Sleeping Under Flowers

Today's card features a House Mouse stamp by Stampabilities called 'Sleeping Under Flowers' that my Mum picked up recently in a charity shop. I stamped it on to watercolour paper, added a sentiment using one of the stamps from the 'What This!' set by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company, then coloured the image using watercolour pencils. For the background, I used a piece of purple paper from the 'Over the Rainbow' pad by Craft Consortium. I cut four squares, then used a couple of Cuttlebug embossing folders to emboss it. I sanded over the raised areas to reveal some of the white core, distressed the edges, and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen, then matted it all on to a piece of kraft card before adding it to a white card blank.

Challenges for this card:

• As You Like It - Stamping or Digi? (Definitely stamping - I love to have a rummage through my stamps, picking out what I want to use - looking through file names on my laptop just isn't the same!)
• Can You Handle the Pressure - Anything Goes Using Embossing Folders (Optional 'Something Beginning with F' - Flowers)
• Fab 'N' Funky - Stitching (Real or Faux)
• House Mouse & Friends - Anything Goes (Optional 'Spring Flowers')
• Seize the Birthday - Anything Birthday Goes

Pile It On! Challenge - Punch It Out

This week at Pile It On! we're challenging you to:

'Punch It Out!

(Use your punches...not dies)

Our sponsor for this challenge is Paper Nest Dolls:

Prize - $25 Gift Certificate!

I only have two punches...a border punch that I use fairly regularly, and a really old (and very much neglected) corner rounder punch...so I decided to dig out the corner punch and round practically every corner on my card! The image is a House Mouse stamp called 'Birthday Cupcake' that I coloured using watercolour pencils. The papers are from a pad by Michaels (found at TKMaxx) called 'Recollections'...I inked the edges a little using 'Brushed Corduroy' Distress Ink, then added some faux stitching using my CuterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Here are the challenges I've piled on:

• Pile It On! - Punch It Out
• C.R.A.F.T. - Animals/Pets
• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• Crafty Creations - Dig Deep (The corner punch is years old)
• Crafty Girls - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Animals
• Crazy Challenge - Cute Little Animals
• Creative Corner - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
• Delightful - Layer It
• Gruffies & Guests - Anything Goes
• Hiding in my Craft Room - Freestyle
• House Mouse & Friends - Food
• Inky Impressions - Anything Goes
• Loves Rubber Stamps - Two or More Patterned Papers
• My Time to Craft - Food & Drink
• Pink Elephant - Anything Goes
• Seize the Birthday - Anything Birthday
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
• Sketch Saturday - Pick a Sketch (I used #226)

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Pile It On! Challenge.

Swiss Ribbon

I haven't entered the Sketch & Stash Challenge for a while...it's not that I haven't liked the sketches...'cos I have...or that I haven't had any new or unused stash to use...'cos I have mountains! lol But more a case of 'too many challenges...too little time'...so I thought it was about time I played again...and unearthed this gorgeous House Mouse image 'Swiss Ribbon', that I've had for ages, but have never got around to using. The papers are from the 'Ooh La La (for Him)' collection (by My Mind's Eye), as is the little 'ticket' embellishment, onto which I've stamped a sentiment by Inkadinkado. The brads and ribbon are from Poppicrafts.

I'm also going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts: 'Tag, Ticket or Label'
Papertake Weekly: 'Check this Out!'
Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential: 'Doing the Mess Around'
Simon Says Stamp: '3 types of embellishments (in my case: ribbon, brads, ticket), 2 papers, 1 image'

Christmas Singing Duo

While I had my BasicGrey 'Figgy Pudding' papers out yesterday, I made another Christmas card...this time using the sketch from the Friday Sketchers Challenge...although without the optional 'Blue & Orange' colour combo. I chose instead to use the Colour Create colour combination of 'Ruby, Cream & Gold'. The image is a cute House Mouse stamp called 'Christmas Singing Duo', which I've watercoloured, and added a hint of glitter to the candle flames and snow. The sentiment stamp is by Three Bugs in a Rug, and the ribbon was tied around a Christmas present last year...I love recycling! lol

Lavender Dreams

This is one of the cards I made on the craft retreat...used some of my birthday goodies too! ;0)
I followed the fab Papertake Weekly Challenge sketch, using a cute House Mouse image ('Lavender Dreams...sent to me by my lovely friend Kaz)...which I thought would go really well with some of my new 'Wisteria' papers by BasicGrey. I'm also going to enter this card for the Allsorts Challenge...where the theme this week is 'In an English country garden'. I embossed the central panel with the Cuttlebug 'Victoria' folder, used some grosgrain ribbon (from Poppicrafts) to add a bow, and finished off with a sentiment from the Clare Curd Signature Range (by Papermania).


I'm sending this card to my partner for this month's Friendship Card Swap on the Docrafts forum...where we've been challenged to make a card using some of our partner's favourite things...mine says her favourite things are 'Greens & browns...and natural outdoor things'! I know that there's more purple than brown...but I hope she thinks that this is ok! lol

Truly Scrumptious meets Cute Card Thursday

I've combined the fab Truly Scrumptious Challenge sketch with the Cute Card Thursday Challenge which this week is to use 'something shiny' on our cards. I received this gorgeous Gruffie stamped image ('Cake Walk' by Stampabilities), from my ABC DT buddy Jen in the post yesterday, and I couldn't resist having a little play. For my 'something shiny', I thought I'd add a touch of glitter to the cake...but I got a bit carried away...no wonder he's staggering under the weight of it! lol
I've used papers by BasicGrey ('Blush') and My Mind's Eye ('Adore')...and as I was uploading the photo of the sketch, I've realised I've layered up one of the strips of paper wrong...ooops! The sentiment is by Woodware (from the 'Circular Greetings' set), and I've added a few bits of Craftwork Cards 'Card Candy'.