House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge # 90 is Multi fold!!

Oh dear!!! - I completely forgot it was Mousie Monday this week and am only just uploading my card. I blame it on the fact that February has some days missing, it really needs a few more and I get confused - nothing new there then!!! This plus the fact my eyes have been bothering me again this weekend so I've hardly been near my computer and now I'm playing catch up again.

I've seen these fabulous envelope cards that my Lili of the Valley teamie the talented Lena Katrine has been making and thought I'd try one. I actually used my Envelobox as a template - but it did turn out rather larger than anticipated and photographing it was a nightmare!!!

I use the image ;Buzzy Friends'. coloured it with Copics, inked the edges with Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint distress inks and cut it out using the Spellbinders curved rectangles. The papers are SU, the butterflies and leaves cut with Crealies dies and the flowers and skeleton leaves with Marianne Creatable dies. The sentiment is TPC Studio and cut with a Go Kreate tag.

Here is a close up of my little Hoppies

This is the back of the card and I used a Nellie's Multi frame, a large brad and some silk cord to fasten the card.

Here is the front which has the Spellbinders curved rectangle as a place to write on a name.


This week we are being sponsored by my lovely mate Di of Di's Digi Downloads and the winner will receive 3 digi downloads of their choice 

Oooh I forgot the challenges I intended to enter this one into!! These are just two of the few I managed to put back after my page disappeared.

Crafty Emma's challenge who want to see flowers and flutterbys

Crazy4Challenges who also want flowers

Another Sneak Peek!!

I have another of the Lili of the Valley soon to be released sneak peeks for you today. This cute little 'heffilump' is called 'Blowing Bubbles' and a sheer delight to colour. 

I coloured this little cutie with Copic and then tore a post-it note to roughly cloud shaped and used Faded Jeans distress ink to sponge in a sky with clouds. The papers are Pink Petticoat and I used a Tim Holtz border die to cut the 'frame' - positive at the bottom, negative at the top. The red flower is cut with a Marianne creatable and the sentiment is Lili of the Valley also. Everything else is from my stash.

Visit my fellow DT's or the Inspiration blog for more Sneak peeks of the adorable images to be released 9th March.

Lili of the Valley Sneak Peek

Here is one of the new Lili of the Valley images which are due for release on the 9th March, which just happens to be my birthday, purely co-incidental I'm sure!!!

This one is called 'Toadstool for Two', isn't this SO cute ....... I love mushrooms and toadstools I think there is something 'magical about them so I couldn't resist colouring this one up first!!

The image is coloured with Copics and I used papers from Nitwits, The flower, leaves and borders are Crealie dies and the sentiment circle cut from a Nellie's multi frame die.

Here is a close up of the adorable image and there are plenty more I can't wait to 'play' with!!

Check out the Ideas to Inspire blog where the  other DT's  will be showing you Sneak Peeks.

Simon Says it's time for COFFEE & CREAM

EDITED
Simon Says Stamp Challenge DT Call 

Are you interested in joining THE BEST team in blogland ???? :-)


We are looking for ONE new designer to join us !!


If you are interested in being considered then please add DT after your name on your entry to this weeks challenge.

You would be required to make a card/creation for our weekly challenges and join in the commenting rota. In return you will receive regular sprees to the Simon Says Stamp Store where you can choose the items you need for upcoming challenges.

Good Luck to all !! :-)

luv

Lols and the DT x x x

We have a new DT joining us at the Simon Says Stamp challenge would like to welcome Dawny P aka Pink Piggy to the team !! Woo Hoo !! I am sure you all know Dawny and her fabulous cards are - great to have you join us Dawny !! 

ALSO we have Cathy aka Ellieskeepers Creations as a Designer in the Spotlight !! Cathy has agreed to join us for a month, I am sure you will all know Cathy's blog too - welcome Cathy!!!

Please pop over to their blogs to leave a comment :-)

Now for the challenge,the theme for the next week is ............

COFFEE AND CREAM

a nice easy one.... just make sure you add some brown and cream to your creation :-)

This week most of the DT have used Whiff Of Joy stamps, if you have them we would love to see you use them, but it isn't a requirement to join in :-)

!

I    used the beautiful Willow with Flower Basket as my image and she is coloured with my usual Copics.

The papers are Basic Grey Capella - definitely my favourite Basic Grey of all time, but as I am a Coffee & Cream girl that's no surprise. 

I I stitched the edged then followed round with Antique Bronze distress Stickles. I embellished with part of a  Prima pearl swirl and the larger flower is Prima the smaller flowers, leaves, lace and ribbon are from my stash.

As usual Heidi will be giving one lucky entrant a $50 voucher to her FANTASTIC Simon Says Stamp Superstore !! and with all the fab new goodies arriving daily HOT from the CHA there is masses to choose from !! See the NEWEST stuff on the All New Just In Page 

For fabulous tutorials and the chance to win some great blog candy you really need to keep a close eye on the Simon Says Stamp Blog also,  hint!! 





I shall be back before too long with a sneak peek!!

Teddy Bea wandered off AGAIN!!

I'm back - not that I've been anywhere other than suffering from a bad eye and the computer giving blinding headaches so I've been staying off it as much as possible, just managing to keep up with my DT commenting. That's why if you notice I've changed my blog background to off white - not so glaring!!!

Well it was not only Teddy Bea that went missing this time Teddy Bo absconded as well. They really can be extremely mischievous bears, this time they had all gone walk abouts and I eventually, after some considerable time, found them having a nosey around in my Make it Crafty images file. Well they are back where they belong now - I just hope they stay there!!!

I used Teddy Bea on her swing and coloured her with Copics -  I resisted the urge to give her a pink dress and went with green. The papers are all SU and the butterflies, leaves and base flower cut with Crealies dies. The small blue rose is WOC and the corners cut with the Cuttlebug Vintage corner dies.

I've followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday although I've turned it upside down and Totally Papercrafts want to see a digi image so I shall be entering Bea into these two challenges.

Basic Grey - A Sketch!!

It's time for a new challenge at  Basic Grey and this time we have our new DT member's joining us - and just pop along and see what amazing creations they have come up with.

This challenge we have a sketch for you by 'Yours Truly' I hope you like it but you can complain here if not!!!

I have eventually found a supply of Kraft cardstock at Bunny Zoe's so I felt I could use what little I had left in my stash. I stamped Belle sitting with Teddy onto the Kraft cs using Versafine ink, then coloured her using - well I hesitate to use Prismas as I have a hybrid collection of pencils, some of them being Derwent Coloursoft.

My papers are all Basic Grey from the Hopscotch, Kraft and Manila pads.

The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, the leaves cut with a Crealies die, I used seam binding for my bow - I love the way this give you a lovely soft 'floppy' bow and my sentiment is of unknown origin.

Here is the sketch I have created for you.

As always, our wonderful sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering one lucky winner a fab $25 gift voucher for a  shopping spree in the Simon Says Superstore

This is the start to School holidays in the UK so I hope you all have a brilliant time filled with lots of fun.

Lili of the Valley goes CAS!!

I've thought I'd finally managed to enter the Simply Less is More challenge run by my two lovely friends Chrissie and Mandi. This week's challenge is One Layer Only then (ooooooops) featuring flowers or trees - why didn't I notice this before - got my dozy head on again!!!

When I've attempted the CAS look before I have normally used scenic stamps or flowers and trees etc. so I thought I'd try something a little different (MISTAKE!!) and use this Lili of the Valley adorable image It's my Party with the Clean and Simple style.

I'm actually quite  pleased with the way it turned out and wasn't itching as usual to add any embellishments.

The image is stamped directly onto the card, as is the sentiment, in hindsight I would have like to print a different sentiment directly onto the card also.

I felt the image needed dramatic colours if it were to 'stand alone' so I

 coloured her with Copics, R00, R20, 22, 27 & 29 for the red elements and the C1 ,2, 4, 5 & 100 for the black.

I embossed around the image with Spellbinders labels and inked the edges with a combination of Weathered Wood and Black Soot distress inks.

I finished by glittering her tiara and present ribbons with silver Stickles.


Now the question is do I do another one or wait for the next challenge - WAIT I think - one CAS card a week is as much as I can manage - I'll shoot off and see if this one will fit any other challenges. And that's something else - my challenge page at the top of my blog completely disappeared - I've put it back but now need to relist all the challenges - eeeuuugggggh!!!


Ive found a challenge - Yippee - Creative Inspirations want a minimalistic look this week.
Found another - Papertake Weekly want us to put on the glitz - hope my glitzy tiara and ribbon count!!

Simon Says - Make your own embellishments!!!

It was great seeing all your inspirational creations  in our 'Anything but a card' challenge last week

This week at the Simon Says Stamp challenge we are asking you to 'Make your Own Embellishments' and I can't wait to see what you create for us this time!!

I love Stamps Happen stamps but haven't used them in a while, I got this image - Fairy with Balloon - a little while ago and decided it was time to ink it up -  although I was going to use the image Floating Softly but couldn't find it anywhere, I actually haven't seen it since I came to Germany. I did find one stamped image  but I don't think it's stamped on Copic paper so I'm colouring it very gently and very slowly.  
I coloured my image with Copics and inked the edge with Faded Jeans distress ink, the paper is Basic Grey's Marrakech which I thought suited the image well.  I used the Sizzix 3D flowers die to cut the flowers (I do love this die) and added some stamen thingies (don't know what else to call them)
 For the leaves I used a skeleton leaf, attached to white card with a Temporary Adhesive spray then sponged it with Mustard Seed distress ink leaving a leaf pattern on the white card, they are then cut using a Leaf Punch. The tag is chipboard and the sentiment is from the Hero Arts - Anytime messages, I attached the tag to the seam binding ribbon (randomly died with Mustard Seed distress ink ) with a 'chain' made from blue glass and tiny silver beads.

Here is a close up of the flowers and leaves.


I would also like to enter this into the Fab'n'Funky challenge which is also Make your own Embellishments.

As usual our lovely boss Heidi will be giving one lucky entrant a $50 spree to her Simon Says Stamp store. New goodies are arriving everyday in the store so there is no better time to take part and be in with a chance of winning our fantastic prize !!!

Truly Scrumptious want to see Pearls and Swirls

We have a new challenge for you at Truly Scrumptious this week and we would like to see both pearls and swirls on your creation.

Robyn's Fetish are the sponsors are the sponsors for this challenge and I was given the opportunity of choosing an image then I saw these beautiful papers and was generously alllowed have these rather than an image. They are such summery colours and designs. 

The image is Sarah Kay's Picnic of Daisies, coloured with Copics then cut with the Spellbinders curved rectangle die and the edges inked with Pumice Stone distress ink. I manage to use four of the lovely papers, the plain textured green and orange, the pretty white with leaves and flowers and the stunning orange with white flowers. I cut the border on the green with an old Friskars punch, sadly on it's 'last legs' and two corner are from Cuttlebug's Vintage Corners. I found some orange tulle in my stash which I used instead of ribbon, knotted it added a flower to the knot.

When I went to post my card on the challenge blog I realized the challenge was 'swirls and pearls' - ooooops!! - not a pearl nor swirl in sight. I didn't want to cover the papers with die cut swirls so I had a root around in my stash but could only find a white pearl swirl and it didn't look right so I gave it the Copic treatment and coloured it orange. I'm not one for bright colours but I love how this card came together but I'm still not sure about the pearl swirl.

The prize this week is - 

Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps And More is happy to offer the winner of this challenge 5 digital stamps or 4 digital stamps and 1 paper set of their choice.

It's Warm at Copic Creations!!

Well it's the 15th of the month so we have a new challenge for you today at Copic Creations  - somebody stole the first 1/2 of February and I expect I'll be complaining somebody stole the whole year in December!!!

If you recall our last challenge, you definitely will NOT be surprised to hear that our challenge today is WARM colors, as shown below.

My choice of images this time was Deacon with Heart - quite a funky little guy!! I used the Copic numbers YR00,02,04,07 (Heart)  V000,04,06,09 (Jeans) and Y0000, E31,33,34,74,79 (Hair and shoes)  I stamped little hearts around the image, the papers are from my 'bit box' and I made two little heart buttons using several layers of card, gluing them together, toping them with some designer paper and punching them with my cropodile. I would normally coat them with glossy accents but due to the fact that this 'idiot' here coloured the wrong image (well actually the right image but for the wrong challenge week) I ended up short of time and literally throwing this one together.

The borders are cut with a MS punch, the corners with an EK Success one, the sentiment is Lili of the Valley and the ribbon is from my stash.

Our awesome sponsor this week is Bugaboo Stamps ~ home to some absolutely adorable digital images.  

Our prize for one lucky winner will be  …..7 (Seven) Bugaboo Stamp images of your choice!

House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge - show us your favourite stamp!!

At House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge this week the lovely Lisa is host and would like you to use your favourite stamp and I can't wait to see which one you choose.

We've been overwhelmed at the response to our call for Guest Designer and have decided from next month on to have two GDT's each month so we're keeping an eye on your wonderful creations.

During the month of February the fabulously talented Anne Ray will be joining us as Guest Designer, pop along and see her gorgeous creations.

This is the stamp I chose as my favourite (I can't say I have favourites as I just love them all) I chose this one as I won it in Lols candy sometime in the summer last year and haven't had the opportunity to use it before and have been itching to ink and colour it. 

It is coloured with Copics and I decided to do an all white card to give the image impact. I've embossed the cs with a Tim Holts checkerboard folder, the leaves are cut with a Marianne creatable, the flowers and butterflies with Crealie dies and the sentiment with a Spellbinders Fancy tag. Most of the edges are distressed with the TH distressing tool and stickled using Stardust stickles and the sentiment is from TPC studio

A close up to show the stickles on the thistle head.

We are sponsored this week by the fabulous Simon Says Stamp

I hope the weather is better where you are - it is bitingly cold here and we have white scenery yet again!!

A Car not Card!!

Well I was super excited yesterday I got my new car and couldn't resist showing it to you!!

The light was going so I thought I'd leave photographing it until the morning -

morning came

and look

.

.

.

.

.

It bloomin' well snowed

How DARE it snow on my new car!!!!

It's a bit RED and I don't really suit red but I got such a great deal on it I couldn't possible turn it down. The upside is it fills the German requirements for their equivalent of the MOT and it has an electronic hard top which my old one didn't have.  In my old one if I had my top down on the motorway and it rained I couldn't stop and consequently got I soaked to the skin, but at least I gave people a good laugh.

Are any of you having problems commenting?  I'm constantly getting the message "Server cannot connect to................."  and have to make several attempt to get where I want to go and I just wondered if anyone else is having the same problem.  

Totally Papercrafts

Look everybody - 'I've done a 'Clean and Simple' card, not something you'll see on this blog very often.

Trouble is I'm still not happy with it - it looks naked to me and my itchy fingers desperately want to add something!! Perhaps if I'd used a smaller image and put the borders all round I would have been happier!!

The image is digi image called 'Noon' and from Crafts and Me and I've sat her one a swing from Make it Crafty. I merged the images in Gimp and printed it straight onto the card and coloured her with Polychromos (gosh I'm really out of practice with these!!) I embossed a frame around the image with Go Kreate dies and then inked the edges with distress inks. I cut two borders from Cuttlebug Floral border die, placed them on either side then added small blue pearls. I finished it by stamping the sentiment (from a Hero Arts set) directly on to the card.
It might be Clean and Simple but it certainly wasn't quick and easy - it took me ages to complete.

This is for the challenge at Totally Papercrafts who want Clean and Simple so I should say a big thank you to them for "really Challenging me!!"


Right I shall now get back to commenting if Mr. Google will let me - he's being somewhat truculent again - I keep getting the message 'Server cannot connect..........' he wouldn't even let me on my own blog at one point!!

Oh dear - I hung Teddy Bea!!!

I should have finished putting this card together and posted it this morning - why didn't I - because Teddy Bea went on a walkabout. I searched and searched for her,through the bin, in drawers, with papers, everywhere  - I turned the place upside down - she was nowhere. 

I got so frustrated I said to myself -"Heather, switch off, sit, have a coffee and read your book" I was reading my book and all of a sudden a light came on. I was trying some ribbon through the tag I printed Bea on and trying to be tidy I'd put the ribbon away - there was poor Bea - hanging by the ribbon!!! I really had to laugh - just wish I wasn't so dozy!!

So eventually I managed to put the card together. I followed the sketch at Friday Sketchers (eeeeek -  it's nearly Friday again!! And the new Teddy Bo challenge want to see pink.

Teddy Bea is coloured in Copics, the edges inked with vintage photo distress ink and cut out using a Go Kreate label die. The papers are Pink Petticoat, the corners cut with a Martha Steward double loop punch and the flourishes with a Marianne creatable. The flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts, and the sentiment Wild Rose studio. Right - that's it - short and sweet - now I'll rush off and link this before I miss Friday Sketchers altogether!!

Simon Says............Anything but a card!!!

Good Morning everyone, we hope you are all well and ready for our new challenge

at Simon Says Stamp.

We have a lucky to have new member joining our design team  this week -

Kathy Racoosin who is also a designer for Penny Black. You probably all know her but just in case you don't her blog is here........The Daily Marker..........pay her a visit and see her wonderful creations.

Wow - you certainly felt the 'Love in the Air' last week - we had an amazing amount of entries and it was fabulous to see your wonderful 'takes' on the love theme.

This week we would like to see ANYTHING BUT A CARD and the Design Team are featuring Tim Holtz so if you have any Tim Holtz products we would love to see them.

 

As I have a 21st birthday coming up I decided to make a wallet in which I could enclose money. I first cut my template in brown card. The flap of which I cut with a Tim Holtz On the Edge die.  I then cut the three pieces of white card (2 for the front, 1 for the back) and embossed them using the TH Checkerboard embossing folder. The next step was the fun one - using a Blending Tool with Tumbled Glass and Vintage Photo distress ink I inked up the three pieces - oh what a lovely mess I made. 

Using a Distress Ink Embossing pad, with  Clear embossing powder I then heat embossed the whole to give a shiny 'leather' look finish - you can see better this in the bottom picture. The next step was to stitch around the edges - in hindsight it would have been better to do the stitching before the embossing as my poor little machine groaned at the toughness of the card.

I added a flap to which I attached a jeans fastener, sadly my local shop only had the button part so I use velcro stickers to keep the flap closed.

I decorated it at this point with various items from Tim Holtz's Hardware collection and a Philosophy Tag. I felt something was missing so I attached an old acetate pocket watch which had been in my stash forever using Glossy Accents.

Now onto the inside, I made two pockets using the brown card in which to enclose money and lined the whole with Vintage Shabby Paper. Using

the Hanging Sign die to cut a flap through which I added a tag on which to write.

Here is a close up showing the sheen a little better. Sorry about the long post but this was a real fun project with many differnt procedures involved - the only non-fun part was photographing it!!

As usual our lovely boss Heidi will be giving one lucky entrant a $50 spree to her Simon Says Stamp store and with all the goodies arriving soon from the CHA there will be loads of brand new goodies to choose from too !!!