a•muse friends Blog Hop!

Welcome to our blog hop hosted by Sunghee! Be sure to visit her site after leaving a comment on each post for a chance to win her blog hop candy!

Card Details: a•muse studio: Beautiful Botanicals 2, Satin Pearl embossing powder, green cardstock, embossing buddy, corner chomper: others: ribbon, Basic Grey DP, DCWV maroon cardstock, ribbon.

Look at those richly embossed leaves! (Sorry, I took the photo at night so it's a bit dark) Can you believe this is the Satin Pearl embossing powder from a•s? On dark papers it comes out silver and on light papers it's a true, beautiful pearl color! I use it often but I suggest you test it out on a scrap if you are worried about which way it will emboss...I tend to just go with the flow...tee hee.

I've been trying to use up some of my papers that I've been hoarding for years and it feels good! I think this economy is starting to weigh us all down and is making me stop and think a bit before I buy like crazy. I like that a•muse studio has sampler paper packs and that I can buy those instead of 25 sheets of just one color -- although if I really like a color, I will! :)

So now begins the hopping!

Sunghee
location: McLean, VA
blog: http://www.CreativityInProgress.com

Sandi
location: Aspers, PA
blog: http://www.sandileescraps.blogspot.com

Kandy
location: Lebanon, IN
blog: http://www.kandys-keepsakes.com

Chris (that's me!!)
location: Springfield, VA
blog: http://allamericanstampers.blogspot.com

Angela
location: Cottonwood, CA
blog: http://angelakelley.blogspot.com

PS. Psst! Have you heard that the a•muse studio catalog is now LIVE? You can click on it here to download it for free or if you want a hard copy to thumb through...click on my sidebar and I'll mail it same day. Want it for free? Ask me how?!? It's easy...

So busy!

I'm struggling to stay afloat with so much on my plate -

- subbing almost everyday
- car in for repairs after being hit last Monday
- repairs to the house and hopefully new carpet soon (due to basement flooding ugh)
- just took daughter to get her driver's permit - she passed...stay tuned :)
- son's football team just made the playoffs as of last night...stay tuned :)
- I really, really want to sit and stamp...Christmas Card Buffet scheduled for 18 Nov - means I HAVE to start stamping!!

So, just in case you missed this from my Virtual Open House slide show, I wanted to share some of those cards here with you!



So clean and simple but I just love this stamp set! It's called Celebrate the Season.



And this too is one of my favorite sets from a•muse studio, it's called Beautiful Botanicals 2. The scalloped edge is cut with one of their border dies and all inks and papers in these cards are from a•muse studio. I've fallen in love again...Hope your week is going GREAT!

More Botanicals

This has to be one of my favorite stamps from my starter kit. I just stamped this flower on watercolor paper and then used the second generation of it to "fill" in the white space below the flowers. Love how these inks look on watercolor paper and even though it's a flower, these colors give it a fallish feeling, I think!

Heather happened to post a card using this stamp set today as well...you can't miss it.

Just a moment to play!

Thank you first of all to all the kind posts you left about our water troubles. The water came in more than I originally realized and yesterday we finally tore out all the carpeting and pads - there was no way it would dry out and the whole house was starting to stink! Yuck...all in all though it could've been much worse and I know there are many families who suffered much more.

My new Amuse starter kit arrived on Friday but all I had time to do was look at my new stamps and oogle at all the beautiful ink colors! I chose the $149 starter kit that is normally $225 and it's a great choice if you want to load up on inks...if not, the $99 kit (normally $175) is an amazing deal and you can then add on the things you really want at your own pace.




What I really *love* is that these stamps come in a DVD type case and are precut and indexed. The indexing is so perfect that stamp placement is a breeze.



This morning I took out 10 minutes for some "me" time once I got the kiddos and hubby packed up and out of the house. It's just a simple card but I love the results of stamping pigment ink on watercolor paper.



{A Muse Studio Stamps and Inks: grass, french roast}

Now back to going through two rooms worth of "stuff" (and most of it is my crafting supplies - do I really still need a light box or my paper making kit?!?!?) that is now crammed in the garage. Hope you have a great week, the sun is shining here!