AMAP...second challenge!

First of all, I must brag a wee bit! The card I made with the mosaic squares made the AMAP challenge round up here. Go check out the other gorgeous cards that were featured...lots of inspiration!!

Ribbon is AMAP's second challenge. I love ribbon! I am usually pretty predictable with my use of ribbon...I just lay it across the width of my card and tie a nice knot in it...done! For this challenge, I wanted to use it differently.

Enter Snail...one of the latest additions to my "collection". I decided to dress him/her up in a lovely red stitched ribbon shell. This card went together in 5 minutes!!



Stamps: a muse (snail, sentiment from simple wishes)
Paper: PTI white
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Accessories: copics, paper piercer, ribbon (amuse), glue dots

A-Muse-A-Palooza challenges have begun!

I am back to blogging...A-muse-a-Palooza (henceforth known as AMAP) was what got me started with this blog last year...posting was OK for a bit, then my blogging slowed down to a trickle and then stopped. UGH. Hope I can keep a trickle of posts going from now on.

Jennie's first challenge for AMAP is SQUARE! I love squares. I love clean lines. I love 4.25" square cards. This challenge is perfect! I ended up making two cards...

I started with the idea of using my tiny 1/4" square punch to make a frame of little squares around my main image...after playing around a bit, the idea morphed into making a mosaic out of the tiny squares to accent my main image. Once I got my main image stamped and matted, I decided the little mosaics were too much for it so I kept the card plain and accented the image with a sentiment stamped repeatedly as a frame. I once took an online class with Julie Ebersole (fab class, learned a ton!!). She had us plan and sketch our cards out in rough before making them. Although it was a great exercise, I can't seem to do it in real life...I'm too impulsive and just need to do things...thinking about things for too long before doing them is not my forte! So my creative process is very much "fly by the seat of my pants!".

Here is the first card that "happened":



Now I had two cute little 3/4" square mosaic tiles to use up...so I stamped a sentiment on the bottom right corner of a square card, made one more mosaic tile, played around with the position of the three tiles for half an hour (yikes!) and stuck 'em on with pop dots. I added a little paper piercing on the bottom (I love piercing, it's subtle but adds something). Done. Not at all what I envisioned at the beginning, but now I have 2 cards that will definitely use within the next week! Here is the mosaic tile card:



What's in card #1:
Stamps: a muse
Paper: SU very vanilla & basic black
Ink: palette hybrid noir & SU soft sky
Accessories: SAMJ

What's in card #2:
Stamps: a muse
Paper: a muse, SU basic black, very vanilla
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Accessories: SU 1/4" square punch, pop dots, MM paper piercer

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