A Day Spent Pampering....AND GREAT BLOG CANDY!

Man wouldn't that be a great day! A day spent pampering yourself, doing all the things you love. Well no time for that right now huh?

This is a new image for me, I just love this Gruffie, it is called "Wool Sew for Friends". Isn't it cute... I just love that vintage sewing machine, well and that cute little lamb, shivering waiting for her warm hat.


It is all colored with my Copics, then cut out with my Nestibilities with a petite oval, then a mat with black card stock. I dotted with white gel pen around the edge, and added 5 dew drops.



Now all the yummy papers in pink and black are Making Memories Sabrina collection. As is the black ribbon, wish you could see how pretty it is, all embroidered looking. All of the layers of pattern papers are inked on the edges with black ink. The flower is a EK Success Retro punch of the dotted paper, with a spacer and mini brad. The sentiment is also from the Stampabilities House Mouse collection.


Now I don't know if this totally qualifies, but I am submitting it for this weeks House Mouse Challenge, which is tall and thin as the theme this week. 5x7 is about as tall and thin as I get.. LOL


This also qualifies for a brand new challenge site... The Pink Elephant, looks like a site with lots of fun to come, new techniques and such. But for their first challenge they asked for Pink Black and white... done! Hope they like it.



OH AND NOW TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE BLOG CANDY! You just will not believe it! But Stampavie is sponsoring a HUGE CANDY!!! Ready...

ONE lucky winner will receive the ENTIRE Oooh La La Collection from Leere Aldrich courtesy of Stampavie! That's TEN stamps in all!!! Can you believe it??? The entire collection to one lucky winner... it could be you! To qualify you will find all the details and where's and what's on Jessica's blog, the newest Stampavie DT... plus while there take a look at her stuff - WoW but you probably already know her, The Whimsical Butterfly, her stuff is really awesome.





Well our day at the Vet seemed to go well, Libbie got her third round of shots, didn't even cry. And get this she is a big girl now! 4 whole pounds! She is about double from when we got her. She can even do stairs now.. you should see the look on her face, she is so proud. Gato came home, physically but not mentally. Wow even this morning she is a bit out of it. But is "fixed" now and should feel a lot better this afternoon.


Friday... and tomorrow is Valentines day!!! Yea! I love Valentines Day... my day, Well our Anniversary, Hubby's Birthday and just all around the day of love. Do you have special plans? Romantic Dinner? Us.. I'll make dinner at home, no need to fight the crowds and stand in lines. Then we will celebrate Monday and Tuesday - our traditional days at the local Rodeo, you see it "Donkey Day" and we love to watch all the donkeys big and small compete. Then we walk the grounds and have a late lunch. I love Donkey Days! I am looking so forward to it.....


Alright but in order to play next week I have lots to get done today. Including the grocery store so I can make Hubby a special dinner tomorrow and basically just fill our empty pantry. LOL


Hope you have a great day - and tomorrow is Donkey and Libbie photo day... I have some great photos to share already! Will you come back then?

HUGS and-

Have a very Mice Day -

This was a fun image to color. I worked on it for a long time. Lots to color with my Copics. And I used my Blender pen more than I ever have on this one! It was fun watching the ink fade.

I did this card for this weeks House Mouse Challenge, it actually is their holiday break challenge, I am just now getting to it. Better a bit late than not at all. They asked for embossing. Well I did two types of embossing on this card. HA! But as I finished up the card you can only see one.

Ok, so I started with my image, it is a very large image as you can tell. The finished card measures 6x6 inches. I used a deep turquoise blue card stock for the base and to mat the image. The pattern paper is Basic Grey, Periphery. Now for one of the embossed pieces there is a really cute green strip running up the right side of the card that has Cuttlebug embossed buttons... image was so large it covered the bottom, and then I added the flowers and liked them so much I ended up covering up the top too. But it is there in between the flowers in person you can see just a bit of it. My second embossing is the sentiment that is also Stampendous House Mouse, I heat embossed it with detail black embossing powder. Love how it pops.. why don't I use that more often? Back to those flowers they are Prima and Heidi Grace, with Martha Stewart leaves, jewelery spacers, and mini brads. The top left corner seemed empty so I stamped a corner bracket from Clear Art Stamps. Wish I had embossed it too, but too late. I found a scrap of fancy ribbon and created a band across the bottom corner and then added the flower charm. Don't know why... just wanted to use it as it was sitting on my desk begging. I then gel pen stitched the edges of all the card stock.

Well Hubby is off today, we are hoping to move some of the Donkeys around and SHOCK... it is time to wean Gloria... so Mom and her will both be sad today, but she will be in the youth pen so lots of girls for her to play with.

Hope you have some fun planned, time to get inky I hope!

HUGS and-

My House Mouse Guest DT Sketch Card

I have enjoyed so much my two week Guest DT of House Mouse Challenge. As I have said in the past House Mouse was my first love in stamps, and now with all the friend that are out there House Mouse is still one of my favorites. I purchase this image a while back and just never have inked it in. I think coloring in the Panda was a bit scary. I love Pandas and didn't want to mess him up.




I colored with my Copics, then high lighted the presents with my Spica Glitter Pens and white gel pen. Wish you could see how much they sparkle! The sentiment is from Studio G, one of those Dollar sets from Michael's.





I followed the sketch by using scraps! Well all but the American Crafts Card base. The matted the piece of Bazzill Swiss Dots and the pattern paper with yellow card stock and then distressed the edges a bit and sewed together with yellow thread. I inked the edge of the image with green ink to give a bit of distressed look. And I love the flowers! Prima in two shades of yellow, I added white gel pen to high light, used a jewelry spacer and a green mini brad for the center. I started to make this a Christmas Card... would have worked as well in reds and greens - but I wanted to use some color and needed a birthday card. I think I am going to have to ink this one up again. I really enjoyed coloring it.





Again I want to thank Emma and all of the DT at the House Mouse Challenge. I loved joining you! These ladies have amazing talent, they wow me each week... I hope you will take a look and see yourself, then join in!




Better run - Bonnie has a Vet appointment this morning, and Hubby is off to help take her. Hope you all have a wonderful Monday -
HUGS and-

Two Challenges - Two Cards!

Thank you all for being so nice with your comments for me and Bonnie. It really means so much to me ---

So we have two cards for today - House Mouse Challenge had some "technical difficulties" yesterday so I couldn't post my card - I am pretty excited about it! This is my first Guest DT for them, love my "mice" and their friends. Now I freaked just a bit when I was emailed my first DT challenge - Snow.... I have A LOT of HM stamps... not a one had snow of any kind. You want summer heat, swimming, playing yep got them all. But not a one with a winter snow theme. Well I got my thinking hat on and looked at each of my stamps to see how I could make it work. And just over half way through them - I picked up my Patriotic Mice. hmmmm that flag looks alot like a blanket... So I stamped it twice, first I colored the mice with my Copics - then the second one I cut out the flag - and separated the parts that were folded down. I just got some of the Doodlebug felt paper and it was perfect for a warm fuzzy blanket - I layed the pieces onto the paper and cut all of them out, bright blue for the main side, and purple for the inside color. I then cut out my mice, and then attached the blanket. I needed some shape... so with one of my Copics I shaded the blanket. I then pop dotted it onto the Me and My Big Ideas glittered snow paper, that I had cut out with my new Nestibilities label die, matted with purple. Then I backed card with the same papers. I layered two ribbons in the same colors, and doodled the edges. The sentiment is from Whiff of Joy and is heat embossed to make it pop more. I then added three Martha Stewart snowflake punches inked a bit with bright blue, then attached with snow flake brads and topped with blue dew drops.

I love how it came out, hope no one is upset I covered the flag... but the snug warm blanket worked so well with the snow - Now you must run over and try the House Mouse Challenge and see all of the DT's work! Oh my too cute!

CARD TWO:

Now to this weeks Spoon Full of Sugar - I can not believe it... but this week is a Happy New Year's theme!! Wow where did 2008 go? This will be our last challenge now before Christmas and we will be returning on 6th January. We would like to thank you all for joining in our challenges in 2008 and helping making our challenge blog such a huge success!! Thank you also to our wonderful sponsors for your continued support and for the wonderful prizes you have donated!!

Well I wanted to go with some bright colors and didn't have anything really party New Year's to go with so I went for a "pick me up" type of card - (yes pun intended there) I love the HM Bunny stamp, just love coloring those balloons! I have a stamp that reads Let your Dreams take Flight... but I decided instead to use the computer and print out my sentiment and add In the New Year.

My card base is the other half of my HM card's base, the pattern papers are from Inspirations, loved the soft colors and patterns with the stamp. I colored the image with my copics, including the background sky. I made the balloons a bit stronger, then high lighted with white gel pen. I then stamped them a second time and cut out pink and green balloons and popped them up on the image with pop dots. I then used my Glazed Dimensions to make them shiny and round. Really looks cool in person!

All the pattern papers were inked on the edges, the sentiment was doodled and used a Rubberstamp Tapestry stump stamp to put the flowers around the edge. I then stacked Prima flowers, jewelry spacers and mini brads on top of Martha Stewart Frond punched leaves. Love the colors and love that bunny -

I hope you will give the challenge a try... there are some really great prizes this week from new sponsors Colette and Katie from Nutcrafters. They have given us a fantastic prize this week which includes: High Hopes - Sunday's Best High Hopes - Daniel Prima Center Kisses (Jade)Prima Sandi's Favourites - Jealoussea (Green) Oh you just must run over to Spoon Full of Sugar and take a look! And also make sure to check out the other DT cards... oh these girls make me ohh and ahh each week!

Ok... sorry this one was long - but hope you enjoyed - Now I must run... I want to go and visit some blogs before the day gets to far away from me.

Again thanks for all of the well wishes -

HUGS and-

I am so excited House Mouse Guest DT!

Yes... I was asked to be the House Mouse Challenge blog's Guest DT for two weeks! Starts next week and I have been emailed my assignments - I am thrilled to be a part of the team, even if it is just for two weeks! House Mouse is sort of sentimental to me... some of my very first stamps were House Mouse. In fact I have a HM stamp that I purchased really before I even started stamping, just because it was too cute.

This is one of the early images for me. I love it, and I equally love the sentiment that goes with it.

Well this weeks theme is Glitter/Glitz love doing that! Bling baby! And I just happened to get a box in the mail yesterday from Paperworks Co. I just found them last week, and found some really yummy things there. Including some beautiful papers from Doodlebug. Look at all that fabulous Glitter on it! I got lots of colors - went a bit nuts... but I have some really fun papers, including some velvet paper can't wait to use that!

Ok, enough drooling on my new papers, back to the card. I matted the glitter patten papers onto a cream colored card stock and zig zag stitched them down. I then found a Bazzill Scallop Border in the same color and used it for a band across the card. I colored my little ballerina with my Copics, and cut with Nestiblities Ovals. The back ground ended up very harsh and white when I put it on the card, so I colored it in with my R1 copic, pretty close to the cards stock color. I then had the same problem with the sentiment, too bright white. I pulled out my new Compressor Hubby let me get this week... Love ya Honey! I was just dying to use it anyway... LOL... and sprayed in a pink background. Wow this thing actually works! My last one just didn't have enough air. I matted it on the cream card stock.

Oh and don't you love those flowers! I haven't used them in a long time - they have the perfect shimmer, and were the perfect colors. I punched four Martha Stewart Frond leaf punches, and then centered them with Dew Drops. All of this was put onto a pink card stock. Then there was just one last thing..... Her tutu! It was screaming for stickles!

I think I covered the Glitz/Glimmer/Glitter challenge, don't you?

Hope you get a chance to see all of the House Mouse DT cards, they are some really talented ladies! Wow!

Ok, so are any of you stressing as much as I am about Christmas spreading at them like a run away train? I am starting to freak out! I have not even started my Christmas Cards! I know you are thinking "hello what are all of these Christmas card I have seen on this blog"? But I started a tradition oh about 8 or 9 years ago... I make photo Christmas cards and have each of our "pets" on the front of them. It was a cute tradition, and once I said I was going to stop it and start sending my "cute" stamped cards... I thought the two ladies across the lunch table from me were going to jump across and attack me. Seems my family and friends have been saving the photo cards and won't accept me stopping them. Well this was all really simple, fun and cute when I had a dog and a couple of cats. Then over the years I added a donkey or two... lost the cats... added more donkeys... more donkeys... then added a cat again... and more donkeys - Have you ever tried to make a cute card with 28 donkeys and border collie and a cat? Well this won't be my cutest this year - but I am proud to say they are all accounted for on this years - not creative but on there! Now to just get the cards put together and addressed and mailed. All 60-70 of them!

Better get busy huh? But first Breakfast, and some Blog surfing - LoL!

HUGS and-

Two cards for Wednesday, then lots of cooking!

Hello! I have two cards for today! I probably should have saved one of them, just in case for tomorrow, just in case I don't get one done today... but I couldn't decide which one to not show.... so here they both are!



For the House Mouse Challenge blog I wanted the little guy to be squeaky clean! Ha squeaky! The challenge for the week is Polka Dota, love them, so that was easy. I pulled out my DCWV Nursery Baby Girl, and picked three patterns to go with my image, that I colored with my Copics. For the base I used a baby pink card stock, then layered the first pattern paper, the pink dots as the main pattern. I then used a scrap pink card stock and punched it with my Martha Stewart Lace Doily Border punch, inked the edge with green ink, then layered the stripes with it. The glitter dot paper I cut just a bit larger than my image. The edge of all the pattern papers were also inked with the green ink.




My image is matted with the pink card stock, then doodled with a grey Copic Multi-liner. I ran a piece of narrow satin ribbon that is a light green color across the middle of the card and tied in a knot. I used Dew Drops in a dark pink color for the corners of the image. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things - funny huh, I just didn't know what I wanted to use with this image and then ran across this one and it seemed to work well.



Now for my favorite part - I used Diamond Glaze for all of the water..... I love that stuff! In person it really looks cool. When I showed it to Hubby he said "wow, cool shame no one will see how cool online" So he is checking here...... good thing to know for future comments - LOL!






My second card... I love this image! Isn't she just wonderful? This is one of the new Whiff of Joy images and her name is Teenage Lizzie with box of chocolates
She is going to be perfect for Valentine cards, but she also has a yearlong sentiment of love. I don't know if my favorite part is her coat or her boots!






The Layout of this card is from the Whiff of Joy Paper Craft Planet Guest DT call It is a wonderful sketch, I just love Katharina's sketches, funny thing to me was how similar it was to my card above..honestly I made that card the night before I looked at this sketch! Little different but really funny!


I colored her with my Copics and Spica Glitter Pens, the matted her three times with the two card stock colors I used for the base and mat of the card. The pattern papers are all from K&Company, I have hoarded the sunflower paper I wanted to make sure it was for a really special card when I used it... this was it, the flowers seemed perfect for Lizzie. I punched the pattern paper with the Martha Punch for the band across the bottom. Everything was inked with a light brown ink. Then sewed down, machine wasn't thrilled while sewing the image... that was a lot of layers, but it did it! For my sentiment - I got a new package of Tim Holtz Philosophy Tags at the LSS this past weekend, love them and Cherish seemed to be perfect for this card. Then at the last minute I decided to gel pen stitch the edge of the card for a pop around the edge.


Ok, the competition for the Guest DT makes my chances of getting it slim, but I love trying... the sketches always rock and it forces me to really pull out favorite items, and try a bit harder! You should give it a go to! It is another chance to use your favorite Whiff of Joy images what could be better?





Some heads up here -



Ok... now how absolutely wonderful are these new stamps? Better get on over to Alota Rubber Stamps and place your order, these are brand new and will be going out the door first of the week, and I am sure they will be going out fast too! This is only four of the new images there are more click HERE to see all the new images available! Love the new background image, and the chair and sleigh are going to be fun! Don't forget all of your cute people images that we all love will work with those backgrounds!!! Think how cute they will look together! Tilda in the Christmas house scene.. or Edwin fishing on the pond? OH the possibilities are endless! Order quick to make sure you get yours in the first batch!


Alright now to the cooking - yep that is what I will be doing all day, that and cleaning. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US... and I have 4 or 5 pies to make - old family recipe stuffing to start, and then get the Turkey ready for the oven... actually this year I didn't get the whole Turkey. We went for two big Boneless all white meat breast. It is so sad here when the dark meat just sits there, no one likes it as much as the white here, they all want the breast meat - so that is all there is this year. Doesn't have the traditional look on the table, but hey nothing goes to waste and everyone is happy!


Hope you all have a great Wednesday and have some time to get inky - me I will probably be elbow deep in pumpkin and pecans for pies!

HUGS and-

A House Mouse and Alota Robots?

Yes I have two cards today!

First is one for fun... I just had to make a card with these stamps that Helene from Alota Rubber Stamps sent. They are a Robot Family! Actually Susan's Robots I recognized them as soon as I saw them, from her header on her blog. They are just too funny. Well I had to use the Momma Robot and Baby Robot first, how often do you see them? I colored them in all girly colors, I figure she may be a robot, but why should she be drab grey? So she is all done up in pinks and tans, and the baby buggy is all pink and green all with my Copics. I doodled the edge of them image. All of the pattern papers are Memory Box Sugar Collection, and loved the pink and green patterns. All the edges of the papers were inked with lime green cats eye ink. Now to go with the girly theme I figured a Momma Robot needed some flowers with a little bling. The sentiment is part of the Robot Set. Then for favorite part. While at the crop this past weekend at The Scrapbook Haus, I found a package of 7 gypsies sprocket and gears. HOW PERFECT! so I added a few of them, and love it! I used 1/3 of the package so I may need to get another for future robot cards.

My second card is for this weeks House Mouse Challenge. And it is Beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Yes, they want to see some Christmas Cards with any House Mouse stamp. Would you believe I didn't own one! I have tons of House Mouse and no Christmas images. Well I happened by Hobby Lobby this week, and the stamps were 1/2 off so I picked a cute one for the challenge this week. Loved the mouse in the tree topper.

I tried something new here... I am not for sure if it worked or not. I colored the image with my Copics, the star is then painted with twinkling H2O's... I then colored the background with one of the darker blues Copics... I wanted the mouse to pop. But man getting all of the "lines" out were really tough with the darker ink. OH well it is done now. I then doodled the edges with white gel pen. The papers are Memory Box, I cut a band off of one and layered it on top of the stripes, then used gold glitter glue along the edges. I used a Martha Stewart Border Punch and green dot ribbon down the side. The Sentiment is from Alota Rubber Stamps. I just don't know about this one... I may have to try it again with different colors.

I wanted to share two cards I have received. This one I got a few weeks ago, I really have some wonderful Internet Friends! First I got a card from Annie at Ink 'n' Rubba... how cute is this! And she put a bunch of images in it for me to use! HUGE Hugs Annie you are the best!

Then a few days ago I got this cute donkey card... actually I think it is for Bella and baby Freddie! Heidi, at Create - Reach for Something More, you are too funny! I love the card, Hubby thought it was great... I don't know that Bella cared, as she had just received her Dinner and was more interested in it, but Freddie would have liked to chew on it if I had let him! Thanks so much!

Now a Heads UP! I mentioned the Paper Craft Planet site a couple of days ago...

Well make sure to check out Alota Rubber Stamps Group as they are having a Grab Bag Candy!

And I also happen to know that Stampavie's Group will be having some Candy as well really soon...

So check both groups out and join in on the fun!

Now I must run and get my breakfast and and catch up on some blog reading! Hope you have a great day... get inky!

HUGS and-

2 Challenges - 2 Cards - and a special request

Yes I have 2 different cards for 2 different challenges today.

First is for the House Mouse Challenge blog. I love when I have time to get in on this challenge blog. I have a wall full of House Mouse stamps, my early days of stamping. And I love using them, they just crack me up. Well this week's challenge is to use Junk... yep to find a something around your house and use it in your card. Well I had lots of "junk" to work with. So then I went back to my images and decided what I wanted to work with... then went back and looked for something to work with my House Mouse and cherries. I just couldn't find the right thing.... then I opened my kitchen cabinet, and found a box of Jello... ok, so the box is junk once you make it right?

I then found some scraps of pattern paper that were perfect... red and white with cherries on one side and the other side red with white dots. Green card stock seemed to work well, I sewed down the pattern paper, then matted and sewed down my House Mouse. Oh yea... I colored them with my Copics and white gel pen. I matted the front of the Jello box... many times. and then sewed it down. There was no room for a sentiment. And I love the sentiment that is made to match these cherry eating critters. So I decorated the inside of the card with scraps, and a circle punched cherry from the pattern paper.

Once done with the card I then used my glazed dimensions on the cherries and the mouse's mouth.... they are really juicy cherries. :0)

Second card today is for Papertake Weekly Challenge a wonderful sketch. I felt it was time for a Hanglar image again. So I went through and found this one that had been sent by a wonderful friend. And it is perfect for my "request" that I will ask later. I pulled out my distressing inks and colored in to match the K&Company paper. Again this is one piece that I have used both sides. Following the sketch, inking the edges and sewing down. The image is sewed down with a blanket stitch. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and backed with a scallop circle scrap of the paper. Love these colors together.... which is funny they aren't normally me, and I have ended up using them a lot recently.

All of that was quick so I could have time to report on my nephew. He went through his surgery very well. It will still be a long recovery, and tough for the entire family. But if things go as well as they hope by the middle of next year he won't even have to wear braces! We pray for that out come.

I had an amazing email yesterday from RetiredHeather who offered to send Tagen a get well card. It got me thinking.... this could be something positive and fun for him. Something fun to look forward to. And then I really got to thinking about how great this could be for him.

Now my request. If you find that you have any time and a spare card for an adorable 6 year old, email me at michelleo@hughes.net and I will get you his mailing address, please email me do not leave the request in the comments, as I will not be able to respond and send the email to you from there. He then will start getting cards literally from all over the world! I am going to get him a world map and a box of flag pins. We will mark the map and save all of the cards. Then when he is ready to go back to school, mind you in a wheel chair, but ready to go back we will take the map and all of the cards to his school and he can share the story as a "Show and Tell" of all of the people around the world that were thinking of him during this time. A fun positive thing to make him want to go back to school and share this with his classmates.

Only if you have time... please do not stress.

Hope you have a great Wednesday, I have a list to catch up on, but I am going to visit some blogs and enjoy some quiet me time with my Internet friends... ;0)

HUGS and-

You're my Cup of Cocoa...mmmmm and Tea Bag?

When going through the challenges this week, I found myself behind, and so I think this card is a double duty card. Just in time (barely) for Cute Card Thursday, the challenge was "Cheers", I think a cup of Cocoa fills that. And then the House Mouse Challenge had a recipe, ribbon - 2 Buttons - Felt - and a scalloped edge. I have everything in the ingredient list, so it fits two challenges. YEA!











My House Mouse image is colored with my Copics, I picked two patterns from My Minds Eye, I had to go with a chocolate brown for the base, but then pulled in a lilac purple from the pattern paper. I double matted the image and inked that and the pattern paper. The sentiment is from House Mouse as well. I found a piece of purple twill to use as the ribbon, and two brown buttons. My felt was a little tougher, then I remembered some felt flowers I have in my stash, and what luck there were some light purple ones! I put jewelry spacers and mini brads in the centers. For the scallop it was just a matter of figuring out which scallop punch, so I went with my favorite. Martha Stewart's Doily Lace. So "Cheers" and I hope you like my "Recipe" for this Cocoa Card!





One more card today... this one is different for me...


Susan at The Scrapbook Haus, a LSS, asked me to teach an Alota Rubber Stamps Teabag folding class. Well sure I would love to, yes, great, lets schedule it. Then I came home and contacted Helene at Alota Rubber Stamps... Ah ... help, how do I make these things? LOL! Helene saved me and sent me some stamps and great instructions, then when I messed up my first one, she talked me through what I did wrong. And BAM! I got it, and and it was actually fun to make! I do think there will be more of these. So what do you think? This is TeaBag Santa, and if you haven't seen this folding technique on Alota Rubber Stamps Website, you really need to check it out! Really I don't think I fully understood it until I really looked close, and WOW Helene has an unbelievable selection of designs!


Just a few facts, The border is a Fiskars Border Punch and Santa is colored with my Copics, the sentiment is also from Alota Rubber Stamps and is Heat Embossed with white.





OK>>>>>> Now some Donkey updates: I have been getting a few comments and emails asking about my two pregnant donkeys. We are still waiting, looks like everything just went on hold and no signs. Bella is actually still looking like she will be the first to deliver, but not today. And Darlene my really Wide Load donkey, I knew she wasn't ready yet. We don't expect her till end of November or first part of December. She just carries big.... Life of raising donkeys - we are always waiting for the baby, 24/7, waiting for donkeys. For those that don't know they are pregnant 11-13 months......... sigh.


Well off to get breakfast and get the day going! Hope you have a great Wednesday and get inky!
HUGS and-

Preparing for a visit from IKE....

Today has just become a day of preparing for a visit from Hurricane Ike. I have had a few emailing me and asking about us and this hurricane. Well as of todays predicitions it is looking like it is coming right at us. I so hope that something will change its path, but we need to get ready just in case it is correct. I am not on the coast, I actually live close to San Antonio which is just over 100 miles from the coast. But our local weather man is saying we can get 70-100mph wind here. And being that Hubby will not let me bring all 26 donkeys into the house, we want to make sure things are safe as they can be outside and tie down their sheet metal buildings. I cannot even imagine people that go through this time after time during one season! Texas just doesn't get hit often at all. Oh and one other thing.... my internet is satelite. So I may loose my connection for awhile. Heck I loose it if a large cloud goes over my house so I am sure I will loose it with Ike. Hopefully not for long and I pray we do not loose power. Ok...enough about that right now how about a card?

Today I did a card for House Mouse challenge. This image is one that I was sent with my prize from winning the first challenge drawing. I love these Gruffies, I don't have but a couple of them and my have to track this one down. I love the huge balloon! I colored him with my Copics and Spica Glitter pens. I so wish you could see that in the photograph because it looks so cool in person. The balloon, his hat and the toys all have a sparkle to them. I doodled around the edge with my new Copic Multi-liners, love the very fine point in Copic colors! Now part of the challenge this week was to do things on a budget. I think it was under $2.00. Well the image was a "gift". The three matted pieces of cardstock are all from my scraps. The paper is also from a scrap it is from 7 gypsies. The great ticket card is also from 7 gypsies and cost only 25 cents. The card base is another one of the prefolded cards I purchased this weekend. And two small pieces of ribbon. I think I am way under the $2.00. I inked the edges of everything.

Ok off to get started... I am going off to the store and get some things before it becomes a mad house and then home to start getting things ready here.

HUGS and-

Wish Big!

Wow this card took me forever! But I am so happy with how it came out. I made it with the sketch for the House Mouse Challenge Blog. I used a piece of craft paper for the base, and Basic Grey for the pattern papers. Love the shabby look of the solids, and they do match perfect with the dotted paper. I cut all the pieces following the sketch. I blanket stitched everything down. Wow... took some time and lots of thread!



My image is one of my favorite House Mouse stamps. Love those three little ones looking up at the candles. I colored it with my Copics. Last time I used this image I was so unhappy with the flames. You see they don't have that on the stamp, you are suppose to add that yourself. And I really messed it up last time. So I carefully worked on that part this time. I was so happy with that part I did not notice that there is a purple dot on the large mouses arm... until I took down my tent and uploaded it to the blog. It isn't there now on the card... hmmmm wonder what it is in the photo???? I am going to blame it on Gato... she did it. She put a dot on my card, just like she knocked over a plant yesterday, pulled out my pencils and ran down the hall with them last night, grabbed a spool of ribbon off the shelf and ran off letting it unroll as she took off. So the dot on the mouses arm was put there by Gato. Whew feels better to know how it got there. =) Just wish I had noticed it in the photographs Darn it! Go on over and check out the House Mouse Site some cute cards there even if you don't like mice.


Rosie update. She is doing some better. Vet thinks that she may be allergic to something. She is on tons of meds, and does not like taking them at all. But it is for her own good. Now we just have to figure out what she is allergic to. Could be a bug, or a plant, or flower... we just don't know. But we are working on it. And hopefully the meds will work fast, she is just too sad.


Well off to get the day going. Hope you have a great Wednesday planned!
HUGS and-

A Spoon Full of Sugar all in Ribbons - and a House Mouse image!

YEA it is Tuesday and time for a Spoon Full of Sugar challenge! And before I get to this weeks challenge - WOW thanks so much for the Amazing response to the challenge, there were a bunch of cards submitted this past week and it seems that the news of being able to use any brand of stamp was very well received! Thanks and I hope that this week you have just as much fun... it is a great challenge. Ribbon.... now common I know we all have miles and miles of ribbon. It is one of my favorite things. I have literally hundreds and hundreds of different ribbons. The challenge this week is to pick three ribbons and use them on one card. Oh and the prize this week! There is a great sparkly prize this week which has been very kindly donated by Bryony from Silly Monkey Crafts. Silly Monkey Crafts now have Stickles in stock in lots of fabulous colours. And the winner will receive 5 bottles! Now that is just too cool!

I was lucky to have a chance this week to use a Rakle image, I have been seeing these tall images on a few of my favorite blogs and was thrilled when I got a chance to use one of them. I loved coloring her, with my Copics matching her to the K&Company paper I had picked to use. Now placement... hmmm she is really tall! I tried a million different ways to put her on the card. I can see where a 5x7 card would have been really much easier with her. But I had cut all of my papers and card stock for a 6x6 so I was going to make it work. I finally decided on putting her to the left and then using a Quickutz flourish die cut coming from behind her. My three ribbons, which is the purpose this week, I wanted to use really different ribbons. Not matching in anyway but was trying to figure out how to use them was a struggle. I was making tabs off the image, corners, crossing... you name it. Then I grabbed them all at once and saw that they might look good stacked. The bottom layer is a very delicate silk ribbon in the same shade at the melon colored card stock. The next layer is a green that is similar to the pattern paper, and then I just loved the very tiny black stitched. I think it ended up matching really well. The sentiment is from SU and is cut with my Fiskars circle squeeze punch and then colored the edge with a Copic. I hope you give the challenge a try this week and make sure to take a look at the DT cards... really fabulous!

My second card was just so much fun! Last week

I told you about the brand new House Mouse Challenge Blog. Well guess what.... I was randomly chosen as last weeks winner!! Pretty darn cool huh! I won a brand new Magnolia stamp and ribbon and brads! Well this weeks challenge is to Lace it up! To use lace somehow on your card. I went thru all of my House Mouse stamps and again wanted to use one that had not been stamped before. I purchased a bunch of them during a sale online months ago and just love them decorating my craft area. Well now they are actually being used! I just loved this girly image... and it was perfect to add lace to.

I stamped the image and then colored with my Copics. And yes... I worked on it forever! But I am happy with my first time coloring this one. I picked a K&Company paper that was in the same green as the card stock and has the cutest little flowers on it. I then layered with white and green card stock and the image with pink and white card stock and then sewed everything together. I pulled out some vintage scalloped lace attached and then created a band for the top of the lace with pink and green satin ribbons. I found my pearl iron on beads and glued them down on top of the lace to go with the the pearls on the dresser. For the sentiment, I didn't want anything that would overpower all that was going on... this is a busy card. I found the words Embrace Happiness in my Papertrey Ink set at love how it fit on the bottom right corner of the image. And don't you think that is exactly what these three mice are doing?

Hubby is still gone fishing, so I was out early this morning to do the donkey chores on my own. I don't mind doing all the feeding and watering, but it is usually when I do lots of hugging and loving, while he is "working". I try and do both at the same time, but I will love when he is back to take over again! Hope you all have a great Tuesday! I am off to do some blog hopping while eating breakfast and then to try and get something completed today!

HUGS and-