More with the banner/penant die

I love the banner/penant die from A Muse Studio. Its perfect for men cards. Images from: Stamping Bella.

Stay tuned for my first ever blog hop on April 2nd

Its going to be a bunch of A Muse Studio consultants so you can all see how cute the new A Muse stamps are ....

The frosting looks real don't you agree?

****I love this set from A Muse Studios called A Very Merry Un-Birthday. This piece of cake looks good enough to eat!! I got the idea from this blog. All stamps by A Muse (except for the "Do the Math, you're old" is by Rubber City Rubber Works. I've had it for YEARS!)

Keep the inner liner or toss it?

When you get your A Muse Studio stamp sets, they come in DVD cases. You have the choice to either take out the inner liner with the stamps in them and just let them stick onto the DVD case by themselves or keep them in their original places. I first took mine out but did not throw it away and I am glad I kept it. I prefer to keep the inner line inside and use it that way.

A different kind of fold ...

When I visited my friend Traci in February, she got this cool card from Joanne. You fold the card in half like you normally would, but then you trim off 1/2 of the top and you have this neat half fold card. Anyway, I used my newest A Muse Studio stamps for both cards but the "Where have you been?" stamp is by Penny Black. (That is going to a friend who I haven't heard from in a few months)

A Muse Studio grass die vs Martha Stewart grass punch

***I've had the Martha Stewart grass punch for a few years. I still use it quite a bit. When I saw that A Muse Studios had a grass die, I had to check it out and compare the 2. What do you think?

Ribbon organization

As you can see from my first photo, I was having a hard time remembering what colors of ribbon I had, how much ribbon I had, etc.

I decided to tackle this project this afternoon. I had 4 DRAWERS of ribbon like the above and now I have this:

I can't take all the credit. I saw it on someone's blog and I don't remember where I saw the idea (Sorry!). I already had this container that I had gotten from Hobby Lobby. I used it to store my necklaces that I made. I cut pieces of sturdy cardstock to fit in the compartments and then wrapped each ribbon around each one. Much better!!!!

So ... banners (or penants) seem to be all the rage on cards

When I saw this penant in the new A Muse catalog, I knew I had to order it. I made this for Josh's birthday which is next week.

Are you wearing GREEN today?

Shaving cream background?

I haven't tried the shaving cream background for a long time. In the first card, I sprayed shaving cream (regular men's shaving cream) onto a paper plate, then I added about 4 drops of Bubblegum re-inker (from A Muse Studios) and stirred it with a knife. I laid the piece of cardstock in the shaving cream mixture and then took the knife and smoothed it over (like I was frosting a cake). Let it dry and add to the card. It makes a neat marble effect!! And it smells great too!!!

Fiskars clouds

I bought cloud punches by Fiskars about a month ago. Someone wanted to see what the clouds look like on a card so I made this today. All stamps by A Muse Studio. Paper by A Muse Studio.

Trying out my new A Muse inks and paper

I am having fun playing with my new A Muse Studio inks and paper. The cardstock is color on one side and white on the other. I wasn't sure I would like this but now that I have made a card using this pink cardstock, I realized I didn't have to put another piece of white cardstock on the inside. I made this Easter card using this adorable digital image from Sassy Cheryls. I just had to get it!!! I used the stamp inside using my new bubblegum pink pigment ink. (I took the picture before I stamped it. Sorry!) I was worried the pinkment ink would smear but it dried in about 10 seconds. Love it!! Now I may need all the colors!! I compared the weight of the Stampin Up cardstock to the weight of the A Muse Studio cardstock and I would say they are very close in thickness and weight. I have always loved Stampin Up cardstock and I have it in all colors. I have always loved that the ink matches their paper and their paper matches their buttons ... you get the idea. A Muse is doing this also. I need to send in my first order. I've re-done it a million times and want to make sure I get it just right.

I have few stamp sets to sell if anyone is interested ... All are Stampin up

Just leave me a message here or email me at flipflops4sherri@yahoo.com.

They have all been used but in great to excellent condition. There may be some staining on some of the wood and if you would like to know about a certain set ahead of time, please just ask. Shipping is extra and i will ship international. Thanks so much!!

Where do you go for inspiration?

I go to several blogs for inspiration. I'll be the first to admit I can't come with my own original ideas sometimes so I go to these several blogs when I need ideas:

Bloggabella - love her sketches she has each week

Anna Wight - she has awesome cards that she makes plus she lives on a farm with cows, chickens, goats and I just love her photography too!!

Julie Ebersole - I have always loved her simple cards she makes

Check them out, maybe you will get some great ideas too!!

Time to look for employment

I have been fortunate enough to be a stay at home mom for 18 years. With Emily turning 19 this year and Nicholas turning 16 in 2 months, its time to look for a full time job. Its quite different nowadays than 18 years ago!! Everything seems to be done online. I don't like that!! How can they get a feel for who I am online from my resume and not meeting me in person? I even tried Craigslist the other day and there are ads on there but now I am afraid to give anyone there my information. Ha Gotta be extremely careful these days!!

Since I am looking into clerical again, I decided I needed some new dressy clothes for a job interview. In case anyone wants to meet me in person. I went to Kohls with my 30% off coupon and got a pair of black dress pants, black dress shoes, khaki pants, khaki dress shoes, a belt and some really colorful shirts.

Now ... if someone would just call me for an interview!! I'm all set! :)

Here is my you tube video for your viewing pleasure ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBw71P4s_6g


And .. here are a few cards I made with my new stamps. Can you say A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E ?

My Amuse stamps came today!!!

(clap, clap, clap!!!) Yay!! We had hard downpours all afternoon so it was the perfect day to get this big box of brand new A Muse stamps and "play" this afternoon. I got quite a lot of stuff and I even made a video of me opening my box (don't laugh too hard at my video!). lol I also took a few pics of the contents of the box too so you can get a better idea of what comes in the starter kit. The starter kit sells for $99 plus shipping and tax and you get all this!! If you would like to join under me, all this can be yours and I can be your upline :). I am #1054.

I have 60 Amuse wood stamps

so i went through my old stash and pulled out 12 that will be unmounted in the new catalog. I decided to try and make a card using some of these 12. I came up with these 2 cards.

I paper pieced the 3 houses and colored in the trees with Copic markers. For the bunnies, I used a stamp positioner to get them all straight on the card. Cute huh?

A Muse Studios (A|S) has a cute video out

Michelle Clark at Sparkle Designs posted this cute video to launch A Muse Studios (AS) line of stamps. Love it!!

Stand up card (not sure the proper name for this card)

Stamping with Dawn had this on her blog. Its a cute stand-up card using 1 piece of cardstock. I made a thank you card for Traci and made my own stand-up card :). Isn't it cute?

A*Muse makes some major changes to their stamp line.

A*Muse has decided to not sell their stamps in stamp stores anymore and has gone to a catalog and/or parties in the home. You will only be able to get these stamps now through a consultant and guess what?! I signed up as an A*Muse consultant. I am very excited to start this venture. They are no longer wood mounted stamps but will be rubber cling that you use them on an acrylic block. I have always LOVED A*Muse rubber stamps and I counted my inventory and I have about 60 total. I only have a select few in wood mounted so this means I can get all new A*muse rubber cling stamps. Yay for me!!! If you would like to see their website, you can see it here at: https://www.amusestudio.com/index.asp ... If you want to be an A*Muse consultant, you can order through me or you can sign up like I did and be one yourself. I am consultant Sherri Thacker #1054. I can't wait to get my starter kit. I hope they hurry up and send it!!!!

A bigger envelope for a bigger card

Bigger envelope (see above)

I saw this on Chicnscratch and knew I had to copy this idea. It is super easy and I even made a short video using my envelopes :).

Back from surprising my friend Traci for her 40th ...

Traci's husband and I have been planning our "birthday surprise" for about a month. I said all would depend on the weather and on Friday, the day I was to drive up there, it decided to snow in Toledo. I think they got about 6" but I was going no matter what. The roads were all clear all the way up there so all was good. She was totally surprised when I pulled up in her driveway. We had a great weekend and I'm so glad I went. Now back to the diet ...