A little de-stressing was in order

April showers bring...flooded basements.  May better have some darn impressive flowers!  Between wading around in the basement and back yard, calling my mommy in a tizzy, rejoicing that the water heater lit and fired up and loving my honey beyond belief, I took a few minutes to clear my mind at the craft table. 

Every Tuesday the awesome folks over at Moxie Fab World post a trigger.  I've been turning it over in my mind for two days now and came up with something worthy of sharing.

The trigger:

My take on it:

For my first trigger response I'm feeling pretty proud.  Now, I'm off for a HOT shower since this morning's was not quite the wake up I'd imagined!

Supplies are all A Muse|Studio unless otherwise noted.  Feel free to visit my webstore www.amusestudio.com/gena
Stamps:  cake-A Very Merry Un-Birthday (pg 44), sentiment-Contemporary Greetings (pg 69),  polka dots-Polka Dot Patterns (pg 75)
Paper: sky
Ink: cranberry
Glitter: diamond
Ribbon and embossing powder: random from my stash

Turtle Club

Just the word turtle makes me think of that goofy movie line "am I not turtley enough for the turtle club?"  Bonus points for anyone who names that movie without google! 

You're wondering if I've lost it, huh?  Nah.  I just got new goodies in the mail.  One of my new stamp sets (Snail & Co.) has the cutest little turtle in it.  He is so cute!  I had to ink him up and get him on a card today. 

I also spent some time outside playing with settings and such on my camera.  I need to figure out why my green inks keep coming out yellow in photos.  My white balance is right...I'm stumped.  So I played with it in GIMP and that made the gingham paper more green than it really is, but at least my grass doesn't look like late August grass LOL!  Frustrating that I can't seem to fix this. 

Anyway...I hope you like my little turtle guy! 

Supplies are all A Muse|Studio unless specified
Paper:  grass gingham, random white
Ink:  fern and blackberry (embossed)
Ribbon:  random purple
Glitter:  diamond
Copics:  new leaf, golden yellow

Hoppy Easter

Man, I've been blog-lazy lately!  I managed a fun little card to share with y'all today, though.  I've had the idea rattling around in my brain since work got Easter basket grass in stock.  Today I remembered some cute little bunny digi stamps I'd saved a while back.  Looking at this card makes me want to nibble the ears off of a chocolate bunny.  Now that I've photographed it and see it on the big screen, it might need a sparkly, pastel Easter egg for that center bunny to point towards.  Hmmm...what do you think?

Isn't it cute?  I sponged lichen ink on the bottom half of the card. That basket grass did not want to stick with a strip of tape runner glue so I used my Tombow Mono Multi and let it dry to the tacky stage.  That worked!  I made a huge mess with little scraps of that grass and gluey fingers.  It was worth it in the end though :) 

Supplies:
Paper-Amuse bermuda polka dot
Ribbon-Amuse bubblegum satin
Inks-Amuse lichen and ocean
Sentiment-Amuse Essential Sentiments
Copic marker E33 sand
Bunnies-SgtStamper
Cheap dollar store basket grass
Glitter-Stickles in crystal

Hop on in!

Hi hoppers!  I hope you are enjoying your bounce through our a*musing adventures!  You should have arrived here from Anna's, blog A la Carte.  If you are just visiting me because you love me (who wouldn't? ::grin::) you should head over to Samantha and Jeremy's blog, Kania's A Muse Studio so you don't miss a single stop on the hop!

I've got a very simple, sweet card for you today.  All supplies except the card base and pop up foam are A Muse|Studio.  The stamps all came with my Deluxe Starter kit pictured a few posts down.  As far as full sets that include the stamps, the butterfly is from Just Because and the leaves are Beautiful Botanicals 2.  The sentiment is from Essential Sentiments and the flower from Clever girls.  I used Orange, Grass and Papaya ink and Orange satin ribbon.  What card of mine would be complete without a good dose of A Muse Diamond glitter?  I used the Sakura Quickie glue pen to adhere the glitter.

What would a blog hop be without a little blog candy?  If you want a chance to win, all you have to do is comment below that includes some way to contact you.  If you want an extra chance to win, link to this post on your blog then leave me a comment telling me you did it, or link it on Facebook and leave me a comment saying you did it.  Make sure you leave separate comments to earn your extra chances.  I'll use random.org to pick a random number on Monday evening, 4/4/11.  Raise your hand if you want me to shut up and get to the goodies!  Ok, ok, ok!  Here's what you could win:

What's all of that?  It is a yard each of A Muse|Studio's Orange, Cherry and Bubblegum satin ribbon plus a new, never inked sentiment stamp like the one used on the card above "Thinking of You." 

If you want to see everything A Muse has to offer, click the A|S logo on the right.  If you want more information on A Muse, just ask!  Now, head on over to Carla's blog *Amusing Ink* for your next dose of A*Musement! 

Thanks for stopping by!

An A-musing birthday

It has been a few days since I shared a card with y'all.  I've been struggling to get past the learning curve new stamps, ink and paper threw at me.  The move from mostly digital to physical stamps is a big one for me.  I'm finally starting to love what I'm creating though :)  This card will be added to the stash of bingo cards for Mom.  "Special Bingo" is coming soon so I need to get a few more cards made up.  I don't want any hurt feelings over bingo!

Supplies are all A Muse|Studio except the card base itself which is just heavy white cardstock.  Inks are Grass and Blackberry.  The scrap of green cardstock is Sage.  The ribbon is Lime stitched grosgrain.  Stamps are from A Very Merry Un-Birthday, Birthday Greetings and Polka Dot Patterns.  I colored the cake stamp with Copics Y17 and YG23.  The glitter is A Muse Diamond and it is so fabulous!  Very very fine and oh so sparkly.  

Thanks for stopping by!

It came! It came! It came!!!!!!!

I'm so excited!  My A Muse|Studio starter kit was tucked lovingly on my porch by UPS this afternoon.  What a wonderful thing to come home to!  I barely acknowledged the bouncing pups or a certain someone's hello in my rush to get the tape ripped open.  It was like Christmas and my birthday all rolled in to one, well except I paid for the goodies LOL! 

You have to see what joy was hiding inside that ordinary brown box (a corn cobbette box to be exact...kudos to A Muse for recycling and reusing!)

 I can't stop staring at all the lucious ink colors...SIXTEEN of them!  And the fresh clean rubber, the darling ribbon and that glitter.  Oh the glitter!  Even the scary, intimidating copics are right there for me to touch, and smell, and try to feel brave enough to use. 

 The paper feels so nice in my hands.  Those polka dots are so much cuter in person with the slight irregularities in each.  I've got card possibilities just swirling around in my head.  See that swatch ring?  Those are *just* the solid colors available!  There is also polka dots, gingham, damask and shimmer.  Just a few more days and I'll be placing an order for some of the cardstocks not included in the starter kit.  I have paper lust, that's for sure. 

Don't forget, we are having a blog hop on April 2nd.  I'm still trying to decide exactly what to include in my blog candy but I know there will be something fun! 

Just a little chatter

I've been woefully uncreative the past few days.  My cousin's wedding consumed a lot of my time, energy and mental power.  What a whirlwind weekend!  They are married, happy and on their way to a hot tub in the mountains so all is right with the world now.  I did make some super cute pew reservation cards but didn't have time to stage photos.  Hopefully someone got a shot or two of them.

I do have a few pieces of news to share with you all though!  On April first my webstore goes live.  I am so excited to see how it all looks and works.  Even us consultants haven't seen the webstores yet.  Crazy huh?  Also, Samantha, a fellow consultant, has organized a blog hop for A Muse|Studio.  I'll be playing along and sharing some of what I'm making with my starter kit.  I think there may even be a little blog candy involved!  We'll be hopping on April 2nd.  You'll want to hop through all the lovely blogs playing along!

If you'd like to see all the goodies a|s has to offer...2011 A Muse|Studio Inspiration Guide   Also, if you'd like to order an Inspiration Guide and Catalog for your very own, the cost is $10 (shipping would be $4.95 for Priority Mail if you need it shipped).