Clean & Simple Challenge #2

Jennie posted one of the cutest cards on her blog yesterday (nothing new there) and alerted us to the new CAS (clean and simple) challenge going on over on SCS. This is just the kind of challenge I need to get me thinking simple and motivated. PERFECT challenge for A Muse fans!

I went with a completely basic layout for this one:

The challenge is simply to use one button on a clean and simple card. This is a really old plain, misc. button in my little button jar but sometimes plain is all you need. I colored the flowers with my Copic markers.

Also I just wanted to put in a last minute plug that there are still a few spots left in my Warm Wishes class at the A Muse shop tomorrow night (Sat. the 21st) from 5 to 7 pm so if you're in the Seattle area and want to join us, I'd love to see you there!! You can sign up quick and easy on the A Muse website. Here's a sample of what we'll be making in class tomorrow along with 4 other fun cards:

If you can't make it tomorrow here's another class coming up next month, hope to see you there:

Blessings to you!

New 4-bar notes

Hi!

It's me. I know I seem to say this often, but I sure am in a weird stamping funk lately!! The inspiration is there and I keep jotting down notes of things that spark ideas, but when I sit down to stamp either I can't get it to translate to paper or I'm just not thrilled with the results.

On our road trip down to California for the funeral I got tons of inspiration and I have several pages in my little notebook of ideas and things to try but I may need to wait a week or so to do them! Here are a couple ideas I did manage to work on though, using the new Lime band 4-bar notecards!

I used the Trees 2 clear stamp set for this one, sponged the sky and grass with chalk inks and used the Rosie's Roadshow cloud stencil (I love that thing even though I'm still getting the hang of using it).

This did not turn out very close to what I had intended!! I originally wanted to do a barn with a farm house and 3 trees on the path, but all the trees I had were too big for what I needed and these "trees" (from the Trees 1 clear set) are a little small so I added more. I used the Tall House stamp from A Muse and masked off the bottom half of the house to make it the right proportion on here. I made the field stripes by adhering Eclipse tape and then sponging the areas that weren't covered with tape. The mountain was an experiment for me. I basically used the faux tearing technique and then drew in the outline. I was gonna leave it without the line but it seemed to be missing something when I did that.

On a different note, I made a couple of YUMMY recipes last night and thought I'd share links!! I made an Iranian Rice dish that I had been craving for awhile now and boy was it delicious??? It has tons of dill in it so I think it's addictive, you can't stop eating it, want to go back for more and more!! It's a cool recipe cuz when it's all done cooking, it makes a crusty layer of rice on the bottom of the pan and when you flip it over onto a dish you've got all the softer rice underneath and a delicious crispy layer of rice on top!! Sorry I don't have pics to share! I also made an Indian simmer sauce with a tomato base, Indian spices, chicken and chickpeas to go with it, but I don't have a recipe for that, just added a bunch of ingredients to get what I wanted. Then for dessert I made baked S'Mores!!! This recipe was super easy and completely delicious, I'm sure I'll make it often!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Hugs!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I thought I'd share some of the goodies I made this week:

These were for my kids, super simple but they LOVE these conversation hearts and I couldn't just give them the boxes of them. I got the tubes a long time ago at Impress, they came in handy.

These were Valentine's that my youngest DD and myself made for her to give to her siblings and close friends. I also made a couple for my neice and nephews. They're super cute triangle boxes. Yet another project I got from our make-n-takes at the A Muse shop.

Here's the VDay card I made for my hubby, LOL! Victoria let me use her MFT stamp set while she was over for a play date a few weeks ago.

I made a couple of these heart boxes for my DH, my sister and my good friend Liz in Wisconsin. Not the greatest pics of myself and others in the photos, but I worked with what I had. My DH LOVES Rolos, but I found these caramel kisses and thought they'd work just as good. We'll see if he likes them. Haven't given the box to him yet.

Enjoy your day! Eat lots of yummy sweets, calories don't count today!!

Hugs,

Jewelry

Hi there! Long time no post!! We were out of town for a few days last week for the funeral which was very nice, so glad we were able to attend, then we got home and have been dealing with a sick DD and now myself! No fun. I have been stamping a bit and making Valentine's goodies, but the cards I've been making are for upcoming classes, so I can't share them :( sorry. I'll post the VDay goodies tomorrow though. For today I thought I'd catch up and share some jewelry I made recently:


This necklace and earrings set was for my mom for her birthday. These are definitely her colors, so I think she was pretty happy with them. The next picture is a bracelet that my 7 yr old daughter designed for my mom (her grandma) for her birthday as well and I finished it up for her and made some earrings to match.


These are a couple of gift boxes I made to put them in. We've been making all kinds of adorable make-n-takes at the A Muse shop each week, both of these boxes were templates we used at the shop. The first one, not sure what it's called, is kinda like a french fry box, it folds over in the front. The second one is a nugget box and please pardon the ribbon! I attempted to make a ribbon blossom from the tutorial on SCS but it didn't work so well! I would recommend using sheer ribbon or at least a thinner ribbon than the stitched grosgrain I used.

This next picture is a set I made for my sister for her birthday. She's a Vegan and a very earthy girl, so I wanted to do something that looks kinda natural. I just sent it down to her so I haven't heard if she got it or likes it or not, but hopefully she will.

I made this next set for myself. I love the bracelet, just not sure I'm too crazy about the earrings. I may redo them and just use one bead on each one so they're not too big.

And these last two pairs of earrings were just for fun, playing around with my beads. The bottom heart beads were a gift from my mama, I just got to turn them into earrings.


Happy Friday to all of you! Enjoy your weekend!

Blessings,

Birthday girl

I finally did it!

I got around to making one of these adorable little punched girls inspired by Missy B. and Michelle. So fun to make!! There are so many possibilities with them, different hair styles, colors, face features, you can mix 'em up any way you like!! :D I made this one for my sister since her birthday is coming up next week. I'm sure she'll love it!

I used Shimmer Chalks for the cheeks, an oval punch for the pony tails (punched one then drew a yin-yang shape on it and cut it in half), and one fun little tip I discovered while making this is that the Martha Stewart Pop Up Hydrangea punch (the one with the 3 little flowers on it), works perfectly with A Muse's Kitchen notecards/cardstock! You can perfectly punch out the 2 smaller flowers with a white center!! :D So fun!

I know my posts have been delayed lately so it's no surprise to you, but I wanted to let you know I won't be posting for a few days. My DH's uncle passed away so we're heading out of town to visit family for his funeral.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

Charming

Hi Everyone!!

How's it goin? Things are pretty good here. Most of us have colds at my place, my middle child has it the worst, but we're relaxing and taking it easy.

I've been in a bit of a stamping slump lately, just not feeling motivated to do much, but I did manage to make a birthday card for a good friend of mine. We get together with her and her husband almost every Tuesday night for dinner, drinks on occasion, some games, and to watch American Idol!

She loves a good glass of wine so I thought this would be appropriate for her.

She's not very girly, she was raised with 3 brothers, so I didn't want to go over the top girly for her, but I did want to do something fun with it, so I thought of wine glass charms!! I pulled out my jewelry making supplies and made a simple little charm to embellish the card with.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs and blessing,

Saltbox Color Challenge

Hey! Happy Monday!

Today there's a Saltbox Studio color challenge to use Swiss Red and Cabana Blue notecards with any Saltbox Studio images. I'll have to admit that I didn't own any Saltbox Studio stamps before this weekend, but I picked up a few and am completely LOVING them!! So cute. I had several stamp sets in my hand and had to put a couple back so I didn't spend way too much!!

Here's what I made for the challenge:

I used the Celebration Companion set with the cute little mouse and A Basket Celebration set for the basket full of cupcakes (I'm pretty sure they were meant to be muffins, but I couldn't resist!) After all the talk on the A Muse Lounge about Koh-i-Noor pencils I gave in and picked some of those up too. I played around with them on this card using Gamsol to blend them. I also used Rosie's Roadshow Cloud stencil for the sky and sponged around the edges of the card to create the grass and blue edges around the rest.

Here's a link to the A Muse creative team gals that made samples for this challenge as well:

Lexi
Elena
Jennifer A.
Mary rose
Geeta
Emily
Lori
Novell
Sherry

I hope you have a fabulous week!

Hugs!