More with Wild Rose

With this card I'm trying for the look of a trellis. I'm using vanilla cs and the inks used were french roast, cranberry (so sad to see it go), and fern.

I stamped the border from Wild Rose along each side, masking the back of the card. The hardest part was getting a good impression. Then I just stamped the roses in cranberry and the leaves in fern.

I sponged sky at the top and fern at the bottom and then used one of the labels dies. After die cutting out of vanilla cs, I stamped the corresponding outline stamp from the Vintage Labels set. I wanted to add a "ghosted" rose on that label so I stamped the label stamp again on some lightweight vellum and cut around the little dotted line for a mask. 

Using the outside of the vellum, I positioned it so I could stamp the rose in the upper corner. I stamped off the cranberry twice. Then I sponged some more blue and green on the label, and finally used the sentiment from Wild Rose and clear embossed that, also in french roast.

I popped up the label with foam adhesive with some red doodlebug twine underneath. Let me say that I use the stamp-a-ma-jig positioner and temporary adhesive whenever possible. Also my old mouse pad under the cs helps to get a good impression with stamps. Finally, I rounded the corners to soften the look.

I just love this set but since my catalog arrived of NEW A Muse products, I'm putting together my wish list of new products to try out!

 Okay, here's a happy card that is a bit wonky but I still like how it turned out. I love A Muse gingham paper and this pretty blue called out to me.

 I like window cards a lot but they're a challenge for me. I used 1 3/8 inch and 1 1/4 inch square punches to achieve this look. It's crooked, don't look too closely!

I stamped the little vase from the set Smile Inside. I had fun trying to position it three ways. I used a flat rubber stamp to do a mirror image on the right. Then in the middle I inked up the flower only with onyx ink and using the stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped it down, making the flower straight. Then I inked up the vase, and stamped it. Cool! Fun techniques, mirror stamping and partial inking.

I lightly colored in the flowers with copics, a little blue in the vases and some gray for grounding. See it's crooked here too but I like it. I may go back and fill in the vases with glossy accents.

Then I just used a nestie banner die, sponged it a little with broken china distress ink and stamped the sentiment from Essential Sentiments. Then I added some black doodlebug twine.

Thanks for looking, have a lovely Sunday, Mary

Different Ways to Use a Stamp

I tried to extend the use of some of my A Muse stamps and here are the results, fun!

Here I stamped the leaves repeatedly from the set Just Because on lichen cardstock. I love the a|s cardstock because the inside is white. You can see that below, the scallop edge (made with their die) makes a nice edge. The ink I used here is the new Rialto from the Venetian palette, love it!

After heat embossing it in clear, I stamped little flowers (from Clever Girls) on separate sugar cs, and cut them out. I used orange, rialto and cranberry inks. I stamped the oval from Victorian Charm in onyx and masked it off. Then I stamped the leaves to peek out on the top and bottom.

It seemed like it needed brightening up, so I stamped the sentiment (from Essential Sentiments) on sugar cardstock, die cut it and sponged papaya ink on the edges. Rialto ink was used, and clear embossing.

Lastly I put a little glitter in the flower centers.

On this card I repeatedly stamped flowers on sugar cs. The big flower is from Graphic Sunflower. It's hard to see, but I stamped in sky the little flower used in the card above, from Clever Girls. I used nugget ink, sky and orange on different flowers. The small flowera were from my stash.

So I was kinda going for a tan and blue color combo. The ribbon was from Joann's and the buttons, linen thread were from my stash as well. The sentiment is from Essential Sentiments. I just made a faux banner with sugar cs.

I rounded the corners on this one with my Corner Chomper and called it done.

Thanks for checking this out - have a lovely day!

A couple of cards using A Muse Friend to Friend

I made 2 cards, one with warm colors and one with cool colors but using the same image. I used the Friend to Friend stamp set for the flowers. After curving one of the stems and masking I stamped it again and heat embossed them. Diamond stickles cover the stems. The sentiments come from Essential Sentiments. Thanks for stopping by!

A little more detail on each:

This get well soon card uses the french roast polka dotted paper, love it! I sponged papaya around the lacey circle nestie. The flowers and sentiment were stamped in french roast too and heat embossed. The ribbon is papaya, stitched grosgrain.

I used red and green copic markers (a couple of shades each) on the blooms and little leaves. I popped the main image and the sentiment up and rounded the corners with my handy dandy corner chomper. Oh and diamond stickles were put on the stems with a toothpick.

So on this sympathy card, I used slate paper and ink. The vintage onyx paper is on top. Love that! The main image was sponged with antique linen and dusty concord distress inks, I was trying to keep the color palette cool. The ribbon is slate stitched grosgrain. Oh, and I used the large scallop border die.

The sentiment is white embossed and the corners were rounded again,. See you soon! Mary

Hangin Out

I've been hearing some wonderful things about the new catty - can't wait to have it in my hot little hands! Thanks Lori! 

I made a quick card for a friend, just to say hello.

So I started out with winter sky, green checkered and sugar cs. I cut a wavy edge to the green and punched the sugar with a MS punch. Can you see where I messed up the fence? Oh well, show me a perfect fence, right?

I used Avian Notes and the clouds are from Make A Scene. I stamped the flowers (hoping they double as trees here) with French Roast. Stormy sky distress ink was used for the clouds and birds.

I cut out 2 of the clouds and 3 birds to pop up. The label is stamped in rose romance (SU) and HA black ink was used for the sentiment. I tried to give the flying birds a little wing action with a blue colored pencil but that's hard to see. The label and birds are popped up on some twine. I used the corner chomper (love it!) too.

Just hangin' out ya know? That's how I'm feeling these days! Watching the world go by... (I'm in between employment assignments)

Some initial cards using A Muse!

When I became a creative consultant for A Muse Studio last fall, I created a few cards with my start up sets and the wonderful pigment inks.

This card was made with images found in the set Life is a Song and I used French Roast ink, along with the fun checked paper.

The sentiment was from Contemporary Greetings.

This is my favorite of my first cards, using Wild Rose set. I masked off the perimeter of the card with washi tape first. 

I sponged color around the whole card, leaving some white space in the middle. I used toffee ink. I heat set it to make sure it was dry.

Then I stamped the leaves repeatedly with fern ink, using a brown marker on the stems (before stamping). 

I stamped the roses on a separate sheet of white cs and cut them out, and popped them up  All that was left was the sentiment, from the same set. The pigment inks work so smoothly, that sponging the color on was really easy.

More masking and sponging was used on this card. I see now that the "you are" should've been a different font, it kind of competes with "amazing"! Oh dear, well file that away for next time!

This card uses Beautiful Botanicals 2 for the leaves. The sweet butterfly is from Just Because. I sponged a couple of colors on the rubber with the finger daubers, love that technique!

The sentiment is from Elegant Elements.

 

And finally, another leaf stamping exercise - gee, I see a theme here - I must love botanicals I guess.

The butterfly is cut from the Butterfly Trio die set using slate paper. I love the polka dot paper so I thought I'd use that - maybe like a wall the butterfly is cruising past? Whatever! The sentiment is from Graphic Sunflower I think.

To finish off, I added slate ribbon and 4 little pearls to the butterfly body. Thanks for looking!!  

The plan is to get busy and create more - especially with the new catalog coming out! I'm hearing some great things and my catalog is in the mail right now! February first is the magic order date!

I would love it if you would comment, subscribe and/or shop with me!  Mary