Papercrafts Color Inspiration Magazine and the A Muse Catalog--Edited

I picked up a copy of the Papercrafts Color Inspiration for Card Makers. It's fun, but all the combos (except the monochromatic section) include at least three but mostly four colors.

Can you see me breaking out in hives?

Here's the first card I made using one the color combinations from Color Inspiration.

Bravo burgundy, celery, and a pale purple. REALLY?!?! How does this work? How???

But it does.

It also helped me check this set off my Resolution list. I've now used every image in it. It's StampinUp's Kind Thoughts. I now only have three sets of StampinUp stamps with images I haven't used yet. Yippeeeee!!!

I paired Kind Thoughts' butterfly and medallion with a sentiment from Anna Griffin. The bling matches the bravo burgundy in real life, but it looks black on my screen. Hope your screen does better!

And now I'm shifting gears and sharing a few initial thoughts about the A Muse catalog....

1. I got my copy from the very kind and talented Krystie Lee. Thanks, Krystie Lee!

2. I adore well-thought-out, coordinated product lines. A Muse has it nailed. The colors are yummy, the stamps fun, and the accessories appealling. It's not at all overwhelming (a complaint I have with Papertrey's recent explosion of product) but the line seems nicely balanced and easy to grasp by my easily-overwhelmed mind.

3. I read somewhere on SCS that people thought it looked like SU's catalog. While there are certain layout similarities for the stamp sets and charts, the catalog is still distinctively A Muse. It's brighter and lighter looking than SU's catalog. The samples are fabulous, and my only complain is that there aren't more of them.

4. The prices for the stamp sets seem very reasonable to me. There are lots of sets under $10, and the highest-price set is $25.99. The sets are very useable...sentiments and images matched nicely. There is also a nice mix of outline and block images. I will definitely be purchasing some after I live with the catalog for a while.

5. I'm stiff-arming the papers and accessories for now (only because I have a yard-high stack of cardstock already collecting dust and jars full of ribbon and drawers full of embellishments...otherwise, I'd buy one or two of everything), but they are gorgeous. The ink, however, may be calling to me, at least in a few colors. Joan B did a review of the inks and pronounced them fabulous. I don't have enough ink. I'm convinced a stamper simply can't have too much ink. Too much paper, yes. But never too much ink.

6. There is one set that I highly recommend to any and all CAS stampers: Ovalicious. Four nice flat ovals that make perfect grounds for images. If you don't already have the A Muse ovals, BUY THAT SET. You will not regret it, and it's the best 7.99 you can spend. Seriously.

7. I'm tired and sick and have to go to bed. Nyquil is calling my name. But I'm going to dream about A Muse tonight. Such happy dreams....

Edited to Add: For those who haven't heard, A Muse has switched to a home-demo-based sales model, like StampinUp. To purchase the catalog, you need to contact a demo...both Krystie Lee and Joan B (links above) have signed up as demos, so you can contact them.

A Muse is also switching to cling-style clear-mounted rubber stamps (they used to sell wood mounted and clear stamps). I meant to mention that in the review, but got tired and forgot. Sorry about that!