Another Cat's Pajamas

Here's another with a Cat's PJs stamp. This one is a get well card (I'm a professor... I get a lot of sick students!). Pretty basic here.

HoneyRock

HoneyRock is a summer camp in northern Wisconsin run by Wheaton College. Kids from fourth grade through high school can take part in summer programs which range from more standard, residential camp programs to wilderness "outward-bound" type adventures. Much of the residential camp programing and counseling is lead by Wheaton College students. As a Wheaton faculty member, one of my roles is to nurture their leadership and help with training these leaders. It is one of the best parts of my job!

This summer, I sent them cards to encourage them and remind them that I was praying for them. Here's a sample of my "HoneyRock" cards.

All the stamps are A Muse (camper; tent; trees; fire; s'more). The card on the right are hand-drawn trees (with watercolor pencils) until I broke down and bought the tree stamp!

I love this stamp!

I love this "cruisin" stamp by A Muse! Love, love, love it! Here's another card with it. I tried masking again (not my best technique) with the lampost (also A Muse). Not a bad result. I used chalks for the ground and sky color.

I'm not thrilled on the papers and ribbon combo-- went overboard I think. But usable none-the-less!

Why buy when you can use someone else' stamps?

My sister, mom, and I are all stampers and all live within an hour's drive of each other. So, makes it convenient to use each other's toys! Here's my version of my sister's margarita glass!

Glass and sentiment by A Muse. Flipflop along border is Great Impressions. I just trimmed off a bit from the front to reveal the border inside.

I used Stickles glitter around the rim for the sugar/salt look.

Everything old is new again... re-introducing Tiny!

I haven't used this All Night Media stamp ("Tiny") in quite a while. You know how it is... you start to play favorites with your stamps! Well, I just got a cute sentiment from Cat's Pajamas that reads, "What part of meow don't you get?". So, out came Tiny to be the front of that card!


It's pretty basic- just added a bit of Stickles glitter on the flowers and the ribbon is attached with a deco staple. All done!

The Cat's Pajamas

I suppose if you read through the blog, it appears I ONLY use A Muse stamps. Not true. Grant, I have a LOT of A Muse, but I've got some others too. Here's one with an image from Cat's Pajamas.

I really like the way the "framed" image came out. I stamped originally on white, mounted it on the purple (only thin framing left). Then, I mounted again on the yellow, leaving more of it showing, and finally on turquoise (again, only minimally revealed). So.. yes, the image is mounted on 3 other pieces but I like how it turned out.

To get background color on the image, I used chalks for the grass and the sky. Love my chalks-- color without the intensity of the markers!

The angle was just for fun and the ribbon and punched out flower just for flash. Something different than a center mount on all-one background as per my usual. The flower is actually 3 punched out flowers (in orange, red, and green) and can rotate to get slightly different color (mounted by brad with foam dot).

Sentiment is A Muse... can't totally abandon ship! hehehehe!

The Bakery Series

As anyone in my family can attest, if there's one food I love in the world, it's pastries from the Orland Park Bakery. So, when I saw A Muse's bakery stamp, I HAD to have it! Love it!

Each fall, I mentor a group of freshman women who are entering Wheaton College (where I am a professor). I like to send them cards on occasion to perk up the day. In this age of cell phones and email, I think the students get less in their post boxes than we did when I was student. But, with a group of 9, the design has to be simple enough to duplicate without going crazy. Here's my first set of this year's group. I call it the bakery series.

The stamps are all by A Muse. I used A Muse's 4 x 4 cards (A Muse 4 x 4 card (Lime peel - asterix or the blue one... can't recall it's name!) as a base and applied the striped paper at the bottom and used the same paper on the awnings. I tried it with and without awning, straight or "lampshade" angle awning. Not sure which I like best but with 9 there had to be some alterations!

I used the "Hey cupcake" and tiny cupcake (both A Muse) inside with a "creative candy" (also A Muse) to top it off!

A Day at the Beach

I honestly planned on giving up the blog after the A Muse challenges, but alas, still at it. It's a great way to keep my card ideas even after I send them out. I mean, heck, we make these little pieces of art and then send them off into the world. But this way, I still keep the ideas and it makes me less reluctant to horde them!


This was an experiment that worked! I took a regular half-sheet card size (half 8.5 x 11 sheet) but instead of an even fold, I folded about 2.5 inches for front and then about 1.75 inside. When you open, the stamped image on top hangs over the edge. Then, on the inside, the stamped sentiment hangs up over the edge. Underneath, when all the way open, blank for writing.

The beach stamp is by Hero Arts ("A day at the beach") and the sentiment is A Muse.

Miscommunication at A Muse?

I'm wondering if something went awry over at A-Muse-A-Palooza? In the posting for this week's challenge (see earlier blog entry), it said the prize was a mystry. But, when the newsletter arrived yesterday, there was this picture--->

That's the prize for the silly celebrations challenge! Errrr and I won a MUG! I want that one! I want A Muse for my prize. But, I guess winners ought not be whiners!

For more on the challenge, see http://www.amuseapalooza.com/

Challenge 8: Wacky Holiday #4 (Responsibility is overrated day!)

For my 4th entry this week, I declare today, "Responsibility is overrated day!" Won't we all love to throw the bills out the window, not think about insurance, ignore the mortgage thoughts, hop in a convertible, and CRUISE! Okay, maybe that's just my day!

Here, I stamped Cruisin' (an A Muse stamp I ADORE), then masked it to stamp the brownstone (A Muse) 4 times to create a block feel. I colored each a bit differently, in an attempt to hide the sameness of this block. : ) I used a bit of glitter on the windows to get some shine though didn't show up well in the photo. Also, I'm still playing with chalks to create some color on street and sky.

So, ignore the emissions test; forget about unemployment; who cares about figuring out mortgage rates! Relax, it's your day! And, remember, responsibility is overrated!