Mouse Birthday Part Deux :0)

This post follows hot on the little heels of yesterday's! It seems that we have entered the period of seasonal colds and flu's and I'm needing get well cards! So I used the sketch that Claire shared on her blog yesterday to make another card. (P.S. Check out Claire's blog for an amazing Challenge and fantabulous prize!!)

These dinky chickies are from Waltzingmouse's "Lil Buddies" set :0) I chalked them and then detailed them with Prismacolor pencils. The shadow underneath them is done with Copics. I stamped the sentiment from the "Lil Buddies" set and used the Polka Dots from "Off Beat Backgrounds" on the yellow backing.

The feathers up on the top left are from a new set by Hero Arts. I've been dying to use them on something - and here they are :0) The little flower is die cut from vellum, using Papertrey's Beautiful Blooms II dies and the leaves are from their "In Bloom" stamp set.

This is the sentiment (also "Lil Buddies") on the inside - with another little feather for emphasis!

How are you all doing? Enjoying spring? I think the entire blog-o-sphere has slowed down a little these days - and hope it's because everyone is having a wonderful outdoorsey kind of life!

Take care - have a really great day!

Happy Birthday Waltzingmouse!!

Claire Brennan is celebrating the first birthday of her stamp company Waltzingmouse Stamps . Claire is such an inspiration to me, because she felt inspired by a dream and decided to make it come true. Now she is celebrating a year of living that dream - which has seen some really cute, adorable and unique stamp sets enter the stamping arena!

During the May release Claire is offering up EIGHT new stamp sets - (the peekies are looking soooo amazing!) and as a special celebration she has drawn a sketch - invited us to enter our interpretations of it - and has offered to give the winner of the challenge all of her eight new sets as a prize!! WOW! That is soooooo seriously amazing!

So without further ado, here is my card - made with some of my most favourite Waltzingmouse stamps of all time:

This set uses the "Sewing Box Hugs" as the focal point, but little details of "Off Beat Backgrounds" and "Faux Fun" are all over it too!

Materials: All stamps - Waltzingmouse Stamps; Cardstock and Ink - Papertrey Ink; Pearls - Kaiser; Glossy Accents; Distress Ink and Stickles by Ranger Industries; Patterned Paper - Urban Prairie by Basic Grey

The windows are covered with Glossy Accents for a bit of shine, but I stamped them first with the 'bitty squares' from "Off Beat Backgrounds" to try and give them a windowpane appearance :0) The door is stamped with a twill pattern, the roof with a zig-zag, the background with Polka Dots - all from the same set.

Claire, congratulations on a year in business - thank you for your great products! And Happy Birthday to the Mouse! :0)

Get Well...

Well there aren't any piano lessons for the peeps in our house this week, as our dear piano teacher is quite ill. This is so unusual for her - she's one of those people who just NEVER gets sick - so we are feeling very sad for her :0(

So instead of popping in to make music, we'll pop around and deliver a card...

The little umbrella hood has been mounted up on 3D dots for a tad of dimension - as has the flower on the boot.

These are the "Scattered Showers" and "Scattered Showers Additions" from Papertrey, designed by Dawn McVey. They were so perfect for what we needed right now.

I included a sentiment for the inside:

Materials: Cardstock, Ink, Stamps, Dies,Buttons - Papertrey Ink; Rhinestones - Kaiser; Ribbon - Michaels, Brad - Making Memories; 3D dots - EK Success; Stickles - Ranger

Thanks for looking in! I so appreciate sharing this aspect of my life with you - and realise there are all sorts of places to go on the web and so many demands on your time - so thanks for stopping in here!

I hope you are having a truly, wonderfully, good day :0)

Bling on the Old - Challenge!

Don't you just LOVE the title of this challenge! It was created by Cammie who issued the 6th Challenge for the Papertrey Peeps! The idea is to use an older (perhaps less loved - wouldn't that be sad?) stamp set, and add shimmer, shine, glint and sparkle to it!

Well, my stamps aren't THAT old.... because I've only been Papertreying (is that a real verb?) since November. But these stamps weren't from the last release, so I'm sure they're almost acceptable :0)

I stamped some old Fancy Pants butterflies behind the Papertrey Butterfly and used some crystal glitter to highlight it .... a strip of scor-tape across the middle layer of ribbon also has crystal glitter shimmering across it .... and even the buttons are threaded with irridescent cord - heeee :0)

Materials: Cardstock, Ink, Buttons, Butterfly & Flower Border Stamps; Solid Ribbon - Papertrey Ink; Silhouette Butterfly Stamp - Fancy Pants; Sentiment Stamp - Melissa Frances; Punch Fiskars; Rhinestones - Kaiser; Polka Dot Ribbon - Michaels

Some stickles on the butterfly image and rhinestone accents wherever they could fit in, complete the sparkle and shine!

I kept the rest of the card fairly simple (ie - white) to try and cope with it all :0)

Now to find a fairly young, very girly person in need of a card!! LOL!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a totally wonderful day - I hope that something in it is full of joy, happy sparkle, and shine for you!

Papertrey Blog Hop - April 2010

Hello everyone! I don't know where you are on the hop - but welcome to my end of the blog-o-sphere :0)

Our challenge this month was to create something on our cards made of tissue paper! With all of the lovely new dies released by Papertrey that shouldn't be too difficult ....
except that some of us don't have ours yet because the postal system has been just a leeeetle slower than usual :0(

Anyway, some brain tickling was involved in this one - and here's where I came out at the end!

I wound the tissue into strips and curled them around on top of a piece of Scor-Tape to stick them down into a circle. I topped each one with a Papertrey Button - complete with a little pearl in the centre - Betsy Veldman style :0)

Materials - Cardstock, Ink, Buttons, Twine, Polka Dot, Leaf and Sentiment Stamps - Papertrey Ink; "Grass" knitted texture - Waltzingmouse; Patterned Paper, Source Unknown; Punch - Fiskars; Pearls - Kaiser

I keep thinking of Mary Engelbreit when I look at these colours - she really has made them all her own, I think!

Well I have tried to keep it short, because the list of blogs just gets longer and longer every month - and you will probably want to keep-a-hoppin' !

Have a great time - and a blessed evening! :0)

Something Different...

This weeks 2S4Y sketch, just keeps playing on my mind. I think it may be one of my favourites yet. I have already played once this week, but this idea was so completely different I got out my stamps and craft things to play again!

This was a REALLY tough card to photograph. The butterfly is stamped with "Old Paper" Distress ink by Ranger  and then chalked for the colouring. (Yes, I know that chalk is considered so 'yesterday' but I still love the soft effects one gets with it :0)

Matrials: - Cardstock, Twine, Button and Brown Ink - Papertrey Ink; Dogwood Stamp and Sentiment - Hero Arts; Floral Butterfly Stamp - Fancy Pants Designs; Butterfly Die - Sizzix for Stampin Up!; Distress Ink - Ranger; Chalk - Craf-T products; Pearls - Kaiser; Ribbon - Michaels

Hero Arts has recently released a series of stamps, which includes some old botanical 'etchings'. They're so beautiful. I decided to try and keep the feeling of an etching intact for this and play with the simplified butterfly for some relief from the monochromatic colour scheme.

I also had to try some ruffled ribbon. Been admiring that so much lately! (Check out Heather's blog - she's really great with this technique - yummo!)

Thanks for stopping in! Are you playing the Papertrey Blog Hop on Sunday?

Have a fantabulous evening!

Spring!

Hello to anyone who pops in ... this post is quite random actually :0) There are the most gorgeous sights outside at the moment. Spring is here, and I just wanted to share it with my blog!

I'm astonished at how tough these apricot blossoms are! They were covered with snow and came out of the ordeal with almost no damage at all. It still looks like we will have an apricot crop this year!

This is an astonishing shrub in the garden. For one month of the year it looks like a Bridal party, all by itself! It's a double flowering plum. It doesn't bear fruit, but does attract an incredible profusion of sweet, pudgy bumblebees (my favourite insect :0)

The branches are absolutely COVERED with these exquisite little blossoms!

I hope that spring has found you, wherever you are. Also I hope that you have the time to enjoy it :0)

Have a glorious day!

A Happy Card :0)

Hello Peeps! How is everything with you today? It's a gloomy day here. One of those days where it promises to rain but never seems to get around to doing it. (I like rain actually!) And I'm waiting for some goodies in the mail .... but those never seem to get around to coming either. So what do you do? Well, I decided to make a "Happy Card". Just take some glorious colours and put them together in a goodly happy mix! The composition for this card is taken from 2S4Y - Laura's Sketch #50, this week. I really loved the unexpected asymmetry of it. So here goes .....

I'm not usually an orange person ... or a lime green one. Maybe that should change :0) The colours on this card truly DO make me feel happy!

Materials: Polka Dot Stamps, button and base cardstock  - Papertrey Ink; Sentiment Stamp - Hero Arts; Flower  - Prima, Scallop Punch - Fiskars; Rhinestones - Kaiser; Gold Twine - Offray; Distress Ink - Ranger; Corner Rounder - EK Success; Ribbon - Michaels; Embossing Powder - Zing; Patterned Paper - From my stash - sources unknown (sorry!)

So there it is for today! I wish you all a VERY HAPPY day, no matter your weather and your post  today too :0) !!

To Tanzania...with Love

This is a card I made for one of the children whom I write to in Tanzania. She is always draws me the sweetest pictures imaginable....

I tried to create a Betsy Veldman feel to it. I really LOVE her style, but find it so hard to emulate.

I am slightly restricted in sending items to my sponsor children, as they should contain paper ONLY (to avoid customs and duties). This one contains a little strip of ribbon and some rhinestones - I hope they let it through! Without that restriction I would have used some lovely buttons, or maybe popped up something on foam dots, instead of these punched flowers - they weren't ideal!

Materials: Stamps, Cardstock, Ink, Patterned Paper - Papertrey Ink; Dies - Spellbinders; Corner and Flower Punch - EK Success; Rhinestones - Kaiser; Crystal Glitter - Stampendous; Other - thread.

Thank you so much for stopping in :0)

Have a truly lovely day!!

Blossoming Birthday.

Hello Peeps!

This is a little card with "more is more" :0) made for someone who just loves frilly, fancy, intricate things! It also fits the Bonus Sketch Challenge at 2S4Y.

I used lots of foam dots in this! The frame area is popped up....

and so are the flowers :0)

The polka dots on the outside frame were heat embossed with white embossing powder, whilst the flourish inside was embossed with gold embossing powder. I double matted the area around the inside frame using my Spellbinders Labels 1. The butterflies are Martha Stewart Punches, and all stamps, ink, paper and ribbon are Papertrey Ink. The pearls are by Kaiser.

My dear hunkadorus hubby (who loves CAS) swallowed hard when he saw it - then said - "She'll LOVE it". Heeeee. I hope she does :0)

Thank you so much for stopping in! I hope you are having a fabulous Friday with great plans ahead for the weekend! :0)

Tea Time!

Hello Friends :0)!

It may be a bit odd, but people know me for my love of tea ... and tea cosies. I always notice lovely tea cosies when we are out and about - especially in England. Perhaps there are others out there that are similar, but in my experience the British people have an astonishing ability to create the cutest tea cosies I have ever seen. On my last trip I stopped at a store called "Lakeland" (they're on the web too) and found these! For me it was like striking gold :0)

Isn't it totally ADORABLE?

This was 'specially for Easter!

Don't you LOVE that flowery eye?

This is a more traditional cosy, which I found in South Africa.

Well, my love for all things 'tea' is not a big secret, so imagine my absolute delight this week, when an incredibly kind friend knocked at my door with some very, very special tea for me, just as a random act of kindness!! I was so touched and grateful! What a beautiful thing to do!

Yes, I made her a card....

I was so grateful to have Papertrey's Tea for Two!! (And that yummy green tea leaves paper!)

I hope that she may be truly blessed!

All products in this card (except the punch, embossing folder and rhinestones) are Papertrey Ink. The punch is Fiskars, the Rhinestones, Kaiser and the embossing folder, Provo Craft.

Thank you SO much for stopping in! Only one more sleep until the Papertrey release for this month - how are you holding out!?! :0)

Tons of Gratitude, CASE-ing Nichole and a Happy Landing :0)

Hello everyone! THANK YOU so much for all the love you left for me while I was away! I can't believe how sweet you were to come by!!

We had a wonderful time seeing family. Some memories are sweet, some are a little sad. All of them make up life and I'm grateful for it all.

One of the most fantastic times we had, was spending some time with my brother in England. He is totally and completely one of my MOST favourite people in the whole world. He is absolutely brilliant, creative and funny...... but also truly compassionate and understanding. I love him to bits!! He took us walking in the glorious British countryside:

Yes, the grass was REALLY that green :0)

The trees hadn't started budding yet, and the trunks had an amazing mossy hue....

Gorgeous ivy - so beautiful!

The colours haven't been touched up with photo editing software - that's really them! (Aimes I can't believe what you have on your doorstep there - wow!!)

So after a walk like that, making my brother a card naturally tended toward this:

All Products - Papertrey Ink

This card is cased from the incredible Nichole Heady. I played around with various colour interpretations, but none of them seemed right compared with the walk itself. I think this keeps the idea intact, without trying to compete with the colour saturated world we were immersed in!

I discovered on our return that Peggysue had issued a challenge for us.....to case Nichole Heady. However we weren't allowed to use the same stamps Nichole had used on the card in question....so my brother's card was out!

Here is the card I chose to case:

Isn't it gorgeous??!! You can see the original post here.

And here is my VERY HUMBLE interpretation of it:

All Products - Papertrey Ink

One little detail of the bow in the corner....

I used Guidelines I, instead of the Botanical Background that Nichole used. And substituted a bow for that gorgeous flower. (But not for long.....I was totally smitten with that die set :0)!!

Thank you for stopping by - and for patiently wading through this long post! It's so great to be back and I really want to catch up with what everyone else has been up to.

Blessings to you for a totally fabulous day!!!!