Glenda, one of my A Muse friends posted a card recently that used the shimmer paper with an embossing folder. My eyes popped out of my head when I saw how beautiful it looked. You can see it here. I thought of my MS snowflake punches and how good they would look if I used the blue shimmer paper. So when I made cards for a recent get together, I used both of those elements on my card. Don't normally think of craft paper when I think of a blue card but I thought it worked out pretty well for this one. A touch of a small piece of blue and green ribbon I had in my stash, supplied the finishing touch for my shimmery, snowy greeting.
I have been working on Christmas cards, really I have. Just wanted to wait to post them till after my friends in the Cities had time to make them. Didn't want them to have a sneak peek of what was coming up for them on our Black Friday stamping weekend. Yes, that's what I said, we all stamped on Black Friday and Saturday! My friends Lyndsay and Theresa came up with some really fantastic projects for us to make along with the cards I designed. I can't forget to mention Karen who was content to make stuff and eat pizza. This is the first of the cards I brought. The holiday lights were made using a Fiskars punch and doodlebug sugared paper. So easy to punch and stick, although the top of the light did give us some trouble. The sentiment is one of A Muse's new cling stamps. It is the perfect size and shape for a gift tag. Think I will use it for one of mine. I digress... Anyway, I made my own ornament using the nestabilities big scallop circles set. This might be my new favorite nestie set!!! A little A Muse dotted ribbon at the top and the card is complete. Stay tuned for 2 more of the cards I made for our little get together.
Hey, everyone, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a little time set aside to be thankful of the good things in your life. It is nice to have a day to sit back and reflect on all the special people that bring you joy. I am very lucky to have a wonderful family and my friends are the best! My husband makes me happy every day, well, almost every day. :) I am blessed.
It is always a good thing to use up scraps. At least, in my book it is. I worked on a project recently that needed a red bird. I made several birds using different techniques. I had these two embossed beauties leftover and wanted to use them in a similar layout and see how different they looked. I love these cards because they show how an edge punch here, a ribbon there, can make a card look the same, yet different. Why not take out a couple of your scraps and see what you can make?
One more Halloween card using the fence punch. Made this card with all my "wicked" fun friends out on the east coast in mind. Boris is the perfect person to wish them all a Happy Halloween. He is showing off his new potion on top of the fence. I wanted to use the pinking Nestabilities set for the moon because it reminded me of his scary hair. Gary said my moon looked like an award sticker but I am sure you all will agree that it goes with the hair! The next card I post is not going to be green! LOL
I promised another Halloween card so here it is. That new Martha Stewart Halloween fence punch is too much fun! I paired it with the new jack-o-lantern edge punch and made a card that will make anyone who hates spiders squirm. Green seems to be my new go to Halloween color so I used the grass cardstock for the card. That paired perfectly with the beware stamp and a giant moon. I have one more card to share using the new fence punch. Hopefully I can get at it before the full moon rises.
All my A Musing friends are posting cards for Halloween and they have gotten me in the mood for a little fun. I knew when I bought the new Martha Stewart fence punch that I would be using the Halloween cling set A Muse brought out for A Muse a palooza this year on a card. I could see that pumpkin sitting in front of the fence welcoming all the trick or treaters to the spooky house down the road. Isn't Halloween fun? I used black ink on the house and clear embossed it to give it an extra eerie look. Have another card waiting to be posted so check back to see some more halloweeny fun soon.
I have to give credit where credit is due. Michelle M is the one that inspired this card. She created a beautiful card, very similar to this one on the A Muse Lounge and I thought it was so beautiful that I had to make a card of my own. The colors are what really struck me, so pretty and soft. I am so sorry about the photo being shadowed. We haven't seen a sunny day around here for a while and I didn't want to wait any longer to put this card up. All the stamps I used are A Muse as is all the paper.
Thank you so much, Michelle for inspiring me to make this card for one of my classes. You are the best!
My brother's getting married! It's about time! My mom and sister and I are giving his new wife-to-be a shower. So of course, I had to make the invitations. Just love this tub with gifts stamp from A Muse. I started out wanting to make "simple" cards, I had to make 40 of them, but got carried away. I used paper piecing on the tub and stickles on the polka dot present, nestabilties, ribbon, the works. I even chalked around the inside of the die I used.
Get ready for A Muse a palooza! It starts this Saturday at your local stamp store. It's Christmas and Halloween in July!!!
Today I created Ronnie Lee's garden on my card. For those of you who don't know, Ronnie Lee was my cousin but we were very close, more like brother and sister. He died in a car crash 2 1/2 years ago. We had a memorial service for him on Tuesday and released butterflies to honor him and his life. It was so beautiful!I created this card to send to his partner who is struggling to be happy. The garden was created using 3 stamps and 2 ink colors. Took me a while to come up with the perfect combination to represent Ron's hosta garden. He had a huge, beautiful garden that gave him much pleasure. So happy to share this very special card with you and hope your Spring is bringing you happiness.
Last day of the A Muse birthday celebration! Wow, so many beautiful cards to look at. Did you see them all? I did! The other muses did such a wonderful job on their cards. Some of them will inspire me to try new things and get out of my box. I think I have been in there too long.
So on today's card we could use any of the new images. Guess I picked my favorite, the solid Marigold. And the sentiment, well, that is my favorite too. I just used Memento ink on the flower, some Stickles and one of my nestabilities for the sentiment. Simple, easy, A Muse. Don't forget to check out the A Muse blog and the other instructor's sites.
Almost forgot, Happy Birthday, Gail!
I love butterflies! The new stamp release by A Muse has 3 new butterfly stamps. It was so hard to choose one for my card today but I used Gossimer wings. Also used the new Scroll border on the bottom of my card and used the new Daisy duet for the background paper. I thought about using some sort of sparkle on this card but decided not to. As Julie always says, "take one thing off". I did. Hope you like my card for today and there is one more to share tomorrow. Make sure to check out the A Muse blog and the other muses' blogs for more butterfly madness.
These new stamps are really keeping me busy! I am using the new Scroll Border stamp from A Muse for my curly rooftop on this cute little birdhouse. That kitty is pretty smart waiting for the birds to come play with him inside which I created with the vintage reverse paper, also from A Muse. This birthday party is on a roll and isn't over yet so make sure to stay tuned to the A Muse blog for more fun! Check out my fellow instructors' blogs too!!!
There are so many new images that I love in the new Everything's Rosy release by A Muse. I paired the Bare Branch with leaves and the Daisy Duet for this card. I stamped the Daisy Duet on the side of this card and used the Martha Stewart branch punch for a little something special on the bottom. One thing I love about A Muse is that you can use any of the stamps you already own with the stamps that are new. I used the Tiny Daisy on the branch for a little added color. Check out the A Muse Blog for prizes and all the A Muse gals for more beautiful cards.
It is always so exciting to have a new stamp release. Lots of new rubber to play with and this Everything's Rosy is no exception. Flowers are always fun! Love them! I got to play with the new Marigold solid stamp today and I am so glad I did. Just a simple stamp in a scallop circle and a lacy edge punch and you have a fun card to send to anyone that makes you smile. Make sure you check out the other instructor's blogs and the A Muse blog. You will find lots of fun and prizes waiting for you.
Happy Birthday, A Muse! It is the 9th birthday for A Muse and they are celebrating in style. Today's card is made from the new Birthday clear set. That big Happy will let anyone know just how you feel about their birthday. I really wanted to include the stamp shop in my card so all the people at A Muse know this card is especially for them. I just happened to have the Martha Stewart candles punch and thought that would be the perfect touch. So make a wish and enjoy all the other A Muse instructors cards.
It's hard to believe that A Muse Artstamps is 9 years old this month. They are celebrating by releasing 2 new clear sets. One of them contains some of their vintage images like this bike along with some new sentiments. It has been a lot of fun to look back at all my favorite images and make a card with one of my all time favorites. I used one of the trees from the Trees 1 set to give my biker a cool place to rest. Also put a little glitter on the large cloud for a some sparkle. As always, make sure to check out the A Muse blog and the other instructor's blogs for some more inspiration.
This fun night was brought to a close by Geeta. She posted a challenge to make a card for any Mom. Looks like she and I were on the same wave length when we made our cards. I swear I didn't peek at hers before I made mine! Since I had the Zinnia stamp out from the second challenge I used that along with the open zinnia for my Mother's Day card. Hope my mom isn't looking!!!
The night was a lot of fun as usual. Stay tuned for more virtual stamp nights sponsored by the A Muse Lounge. I am sure there will be more to come.
Challenge number three was posted by the famous Jenn. She wanted us to create a card using our favorite flower as inspiration. I am not sure I can pick one flower as my favorite, I love 'em all, but I chose the daisy for my card. Punched out my flower in yellow kitchen paper. Stamped the Happy Spring and Vine Border in Versamark and embossed with white on brown paper. I figured I had all the embossing stuff out from the first card so what the heck!
The second challenge was posted by Meghan. She wanted us to use something on our card 3 times. I used my Zinnia stamp and punched out 3 inchies. I also used 3 different colors of green. Double the fun! It is a super simple card but when you have to make your card in 30 minutes, there isn't much time to detail!
Time for the Spring Pajama party over on the A Muse Lounge. The first challenge was posted by Jennie. She found this cute photo of a bunch of cupcakes. I got out the cupcake builder set from A Muse and stamped with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder for the cupcake. Got out my Nestabilities for the frame on the sentiment and cut it out of blue gingham. A little polka dot white ribbon tops off this pastel card.
Have to thank my Mom for this card. About a year ago she gave me a advertisement for Fruit of the Loom. It looked like pretty butterflies hanging around on acetate strips. She told me that she thought of me and wondered if I could use it as inspiration for a card. Well, I finally got around to trying it out. Thought the spiral card technique would work the best. So I cut a circle out of acetate and trimmed it into a long spiral. I used the new Cloud paper from A Muse for the inside of the card and thought the butterflies punched from the Doodlebug sugared paper would look so pretty floating around in the sky. The outside of the card HAD to be a flower! Used my brand new gerber daisy stamp, also from A Muse and did my best to shade it with Copic markers. If you click on the photo it enlarges to give you a better view. It was a really fun card to make and I think it may have brought me out of my recent slump.
Have to thank my sister too. She helped me figure out how to put 2 photos on one page! Amazingly easy to do but I have never known how to do it. You learn something new every day.
Look what happened the other day while I was playing with some scraps! I had the D monogram circle laying around from the cards I was prepping for my monogram class this month and picked it up along with some scraps from other classes and made this simple card. Couldn't believe my eyes when it came together so easily. Used my Nestabilities Labels Five set and the new Monogram Frames set from A Muse Artstamps along with the Birds and Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder to make this little gem. Hope you can come to my monogram class and make a set of cards and a cute box to put them in.
The chickas finally got together for a day of stamping fun. I was gone so long in March that I forgot how much fun we have when we create together. Jane had a new technique she wanted to try out. It is called Geometric Overstamping. It is a fast, easy technique that made that martini stamp from Rubbernecker look delicious! We free hand cut the olive, pimento and the stick. The sentiment is from Rubbernecker and is one that cracks Jane up every time she reads it. Check out her blog here to see the card she made.Have you been checking out the Woodland madness over at A Muse? There are a ton of fun cards that the other Muse's are posting using lots of cute woodland critters and some new paper colors too. Look here and at my list of A Muse instructors blogs on the left side of the page for some clever ideas.
Here I am with the little treat basket I made for the gals that came to my Easter class. You might have noticed they are all holding their baskets in the photo I used on my last post. I brought back some Hersey kisses with macadamia nuts from Hawaii and wanted to put them in a little basket to let my ladies know I was thinking of them while on vacation. These simple baskets came together in a snap. I used my new Big Shot Express for the actual basket and then got out my scallop oval punch and regular oval punch for the little chick. The egg chick is made by A Muse Artstamps. It is called Cracking Up. Love that name! And of course the Happy Easter is from A Muse too.
Make sure you check out the other Muse's blogs listed on my side bar for the extra special Woodland Creatures inspiration posts. The ladies have some really cute ideas using creatures and new paper from the A Muse team.
Had my first class in a long time in Green Bay today and wanted to share a photo of of the fun ladies that came and made Easter cards with me. We all had a really good time chatting and stamping. I thought it would be a good idea to give away an A Muse spring green jacket to welcome Spring to our part of the world. Paula won! You see, she usually doesn't win the door prize but today she was the lucky one. Thank you Cindy, Mary Kay, Mary Ellen, Marilyn and Paula for a great class. Stay tuned for a couple samples and a couple more things I have been making lately. Happy Spring everyone!
There was only one rainbow on Maui and it showed up on our first day there. Was a wonderful welcome to an island that has changed very much since we were there almost 20 years ago. Still a beautiful island to be sure but there has been much development that has happened over the years. We had enough time to drive to most parts of the island but I have to say my favorite was the mostly undeveloped west side. Lots of twists and turns and beautiful scenery around every corner. It is so hard to capture what it really looks like but these photos are my attempts to give you an idea of the different sides of Maui. Part of it is lush and green and part of it is harsh and rocky. We have had a wonderful time and are now back to reality so stay tuned for some more crafty goodness.
We made it! Arrived on Kauai and are having a great time! This is our second trip to the island and we are enjoying every minute. Gary told me he has never seen a full rainbow so this was his first one. It was really beautiful, right outside our hotel window. I sure wish my camera had a wide enough lens so you could see the full view. It was really pretty. Could even see the purple colors. Love that purple, you know! A couple days ago we went up in a very small airplane, 6 seats and got a birdseye view of the island. It is so beautiful. All the valleys and tons of waterfalls just below us as we flew by. Was quite a sight to see. Not sure I will be doing that again as I got terribly air sick. The flight was bumpy but I am so glad I tried it. Thanks for sticking with my little blog while I am gone. Will post again when we get to Maui. Aloha!
Just wanted to let you all know that I am going to be even more scarce for the next month than I have been for the last month. You see, I will be traveling quite a bit. Once to see my daughter and once for a much needed vacation.
I did want to share a card I made for my Spring class. I am calling this the window box card. My friend, Jane, taught me how to make this card last Fall and I haven't been able to stop making them. There is a little shadow box in the square where I stamped and then paper pieced the house and trees. I made a card using this same layout at Halloween for a good friend. She seemed to like it and I thought it might make a nice Spring card. How about that MS tulip punch? Isn't it just the cutest??? As soon as I saw it, I knew it had to be mine.
Thank you all for putting up with my sporadic postings lately. There has been a lot going on in my life but I am hoping it will settle down in a month or so and I can get back to more regular posting.
My friend, Gail, bought tickets to a princess party for her granddaughter's birthday and asked me if I could make a little something for her. "Just a little card" she said. Well, you know I couldn't do just a little card. I had to make this cute little purse for her to put the card in. I received a Big Shot Express from my DH for Christmas this year and I have been itching to make something with it. This was the perfect excuse. I used the Lizzie stamp from A Muse Artstamps and cut out the letters using one of my Sizzix alphabet dies. Was wanted to try the "lace" border look using a border punch and my crimper. Well, hello, it is so cute! I used a piece of striped ribbon for the handle. Gail and her granddaughter thought it was really cute. Can't wait to see what I make next with my new toy.
Spring is on it's way! Really! My next A Muse class is called Spring Fling. It has been really strange to make Spring themed cards in the middle of Winter. Today the wind chills are going to be in the 20 below 0 range. Brrrrrr! I think I will stay inside and pretend that the grass is green and the birds are singing.
My card today is one that I will be teaching at my class. I used a little shaker cup made by Impression obsession. They are nifty little cups that have the adhesive on them so it makes a super easy shaker card that isn't very deep. I used up some of my paper scraps and punched out tulips, butterflies and birds for the stuff inside. Stamped the zinnia flower and put it all together. Then I made a little frame with my circle Nestabilities. Easy, right?
A few weeks ago, I ordered some adjustable craft tables. I have been having some problems with my back hurting after a day of crafting and I thought if the table was higher, I wouldn't be hunched over while making cards. Well, as you can see, the tables arrived! I got a good start at getting all my stuff reorganized and set up again. Guess that explains my absence from blogging. I am hoping that this new, more comfortable craft space is going to get me back to making some fun things to show you. I did get my Valentine class all designed with the new Sea of Love A Muse stamp release. These stamps are so much fun and a welcome break from the usual hearts and lace Valentine images. Hop on over to the A Muse Artstamps website and see for yourself and then sign up for one of my classes! Thank you for being so patient with my lack of blogging over the holidays but with my daughter being home and then the reorganizing of my craft space, I just haven't had time to do it all. More fun stuff to follow, I promise!
Can't believe it has been so long between posts! I guess I had a good holiday and just let some things go. My daughter was home and we had plenty of fun with her. After that, I had a big New Year/post Christmas party here at home. All my relatives came over to my house on a bus from Green Bay. Yup, I said bus! It was really fun and thanks to some of my online friends, Jill, Heather, Kim, Rhonda and all the gals that sent recipes, everyone had a great time eating and talking the night away. But to have this party, I had to take down all my crafting stuff. I know! It was a nightmare but I have it partially set back up and am ready for some cardmaking fun.
Starting the new year out with my calendar. It is always so much fun to design my yearly calendar class. Had a bunch of fun ladies take it this year. Always makes me smile to see everyone have a good time stamping and chatting. So now I am sharing it with you all. If you would like to download the template go over to the A Muse site. You can download the calendar for a small donation to Water 1st. It is a very worthwhile cause. While you are over there, check out the new Valentine release. There are a ton of new stamps! I will be posting some of my cards soon so stay tuned.
Hope everyone had a great holiday and has the best New Year!
