color challenge wednesday #18

The color challenge this week is to use pale yellow, bright red and a mid-tone green (A|S colors:  lemon whip, cherry, sage) in your card design…

This cheerful thank you note was inspired by summer… red and white picnic cloths, fresh cut grass, warm sunny days …and gratitude for all of it.

This is a smaller card design and measures 3.5 x 5″. It fits in a standard A1 size envelope. I used my smallest scallop die to create the little scalloped border in the design and I used twinkle stickers to embellish the stamped panel. I think the polka dots really add the “happy” to this card, but any small pattern would be just as lovely.

I hope you have a chance to try out this color combo in your own stamping this week! Have Fun!

clean & simple sunday #40

This week I brought out the tag dies and an old stamp favorite—Charming Gardeners…

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This card is a simple design featuring one of the tag shapes out of the Tag Trio die set. I used the leaf and flower image out of the A Muse|Studio Charming Gardeners stamp set and the sentiment from the Essential Sentiments set. The leaves were stamped in Sage, the flower in Eucalyptus and the sentiment in French Roast. I used my corner rounder on the top right corner of the base card to add interest, embellished the flower with a bit of glitter and tied on a cute polka dot organdy ribbon to finish off the design. The tag panel is raised using foam squares.

This card design lends itself well to batching. You can cut strips of patterned card stock and a series of white tags and stamp a whole set of these cards in one sitting. There is minimal cutting and the card assembles quickly–perfect for a batch of birthday or all-occasion cards to keep on hand or for holiday cards when you need several dozen.

Stamping the images on a small, concentrated panel draws the viewers eye to that part of the card. The patterned paper and rounded corner help to balance out the design.  I hope this card helps to inspire your own creative ideas!

color challenge wednesday #17

The color scheme for the challenge this week is— black, white and pink (A|S colors: onyx, sugar, and shell)…

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I used the Hey Cupcake! stamp set from A Muse|Studio… the base card is black with a layered panel of pink and white. The white panel I put in the polka dot embossing folder and ran it through my Big Shot Sizzix machine.  I wrapped a black satin ribbon around the white panel before adhering it to the pink. The stamped image was stamped in two pieces. The base of the cupcake was stamped in Memento black ink on shell card stock and cut out. The frosting was stamped in Memento black in on white card stock and also trimmed out, but before trimming this piece I used my BG10 Copic marker to add some definition and the hit those lines with my quickie glue pen and dusted with glitter to sparkle up the frosting. (It is usually easier to color and glitter a component BEFORE you cut it out). I layered the cupcake together and popped it up with a foam square. The black & white patterned cardstock is the shimmer damask in black. The pattern gives just the right amount of texture to make the card a little more interesting and sophisticated and I used more foam square to pop up this panel. I stamped “hey cupcake” on a little strip of card stock and hand-cut the banner shape with scissors.

This is one of my favorite color combinations for female birthday cards. There’s something so sharp, classy and feminine about these colors together. The light pink could always be swapped out for a darker or brighter pink, too… just use what you have and enjoy the results!

clean and simple sunday #39

I would like to start by saying HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! I’m wishing all of the special ladies out there who take time to care for others a beautiful day, surrounded by love…

I would also like to say–Hooray!!  This is my 100th post—a bit of a milestone for me since when I started this blog last summer I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough to say to even warrant a blog, but here we are, 100 posts later!  And I have lots more to share in the coming weeks… a sneak peek at the album I created when I took the WEEK IN THE LIFE challenge by Ali Edwards. This was such a great project and I know it will become even more precious as the years pass, but I’m still finishing it up so more on that later. I will also be sharing shots of my creative studio, I have a new One Sketch/Three Cards article brewing, a Featured Stamp Set article in the works and I’m hoping to share my Project Life album as that develops—I’m starting that project today…  So a lot of creative stuff going on and I will share it all here over the next several weeks!!

As for the clean and simple design for today…

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This card features papers from A Muse|Studio in sage and sage gingham. The daisy is made with the Flower Daisies #2 Die from Sizzix. I cut three of the medium daisy out of the A|S sugar card stock and three of the smallest daisy out of the lemon whip card stock. I layered them with Tombow adhesive in the center only–and fluffed the petals. I mounted it to the base card with a big glue dot sticker and added a button to the center. The sentiment comes from the A|S Essential Sentiments stamp set. I just stamped that directly on the front base card panel in the Memento Black ink.

Very simple, but fresh and cute, too (and made with love for a very special lady—-my Mom {heart}.

Enjoy some creative time this week and keep it simple!!   …K

And P.S. — You still have two days to sign up as an A Muse|Studio independent consultant and take advantage of the $75 in FREE stamp sets — email me if you have any questions:  27checkerberry@gmail.com — the promotion ends at 11:59 ET on 5/14/2012!

color challenge wednesday #16

For the color challenge this week I pulled out my Wild Rose stamp set and chose a color scheme of orange, green and light blue (A|S colors: burano, sage & winter sky)…

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I used burano ink for the flower and sage ink for the leaves. The ribbon is the burano 5/8″ satin and came out a little darker in this photo than in real life. The card base measures 5×3.5″ and fits in a standard A1 envelope. I hope you’ll look through your scraps this week and try this color combination in your own stamping.

clean & simple sunday #38

A Muse|Studio offers an incentive program to all new consultants right when they start their business in the hopes that they’ll get it off the ground. It’s not mandatory, but the incentive involves FREE STAMP SETS so when I heard that, I was in!  They call it the “Fast Forward” program and there are two steps–a certain dollar amount your first three months as a consultant and then another dollar amount in sales your second three months. As most of you know, I started as an independent consultant with A|S back in August and I’m happy to say that I reached not only my first goal back in November, but my second “Fast Forward” sales goal of $1200 for the 2nd quarter and earned THREE stamp sets from A|S absolutely FREE!

Thank you to my hostesses for your wonderful workshops!  And also a BIG thank you to ALL of my customers who helped me reach that sales goal!!  This is a fun little business even without the incentives, but yippee—FREE STAMPS!

One of the stamp sets I chose for free is the Lets Be Adventurers set. This is such a cute stamp set, in the old “A Muse Art Stamps” style, with the cute little images hand drawn and the little sentiments to go with them. I can think of a lot of ways to use this stamp set since I have some friends and co-workers who do some serious traveling… it would be fun to send them off on their next vacation with a card made using this set or even give them a travel-themed card like the one I created below for this week’s C&SS post…

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So, this card features the Big Ben image and the sentiment reads “big thanks”… so adorable!  The colors I used on this are a winter sky base card, then a panel of lemon whip matted with rialto and then a bit of rialto 5/8″ satin ribbon as the embellishment. I colored the image with one of my Copic markers – #E33 – trimmed it out and popped it up with a foam square.  The clean and simple design features a matted panel with bit of ribbon stapled to the top…a very simple design that can be used with probably most of the images in your collection.

Have fun creating something simple and fun this week!

more great deals from A Muse|Studio!

In addition to the wonderful spotlight sale this month, A Muse|Studio has a couple of other promotions going on right now that you should know about!!

All A|S brand ink pads are 20% off this month—a great time to stock up on colors you’ve been wanting for your color palette. This does not include specialty ink pads such as Memento or Versamark…only the ink pads in the A|S color palette are on sale, but what a selection!!

The other special A|S is offering this month is on their starter kit…You can have your own business for about $200 and if you sign up to become a consultant before May 15th you get $75 in free stamp sets to help launch your business and cover the supplies for your first few workshops— a great deal!  Please see the FAQ tab at the top of my blog for answers to common questions about starting your own A|S business… I would be happy to talk with you “pressure free” if you’re considering the opportunity but want to know more about my personal experience. Just send me an email at 27checkerberry@gmail.com and we’ll set up a time to chat!  I’d love to have you on my team!

may spotlight sale!

This month’s A Muse|Studio spotlight theme is Garden Party! Perfect for all of you who have been swooning over the botanical stamp sets!!  Also featured this month, though not on sale, are the butterfly trio dies as well as the pre-cut paper flowers. The flowers shown in the featured artwork are “cosmos”…  such a cute garden party ensemble!!  Perfect for your next girlfriends lunch, baby shower, Mother’s Day, or even your next book club meeting! Won’t your friends think you’re so clever?

Click on this link to check out the delightful stamp sets on sale during the month of May, as well as some featured artwork…

SpotlightMay2012

clean & simple sunday #37

This week, I was inspired by the cooler Spring temps and pulled out some blue and green from my scrap bin…

This card features the Sunny Side of Life stamp set from A Muse|Studio. The colors of card stock are fern, sage and bermuda. The technique of stamping on strips of card stock that are placed adjacent to one another and using a black ink pad, in this case, my Momento Black, is a little trickier than it might seem. There are times when I have carried out this “technique” with no trouble at all, but for some reason I struggled with this one. It’s not perfect by any means, but I hope that the idea of laying together three strips of colored card stock and stamping your image in black is something you might try sometime in your own stamping. Its fun, a great way to use up those smaller scraps of color and the resulting image can be stunning… no embellishments needed!

clean & simple sunday #36

Today I went back to my 4 original kit stamp sets from A|S for inspiration, and chose this leaf botanical to create the C&SS design for this week…

The card base is winter sky. I stamped the image on a white panel with rialto ink. The sentiment was stamped in navy ink and I used a strip of rialto venetian paper to add some interest. The only embellishments are the three little pearl stickers among the leaves of the botanical. I love how those little pearls catch the light on any card design!