Swirly Snowflakes

The winner of this week's little give-away will be announced on Monday.

This Christmas card challenge has been fun, although I seriously need to pick up the pace. I've already received three cards (one from a fellow crafter...thanks, Sue C.!), and I vaguely recall having a contest that involved my sending some uber-simple cards to some of you readers. At the rate I'm going, you might get them in 2012. Or 2013. But I promise, you WILL get them.

Today's cards are from Snow Swirled and use the snowflakes from that set. I intended to make just two cards, but after I finished them, I craved something cleaner and simpler, and so I added the third. I like them all. Purple on Christmas cards isn't so radical (especially on snowflake cards) but it is different and interesting.

Besides, all these cards gave me an excuse to use my neglected purple bling, which is a good thing.

Random with a Ribbon Ground

Pure Random

Pure Simplicity

Personal Story: The middle card reminds me of a ski trip to Sun Valley. I am a terrible skier...I do mean terrible. (In fact, I resolved after my last ski trip to McCall, Idaho, on New Year's Day 1999, I would never ski again.) That day at Sun Valley, great puffy flakes were falling onto several feet of beautiful puffy powder. I was on a blue slope--where I had no business whatsoever being, seeing as green slopes kicked my butt--when I crashed spectacularly. Imagine a cartoon crash...limbs flailing, one ski flying yards away from me, a scream piercing the peace of the snowy afternoon. That was me.

After becoming completely airborn, I landed, conveniently enough, on my back in the puffy powder and sank into it so that foot-high walls of snow surrounded me. I lay there assessing the situation. Nothing hurt inordinantly, and I could still feel everything, including my right leg, ski still attached, twisted oddly but not painfully. I figured I hadn't broken my neck or back.

Once I assured myself that nothing terrible had happened, I lay there, watching the big, puffy flakes fall onto my goggles. It was so peaceful, and I was still warm from my exertions. I appreciated the beauty and tranquility of the situation for several minutes before it occurred to me that if I didn't move, someone might ski right over me because no way would they see me lying there with one ski God only knew where, the other flat on the ground, and my entire body under the surface of the snow. I sat up, found my ski, went to the lodge, ordered a hot chocolate, and thanked God I was still alive.

Lying there in the snow, with nothing in my sight but peaceful sky and gentle puffy flakes falling on my face....that's what the second card means to me.

On another note, as I've worked on this self-imposed Christmas Card Challenge, it occurred to me that it would be a great resource for future Christmases, so I'm going back and labeling all these posts with Christmas Card Challenge 2011. You'll be able to find them all quite easily in the future using the labels on the sidebar.

Have a lovely weekend!

Halloween Week: Day 2

Today's card creates a scene using Home Is Where the Haunt Is, a set (discontinued) from StampinUp.

This card required fearless use of a stamp positioner and a bit of bling at the end of the fence. It's hard to tell in the photo, but it's purple bling to match the purple house and sentiment. My niece will love this card!

I enjoy using black ink on white cardstock with a vivid color added for interest. The purple works for Halloween (a bit non-traditional, of course, and nothing wrong with that!). Black, white, and a bright color can be used to achieve a variety of effects, depending on the color.

And to all my commenters using old-fashioned spelling, I just love seeing y'all type Hallowe'en. Grammar gurus, however, says that either spelling is acceptable. So pick your personal favorite and stick with it confidently and consistently. If you don't have a favorite, do as I did and say "eeny, meeny, miney, mo."

Horizontal Sketch by Lucy Abrams

I love figuring out how to make sketches work with just one layer. Jessica Witty's sketch on Monday was just one example. Today's sketch by Lucy Abrams in the new Papercrafts Card Ideas magazine made me put on my thinking cap and do some problem solving.

The sketch calls for a layered border treatment on the front right side of the card, with the sentiment in the sweet spot (lower right third). All the sample cards in the magazine use multiple layers and embellishments like ribbon and lace.

To eliminate layers, I punched the front flap of the card with my bracket border punch, stamped two different strips from Papertrey's Faux Ribbon set to create the border, and added the sentiment from Define Your Life, a cool SU definition set.

Several things were wrong with my first card, which I didn't photograph. Sorry about that. The white punched edge didn't stand out enough against the white inside of the card. Plus, the left side of the sentiment looked nekkid and unbalanced. I tried adding the bracket in blue, but stamped it a bit too close to the sentiment. Then, I added a strip of brilliant blue cardstock to the inside of the card. The cardstock was so solid and dense looking, but the stamped strip definitely looked, well, stamped. The contrast was visually jarring. Not exactly what I was going for.

On the corrected card, I masked a 1" strip on the inside flap of the card and sponged the Danube Blue ink on it. It looks just like the stamped strip now...a perfect match and it keeps the card a full-up ONE LAYER!

Here's the corrected card, lying flat on the table to show the contrast between the white punched border and the sponged inside flap..

Here's a top view, so you can see the inside strip of blue.

So even a sketch that appears to require multiple layers can be adapted to a single layer!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Faux Ribbon, SU Define Your Life
ink: Memento baby blue, tuxedo black, Danube blue
paper: PTI white
accessories: Fiskars bracket border punch, stamp positioner, post-it, sponge

Shimmery Gold Cardstock and a Swoop

Let me begin by apologizing to everyone who insists on traditional Christmas colors for Christmas cards. Gold, brown, and cream may not be traditional, but I really like them on this particular card. You could make this card with red and green if you wanted, even though somehow I think it would look a bit odd. But that's just me. ;)

I love this set from StampinUp (sadly, I am on vacation and can't remember the name, but it's in the current catalog), but the image is just a little too big...if it were a little smaller or even a little bigger, it would be much easier to design with.

At least that's my excuse for having trouble with it.

This gold cardstock was a lovely surprise gift from my friend Lisa. It's so pretty and makes a fab base for this image and the punched star. I cut the swoop on the PTI vintage cream stamped panel, and popped the panel with dimensionals.

Gracious Vases...Part 2

As promised, today I'm showing my latest attempt at coloring with markers. Before I get to the card, however, let's talk about the markers.

Y'all know that I'm not a big colorer. The drive to keep things simple lives strong in me, and coloring isn't simple. It takes practice, skill, and time...much more time than inking a block image up and stamping it and being d-o-n-e, done.

Not coloring much hasn't kept me from experimenting with and buying just about every coloring medium known to stamping. I have watercolor pencils and crayons, Prismacolor pencils, Twinkling H2Os, chalks, SU reinkers, SU markers, Memento markers, and Bic and Sharpie markers. I can honestly say I've not gotten my money's worth out of any of these, but at least most of them don't go bad, so eventually, if I live to be a hundred, I might actually use some of them half up.

Can you say "conspicuous consumption"?

Knew you could.

Anyway, I deliberately didn't buy Copics, figuring Bics and Sharpies were adequate to my very simple need, and until Wednesday, I only had seven Copics: six of them I'd won as blog candy, and the seventh was the light cool gray I bought with the expectation of outlining images. All the cool stampers outline, you know.

There's a reason you've never seen an image with a marker by me. Seriously.

Anyway (again), when I started coloring the outline vases from Gracious Vases, I discovered that they look really nifty with monochromatic shading. Which made me go through all my markers to see what colors I could use. Which made me realize that the Bic and Sharpie markers are sadly lacking in light colors. Which made me want to supplement my stash with some light Copics.

In addition, the cap colors on the Bics and Sharpies aren't entirely accurate. Which was annoying when colors didn't turn out like I wanted. Which made me get all AR/OC at 11:00 Tuesday night. Which made me make a chart so I'd really know what sort of monochromatic shading I could do. Which made me really tired the next day. Which weakened my resolve to stay away from Copics. Which made me spend an undisclosed amount of money at Marco's Paper and Hobby Lobby.

Hey, I used a coupon at Hobby Lobby.

Oh, Lordy. I'm so very crazy.

So here's the chart. I stamped a bunch of the vases on a spare sheet of paper and then colored them all in. The ones I liked, I cut out and glued onto this chart. That way, I didn't have to be neat coloring (you try staying in the lines after midnight while completely manic!) and those combos that didn't work too well could easily get pitched in the trash.

Now, finally--I'm sure you thought I'd never shut up and get here--the card:

The shelf is a ribbon stamp from Faux Ribbon (Papertrey), and the sentiment is from some set by StampinUp. The colors make me think of the 1970s. The vases are stamped on scrap paper, colored, and cut out...because I ran out of Gina K cardstock and couldn't color on a one-layer card without the marker bleeding through.

Yes, I got my shipment of Gina K cardstock yesterday so I can once again make one-layer cards colored with markers.

The end.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Gracious Vases, Faux Ribbon; SU sentiment
ink: Palette dark chocolate
paper: PTI vintage cream
accessories: Bic/Sharpie markers

Fourth of July

After being married to the Air Force for twenty years, I have quite a fondness for emotional patriotic displays of the red, white, and blue. It's been many years since I spent much time around 5:00 pm on a military base, but recently, I was leaving the hospital at Wright Patterson AFB after an appointment for my son. We had just climbed in the car when the loudspeakers started broadcasting the National Anthem. Seeing all the uniformed people on the sidewalks stop, turn to the nearest flag, and salute brought a tear to my eye. I rolled down the windows of the car and had my son cover his heart while we sat respectfully with all the others in their cars across the whole base.

When we lived on Wurtsmith AFB in the early 1990s, this happened to me all the time.

And every time, it makes me proud to be an American.

We're coming up on July 4th, that fateful anniversary of the founding of our nation, and I wanted to make a couple of cards to celebrate the date.

I made this card using the Headline Numbers set from StampinUp, the th from another SU alphabet, and the July from the Hero Arts clear set called July. The little row of four rhinestones completes the visual triangle of blue and reinforces the giant red number.

The stamp here is from the Hero Arts July set and is all one stamp. I masked each part and stamped the colors separately.  Here, I used just three rhinestones to echo the three stars.

Last year, I read a book called Signing Their Lives Away, a fascinating and casually readable book written my friends of my sister. Each chapter dishes up the sometimes sordid, controversial, or tragic story of a signer of the Declaration of Independence (which wasn't signed by anyone but John Hancock and Charles Thomson on July 4th). I highly recommend it if you're looking for some riveting and decidedly unstodgy history on our founding fathers. I plan on reading it again with my elder son this year!

Thank You Butterflies

This set of cards went to one of my boys' teachers for an end-of-year gift. The butterfly is from the SU hostess set my demo gave me for being such a long-term loyal customer. She's a sweetie! I thought the alphabet butterfly would be perfect for a teacher.

Monday, I'm driving home from visiting my sister in Maryland for the past four days. Many thanks to everyone who has been so good about leaving comments...please know that I appreciate each and every one of them, even if I haven't replied!

Supplies
stamps: SU (butterfly), Papertrey (sentiment)
ink: Memento
paper: Mark's Finest Papers
accessories: black half-pearls

CAS121 Folded Ribbon

So. It took a federal holiday to get me playing along with the Clean and Simple Challenge at SCS this week. I love this challenge, was even on its first design team over two years ago, yet I rarely have time on Mondays lately to play, and it just seems so after-the-fact to play later in the week. This week, I made the time. Go, me!

The challenge was to Fold and Scrunch Ribbon. Fold, yes. Scrunch? Homey don't scrunch. It looks untidy. Don't misunderstand. Scrunched is a look that works beautifully on cards made by people who are not a certain kind of retentive and obsessive compulsive. Check out this card by cookiebaker (Charlene) and this one by ReginaBD, and you'll see scrunching used to perfection by talented stampers who are clearly not mentally ill.

Homey, however, is mildly AR/OC. So homey don't scrunch.

Homey does fold, though. Oh, yes. Homey folds.

Homey also likes shimmer and pulled out her Smooch to liven up this monochromatic image from SU's Pocket Silhouettes. She popped the scallop oval on two layers of dimensionals, and the smooth oval on one.

That's a lot of popping and means this card will be hand-delivered or included in a package rather than simply mailed in an envelope. Because homey is AR/OC. Remember?

Check out the close-up. Homey's rockin' down to the rad shimmer.

Doesn't it annoy you when people refer to themselves in third person?

I would never do this.

Never.

Supplies
stamps: StampinUp Pocket Silhouettes
ink: Ancient Page calypso
paper: Mark's Finest 120lb white
accessories: SU oval punches, dimensionals, Smooch, Ribbon (Mark's Finest Papers)

OLW55 Again

Here's another card for the OLW55 Challenge: Cats and Dogs.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (dog and sentiment), SU Oh, So Lovely (background)
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white
accessories: rhinestones

Mini-Tutorial on PTI's Framed

I've expressed  my difficulties with Papertrey's Framed set before. Getting a good impression was tough, and I ended up wasting a lot of cardstock trying to make it work. Grrr. I snooped around online looking for solutions, and one that came up repeatedly was using a giant gridded block. Well, my gridded block wasn't quite large enough, so I used a coupon and bought Martha Stewart's large block at Michael's.

This particular block comes with a detatched handle thingy. Not sure what it's supposed to be used for. It would not be good for stamping small stamps because you'd have a hard time seeing where to place it through the handle, and if it's supposed to be attached to the big block, well, I like my blocks simple. A handle will just get in the way.

Whatever. The giant gridded acrylic block is DA BOMB and is truly necessary for getting good impressions with the Framed stamps. If you buy the Framed set, definitely budget for a big grid block. I was getting good impressions about 50% of the time with my old, non-grid block. With the new grid block, I'm stamping about 90% good images. THAT is a number I can live with.

Step 1

Mount the frame onto the gridded block as shown. Leave more lines at the top so you can align it properly over the card to stamp. Once the stamp is stuck, turn the block over and press the trapped air out from under the center flashing (the part of the stamp that doesn't stamp) to minimize ink transfer where you don't want it.

Step 2

Ink the stamp. I use Memento inks in the dewdrop pads for better ink control. When I get ink on the flashing, I use my finger to wipe it off before stamping.

Step 3

Holding the block above the cardstock, center the image so the grid is evenly spaced between the top and sides of the cardstock. Lower the grid to the paper as evenly as possible, press firmly straight down, and lift straight up from the cardstock.

Note: I always stamp clear stamps on a large stamping pad I bought at JoAnn's years ago. I get much better impressions when using this pad. Also, I use a post-it note to hold the card closed. PTI's cardstock doesn't want to lie flat on the fold, and with it sticking up, you'll get smudges. Mark's Finest Snow Storm heavy cardstock does a better job of lying flat when scored and folded and the crease burnished.
 
*****

And that's it! Getting the right tool to stamp this big frame has made all the difference. Here are a few finished cards I made to give you a feel for the set.
 
First, use the rectangle frame on a portrait-oriented card with the sentiment sticking out. The strong vertical of the flowers and frame is balanced nicely by the strong horizontal sentiment.  The flower is from StampinUp's Stem Silhouettes and the sentiment is from PTI's Signature Greetings.
 

Here's the same idea with the square frame on a landscape-oriented card. The flower silhouettes are from Clear and Simple Stamps, and the sentiment is from PTI's Signature Greetings.

Next, I stayed entirely in the frame with a simple winter scene. The trees are from PTI's Masculine Motifs, the bird is from Through the Trees, and the sentiment is from Faux Ribbon.

And finally, my favorite card I've made with this set. The butterflies (Martha Stewart punches) are punched from light blue vellum, the branch is from PTI's Out on a Limb, and the sentiment is from Clear and Simple Stamps limited edition Thank You set. The bling is olive from Hero Arts. Don't be afraid to stray outside the box just like my wandering little butterfly!

Happy Mother's Day!

If you want to say "awwwww," please check last Friday's Post on my other blog to see my son's Mother's Day card to me. *sniff, sniff*

To all the mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!

I found these cards, made last December, tucked in the wrong folder on my computer. I'm pretty sure they haven't been posted yet, so I decided to share them today. They show an excellent way for me to use up some colored cardstock. Must get to work on that!

Supplies
stamps: StampinUp Growing Green, Hero Arts sentiment
ink: SU white craft ink
paper: river rock, baja breeze, white
accessories: white embossing powder

Chatter and a Card

Chatter

Someone asked what flower punch I used on the second card on this card. It's from StampinUp.

Someone else who shall remain nameless (okay, it was Marty!) sent me a RAK. The package included a stamp I almost bought a month ago but didn't because a little voice whispered in my ear that someone really nice would send it to me soon. You'll see it on a card soon. Marty also sent me a Crop-A-Dile corner rounder that is absolutely the coolest corner rounder ever! Be still, my heart. I don't deserve friends-I've-never-even-met-in-real-life who are this kind and generous!

Someone else entirely asked about my stamp index, which I referred to in a recent post. This subject--my stamp index--is a source of grave frustration to me. I've had four iterations of index since I started stamping. Not one has met all my needs.

Below is a picture of the THREE binders that housed my Version 4.0 index. The pink binder houses Papertrey stamp images. The brown binder contains Mark's Finest and StampinUp images, as well as a punch index. The green binder holds Hero Arts images, as well as images from miscellaneous companies. 

Three binders. They are pretty colors, but three binders are two too many and not easily portable. One thing I love to do with my index is take it with me when I travel. Plus, dividing everything by manufacturer seems artificial, especially when today's card is so very representative of how I work: mix and match. So I'm reworking the index and will share the new one when I'm done, which at the rate I'm going should be sometime in the year 2020.

I have a lot of stamps.

Still, it won't really take until 2020 to finish because I'm obsessive.

But you knew that.

Didn't you?

Sure you did.

A Card

As you can see, I combined a sentiment from Papertrey's Mega Mixed Messages with a flower stamp from StampinUp's Happy Harmony set, thus proving my point about the silliness of segregating stamps in my index.

The ground on this is washi tape, and I--SURPRISE--actually like the tape on this card, which was vaguely inspired by a card I received from Krystie Lee. Her card is much prettier, but as I have it and will not show it to you, my card will not suffer in comparison...unless you scroll down her blog and find an aqua, orange, and celery one-layer card with a button on one flower and a sheer white ribbon around the bottom.

Her card, however, has no bling.

So there.

The Great Cover-Up

Often my experimenting goes awry. Sometimes, the results are not salvageable. Mostly, however, I can save the card if I think about it hard enough.

Today's card was salvaged in a great cover-up. Go, me!!!

I tried using washi tape as the ground for these trees from SU's Trendy Trees set. It just didn't look right, so I pulled it up. I'd always pulled up washi tape without a problem, but this time, it pulled the top layer of the paper with it. Darn it all.

So I cut a piece of old olive cardstock and drew a pencil line on it. Then, I cut along the line using mini-scallop scissors, being careful to line up the scallops with each cut. (Remember when using deco scissors to NEVER, EVER, under any circumstances close the scissors completely before you cut all the way across. It messes up the cut!)

I glued the old olive strip onto the card, effectively covering up the disaster. No one will ever know.

Well, no one would know if I hadn't just told the entire Internet.

I decided the green was too heavy, so I layered white twill on it to lighten it up. Rounded corners on the bottom further lighten the green and echo the rounded foliage of the trees and the scallop edge.

And THAT is how you cover up a mistake, save some pretty two-step stamping, and make someone's birthday cheerier.

Someone once said that there are no mistakes in stamping, only opportunities for embellishment. More often than not, that someone is right.

CASEing Kelley Eubanks

As soon as I saw this card in the new issue of Papercrafts, I knew I had to CASE it. It's not often I want to actually copy a card I see, but Kelley Eubanks spoke to me with her fun, crisp, clean-and-simple, one-layer card. I just couldn't think of any way to improve upon it!

I started with the butterfly from Kind Thoughts (SU), a sentiment from Hero Arts, and three rhinestones. Oh I'm so happy!

Then, I decided to try a more vintage image from Letters from Friends (SU) and a lighter sentiment from Clear and Simple Stamps. I'm so happy again!!!!

On a design note, I deliberately left the bottom corners square on the second card...the image didn't seem to invite rounded corners, while the butterfly certainly did.

Kelley is an amazing CAS stamper, and I thank her for giving us this fabulously flexible layout (I never would have thought to put bling underneath like that) and a fresh color combination. If you get a chance this week, play around with her idea. It's truly fabulous, and you can take it in so many different directions.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Supplies
stamps: SU, Hero Arts, Clear and Simple Stamps
ink: SU real red, Memento black
paper: Mark's Finest Papers
accessories: rhinestones, corner rounder

Cheers and the Question of Art

I made this card a while back with the intent of using it during Little Things week. Then I forgot about it. What a shame because it's a fun card!

Hmm. I want a margarita.

There's been a lot of chatter on SCS about whether what we do is art, and it's got me thinking. Here's my perspective on the subject. If you're not interested in my blah, blah, blah, just skip to the supply list at the bottom of this post. There's as much value in that as in my musings on art. *snort*

Art, to me, is the end result of deliberately creative self-expression.

That's it. Not all art is good art, of course; in fact, a lot of art--perhaps even most art--is bad. But it's still art. It doesn't take talent to make art. Sweat, hard work, and study are actually more important, but little kids make art all the time without sweating, studying, or working hard. I make art, and Leonardo Da Vinci made art.

His, however, is way more better than mine. He devoted his life to his art. My art is a passionate hobby.

But that doesn't matter. We shouldn't compare our creative expression to anyone else's creative expression. I do the best I can with what I have and follow my own muse. Leo did his best, too, and his muse totally rocked. 

I found a quotation from Einstein on Pinterest recently that's relevant here:

Art is like genius. Leonardo climbed the tree. I swim in the water. I'm not denied art because I can't paint the Mona Lisa. 

Creative self-expression gives voice to what's inside a person's heart, soul, mind, spirit. What's inside us is valuable, precious, special. We should treat it with respect and not belittle it, and we should let it sing in whatever way it can. I'm Susan and stamping makes me happy.

No, what I do is not at all in any way comparable to what Leonardo did.

It's not supposed to be. It is what it is. And it's good enough for me.

Care to make some art? Grab a stamp and express yourself!

Supplies
stamps: SU Cheers to You
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white
accessories: Memento markers, glue pen, glitter
Card Size: 4 7/8" x 3 1/2"

Monday Blah, Blah, Blah and a Card

I've been experiencing a crisis of sorts in my stamping. You see, my 2009 resolution to use all my image stamps is pretty much accomplished. The very few images I haven't used were bought for scrapbooking anyway, so I don't feel it is cheating to leave those out.

What do I do next?

Sigh.

That resolution gave structure and purpose to my stamping for over two years, and now it's gone. Oh, I'm still stamping, but I feel sort of aimless and adrift, if that makes any sense at all. When I'm not in my craft room, I develop all sorts of intentions of purging and simplifying and trying something new. When I actually go to do these things, I find myself whimping out.

I gaze longingly at the A Muse catalog and then tell myself that no matter how yummy that paper looks, it would be silly to buy more cardstock. I'm resolved to use up my colored cardstock, but much of what I make with it won't get posted here, mainly because I don't like a lot of the colors...they just aren't me. Should I just sell the stuff that isn't me and start over? 

That's a rhetorical question.

The truth is, I'm sharing my floating in the doldrums with you not so you will feel sorry for me or offer up advice, but so you will know that YOU are not alone whenever you hit the doldrums yourself. These slow periods happen to most everyone who passionately engages in any hobby. They are not permanent, nor are they unhealthy. They just are. I'm trying out a few new resolutions, reorganizing some stuff, studying magazines, and generally taking it easy, making cards using my Second Theory and plugging away at using up that cardstock!

This card is 7.25" x 3.5" in size.

What do you do when you're in the doldrums?

Supplies
stamps: SU butterfly, Shady Tree Studios sentiment
ink: Memento
paper: SU pretty in pink; Mark's Finest white
accessories: SU butterfly punch, Fiskar's bracket border punch, rhinestone

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! 

CASifying a Sketch Challenge

Here's the sketch challenge from SCS this week:

As soon as I saw this sketch, I thought of my Hero Arts long rectangle shadow stamp. What a perfect way to clean-and-simplify (or CASify) this sketch!

The key to this CASification is layering stamps rather than paper. The colors are analogous (side by side on the color wheel) and they are stacked from light to dark (apricot, pumpkin, rust). After finishing the stamping and adding the circle, something still seemed lacking.

When in doubt, BLING. I added the bling to the centers of the flowers on the branch and then balanced them with two on the apricot layer.

*squeal*

I could NEVER have done this without Roxie's awesome sketch challenge.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (sentiment and shadow), SU Garden Silhouettes
ink: SU apricot, pumpkin, rust
paper: Papertrey vintage cream
accessories: 1 3/8" circle punch, dimensionals, rhinestones

Recovery

StampinUp's Thoughts and Prayers is such a pretty set...and enormously useful to us cardmakers. Get well soon just seems so bossy and boring sometimes, especially for people who have prolonged illnesses, multiple procedures, etc. This set has this wonderful sentiment to add some variety to the whole get well greeting.

I started with the embossed lines to make a ground for the tree, which is stamped in Memento's Pear Tart (yummy!) and using a stamp positioner. Pearls complete the soft yet still cheery card.

Sadly, I have nothing pithy or witty or amusing to say about this card. I just really like it.

Remember to keep an eye out for the OLW42 on Jennifer's Blog. I can't wait to find out what fun she's cooked up for us this week!

My younger son's room is the most pathetic in the house, and I'm determined to fix that this week with fresh paint, new bedding, new curtains, and some art. I spent a big chunk of Tuesday shopping for a new bedspread. Who knew it would be so hard to find boy bedding that wasn't too juvenile, too dark, or too sophisticated? Seriously, this is a huge gap in the bed linen world! I finally settled for a set from Target. It's colorful. It has lots of blue. And he loved it, squealing with delight and blissfully shouting, "Thank you soooo much, Mommy!" Awesome.

Setting Makes a Difference

Unfortunately, I am in need of a few sympathy cards, so I pulled out my soft pinks and browns. I chose a curved stem from Stem Silhouettes and nestled a small sentiment from Papertrey's Mixed Messages inside the curve. I love how the stem seems to be giving a hug to the words.

As much as I love white-on-white layering, sometimes it seems...lacking. That's the case here. I think this version is just so subtle that it's, well, boring.

So I decided to try a layer of Papertrey's sweet blush cardstock as a matte. That's definitely better. The stamped panel seems so much more anchored visually to the card.

But then I wondered if it wouldn't look even better and more balanced on a sweet blush card base with a close to cocoa matte.

Ding, ding, ding!!!!! We have a winner!!!!! Still clean and simple, but definitely the way to go with this particular combination of images and color.

If only the card weren't for such a sad occasion. *sigh*

Supplies
stamps: SU Stem Silhouettes, Papertrey Mixed Messages
ink: VersaColor cinnamon and umber
paper: Papertrey white, sweet blush; SU close to cocoa
accessories: dimensionals