Calendar Page - recycled

I had participated in a Calendar Swap a few years ago!  The end result was an awesome House Mouse calendar with some great images!  After that particular year was over I couldn't bare to throw away some of the images, so I have kept them and will create cards from them.  Here was the November iamge - the page I was responsible for!  I used this piece of image from the House Mouse stamp called "sleeping with the strawberries".  I hand drew the scarf and cut it out to add to my mouse.  I also hand drew the tree and colored it in by sliding ink pads directly tothe paper.  A few punched leave were added for some "movement" on the image. 

To create the card I took the calendar page and added it to this square of houndstooth from my scrap bin.  The sentiment (from Paper Tray, Papertrey Ink) was stamped with Chocolate Chip ink and then I inked aorund the edges of the paper.   Added the whole thing to a 4.25" card. 

What can I say, I like to recycle.

Have a great day!
Donelda

Sleeping with Strawberries with Bookmark

I have been on a totally Strawberry kick the last few days so I thought I would bring you a week of Strawberry Inspiration!! Each day this week I have a strawberry card. You should see all the different styles that I have in store!! This is a wonderful project to do with large images like the big House Mouse Stamps. I started out by stamping the image twice. I colored one in full using my colored pencils and 'gamsol'. On the other image, I only colored in the main part of the image. I created the card with the full image. Then the fun part. I cut the partially colored image, matted it onto a piece of cardstock that was folded in half. I adhered magnets inside the 2 bottom parts of the folded cardstock so that it becomes a bookmark. When mailing it to the recipient the bookmark stays on the card. Upon recieving the card they can use the bookmark! My 'strawberry kick' started with the creating of this card for the Cards Blog challenge last week (which didn't get picked for). Strawberries are one of my very favorite summer time treats and I think they are beautiful images to create with!! Do you love strawberries too??? Thanks for dropping in for a visit today! Make sure you drop back in the rest of the week to see all the other strawberry cards!! Donelda

Christmas Card Reveal Countdown - Day 21

It's finally here, the very last day of my Christmas Card countdown. 21 days of christmas creativity!! Today I have some beautiful House Mouse and Happy Hopper cards to share with you!! I love them, they make me smile!!

The kissing bunnies were sent to many of the gals I met by joining the House Mouse swaps on SCS. I haven't been able to participate lately, but keep in contact with many of them still!!

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas Card Reveal Countdown! I sure did enjoy sharing all my Christmas cards with you!!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and the best in the New Year!

Donelda

Happily Ever After

My husband and I just celebrated 13 years of marriage. It seems that every year we are on vacation somewhere and it actually takes us until half-way through the day before we realize it's our anniversary. This year was no exception!! Regardless, we always find a way to celebrate whether that day or, more likely, when we get home. Unfortunately, I always seem to forget to make a card before we leave (in the crazy time of running around finishing work, packing, making arrangements for pets, etc.). Again, this year was no exception so I made this card for my sweetie last night.

The image is actually just a small part of a Happy Hoppers stamp called Bunny Kisses by Stampabilities. Where is the bunny you ask? Well, he is holding a sprig of mistletoe over these little mice who are smooching!! I loved the little kissing mice and knew they would make a great anniversary card. The senitment is from Favor It Weddings by Papertrey Ink (perfect I thought). The image is colored with Prismacolor pencil crayons and blended with odorless mineral oil. The heart is a small rub on. If you look at the close up picture, I dry embossed some cute little hearts along the outer edge, and the image and mat are popped up on dimensionals.

I know it is all sappy but I've got to say that I truely love this man so much more today than I ever did 13 years ago!!!

And don't forget to check out smARTworks for details about the 40% off sale they are having between July 18 - 28. Ten days of super bargains!! If you end up buying make sure you tell them that I sent you!!

Thanks for dropping in to my blog!!

Donelda

House Mouse Inchie Party

Here are my Inchies for the latest House Mouse swap over on SCS. We could opt to enter the ATC, Nickleback (twinchies), or Inchie swap. I totally opted to go with inchies because I love them!! My friend, Jessica, sent me some awesome Studio g stamps which included this awesome birthday hat. I decided that this little mouse would be heading to a birthday celebration!!

I stamped just the head of this house mouse and colored him in with pencil crayons and punched him out. Then, I stamped the hat onto scrap paper and again on the pink polka dot paper. I cut out the hat and paper pieced the pink part of the hat. I added some blue stickles to the swirly section of the hat! Once that was dry, I added the hat to the mouse image. I finished the inchie with some blue ink painted around the mouse image and a sentiment. Papertrey Ink's set called Mixed Messages is the best set because they have a bunch of itty bitty sentiments in the set....perfect size for an inchie!!

Thanks for dropping in,

Donelda

House Mouse Christmas

I made these cards for my House Mouse friends!! The nicest people in the world are part of the stamping and crafting world. I have met some very nice people through Splitcoaststampers and blogging!! I got this wonderful stamp from my friend Jessica G. last year around Christmas -- Thanks so much Jessica!! I hope each of you have a wonderful holiday season!! Supplies: Stamps - Mistletoe Moment (House Mouse), Holiday Wishes (Papertrey Ink) designer paper (Provo Craft); Paper - Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), red (Bazzill); Ink - Jet Black (Archivers); Other - prismacolor pencil crayons, Odorless Mineral Spirits, ribbon (from my friend Robin). Thanks for dropping in this evening!! Donelda

House Mouse Mail

My friend Jessica is running her 5th House Mouse swap and I definately had to play. You see, Jessica is one of the best hostesses ever!! and the swaps I get back are AMAZING every time. She just brings out the best in us all! So this time, she ran a card or an ATC swap but I am stuck on making House Mouse ATCs so I decided to stick with a good thing.

I decided I wanted to incorporate a "home made" stamp using an image from one of my previous House Mouse ATCs that you can see HERE. There is this really cool web site that allows you to frame your images and one of the frames is to make it into a postage stamp. I've done THIS card with the same web site.

So I decided to make a the stamp and place it on an envelope for my little mouse to be recieving. But then, I needed him to 'be somewhere'. So, I decided to use the faux wood technique to make him on a wooden floor. I tell you, when I first saw some cards with this technique it looked hard...but it is so very easy!! You should definately try it if you haven't already!! I made another card for Chris' barn yard swap using the same technique (this link will be provided when I get the card loaded into my gallery-thanks for being patient). The little mouse is colored with prismas and odorless paint thinner (my fav way to color in these guys).

I sure hope everyone likes him! It was a fun ATC to make!

Thanks for visiting.

Donelda

A Flying Mouse?

Have you ever seen a flying mouse ?? Well, here's one!

This is an ATC that is made using Zindorf's brayered sky technique. Boy, if you haven't seen her cards yet, you should definately check out her gallery -- she does some amazing work!!

I am in Jessica's House Mouse swap #5 and need to figure out what technique I am going to do so I was playing around with this as an option. However, this took a ton of time and I"m not sure I could do it 10 times. So, I decided to put a hand-drawn sentiment and enter it into Jen's Limited supply challenge from today!!

Thanks for the visit!

Donelda

Yum, Yum Good.

I decided to create something for Sharon's Bake Off challenge on her blog No Time to Stamp? This little House Mouse stamp looked like he was enjoyging some baked goods! On the little cupcake, I added some frosting (modeling paste) and sprinkles (seed beads)

It was a very fun card to make.

Supplies: Gumball paper from ... I've forgotten, I'll edit it in later, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White (SU!), Basic black ink (SU!), HOuse Mouse, Year Round fun 2, Michael's dollar stor for sentiment. Prisma color pencil crayons, seed beads, light modeling paste

Thanks for visiting. See you tomorrow night for the next lesson!!

Donelda

House Mouse ATC - the distraction!

I love house mouse stamps!! And I especially love adding things to these individual stamped guys -- put a hat on them, make them hold something...what ever!! You can see a few of my other exampes HERE and HERE.

Jessica is the infamous House Mouse ATC swap leader!! She is on her 4th HMATC swap!! and I've joined every one of them!! She is just the best hostess in the world and the quality of ATCs in the swap is just amazing!!

This time I am not all that pleased with my results. You see, I got really stuck on using light modeling paste for the ice cream... then I felt I needed to add the words to clarify the story..... any way, I'm not overly pleased with the end results. I can't wait to get all the great ATCs back in the swap...these ladies are SERIOUSLY talented!!

Supplies: Cardstock - Whisper White (SU), light cardboard (unknown); Ink-Basic Black, Creamy Caramel (SU), Stamps- Mudpie Tells, What? (House Mouse), Icecream (Michael's $1.50 bin), Faux Ribbon (Papertrey Ink); Accessories - Light modeling paste, red acrylic paint, rhinstones, printer, prisma pencil colors, odorless thinner.

Thanks or visiting.

Donelda

Mice and Butterflies

I like to make ATCs. They are so addictive that I just can't stop making them. I found the original swap using House Mouse stamps posted by jlazarski and participated in that swap. Well, Jessica is such a great hostess, I joined her second, third, and now her fourth swap -- all featuring House Mouse stamps! If you like making ATCs, love those cute little House Mouse stamps, and would like to join in the fun, you should check out Jessica's newest swap HERE.

Anyway, back to my card. Jessica and a bunch of the other talented ladies like to share great cards that are uploaded on the Splitcoaststampers site. And THIS awesome card made by SophieLaFontaine was shared a few days ago. I fell totally in love with it and new I'd have to case it (that means copy it!).

First, I took some shiny cardstock (I just use photo paper) and sponged on some summer sun and pumpkin pie. Then I stamped my butterfly from All Night Media in StazOn Black. I cut it out carefully using my hobby knife (getting those antenna was hard!). Next, I colored in this little House Mouse image that Jessica shared with me (thanks Jessica!) using my Prismacolor pencil crayons and then blended the colors with oderless thinner (called Gamsol Magic technique on SCS). I cut him out as well. Then, I set them on a white card base and decided where I would draw my "plate" where my sentiment would be stamped. I drew it in using my black SU marker and a ruler to help, but I didn't make it totally straight, I like the "hand drawn" look of it with a few bumps along the way. I added a second layer and the little dots. Then I used my watercolor crayons and a paint brush to color in the inside of the plate. Finally, I attached the butterfly and mouse on opposite ends.

You really should go check out Sophie's gallery... she has some amazing cards there, mine is dull in comparison but I think I am going to do some practice and see how it goes. I'd love to see some cards you have made by cutting out images. Please leave a link in a comment!!

Thanks for visiting.

Horizontal Pocket Card

Hi everyone!! I don't usually get to do many of the challenges from SCS these days, but I saw these awesome Horizontal Pocket Cards that Beth wanted us to do on the Try A New Technique Challenge 141 and I had to give it a try!! Here is the technique from SCS but notice that at the very bottom, there are specific directions for making it HORIZONTAL instead of vertical card. I started out making a vertical one before I realized what I was doing.... you'll probably see that card tomorrow, LOL. I started the card out by using some Buckaroo Blue cardstock for the main part of my card. Did the cutting and folding as it instructed me to do. Then, I used one of the flourishes from the Fancy Flexible Phrases set on the folded part of the card. I added this beautiful piece of designer paper on the front of the card, under the fold. I'm sorry, I used most of the paper on another project and I no longer have the name of who designed it. If I find it, I'll edit the post and let you know. Don't you just love it when you find a beautiful piece of designer paper and cardstock that matches perfectly!! This color combo has been sitting on my craft table for the last few weeks, just waiting for the right project!! Back to the card. After adhearing the edges closed, I made the inside part using Certainly Celery cardstock. I simply added a 1" circle of the designer paper as a pull tab. Then I took this teeny tiny picture of a House Mouse (that I received from my friend, thanks Jessica!) and colored him in using my Prisma color pencil crayons. I then cut him out very carefully using my hobby knife and watercolored some Buckaroo Blue beneath him. I adheared him to this rectangle of Certainly Celery with rounded corners and stamped the "little baby" sentiment from Everyday Flexible Phrases set. Once together, I thought it needed just something to make the Certainly Celery pieces stand out so I took my black marker and drew a line around the edges of those pieces. Perfecto -- or should I say Wiggity!! I hope you like this little guy. If you try the horizontal pocket card, leave a comment with a link so I can check it out!! Thanks for visiting.