It's Here!!! The 2012 a•muse | studio Catalog and Inspiration Guide

I've been waiting for this for months and it's finally here! New stamps, new colors, new paper, new ribbon, new glitter... Too much fun stuff!

Check out all of the fun NEW goodies here and then get in touch so I can 

set up a workshop for you right away!

Heading off to place my first order to prepare for February Stamp Camp on January 25th! 

Have a great night!

Devon

Clean and Simple Cards - Day 5

Yes... I've skipped day four. I haven't figured out exactly what I wanted to do with the day four challenge yet and I woke up this morning more inspired to try some of Jennifer McGuire's techniques with Distress Inks from day five. I've always enjoyed working with Distress Inks, but I haven't played very much with them and how they react with water, so I was excited to give this a try. I came up with two cards this morning:

When I pulled out the Distress Inks to begin these cards, I looked at my colors and it seems I'm mostly drawn to blues and greens. I'm going to need to add some other colors to my stash, but I love the way these colors worked together. When I finished getting all of the color on the paper, it felt somber and more like a sympathy card. They're always the hardest cards to make, so I like to have a few already in my stash. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I added a slight shimmer to the inked background with a•muse's stardust finishing spray. I don't have any Perfect Pearls like Jennifer used in the video, but the finishing spray added just what I was looking for in the shine department. 

Recipe:

Paper: Strathmore watercolor paper, a•muse sky and sugar

Stamps: a•muse essential sentiments and beautiful botanicals

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, VersaMark, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in broken china, chipped sapphire, peeled paint, faded jeans, shabby shutters, bundled sage, stormy sky ( I really need to add some reds and yellows)

Other: a•muse white embossing powder and stardust finishing spray

One layer cards are very hard for me to do and feel like they are finished, but I'm pleased with how this turned out. It's simple, but very pretty and it will be easy to mail. This will be a technique I use a lot in the future. Besides... playing with ink and spray bottles and getting my fingers all inky is just super fun!

Recipe:

Paper: Strathmore watercolor paper

Stamps: a•muse essential sentiments and CTMH Treasures

Ink: VersaMark, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in faded jeans, peeled paint, and chipped sapphire

Other: a•muse white embossing powder and stardust finishing spray

I hope you have a wonderful day! All of my boys are off and occupied with boy things today. I'm heading out to my monthly scrapbooking get together and getting some much needed mommy time. But I will be making sure I know how my Niners are doing against the Saints!

Happy Saturday!

Devon

Clean and Simple Card Making - Day 3

I am on a ROLL!!! I feel like the overly ambitious student who gets all their homework done before the deadline... Yes, I am the Hermione of the Clean and Simple Card Making class! Day 3 begins tomorrow, but I've already got a card and I'm going to publish it tonight. What the heck? It's close to midnight anyway...

For day three, Jennifer McGuire showed two cards that she used die cuts on, which she layered to add dimension to the card. Julie Ebersole showed us how she used Pinterest (one of the reasons why I get to bed so late some nights) for inspiration. I used both of their ideas in ONE card! (I'm feeling kind of cool.) Here is what I came up with:

I've noticed that lately I've been pinning a lot of things on Pinterest involving hearts, rainbows, and clouds, so that's where I drew my inspiration from for this card. There is not one actual stamp involved in this card, because I couldn't find a sentiment that went with what was swirling around in my brain. I kept thinking of "Showering you with Love" and the hearts as the rain rather than drops. So I used my printer to generate the sentiment and cut it in a banner just like Jennifer did on her sample card.

To give the clouds dimension, I layered three of the small clouds on top of each other  and then put those on top of just one of the larger clouds. I like this technique, because then I'm not looking at dimensional adhesive when I see the card from the side. It almost looks like I've cut the clouds out of white chip board. The hearts have dimension since they have been die cut from felt. 

Recipe:

Card stock: a•muse | studio - sugar and sky

Embellishments: a•muse | studio felt, Twinery bakers twine in Marachino Cherry, random felt from my stash

Sentiment: computer generated

Tools: a•muse | studio dies - heart trio, cloud duo

Have a wonderful Wednesday stampers!

Devon

Clean and Simple Card Making - Day 2

A quick post this morning - Day 2 brings us a Perfectly Flat Card from Julie Ebersole. This is the kind of card I struggle with, because I always want to add some bling or ribbon, but I'm really happy with how this one turned out. I had to dig deep into my stash to try an emulate Julie's faux letterpress style and I got to ink up a CTMH stamp set that has never seen ink around here.

Paper: Strathmore water color paper

Stamps: CTMH Paper Lantern

Ink: a•muse | studio papaya, cranberry, ocean pigment ink, Memento Tuxedo Black

Off to have fun with 2nd graders! Hopefully I'll have some energy to play some more tonight.

Have a great day!

Devon

Clean and Simple Card Making - Day 1

Woo-hoo!!! I won a spot in the Clean and Simple Card Making online class being taught by Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire, and Julie Ebersole - three ladies who inspire me all the time! I won the spot by leaving a comment on Tami Hartley's blog i make cards. Thank you so much Tami! I'm beyond excited to participate in this class, as my mojo has been waning lately.

Today, I came home from work t-i-r-e-d... oof! 2nd graders can suck every ounce of energy out of you, not to mention my own two little monkeys! But when I saw the sketches for today, I couldn't stop making cards. I knocked out 4 cards tonight and could have kept going if I didn't need to go to work tomorrow. I know one of today's sketches is going to be a "go to" for me for a long time to come.

Before I show you what I did, remember... these are NOT perfect. I was whipping ink around, throwing paper, and grabbing stamps like a frenzy. There are flaws and mistakes and I'm alright with that! It's a class and this is a great way to develop ideas and get the craftiness moving. Perfect can come later. And with that, here are the cards:

All a•muse products for this one:

Paper: Kraft cardstock

Stamps: wild rose 

Ink: cranberry, fern, french roast

Embellishments: Tombow brown marker, french roast bakers twine, cranberry buttons

All a•muse products:

Paper: blush cardstock

Stamps: sweetheart background and quick & cute valentines

Ink: bubblegum and Versamark

Embellishments: white embossing powder, blush felt, heart trio die, white Signo gel pen

All a•muse products:

Paper: vanilla cardstock

Stamp: life is a song

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and cranberry

Embellishments: cranberry glitter, black pen

And this card got thrown together in a crazed moment of raiding all sorts of items from my massive stash of products...

Paper: a•muse sugar cardstock and Kodak photo paper

Stamp: a•muse hand scripted

Ink: a•muse ocean and Tim Holtz alcohol inks in Purple Twighlight, Citrus, and Sail Boat Blue

Embellishments: totally random organdy ribbon scrap from the stash, CTMH button and embroidery floss

Looking at this post, the next class I clearly need to take is a photography class, but that will have to come another day. It's on my bucket list! 

If you see any of the a•muse | studio products that you just can't live without, I hope you'll visit my webstore and check out our catalog. There are several great stamp sets that are retiring, as well as my beloved cranberry products. But all of these retiring products means one exciting thing.... the NEW catalog is coming!!!

Happy Stamping friends!

Devon

January a•muse|studio Spotlight Specials!

The January Spotlight Special has finally gone live over at a•muse|studio and I'm so excited! I've got a few of these stamp sets, but I'll be ordering the other two that aren't already in my collection at the special price. Spotlight Special prices are good until January 31st. If you want to come and play with these new stamps, I'm having a Valentine's Stamp Camp on January 21st!

All of these sweet stamps and the Rock Candy paper pack can be ordered at my webstore. I can't wait to get creating. I took a long break for Christmas and family time and now it's time to design some fun things for Valentine's Day!

Happy stamping!

Devon