Make My Teeth Ache Monday

It's time for another episode of Make Up Monday!  Yeah, it is starting to make me grit my teeth too.  Or anyway, it is today because I still have more of the never ending Wisteria kit to show off.  I am quite confident this is the last of it.

I mean I enjoyed the heck out of this set as I'm quite fond of purple and loved how it really sparked my creativity.  I just wished I had shared these back when I made them instead of letting the lot of them languish in the pending file.

The Fine Print: All cards inspired by and made with Club Scrap's Wisteria kit parts except for those noted below. Cards 1, 2, and 5 designer paper from my stash.  Card 1-punches by EK Success, greeting by A Muse Artstamps, and brads by Recollections. Card 2-corner punch by SU, flower sequins by Hero Arts and teeny tall brads by unknown. Card 3-die by Spellbinders. Card 4-flowers from my stash.  Card 5-brads by Recollections as far as I can recollect.

Let's All Scream....

..For Ice Cream!

I like how this card turned out.  The polkie dots made me think of sprinkles and of course all that yummy pink and happy scallops to mimic scoops of ice cream!  I also like the dual colors sponged onto the main image.  It came out like I had hoped and didn't get all muddy.

This card is for the chocolate lovers among us.  I know you are out there!  I was having fun playing with my new A Muse stuff from the brand new catalog (that makes me go "squee!").  Granted this chocolate greeting isn't new but I'm sure you have a chocolate greeting in your stash somewhere! I don't doubt you!

The Fine Print: All products by A Muse Studio unless otherwise indicated. Stamp sets-Here's the Scoop, Sprinkled with Love (for the you're so sweet greeting, which is actually too greetings pieced together) and Live on Chocolate (by A Muse Artstamps). Cardstock-Sugar, grapefruit petite polka dot, onyx, and cocoa. Dies-large scallop border die and nesting skinny ovals (Sizzix). Other products used: onyx stitched ribbon, onyx brads, French roast grosgrain ribbon, deckle scissors (Fiskars), and French roach button.

S is for Shitfaced

S is for shitfaced!  ...um. Wait.  No, that's not it.  And that right there is why the Snarky Sisters can't have anything nice, because random people like me come along and can't get anything straight.

What I meant to say is S is for STEAMPUNK!  So let's all jump on the trendy train and make something steampunk even if we only have a slight grasp of what that means.

I've got a dapper frog with a top hat and walking stick umbrella.  That's wacky and sci-fi enough to be steampunk.  Dark Victorian colors, check.  Random bits of metal, check.  Gears for that industrial feel, yep. Something by Tim Holtz... It must be steampunk!  Woo hoo!

Why not make something steamy and punky and join the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers for their steampunk challenge today?!  It runs until July 11 and who know, mayhaps you could be queen!

The Fine Print: Sir Toady of Blechleham by Stampendous, lacy circle die by Spellbinders, metal clip by Karen Foster (the crafty lady not the former playboy bunny), small paper clip, meal gears and corner mount by Tim Holtz, twine from A Muse Studio, paper and corrugated cardboard from my stash.

Happy July 4th

Somehow that whole Independence Day thing manages to sneak up on me every year. I have lots of fun papers and embellishments (not so many stamps however) that are all 4th of July themed, and I rarely get to use them because one day I'm minding my own business and the next day they are shooting off fireworks and giving me the day off work.

I managed to remember Independence Day was coming enough in advance to squeak out a few cards.  It helped that I had a new star themed die to play with.  I thought I'd try that hot trendy thing and piece parts of the die cut back in and boy, that's fiddly.

It does give you an excuse to immediately made two cards at once though, so there is that.  I made a couple more that looked like this one below.  I wanted to use that flag looking striped ribbon since I have a spool of it.  Yeah, two cards barely made a dent in it.

I also made this sweetie patriotic bear for a swap.  This is probably my favorite 4th of July stamp out of the few I own.  Hope you have a great July 4th, whether it is a holiday for you or not.

The Fine Print: Star border die by Memory Box, Uncle Sam hat by A Muse Artstanps, Hooray and patriotic teddy bear stamps by Rubbernecker, fat scalloped rectangle by Spellbinders, star dies by A Muse Studio.  Papers, ribbons, and star bling from my stash.

Watercolored Happiness

I've started a watercolor class on-line and been doing a wee bit of dabbling with it. I confess that up until now I don't think I've used a water brush before.  Those things are pretty nifty when paired with watercolor pencils. I see they take a bit of practice to get the right amount of water out of them, but really pretty easy to figure out.

I made this long skinny card (fits a business sized envelope) by coloring the images with watercolor pencil and then going over it with the water brush.  I then sponged the edges, added some ribbon and a paper flower and called it done.

The Fine Print: Butterfly stamp by Club Stamp, flowers by Prima, papers, ribbon and brad from my stash.  That's all she wrote!

July 2 Workdesk Wednesday

I haven't joined in Workdesk Wednesday for a long time so I thought it was time to jump in and snoop around.  I'll show you mine if you show me yours.  Seriously, if you haven't checked out WOYWW, as it is known, you should.  You get to see lots of crafting spaces, lots of projects in progress, and sometimes a delicious mess.

Sorry, no delicious mess here for you today because I spent last night cleaning off the top of the desk.  I had lost all available work space.  I couldn't take a "before" photo because the camera was lost in the rubble somewhere. Now there is lots of room to play and even some items sitting out ready to be played with.

These little ladies are on top of my desk, waiting for me to play with them.  They are from a new set from A Muse Studio called bathing beauties.  They are fun to paper piece and as you can see I got carried away making them.

I don't have a card of my own to show you so I'll show you the one I received in our mystery item card challenge from my big stamp group.  Every month if you chose, you receive an item and have to make a card with it.  You don't know what the item is until you receive it.  It was punched grass strands, which can be seen here as this ladies eyelashes.  It is so neat to see what people come up with to use the mystery item on.

That's it for me.  You may want to check out my post from yesterday as I have a give away on it.  It does require a little work on your part as you have to peruse some new stamps and tell me what you'd buy (horribly HARD work, I know).  If you don't feel like working you can at least say hi to the kitties.  They are all there.

The Fine Print: Mystery item card by Elizabeth Rascon. That's really all I got. I know a lot of you read down here to read something funny or snarky but I'm lacking in both fun and snark.  The bottle of allergy pills I took seemed to have killed those off (yet the nose runs on).

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!

Oh Em Gee! It's here! It's here!  The long-awaiting new A Muse Studio catalog is here and it's live and you can shop from it right now.  You can shop my website HERE or HERE or HERE. Yes, those are all the same link but I wanted you to feel like you had some options.

Look! The new catalog!

Yep, I'm checking it out.

Me too!

Have you guys seen the neat cat set?!

I'm so excited and I'm totally clueless what to buy from it first.  Check it out and let me know what you'd buy first and leave me a comment telling me what it is.  It doesn't matter if it is something old or something new; I'd like to hear what interests you.  Everyone who tells me what they'd get in the comments will be entered into a drawing to win the new 6" x 6" designer paper pack called "Fiesta."  You have until July 10 midnight on this blog (whatever time zone it thinks it is) to comment.  That drawing is open to everyone.  For those of you in the US who place an order of $25 or more (before tax and shipping) will get placed into a drawing for the Hola Amigo stamp set.  You have until July 31 to place that order.

The Hola Amigo set is featured above.  It has 13 cling mounted stamps including three shown in my card. Sorry, the mountains aren't a stamp.  I drew them in because the world is naked without mountains.  That's what happens when you live surrounded by them.

The Fine Print: All products by A Muse Studio. Stamps--Hola Amigo (new set); cardstock--Margarita (new color), Hibiscus (new color), and Papaya petite pinstripe; mountains sponged with cocoa ink; and images colored with Copic markers.  Santa Catalina mountains shown in photo swiped from Google images.  That's home.