June No. 6

We made it to the beach!  Every year, our family takes a week long trip to the Washington state coast.  It's gorgeous here.  Windswept evergreen trees, unspoiled sandy beaches, beautiful sunsets, amazing storms, and the vast Pacific Ocean.  We arrived yesterday in a very thoroughly packed Outback with stuffed cargo box on top and 3 bikes on the back!  I think our kitchen sink is about the only thing we left behind in Seattle.

In honor of our current location, I have my last ocean/nautical card to share today!  It's actually one of my very favorites I made this past month.  I love turning the scallop pattered cardstock upside down.  I think it looks both more like waves but also could be fish scales too! I wrapped a LOT of vanilla twine around the card base.  I was going for a battered sun bleached fishing net sort of look.  To make the color gradiented ocean background, I used several different colors of Splash! spray inks.  I did a few squirts of each with the darkest color at the bottom and lightest at the top and then swirled it around with a paper towel.  Though I did stamp and white emboss all the images first, and they resisted the spray ink well and after being wiped off with the paper towel, they were still bright white.

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse let's be mermaids and label maker
Ink: A Muse ocean and VersaMark
Paper: A Muse bermuda scallops and sugar cardstock
Misc.: A Muse vanilla twine, A Muse white embossing powder, foam mounting tape, A Muse tag bundle die set, A Muse navy, mermaid, marshmallow, and bermuda Splash! spray inks

June No. 5

We are deep into packing for a week long beach trip today at our house!  SO many bags, piles of stuff, lists, and so forth.  I think we might be taking everything we own.  But, I'm taking a break to share this cute little whale favor with you.  It's pretty straightforward.  Cute whale, pinking scallop print circle, some foam tape, and scalloped edges of the bag.  This little bags are great and could hold anything really!

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse true blue friend
Ink: A Muse mermaid, ocean, and poppy
Paper: A Muse mermaid, bermuda scallops, and sugar cardstock
Misc.: A Muse silver elastic cording, A Muse medium scallop border, true blue friend, and pinking circle die sets, Spellbinders nesting rectangles die set, A Muse 1/2 lb kraft paper bags, and foam mounting tape

June No. 4

Continuing with the ocean/beach/nautical theme so far this month, today's card has some great fish!  My son is a big swimmer (we do 2x per week swimming year round) and recently his beloved coach left our club for grad school.  Super sad for us, though super exciting for him.  I used this card as a thank you note for doing such an amazing job coaching our little fish in the pool!

I wanted to give the fish a sort of washed out watercolor-y look.  I had learned a technique at a class with Julie Ebersole called "huffing" (ha yep, just like it sounds!)  You color directly on the red rubber stamp and Tombow markers in several colors and then huff hot air onto it with your mouth.  It helps the ink colors blend together.  I put a clear glaze over the fish to make them a bit shiny as well.

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse sealed with a fish

Ink: A Muse mermaid, VersaMark, and VersaFine onyx black

Paper: A Muse ocean, poppy, mermaid, and sugar cardstock

Misc.: A Muse sealed with a fish, postage stamps, and word windows die sets, foam mounting tape, tooth pick, A Muse satin pearl embossing powder, A Muse crystal clear glaze, and Tombow Dual tip markers

(Coach Chris, my son, and his swimmate on their very last day together!  I seriously can't handle the cuteness!)

June No. 3

Today's card is all about sunsets!  I was lucky enough to spend the weekend some of my very favorite ladies at a friend's GORGEOUS waterfront house on Bainbridge Island this past weekend.  We had good food, good booze, good laughs, good fun, and this AMAZING sunset over the water!  It goes just perfectly with this ocean sunset card I made!

I used sponge daubers for the sunset and blended until it looked just right.  For the water, I first embossed the waves and then sprayed with a few different colors of spray inks and smeared them around  artistically mixed them with a paper towel disposable absorbent paper cloth.  I used the large pinking rectangle from A Muse's tag bundle die set.  Of course, it's much larger as is than what I need, so I die cut it once, and then die cut it again to shorten it and still maintain the pinking edge all the way around it.

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse rolling seas background and hey gull friend
Ink: VersaMark, VersaFine onyx black, A Muse papaya and poppy
Paper: A Muse sugar and kraft cardstock
Misc.: A Muse silver elastic cording, A Muse silver glitter, sponge daubers, paper towels, A Muse satin pearl embossing powder, A Muse pinking circles and tag bundle die sets, A Muse navy, mermaid, and bermuda Splash! spray inks

June No. 2

I've spent some amazing times lately at some local beaches lately for low tides.  I love getting to put my marine biology knowledge from my degree to use.  Lucky for me, one of the best rocky beaches for tide pooling is just about 8 minutes from my house and a couple weekends ago we had an extreme low tide, around -3.4 feet!  It was AWESOME!

Here are some of my favorite finds from that tide:

(kelp crab and sea cucumbers)

(anemone)

(sea star)

So, inspired by that, I made this card that shows a cut away chart of inter tidal zones and the ocean increasing in depth and different creatures farther down as you go.  Of course, I made my card a bit brighter in color and a little more sparkly than the real life examples.

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse let's be mermaids and sealed with a fish
Ink: A Muse black dye (retired) and VersaMark
Paper: A Muse ocean, mermaid, bermuda scallops, papaya petite dot, sugar, and bermuda petite pinstripes cardstock
Misc.: A Muse sealed with a fish, landscape, medium scallop border, and word windows die sets, A Muse toffee twine, Copic markers, foam mounting tape, A Muse white embossing powder, A Muse clear dot twinkle stickers, Wink of Stella clear glitter pen

June No. 1

Somehow, it's June already!  I truly am amazed at how fast this school year has gone!  My son only has 2 weeks of school left!  How on earth do I have an almost First grader???

Back to things I can handle better.  Cute cards!  I've got this adorable narwhal today!  I felt very clever by making the pinking frame using the large pinking rectangle and the slightly smaller stitched rectangle from A Muse's tag bundle set!  I think stands out nicely!

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse Narly Birthday, Let's Be Mermaids, and Rolling Seas background
Ink: A Muse ocean and black dye (retired)
Paper: A Muse mermaid, mermaid petite pinstripe, ocean, and sugar cardstock
Misc.: A Muse twinkle stickers mini dots multi, foam mounting tape, Copic markers, A Muse narly birthday, word windows, and tag bundle die sets
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June Release!

I'm a few days after release day.  I had to have an emergency extraction and dental implant for a baby tooth I still had that had finally decided it was done with life.  Not exactly how I wanted to spend the later half of my week, but I'm soooo relieved not to be in pain anymore!

But, nevertheless, here it is!  June Release for A Muse Studio!  It's such a great one!  To celebrate, I've got this lovely card for you, using the new "True Blue Friend" stamp set and matching dies!

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse rolling seas background and true blue friend sets

Ink: A Muse ocean, mermaid, seattle and pebble

Paper: A Muse ocean, kraft, sugar, and bermuda scallops cardstock

Misc.: foam mounting tape, A Muse vanilla twine, A Muse mermaid glitter, Sakura Quickie glue pen, A Muse pinking circles and true blue friend die sets 

Here's the details on the full June release!

4 new stamp sets with matching dies!!

There's another great assortment of paper colors for this month!  It's poppy, papaya petite dot, mermaid, bermuda scallops, and ocean!

And, if you can't decided what to get, there's a bundled collection of everything and save 10%

a•muse | studio June Sneak Peak Day 3

Welcome to Sneak Peaks Day 3!!  Today's card features the new "hey gull friend" stamp and matching die sets!  I see a lot of seagulls around Seattle and at our beaches.  Before coloring these two with Copic markers, I spent a lot of time Googling real life ones.  I wanted to get the coloring just right.  And of course, there are more than just one species of them.  So, here's my best at a Western Gull, complete with red/orange beak dots.

For the sunset on this card, I used sponge daubers and just blended papaya and poppy inks until it looked just right.  I couldn't help myself and added the silhouettes of flying gulls in the distance from the "you are my sunshine" set from A Muse's May release!  It just worked to perfectly!

(Western Gull, photo via Wikipedia)

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse hey gull friend and you are my sunshine sets 
Ink: A Muse poppy, papaya, black dye (retired) and VersaFine onyx black
Paper: A Muse kraft, papaya petite dot, mermaid, ocean, sugar, bermuda scallops cardstock
Misc.: A Muse landscape, hey gull friend, pinking circles, medium scallop border, and chevron pennant die sets, foam mounting tape, Copic markers, sponge daubers
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a•muse | studio June Sneak Peak Day 2

 Day 2 of sneak peaks!!  Today, I've got another fun new stamp (and matching die) set to show you!  Gnarly Birthday!  It's a super cute set featuring this fun little narwhal.  For this card, I added twinkle stickers where his spots are.  I also used the new stitched window die set and the pinking circle dies to make this pinking circle frame.  I think it turned out pretty cute!

Don't forget to check out the A Muse blog and my fellow DT members for more sneak peaks!

A Muse Studio Blog

Melissa Chipperfield - Inked Regards

Ilina Crouse - Creativity Within

Lisa Lahiff - Lisa's Creative Niche

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse Gnarly Birthday and rolling seas background
Ink: A Muse ocean and black dye (retired)
Paper: A Muse mermaid petite pinstripe, ocean, sugar, bermuda scallops, and mermaid cardstock
Misc.: A Muse clear twinkle stickers, Copic markers, A Muse Gnarly birthday, stitched windows, pinking circles, and word windows die sets, foam mounting tape, and A Muse silver elastic cording

a•muse | studio June Sneak Peak Day 1

Hello!  I am SO excited to share June's sneak peaks from A Muse Studio with you!  There's a decided ocean and beach theme.  I am *really* into that. I majored in Zoology at the University of Washington and my last spring quarter I got to spend an intensive quarter living and studying Marine Zoology and Botany at UW's Friday Harbor Labs in the San Juan Islands.  Think a combination of Marine Biology and Summer Camp.  It was simply AMAZING.  Hands down the best quarter of college (and that includes all my fall quarters in the UW Husky Marching Band, which honestly, was a life changing experience).  Even though I didn't end up going into science as a career, I do really love it when our family, friends, or my outdoor preschool end up at the beach.  Low tide walks are my very favorite.  A went out a few weeks ago at an extreme low tide and literally gave my self horribly sore hamstrings from SO much squatting to look at things =)  Here's my favorite picture from that excursion:

Bottom Right corner: Opalescent Nudibranch! (Seaslug)

But, back to stamping!  Today's card features a fun new set coming out, "Let's be Mermaids"  It's a great set for coloring and I had fun making it into a shaker card.  I made the tag frame with a tag die and a rectangle die and then ran it through a Xyron to adhere all the glitter.  I also used the scalloped cardstock, but turned it upside down so it would look more like fish/mermaid scales (or ocean waves).

There's more sneak peaks on the A Muse Studio Blog, and on my fellow design team members!  Check them out:

A Muse Studio Blog

Melissa Chipperfield - Inked Regards

Ilina Crouse - Creativity Within

Lisa Lahiff - Lisa's Creative Niche

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse Let's be Mermaids and rolling seas background
Ink: A Muse mermaid and black dye (retired)
Paper: A Muse sugar, ocean, and bermuda scallops cardstock and Crystal Clear cardstock
Misc.: A Muse silver and bermuda 6mm sequins, A Muse clear 4mm sequins, foam mounting tape, A Muse vanilla buttons, A Muse toffee twine, A Muse mermaid glitter, Xyron Create-A-Sticker, Copic markers, A Muse Let's be Mermaids and tag bundle die sets and Spellbinders rectangle nesting dies

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