Santa's Helper / House Mouse

Over at the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge blog, there is a new challenge weekly. This week's is polka dots. Polka dots here, polka dots there, polka dots every where! The challenge is to make anything your heart desires, a card, an ATC or maybe a page layout but two things are a must. Whatever you create must have a House Mouse or friend image and polka dots. I immediately thought of my recent card candy that I made (see post below) and knew it would be perfect for the challenge. I then challenged myself further by digging through my Christmas scraps of paper looking for polka dots to use for my card.

The polka dot printed paper is by DCWV, cardstock is Bazzil and image is Santa's Helper from the House Mouse line by Stampabilities. I colored the image with Prismacolor colored pencils and used puff paint for the white dots around the scallop circle. Simple and quick easy card!

This is my first time to join in on the House Mouse challenge. I have enjoyed looking at the amazing talent every week . If you haven't visited and seen all the amazing creativity over there, please take a moment to check it out. Warning: it can be addictive getting into these little critters and the House Mouse Challenge Blog!!!

No Red & Green Christmas Challenge

The challenge was to make a Christmas card with no red or green on the card. This card turned out to actually be a triple challenge for me. Challenge 1) I stamped the image on cardstock that is a color other than white or cream. Challenge 2) Colored the image with only one color using Prismacolor colored pencil in white and only coloring the snow. Challenge 3) Make the card using no red or green. I chose to go with a vintage photo look topped off with black photo corners. You might even say it is a bit retro. Simple card but I liked the end results. Image is by PSX.

The Four Seasons

This is an older card I made but made within this past year. I am so often guilty of seeing rubber stamps I like in the store, buying them and then never using them. This set by Hero Arts from their Petite Prints called Four Seasons is a classic case of that! Joining some swaps that forced me to use some stamps I never used, I chose this set and finally put it to good use. The picture does not do justice to the colors I used. Each image is stamped with Colorbox Chalk Ink in a color that represents its season. The card base is a cream color. I used Clear Stamps Swirls to stamp the background using the same color chalk inks as used in the four season images. I wanted this card to be able to be mailed without additional postage so I chose to add no embellishments or bling. Sometimes it is a real challenge not to add embellishments such as ribbon, eyelets and brads. When you do though it cost more to mail your card. Here in the US we get charged for "lumps" & "bumps" that we call embellishing and bling!

My First Blog Award!

Recently I was awarded with my first blog award by a new friend. I have been having trouble with my computer and completely forgot to accept my award. I'm back in business though with my computer and just happened to remember that I needed to post my award given to me by my friend Rosette. I haven't known Rosette very long but we have become friends fast. She lives in Malta (Europe) and has an amazing talent that she uses to create the most beautiful cards. I hope you will take the time to check out her blog.

I'm pretty new to blogging but it appears I need to now present this award to 5 people. Since I am new to this, I would like to reserve the right to hold off on presenting this award for a few days. There are so many talented and creative people out there that I would love to present this award to but that's not my problem. My problem is I'm still learning how to do things and I want to make sure I am presenting this award properly. So bear with me.....I'll get this figured out soon! LOL!

Meanwhile please take the time to check out Rosette's blog. She has been a huge inspiration to me....more than she knows! Thanks Rosette!

House Mouse Easter Card

I recently Hosted a swap called "It's A House Mouse Occasion". Participants were to pick a holiday or special occasion/ event and create 5 cards to swap using a House Mouse image to represent their chosen occasion. I chose to do Easter. My son challenged me to not use the bright pastel colors that are so often used for Easter but instead to try more of a vintage look. Image is colored with Prismacolor colored pencils and gamsol. I used Tim Holtz's Distressed Ink.....Old Paper....by Ranger to ink the edges of the image and green cardstock as well as the printed paper. Happy Easter sentiment is by Hampton Arts. Card base is a cream color but unfortunately the colors are not showing very well in the picture. I topped off the card with some ric rac and eyelets for embellishing. I'm glad I accepted my son's challenge because I like the touch of vintage for this card!

House Mouse Birthday Card

Tomorrow, November 24th is my cousin's birthday. I chose to make her card using my favorite critters....House Mouse by Stampabilities. The card is a gate fold style, printed paper is by DCWV. Image is colored with Prismacolor colored pencils. I hope she likes her card and has a great birthday!

Tips & Techniques of the Week! Sharpen Your Punches

I love to search the Internet for tips and techniques on how to do new and different things in the paper crafting world.There are so many talented and gifted people sharing their how to tips on the net that it is rare that you can't find an answer to how to do something or solve a problem. This past week I had trouble with a fairly new punch not punching a clean sharp edge. Wouldn't you know it....someone posted on two different sites that I belong to, this awesome video with a solution to my problem. Click HERE for a tip on how to sharpen your punches. I'm off to drink a can of soda! Hope everyone has a great week.

Susan