1" drawers.

I already own four of the above PortaInk units from the same company and I loooooove them. I had great service from them and they are actually Canadian, based in BC...cool, eh?!

My mission over the next month is to sort through all the outgrown clothes/toys/gear from the boys and sell it all...proceeds will go to my mini stackable!!

Yes, I bribed them!!!

Well, Jeremy (he's 2) didn't take much convincing...all he had to see was a lawnmower stamp and he was all for making a card for Emily's A-muse-a-palooza Challenge #7. Jeremy chose green stickles to finish off his lawnmowers, and we used the Happy Birthday sentiment so we could present this card to Aunt Kathryn at her birthday party tomorrow. Woohoo!!

Paper: SU old olive, PTI white
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Stamps: a muse (lawnmower, simple wishes)
Accessories: stickles, metal dot by colorbok



Now Trent on the other hand (he's 4), was adamantly NOT going to sit and do crafts. Not even for candy or chocolate!! But when given the chance to use my copic airbrush (which he has been oh-so-curious about since he spied it wayyyyy up high on my shelf), there was no hesitation!! Combined with a muse's rocket stamp, he was in his glory! The sentiment from Lizzie Anne Design's Out of This World set was a perfect choice for Aunt Kathryn's other card...

Paper: SU summer sun, PTI white
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Stamps: a muse (rocket), LAD (out of this world)
Accessories: copic airbrush (ABS-1), stickles, brad by MM

Now my only hope is that they don't decide to help themselves to all my goodies and create some "mess-terpieces" while I am not looking!!

cards for kids

Yet another A-muse-a-palooza challenge (I am hopelessly addicted)...this time from Emily to make kid's cards. I love A muse's stamps for this! My neglected SU punches were dusted off for this one...I used the spiral tab punch and the arrow punch. The arrow is accented around the edges with a red copic marker. The bella baubles are coloured (underneath) with copics to change them from clear to red and the announcer's hat and boots are glittered up with black stickles.

The other part of the challenge is to have your child make a card using A muse stamps...we'll have to see how that goes...Mr T. is not much into arts and crafts...may have to bribe him with a few swedish berries!!

Stamps: A muse (announcer and ahhh-nouncing)
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Paper: SU basic black, kraft, real read and bayou blue
Accessories: copics, SU arrow and spiral tab punch, pop dots, black stickles, bella baubles

A work in progress

I have been playing somemore with my copics and with my a muse collection...can't put them away! They are a fixture on my desk right now! I recently got myself an airbrush (ABS-1) for my copics through Ellen Hutson
Once I opened it up to try it out, I couldn't get it to work despite reading and re-reading the instructions...so I emailed Ellen. She was amazing...ended up chatting on the phone and she got it all figured out for me! Love her!

Anyways, back to my picture of Lancelot protecting his castle...I am still trying to decide whether to try airbrushing a background or to try a neat technique I saw on Marianne's blog (see the background around the tree with the tire swing? Could you see cobblestones from that????).

He is stamped using palette hybrid noir and coloured with copics. I did 2nd generation stamping for the castle to make it seem more distant. I also stamped the castle on a transparency first and played with positioning, then used my SAMJ for precision placement. I masked Lancelot using Eclipse tape...awesome stuff! Can't recall where I got it from though...

I'll post the final outcome soon...hope I don't ruin Lancelot...I kind of love how he's turned out so far!

A-muse-a-palooza polka dot challenge

Here's my polka dotted card for AP08POLKA. I used the chocolate kitchen 4 bar notecards that I won in Geeta's colour challenge as the base.

The rest of the card came from my scrap pile! When I first got my copics, I played around a bit and coloured in the circle tote stamp by A muse. When I read the challenge, I hunted around in my scrap bin (I use a stamp storage box from SU) and dug it out! I dry embossed the green layer using my cropadile. How to do that? You just set the CAD to A1 and squeeze it onto your paper...easy peasy! I marked where to squeeze lightly in pencil and erased it afterwards...you could also line it up more perfectly with the large holes in the SU mat pack piercing template.

Stamps: A muse (circle tote, simple wishes)
Ink: Palette Hybrid Burnt Umber, Ranger Distress Fired Brick
Paper: A muse chocolate kitchen 4 bar notecard, SU very vanilla and purely pomegranate, green by SEI
Accessories: cropadile, copics, dimensionals, ribbon from Michael's, SU word window punch

A-muse-a-palooza

So far, A-muse-a-palooza has been a blast! The challenges have been great and the prizes are generous! I submitted this card for Geeta's colour challenge and guess what? I won a prize!!! I just received my ice cream truck stamp, chocolate 4 bar kitchen notecards and ribbon in the mail last week...thanks, A muse! Enjoy all the submissions for this challenge here...

Card details:
Stamps: A muse ((Lizzie, Houdini, Fairy, Micro Oval)
Paper: SU bashful blue, very vanilla, close to cocoa, almost amethyst
Ink: ranger distress ink (walnut)
Accessories: copics, clear spica glitter pen, glue dots, dimensionals, SU 1/2" circle punch