Ok...so I might be cheating... a little...

The current challenge at House Mouse and Friends is a color challenge: Orange, Yellow, Green, and Black with the optional theme of Halloween.  Sadly, I do not have any Halloween House Mouse Stamps, so I decided not to use the Halloween theme.  I also decided to cheat, but just a little.  I'm still using a House Mouse Image.  All four colors are in my card.  But I snuck in a tiny bit of pink and blue.  Oh, OK--a lot of blue. Hopefully I don't get in trouble.  :)

So how much do you love that DP?  It's from the Echo Park Country Drive collection--courtesy of the fabulous and talented Lorraine.  I won her candy during the House Mouse Birthday Bash.  I couldn't have been more excited about it, and she couldn't have been sweeter about it. There's glitter on the puddle and on all of the rain drops, but you'll have to take my word for it, since the camera never picks it up.  I paper pieced the umbrella. I love paper piecing, but sometimes it can look a little flat/one dimensional. SO here's a little TIP that helped me.  To make it pop add shadows AND highlights.  I use a white galaxy marker for the highlights, which is just right because it's still transparent allowing you to see the pattern underneath.  Also, be sure to color before cutting your pieces out, since it's much "fiddlier" once you've cut.  Learned that one the hard way.  LOL.

The Sketch is from Sketch N Stash--my new stash, of course, being the DP.

I'm also entering this card in Top Tip Tuesday. The theme this week is DP and handmade flowers.  I love reading all the tips from other bloggers and hope my paper piecing tip will help someone. 

Thanks for looking and reading my extra long post! Have a great day!

More House Mouse Fun!

House Mouse and Friends celebrated their third blogoversary last week and great fun was had by all! There was a fantastic blog hop and lots of yummy prizes.  Just when I had recovered from the excitement, I discovered that I was the winner of the fantastic Lorraine's candy!  YAY!  I think that deserves another celebration card, don't you?

I feel like this cute bunny--carried away in the excitement of it all (though it would take more than 4 balloons to carry me--LOL).  The stamp is called Balloon Journey.  The cloud paper is from Stampin' Up and the cardstock and ribbon are from my stash.  I thought it would be cute to add real strings for the balloons.  You can see it better from the side. 

Thanks for looking!  I'll be back later with my card for the current House Mouse Challenge, "Christmas Sparkle."

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Paper Sundaes--Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp--Anything Goes
Celebrate the Occasion--Any Occasion Must Use Ribbon