House Mouse Sleepy Stocking: some treats for a birdie friend

Hello and thanks for stopping by :-)

I made another Christmas card using one of the images from my House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' set.  LOTS of colouring on this mage which I love - it did take a while though.  It was coloured with Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils and OMS, and I added some Polar White FlowerSoft using Aleen's tacky glue to the cuff on the stocking.  Because there was so much going on in the image, I kept the rest of the card pretty low key so it didn't make the card look 'too busy' - plus I wanted the image to take centre stage.  Here is a little close-up of the FlowerSoft:

I haven't a clue who made the designer paper - it has been in my stash for years and there is no name on it.   If you do know, please drop me an email or a comment so I can edit my post.  In any case, I would imagine that it is long retired.

The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements, and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.  Isn't the ribbon GORGEOUS?!  I picked it up at Coles Supermarket on Friday in amongst all their Christmas stuff.  I am a ribbon-aholic, so for me, it was like finding buried treasure!  They had some other beautiful rolls of ribbon too which somehow danced their way into my shopping basket.  I only went in to get milk, and came out with ribbon and NO milk - whoops.......!  Anyway, it was nice to have something good happen - I hadn't been having a good week and wasn't feeling well either + my mojo all but disappeared - and just before I went into Coles, I had been in Target doing some Christmas shopping and knocked over a snowglobe onto the floor which smashed into a zillion pieces.  And it sounded so LOUD - like I had dropped a truckload of them!   I never knew a snow globe had so much water in it - it looked like I had tipped a bucket of water onto the floor!  I called a staff member over to the mess - she was lovely and didn't make me feel bad - but I felt so stupid and embarrassed nonetheless.  I moved a large piece of glass that had scattered quite a way so no-one would walk on it and promptly cut my finger open.  Sheesh....... so finding the nice ribbon at Coles cheered me up!

I tied some gold cord through the sentiment tag hole then tied this around the red ribbon, and glued the bow on top of that.  Lastly, I added the 3 red pearls.

Challenges:

I am popping this card into two Challenges.  The first is the House Mouse and Friends Challenge #82 which is "You gotta have friends" - of course, the little mouse is sharing the stocking filled with food with his birdie-friend.  

The second Challenge is the Crazy 4 Challenges C4C63 Challenge of "A Christmas card or item".  Nice and easy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' JSHM006

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Designer paper:  unknown

Accessories:  FlowerSoft Polar White, Aleen's Tacky glue, Ribbon - Coles Supermarket, gold cord, Bow Easy, Fray Stop, Kaiser Pearls SB795 red, Cuttlebug, Spellbinder: Rectangle, Scalloped Rectangles, Circle, Petite Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, Cardstock:  Christmas red, Evergreen, KW Doggett "Knight" white, Odourless Mineral Spirits (OMS), Prismacolor pencils, Derwent Coloursoft pencils, paper stumps

Punches:  Carl CP-1 3/16" circle punch (for punching hole on tag)


ETA:  Thanks Tania for identifying the designer paper as K & Company "Holly Vine printed embossed paper" 

Eeeek, it's a spider.....or two - Halloween card

Hi and thanks for visiting my Blog :-)

I thought I would make a Halloween card just for something different after I saw the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple Challenge CAS89 of a Sketch inspired by kstamper's card here which I loved - so this is my take on the Sketch. 

I have had this old spider and web stamp for years and years and forgot I had the stamps until today when I was looking for some inspiration among my stamps for a Halloween card.   I must admit:  I hate spiders.  I am the sort of person who would jump out of a moving car to get away from one, or abandon my car in the middle of the freeway.  One of my recurring nightmares is hundreds of spiders dropping down from a ceiling on top of me - it seems so real that I usually jump out of bed in my sleep - which then scares poor DH.....anyway, enough waffle and onto the card.......  

The black embossed background was made with a newly released Sizzix Textured Impression embossing folder called "Winter Set #3" (comes as a set of 2 folders).  The spider and web were stamped with black pigment ink and heat-embossed with clear embossing powder which makes them stand out alot more than just using dye ink.  Then I inked all the edges with the same pigment ink and added embossing powder to that too.  Can you see that little spider lurking at the RHS side ready to jump out at you (insert scream here!)?   Thought I would do that just for a bit of fun!  I stamped him on a scrap of black cardstock, heat embossed him, then cut him out and glued him under the terracotta panel.  I coloured the eyes with Cadmium Yellow Acrylic paint to make them look really bright - like they are looking right at you.

The EEK sentiment was done with an alphabet foam-mounted stamp set I bought from KMart years ago - don't know if it's still available.  I don't have any Halloween sentiments, so came up with this instead - I thought I would stamp the letters at any angle for a bit of interest - wish I had had an exclamation mark to add to it.  These letters were also heat-embossed.

Challenges:

I am entering this card into 2 Challenges - both with Halloween themes:  The first is Crazy 4 Challenges C4C60 and the 2nd is Dutch Dare Card Challenge DDCC #89 which also has the alternative colour theme of purple, black, orange and green if you didn't want to make a Halloween card).

Thanks for stopping by - it was lovely to have you come and visit :-)

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  All Night Media Spider 612A and Corner Web 407B (both c1994 and most likely retired), Alphabet foam stamp set - name unknown (K-Mart)

Ink:  Versacolor black pigment

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Sizzix Textured Impressions Winter Set #3, cadmium yellow JoSonya acrylic paint, clear embossing powder, Cardstock:  Colormates Deep Terracotta and Black

Elzybells: A little Winter magic!

Hello and thanks for dropping in!  Here is a quick little one-layer Christmas card using my favourite Cuttlebug folder from the Winter Wonderland set.  I really love the embossing on this particular folder - it's just so pretty.  It is available at Fat Cat's Card Corner here.  I actually started this card in August - but only just got around to colouring the image - it's just been sitting on my desk buried amongst all the other stuff (you know how it is LOL!!!).

I coloured the image with Prismacolor pencils and OMS, plus I used a Lyra Skin tone pencil for the face which I recently bought from my local Art Store.  Lyra pencils blend beautifully with OMS.  I added some Liquid Applique to the coat and ear muffs and let that dry overnight before I applied my heat-gun to make it "pop".  I did actually paint over the Liquid Applique (once it had cooled) with white acrylic paint because the Liquid Applique comes out an off-white colour which looked kind-of "dirty" against the white cardstock, then added Kindyglitz on top to make it sparkle.  I lightly chalked around the image with blue chalk.

The snowflake on the ribbon was diecut using the Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die set, and the snowflakes dotted around the embossing were punched from my Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge punch (they are the leftover punchies when you punch a border with it), and these snowflakes are up on mounts.   I added tiny red rhinestones to the centres.   Here is a little closeup:

I attached the ribbon in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

Both the image and sentiment are by Elzybells Art Stamps UK who are closing on the 30th September.  These particular images have sold out, but there are still alot of other stamps - including Christmas ones - that are still available but you'd better be quick!!  I still can't believe they are closing - it is such a shame :-(

Challenges:

I am entering this card into the Crazy 4 Challenges C4C56 of "Bling".

And the Allsorts Week 71 Challenge of Plain and Simple.

Plus I am also popping this card into the Splitcoaststampers Free for All Challenge F4A21 of Snowflakes and Pearls from July - which was what I was originally started making the card for.

Anyway, that's about it for me.  Thanks for visiting - I'll be back in a few days with a Vintage Christmas card!  

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Elzybells Ice Skater 10-080, Sentiment from Elzybells 20-053 Mini Messages - Winter

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Snowflakes ef from Winter Wonderland set, Cuttlebug Snowflakes #2 die set, OMS, Prismacolor Pencils, paper stumps, Lyra Skintone pencil, white liquid applique, white acrylic paint, Kindyglitz Crystalina, Bow Easy, gingham ribbon, 1mm mounts, Kaiser rhinestones SB711 red (largest rhinestone on ribbon), Basic Grey Bling-it red rhinestones (tiny red ones on snowflakes), Kaisercolour chalks, heatgun, Cardstock: white

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner, Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge

Penny Black: 'For you' - Doggone - it's another birthday card!

Hello and thanks for stopping by my little Blog :-)

Over at Splitcoaststampers, about 2 weeks ago Roxie posted a fabulous sketch: Sketch Challenge #278 and thought it would be perfect for my nephew's birthday card.   This is one sketch I will definitely use again - I really love it!

The image was stamped with Vintage Sepia ink and then I heat-set it with my heat-gun to make sure the Odorless Mineral Spirits wouldn't bleed the outlines.  I coloured it with Prismacolor pencils + Gamsol and lightly chalked around the image for the sky and ground.  I stamped the image again and cut out just the present and added fine blue glitter plus I coloured in the bow with a gold gel pen then popped it up on 1mm mounts (dimensionals).

The paw pad is a button which I cut the shank off and attached with a 1mm mount.

The gorgeous designer paper is from a digital set by NitWit Collections called FQB (which stands for Fat Quarter Bundle) - Me-Wow Collection.  Isn't it adorable?! 

Challenges:

I am entering this card in the Crazy 4 Challenges C4C36 where the Challenge is to use this children's nursery rhyme to create your card -

What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails
And puppy-dogs' tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

So you can make a boy card, or something with frogs and/or snails, puppy dogs etc.  What a fun challenge!

I am also entering this card in The Treehouse Challenge #049 - THT049 which has a Masculine Theme.  I love challenges with Masculine themes because, let's face it, masculine cards are "challenging" and we all need ideas - it's great to look at DT cards for loads of inspiration!

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with one of my Fat Cat's Card Corner Design Team card..  It has been drizzly and grey all week - not great photographying weather, but the sun should be shining tomorrow according to the Weather Bureau.  See you again soon!   And thanks again for visiting!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black 'for you!' 3446E, Sentiment - from Crafter's Companion 'Popcorn the Bear' Bunches of Love set

Ink:  Versafine Vintage Sepia

Designer paper:  NitWit Collections Fat Quarter Bundle Series "Me-Wow" ©2009 by Mary Fran of www.nitwitcollections.com

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Sizzix Textured Impressions Dots embossing folder (from Dot & Flowers set), Spellbinder Square Nestabilities & Scalloped Square Nestabilities, heat gun, Kaisercolour chalks, 1mm mounts (dimensionals), gold gel pen, fine .008 blue glitter, Gamsol, Prismacolor pencils, Buttons Galore 'paw print'