A Muse "Stick to the Pattern" Challenge Round-up

Do you remember these thank you cards I made for my two best buds?

I also submitted them for the A Muse Challenge in the Lounge last month and they made it into the Top 9 Round-up on the A Muse blog!  Yippeee!!!! There were so many great card ideas and many entries from both newbies and regulars...I totally didn't think I'd stand a chance! I was so excited when I saw mine in the round-up! Both my two friends, Barb and Maria, loved them and I'm glad they were enjoyed by others as well!

Just wanted to share news and stay tuned for some new creations soon! Home base has been busy now that school has started!

Thanks for stopping by!

Friends Forever Patchwork Card

I thought I'd try my hand at making a patchwork background using the Top Note Bigz Die from Stampin' Up!. I used various A Muse patterned cardstock to make a thank you card for my crafty girlfriend Wanda G. for all the birthday goodies box she sent me.

Photo taken by Wanda G.

For the patchwork part, I followed a blog post by Chris Simon on how to make the quilted looking background and it turned out perfect! I took a brown liner pen to make the faux stitching. I kept the layout really simple since the patchwork speaks for itself. I used the stamp that Wanda had given me for my birthday and colored the girls to look like us.

I so love how the card turned out and so did Wanda...yay!  I'll have to make more of these types of cards...it's so easy!

Have a great day!

P.S. Another card for the A Muse Lounge Challenge #19. This month's challenge is "Stick to the Pattern" where we are to create a card using any A Muse stamps or paper and making a pattern on it. Head on over to the Lounge to check out all the other entries!

Supplies:
Stamps: Holding Hands by Elzybells Art Stamps (A Muse) *Stamp no longer available at A Muse but Paper Garden in Sacramento may still have some*
Paper: Petite Gingham, Madeira, Kitchen, Clouds (A Muse), Chocolate (Memory Box Co.), Classic Crest Solar White (Neenah), Pink Bazzill cardstock (Bazzill)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Aqua 3/8" grosgrain ribbon (Ribbons and Bows Oh My!), Copic markers (.Too Corp.), Sepia 0.5 Liner pen (Sakura), Circle and Scallop Circle Punches (Marvy Uchida), Top Note Bigz Die, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

One-Layer Wednesday 13: Christmas in July

Edit: I swapped out better pics so you can see the glitter on the card. This card also qualifies for the Holidays in July card challenge in the A Muse Lounge. Check that out too!


This is my first time participating in Susan Raihala's weekly card challenge she hosts on her blog, Simplicity. I've been a fan of her creations for the past few years. I was looking at card ideas on the SplitCoastStampers (SCS) website one day and stumbled upon one of Susan's cards that someone CASEd. I was so drawn to her striking clean and simple designs in her card gallery.

July is generally around the time when I start to think about what card designs I want to send for Christmas. Every year, I tell myself to start early on them but that never happens! Usually, I'll be up late cranking them out a few days before Christmas day. We'll see if I can change that this year!

For the card challenge, we are to make a one-layer card, keeping embellishments to a minimum, and a theme of either Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or winter.

Here's the card I created...it looks better in real life. The design and embellishments I used turned out so much better than I envisioned.  I LOVE when that happens!

I started off with a piece of PTI Kraft cardstock and stamped all the images directly on it using my Stamp-a-ma-jig so nothing would be crooked. This is a very key element when you create one-layered cards because your eye will look directly at the focal point. With simple cards, all you look at is the main image or embellishment so it's very important that everything is properly placed or centered.

I stamped the houses and sentiment using Adirondack Espresso ink (my go-to brown) and my Copic markers. The snow-topped roofs and smoke are colored in with a white Prismacolor pencil. For the puffy line of snow on the ground, I used a white craft pen similar to Liquid Applique, let it dry and heated it up with my heat gun. I outlined the word "cozy" with a red marker for added interest.

I then stamped one scroll on top and one on the bottom with VersaMagic Night Sky chalk ink. I finished off with a red pearl in the centers of each scroll. I also used a Clear Spica glitter pen over the scroll and on the houses for a little sparkle!

Check out Susan's blog Simplicity to see all the other creations for this challenge!

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Houses, Cozy Christmas MA, Swirly Bracket (A Muse)
Ink: Adirondack Dye Espresso (Ranger), VersaMagic Night Sky (Tsukineko)
Paper: Kraft (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Cranberry Pretty Pearls (A Muse), Red Le Pen (Marvy), Dong-A Popcorn Puffy Paint Pen (from Jet Pens), White Prismacolor Pencil (Sanford), Copic markers (.Too Corp), Clear Atyou Spica Glitter pen (.Too Corp), Heat-It Craft Tool (Ranger), Stamp-a-ma-jig (EK Success)