You Make My Day Award

I am truly honored and touched that NANCY (her blog is Vintage Papers)presented this You make my day award to me. This means a lot to me coming from a friend, fellow blogger and a wonderfully creative artist like Nancy.

The rules for the “You Make My Day” award are to re-present it to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blog land. Let them know through email or by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times, and if you do, consider yourself really, really loved.

It is difficult to pick just ten people to pass this award on to but I will try my best. So many artists and people inspire, support and share with me on a daily basis. So in no particular order I present (and in some cases, re-present) this award to the following bloggers who truly make my day:

First, I want to present it to a non-blogger but one who visits my blog daily and with whom I've become acquainted and share our love of papercrafting. So first I present this award to DENISE who signs her posts NISE. Take this picture of the award and print it out and hang it in your office because you truly do make my day, my friend!
NANCY Vintage Papers
JAN Far North Designs
KIM Creative Diversions
PAM Smileycollector
GLEE Gleefully Done
MICHELLE Stampers Dream
ETHEL The Paper Quilter
PASCALE Pescbrico
DEBBIE 1 of 2 Shoes
DEBORAHCards and Things

Slow Poke

Did I say I was finished for today? With me, you never know. I did sew for a little while but then when I came back upstairs this House Mouse image that I colored last night was begging to be made into a card. What can I say? I gave in to the little mice. Actually, I have to get this card in the mail as I made it for someone in particular.

This is one of those cards that my husband would laugh at. Not that it does or doesn't look funny, but rather, he'd laugh because I used just about every imaginable embellishment or embellishing tool possible on this card. I think I should hold a contest here and have you guess how many different products and embellishments went into this card.

One thing that doesn't show in the photo but looks pretty realistic in real life is the dimensional glaze on the turtle's shell. It gives it a slight 3-D effect as well as a shiney shell.

OK...y'all are on. Tell me the NUMBER of the embellishments or tools to embellish that went into this card. I just may pick a winner if anyone guess close or right on. I'll give you one week from today (March 6th) to guess.

OK...NOW I'm finished with house mouse cards for a while......or maybe not.

A Stitch In Time

I know I said I was going to do some sewing yesterday. Well, after I posted my House Mouse cards yesterday I went to the post office and picked up a small parcel with some new House Mouse and Happy Hopper stamps. So (or SEW) I just had to ink them up right away.

This is one of my newest Happy Hopper stamps titled "A Stitch in Time." I used to do a lot of counted cross stitch. My daughter does now and she does amazingly beautiful and intriquite designs with counted cross stich. This card also provided me with the opportunity to use another one of my Tonic punches on the side border.

I guess if you don't care for House Mouse or Happy Hoppers you are getting border with my blog entries of late. I kind of go in spells with stamps. Right now I'm into the cutesy House Mice again. Who knows what it will be next week?

OH...and I received an email from Dick at HM Stamps. My brand new GRUFFIES are in and will be mailed to me soon. Don't know what a Gruffie is? Well, think House Mouse or Happy Hoppers but substitute a bear for the mouse or bunny. They are going to be so cute. Can hardly stand the wait until my Gruffies arrive.

Now, I really am going to do some sewing on the sewing machine.

Cheers!

Rainy Daisy Day

This is the last one for today. I have some sewing to finish up.

This House Mouse stamp is called Rainy Daisy Day. It didn't originally start out in this layout but I didn't like how I did it at first and decided to just keep it simple.

I don't know if you can see in the scan but I've put a thin layer of clear dimensional glaze on the puddle that they are stomping in. It looks pretty neat in real life. On the raindrops I used frosted lace stickles glitter glue.

The ribbon is from Michaels that was on sale. I thought it such pretty ribbon.

I'm off to sew now. Hope you have a good day.

Sitting in the rain

One more completed House Mouse card using another oldie but goodie House Mouse stamp. This one is titled Sitting in the Rain 02. Now for the life of me, I've never been able to figure out why mice would be sitting on a cable in the rain. Birds, yes! Mice, no! Nevertheless, I think it is a cute image.

For this one I used my cuttlebug embossing folder with swirls and embossed the center panel and then lightly inked the embossed swirls with SU chocolate chip ink.

More to come......

Butterfliers

Butterfliers is the name of this House Mouse stamp. I think it might have been among the very first House Mouse stamps I ever purchased a number of years ago and I never tire of it.

This image gave me the opportunity to use my Tonic border punch and punch in a butterfly border on a sheet of Stampin' Up! designer paper. I also used my corner rounder punch on the edges to soften the look.

I colored a lot of House Mouse images this past weekend so I think this week will turn into a House Mouse review. I have some new House Mouse stamps on order and before they arrive I wanted to be sure to make good use of some of the ones I already have.

Ahhhh...to dream of seeing butterflies. It is only a dream in our neck of the woods. 10 - 15 more centimeters of snow is heading our way. Winter just doesn't want to quit.

Until next time, I thank you for dropping by.

Nothing is certain but death and taxes.

I made this card just for fun. I love this old gal, named Maude. She is a stamp I use over and over and is made by Art Impressions. She's a hoot and looks like me! ha haaaaa! I love her!

Nothing really special about the card other than I'm getting ready to do my taxes and I read this sentiment in an email joke I'd received so I decided to use it with my good friend, Maude.

Hope you got a chuckle on this cold, overcast and snowy day.

Cheers, until next time...

Roses in Vase

I received another surprise envelope in the mail this week. It was from Nise (Denise) who I've gotten acquainted with through blogging. Denise and I have exchanged some stamped images. She really treated me with the selection of images she stamped and sent to me and I didn't know which one to use first. Finally, I decided to choose this image called Roses in Vase and the stamp is from Beeswax.

I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and added clear dimensional glaze to the vase and smeared a bit of crystal stickles on the rose petals for sparkle.

Are you wondering what on earth I was trying to do with the sheer ribbon? Ha ha...so am I. I was trying to make a layered fluffy bow-like effect with red, pink and white sheer ribbon. I'm not sure my intention was very successful.

The background designer paper is from a new Stampin' Up! stack that I just got. I added a few red crystals in the corner for a bit more sparkle.

Thank you SO MUCH for your very generous package and sharing of your beautiful stamped images. I think I just might have something for you in the not too distant future.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Your FRIENDSHIP makes my heart HAPPY!

Your FRIENDSHIP makes my heart HAPPY is the sentiment for this card that I made from a surprise package that I received in the mail the other day from Michelle at STAMPERS DREAM. I had won a blog candy prize at Michelle's blog. I could hardly wait to play with everything.

The image is from Penny Black and is called "A Touch" that Michelle stamped and sent to me in the package. I love these flowers and will probably be scouting out this stamp.

Next, I watercolored the image with Tombow markers and added the Stampin' Up! sentiment about friendship. The centers of the flowers are filled with Copper Stickles glitter glue. For the background I stamped a large floral background with a stamp from Chapel Road Artstamps with Versafine Sepia ink. Then I just layered, matted and added some Martha Stewart Ribbon and a bit of jute.

Michelle, thank you so much for all of the goodies. I'm having such fun with everything. Below is a photo of all of the goodies I received. Talk about feeling a bit spoiled!

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

No card posts from me today. I couldn't make anything as beautiful as these roses that my husband sent to me today for St. Valentine's Day. My photography does not do these beauties justice, but believe me when I say they are GORGEOUS! I love the arrangement in the square vase with the roses leaning and flowing over the side.

Awwww...isn't he just the best hubby? I think I'll keep him!

Special Delivery

Last fall I bought 7 or 8 House Mouse stamps from a person who was getting rid of some stamps. I was delighted with the stamps she was selling! This stamp, called "Special Delivery" was on my wish list for the longest time.

So what do you do when you get a stamp you've been longing for, but discover that it is very large and the design is too cute to muddy up the background with too much frou-frou? At first I thought I'd make this a standard A-2 size card but then that was the entire image and I felt it needed to have something behind it to make it pop! I decided to make this card a 5X7 card. I added a background paisley designer paper in vivid and bright colors. It is made by MME (My Mind's Eye). I added a couple of Greenhouse paper flowers by American Crafts.

The image is colored on a dusty blue cardstock with prismacolor pencils. I added a bit of Lace Stickles glitter to the raindrops. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things.

I think that these little mice will get a lot of use for get well, thinking of you, spring...so many occasions.

Thanks for stopping by.

Isn't this the cutest apron?

This apron is just too cha-cha for words! Meg over at Montessori by Hand has designed and created this apron pattern at it is for sale. I didn't waste any time at all before I ordered one. Isn't it just the cutest?

Click HERE ON MEG'S BLOG and check it out as well as Meg's other artwork and crafts. She has a whole section of patterns and her purses are really cute too.

Just wanted to share this fun blog with any of my seamstress friends out in the blog-o-sphere.

Another neat thing I want to share is this blog award given to me by Michelle at STAMPERS DREAM. Now how sweet is this of her to share this award with me? You must check out Michelle's blog HERE. Michelle's store is awesome and I encourage you to check it out and be prepared to be enabled! Your pocketbook will be empty after you've seen all of her must have items!
According to the rules I will now pass on the blog of excellence award to the following people who's blogs I find outstanding and EXCELLENT:
Jan at Far North Designs
Kim at Creative Diversions
NANCY at Vintage Papers

I encourage you to stop by Jan, Kim and Nancy's blogs. You won't be disappointed!

Victorian Fan

This past week on the TWO PEAS IN A BUCKET website there has been a winter stampfest going on with many, many wonderful challenges. I wanted to participate in all of them but then I ended up only making time for one. The challenge was to make a Victorian Fan. This challenge was posted by NANCY. You can view Nancy's fan as well as her other wonderful artwork on her blog called Vintage papers. Click HERE to see Nancy's wonderful artwork.

I found this beautiful patterned paper at Michael's and it doesn't have a maker name on it. I used my cuttlebug die cut for the swirls and added sheer ribbon, gold metalic seam edging and some feathers.

Here is a view of it closed.

Colorful birthday cards

I should title this post, "My puppy ate my homework!" Actually, that wouldn't be too far from the truth. Anyone want to buy a Newfoundland puppy?! He's really cute! He just likes to eat my cards as soon as I finish making them.

February seems to be birthday month so I got my cuttlebug birthday embossing template out and my new Inkspirations cupcake tier stamp inked up and made a set of cupcake birthday cards in bright colors. I added some liquid snow for the frosting and Christmas red stickles glitter glue for the cherry on top.

Very simple but colorful birthday cards and very quick to make. I set them on the table to photograph:


Next thing I know...the purple card seems to be missing? How can that be? It was JUST here. Meanwhile in the next room I hear crunch, crunch and purple slobber from the pup! Gabe!!!???!! What are you chewing? Immediately out he spits a purple birthday card.

Sigh........

You make me all Twitterpated

Hmmmm...do you suppose this is why I haven't had any birds visit new birdfeeder outside my kitchen window this year? Maybe one of the House Mice got inside? Hee hee...

I'm still working on cards from my House Mouse coloring fun the other day. This stamp is called Feeder friends. It was a bit more tricky to color. Even on the stamped image you can tell that the tree branches the mouse and feeder are muted as though you are looking through it. However, once I got started coloring I really enjoyed trying to achieve this effect.

After I colored the feeder I covered just the feeder container with a sepia toned crystal lacquer (dimensional glaze). When it dried I consulted my husband (and critic) and we decided the sepia was a bit dark and also it was too thin of a layer to make it look like a plastic feeder, so I once again added another very thin layer of crystal lacquer but clear this time. I'm pleased with how it turned out.



Do you remember the line from the Disney movie "Bambi," You make me all twitterpated? Well, I've been on a roll making non-traditional Valentine cards and I've turned this one into a Valentine too by adding that sentiment inside the card.



So there is my latest House Mouse card. More to come. Be sure to check back, and in the meantime, I hope you have someone in your life who makes you all twitterpated.

Bee my Honey

I wasn't kidding when I said earlier that I had a superbowl of House Mouse coloring going on last night! I have quite a number of images colored and just waiting to be made into cards.

BE MY HONEY was so much fun to make. I got to use my new Nestabilities for the tag. I just love how fast and precise the nestabilities are. Uh oh....I think I see the need for the ovals and squares in my future!

I don't know if you can tell from the photo but I've added gunmetal stickles glitter glue to the black on the bunny's bee costume. On the bee's wings I covered them with a fine layer of dimensional glaze so they look like translucent wings.

I've colored the image with prismacolor pencils.

Can you stand to see more this week? I'm on a roll and I know there will be more to come.

Thanks for stopping by.

Carrot Harvest

Did you watch the Superbowl last night? Are you happy with the outcome? I'm not a huge fan of professional footbal so I spent my evening with my prismacolor pencils and House Mouse stamps. I had what you might call a superbowl of House Mouse coloring session going on.

This is one of several new to me House Mouse stamps that I've recently acquired. Isn't it sweet? I love House Mouse stamps particularly for all of the detail that is going on in the designs. Do you see the little ladybug climbing the carrot greens? Even the carrot seed package is detailed with name brands of seeds and price.

It has been a while since I've colored with my prismacolor pencils and I had such a good time. I do not use a blending solution of any type. I just add layer upon layer of pencil color to blend.

Now, I wonder how many more days until I can plant some "Early Bird" carrot seeds in my garden?

In Memory of Lori Adelaars

Today I would like to pay tribute and loving memory to Lori Adelaars. Lori passed away two years ago today and left behind a husband, three children and hundreds upon hundreds of friends.

Many of you who read this will know Lori from the Papercrafts Magazine message board (PCMB) or saw her gallery posts at 2 Peas in a Bucket website.

Lori was fun!
Lori was kind!
Lori was creative!
Lori was an enthusiastic papercrafter!
Lori was an expert gardener!
Lori was a proud and loving wife and mother!
Lori was my friend!

Lori, we miss you and hold your memory in our hearts. You shared so much of yourself and thinking of you brings a smile because we had the pleasure of your kindness, and a tear because we miss you.

Opportunity to win a Mixed Media Book by Catherine Matthews-Scanlon

If you would like the opportunity to win a copy of Catherine Matthews-Scanlon's book ART FROM THE HEART then click HERE and go to her blog to sign up for the opportunity to win one of two copies being given.

Ruff day

A fellow Newfie owner took a big spill on an icy patch of pavement while walking his Newf, Snuffles. He ended up being taken by emergency vehicle to the hospital where he had surgery, but in true Newfie owner fashion even while lying on the frozen ground, Leonard pulled out his cell phone and called friends and family to find someone to come and get Mr. Snuffles...even before he called 911.

Here is my thinking of you and heal soon card for Leonard. The dog is one of the adorable stamps from Eat Cake Graphics. I stamped with black versafine on watercolor paper and watercolored the image with Tombow markers. It is hard for me to paint a black dog without making the whole image disappear into blackness.

I did add a bit of bling, even though this card is for a man. I used Gunmetal Stickles on various parts of the dog's coat to add sheen and a bit of fruit punch stickles to the tongue. On the eyes I put dabs of dimensional glaze.

Get well soon, Leonard.