House Mouse Challenge #41 - Red, White and Blue; any theme

This weeks challenge was a color one, although I threw in that brown for the cobblestone road and a hint of green for the trees, not sure if that is fair or not?! LOL.. but oh well, I guess I am one to push the envelop when it comes to color!! LOL... I figured if the mice could be brown, so could my cobblestone! I love this image and just bought it off the clearance at Hobby Lobby for just 2.00 so I was quite excited about that! I kept her white and added her acessories with the colors red, white and blue. Although her shoes kind of turned an orange color after I added the diamond glaze to make them look patten leather! LOL.. oh well, I used Martha Stewart x-mas stamps for those cute little houses, also bought on the clearance at wal-mart after Christmas, I think for 3.00! LOL... and then I used a cuttlebug embossing folder to make my cobblestone walk. The other little housemouse critters are actually stickers. Thought the street needed some other mice! I also stamped my trees in the background and added a hint of green chalk and then put this all together. I love fiber and I thought the perfect quote for this was "A road to a friend's house is never long" and that is what is on the tag.















well, that is it for me for this challenge, I think it turned out cute, so have a "mice" day!

House Mouse Challenge #40 - Wedding/Anniversary

This week's challenge was Wedding/Anniversary. How appropriate since Eric and I just celebrated our 10th anniversary. Although this in not the card I made him. To make this card I used my mirror image stamp. This stamp allows you to reverse an image by stamping the image onto the surface of this stamp and then you use that block to stamp your image in reverse (the image is always just a little lighter too). I don't use it a lot, but I do use it and I always love the results when I do. So, with that said, now you know how I achieved the double image in reverse. I decided to make one of the little mice white instead of the brown. Since we have had all different colors in mice and rats as pets I thought a little white one would be nice. I kept this clean and simple, which can be a hard thing for me to do at times. I went with a traditional red, black and white, I always think that is so elegant and sharp. I embossed the background with the hearts cuttlebug embossing folder and then on the black mat I used a fiskars corner/border punch to add a little detail in elegance without a lot of work. This card really did not take me that long at all, I would say I did it easily in a half an hour if not less. Ok... well, that is for me today, I am dang tired from celebrating the other night still, so I think I will post this and veg for a while! And remember you can always click the picture to get a closer look at the image.... OH and the inside says " two lives, two hearts, joined together in friendship, united forever in love". That is the verse we used on our wedding invitations I made 10 years ago though.



ok.. well, here's to another 10 years!!

House Mouse Challenge #39 - Birthday

Even though I have not posted for a couple of weeks, I have done some things but with my daughter's graduation and open house things have been just crazy crazy around here. I missed uploading these for this challenge even though they were completed during that week. So I thought I would just go ahead and post them. The top one was done for one of my girl friend's that I missed her birthday and the bottom one was done for my nephew who turned 13 just yesterday. I kept that one fairly simple since it was for a teen boy. I colored the top one with my bic mark-its and the sky with chalks. Thanks for looking!

House Mouse Challenge #36 - Gate fold card

This week's challenge was a gate fold card. Well, I kind of did not do the traditional gate fold, but this is kind of a gate fold.... ok.. whatever that is suppose to mean, hope you understand my garble... So.. I did do a the gate fold, but I overlapped it and then I also placed a couple of creases on each side of the gate fold where the pattern paper ends so It would stand while closed. I really like how it turned out though. The white flower holds the gate gold closed and you just really slide and lift to open it. I wish now looking at this on the screen I would have added a tough of yellow to the edges of the flower, but oh well it is in the mail. This is a new stamp I just bought when Hobby Lobby had them 50% off last week. I bought this one and then Bunny Cruise. Since I had many mother day cards to make I decided to make one using this challenge. The sentiment inside says "Soak up this special day!" ok... have ta run... lots to do, little time to do it... so I will catch you later and thanks for bloggin by!

House Mouse Challenge #35 - wish someone well

This weeks house mouse challenge is to make a card or anything you like to wish someone well! Sooooo, it certainly seems like I have lots of people I can send this too lately... and since I have a mess I thought I would go ahead and make this before I cleaned it up.

You really can't see it in this picture, but I used a liquid glaze on the puddle and the raindrops.





















Thanks for hopping by!

House Mouse Challenge #32 - something sweet

This weeks challenge was to include on your card something sweet, as in to eat or the word sweet..... so I was not sure what I was going to do, then looking through my stamps I seen this Gruffie stamp and thought how cute this would be if he was looking at a cupcake vs. that chipmunk! LOL.. so I taped off the chipmunk and then inked my stamp, removed the tape, stamped and then drew my cupcake... LOL.. so of couse the sentiment of "Hello cupcake" seemed somewhat humorous. I colored this with my colored pencils. I soo love those little square letter stamps. I bought them at Michaels in the dollar bin and I must say they have become one of my fav stamp sets to use on cards, they are truly just he right size for things like this. So.. that's it for me, so thanks for stopping by and taking a peek, and if you haven't checked out the posted videos below, please do so, I am certain you will not be disappointed at all!!

House Mouse Challenge #31 - Bags and Boxes

This weeks challenge was to make a box or bag using a stamp. Well, I am thinking that mine is more a bag... LOL... not really a box, but not really a bag, but closer to a bag then a box!! LOLOLOLOL.... So, I made the template myself, although I have seen things like this before but thought it would be easy enough to do without a template. I took a 11x7 piece of card stock and made my first score (going across the shorter length) at 4.5, then made another score an inch from the first. Then measure 4.5 from the last one and score again, that should leave you with another inch area. So, it should be 4.5x1x4.5x1 = 11(wink-wink). Then I used my fiskars shape it tool and cut the oval out, used a fiskars boarder punch and did the edge that folds over the top. I placed a white piece of card stock behind that design so the white would show through. I added a few flower stickers, as well as the bee. Stamped the little sentiment and the mice and colored them with my mark-it markers. Cut them out and I place the one mouse on a pop-up dot as well as the sentiment. This holds a snack size baggie. I filled the baggie with gummie bears (had those one hand) and then added the little mouse inside the bag with a glue dot. I stapled the baggie to the back and then folded over the flap, punched two small holes at the top and then ran some ribbon through it to be able to carry it. I kind of appears more purse like I suppose!! Well, this really did not take me very long to make so I thought this would be a great thing to give little ones that you might visit at Easter or ones that visit you that you might want a little something for, but inexpensive. I am not usually very good at explaining things, so if I have done an awful job doing so please feel free to send me an e-mail! Thanks for stopping by and looking and happy box and bag making!

House Mouse Challenge #30 - Shaped Card

HEY THERE CUPCAKE! OK.. I must admit, I have cupcake on the brain a lot lately... LOTS!! But that is altogether another future post, I promise! So, this week's house mouse challenge was to do a shaped card. I instantly knew I wanted to do a cupcake... guess because that is what is on my mind lately! (hehe covering mouth giggling) so anyway, I stamped the panda bear from the wheelbarrow ride and colored him and cut him out. I knew I wanted him to adorn the top of my cupcake. I made my own template for this card and I when I get around to it I will make a whole sheet pages of all the pattern pieces and upload it so if you want it you can have it, but that will have to be another day. I actually made my base out of a darker pink heavy paper per my pattern. This way the backside of my card was a pink. The crimped cupcake holder is the same paper, just a seperate piece that was crimped. I did this mainly because I wanted my baskside to have color. Since I had made some individual peices of pattern that were loose like the icing and the cupcake holder I just traced around my pattern paper for the icing and inked it with the dew drop inks and them I crimped my card stock for the holder and then I traced it and then cut my piece. Be careful when you crimp things, you will want to make sure you crimp then cut the piece to fit and I will tell you why. It tends to make your piece smaller because it crimps, thus using a bit more paper... so always crimp first and them cut... that was the paper crafting tip for the day! I also outlined my icing in black sharpie because I wanted my icing to stand out more, plus I wanted to have some swirls within the top too. I chose to add the black and white ribbon to mainly pull it altogether since I used the panda bear, plus it really pops and it adds some weight to the bottom which makes it more balanced to me. It really is a balance kind of thing, that's another thing balance, it truly is a funny thing, it is mainly just something I feel in my work, but there really is a truth to balance whether it be with color or a feel of weight and how it carries your eyes. Then I had these lovely sequins that I bought off Easter clearance at the craft store last year really inexpensively and thought that would be the perfect finishing touch. Although, I wanted to add some little white pearls in the center of the sequins from crafting many years ago I couldn't locate them ((oh well)). I also used the same pattern paper from the icing on the full inside and added my sentiment that said "because you're special". I made this for a friend that just had foot surgery. I am certain she will just love it. OK... Thanks for looking and I promise to have my template here in the next week for you to right click and save to your files... I think I might just add a little hanging tag from the bow that says "for you" or "thinking of you", but here is my pic for now.... so in the meantime... have a cupcake kind of day!

House Mouse Challenge #28 - One for the men

OK.. I must admit, I kind of did a real quickie here and because I did want to try this out, but my time for the last few weeks consist of doing things either late into the night or somewhat quick. So... this is somewhat quick, a bit simple, BUT I guess a little masculine. I think the key for making cards for men is truly the colors you tend to pick. I went with brown, red and black; "Manly" colors! LOL.. well, I guess. I stamped my tree and really didn't do another thing to it.. lazy? Then I matted it on the red and used my fancy corner punch and then stamped muzzy, colored him with mark-it markers and then cut him out placed him in front of the tree, glued him down added the chipboard frame (colored a roll of dots on that red) and added the mushroom, drew my little lady bug on that and stamped and matted the hello, added my ribbon and called this a quickie manly card!! I really wanted more of the tree trunk to show in the frame, but it did not work out that way, because I cut too much off one side and had to correct it ((ugh)) LOL... oh well... Thanks for taking a peek!

House Mouse Monday Challenge 25 - Sketch

Alrighty.... I wasn't sure I was going to get this challenge accomplished this week because it has been a crazy week, BUT since I had a baby shower to attend tomorrow I really wanted to make a card so I thought I would try to combine the two. Although I wish I had one of the cute little mouse stamps with them in the baby shoes to use, this is the best one I had to use. So with that said I went with it because after all it is cute too. So... since everyone else seemed to keep the same design, I decided I wanted to flip the design sideways and I also made it into a tri-fold card. I made a shaker box for my main element of focus. I soo love making them and knew as soon as I seen this sketch I was going to make one of some kind. I really didn't want to do a circle, because once again everyone seemed to be doing circles, except a few, BUT I did one only because I wanted to do my sentiment in the manner that I did it, so it worked perfect for me to stamp my image and make a shaker box. I did my text wrap in word. I also did the inside which is also below. Since my shaker box hung over the edge of the card when you opened it I stamped another image more close up and placed it on the inside without color (see below) I think this turned out super cute and I am quite pleased with it. I don't ever use sketches to make cards, not sure why, because it is so much easier and takes a lot of the thinking and design process out of it for you... but I enjoyed using this sketch and I truly enjoy seeing what everyone else comes up with! Thanks for looking and double thanks if you left some luvins! Have a squeaky kind of day!!

The blog had a sponsor 2redbananas this week, not only are they donate a fab prize but they created and joined in with this challenge to give us even more inspiring work to look at. Here is the sketch they gave us and under that is what I came up with. The link to this challenge if you want to see all the others great creations is in my title post.

I won some blog candy!!

OK.. I guess I am feeling lucky these days!! Last night I was informed by Beth of Wind Walker Altered Arts that I won her blog candy just for leaving a comment! I was thrilled because it included a cute house mouse stamp and some scrumptious embellies!! I am soo in love with the house mouse line of stamps and have been for many many years. It is funny how you see stamps, but until you see them in use you might not be sure how you would use it. Beth had an ATC on her blog that used this stamp and I instantly fell in love with how she used it. So, I am the lucky recipent of receiving one of her lovely blog candies!! I am soo excited and can't wait to put it to use on the House Mouse Monday Challenge! Beth has some beautiful work over on her blog so you should stop by and see it. It always amazes me how there is so much talent out there in blog world. It never ceasese to amaze me that if you gave 100 people the same stamp how many different designs and ideas that would come about from that same little stamp! It is truly amazing and inspirational!!! So... this is the blog candy I recieved from Beth! Her blog is linked to the title post here, so stop by and see her and tell her Nina sent you! Thanks again Beth!!

Housemouse Monday Challenge #24

OK... so here is the challenge for this week. It is tall and thin. I don't hardly ever think to do cards in this format. I would say that this is a bit more of a challenge and makes you think more "out side the box". Which I guess is where the challenge lies! LOL.... So.... This is what they posted for the challenge: "Our challenge this week is :~ Tall & Thin. You may wonder what on earth I mean.......lol, I'd best be explaining a bit more - please use a tall and thin cardblank to make your card. The standard size tall card is a DL but please feel free to use any size tall card." I am not sure what DL means so I just made a card that fits into one of the standard tall and thin envies! :O) I think the designers cards were great for inspiration for this. Here is mine: (the sentiment saids: "There is joy in a good friend" - click on the picture for a closer look):



I started out with cute little Monica jumping for joy. I kind of had my phrase in my head that I wanted to use for this and so the jumping for joy certainly fit my card. I stamped her 3 times on cream cs and one of those images I stamped on my mirror image stamp which is how I flipped her. I then used my nestabilities and cut each one out and also added a brown one the same size just behind the stamped one. I colored everything thing with my prismacolor pencils. I then doodled around each design. I also used the stamp image sweet kiss to place at the bottom of my card.
I cut and rounded the corners on the stripes behind the three images of Monica. I inked them in pink and brown and then added a few handmade stitches and added some buttons. I bought the letters stamps at the dollar bin at Michael's that I used for my phrase and I soo love using those little stamps! I cut each one of them out and placed them on pop-up dots. Doodled a little more and inked a little more around the edges then added my brown ribbon and little bow flourish and flower and called it complete! Hope you enjoy my version of the challenge and thanks for looking!

Housemouse Monday Challenge #23

Ok... here is my first entry to my first challenge here.... I love this image and thought it would be a cute image for Valetine's Day. It really isn't one of the traditional images one might pick for something like this, but when I look at these two they certainly look like they are longing for each other's friendship... :O)



I used Basic Grey's Urban Praire. I used my Bic Mark-it's to color the image and some colors pencil too. I cut out and around part of the image and placed the matted image on pop-dots (that is why my dots look a little off, but they are not, it's my photography skills apparently) I also placed the tiny heart on a pop-up dot too.
THANKS for looking.

Housemouse Monday Challenge Designer Team

ok.. I just ran across this blog today and I must say I am in love with it at first glance. Having mice and rats as pets I ADORE housemouse stamps! So after looking around and reading this blog I thought... what the heck... The only thing better would be to receive the stamps for free!! If you too would like to visit their blog the site is linked to this post title. So, here is my reply to their post:

1. Why you would like to join the team: Well, first because I adore mice and rats and little critters!.. LOL.. as pets that is.. when I first discovered the housemouse stamp site looking for real mice stuff, I instantly fell in love with these stamps. I personally think these stamps have such personality that just comes alive in their images. I ADORE not only the original housemouse stamps, I adore the happy hoppers and Gruffies as well. I have never attempted to go for a designer team position, but feel like this would be a great fit for me. Mainly though, I would like to be an inspirtation and encouragement to anyone and everyone creatively as an individual and as a team member.

2. Show three samples of your best work on the post: Hope you like what I chose... you can find more of my cards in my gallery, the link is at the top of my blog... thanks for looking..