Happy New Year!

December was a busy month, with preparations for Christmas, work parties and events for our clients, and just general busy-ness.

Now, it's the new year, and time for a fresh start. I love the possibilities of the new  year- so much potential, and who knows where the year will take us?

I have a few crafty resolutions, including:

Try to update my blog at least once per week.

Get crafty at least once or twice a week- one of my non-crafty resolutions is to try to avoid snacking at night, and this might help with that, too!

Use what I have, including designer paper, stamps that haven't made it out of their packaging and other misc items. 

I also want to stamp each image I have to create an index of sorts.

Now, onto crafty goodness! 

The House Mouse and Friends blog had a new challenge posted this week, and I've really enjoyed playing along the last couple of months- the challenge this time around is to celebrate anything new... and I am celebrating a NEW STAMP!

My friend M and I headed to our fave store for some post-Christmas bargains, and I came home with not one, but two HM stamps... This little guy got inked about 10 minutes after I got home. 

The image was stamped with Momento black ink and coloured with Copics. I love the background paper- it's La banquise paper, called Vent Polaire. I cut the card blank at 5 inches square, and cut the silver mirror stock at the same. the Vent Polaire paper was cut at 4.75 and the House Mouse image was cut at approx 3 inches, with the silver backing 1/4 of an inch bigger. The sentiment is a sticker. 

My mother in law is here for a visit, and this little guy will make his way home with her next week. 

I've been busy in the craft area this week- there will be more coming shortly!

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!

House Mouse- no cookin' challenge

This week at House-Mouse and Friends, it's a No Cookin' Recipe Card Challenge.  I don't think it's any secret how much I love House Mouse and company, and I have been meaning to play along with the challenges for ages, but it always seems like I miss the deadline. This week, I had a few ideas for the challenge, and they were all birthday cards. September is a busy birthday month in my world, and here's one card down.

I also love cookbooks and have many. In fact, they have overflowed my cookbook cupboard and are on several shelves. I pulled this recipe from a book I picked up for $1. It's brand new, and decided to muck it up a bit using distress inks in Vintage Photo and Tea Dye. The recipe contributor's name was in the right corner, so I distressed it further by tearing the paper.

I stamped the image on Bristol paper with Momento ink and coloured with copics. I then cut it out and adhered it to the recipe with foam tape. It is layered on glassine paper and orange cardstock.

Wonder who is going to get this card?

Party time!

I had some time to play a bit this weekend, and brought out some of my House Mouse stamps. The first one, I seem to be using a lot lately. He's just so cute and summery. 

I stamped in Momento ink, coloured with copics and used an edge punch. Then, I layered the card onto some orange cardstock, then on top of corrugated paper, which I coloured with distress inks.

This camera mouse I have had for ages, in fact, I am pretty sure it's the first House Mouse I purchased and have never used. I think I was a little intimidated by colouring the camera, but it really wasn't that bad. I also have several birthdays coming up, and thought that by having camera mouse take a photo of the birthday mouse, I could use two stamps on one card. I have to admit, I am rather pleased with how it turned out. 

I hope to be able to play a bit more this week as well- depends on what is going on, but I have come across a couple of challenges I'd like to play.

I like to move it, move it!

It's been a crazy weekend. I was busy yesterday, busy puttering today, and finally got a chance to play this afternoon. I went to my favourite LSS this weekend with M, and there were new House Mouse stamps... this one called my name. It fits in perfectly with the Less is More challenge this week, which is THINGS THAT MOVE. We could make a moving card, have an element that moved, or depict something that moves. So, mousey it was.

I actually stamped, coloured and punched the mouse yesterday, but I was in a bit of a bad mood, and nothing was turning out, so I put it to the side and came back to it today. It turned out that I didn't like the colour of the flower (pinks), so I decided to colour over it using purples. I had never done that before- colouring over one Copic job with another, but I like the way it turned out- it added a bit more depth of colour.

I finished off the card by punching the mouse out using a 3 inch circle, layering it on a 2 inch strip of purple and putting it on a base.

The more I play with the Less is More challenges, the easier the clean and simple method is becoming.

Can't wait to see what's in store next weekend!

Swinging mouse

I was checking out splitcoaststampers for inspiration tonight, and came across a new challenge in the Try a New Technique forum. The technique was for a swinging z-fold card. Doesn't matter if you say zed or zee- this card is pretty easy to make, and it took me longer to pick my paper and colour than it did to make the card.

The tutorial is here. I have a few more ideas for cards like this.

The paper was a sale find, and I have been looking for something to use it for. The paper is reversible, and I didn't need to worry about finding matching papers (BONUS!). Once I stamped, die cut and coloured the House Mouse stamp, I attached it to the card front. It wasn't quite finished, so I added the flowers, which I coloured by pressing a yellow stamp pad onto the flower and held the four pieces together using a black brad. The inside has a 1.75 inch piece of white cardstock with a hello sentiment stamped on to it.

Lucky Dip... feeling fruity

It's been ages since I've been able to play along with the Less is More blog challenges. This week, it's Feeling Fruity. I don't have many stamps with fruit on them, but I have (and have been getting a lot of mileage) out of a House Mouse stamp. I've made a couple of cards with this stamp over the past couple of months, but I have finally been able to colour the lemon so it looks like a lemon, and not a yellow blob.

It took me a while to actually get this stamp onto paper. I was in a cleaning mode yesterday, and that transferred onto the stamp, as well. I had it inked twice and cleaned it off twice before it hit paper. I stamped onto Strathmore Bristol paper and coloured with Copics. I used a border punch to punch the holes and overlaid the card onto some orange stock that picks up the orange from the flower. Wasn't sure what I am going to use this card for, so I didn't put a sentiment onto the card. I like it just the way it is, and will put the sentiment on the inside instead, I think.

I seem to be on the roll again with postings... hope I can keep it up with at least one post per week in August!

Yikes!

I knew it had been a while since I updated my blog... I had no idea how long! I have made cards over the last month, but I just haven't gotten around to taking photos. 

This morning, I went down and cleaned up my craft area. It didn't take as long as I had anticipated, so I decided to create a couple of cards. 

My friend M and I went to our favourite stamping store on Thursday for a Christmas in July sale... I didn't do too badly. As usual, I picked up a House Mouse stamp. I have been thinking about another friend's upcoming birthday, and this stamp jumped out at me (and at 20% off, how could I possibly say no?

I coloured the mice with Copics, and used my 3 inch punch. It needed a little something extra, so I punched out four more circles and attached them to a 5 inch square. The edges were inked with distress ink in Crushed Concord. 

The ribbon was husband's pick. I think this card will be destined for one of my nieces... they are into all things pink and purple.

I'll post the card I made for the Less is More challenge tomorrow. 

Cats and mice

As I am writing this, my Tyger cat is being very affectionate, trying to get 100 per cent of my attention. He is succeeding. 

Once in a while, I get the urge to play with colours I don't really use a lot. In this case, it was purple. I have a ton of purple cardstock, but it's not something I usually use. I normally tend to neutrals. 

This house mouse stamp was coloured with copics. The strip behind the card was made with a MS punch.

I made this one with toys purchased on my trip south with my friend M. Coloured, as usual, with copics. I wasn't thrilled with the colour of the lemonade, so I coloured it with the blender pen to lighten it. The flowers are made with a Fiskars punch. 

Another new purchase... I am not thrilled with the way the ground turned out. It was better once I coloured it with the blender pen. Next time, I think I'll stick to lighter colours for the ground.