I thank God for all I've been given...at the end of every day. I have been blessed...

Good morning, world! Happy Wednesday! I'm not sure why, but it really feels like Thursday...WAIT!! It IS Thursday!! Sheesh...guess that tells you how my week has been. *sigh* I'm tired, but we've been having fun chasing a two year-old again. Man, he's busy!

I just had a quick second to myself last night, so I did some clean and simple stamping to make this quick card.


I have had these cute little blue patterned notecards from A Muse for over a year, and have been hoarding them like crazy. But sometimes when you're hoarding something, you forget about it! So the other day when I was digging in my envelope box, I found them and thought, "Hey! I need to use those!" Then when I sat down, I remembered this card of Heather's and was inspired to make something really quick with them.

I cut a small strip of Papertrey's Vintage Cream cardstock and stamped the sentiment from Verve's Just for You set in Memento Tuxedo Black. I inked up the small branch stamp from the same set in Baja Breeze and stamped it a few times to accent the sentiment. I added a quick black scalloped mat, and adhered it to my card. Less than 10 minutes, and I have a cute little card to tuck into my hubby's lunch bag one day. Fun, huh?

Well, I'd better get busy...I have lots to do before Copic class tonight. Have a great day, whatever day it is! *wink*

If I were a boy...I think I could understand...

Hey yall, I'm baaaaack! I finally found my desk *grin* so I took a break to make a card for this week's Jacksonbelle Challenge. I knew I wanted to use this paper from the Fancy Pants About a Boy collection (love that stuff!), but I also wanted to use my new Chandelier set from Inkadinkado. And after some playing, I found a way to make it work (a la Tim Gunn...when is PR coming back on, Carole?)!

So I stamped one of the chandeliers in Versafine Onyx Black on a lighter part of the Chillin paper, then I sponged around the image in Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip ink and distressed the edges. Then I created a base layer with the Expression paper (love this one!!!) and sponged the edges of it also. The strip across the middle is the Vivid paper, and before sponging, I punched the edge with my Martha Stewart Lace border punch. The ribbon is from May Arts, and it's nice and shimmery (of course), and I added some Spiced Cider Shimmerz to the chandelier image, which made it look even more antiqued and glam. I mounted the whole thing on my Cream card base, and then added the sentiment from A Muse to finish it off.

Check out the eye candy from the rest of the rockin' JBelle girls!

• AJ Otto
• Beth Thomas
• Heather Lee-Reppen
• Jennifer Buck
• Jill Dunn
• Kimberly O’Rosky
• Kisa Peters
• Maren Benedict
• Melissa Bove
• Michelle Woerner

• Lindsey Botkin
• Lynda Benden
• Rachel Baird
• Taylor Usry

Have a fabulous day, and I'll be back tomorrow with some Bella fun!

They say I'm goin' crazy, They say I got a lot of water in my brain...

YAY! I finally got my picture to upload!

I just have a quick little post for you today; I'm sleepy! The first couple of days back to work after a week of vacation = no stamping time. So here's a card I made a while back for Lindsey's Ways to Use it Challenge to use bird stamps. It's Lila's fault, really...she made me buy this set.

I inked up the birdie from Birds Galore (sadly not in stock at the moment) with three different chalk inks. The bird's belly is inked up with Chestnut Roan cat eye chalk inkpad, then I added Dark brown on the back, top of the head, and tail. The "leaves" are Aquamarine cat's eye and Agean Blue Versamagic. (I find that all my Inkadinkado clear stamps work better with chalk ink.) I stamped him on Pearlized Cream shimmer cardstock and embossed it with my Rectangle Nesties. The card base is an A Muse notcard I got at Stamp Salado in June, and the final touch is the A Muse sentiment (one of my faves!) in the bottom right corner in Dark Brown Colorbox Chalk ink.

Hopefully you guys are having a great week...and fingers crossed for stamping time tomorrow! Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Birds Galore (Inkadinkado), Sentiment from A Muse

Paper: Madeira Blue 4 Bar Note Card (A Muse), Pearlized Cream, Prism Suede Brown Dark

Ink: Colorbox Dark Brown, Chestnut Roan, Aquamarine, Versamagic Agean Blue

Accessories: Nestabilities, Sponges, Stampamajig, Pop Dots

Livin' on sponge cake...watching the sun bake...

I've had a limey week, so I decided to make myself this little postcard to put on my board at work to remind me to smile. Hope it makes you smile too!

Stamps: Margarita & Sentiment from A Muse Art Stamps

Paper: Old Olive, So Saffron, Watercolor

Ink: Distress Ink Tea Stain, Versafine ONyx Black

Accessories: Waterbrush & Reinkers, Stickles, Spiral Punch

Good Morning, Baltimore!

I watched Hairspray tonight!! Man, I love that movie. Both the old and the new, but the new one is more family friendly.

This is a card I made last week for the Color Challenge & Limited Supply Challenge. I realized today that I really didn't limit the layers...OOPS. Sorry, Jen. I had a really tough time with these colors, it's still not my fave. Yall know how I feel about Bashful Blue! Ick. (Don't flame me!!!)

So when Zoofari was in the preview brochure, I hated it. Then I heard someone say that the birds looked constipated, and I immediately thought of this sentiment from A Muse. I had to get this set!!! So I hope you like it. It makes me giggle, anyway. *grin*

This is shaping up to be a crazy week with not much time to stamp...keep your fingers crossed for me! Have a great Tuesday!


Stamps: Zoofari, A Muse Greeting
Paper: Papertrey White, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Basic Grey, Basic Black
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, White Colorbox Cats Eye
Accessories: Taffeta Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch, Black Sakura Glaze Pen

Zoofari Birthday

I made this card late last night for my SIL's birthday. Why I chose to do Zoofari in Pumpkin and Blue Bayou, I have absolutely no idea. I love the way it turned out, except I think the lighting in my room needs to be changed. Why? I mistakenly thought the green organdy ribbon matched the Wasabi I used for the grass. Not so much this morning... But the rest of it was good, so I thought I'd keep it and maybe try to fix it later. This was the first time I'd tried heating up the ribbon to make it curl, and it was soooo fun!

The card base is Papertrey Stamper Select White Cardstock, with a Pumpkin Pie layer stamped with my Paisley BG stamp in the same ink. I sponged the edges with Pumpkin and then again with Chocolate Chip to soften the edges. Then I cut the Blue Bayou layer, stamped it with my Canvas BG stamp, and pierced the edges for some faux stitching. Then I stamped the Splendiferous Day sentiment in Stampin Up White Craft Ink. I tied the ribbon on and glued that down on top.

The main image was masked and stamped in Palette Hybrid Noir on Papertrey White Cardstock. I colored them with my Prismacolor Pencils and Odorless Mineral Spirits, and then sponged the sky (with Soft Sky, what else?) and the grass with Celery. Distressed, sponged, and pierced the edges, added more faux stitching, and then layered on a distressed piece of Chocolate Chip CS. Popped the main image up with pop dots, and whew! I think that's about it.

I'm probably going to be MIA for the next few days. I may pop in, but I'm going to Austin again for another trade show for work. Hoping to take some stuff with me to "de-stress"...but the last time I was there I did 3 things: Work, Eat, and Sleep. Fingers crossed that I get a little more down time than that!

Stamps: Zoofari, Paisley, Canvas, Splendiferous Day (A Muse), and Grass (A Muse)
Ink: Palette Hybrid Noir, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Blue Bayou, Sky Blue, White Craft
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Blue Bayou, Papertrey Stampers Select White
Accessories: Ribbon (May Arts - white, green unknown), Heat gun, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack, Chocolate Chip Stampin Write Marker, Pop Dots, Distressing Tool

ATC's are Fun!

I tried posting these last night but couldn't for some strange reason. My internet is just wacko. These are the ATC's I made for Jen del Muro's ATC swap. I had fun making them although I stressed A LOT about the design, and made 4 different ones before settling on this one. I really wanted to do the constipated birds from Zoofari (aka Zoofart), but these were the best...I hope!

ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) are fairly easy to make. Jen wrote a tutorial here. My only challenge was the small size, which I'm not totally used to. But, I digress. I stamped the A Muse tree/hammock in Palette Hybrid Noir on Paper Accents Pearlized White Cardstock. Then I watercolored the image with Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, Tempting Turquoise, River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Soft Sky Classic Ink. (I hate to admit that I didn't like Soft Sky at first...now I'm learning to LOVE it!!) This cardstock is a DREAM to watercolor on...you'll be able to order it from Verve Visual very soon!!! I then added Liquid Pearls to make a kind of "seafoam" effect, since I didn't have any Liquid Applique, and dotted the coconuts as well.

Now...I've been promising big news and I haven't told you what it is yet. I have been selected to be on the Design Team for Verve Visual!!! This is a brand spankin new company that's amazing...I can't wait for you to see everything that's coming from them! But you have to wait just a little bit longer!

The sentiment is from their first stamp set, Thoughtful Phrases, which I love!! Look how perfectly it fits in my Word Window Punch from SU! How awesome is that?! Be on the lookout for more awesome stuff from my DT package this week! You don't wanna miss it!!

Anywhoo...I punched out a space for the sentiment, stamped it on Groovy Guava in Palette Hybrid Noir, and layered the whole piece onto Chocolate Chip CS. Add some brads, twine, & foam mounting tape, added a Soft Sky layer & I was all done! Soo....do you think this is worthy of greatness? Cause, seriously, you should see the people I'm swapping with.....I'm veclempt.