Listen to this...

A Muse Class Schedule

All classes are held at Scattered Pictures in Portland, OR.  Click here for more information on each of these classes. Hope to see you there!

• Wednesday, November 18th, 6pm-7:30pm - Make it Merry!
• Saturday, November 21st, 10:30am-12:30pm - Christmas Bling!
• Saturday, November 21st, 1:30am-3:30pm - Pretty Little Packages - Holiday Style
• Sunday, November 22nd, 12:00pm-1:45pm - The Year Ahead, Winter to Spring
• Sunday, November 22nd, 2:15pm-4:00pm - The Year Ahead, Summer to Fall
  
• Saturday, December 5th, 10:30am-12:30pm - Santa's Toy Box
• Saturday, December 5th, 1:30am-3:30pm - Holiday Thanks

Free make-and-take

Hey girls! Just wanted to let you all know that I'm doing a free make-n-take at Scattered Pictures (503.252.1888) from 2-4pm.  Stop on by to make a SUPER cute A Muse wintery birthday card!  Hope to see you there!

Love these trees!

Happy Wednesday!  We're half-way to the weekend - yay!

For my card today, this is one that I made awhile ago but never posted.   I used the Trees 1 clear stamp set from A Muse.  I have a "thing" for tree stamps so I love this set!  The paper is from a kit that I have and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.  Enjoy!

Christmas Trees

Heather Nichols is one of my favorite stampers and I'm always so inspired by her!  She posted several cards the other day and as soon as I saw the fifth one down, I knew I wanted to make my own version of it.  I used a clear stamp set from Hero Arts for the tree and since it was a clear stamp, it made lining them up evenly a snap! The GORGEOUS damask paper is from A Muse - I LOVE IT!!!  I'm really happy with how this card turned out, I just wish I would have come up with it on my own, lol!

Tree image - Hero Arts
Damask paper, sentiment, black ink, ribbon, star twinkle stickers - A Muse
Kraft paper - SU!
White ink - ColorBox

Birthday Cupcake

Hey there!  How is your Wednesday going?  I've been feeling quite a bit better lately so I'm having a good day! (Although, I've been up since 4:15 a.m. - ACK!) 

I've got another One Sheet Wonder card to show you today.  I know it's been awhile since I wrote the original post, so you might want to click on it to refresh your memory.  Anyway, my card today uses the ADORABLE Cupcake Builder set from A Muse.  It's definitely my "go-to" set for birthdays! :)  Hope you like it!

Paper - SU!, CTMH, DCWV
Stamps - A Muse
Ink - CTMH
Punch - Marvy

Color Challenge - Merry Christmas

Hi everyone! I had a bit of "free" stamping time today and was inspired to do Dawn Mcvey's color challenge.  She always had the BEST color combos and I am extremely inspired by color so I was excited to get to play along this time. I always want to play, but I usually never get a chance to.  Here are the colors -

And here's my take on the card.  I actually had a bit of a hard time on this card, my mojo just wasn't flowing! Oh well, I'm satisfied with how it turned out.  I do like clean and simple cards! :)

 

Clear stamp set - Hero Arts
Kraft, pink paper - SU!
Green - CTMH
Cream - A Muse

Thanks for stopping by today! I've got a VERY sick husband on my hands so that's what is keeping me busy! Fingers crossed that I don't get it! :)

Chrysanthemum Thanks

Hellooooo! Sorry I'm a lame-o and didn't get a card posted yesterday! I was super busy in the morning and then I just crashed in the afternoon. I do have a card today, though!  There have been soooo many gorgeous cards made with the new stamps from A Muse and my card was inspired by this one from Rhonda and this one from Krystie.  Don't you just LOVE this new outline flower image?  I can't wait to use it more.  And of course, I'm used some of the new shimmer paper. This stuff is to die for and my pictures do not do it justice!  Hopefully your local stamp store has some so you can see it in person! :)

Okay, off to snuggle with my boys and watch Ratatouille.  Hope you're all having  a great Saturday!  (Sorry about the poor photo, it's pretty gray here and I didn't want to pull out my photo box.)

Update...

Hi chickies!  Sorry I didn't post a sneak-peek for you yesterday, but I was not feeling well at all and didn't get any fun stamping done.  I did, however, have something VERY fun happen!  I had my first O.B. appointment and they did an ultrasound and I got to see the baby!!!!! It was so exciting and wonderful to see my little one squirming around in there!  The little heart was fluttering away and everything looks great! I'm so happy and thankful! It definitely makes all these sick days worth it! :)

Anyway, I'm hoping to have some stamping time today so I should be posting something fun later.  In the meantime, you MUST check out the A Muse blog!  They're doing a giveaway of all the wood-mount stamps from this release! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment! (Plus, I have two cards posted that you can check out while you're there!) :) Have a wonderful day!  Here's to new little babies!

amuse-bouche - Leafy Thanks

Today I've got a cool and crisp card using the new gorgeous shimmer paper from A Muse! I'm soooo in love with all the new goodies, I can't stop using them!  The new Leaf Frond image was stamped in ColorBox Moss Green and then cut out using my Cutterbee scissors and attached at an angle over the scallop circle with the Thank you RM sentiment on it.  (Stamped in ColorBox Aqua.)  I added a pearl on each of the full scallops along the bottom of the card, I just love this look! And there are TONS of pearls in each package, so I don't need to hoard them, lol! :)  Have you seen the A muse blog yet today? I have another sample on there so be sure to check it out! And listen to this! There's also a giveaway happening at the blog and all you have to do to enter is post a comment on the post that I linked.  Easy-peasy! What are you waiting for? Go enter! ;)

Hope you're all having a great Wednesday, thanks for stopping by!

A Muse Peek - Day 2

Hi there! I've got another amuse-bouche for you! (A sneak-peek of the new goodies from A Muse.) Have you been checking out all the amazing samples so far? I just love them all! 

Today I'm using the new Dill image, Espresso Shimmer paper and Apple Damask Shimmer paper.  I'm telling you, this damask paper is the best thing EVER! I'm completely obsessed with it and can't stop using it!  And just wait until you see all the new colors, they are scrumptious!  And did you notice the other new thing?  Check out the center of the flower petals...yep, those are the new Cranberry colored pearls!! Aaaahh!  So pretty!  To color my flower, I dabbed a Q-tip lightly in red ink and smudged it onto the flower.  It gives it a nice, soft color. 

Enjoy!

New stamps and paper, yippee!!

Hello there! I've got BRAND NEW GOODIES to show you from A Muse! Woot-woot!!  There's a new release coming of gorgeous fall stamps, beautiful new Shimmer Couture paper and lots of new pearls and ribbons!  Oh man, you are going to DIE when you see everything! It's all soooo pretty!  My card today shows you one new image, a sentiment and some of the Shimmer Couture and Damask Shimmer Couture paper.  Love it all!  Be sure to check out the A Muse blog for more peeks of all the new beauties!

ETA: Someone asked what color inks I used on this card so I thought I'd give you guys the color deets -

Paper: Damask Shimmer - Grass; Shimmer - Espresso; Orange notecard - Paprika
Inks: Orange - SU! Pumpkin Pie; Green - ColorBox Olive Pastel; Brown - ColorBox Chestnut Roan

ETA again - I had another person ask how I cut out the leaves and the answer is very carefully, lol! I just used my Cutterbee scissors and one trick for cutting out skinny images (like the stem) is to cut them out first and then move on to the larger part of the image next.  It makes it a lot easier to do it that way.  I also left just the slightest outline of white around the image to make it "pop" off the page more and not get lost in the colors of the paper.

Scrappy little owl

Hey chicka-dees! How are you all doing?  Thanks for continuing to check in on me, even though I'm not posting much these day.  Things are still about the same here - not feeling well at all (some days are much worse than others) so the only crafting I'm doing is for classes.  I'll be 11 weeks on Friday (yippee!) so I'm almost out of my first trimester so *hopefully* I'll start feeling better soon. 

For my card today, it's another scrappy card (no stamping) using a kit that I have.  The owl is a rub-on and I just love him! The inside is stamped with the sentiment "Happy bird-day."  Hope you like it!  Enjoy your Wednesday!

Scrappy little hi

Hi everyone! I'm still not feeling well at all, so this is going to be short.  This is a very "scrappy" card, no stamping at all.  The paper is from a kit that I have and the letters are Thickers by American Crafts. 

Hope you're all doing well! Thanks for stopping by!

Very quick card...

(For my Facebook friends: This is from my blog - stilwater.typepad.com)

My friend Tracy is hosting an amazing giveaway on her blog using one of her sketch challenges.  If she gets 52 participants to make a card using the sketch, then she's going to do a drawing for a $52 giveaway! Be sure to check out her blog for all the details! I whipped up my card in less than five minutes AND I'm not feeling well, so I'm sure you can probably come up with something and help bump up the number of people to 52! Now go get stamping! :)

(Excuse the poor photo, I'm not feeling well enough to pull out my light-box.  Hey, at least I stamped, right?) ;)

A Muse Calendar for a Cause

(For my facebook friends: This is from my blog - stilwater.typepad.com)

It's calendar time!  I'm sure you've probably already seen this on the A Muse blog or newsletter but if you haven't, A Muse has a designed a wonderful calendar in lots of different sizes that can be purchased and then printed out and decorated however you want!  And not only are these calendars super cute, they're for a very a good cause.  All of the proceeds will go to Water 1st, an organization dedicated to bringing clean drinking water to the poorest of areas around the world.  For more info on how you can purchase the calendars, click here.

For my calendar, I decided to use the A2 size (which is basically 4.25" x 5.5").  I wanted to make each page simple but cute and coordinated, so I decided to use the petite gingham paper as a sort of "tie-in" between all of the pages.  I also used LOTS of Twinkle Stickers (I love bling!) 

Here's the cover -

And then the month of October. 

Let me know if you have any questions! And please, please, please think about purchasing one of these calendars, it will be so worth it!

A quick post...

(For my Facebook friends - This post is from my blog - stilwater.typepad.com)

Hey guys! Thanks soooo much for all of the emails and well wishes for my big news! We're very excited! I'm still not doing well at all so this is just going to be really quick.  I actually made this card as a sneak-peek for the latest A Muse Halloween stamp release, but I never got around to posting it.  Better late than never! Email me if you have any questions about the card. 

Everything is A Muse.

Some news to share....

Sorry I've been missing in action the last week or so but I haven't been feeling well at all and am completely exhausted because...

I'm pregnant!!! 

Can you believe it??  I found out last week and am due April 30th.  Yippee! 

I'm pretty much just taking it easy and trying to survive each day not feeling well with a VERY active two year old so I won't be posting much over the next few weeks.  Although, I still have LOTS to show you guys so hopefully I'll get to all that later when I'm feeling up to it. 

I'll keep you all posted as my pregnancy progresses.  (I hope it's a girl!) :)

My little Etsy shop!

Yippee! I finally figured out how to link my Etsy shop, Starburst Studio, to my blog! I've had my little shop for a long time, but couldn't ever figure out how to get a good link so nobody has known about it, lol!  Well, now it's there for you all to enjoy! I only have a few cards listed at the moment but will continue to build my collection.  Thanks for all of your support!  Hugs!

One Sheet Wonder...sort of

Hey there! Sorry I've been gone for a couple of days but I got sick and now my sweet little Theo is really sick, too, so there hasn't been much time for blogging. :)

A few days ago (before we got sick) I was feeling inspired so I decided to try a One Sheet Wonder (OSW).  If you're not sure what that is, it's basically when you cut down a sheet of 8.5" x 11" or 12" x 12" paper into different random sizes and then make a bunch of cards using those pieces of paper.  For mine, I'm trying to use up a stash of paper that I have so I just grabbed one out and it happened to be 7.5" x 11" so I just went with it. 

I first cut it across length wise (see pic) and then just started cutting it up into pieces.

I ended up with 10 pieces of paper so I'll probably make 9-10 cards with it (depending if I use more than one piece per card.) 

Here's the first one that I made.  This is in honor of my wonderful Molly that had her baby girl today! Can't wait to meet the new little angel! :)  For my card, I started by rounding the corners of orange cardstock, then stamped the swirly image (from The Cat's Pajamas) using white ink.  I had a little strip of pink cardstock so I punched the edge of it and adhered it to the card.  Next I attached the square piece of patterned paper (after I round the corners), and then added Thickers to make it spell "girl".  The felt flowers are layered and then I attached a little sentiment flag (Hey Baby by A Muse) using a brad.  Hope you like it!  Stay tuned in the coming days for more OSW cards!

amuse-bouch - Pumpkin Flourish

Hello! You've probably already seen this new Pumpkin image but I just had to use it! I think it's my fave from the upcoming release from A Muse.  And doesn't it go perfectly with the Vine Border? (By the way, I don't know what that white smudgy thing next to the sentiment is, I didn't notice it when I made the card last night so I'm thinking maybe Theo got a hold of my card this morning and added his little touch to it!) :)

This is short and sweet - I have lots to do today! Be sure to check out the A Muse blog for more AWESOME cards using the new goodies!

amuse-bouche - Got Candy?

Yippee! I finally got my new stamps yesterday and I've got an amuse-bouche to share with you! Not sure what an amuse-bouche is? This describes it perfectly (lifted from the A Muse blog) - A "real" amuse-bouche is designed to give you a little tasty morsel before your meal and make your mouth happy!  OUR amuse-bouche is sorta' the same: something to give you a little taste of what's to come ...

For my card, I kept it very simple and random stamped the Candy Corn image on the new Paprika notecards (they're lighter in color than the Orange Crush ones and the Pumpkin Basket is stamped and colored with Copic markers. I added a strip of scalloped black paper and then I tied the new delicious, beautiful, wonderful Orange polka-dot sheer ribbon (I LOOOOOOOOOOVE this stuff!  Seriously, love.) underneath the image and then attached with pop-dots. The "Got Candy?" sentiment isn't new but it goes perfectly with these images. Fun, fun! Be sure to check back tomorrow for another Halloween-y card!

Halloween amuse-bouche!

The amuse-bouche (what we at A Muse call our sneak-peeks) have started over on the blog! I don't have my new stamps yet but as soon as they arrive, I'll post some eye-candy for you!

Eli's invitation

Hey girlies! How are all of you today? I hope you're having a good day!

I realized this morning that I never showed you this little invite that I made for my friend's son's second birthday.  He had an airplane themed party and this is what I came up with.  The stamp is from a little clear set but I can't remember the brand name.  I'll let you know when I figure it out. :)  Paper is a mix of SU! and DCWV.  Enjoy!

It's supposed to be SUPER hot today so we have fun plans to go to a splash park with some friends - can't wait!

A Muse Lounge Challenge #7 - Ink it Up

Every month Jennie hosts another great challenge over at the A Muse lounge and this time it's to make a project using  a stamp that hasn't been used before. I don't normally get to play along but this month I did (not once, but twice! The next card will be coming soon.)  I've been needing lots of baby cards lately so I thought it would be smart to make a few to have on hand.  As you probably know, I LOATH mass-producing cards.  Seriously, I can't stand it so it's like pulling teeth for me to make more than one of the same card.  However, once I do, I'm always soooo happy to have extra cards around! I think I need to just get over it and start making more than one card all the time! :)  For my card, I went with a super simple design since I was going to make several of them and I just switched out the paper for the boy and girl versions.  I started with this delish A Muse petite gingham paper that I ran through my Cuttlebug using my new QuicKuts embossing folder (seriously, I LOOOOOVE that thing!), then I embossed a strip of French Roast notecard using my Swiss Dots embossing folder and since the back side of the brown paper is white, embossing it gives it a different look because some of the white shows through.  The Crib image was stamped with Adirondack ink (first time using this stamp!) and then I stamped it again on the gingham paper, cut out the "bumper" and adhered it to my first stamped image.  The image is punched out using a Marvy punch and then I attached it to the card using pop-dots.  Sweet and simple!  The inside is stamped with this sentiment (first time using that one, too!) Hope you like it!  I'm off to start the day with Starbuck's and toast! :)

Party like a rock star!

So, while I completely LOVE this stamp, I am definitely not loving this card.  I don't know where my mojo has gone, but if you see it, please send it back.  Thank you. :)  Although, I am really digging her white sparkly boots...in fact, if I ever become a rock star (which of course, is highly unlikely), this is the exact outfit I would wear, lol! 

All images, gingham paper, black ink - A Muse
Star punch - SU!
Stickles
Markers - Copic 

Oh, man...

Has it really been 10 days since my last post???? Where does the time go?  We've been super swamped around here the last few weeks which hasn't really left me much time for crafting/blogging.  Although, Isaiah will be starting school full time in a few weeks so hopefully I'll get back in the routine of blogging and showing you my craft goodness more often. (Speaking of crafty goodness, I was at a local Saturday market this weekend and there was a vendor selling ADORABLE baby onesies.  Well, I, of course, don't need any onesies, but she also had a vintage suitcase with vinyl letters that spelled "Crafty Goodness" which I assumed she used to haul her stuff around in and boy did I want that sucker! I offered her money for it but she turned me down - bummer!  Hhhhmmm, maybe I'll have to take up vinyl lettering...)  Back to the card!  This is another one that is similar to the card I posted here.  Pretty  much all the details are the same as that one so check it out if you're curious. :)

Hope you're all having a good week! I have another class this Wednesday at Scattered Pictures and I'd love to see you there!

SCS Sketch Challenge

I had a little bit of "free" stamping time this morning but couldn't come with ANYTHING so I popped on over to splitcoaststampers.com to hunt for some inspiration.  They have a sketch challenge every week and after checking it out, I decided to play along this time.  I already had this polka-dot paper embossed (isn't it THE CUTEST???! I'm absolutely IN LOVE with this embossing folder! And Nancy has them at Scattered Pictures!) so I grabbed some scrap of A Muse gingham paper and went to work.  I used several different stamps on this one, the backgroung flourish is TCP, the star flourish (stamped on the kraft paper but hard to see in the photo) is Verve Stamps and the sentiment is PTI.  I was mixing and matching today!  The star was made witha  SU! punch, adhesive sheets and glitter.   

It's a cool gray morning here and I'm loving it! I'm sooo ready for Fall!  Yay for jeans, boots and cute sweaters! :)

New stamps are up!

Hey chicka-dees!  The new stamps are up over at A Muse! And listen to this! There's a girl rock star - yippee!! I've been wanting a girl rocker FOREVER so I'm super excited about this one! And since I'm a lame-o and haven't made a card using her yet, I'm going to send you over to my bud Lori's blog to see THE CUTEST CARD EVER! Love it!

Be sure to check out all the new stamps! Which one is your fave?

Seattle/NKOTB Concert

Edit - This is about a month late, but I've gotten a few emails wanting to see pics of my Seattle trip and New Kids concert so here ya go! It was soooo fun!

Lots of pics from my Seattle trip!

Here I am with one of my best-friends, Heidi and her sister Lori right before we left for Seattle.

 

This picture CRACKS me up! Heidi's sister-in-law (who was taking the picture) said "Strike a pose!" and this is what happened.  We're calling this "When strike a pose goes wrong" - lol!

This is right before we left.  We were just a wee bit excited!!! (I love Lori laughing in the background. This is pretty much how the whole trip went, me and Heidi being idiots and Lori laughing at us. Love it!)

 

I'll skip ahead and save you the rest of the car shots. :)

This is Teresa (Lori's twin sister) in her super cute kitchen!  Lori said this picture looks like it should be in a cooking magazine, lol!

 

   Me holding the ticket to see my boyfriends (hee-hee!)

 

  Heidi with her ticket.  We were getting soooo excited at this point!

 

All four of us.  Guess which one of us isn't related? :)

 

A little pre-concert warm-up dancing!

 

Cute shoes! Can you guess which toes are mine? :)

 

The line to get into the concert.  There were so many people, it was CrAzY!

 

Another shot of us girls.  I feel like that Sesame Street song, "One of these things, is not like the others..." :)

 

AAAAHHHHH!!! The first shot of the boys!! LOTS of screaming was happening at this point!! (Of course, my camera died right as they were coming on stage but I got pictures from Lori and Teresa.) Also, originally we were in the 200 level but long story short, I talked to a few people and we got moved to the 100 level, right in the middle up on this platform thing so we were soooooo close - it was AMAZING!!!!

 

First song, I don't even remember what it was because we were spazzing out so much! Haha!

 

Jackets off - (I could have done without the back-up dancers, as if any of us were there to see GIRSL! Haha!)

 

 

Check out those moves - OWWWW!

Joey (my fave!) singing to me (isn't that nice of him?).  We have the same birthday so when I was like, 9 or something, I was CONVINCED this meant we were destined to be together - hahaha!

 

Another outfit change (I wish I could remember what song they're singing here, but everything is pretty much a blur now!) :)

 

There's about 100 more pictures but I'll spare you and just post a few more of my faves -

Joey busted out in full 80's gear and sang "Popsicle" - it was one of the best moments of the concert!

 

Loved the black suits -  

 

Towards the end of the conert, they dropped these beach balls and Heidi grabbed one - YAY!! So this is us with "The Ball"! So fun! 

 

That's the concert in a very small nutshell. (Seriously, I have like, 100 more pictures.)  The next day, we went shopping in Seattle including a stop at the A Muse shop! Yippee!!  Here's me in front of the shop, and then a picture of one of my cards on display (it was sooooo fun to see some of my cards there!)

 

If you're still here, thanks for sticking around and checking out my pictures.  It was one of the best trips ever!!

amuse-bouche - More Mandy's World

I have a couple more cards on the A Muse blog today and one for you here, too!  I'm loving these new Mandy's World stamps, they're just so cute!  I got the layout for this card from Tracy's sketch challenge this week. Have you checked out her sketches?  I always really like them because they're fairly simple (but still super cute!) which works very well with the A Muse style of Think Simple, Think A Muse. :)

Okay, the boys are spazzing out so I gotta go!  Hope you're having a good day and be sure to check out the rest of the A Muse team for lots more sneak-peeks at the new stamps!

Mandy's World!

Hello! Have you seen the A muse blog today?  There are lots of samples using the new stamp line from A Muse called - Mandy's World!  And guess what? Several of the cards on there are my designs - yippee!!  These stamps are sooooo cute and are perfect for all the girls in your life!  Love them!