Couple of Gruffies

These are the last two cards I needed to complete for the House Mouse Merry Go Round swap I am hosting. Participants could send any House Mouse, Happy Hoppers or Gruffies image. Each of the other participants made a card with the image, the the cards were returned to the person who originally sent the image in.


The image on this firs card was sent by Barbara and is called Bear of an Appetite. I also used the sketch that Barbara is challenging us with on the Scrap and Paper Corner PaperCrafts message board. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. The papers are all from My Mind's Eye. I added buttons/twine and brads for embellishments.


The image above, Bearied in Paperwork, was sent by Traci. This was definitely the most difficult image for me to work with in the whole swap, but I am pretty pleased with how the card turned out. Again, the image was colored with Prismas. The sentiment "Are we having fun yet?" was printed on the computer. I cut it out with my Nesties and used the Labels 1 Nestie as the mat. I added a spiral clip with some ribbon. The papers are all from a Kay and Co. scrap pack that I got ages ago and has just been sitting in my closet. I don't know why. There are some cool papers in there.

Thanks for stopping by!

Keeping Cool - Cupcake Craft Challenge #51

This card is for this week's Cupcake Craft Challenge - Beach Theme. It is also another of the cards I completed for the House Mouse and Friends Merry Go Round Swap I am hosting.

This House Mouse image is called Keeping Cool and was sent for the Merry Go Round swap by Chris/BeachBum - appropriate isn't it? :) I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. I sponged the sky with blue ink and added Stickles to the ice cube, shell and here and there on the sand. The sentiment is a $1 stamp from Michael's that I bought a few years ago. It's one of my favorite sentiment stamps - I use it a lot. I added some bling to it to spruce it up a little. I embellished the card with white and green ribbon and a lime slice charm. I added Stickles to that to spruce it up a little too. The cardstock I used is Bazzill, and the orange polka dot paper is Kay and Co. The other papers are scraps from my stash.

The finished card size is 6" square. I used the sketch from last week's House Mouse and Friends challenge, which I didn't have a chance to participate in.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mojo Monday 97 and Simon Says Challenge

I have another two-fer today - Mojo Monday and Simon Says Challenges.

I chose the Happy Hopper image called Bunny Bath for this card. My friend Kari sent this image in for the House Mouse and Friends Merry Go Round swap that I am currently hosting. I thought the image fit the sketch for Mojo Monday perfectly. The sketch is shown below. Since I am using this card for a swap, I decided to stick with an A2 size. I think a 5x7 might have been a better fit for the size of the image. I just have a really hard time making A2 cards anymore. They seem so tiny. :)

I also thought this image was perfect for the Simon Says Challenge this week, which is distressing. Had I stamped this image myself, I would have used kraft cardstock to fit with the rest of the card. However, since it was stamped on white, I used Vintage Photo Distress ink to help blend it in better. I also tore the top edge of the paisley paper, roughed it up and edged it with the Distress ink. Finally, I sanded the edges of the scalloped circle and hit it with a little distress ink as well. In addition, the papers I used have a distresed look. Distressed/shabby used to be my usual style for cards, but I don't much of it anymore. It was fun to use my old techniques again.

Supplies
Stamps: Happy Hopper - Bunny Bath (Stampabilities); sentiment (Technique Tuesday)

Paper: Kraft cardstock and red cardstock (unknown); paisley DP(Creative Imaginations); striped DP (no-name giant Costco pack)

Embellishments: Circle, scalloped circle and long rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); metal photo corner (Oriental Trading); Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Ranger); buttons, twine

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits; distressing

Finished card size: A2 (4 1/4 x 5 1/2)

A Few Swap Projects

When I first started stamping and paper crafting, I did a lot of swaps. Since I started participating in the challenge blogs, I don't do as many, but every once in awhile one comes along that I want to do. I set a limit for myself of no more than two swaps due in a month, but apparently, I wasn't paying attention this month and ended up with about six. I spent today catching up on the last of them, so now I can get back on track with my limit.


This first card is for an all-white card swap that I am participating in on the Splitcoaststampers site. I posted a similar card a few weeks ago for a challenge I did. I simplified it for the swap and added a butterfly die cut. The image/sentiment is two stamps from an Inkadinkado clear set. I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP. The embossed background is made with the Birds and Swirls Cuttlebug folder and the vertical piece is the Script folder. The butterfly is a Cuttlebug combination die and embossing folder. The circles are cut with my Nesties and the scalloped border on the left with the Fiskars scallop border punch.

The ATC above is for a Penny Black swap my friend Chris is hosting. I wanted to do a little more with this one, but the image ended up being a little bigger than I thought so I didn't have much room. The image is called Ooh La La. I colored it with my Prismas and cut it with my Label 1 Nesties. I inked the edges in Warm Red Chalk Ink. The sentiment is from the SU Paris in Spring set. I punched it out with a circle punch and matted it with red cut with one of my scallop circle Nesties. I scalloped the bottom of the yellow and added a black and white ribbon. I mounted the whole thing on piece of black cardstock cut to ATC size.

This final project is a recipe page. My 2nd favorite hobby is cooking and I used to participate in and host a lot of recipe swaps. This is my first one in a long time and it's being hosted by my friend Barbara. It was to be for a favorite family recipe. This is one I make for my son and husband quite frequently. It's super easy and we all love it. You can also make with fat free/sugar free ingredients and it's just as good. I also sometimes use graham crackers instead of Oreos. When I do that, I use two packages of chocolate pudding and no vanilla.

I used pink and brown Bazzill cardstock. The DP is some that I have had forever and I think it's from Paper Wishes. I used to belong to their scrapbook kit of the month club. The pink behind the recipe and in the flower is from My Mind's Eye. I made the flower with my retro flower punches and small circle punch. I ran the flower parts through my Big Kick with my D'Vine Swirls embossing folder and the center through with the Swiss Dots folder then layered them. I finished it off with some pink and brown polka dot ribbon and pink pearls.

A Summer White Card

I made this card for Chris's sketch challenge on the Papercrafts message forum on Creating Keepsakes this week. I am also thinking of using it for a white on white card swap I'm in on Splitcoaststampers. I haven't made the final decision on that yet.

I used three different Cuttlebug folders for this card. I can't remember the name of the one I used for the background. It's swirled vines with little birds on it. It's the first time I've used that one. I used Swiss Dots for the vertical piece and Textile for the squares. I punched the squares with my 1 1/4" square punch, then put them on 1 1/2" scalloped squares that I cut with my Nesties.

I used two stamps from the Inkadinkado Garden Flowers clear set for the main image. I embossed them in white, then cut the piece with my classic circle Nesties. I used a scalloped circle nestie for the mat. I finished it off with a white organza ribbon and three pearls.

I think the white on white cards are so pretty and elegant. I wished they photographed a little better. The card really looks much better in person.

Thanks for looking!

Cute Card Thursday and My Final Merry Go Round Card

Finally got the last card done for my Merry Go Round swap! If you aren't familiar with what a Merry Go Round swap is, I explained it in my House Mouse post on May 24th. I am also posting this card for this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge - bit o' bling.

The object of this week's challenge is to use some sort of "bling" on your card. I didn't go crazy with it, but there's a little. I painted Stickles on the mousie flower petals. You will probably have to enlarge the image to see that very well. I also used a green square gem brad in the center of my flower, which I made by stacking five different Prima flowers. I just have to layer my flowers now. If I just use one is looks so .... blah... :)

I used Mojo Monday sketch 73 for the layout. I love this sketch, but was out of town when that challenge was posted, so I'm glad I finally got a chance to use it. I actually used my slot punch on the right side of the image and threaded the ribbon through it, but that got covered up with the flower. If I hadn't been making this card for a swap, I would have used a larger card size so that could be seen. Oh well...

If you are familiar with this House Mouse image, you may have noticed that I colored Amanda Mouse's ears (she's the one in the middle). I don't have this image myself, and even though I had seen it before, I apparently didn't pay close attention to the coloring. I didn't distinguish her ears from the petals so they got colored too. Ooops... I saw Mudpie's ears, but Amanda's looked like flower petals to me. :) Unfortunately, I only had one copy of this image. I think the person who sent them accidentally miscounted and I was one short so I didn't have an extra to fix the oopsie. She's a super sweetie so I think she'll forgive me. ;)

I just realized something - I think this is the first card I've made for quite some time that I didn't use at least one of my Nestabilities and/or border punches on.

Thanks for stopping by. I think I'm going to get these cards swapped out so I can get them back in the mail tomorrow. Hope you have a great weekend!

Supplies
Stamp: Spring Blossoms (House Mouse - Stampabilities)
Paper: Green cardstock (Archiver's); purple cardstock (DCWV); DP (My Mind's Eye)
Embellishments: Ribbon (unknown); flowers (Prima); gem brad (Paper Wishes); Stickles glitter glue; image is edged with Lime Chalk Ink (Colorbox)
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits
Finished Card Size: A2 (4 1/4" x 5 1/2")

More Merry Go Round Cards

Here are a couple more cards I made for my Merry Go Round swap. I have two more that I haven't posted yet. One is finished, but I don't care much for how it turned out so I'm probably not going to post it. I sure hope the person I made it for isn't too disappointed. One more I still have to make but I'm stuck for an idea. Hopefully, I'll come up with something soon.

The image above is from Heidi. I think this was the hardest one for me. Whenever I see the Kliban Cats I think of the 70s - I think I had something back then with one of the cats on it - so I chose some retro colors and paper for it. I also decided to color the cat, even though I don't really remember the original images having the cats anything but black and white. It went with the paper. ;) The little ribbon slide thingie says "Laughter".

I had some trouble with the image above too. First, I was going to try to color it with my distress inks. I follow Rosette's blog and she does such pretty coloring with the distress inks. First I tried the aqua painter to pick up the ink, but I thought it was too wet. Then I tried one of my SU blender pens, but it kind of just shredded the paper. So I ended up going back to my tried and true Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. Maybe I'll try the distress inks again sometime. I chose an almost monochromatic color scheme with the ivory and golds. I added the green and gold ribbon to pick up the green in the image and provide a little more interest.

We Remember Moments

Here is another card that I made for my Merry Go Round swap. I also used this week's Card Positioning Systems sketch. This is my first entry for the CPS challenge. I really like their sketches, but I can only do so many challenges a week. :) I wish I could do all the ones I like. The sketch I used is posted toward the end of my post.

This image is not my style at all, but I have to say that I do like the way the card turned out. The image was stamped on watercolor paper. I considered coloring it with watercolors, but I don't have that many. I went with my usual Prismas to have more color choices. I think it still kind of looks like watercolor though. I printed the quote (one of my all-time favorites!) on the computer.

The background paper is handmade. Through the various message boards I have participated in and through a swap group I hosted on Yahoo for awhile, I became acquainted with a lovely lady whose name is Ms. Lis. Ms. Lis makes beautiful handmade paper and sent me a few small pieces as a hostess gift for a swap I hosted. Believe it or not, this is the first time I have used any. I'm hoarding it because I probably won't get more. I have lost track of Lis - we aren't online in the same places anymore. Anyhoo - I looked through every piece of DP I have and just could not find the right one for this image. Finally, I found the handmade paper and thought it was just perfect.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend!

Supplies
Stamp: Stamping Up! (I don't know the name of the set); sentiment is computer generated

Paper: Yellow cardstock (DCWV); dark turquoise cardstock (Club Scrap); DP - handmade

Embellishments: circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); corner rounder punch (Hobby Lobby); ribbon (Hobby Lobby)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits

Finished card size: A2 (4 1/4" x 5 1/2")

Mice Cream Celebration Joy Fold Card

I've been wanting to make one of these joy fold cards for awhile, and finally had some time to try it out. You can find the instructions for this card here on the Splitcoaststampers Web site. It's a really fun and easy card to do and makes a standard A2 size card a little more interesting.

The photo below shows what the card looks like open. I didn't do a lot of embellishing with this card. I was just trying out the style. I think I may use this for a swap I am in also. Since I have to make multiples, I don't want to get too time-consuming with it. The outside sentiment is attached with dimensional adhesive to allow the corner of the small card to tuck under it and keep it closed.

Supplies

Stamps: Mice Cream Celebration (House Mouse - Stampabilities); Celebrate (Studio G); inside sentiment (My Sentiments Exactly)

Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)

Paper: All cardstock and DP - Spring Stack (DCWV)

Embellishments: circle punch (Creative Memories); Scallop circle punch (Hobby Lobby); Spots and Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Techniques: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid; joy fold card

Finished Card Size: A2 (4 1/2" x 5 1/2")

One More Card for the Day

This one isn't for a challenge, but I did use the sketch from last week's Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge that I posted below. I wish I had done this one first because I like it better than the one I submitted for the challenge. Oh well - c'est la vie.

I am sending this for a swap that my friend Susan is hosting for cards that use a die cut machine in some way. I used my Big Kick with Cuttlebug embossing folders to make the background. Once again, I used chalk ink to highlight the raised areas.

It's back to work for me tomorrow after being on vacation last week and a holiday today. Bummer.

Supplies
Stamp: O Lucky Day (House Mouse Designs)
Ink: Jet Black (StazOn); Rouge, Pink Pastel (Colorbox Chalk Ink)
Paper: Cardstock (Hobby Lobby) and scraps from my stash; one tiny piece of Aunt Gertie's Garden (SEI)
Embellishments: Circle and scallop circle dies (Nestabilities); Floral Fantasy and Swiss Dots embossing folders (Cuttlebug); ribbon scrap; green paper flowers (unknown - from my stash)
Techniques: Prisma colored pencil blended with Gamsol; paper piercing

Merry Go Round Swap: The Last Three

I am posting the last three of my cards for the Merry Go Round swap in one post since they are all done now (and I have other cards I want to post :). If you don't know what a Merry Go Round swap is, see my post from December 29th.

The image for this card came from my friend Lucy. I'm not sure of the manufacturer. If you knew Lucy, you would know that this is a perfect card for her. I colored the image with colored pencil, the papers are scraps from my scrap box and the sentiment is computer generated. I inked the edges of the image and the sentiment with Lime Chalk Ink. I just kept it simple to stay in keeping with the cartoon character of the image.

The image for this card was my least favorite one of the six I recieved in the swap, BUT this turned out to be my favorite card of the bunch when I had it finished. The image is colored with colored pencil. Papers and ribbon are from my scraps (surprise!). The sentiment is from Stampendous and was purchased from the "Hot Spot" at Archiver's for a buck (cha ching!).

This is the final card. I like the image (I have a thing for collage images:), but I didn't have and reall y great ideas for anything to do with it. The one good idea I did have, I didn't have enough space on the card to execute it properly. That's kind of a drawback to swapping - you have to make the cards A2 unless you want to provide envelopes. I colored the castle with pastels (chalks) and rolled on Distress Ink in Antique Linen. Once again, papers and ribbon are from my scraps. The spiral clip is from Spare Parts (Hobby Lobby).

Merry Go Round Swap #3: Flamingo

Here is the third card for the Merry Go Round Swap. I posted a description of the swap on December 29th. After I finished the card, I decided it would probably have been better to make this a square card instead of the standard A2 size.

The flamingo is colored with Prisma colored pencil. The cardstock and the quotation stamp are from Club Scrap. The flower is from Prima. The pattern paper and ribbon are scraps.

Merry Go Round Swap #2: Paris

This is the 2nd card I made for the Merry Go Round Swap I am participating in. See yesterday’s post for a description of this type of swap. I see that the very right edge of the card was cut off in my scan. The red mat really does go all the way around.



I colored the lady’s dress with pastels (I call them chalk, but I have a friend whose son is an artist and he made it perfectly clear to me that chalks and pastels are two totally different mediums.) I then used a sponge roller (one of those mini paint rollers) to roll on some Tea Dye Distress Ink. All the papers and ribbon are scraps from my stash. I printed the sentiment on the computer, and then distressed it the same way I did the main image.

I’m not listing the supplies used because I don’t know who made the stamp and all the other supplies were scraps.

Merry Go Round Swap #1: Love

I am currently participating in a card swap called a "merry go round." In this swap, each participant stamps 12 copies of the same image and sends them to the hostess. The hostess then sends two copies of each image to the other participants who make one card with each different image (the 2nd copy is in case of mistakes). The completed cards are then sent back to the hostess who returns the cards made with each person's image to the original stamper. Each participant then has their original image made into six different cards by six different people.

This type of swap can be very challenging, but it's one of my favorite types. I like the challenge of working with images that may not be my usual style. It's also fun to see how others interpret the image that I sent. They are also great for getting ideas for images that you may not be sure how to work with.



This is the first card I made for this swap. This is definitely not my usual style. I used a color combination that I don't think I've ever used before. I also colored the image with watercolors, which I rarely use. My preferred coloring method is colored pencil. The only part of the card that is "me" is the ribbon. I love ribbon - as you will probably see as I post more cards. Also I want to note that the layout for this card is based on the current card sketch challenge on Splitcoast Stampers.

Supplies Used
Stamps: Stampin Up!; Technique Tuesday
Cardstock: Club Scrap
Ribbon: Hobby Lobby
Heart Clip: Making Memories