A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA - *sneak peek*!

Woohoo - A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA is finally here and that means sneak peeks along with lots of fun on the AP blog! Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! It was sooo tough to keep this card from ya, but I had to wait until today to post it since it uses one of the new stamps from the A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA release! I *LOVE* the new Cityscape stamp - definitely one of my favs! And here you can also see a sneak peek of the new Vintage notecards! They come in six colors - this is the French blue. Stay tuned!

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Images and Notecards by A Muse. Brilliance graphite black ink (heat set), Memento London Fog and Dandelion ink, Fluid chalk Ice blue ink, Adirondack Cranberry and Denim ink, Spica glitter pens (red, blue, yellow), light blue colored pencil, Marvy Paper Trimming buddy w/scallop blade.

Mystery Hostess Color Challenge

This is to play along with Helle's Mystery Hostess challenge over on the a-muse-a-palooza blog. Her challenge is to make a black & white card with a splash of pink and a bit of bling. Thought I'd create something "scoopy" for this one - LOL! I used a pink twinkle sticker on the truck's headlight for the "bit of bling". The road is one of the stamps in the Fancy Borders clear set. To see all the other great designs submitted for this challenge, click here.

A quick tip for ya on making the "swallowtail" flag for the sentiment. Use a square punch! Just slide the strip of cardstock into the corner edge of the punch. Here's a photo of what I mean (this was shared in a recent A Muse Weekly as well). Makes it super easy!

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Images, twinkle sticker, and notecards by A Muse

Ice Cream Truck card: Brilliance graphite black ink (heat-set), Memento London Fog ink, Copic markers: shadow pink, cool shadow, and Pinkish White; foam tape.

Golf card: Brilliance graphite black ink (heat-set), Memento New Sprout ink, Copic markers - shadow pink, milky white; foam tape, EK Success square punch.

A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA and other news!

There is so much fun going on over on the AP blog and there's more to come because next week A*Muse*A*Palooza is here! That means SNEAK PEEKS! And if you live in the San Diego area, I'd love to see you at Paper Tales on the 12th for my AP classes so you can play with all the awesome new holiday stamps in person! Also if you haven't registered for the blog fun yet, now is the time because we still have a Grand Prize to give away! Woohoo!

And just another fun thing to tell ya about. Linda posted this link to Dawn Sorem's "AM Northwest" show segment that aired recently on TV in Portland. When they zoom in to show some of the card designs, there are TWO in front that are some of my recent Card-of-the-Week designs (hiker and mushrooms)! How cool is that?!

Designer Match Revealed!

This was my design for the Designer Match game over on the A*Muse*A*Palooza blog. Did you match me to my card during the game? The Leafy Tree is one of my favorite A Muse stamps and one of the first few that I purchased. Stay tuned for my card for Helle's mystery hostess challenge. Happy Independence Day!
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Images, ribbon, and notecards by A Muse. Memento desert sand and rose bud ink, foam tape, Staedtler fineliner green pen.

Polka Dot Challenge

Something a little different today - an acetate transparency card! This is for Michelle's polka dot challenge on the AP blog. (Click here to see all the other cards submitted.) I started with an acetate transparency card base. The background layer is stamped with the Even Dot bl stamp and then I used Art Institute "Dries White" adhesive to make the flourishes. Then I added Art Glitter over it to make it sparkle. The owl is stamped on the back of the transparency cardfront so that it makes an overlay and also reverses the image. This way the rough (inkjet) side of the transparency sheet is on the inside of the card and the nice shiny smooth side is on the front. Oh - I almost forgot! This was inspired by two designs I saw a while back - the "hey birdie" piece in this awesome Meadow series by Nina and also this card by Dawn McVey.
Did you see the latest Mystery Hostess challenge? I created a card this afternoon for Helle's challenge, so I'll be posting that soon. Can you believe I've posted every day this week?!
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Images and notecard by A Muse. Inkjet Transparency sheet, Staz on black ink, Memento Summer sky ink, Art Institute Dries White adhesive, Art Institute Angel Dust glitter, Xyron.

Sketch Challenge 2

This is for Tisha's 2nd sketch in her challenge last week and it also works for Heather's red/white/blue "share your spark" challenge! This boy in the celebration kids clear set is so cute and I thought the "Come Play With Me" sentiment worked perfectly since he's playing his horn. There are some great sentiments in the set itself too! To see all the other fun cards submitted for Tisha's challenge, click HERE! Next up is a polka dot card for Michelle's challenge!
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Images, ribbon, and notecards by A Muse. Memento black ink, Marvy Giga scallop oval punch, Copic markers Warm Grey2, Lipstick Red, Manganese Blue, Milky White; foam tape.

July Calendar

This is one of my favorites of my calendar series! I just *love* the sparkler stamp!
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Images and calendar by A Muse. White cardstock, Blue cardstock, Fluid chalk ink - warm red, yellow citrus, and azurite; Spica glitter pen, Art Glitter, bind-it-all and 3/4" wire.

Sketch Challenge 1

Playing along with Tisha's 1st sketch challenge over on the A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA blog. The embossed layer is an A Muse Celestial Blue notecard - which is a really pretty pale blue. I was inspired by this nursery photo on the Black*Eiffel blog. To see all the other great cards submitted for this challenge, click HERE. Next up is my design for Tisha's 2nd sketch! Oh and my July calendar too - stay tuned!
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Images and notecards by A Muse. Vellum, Memento Desert Sand and Rich Cocoa ink, Staz On brown ink, Marvy Super Jumbo scallop circle, EK Success whale circle punch, Cuttlebug embossing folder, foam tape.

Mystery Hostess Pocket Challenge

I was looking around at Barnes & Noble this evening and noticed a little set of gnome and tree stickers on the shelf of scrapbooking supplies. The tree in the set was basically a green circle with a brown trunk. And of course I thought: "I can do that"! So I came home and stamped this design for Geeta's Mystery Hostess pocket card challenge! To see all the other fun pocket cards submitted for her challenge, click ---> HERE. Stay tuned - I have two cards from Tisha's sketch challenge up next!
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Images, ribbon, and notecards by A Muse. Memento Rich Cocoa and New Sprout ink; 1" circle punch, crop-a-dile, eyelet, cream crochet thread.

Out of the Box Challenge!

Introducing... the spiral daisy as..... a FERRIS WHEEL! Hee, hee - I was so *excited* to share this with you! This is to play along with Elena's Out of the Box challenge over on the A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA blog. And what's cool is that once I had my "thinking outside the box" hat on, I came up with two other fun designs! (I'm not gonna post them quite yet - gotta spread them out a little, but you'll see them soon!)

And I also thought I'd share my Inflatable Santa card that's a sample over on the Out of the Box challenge post. This is one of my favorite designs and was an A Muse Card-of-the-Week in 2006. I drew the little lines from the Santa with a journaling pen and a ruler - to make him look like he was one of those huge inflatable Santas that you see at Christmas tree lots!

To see all the other fun cards created for this challenge, click HERE.

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Images and notecards by A Muse.

Ferris Wheel Card: Versafine black ink, Staedtler Triplus fineliner markers, Copic markers, foam dots.

Inflatable Santa Card: Adirondack pitch black ink, Fluid chalk warm green and ice blue inks, A Muse twinkle sticker, pigma micron black pen, red marker or pencil.

Mystery Hostess "Twinkle" Challenge

Thought I'd play along in the A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA Mystery Hostess Challenge again this week. (Just for fun of course - not to enter the contest.) This week is Taylor with a fun Twinkle Time theme (creative ways to use Twinkle stickers and bling). So I pulled out my clear A Muse Twinkle stickers and created some wedding rings out of some silver cardstock. (Make sure to punch out the small circle first, then you can easily center the large circle punch over it to make a ring.) The background was super easy to make with the stitched pinwheel stamp and my stamp positioner. Up next, I have another card to share! Oh, and click HERE to see all the other cards created for this challenge.

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Images, Cabana blue notecard, and Twinkle stickers by A Muse. Mirror silver cardstock, black cardstock, white cardstock, Versafine black ink, 3/4" circle punch, Marvy orange circle punch, EK Success Whale circle punch, circle cutter, foam tape, Xyron.

Clue!

If you're playing along with the super fun A Muse Clue game over on the blog, here's a new clue to help you narrow down your choices! This is *not* one of the correct answers.