now this

nearly made me pee in my pants. really.
http://dsharp.typepad.com/dsharp/2008/07/uh-oh.html


back soon with something crafty ... i just have to over come the trauma i faced the last time i was down at my craft desk ... let's just say the cats left me a tiny, gray, DEAD conquest under my desk. zzzzzz! YUK!

is this thing on?

ok. first, this makes me happy. really happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpcUxwpOQ_A

second. i recently remembered how to stamp ... and that it makes me happy too.

see ...

(everything by A Muse except pumpkin & vanilla paper by SU!)

but this ... this last thing makes me the most happy ... even if he has kept me from stamping for a while.

ga ga ga goo!

ROCK CHALK CHAMPS!!

They won!!!!! National Champions. What an awesome game. Mario Chalmers is my new hero!!

ROCK!

CHALK!

JAYHAWK!

KU!!!

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEAH!!!

IN YOUR FACE ROY WILLIAMS!!!!!

GO HAWKS!!!!


(***delurking momentarily from my baby-growing, house-selling, no-stamp time INSANITY to cheer for my boys!!!!****)

Peep!

Hi! It's me again. And this time I have a tiny little bit o' stamping to share. My youngest sister is graduating from college today! Woo hoo. I'm so proud of her (even if she did go to "the school that shall not be named"). Here's the card that I made for her ...

The sentiment is by A Muse and the skull image is from Just Johanna. The rest of what I used is pretty standard. There's stardust pen on the outline of the skull ... it looks RAD but didn't show up in my scan.

Meanwhile, I am just floundering in unfinished Christmas tasks. I thought that since last year I made thirty GORGEOUS Christmas cards that I never sent I'd be ahead of the game this year but not so much. {Remind me to post those cards. They are so B.A. (bad a$$), if I do say so myself, which is not what I usually am able to say about cards (etc) I made a year ago.} Anyway, beyond cards, I have Christmas presentos to buy and teacher/therapist thank you's to make and write and finish and my house to clean and on and on and on it goes. Thankfully my oldest is really really PSYCHED about Santa Claus this year and that is making things SO much fun. Just one small example here, we have the most AWESOME leverage (ie, being put on the naughty list) when he can't stop talking about "poopoo heads" at the dinner table. Suh-WEEET!

Don't forget to check this out ... there's a chance to win some goodies.

My Other Big Announcement!

It's up! Go here to check it out. What an honor and privilege! Thanks to everyone over there!

Where in the world ...

have I been? Well, the short answer is on my couch. That sounds really lame so let me offer further explanation. I've been spending some serious quality time in sofa city because of this ...

Seriously! And along with the joy and excitement of anticipating kiddo number three (!!!) has been lots and lots of nausea. It's been like feeling the worst motion sickness ever, continuously for the last two months and counting. Ironically, I've been feeling slightly better in the mornings lately. I won't bore y'all with any more details, since this is a craft-blog after all? Suffice to say, I have managed to eke out a tad bit of creativity here and there when I wasn't all consumed by my morning-sickness-couch-coma and I am hoping to post a bit of it soon. I also have something coming up SOON that I'm really excited about. AND lastly, in an effort to bribe myself back into the good graces of the last two or three people out there reading this blog, I have a BLOG CANDY GIVE-AWAY. Yeah! Free stuff coming soon!


Last but not least, I want to offer a big, public apology to any of you LOVELY, THOUGHTFUL people who've emailed or commented during my "hiatus." I am super lame for not emailing back and thank you for your thoughts and concern.

Forgive me blogger ...

for I have sinned. It has been NINE days since my last post. I have really good excuses for not blogging. BUT I'll spare you and just post some cards I made (and am really happy with) instead. I'm donating ten cards to a fundraiser that's going to be held at the beginning of November. The gal who asked me to do it put the value at $40!!! Yikes!! Anyway, here are the first two ... (aka the only two so far!)


There are tiny rhinestones in the flower centers and larger rhinestones in the corners. The background flowers were dotted with stardust gel pen. I may have gone a touch overboard with the sponging ... but I still like the card overall.

Deets: All materials by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stardust gel pen by sakura and rhinestone stickers by paper salon (??).


This next card may look familiar but I was so proud of the original that I figured it needed a reprise! I don't know how you can not love this (enormous) stamp. It's so much fun! The tub is covered in IIEP and so are the bottles. I covered the bubbles with crystal effects which made them SUPER shiny (yah!) but it also made them look a tad gray (boo!). I think I like this layout even better than the first.

Deets: All materials by SU! unless otherwise noted. Babs by Rubber Romance, Relax sentiment by A Muse. Silver sparkle gel pen by sakura. Cheap-o white brads from Hobby Lobby.


Alright ... back to work with me ... I have mucho to finish this week! Also I received my amuseaddicts bumper card from Kelly H (some cool ATC's--thanks!) and more birthday cards and BRAKs than I know what to do with so I will post those soon also! I'm so grateful to everyone who's sent me a card! What a great birthday! I'll post about my birthday at length soon. It was F.U.N.!!!

Not my own work ...

I feel so fortunate to be receiving such wonderful mail this week. Here are a few cards from some wonderful stampers. These first three cards are birthday RAK's through the amuseaddicts yahoo group. They are each really special and I am so grateful!! Thank you ladies!

I just got two more in the mail today so hopefully I'll get them photographed and uploaded tonight.

I also received a wonderful RAK from Tami Wood (A Muse Instructor Extraordinaire!) She sent these super fun ATC's ... aren't they awesome?!

Tami also sent this totally fab Halloween card. Check out all the fun details: the inside is stamped, notched and has floss (?) ... so cool. The entire card is just so much fun. I especially love how she used the brackets ... what a great idea. THANK YOU TAMI!!!


The only problem with all these cards is that it's really adding a lot of stamps to my wish list!!! Seriously. Thanks everyone!

Lastly but not leastly ... I hope everyone saw the big announcement over at Linda's blog today. My best gal TISHA is one of the elite members of A Muse's new clear design team. All I can say is WAH-HOOO!!!! Congrats girl! Miss Tish is an extremely talented stamper who manages to make all of it (stamping, motherhood, friendship etc) look easy and fun. She rocks.

Gracias.

Here's a quick little card I did over the weekend. I know it was inspired by a card Elena did a long while back -- that gal has SKILLZ! I had a lot of fun with this card and BONUS I finally gave my prismacolor markers a little attention.

Here's a photo of the card closed ...


And here it's completely unfolded ...

Deets: All stamps, paper and embellishments by A Muse; ink is black staz on and color box chalk ink; prismacolor markers, sakura stardust gel pen and black glae pen and ribbon from ???.

We had kind of a long day today (to say the least) so I just vegged tonight. Tomorrow, I'm getting back downstairs and revving up the stamp space in preparation for World Card Making Day (also known as, the day before my birthday). Ha! (It's starting to get annoying that I keep mentioning that isn't it?!?!?)

And even more cards.

Here's a card I did tonight with my NEW A Muse stamps (that is my second most favorite phrase in the world, the first being "free new a muse stamps"! Duh!). I have had this card in my head for weeks now and am so relieved to have finally made this card. It was so much fun to make.

First a few comments on the card ... I outlined everything with my almost amethyst SU marker. I think it added a really nice, kinda weird glow. There's glitter on the edges of the ghosts and dotting the witch and clear glaze on the bottle. The orange ribbon and the orange harlequin PLP match in real life, honest! This whole card was made possible by contributions from my stamp-a-ma-jig and inspiration from superstar stamper Lexi Daly (who had the great idea to have the ghosts emerging from a [poison] bottle --see her card here.)

Deets: All images, ribbon and orange harlequin paper by A Muse; all other paper, ink and glitter by Stampin' Up!, clear glaze and quickie glue pen by sakura.

Here are the two cards I made for my neighbor (aka my best and only customer!) last week. She wanted ones similar to cards I made here and here. I obliged but also changed things up. I think she was happy with these too. Thanks to Tisha (the bomb!) for the eyelet/ribbon idea. I felt like something was missing on the last card and this totally worked!

Deets: All images by A Muse; All paper, ink, IIEP and ribbon by SU!; silver sparkle and stardust gel pen by sakura; oval and circle punches by SU, rectangle punch (layered twice) by marvy; eyelets by WeR, copper stickles.

This card is pretty straight up.

Deets: All images by Stamping Bella; patterned paper by Luxe(?); rest of paper, ribbon and ink by SU, brads by american crafts, key tag punch by SU, scalloped oval punches by marvy, clear glaze and stardust gel pen by sakura.

Thanks, as ever, for visiting.

Crazy Blogger!

Please check out my post "Last two old cards". It's two posts down from here (or just click that link). I just don't understand blogger sometimes. Sheesh.

More birthday cards ...

Here are the other two cards I did for my neighbor last week. I guess she liked them well enough to ask me for two more. She wanted one like the grumpabella card I did in the last post and one with the A Muse hammock here. I will take photos and post those as soon as I can.

Before I get started though, who else watched the premiere of the Office? Oh have mercy that was funny. Holy moly!! SO, so good. "I'm not superstitious, I'm only a little stitious." Ha!

Alright. This one is pretty straight up. The colors are pixie pink, pink passion and celery. Aww, yeh. And all I have to say is "welcome back big and little pieces" ... I felt like I was having flash backs to Christmas using these!!!

Deets: Stamps by Stampin' Up!, A Muse, and Lockhart; Paper and Ink by SU!, ribbon by ???, liquid applique and stardust gel pen.

Now this card may feel a little "been there done that" to me (who has seen every stamper and her auntie do the "cuttlebug swirls as ocean waves" trick) but my neighbor was REALLY impressed. Who doesn't love that feeling? This card needed something else but I was in a pinch time wise when I finished it. I think the "re-make" I did tonight is better. I'll post it soon.

Deets: All stamps by A Muse; Paper, punches, saffron brad and ink by SU!; cuttlebug swirls embossing folder, sakura stardust gel pen, and copper stickles.

I also plopped down some of my squirreled away stamping money and bought a few new stamps today (online). Hopefully, it'll all arrive next week and I can heat up the new rubber! Also my sister and my neffy-poos are coming for a visit (wahhoooo! my 4 year old is going to be on cloud nine!!!) and they're getting here a week from this Sunday (cough, cough ... my birthday ... cough, cough).

Birthday Series

My neighbor asked me to make 5 birthday cards for her recently. They were going to three guys and two gals, one of which was turning 90! She said they were well received ... actually I think she said everyone thought they were "interesting." Hmmmm .... I think I'll take that as a compliment. Anyway here are the first three.


It might be a little hard to tell but the front flap of this card is about one inch shorter than the back flap and I added a little margin of black for emphasis. And NO, I did not totally mess up the placement of the sentiment on the front and end up cutting it off in a last ditch effort to salvage the card. Why do you ask?

Deets: All stamps and ribbon by A Muse. All paper, glitter and ink by Stampin' Up! Stardust gel pen and quickie glue pen by Sakura.



I love how this card turned out but I am not sure that grumps SCREAMS birthday. I hope the recipient enjoyed it.

Deets: All stamps by Stamping Bella. All paper and ink by Stampin' Up! Punches by marvy. Stardust gel pen by sakura and ribbon by ????



My neighbor wanted "funny" cards. Yeah ... I don't have a lot of stamps that scream Shoebox but I thought this one sorta worked. Funny, punny, whatever!

Deets: All stamps by A Muse. All paper by SU and Basic Gray. All ink, glitter and ribbon by SU. Punches by marvy and SU. Quickie glue pen by sakura.


I hope you enjoyed these cards. Does anyone want to come over tonight and help me crank out 30 or so moving announcements??? Anyone? No one??? Ha ha ha! I'll be sure to post that moving card tomorrow. I like the layout now but after all this mass production I have the feeling I'm not going to be quite so fond tomorrow.


Ciao!

Last two old cards ...

Here are the last two cards I did during my recent FRENZY! This first is a moving announcement I'm doing for a very dear friend of mine. She's an extremely classy gal and I hope this "worked" for her. It's a really really simple card (the way to go when you're mass producing, don't you agree?!).

Deets: All images A Muse, All paper & ink by SU!, ribbon and detail white ep by ???, punch by marvy.

Here's my bumper card for Tinla over at the AMuseAddicts yahoo group. She sent me an email saying she'd received this card so now I can finally post it. I'm super pleased with this card and am very relieved that Tinla did too!

Deets: All images by A Muse; patterned paper by love, elsie; solid paper, slit punch and ink by stampin' up; brads and rhinestone from paper salon; white glaze, silver sparkle and silver gel pens by sakura; scalloped rectangle punch by marvy.

In other retail therapeutic news, Tisha and I went to the Rubber Stamp Harvest that was way out in Independence MO Friday night. For the most part the stamps and techniques (etc) showcased there are really not my style. I did however come home with a little something that if it hadn't been in my hot little hands I never (probably) would've bought! I bought the rectangle nestabilities!! They were as cheap as I've seen online and who can resist when someone says, at least you don't have to pay shipping!? Anyway, I'm excited to try them out ... I think they'll be quite versatile.

OK. I have at least one other card I need to photograph and post and then I'll be all caught up. I'll try to get to it tomorrow.

Saving some for later ...

I am NOT going to post every thing I've made in the last three days here all at once. I am going to try to post a little bit at a time. Especially since we have a thing on Wednesday night and this AND this are happening on Thursday (Eeee!) AND I have to get 30 moving announcements done before FRIDAY! Needless to say, I may not be able to get much stamping done otherwise this week. SO! Here is the first (of many) installment.

I am TOO TOO pleased with this card. Isn't it SO cute? I know I am going to be casing myself over and over again with this one. At the top of the hangers are light pink A Muse twinkle stickers. The brads were from sweet little Tami Wood (famed A Muse instructor and all around great gal). I am so stoked at how perfectly they match the Stampin' Up! Loves Me paper (it's retired-boo hoo). Gotta love that stamp-a-ma-jig!

Deets: Paper and Ink by Stampin' Up!, dotted scallop and maternity dress by A Muse, sentiment from small sayings by SU!

Next are two cards I've recieved from my cyber pal Liz (check out more of her fab stamping ----> here!). The one on the left was a bumper card from the amuseaddicts yahoo group. It's AWESOME!! Thank you so much LIZ!! The other is a sweet thank you she sent. I love the layout of that one so much.



OK. More tomorrow, I promise. I hope everyone enjoyed these. Have a great night!

ATC's and more

What a week!! I am going to distract myself by posting a bunch of cards and ATC's that I finished this week. Jeez! My stamping table hasn't seen this much action since A Muse A Palooza!

Here's a card I did for my niece who turned one on Sunday. I really like this card and it was totally inspired by this card (Tisha is so talented isn't she???!!!).

Deets: Stamps by A Muse; paper by SU, Bazzill, & Paper salon (?), Ink: stazon & SU!, punches by marvy & SU, ribbon and glitter by SU!


Here's the birthday card I made for my old man. It was his birthday yesterday. I wanted to use both these stamps but I didn't think they made any sense together until I glanced upwards and saw that unopened bottle of turquoise FLOCK on my shelf. **Insert tooting horns of inspiration** I just colored the monster in, added the A Muse twinkle heart, covered him with my quickie glue pen (kiss kiss, love that thing), dumped on a bootie load of flock, mushed the whole bootie load down and then tapped/flicked off the excess. VOILA! Click on the pic to see it a little closer up. Flock + Quickie Glue Pen = total bomb-ness.

Deets: Stamps and twinkle hearts by A Muse, ink and paper by SU, cheap-o brads from HL, punch by marvy, sakura stardust gel and quickie glue pen.


Next I have a couple of ATC swaps I did (and mailed at the very final moment -- sorry ladies). If you're in my group and you want to be surprised ... go no further. I was in a hurry to get a lot of this out the door so that is my excuse for the so so pictures.

Here's the first one. The color of this one seems off probably because I propped it up on my padded mailers. I really like this ATC otherwise.

Deets: Stamps by A Muse, Paper, Ribbon and Ink by SU, punches by marvy, liquid applique.


This is the second ATC. I did a twinkle sticker on one nose, black glaze pen on the top hat and ear muffs and glitter over the word "Cool" -- I hope everyone likes these.

Deets: Stamps and twinkle sticker by A Muse, Paper and Ink by SU!, glitter by ???, sakura black glaze pen and quickie glue pen.


I have at least 6 more cards (finished, I have that many and more TO MAKE!) to post ... maybe I'll try to spread it out over the next week since I am so sloo...ooo..ooow about posting these days.


I hope every one's Friday wraps up with at least one moment of peace and quiet. And, til next time, ciao!


Ps. Thanks Aura and Tami for your comments/posts. Too funny! Thanks for sharing!