Jump Starting

I want to thank those of you who gave me such kind words of encouragement. My husband asked me about what I had written and he reminded me of why I like to stamp and how long I have been doing it. He was able to reason with me that I would miss the creative outlet that stamping and blogging gives me. It makes me Elena, not "mom." So, here goes...

Well, I don't have any affiliation with A Muse Studio and it makes me a little sad. However, I do have some of the new product and wanted to work with it. My first card comes to you courtesy of Paper Crafts Connection and a color challenge. The blue, red, black and white combination is a favorite of mine and one I've used a lot recently. I needed to make a few thank you notes to send to some stores that donated items for a school trip. This was a quick and easy card, too, so it will be easy to replicate.



One of the things that I decided to do to add the black was to mimic some washi tape. I have a small roll of some American Crafts washi tape but it is green, so I stamped some small dots, trimmed the edges, then tore the ends, just like I would have done with tape. Easy! I think I'm going to try it with vellum for a more tap-like look.



This next card comes to you courtesy of the Create blog and the Accordion Paper Flowers challenge. Last year I made some accordions/rosettes for my front door. I have been wanting to make more, so this was my chance. Since the Fourth of July holiday weekend, I thought I'd make a firecracker with an accordion flower as the flame.



I used a grass die to make the edge, folded and shaped the "flame" and attached it just above the body of the firecracker (which I adhered to the card with a slight bow to it to add dimension). Adding twinkle stickers around the edge gave it a little oomph. FYI, I usually add a button or stamped image over the center of the rosettes to cover the Diamond Glaze I use to hold it together.