FTL151, LIM26 - Feeling Fruity

Time for a new Less is More challenge - and for the first time I made a card on the day the challenge posted!    This particular challenge was to use fruit on a CAS card and my while my selection of fruit stamps is very limited I managed to find an apple in the a muse|studio School Days set that was up for the challenge.

Used a somewhat modified version of the current sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping.  The black gingham paper added the perfect background touch to ground the stack of apples.  The scallop was cut with the middle die from Scallop Border dies set.  School will be starting up in a couple of weeks - I'll be needing teacher cards again and this one is easy to reproduce in a hurry. . .

All supplies used in this card are available in my a muse|studio online shop!

psst - wanna know a secret?   a muse|studio is going to be releasing a supplemental catalog with new stuff including stamp sets, dies, cardstock/ink/ribbon, patterned paper, baker's twine and even felt!!  This 44 page supplemental catalog won't be going live until August 22nd but if you are nice to me and ask pretty please I can e-mail you a .pdf file of it!!  Just e-mail me at msmathey@gmail.com if you want to peek and start your wish list.

LIM25, FS233 - Featured Stamper: Jennie Moczan

Listen - Do you hear them?  Crickets chirping on my blog - I haven't had a chance to craft in about a week and that is too long!!  BTW - you can usually literally hear crickets in my house since we have to keep them to feed Clyde (the Bearded Dragon).  Anyway, this week's SCS Featured Stamper is Jennie Moczan - I am a big fan of her CAS style (she is on the SCS CAS Design team) and we were both A Muse Instructors.  This card is the one I chose to CASE and I was also able to incorporate the Less is More Challenge to use ribbon/button.

All supplies are from a muse|studio and are available in my online shop - Stamp sets (Hearts a Plenty, Hand Scripted) - Ink (Grass, Buttercup, Orange, Cherry, Blueberry) - Ribbon (1/4" Sugar Organdy Polka-dot Ribbon).
psst - wanna know a secret?   a muse|studio is going to be releasing a supplemental catalog with new stuff including stamp sets, dies, cardstock/ink/ribbon, patterned paper, baker's twine and even felt!!  This 44 page supplemental catalog won't be going live until August 22nd but if you are nice to me and ask pretty please I can e-mail you a .pdf file of it!!  Just e-mail me at msmathey@gmail.com if you want to peek and start your wish list.

Moxie Fab World Challenge - Fanatical About Botanical

Time for another Moxie Fab Challenge - Fanatical About Botanical!  Most botanical prints are really fabulously overblown with gobs of frilly details and I imagine most cards inspired by this subject will be too, so I opted to challenge myself to make a CAS botanical card.  When I go to natural history museums I am invariably drawn to the big displays of bugs in glass cases - so many varieties of insects, their sizes, colors and iridescence are always fascinating to me so I decided to make that the focus of my card.

First stop was a trip to see The Graphics Fairy - if you haven't been in her domain yet be prepared to spend some time looking through the thousands of vintage images she has uploaded - amazing and free!!  I downloaded several promising bugs and used PSE7 to arrange them into an aesthetically pleasing grid which was then printed onto vellum.  After the vellum dried I layered it onto a slightly larger piece of ivory cardstock stamped with the retired Cornish Heritage Farms (Art Nouveau Backgrounder) inked in a muse|studio Wheat pigment ink.

Look closely and you can see the difference that bit of stamping did in adding some elegance to my bugs' habitat! Added a punny sentiment that was part stamped (a muse|studio Essential Sentiments) and part stickers (Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey) and attached it to the cardfront with staples which remind me of the little pins they use to hold the insects in place in these displays.  Pretty cool - and no insects were harmed in the making of this card!!

TLC334 - Color Blocking

This week's Try a New Technique at SCS is Color Blocking (with a Twist) - Since I've never color blocked I opted for the easy choice offered - just stamp a block into ink and then directly onto the cardstock.  Next time I'll try the twist part - twist seemed scary to me today - baby steps right?  hee hee
All supplies are from a muse|studio (Making a Difference stamp set; Ocean, Bermuda ink; Sky gingham patterned paper; Onyx pearls) and available in my online shop.

psst - wanna know a secret?   a muse|studio is going to be releasing a supplemental catalog with new stuff including stamp sets, dies, cardstock/ink/ribbon, patterned paper, baker's twine and even felt!!  This 44 page supplemental catalog won't be going live until August 22nd but if you are nice to me and ask pretty please I can e-mail you a .pdf file of it!!  Just e-mail me at msmathey@gmail.com if you want to peek and start your wish list.

SCS Featured Stamper - Teri Anderson

This week's Featured Stamper on SCS is none other than Teri Anderson!!  Did you know she is my most favorite  Paper Crafts Go-to Gal??!!  I remember the first time she commented on my blog I about fell out!  Teri uses tools in the most original way and can make a chipboard letter squeal with joy!!

I decided to CASE this card and match it up with a couple other challenges - Paper Crafts Color Inspiration Challenge #7 and the Less is More - Circles challenge.  Stamped with my brand spanking new PTI Mehndi Medallion stamp set that my friend Roni surprised me with - the circles were cut out with 3/4" and 1 1/4" punches.

I was having so much fun stamping that I made another card and added the line frame that I learned how to make from Nichole Heady on this video.
It is HOT around here but at least it isn't as hot as it was a couple weeks ago.  Look what our newspaper reported:  "Owensboro had the highest city heat index reading in the country Monday afternoon (7/11), according to the Weather Channel, with a reported heat index of 116 degrees.  The reading, reported via the Weather Channel’s Twitter feed, was topped just a half-hour later. The National Weather Service office at Paducah reported that Owensboro’s heat index at 4 p.m. was 123."

PDCC90, CFC11 - Sweets and Treats

I made this card on Friday but have been so busy that I didn't get a chance to post it until tonight and it is past 11PM!!  Two challenges are involved - CAS-ual Fridays (Sweets and Treats) and the Play Date Cafe Color Challenge (Eggplant, Orangesicle and Fuscia).

I decided to use the a muse|studio Sweet Love stamp set for the image and sentiment and make some "faux stitching" by embossing the zigzag from Mad for Plaids in white.

A little crystal clear glaze makes the globe look glass and a pink twinkle heart adds a bit of sparkle.

All supplies are available in my online a muse\studio shop!

a muse|studio spotlight

It is time for a new a muse|studio spotlight - each month, selected stamp sets will share the spotlight with a gorgeous color palette to create projects that showcase the versatility of paper crafting.  Click here to learn more!!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger - Perty and Flirty

Today's card is for this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger - Perty and Flirty pictured below.  Mimicking the soft movement and flow of that coat with the pop of black had me thrown for a while but then I decided to make a paper "rose" with a black stamen.  There is a great video tutorial for this flower here.

I've made these flowers gobs of times and even taught them in class - so fun to see someone think that they could never make a 3-d rose from paper and then marvel at their end result!!

I use the BIG flower punch from Marvy Uchida and some soft a muse|studio Buttercup cardstock.  The entire spring collection of papers make me so happy - so sweet and soothing!  The Martha Stewart Fringe scissors made creating the stamens a breeze.  Here's how you do it -

A 3/4" wide strip of black cardstock was cut repeatedly to make the ruffly center - obviously, you could use regular scissors but if you do I will beat you in a "stamen making" race for sure - and then rolled up and secured with a dab of glue.

The pale pink background is stamped in a muse|studio shell ink (Cornish Heritage Farms Art Nouveau Backgrounder) and layered onto a solid piece of shell cardstock.  The sentment (a muse|studio Hand Scripted) is finished off with one tiny black twinkle sticker.  All in all, I am quite pleased with this card.  I was able to mimic the clean and simple aesthetic of the inspiration picture and still get the movement and pop of black I was after.  Hope you are having a terrific Friday!!

OLW62: Make it Personal

This week's One-Layer Wednesday Challenge is to Make It Personal. In other words, make a card for a particular person that is custom designed for him or her.  I have a rather twisted sense of humor and decided to use a photo transfer technique to make a "get well" card for someone special that has a kidney infection.

In fact, I even bought an old copy of Gray's Anatomy to make cards like this - wish I'd had it when my mom broke her wrist!!  I don't have a laser printer but that didn't stop me - just copy a picture with your inkjet printer and then lay it face down onto a card front that has a generous coating of gel medium.  Burnish with a bone folder and then peel off the top layer of paper.  Pretty easy - however, be prepared for the writing to be backwards.  I added sentiments from a muse|studio's Doctor's Orders stamp set and rounded opposing corners.  This type of card isn't for everyone but the person for whom this card is intended will "get it" and I hope gets well soon!!

CAS126 - Skirt Inspiration

Today's card was brought to you by the letter "I" for inspiration (more on that later).  Anyhoo, the layout is based on the current SCS Clean and Simple Challenge 126 and features Baker's Twine (charcoal) which is the challenge for the CARDS blog this week.

a muse|studio Squash and Toffee cardstock combine with patterned paper cut with the largest of the a|s scallop border set.  An enthusiastic sentiment from the Monogram Frames stamp set finishes things off.  Do you like that patterned paper?  It came from this. . .

 which was inspired by this. . .

my skirt that I had on Sunday.  I love this skirt and have often commented on the design - so I finally grabbed my watercolor crayons and some black acrylic paint and had a go at it.  I've FINALLY figured out that an art journal is supposed to be fun - not an exercise in attempting perfection.  Obviously I am slow - all of you figured that out ages ago, right?  My dabbling at painting/playing then led to this. . .

A super bright art journal page with a great quote by William Gifford.  I have no clue who this man is but he definitely summed up my feelings!

Isn't that quote fabulous??!!  I definitely don't do much more than scribble but it is something that will be featured more on the blog in the coming months.  As a treat I am taking a couple of Carla Sonheim's online classes - I love her book and the ability she has of making artistic, whimsical animals/people.  I am so excited about it- when I first started stamping about 5 years ago it satisfied all the creative "itches" that I had, but now with more time passing I find that I enjoy so many, many things - and I want to try them all!!

OLW61, LIM23 - Hello

Super busy week but I couldn't let two of my "favorite-ist" challenges go unplayed.  The One Layer Wednesday challenge (http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/07/week-23-one-layer.html) this week is to use clouds and the Less is More challenge (http://stylesink.ca/2011/07/05/olw-clouds/) is "Something with Legs" - so here you have it - a deer with legs under some clouds.  Wish I had the energy for something more creative but how cute is that deer standing on his Washi tape "grass"?  I asked my husband for a list of "things with legs" and he said spiders.  I asked for another thing and he said mice. So if you are not enamored with a card featuring a deer with legs under some clouds than you can picture it with a spider/mouse with legs under some clouds - just a friendly suggestion.  Hope your weekend is going great!!

All supplies used on this card are available through 

my online a muse|studio shop!

Blogger is doing something weird with my links - huh?

Art Journal - Poppies

I didn't much feel like stamping tonight so I finished up a page in my art journal - I drew some "poppies" inspired by Donna Downey.  She is so cool - LOVE her Inspiration Wednesday videos!

Connor asked me if I meant to write around the edges of the pages - he said that it was too hard to read (partly cause I have bad handwriting and partly cause I painted over parts of it) - These are the quotes that I wrote:

It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy.  It is what you think about.

Happiness is not the absence of problems but the ability to deal with them.

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.

Stay committed to your decisions but stay flexible in your approach.

Courage is doing what you are afraid to do.  The can be no courage unless you are afraid.

Connor said, "Wow, mom.  That is deep.  It made me think and I haven't had to think in days."  Can you tell he is on summer vacation?
On a completely different note - my card made it into the Sketch ShowCASe at the Less is More - a clean and simple challenge blog.  WHOO HOO!!  I don't know how I manage to have "clean and simple" in the same brain as I have "painty and layered" - maybe that's why I  get headaches!  LOL!

LIM22 - Blue!

Quick post today- Gotta run some errands.  This card is for the Less Is More challenge to use BLUE.  I am not a huge fan of that color and I tried to mix it up by using a several different values of blue - remember when it was a huge "NO NO" to mix blue with turquoise - seems like these days anything goes with color mixing so I tried it out - Still trying to decide if I like it or not.  I think I just weirded myself out with blue leaves.

All supplies are available in my

online a muse|studio store!!

FTL147, CFC9 - You nailed it!!

WHOO HOO - Look at all that kraft paper!!  I love kraft paper - and was really excited to see this week's CAS-ual Friday challenge to make a masculine card featuring kraft paper.

The layout from Clean & Simple Stamping seemed the perfect backdrop for the a muse|studio Tool-rific stamp set.

I used my crimper since a masculine card shouldn't have any bling or ribbon but needed a bit of texture.  The medium Pinking Die added the fun "zigzag" border.   

All supplies are available in my

online a muse|studio shop!