New A Muse Studio Challenge Blog!!

 I ordered a couple of CD's from Dover, and they are full of gorgeous vintage images. This is just one of them. I have this same image in stamp form from Artistic Outpost, so I've used it a lot!

 This darling little lion is a Shady Tree Studio image. You can find them on Etsy now. Nancy is filling her shop with her gorgeous images. Most are digital, but this one is a clear set.

No stamps at all here. Just some pretty little nothings I gathered from the chaos of my desk. You never know what you'll find there. I've started to add little touches to the insides of my cards again. Not five layers of stitched, embossed and glittered paper like I used to, but little punched flowers or borders.

I have started an A Muse Studio Challenge Blog, and I'd love to have you come play! I am giving away an Idea Book, and that's a pretty great thing, I promise! Every week we will have a different hostess and a small prize awarded to a random player. You can join the fun right here!

Shady Tree Studio Sneak Peek!!

 Yes, the darling prim snowman, tree and sentiment are all from one of Shady Tree Studio's new releases to be revealed on the 29th! Be sure to check back here tomorrow for more STS goodness, and always stop by the STS blog when you have a minute! There you can see the owner\artist's (Nancy Baier) work, along with the design team projects.

 I stamped them in Versafine Onyx then embossed with Ranger's Holographic powder. I gave them a quick swipe with my beloved Yasutomo shimmer paints and then began the layering. I think that snowflake is a Sizzix die, which I cut in half, coated with glue and glittered up. The paper is all Basic Grey or Stampin' Up!

 I sell quite a few trinket pins in my Etsy shop. These two are my newest styles. I designed them for Sarah over at SarahsPaperBakery to use in an upcoming kit of the month. I'd love it if you took a look at her new Etsy shop. She is getting off to the right start by supporting other small business owners. I feel pretty strongly about supporting other women and their businesses, and it feels good when other women do so as well.

 These are not hard to make. The heart pins are from Joanne's, and the glass pearls are from Walmart. I'm looking for better sources right now, but this is what I have access to, so this is what I work with.

 These are made from some vintage black glass beads from my stash. See the little circle on top? They started out as those little flat, yellow flower pins you can find anywhere. A quick dip into the Versamark and a dunk into Ranger's sparkling black embossing powder and TA DA! No more sweet yellow flower, hello classy black trinket pin!

Shady Tree Studio Christmas in July

 This sweet snowman stamp from Shady Tree Studio is called Embrace Christmas. You can see the whole set here. We are continuing to celebrate Christmas in July at STS and are looking forward to our blog hop and new Christmas stamp release on the 29th! I hope you will join us!

 I stamped it in Versafine and embossed with Ranger Holographic and painted it in shimmer paints. I used it to decorate the cover of a Christmas card portfolio. These are super cool little portfolios which can be decorated for any occasion. I get mine from Creative Cuts and More.

 This card is for Summer Card Camp. The colors are really giving me fits. I never work in these colors, and I'm finding that it is stretching me so much that I don't even know what looks good anymore! I am loving the camp overall, it's big fun, but I really haven't loved any of the cards I've made for it. It's hard to love a card made with colors I don't like.

 AHHH....This is more my speed. Here are some colors I can get behind!

Buttery yellow, soft green, and a little pop of blue! Isn't that Crafty Secrets image the cutest? We had a big rain last night, and Troy and I spent many an hour sucking up water in the basement, fun times. Things are drying out down here slowly but surely, and of course, it's raining again. I LOVE the rain, but my 100 year old basement isn't quite watertight! Toodles, girlfriends! I hope you are staying cool and dry!

Shady Tree Studio & A Muse Studio

 This is an older card using a Shady Tree Studio stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. I don't think this exact stamp is still available, but if you love the beautiful art style as much as I do, you can check out what's currently available right here. You can also see my very first post on the Shady Tree blog and leave me a little love there so that Nancy knows someone is looking! We don't want her to have second thoughts about inviting me to be on the DT, now do we?

 I used A Muse Studio stamps on this card. I use those leaves all the time! They look so cool embossed with sparkling black powder. Out of respect for a|s's traditionally CAS style, I do try to tone my a|s cards down a bit, but I'm not making any promises that they will all be that way! This set is called Beautiful Botanicals 2.

 I used Bridal Beauty here for sort of a grunge or perhaps Scottish wedding. I don't know what gets into me sometimes. I guess I just don't like for my stuff to look like everyone else's or like it's "supposed" to look. I'm contrary that way, and have no plans to change.

That dress sure is sweet, though, isn't it? I probably will make a more traditional wedding card now that I got this one out of my system!

Athletic Hands by Shady Tree Studio

This is one of my new stamp sets from Cornish Heritage Farms. It's called Athletic Hands by Shady Tree Studio. What I like so much about this set is its timeless appeal. It works just as well for a six year old as for a 60 year old. All you have to do to change the feel of the card is change the paper and colors.

Today I went with a few of the remaining remnants of My Mind's Eye Kaleidoscope. As I said yesterday, this line reminds me of summer! I stamped this image in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with pencils/OMS. I masked off the image with both a circle nestie, and a cut out of the image itself and sprayed with Caspian Sea shimmer mist. I added a little Angel Wings Shimmerz to the baseball, I can't be expected to make a card with no shimmer at all!

The brads are regular office supply brads embossed in SU! Glorious Green, now retired, of course! The edges are inked with Brilliant Blue, and the base is Glorious Green from the Bold Brights multi pack I bought in 2000. I don't use a lot of Glorious Green, those three sheets have lasted me more than nine years!

I used a Cindy Haffner sketch for this card. It was one of the Dar to Get Dirty challenges over on SCS. I don't know how dirty I got, but I played almost all of the challenges!

New stamp from Shady Tree Studio!

Isn't this new gift box from Cornish Heritage Farm's Shady Tree Studio line pretty? Nancy, the artist who draws the STS line has been sending me some of her stamps to work with, and I honestly can't begin to tell you how much it means to me that she would trust me to show off her beautiful stamps! This present would work for wedding cards, baby showers, and even Christmas, if you truned the flowers into berries by making them red-with glitter of course!

Speaking of glitter, the day I made this, it was VERY hot in my studio, and my Crystal Stickles came galloping out of the bottle at an unheard of pace. It was very liquidy! Well, Stickles is easy to wipe off, I do it all the time when I make a mistake. But I didn't want to waste this much Stickles, and I don't like thick layers of it, so I grabbed a brush and painted it where I wanted it. My pics don't show it, but there is beautiful sparkle all over this image!

Tha paper is Basic Gray's Two Scoops, and the rubon is Making Memories.

This card uses the Pullin' Pastels technique. GinaK showed this technique last week over on STV, and this was my take on it. I've known about the technique for years, but had never tried it. It's really a lot of fun. I have really been enjoying StampTV. Everyone over there is so nice, and I love to play the challenges. The stamp set I used is called Take Flight. Everything else is from the Floral Frenzy Stamp TV kit. Have you tried this Chocolate Kiss base weight paper from GKD? It's my new favorite! Chocolate Chip has been my go to brown for NINE years, but now it's only Chocolate Kiss for me!!

Don't forget to scroll down for Stampin' Up! blog candy!! This week it's Mostly Flowers from 2003!

Shady Tree Studio Sketched Bluebird

Isn't this the prettiest stamp? I just love it, and it was such a joy to color!! Phantom, a friend of mine over at SCS, drew this!! She has her own line of stamps over at Cornish Heritage Farms called Shady Tree Studio! How cool is that? It must be amazing to be able to draw. It's a skill I've always admired, and sadly, never possessed! Anyhow, she asked me if I'd like to work with a couple of her stamps, and I jumped at the chance. I'm so glad I did!!

If you'd like some free stamps, don't forget to scroll down for this week's blog candy, Sunday Blessings #2. It's a Stampin' Up set called Mini Medleys.