Sneak Peek Numero Dos!

More love for the Stitched Garden set (the sentiment and the birdy) and the Rectangle Frame set! So much fun! The birdy is up on foam tape to give the card a bit of dimension - hey - that makes this work for Heather's Share Your Spark Friday ... on Friday ... it really is some kind of a miracle! Make sure that you check out the other A Muse crew blogs for more sneak peeks! Have a great Friday! Remember, these new stamps will be released on 3/31!

Details: Stamps, note card, ribbon & twinkle stickers by A Muse.

Sneaky sneaks!

Prepare yourself to be wowed by the latest release from A Muse!! There are some absolutely AMAZING!! new wood mounted and clear stamps being released on 3/31! Be sure to check out the A Muse team blogs - check out the list on the right - in the next few days for some beautiful sneak peeks! Here's one from me!:

See that pretty flower border?? That's from one of the new clear sets (Rectangle Frames) and the sentiment is one of the new wood mounted stamps. I masked it and rearranged it to make it fit a circle! The Maternity Dress is an oldie but a goodie!!

Details: Stamps, note cards & ribbon by A Muse, punches by Marvy & EK success, eyelets by We R Memory Keepers.

Easter Basket Card

Sometimes I have an idea, and I try it and I say "what the heck were you thinking?" Sometimes I have an idea, and I try it, and it actually works!! Amazing!!

This is one of those ideas!! I wanted to make an Easter basket - so I just did some quick weaving with some paper strips, then I cut half of a circle using my Coluzzle, then slid the woven paper up under the half circle cut out (clear as mud, right?)! The eggs are punched from A Muse Notecards using a small oval punch, and that's about all I have to say about that!! Happy Easter every one - this may be it for Easter stuff, unless I get my bootie into gear tonight!

Details: Stamps, notecards, ribbon by A Muse, CS from my stash, easter grass stolen from my kids' baskets!

Baby shower love!

Needed a card in a hurry ... flipped through my stamps, saw these, thought - "hey, that'll work" - made the card - thought "hmmm, not perfect, but out of time!" Off to the post office!

Details: Stamps & Note card by A Muse, ribbon by May Arts, punch by Marvy, flower by Prima.

Share your Spark Friday (on Tuesday!)

Sometimes I think if it weren't for Heather, I wouldn't stamp at all!! Ha ha ha! Kind of funny that they last 2 things that have actually made it to my blog were for Heather's Share Your Spark challenges! Well, these I had to do for something else, and they just happen to fit the challenge for this week!! Heather's challenge was to use something that you had never used before and I did that on this stack of Thank You Notes! I had never used this Frog Prince stamp from A Muse, and I used my new Scor-Pal for the first time!! LOOOOOOVE IT!! I used to do a lot more "bulk" stamping - wedding invites, baby announcements, etc, and how I wish I had this amazing tool then! It might just get me back into the bulk business!! I also renewed my love affair with my big Fiskars rotary cutter with these! I have been using a small Fiskars trimmer because it is more "convenient" to just keep right beside me, but I am never really happy with the cut and end up having to sand just about every edge, and my scores are never quite even! So, I pulled out the big daddy again, and found a dedicated spot for it, and I just have to get my big ole' booty out of the chair and cut things!!

Onto the cards:
One of my best friends is having a baby in May, and she has a baby shower this weekend ... in Vancouver, Washington ... insert sad, pouty face here!! I hate, hate, hate that we are not closer! She doesn't know what she's having, but she has a frog theme for the nursery! I wanted some gender neutral, easy thank you's for her - and these are what I came up with! This design was heavily influenced by Heather's great Flower Drinks cards! I loved the white space, the simplicity - but I didn't have a gazillion Twinkle Stickers, so I had to use ribbon!

I know this is turning into a marathon post, but I wanted to share one quick tip with you! When I am making a bunch of something, and I want it to be similar (okay, the same!), I like to make a template to make sure that things will be in the same spot!! For this one, I cut the green paper to the same size as my white, then punched a hole where I wanted the frog!
For each card, I just lined up the Frog Prince stamp with the hole, and stamped! Easy, peasy, perfect placement every time!! The "thank you" is from the A Muse "Personal Stationary" set, and it was super easy to line up because it is clear! I placed it on my block so that I could line up the bottom of the block with the bottom of the card stock! I made 15 of these babies in about 2 hours, and the longest part was coloring them in!!
Whew ... I think this sets some kind of record for my longest post ever! Thanks for sticking with me, and thanks for all the kind words about my new blog banner!! I have been so impressed with Suck My Lolly (and I get such a kick out of the name - giggle, giggle!) - check her out if you want to update your blog!!

Notice anything different?

I made some changes to the old blog, and I need to give some credit where credit is due! I found this great site of FREE, yes, that's right, FREE blogger templates!! Click here, click there and a pretty blog is there on your screen! BRILLIANT!! I did a bit of manipulation to the banner in Photoshop to add my title, but that's it! Do you recognize the font in my title? It's called MA sexy and it is used on a few A Muse stamps and you can have it for free right here!! I've used a big hunk of my day on the 'puter - now I'm going to try to go stamp!!

BTW - in all this transition, I lost both my counter (no big deally) and my list of links to other blogs! I have all the A Muse girls ready to add on, but if you would like to be on my blog roll, please leave a comment and we'll hook up - HAHAHA!!

Happy Birthday, little dude!

Tried and true lay out + amazing A Muse stamps + cute patterned paper
= super quick Birthday Card for a little boy!

Details: Stamps & Note card by A Muse, PP by Basic Grey, ribbon by SU, punches by Marvy.

Sharing my spark!

The amazingly talented Heather posted a challenge on her blog last week called "Share your spark" (we won't talk about the Friday part - I'm just a bit behind!). The challenge was to use YELLOW in your design. Well - yellow is NOT one of my fav colors - nothing against it - it's just out of my comfort zone! I did have some of the wonderful new Kitchen Note Cards in yellow, so that was about my only option! I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out - but it was definitely a challenge!! By the way - these were 2 of my very first A Muse stamps - and I still reach for them all the time!! If you do not have these in your collection, I would highly recommend adding them!!

Details: Stamps & note card by A Muse, punches by Marvy, colored with Copics.