March A muse Lounge Challenge

This month, the A muse Lounge Challenge is to be inspired by JulieHRR. Not hard to do as she is one of my stamping idols!! I pored over her gallery for days...and left puddles of drool behind!

Here is Julie's card that I couldn't stop looking at. The gorgeous colours and the rock & roll technique on the flowers & leaves...wow!

I knew before I started my card that I wanted some black on it and I was sure I wanted to use some ricrac. Then I started rocking and rolling...I played around with so many different inks and colours of ink that my desk was covered in ink pads! Here is what I created...



Stamps: A muse (delicious day, leaf frond, solid apple)
Ink: palette hybrid noir & moulin rouge, SU barely banana, soft sky, garden green, certainly celery & cameo coral
Paper: SU very vanilla, basic black
Accessories: pop dots, SU sponges, ric rac (unknown source)

I used my Eclipse tape to mask over the apple to stamp the leaves. I cut out another apple and popped it up. I sponged around the apple with soft sky & barely banana. The edges of the main image were distressed a bit for dimension & popped up. The sentiment was perfect (a muse has the most perfect sentiments!). Hope you like it! Thanks for visiting!

It's Monday...CAS day!!

This week's CAS challenge on Splitcoaststampers, "A Different Kind of Shape-abilities", calls for using at least 2 different layers of shapes. I am not one to use lots of layers because lots of layers = cards that take too much time to make! I am all about quick cards, as I am usually making them late at night!

Still in the grungeboard mood from the birthday card (see my previous post), I decided to see how my SU/Sizzix Dies would cut through the stuff. Sadly, not all of the dies I own will go through grungeboard...nesties won't, and if I remember correctly, my cuttlebug dies won't either. Thankfully, the SU ones went through like butter!!

Here is my layered, but CAS card for this week's challenge:



Here is what I used:

Stamps: none!
Paper: SU true thyme, PTI rustic cream, BG sugared
Ink: PTI tea dyes (chamomile & chai)
Accessories: Grungeboard (harlequin), pop dots, SU Beautiful Butterflies die, MM paint (manila & buttercup), Glimmer Mist (pearl), SU copper cord

Hope you have some time to play along! You will be wanting to do CAS57!! Thanks for stopping by!

All {Birthday} Partied Out!

This has been the weekend of Birthday Parties. My oldest had one yesterday and is currently out at another. We also celebrated a few family birthdays last night. In the middle of all my getting ready (the party was at my place), about half an hour before everyone was supposed to arrive, I realized I did not make my "baby" brother a card. You can see from the card how old he is now!

This would count as a10 minute card. I got pretty messy and covered in paint while making it! Thank goodness for my non-stick craft mat! I decided to use a school/math theme...because I could not find anything quickly to use as an equal sign, I had to use an arrow.


Here's what I used:

Stamps: DOTS (ink splatters)
Ink: SU true thyme, PTI tea dye (chamomile & chai)
Paper: a muse
Accessories: Grungeboard (letters, numbers & shapes), Adirondack Acrylic Paint dabbers (espresso & pearl), Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paints (fired brick & antique linen), Glimmer Mist (pearl), a muse pretty pearls (cranberry)

Thanks for stopping by!!

A new adventure!

This is my first card for the Spring CAS design team on SCS. The challenge is to make square cards...not really a challenge for me, 'cause that's mostly what I like to make. I like everything even and symmetrical, so I love square cards!

I also cleaned up my craft room/office this weekend. I had quite a bit of stuff that was not on a shelf or in a container. I also had piles of really old magazines that were taking up some prime real estate on the bookshelf. My Cricut has now moved in there, leaving more room for my sewing machine. Hopefully I will use it a bit more now that it is more accessible!

Anyways, onto the card...in my cleaning, I came across all kinds of embellishments that I have been saving for years. I had a few of these ginormous buttons that I got on sale a few years ago. I don't even know who made them...they were out of their package. I found some BG paper to match and used a circle nestie to cut a circle to go on the button. I had to use some dp to cover up the ribbon crisscrossing on the back of the button. I threaded the SU grosgrain through the holes, glued the monster on, added a sentiment and a few holes with my piercer. After the fact, I rounded the corners 'cause that looked better with the round button. Here it is!



So now it's your turn...go make a square card! Here is a link to the challenge! Have a great day!!

VSN...the day after

I made 4 cards during VSN (virtual stamping night) at SCS last night. I played along with my A muse stamps. There were tons of challenges over the weekend...I sure didn't have the energy to do them all! I will share my favourite one with you here...



Paper: SU very vanilla
Ink: Palette hybrid noir
Stamps: A muse
Accessories: SU taffeta ribbon, SAMJ

For the Triple Inspiration challenge we had to use 3 ribbons on a card and make it for someone who inspires us. I made it super CAS and love how it turned out. These taffeta ribbons from SU are one of my favourite ribbons...a bit of colour, but not too overpowering. The sentiment from A muse is gorgeous...the mix of fonts is perfect for the ribbons.

I made this for the boys' preschool teachers...they are so good at dealing with children - they seem to know what approach works for each individual child, and they make it look so easy! I have learned a lot about parenting from them!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Olympics on SCS...

I have been busy making cards lately as part of an Olympic event on Splitcoaststampers...the Spring 2010 CAS challenge design team. You can check out the thread here. Everyone started out as Torch runners, then the field was narrowed down to 20 "athletes", then narrowed down again to 10 finalists and then down to 3 winners. I am honoured, and very excited to say that I was chosen as one of the winners!! The other two winners are Kelly (kmahany) and Carly (PaperInBloom). They are super talented so be sure to check out what they have created!! This round, there will also be some great guest designers for the challenges. The CAS challenges are every Monday - hope you can come and play!

Below are three of the cards I made for the CAS Olympics...the challenges were a lot of fun and, well, challenging!!



Stamps: A muse
Paper: PTI white, SU basic black & old olive
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Accessories: copics, MS grass punch, pop dots, SU 1/2" circle punch, SAMJ


Stamps: A muse
Paper: PTI white, Basic Grey
Ink: Palette hybrid noir
Accessories: copics, pop dots, circle nestibilities, SU word window punch, paper piercer, a muse pretty pearl stickers in cranberry




Stamps: A muse
Paper: A muse (gingham & madeira), SU (barely banana, very vanilla & basic black)
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Accessories: pop dots, copics


Thanks for stopping by. I am going to attempt more regular blogging...we'll see how it goes! No pressure, right?!!

SCS CAS DT cards

That would be short for the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple Challenge design team cards! There are currently 3 challenges as part of the application for the team. Here is what I came up with:

Sketch Challenge:

I cut out a stencil using the negative part of the Vine die from Sizzix. I used 3 different inks to sponge the shape onto my card base...red & green first, then I moved the stencil over slightly and sponged brown to make a shadow. I added piercing around the sponged vine which made it look quite dimensional considering it's a one layer card. The clear sentiment curved easily on my block to follow the shape of the leaf, and a thin ribbon completed the card.



Paper: SU barely banana
Ink: SU (old olive), Palette hybrid (burnt umber & moulin rouge)
Stamps: A muse (simple wishes)
Accessories: paper piercer, SU twill ribbon (old olive), Sizzix vine die


Colour Challenge:

Monochromatic brown with a smidge of red...I love Kraft cardstock, so I had to use it for this card. I also recently splurged for some PTI rustic white cardstock which is, well, rustic! It has bits of natural flecks and fibres in it. AND I just received my order of new A muse fall stamps. When I thought about the smidge of red, I knew I should use the tiniest apple from the School Time set. I stamped the apple repeatedly in brown, did a few in brown stamped off once, then added one red apple in the mix. I used my SU circle punches and a circle nestie to make the main image and its mats. I roughed up the edges of the circles a bit, popped them up on dimensionals and stamped the sentiment below. I was inspired by he disposable coffee cups at work. On the side of the cups, the logo of the coffee company is in red and the name is centered below in brown, and I've been wanting to use this design idea on a card for awhile now...I love its simplicity!



Paper: SU (kraft, chocolate chip), PTI (rustic white)
Ink: Palette hybrid (burnt umber & moulin rouge)
Stamps: A muse (school time, delicious day)
Accessories: SU circle punches, circle nesties, pop dots, heidi swapp edge distresser, EK success corner rounder punch

Theme Challenge:

Fall...it's here! Nights are cooler, it's getting dark sooner and my DS starts school next Tuesday!! He is so excited! This card is for him...
My new A muse purchases from the fall release are awesome...love the school lined cardstock and all the new stamps! I used primary colours and black for some contrast/to tone down the loud yellow base. The wider edge at the top of the lined paper fit the line up of school kids perfectly. I used the SU spiral punch on the left margin of the paper, and matted it in black. I was originally going to place the main image diagonally across my card, so I added a notebook line ( from the clear School time set) stamped in versamark diagonally across for some grounding of my main image. Once I placed it on the diagonal, there seemed like too much "white" space, so I ended up putting the main image on straight. I still like the subtle diagonal underneath...the adorable sentiment from the School time set completed the card.



Paper: SU (summer sun, basic black), A muse (school lined)
Ink: Palette hybrid noir, versamark
Stamps: A muse (school line, School Time clear set)
Accessories: copics, SU spiral punch

Whew...marathon post! Be sure to check out all the amazing submissions for the design team! Thanks for visiting!!