One Layer with a Flourish...

I've made my One Layer Wednesday card (on Thursday!)...I was making some thank you cards with Moby, the whale stamp from A muse, and piercing the spout on top of his head when I suddenly remembered Susan's challenge for the week to use a flourish on a OLC.  I pulled out one of my first stamps sets, a flourish set from Autumn Leaves, and found the perfect-although-kind-of-large flourish for Moby.

Supplies:

Paper:  Stamping Bella

Ink:  palette hybrid noir

Stamps:  A muse (moby, thanks), Autumn Leaves, PTI (piece of cake)

Accessories:  A muse twinkle stickers, paper piercer, copics, corner chomper

I coloured Moby with copics and added some bling to his spout.  Because the left side of the card seemed kind of empty, and because Moby looked like he was flying in the air rather than floating in water, I added a few lines of piercing to ground him in a very subtle way.  I think it works!

Father's Day/Teacher Thank You Gift Card Holder Tutorial

I, as per my usual habits, left making teacher's thank you gifts to the last minute again this year.  Thankfully, the latest issue of Family Fun magazine arrived in the mail and a craft project in it inspired me!  I adapted it from the Kraft Dinner box used in the magazine to one made from cardstock and I have a tutorial to show you how I did it.  The great part about it is that it works for a teacher or for a dad!

Step One

Step Two

Step Three

Step Four

Step Five

Step Six

Supplies:

Stamps:  A muse (school time)

Ink:  Palette hybrid noir

Paper:  SU (pumpkin pie, basic grey, summer sun), A muse (lined paper)

Accessories:  SU large star punch, MS apple punch, pop dots

You can decorate the tape measure as you wish.  I used stamps from A muse's School Time clear set - perfect for this project as it includes the ruler and the sentiment "You Rule".  I added a bit of grey cs at the end of my tape measure so it looks like a real one.

Hope you like this project...it's quick if you're in a hurry to get something done - half an hour tops now that the measuring is all figured out for you!

A "wow" day & a CAS card...

I spent the day colouring today...

I attended the Copic Certification course in T.O. with Sherrie Siemens.  Let's just say I was doing it all wrong and now I am more in awe of copics than I was when I didn't really know what I was doing with them.  The scary thing is that I am now looking at my 144 Ciaos knowing that I definitely don't have enough (gasp) colours!!!  To sum the day up, all I can say is "wow"...and if you own copics, you should take the course if you get the chance.

I stalked the CAS DT girls on SCS tonight knowing that tomorrow night will be busy and I wouldn't get a chance to make a card for the challenge.  I am pretty sure that the theme is "Things that Fly".  I grabbed one of my fave A muse stamps, Rocket, for this one.

Supplies:

Paper:  A muse, PTI

Ink:  Palette hybrid noir

Stamps:  A muse

Accessories:  copics, pop dots, SU ribbon, MFT cloud trio die, paper piercer

I cut out two sets of the clouds and positioned them on the blue base, trimming the ends that hung over the edge.  I pierced around 3 of the clouds to help them stand out just a bit more and to help the eye travel around the card.  I coloured and cut out the rocket.  The stamp has some fire coming from underneath the rocket but I had to cut the flames off as they are pretty thin lines that aren't attached to the rocket at all.  In place of the flames, I coloured some cream organdy ribbon with a copic then cut the ribbon into 3 parts leaving it intact at one end.  I taped this end underneath the rocket.  Last of all, I added the sentiment to the bottom cloud.  I like it...hope you do too!  Don't forget to try out the challenge!

Wild Roses & Twinkles...

Here is a card I made using some new stamps from A muse...the lovely wild rose & wild rose branch.

Supplies:

Paper:  A muse 

Ink:  Palette hybrid noir

Stamps:  A muse

Accessories:  SU curly label punch, A muse twinkle stickers, pop dots

I stamped the wild rose branch on the base after stamping it off first once on scrap paper.  I stamped the wild rose on various colours of A muse cardstock (aren't the colours pretty?), punched them out and popped them up overtop the branch.  I linked the three images together using tiny twinkle stickers.  The sentiment fit perfectly on the bottom of the card with three more twinkle stickers below.  I love love love how this turned out...hope you like it too!!

More One Layer Cards...

Are you sick of them yet???  I am not!  This month's A muse Lounge Challenge is called "Taking off some Layers"  Isn't Jennie so clever with words?!  I have been making OLCs like crazy and have 3 to show you!

This first one is so simple, but I had to hug myself after thinking of the idea.  I was playing around with the new Vintage set from A muse and was using the sentiment "You make me smile" for another card.  Being a clear stamp, you can bend it...and it goes perfectly into the shape of a smile!  I tried various ideas for the eyes, the most scary looking being A muse's Sun stamp...it was the face of someone possessed!!  In the end, I settled for blue buttons - more friendly!!  I pierced a circle using a nestie as a circle template.  Love those nesties!!

Supplies:

Paper:  SU very vanilla

Stamps:  A muse

Ink:  palette hybrid noir

Accessories:  SEI buttons, circle nestibility, SU linen thread, paper piercer, corner chomper

The second and third cards use the same layout and some of the newly released stamps from A muse - gorgeous, eh?  Pretty self explanatory to make...

Supplies:

Paper:  A muse (wheat)

Ink:  Palette hybrid moulin rouge, charcoal & noir

Stamps:  A muse (Marigold, gossamer wings, many thanks)

Accessories:  Making Memories brad, paper piercer

Supplies:

Paper:  A muse

Ink:  SU (cool caribbean, not quite navy, certainly celery, always artichoke)

Stamps:  A muse (wild rose branch, hello, gossamer wings)

Accessories:  none!

Technique:  rock & roll

Hope you enjoy my trio of OLCs...tomorrow is Susan's One Layer Wednesday...why stop making these???

Two roads...

I love the poems of Robert Frost...and so I had to buy Lisa Strahl's stamp set "Motivational Centers" from Cornish Heritage Farms.  This week's CAS challenge on SCS was to make a greeting the focal point of your card.  I used part of Robert Frost's "The road not taken" as my focal point.

The rest of the card is kind of understated to allow more focus on the verse.  I used A muse's new cardstock colour "wheat" for my base - it's an addictive colour!!  I added a touch of gingham dp for the scene to give a bit of colour pop.  I tried highlighting some of the words in the verse with colour, but I didn't like the look of it, so I changed it back to plain (ie: dragged out the stamp set and did it all over again!!)

I plan on posting a series of One Layer Cards later on so stay tuned!

Supplies:

Paper:  A muse (wheat, gingham)

Ink: palette hybrid burnt umber

Stamps:  A muse (birch trees, sun), Cornish Heritage Farms (Motivational Centers)

Accessories:  Martha Stewart grass punch, pop dots, SU 1/2" circle punch 

One Layer Time...

One Layer Challenges are all over this month! Susan's One Layer Wednesday Challenge is to use repetition and A muse just posted their monthly challenge in the Lounge called "Taking off some layers"

As a result, I have a series of OLCs that I will be posting over the next week or so...I can't stop making them! Here is my card for Susan's challenge. I apologize for the slightly out of focus picture, I think the madeira paper in the background was messing up my camera somehow!!



Supplies:

Paper: A muse
Ink: Palette hybrid noir
Stamps: A muse (ladybird, hello)
Accessories: copics, black ribbon (unknown source), paper piercer, corner chomper

A muse has a wonderful selection of tiny stamps - this ladybug is one of my growing collection of these. I absolutely love the font of this sentiment...I have been using this stamp over and over since I got it - you may recognize it from last week's challenge! I think the font matches perfectly with the ladybugs' antennae this time...

I used a circle nestibility die to trace the circle, used my SAMJ to align the ladybugs around the inside of the circle, added my sentiment in the middle and pierced around the outer edge of the circle. I added the ribbon/bow and chomped off a few corners to soften the card. Hope you can find some time and some little stamps to join in on the challenge!!