Elzybells Pocket Card

Here's a pocket card for the A Muse Addicts challenge this week. I flipped it sideways so it slides out and adhered the half circles from the notch, onto the slider so it fits together when it's closed. I also tried using my doodlebug design Paper Posies in place of the flowers in her hands.

Supplies Used: Elzybells Flower Girl and Daisy Trio, A Muse hi, friend, A Muse Mod Dot notecard and asterix PLP, Memories Balck ink, Colorbox Rosbud and Aqua cateyes, white and Cool Caribbean CS by SU, Marvy Mega and Giga Scallop Oval punches, SU 1 1/4" circle punch, 1/8" handheld circle punch, American Crafts Elements ribbon, Doodlebug Designs Inc. Paper Posies, dimensionals, paper piercer, II EP on edges of large oval, dimensionals.

Wow, I have to say I have had so much fun on the new A Muse Addicts forum and I'm so excited to have our new home!!! It definitely seems like a whole new COMMUNITY and place to chat and hang out there. If you wanna join us, feel free to click the big purple button on the right side of my blog! All A Muse/Elzybells/Saltbox Studio fans are welcome!! No matter how much or how long you've loved them!! :D

OOOHHH!!! Today is the Season Premiere for LOST!!! Woohoo!! Party time!! :D

New Forum for the A Muse Addicts!!!

We (Geeta Suggs, Michelle Clark, Jennie Moczan and myself) are PROUD to launch a new home for the A Muse Addicts Group. The Yahoo group is no more!

You must register to join and we request that you supply us with your mailing address and birthday info so that cards and such may be sent to you. If you don't want to do that, feel free to just fill in the blanks with No Thanks or zeros.

We are so excited about this and we hope you can join us over there for lots of fun things:

*CHALLENGES

*SWAPS

*CONTESTS

*PRIZES (did I mention PRIZES)

*FRIENDSHIP

*STAMPING, STAMPING AND MORE STAMPING!!!

COME JOIN US!!

Woohoo!! Let the fun begin!! :D

Happy Birthday Julie!!

It's Julie Ebersole's big day today!! :D Julie is famous for saying "SHUT UP!.....Thud!!" So a few of us decided to send her some bday cards saying "Shut up.....It's your birthday.....Thud!" Since she's the Truffle girl I definitely needed to incorporate the Truffle into her card too. This is a window card so the truffle is stamped on the inside. I used Cinnamon Stickles and some little pink seed beads to decorate the top. All stamps by A Muse, Notecards by A Muse, Pretty In Pink CS used for the scallop circle both by SU, Ribbon by American Crafts (Michaels or JoAnns?), Close to Cocoa and Stazon Timber Brown Ink used also.

A BIG Birthday wish for my friend Amanda today too!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS!!!

MWAH!!!! :D

Birthday Polar Bear

Hey everyone!! I miss you guys!! I've been away from blogging way too much lately. Honestly, I haven't been stamping much so I don't have much to show!! I'm just now getting my groove back I think.

I thought I'd share this card I made last week. I made a few of them to give to my LOSTie Sisters on SCS for their birthdays, speaking of, today is my LOSTie sister Anna's birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!!! I LOVE this new Birthday Polar Bear stamp by Memory Box, it's too cute!!! If you watch LOST at all, especially from the first season, you'll know that there were polar bears on the island and nobody knows why, so I took this stamp and made an island theme to go with it. I made a similar card a few months ago, using the A Muse Wild Bear stamp, but I thought this was extra fun with the cupcake and balloon to celebrate!! :D I also pulled out my new Wasabi Striped Grosgrain ribbon by SU!! YUM! I love ribbon!! :D Sentiment by Elzybells, Palm Tree, Skinny Oval, and Waves by A Muse. I also used Fruit Punch, Lime Green and Yellow Stickles here and there.

I made a birthday card today for someone special, that I'll post later this week so stay tuned......I'll be back!! :D

I'm a slacker!!

Hey everyone!  I'm a complete slacker, sorry for not posting for a few days.  I haven't been blog surfing either!  I'm actually working on stuff, but may not post what I'm working on until after my Stampin' Up! workshop next month, just in case some of the girls coming to my class peak in on this blog.  Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise element for them!  

I haven't been using my Elzybells or A Muse stamps the past couple days, just focusing on Stampin' Up!  For some reason, they're 2 different worlds for me, if I'm in the A Muse mode, I can't do SU and vise versa.

Well, these aren't my favorite cards that I've made and I debated whether or not to share them on the blog, but since I have nothing else to post I thought I'd do it anyway!  Just so you'll see something different than my Bossy Elzy's I posted several days ago.

I made this monkey card for my friend Stacy to go with her LOST Secret Sister package I sent to her a couple months ago.  It went with some of the goodies I sent her.  Supplies used: Stampendous Changito Monkey, Deja Views PP, SU Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa  and white CS, SU Cocoa grosgrain ribbon, edge distresser from SU Cutter Kit, dimensionals.

This card I made for some friends for their birthdays, just a simple card, was playing with my new Stampendous Bee!! :D  Sentiment by A Muse, CS by SU, Aquapainter and ink pads used to color in image, Stardust Stickles on wings of bee, ribbon by BasicBasic (M's or JoAnns), PP by My Minds Eye.

Have a wonderful week!  I'm not sure when I'll be posting next, may be a couple days!  Sorry to leave ya hangin!!

HUGS!

Rhonda

Two Scoops of Bossy!

Hi there!!

I'm so excited!  I got a little time to play with a new Elzy today!!  I wasn't sure I'd be able to, but you know if you want to do something bad enough, you make time to do it!  

Here are a couple of Bossy Elzys that fit into the Window Card AMAC (A Muse Addicts Club) challenge this week.  She's so me!!  I can just picture myself looking like this when I'm reprimanding my kids!! :D  I also got to use some of my new Basicgrey Two Scoops papers for these.  I was at my LSS yesterday and couldn't resist them, they're SO pretty!! 

Yes, I know I still need some practice with coloring with my Copics, but I didn't want to redo it so it is what it is!!

This one is my fave of the 2, it was fun playing around with the paper and coming up with a different layout for this, I'm usually very challenged in this area!!  I had a heck of a time cutting the inside circle out though!  My Marvy Mega circle punch doesn't fit that far, not even far enough to make a scallop border with my Giga Scallop circle punch, what's up with that??  So, I used my CM circle cutter, but it would only do the top layer!  I had to use an exacto knife to do the other 2 layers.  This sentiment is from The Angel Company, it came in a cute little set.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I really appreciate all the love you guys have shown me the past couple days with your comments, it has really cheered me up!!! 

Blessings to you!

Rhonda :D

Hello Elzys!!!

Welcome to your new home!! :D  I know I'm terrible, I went down to the A Muse store and shopped to my heart's content this morning!!  Here's a pic of my new loot!! :D  Woohoo!!  Happy retail therapy day!! :D

I got most of the new Elzybells minus about 6 of them plus a few A Muse stamps that have been on my wish list.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!! :D

Love Papers

I got these new PP's from my LSS, they're by the Paper Studio, called Love Dotted Diagonal and Love Stripe.  They're very pretty and match these A Muse Tinplate notecards pretty well.  I used Groovy Guava ink to color in some parts of the images and it looks like it matches well IRL, but in these photos it looks a bit too orange, sorry.

It's a little tough to see but I put some A Muse heart twinkle stickers on the plants in front of the Bistro, kinda fun!!

Tomorrow is the New Elzybells release!!  Woot, woot!!! :D  I'm hoping to make it to the A Muse shop tomorrow to pick up some new goodies!  I'll let you know what I grab if I make it there!!

(All stamps used on both cards are A Muse.  Timber Brown Stazon, SU ribbon, inks and Aquapainter used to color in images.)

My Heart Flips

Hey there! Happy Wednesday!

Only 2 more days until the new Elzybells release!! Woohoo!

Here's another Valentine! It's a penny spinner so the heart spins around as it goes side to side. I used some A Muse PLP's for the layers (trimmed down a quarter inch to be the right size for this card). To reinforce the top layer, I adhered it to a piece of white cardstock before punching out the slot. I also used a little bit of stardust Stickles to give the heart some pizazz and mini scallop scissors to cut the heart out. Both stamps by A Muse along with the Kitchen Red Notecard and Polka Dot Reverse-Cottage Collection PLPs.

Thanks for stopping by today!! Blessings to you!!

To the Moon!

I love this sentiment!  I have lots of ideas of cards to make with it, just gotta have the time too!  I'm supposed to be working on Stampin' Up! cards for an upcoming class, but I'm just not in the mode right now!  All I can think about is A Muse! :D  This card uses a Cabana Blue A Muse notecard plus white CS punched with a Marvy Mega circle punch.  I used the Lots of Dots stamp by A Muse on the "moon" with Orchid Opulence ink stamped off twice so it wasn't too bright.  I could've colored in the rocket a bit, but I was trying to think simple and opted not to.  I did put some Crystal Effects in the window of the rocket and in the o's of MOON.  Super Quick card to make!  All stamps and ribbon used here are by A Muse Artstamps.

Be on the lookout for new Elzybells sneak peaks, I haven't checked yet, but I'm sure if we check any of the blogs I listed yesterday, they'll have some new ones throughout the week!

Have a fabulous day!

That's Amore!

Hello!  Gosh you guys!!  I'm SOO excited about the new Elzybells release coming up soon!  There are a ton of sneakpeaks out there today and they're ALL adorable!  I feel bad posting this card cuz it's not an Elzybell!! :D  Sadly, I'm not an instructor or designer for A Muse, just a HUGE fan!! :D

Here are some links to the new Elzybells sneakpeaks:

Jennie

Geeta

Michelle

Becky

Elzybells

Novell

Melissa

Emily

Erika

Melinda

I've been in the Valentine mood lately and love all the cute cards with the Marvy scallop heart punches, but I don't have one of those punches yet!!  I looked at my LSS, but they were sold out.  So, I took 2 punched out Giga Scallop Ovals and put them together to make a heart.  Not my first choice, but it works!!  :D  I love the idea to put the heart brad in the center of a prima too, I got that idea from Michelle's blog!  I used a Black Prismacolor marker to make the polka dots on the pink heart brad so it would match the A Muse Polkadot Frame.  I can't remember which blog I saw it on, but the idea for the white circles in the scallops is from there, she called it a faux eyelet technique, you pierce or punch the little holes and then use your white gel pen to outline it!!  Very fun to do!! :D  All stamps by A Muse, Notecard by A Muse, Pink Passion and white CS from SU, ribbon by A Muse and May Arts?

Have a beautiful day!!!

Tagged again!!

I've been tagged by Nancy and Cyndi! Since I got tagged by both, I'm combining their 2 lists of questions since some are different. Also, this list is in multiples of 2 so I changed a couple questions just a little. So, my job is to answer these questions, come up with one new question of my own that has something to do with 2 of something, then tag 2 people!

Here goes:

1. Name your 2 favorite Scrapbooking topics: I don't scrapbook much, but when I do, babies and Christmas

2. What are the 2 best places you've been to: Hawaii (Maui and Oahu), and Mexico (Ixtapa, Cancun and Cabo) They're all beautiful and a great place to getaway!!

3. Name 2 things you do everyday: Clean up after my kids, have an iced mocha for breakfast!

4. Tell us 2 things that everyone pretty much already knows about you: I love to stamp, I'm a scatterbrain!! :D

5. 2 places you wish to visit: Greece, France oh and Italy!! I know that's more than 2 but I can't narrow them down.

6. 2 things you may not know about me are: I'm Christian, I adopted my son.

7. 2 nicknames you've had at some time in your life: Rhonda Honda Vroom, Vroom (thanks sis!) and Rawhide!! (Don't ask!!)

8. Name 2 of your favorite drinks: Iced Mocha, Pepsi!!

9. Name 2 interesting (good or bad) jobs you've had in your life: Hmm, I worked in the Pub at Redhook Brewery when I was in high-school, Nannyed for a Single dad that had 4 kids, 2 twin 10 yr old girls and 2 young boys.

10. What are 2 things you would like to learn: How to organize better, how to belly dance!! :D

11. What 2 things would make your scrapping/stamping workspace work even better for you: More storage space, more desk space!!

12. What are 2 of your favorite stamp companies: Hmm, I'd have to say A Muse and Stampin' Up! I have several other close faves though!

13. What are your 2 favorite stores: Target and A Muse!!

14. What are your 2 favorite accessories to stamp/scrapbook with: Ribbon and brads

15. What are your 2 favorite occasions to make cards for: Birthdays and Christmas

16. What 2 times are the best for you to get stamping done: After the kids go to bed and when they're busy playing or watching a movie!! Pretty much any time my kids are occupied!!

17. What are the last 2 cd's you bought or 2 artists you last downloaded: I download off iTunes, the last 2 were Gavin DeGraw (Thanks Jennie!) and Timbaland Apologize along with a few others.

My question:

18. What are your 2 favorite colors: Blue and Brown

TAG: Jennie and Michelle!! :D Sorry girls!! You know I love ya and just wanna find out more dish on you!! :D

Inky Octopus

Hello!  Happy Sunday!  I hope you all had a nice weekend!  It's been pretty relaxing for me, not too much going on, just hanging out at home.  I watched the Hawks get pummeled by the Packers yesterday!!  Poor Hawks!!  

I thought I'd post this card today even though I still feel it's unfinished.  I struggled with this.  I had a vision in my head and I just couldn't translate it to paper!  I took this card apart a couple times and changed it up so much that now I just can't see clear when I look at it!!  At one point it had a straight edge at the bottom and a scalloped edge on the white part with gold stickle dots all along it!!  Eeeek!  I was trying to bring out some gold from the marbling technique, but I just wasn't happy with it.  At one point I also had a Cuttlebugged piece of gold cardstock as a layer under the marble part too!  Ugh, I just give up on this!  I was planning to take it apart again and redo it, but right now I just don't have the motivation!  If any of you have suggestions for improving this card, I'm so up to hearing them!!  The main idea I had here was the marble technique with the alcohol inks, to make it look like the Octopus just Inked!!  When I stamped the sentiment with white Stazon, it wasn't showing up too well so I used my white gel pen to go back over it and it kinda beaded up a bit.  You win some, you lose some, right?? :D  I did mention in my blog title that this is about sharing my crafty journey, that means the good with the bad!! :D

Also, I want to say thank you very much to all of you who stop by on a regular basis to check out what I'm up to!!  I appreciate your comments!  You're all so good to me!!

BIG HUGS!!!

~Rhonda

Hugs and Kisses

I got to play with Elyse last night!!  I have had her for a couple weeks but hadn't gotten around to inking her up!!  Pretty straight forward card (I think all of mine are!), all cardstock is by A Muse except for the white and black punched circles.  The frame is part of a mini notecard by A Muse.  The red wasn't quite as bold on it as the other red notecards so I used my Copic marker (R37 Carmine) to outline it and brighten it a little.  The heart has Fruit Punch Stickles on it.  All stamps by A Muse.  Punches all by Stampin' Up!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

More SB Mug inspired cards

Hello there!  

Leave it to me when I post that I'm feeling in a stamping rut, to start stamping!!  :D  I made these 2 cards today, both inspired by more Starbucks mugs!  Thank you so much Jennie for the great tip to use SB mugs as inspiration.  I think that should be a new monthly stamping ritual:  go to SB, get some coffee, snap some pics of new mugs on the shelf and make some cards!!  I could definitely get used to this!

I kept these super simple!  I didn't even add glitter, I can always go back and do that if needed.  (Who am I kidding, glitter is always needed!!)  I know you can't see it in the pic, but on the bottom card, I used Shimmery White cardstock to give it a little extra umph.  I shoulda used my Stamp-a-ma-jig on that card, but I was having a tough time lining the hearts up even with that, couldn't coordinate it well, so I just eye-balled it.  All stamps used are by A Muse (some are retired though).  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday DH!!

Hey everyone!  Did you miss me??  Probably not!!  Not sure how much traffic that hits this site each day is actually stampin' friends or just computer generated hits??  I got my first spam comment last week!!  Eeeek, I hadn't been putting a word verification in the comments section cuz I didn't think it really mattered, but I guess it does.

Anyway!  Sorry for the tangent!!  On to today's post!!  Today is my DH's birthday!  Happy Birthday Honey!!  I  know he won't be checking out the site today cuz he's off skiing with a buddy, but I still gotta post a birthday wish!!  What kind of wife would I be if I didn't??? :D  I almost didn't get around to making him a birthday card!  I know he loves cards from me, but not sure he really cares one way or another.  I figured it would be best if I did!  

After seeing Jennie's last challenge for the A Muse Addicts Yahoo Group to make a card that's inspired by something, I had to play!  I absolutely loved her card made from that CUTE Starbucks mug, and last time I was there, there was a whole shelf full of different cute mugs that could EASILY inspire cards!  I'm gonna check their shelves out more often!!  So I snapped some photos just in case and decided to use this mug for inspiration on DH's card:

Sorry for the blurry pic, I took it on my iPhone and if I don't hold it steady, it turns out blurry.  Without fail I always jerk the phone when I touch the button, so they ALL turn out blurry!!

Here's the card I made:

I kinda stuck with the colors on the mug, but instead of Cocoa I went with Chocolate so the main image would be bolder.  Don't ask me why I decided to leave the tails long on the ribbon, but it was different than I normally do and decided to leave it for something new.  The scalloped chocolate piece is cut with my scallop scissors and I used my Creative Memories Precious Elements Silver pen to make the dots so they'd match the big heart brad by JoAnn Craft Essentials.  I cut the prongs off and stuck it on with a glue dot, I LOVE doing that, ever since Novell gave me the tip!!  The bg is stamped with various A Muse birthday sentiments along with the Polka Dot Package stamp with Stazon Timber Brown, Cool Caribbean, and Certainly Celery.  The main image and a few other details were watercolored using my aquapainter.

Thanks for stopping by today!!  I'm feeling a bit un-motivated in the card making area lately, so my posts may not be as regular as normal, but hopefully I'll be feeling inspired soon.  I have a Stampin' Up! workshop coming up next month that I need to prep for so I'll definitely post those projects and anything else I happen to work on in the mean time!

Have a wonderful day!!

Quick and Simple

This was a super easy, quick card I made for, yes, I'll admit it, my Mary Kay lady!! :D  There are a couple Mary Kay products that are my all-time fave like their 3 in 1 cleanser and their Dual Coverage powder foundation and when I'm runnin low, you'd better bet I'm online ordering more!  She sent my goodies to me plus some extra freebies before even receiving my payment.  She included a SASE along with the invoice but it was a HUGE letter envelope, so it prompted me to make a bigger card to fit inside it!  This is a 7.5 inch square folded in half.  The envie was larger, but I wasn't comfortable making this any bigger.

All stamps, cardstock and ribbon by Stampin' Up!  The rhinestones are cell phone bling.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great weekend!

Gangsta Owls

LOL! I know I have a strange sense of humor but when I first saw this cute card that Jennie Moczan made using the new owl stamp by A Muse and the sentiment that goes with it (Hoo loves you), for some reason the phrase Who's your daddy? popped into my head! So I thought it would be fun to make a gangsta owl with that sentiment! So, here it is. I think maybe it fits into the A Muse Addicts Yahoo Group challenge this week to use a stamped image in a manner other than it's original intent. I don't think Linda or the designer of this stamp ever thought it would be used for a gangsta!! :D Hoo knows though!! :D

Maybe this would make a good Father's Day card.

I used a Black Staedtler Triplus  Fineliner pen to draw the hat and gold chains with peace sign and it's tough to see, but I actually drew in brass knuckles too!! I used a Gold Spica glitter pen to hilight the jewelry and a Signo White Gel pen to draw the G on the hat. The base notecard and striped paper are by A Muse, the sentiment is made with my Provo Craft dial stamp.

Thanks for stopping by today!!!

Teacup Challenge

So we have these great challenges on the A Muse Addicts Yahoo Group each week and I love to participate when I can but I'll be the first to admit that I've not participated as much as I should.  This week Jennie decided to throw in an additional challenge for the mods, to do this week's challenge, to make a card using a stamp in a different way than it's intended for, and also, to use the new A Muse Cup and Saucer stamp in the challenge.  Easy enough, right??  Wrong!!!  I realized that I'm WAY too far inside the box and literal to think of other ways to use things easily.  I love to create punny sayings to go with stamps, but it's tough for me to use a stamp in a way other than its original intent.  

This was my first idea using this stamp and I was thinking it was different than it's original intent, but realized, they're still TEA cups!! :D  So I had to try again.  I will say that I'm proud of myself for actually pulling out my Stamp-a-ma-Jig on this card, so I didn't have to redo it!!   Worked like a charm!   So, back to the drawing board for a better idea...

This is what I came up with, a bubble bath!! :D  I originally wanted to put a mouse in it, but I don't have a good stamp to use for that, so the octopus got it!!  I thought it turned out pretty good until I stamped the "bubbly" part of the sentiment.  I used my handy Provo Craft dial stamp to make the word, but in the process of inking it up, I inked up the edges of it too and then got it on the ribbon and the side of the card!!  I hate it when that happens, after all the work that went into this, I wasn't about to scrap it and start over again, so on goes the "Work of Art" stamp by Judikins below!!  It comes in handy with little mistakes like this!! :D

Thanks for stopping by!!  Check out this amazing card that Michelle (Crazystampchick) did for our little challenge!! :D

Happy New Year!!

Yay, it's 2008!!!  Happy New Year everyone!! :D  So fun!  I don't know why I feel extra happy and excited that it's a new year, maybe just the thought of starting fresh!  I spent the day cleaning and putting away decorations, didn't even make it out of my jammies!  

I don't really do resolutions cuz I don't like to set myself up for a fall but I think for me, spending more happy/fun time with my family and not feeling so stressed is a big goal for me!  Do any of you have a resolution for this year?  I always like to hear what kind of goals my friends have.

I know this isn't a New Year's card, but I thought it might be a great thought to think about as we start the new year, loving one another and all of creation.  Yes, the world will still go around if we decide not to be loving to one another, but it sure makes life easier if we do!! :D  

I love this Bella!!  She's on my wishlist, I got this image from a LOSTie sister and after coloring her in, I could see myself pulling her out for many occasions, plus, she's so me!!  It's a pretty straight forward card, nothing too fancy.   

Main image by Stamping Bella, sentiment by A Muse, Baroque BG stamp by SU, Memories Black ink, Olive Craft ink, copic Markers, Michaels ribbon, Making Memories Decorative Brads, Kraft, white and Old Olive cardstock.