When you wish upon a star...

So happy to be playing with the Less is More challenge this week! I was playing with a few ideas, and didn't have luck with any of them, so I switched tracks and did a few other cards (scroll down for my first post today and a Mousey card) and came back to it.

Always seem to be needing birthday cards, and this one struck me as I was poking around my stamp collection.

The mouse was stamped in momento black ink and then coloured with Copics. The stars are Stampin' Up (can't remember which set) which was stamped in versamark and then embossed with silver powder. The sentiment is a bargain bin stamp from Michaels. The inside of the card says "Wish upon a star."

The next few weekends are pretty busy, but I hope I have a chance to play along!

New challenge-MMSC127

I came across a new challenge this weekend, thanks to the House-Mouse and Friends blog. The Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge blog is featuring one of my favourites this week- House Mouse, of course!

This is the sketch for this week's MMSC127:

 Here's my take on it:

I used this image, stamped on bristol paper in Momento black ink and coloured with Copics. I added the gems to the middle of the snowflakes for a little bit of bling and layered it onto Stampin' Up's Old Olive paper. The ribbon is from Michaels and the sentiment at the bottom was stamped onto a strip I punched with a border punch (Fiskars, I think).

Here's another view of the card, with my ever-present assistant on the job- you've got to watch those mice- you never know when they will try to escape!

Falling for House Mouse and Friends

I had the day off today- it was a great day- did some things around the house, did a little shopping, and even had time to play in my craft area for a bit. This morning while I was having my coffee, I checked out the House Mouse and Friends blog challenge. This time around, the challenge is all about fall. I love fall- it's my favourite time of year.

As the weather gets cooler, I start to crave warm drinks- flavoured teas, hot chocolate with yummy add-ins. This mousey stamp makes me smile- he just looks so happy in that warm bath!

 

 

I stamped the image with momento black ink and coloured with copics. I found the patterned paper in my stash and overlaid it on kraft card stock. I used my Martha Stewart punch to punch out the falling leaves and adhered them with a strip of tape. The glitter paper is a new find that I treated myself to today (shhhhh.... don't tell!).

Now, off to finish a couple of things before heading back to work tomorrow.

Feeling spotty...

I am so happy to have time to play with the LIM challenge this week. This week, it's all about POLKA DOTS. 


It took me a few minutes to come up with ideas, but then I remembered that I wanted to send a card to one of my friends, and I also came across a piece of ribbon that inspired me.

First, the card for my friend Tracey, who has saved my bacon more than once.

 

I love this happy little mousey. I used the polka dot paper, cut to 2 inches, as a focal point, and stamped the sentiment in momento black ink. The mouse was coloured with Copics. I really like the freshness of the green paper. 

This other House Mouse card was also coloured with copics. I added a little sparkle on the ornament with a spica glitter pen. 

The sentiment is a new stamp I picked up earlier this month, in preparation for a flurry of Christmas card making in the next couple of weeks.

I have the day off tomorrow, and once the housework is done, and I have a couple of things accomplished, I will hopefully be able to play in my craft area. There are many stamps that are just waiting to get inky!

It's beginning to feel a lot like...

Fall. Well, it looks like fall is finally upon us. I had to scrape car windows this morning before I went to work, and we had a killing frost last night. Fortunately, they are forecasting warmer temps for the weekend. That's good news, as we are having a fairly major event at work on Saturday, and even though it's inside all day, it'll be much nicer if the weather is fair. 

Here's another card I created last weekend. I absolutely love this stamp. I decided that I wanted to try it black and white. I also attempted to do it stamped in white on a black paper, but it looked horrible, and the detail on this stamp is too fine to use embossing powder. 

Santa was stamped on white paper, then I added a couple of layers of ultra thick embossing powder to give it some sparkle and shine. I matted it onto a slightly larger piece of black card and put that on top of the music sheet and ribbon. I really like the simplicity of the black and white. I think I may try this with a couple of other stamps, too, and see what happens.

I have Sunday and Monday off next week. I am hoping that a good portion of at least one of those days will be spent playing with ink and paper.

Swirly snowflakes

This morning on the radio, the announcers uttered the dreaded S-word. Yup- snow. Now, I haven't seen any yet, and there are still leaves on the trees, but this is the Canadian prairies, so who knows what will happen.

This weather has inspired me to create- it's cozy in my stamping space, and it's the perfect place to play for a couple of hours.

My friend M and I headed to one of our favourite places last weekend- Scrapyard in Stonewall. They had a Christmas card on display that I loved last year, and was happy to see again this year. I decided to take a stab at creating something similar.

I used Baroque Motifs from Stampin up for the background image and then layered the snowflake stamp (from a non-SU unknown set) to cover up the flowers on the swirl. I stamped the sentiment and added a little bit of bling in the centres of the snowflakes and tied it up with a bow.

Hopefully, these are the only snowflakes I'll be seeing for a while- the white stuff can stay away for a few more weeks.

Candy coated christmas

 

 

I have been mulling over ideas for the Flourishes Christmas spirit challenge over at Splitcoast.  I just got a new stamp set in the mail, and started to play. I am quite happy with the way this card turned out. 

 The cardinal was stamped in momento black ink and coloured with copics. Then, I aged the paper slightly using tea dye distress inks. It was then layered on glassine paper and placed on top of the snowflake paper. The red striped paper at the back is standard 4.25x5.5.

This shot shows more of the candy-coated cardinal. I put two layers of Ultra Think Embossing Enamel on the card. It adds a little bit of sparkle and shine to the card.

I've been a bad, bad blogger...

I have no idea where the time has gone. Work seems to be crazy busy (and will be until at least the end of November), and I just don't seem to have any time to play. I have resolved to make some time at least once per week to play, and let the creative juices flow. Plus, I have to get a move on with Christmas cards!

Here's a card I did for hubby's birthday at the end of September.

The leaf stamp was attached to a recent edition of Craft Stamper magazine, I stamped it with Versamark and then used garnet, dark green and gold embossing powder. The sentiment was embossed with bronze. It's a one layer card, too, which isn't something that I usually do. It was quick, simple, and I really like how it turned out.