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 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

Coloring With Copics!!!

I am a super dork and I totally own it! Yes! I love to color! There... it's out. Maybe that's why I'm a 2nd grade teacher. As an adult, you feel kind of silly coloring... unless you have the world's greatest markers to color with. I found Copic markers (that's a long o, not a short o) a few years ago and have been busily collecting them and using them in my card making. When I am playing with them, I feel like a total artist. I'm not, but that's neither here, nor there...

Here is a card I made using the cute hedge hog that came in my starter kit:

Because Copics are an alcohol based ink, you can blend them, and shade with them, and make your stamping really pop! The really fun thing about Copics are that you can also use them to alter the colors of other embellishments. The next cards I post will show how I used Copics to alter a paper flower and some pretty pearls. Don't have the color you need? Doesn't matter! Pull out your Copics and make it exactly the way you want it.

One of the things I'm working on doing is setting up a monthly Copic Coloring Club. The way a monthly Copic club works is that we have 8-10 members of the club who commit to ordering 3-4 Copic markers each month. This will help you build your stash and begin using these awesome markers. 

We will do some sort of card or project that will help you learn how to use your markers. We will decide how many markers we need to buy based on how many members we have. We will want our monthly meeting total to reach $150 so that month's hostess can earn $25 in free product from A Muse Studio.

If you are local and interested, let me know and I'll make sure you get on the schedule and come to the meetings at my house. If you are interested, but not local, you can still be part of the club. You will let me know which Copics you want and will be signed up to be one of the hostesses via email. 

Recipe: All a•muse | studio supplies

Paper: Sugar

Stamps: Woodland Friends, Friends Fur-Ever, and Ovalicious

Ribbon: Sky organdy polka dots

Ink: Grass and Tuxedo Black

You can find all of the supplies for this card here.

Have a wonderful day!

Devon