Looking for Love

House Mouse and Friends is having a blog hop!  I love their blog hops--so many fantastic projects and so much inspiration.  I'm cutting it pretty close on this one though--it's over in just a few hours! The theme is "Love" with more than one heart. I wasn't going to play because I didn't have any Valentine themed House Mouse stamps.  But then inspiration hit and I decided to use this cute Gruffies stamp.  A few hearts scattered on the ground and a valentine for the chipmunk and--VOILA!

I'd also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Joanna Sheen Challenge--"Love is in the Air"

Simon Say Stamp--"Love is in the Air"

Sweet Sketch Wed--Sketch #140-47

Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

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!

Christmas Sparkle

The current challenge at House Mouse and Friends is Christmas Sparkle.  The DT cards are so fabulous that I found myself humming Christmas carols as I admired them.  :)   For my card, I used large chunky glitter on the snowflakes and a few of the holly leaves. Sadly, the glitter on my card isn't showing up well in the photo, so it looks like "Christmas lumpy" instead of "Christmas sparkle." LOL.   The green paper is from Stampin' Up and the red foil chipboard used to be packaging from Bath and Body Works.  It was too pretty to throw away, so I cut it up and have been using it to make Christmas cards.  The sentiment in the bottom right corner says "Be Merry."  I thought that was appropriate since this little mouse looks so happy! I think he's trying to catch one of those lumpy snowflakes on his tongue. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
House Mouse and Friends--"Christmas Sparkle"
Simon Says Stamp--"Anything Goes"  (Just doing my part to hit 1,000 entries)
Cute Card Thursday--"Animal Crackers"

Thanks for stopping by!  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

Hoppy Birthday!

This week House Mouse and Friends is celebrating their 3rd birthday! Hooray!  To celebrate, they are having a birthday blog hop featuring all of the members on their design team old and new.  Their creations are truly spectacular!  And the DT member are giving away loads of delicious candy!! If you haven't seen it you should check it out. House mouse stamps were some of my first rubber stamps when I started crafting a few years ago and they are still some of my favorite stamps, so I am happy to join in the celebration. I decided to use "Party Hoppers" for my card--after all, what's a birthday celebration without party hats? (when I first showed the stamp to my husband he said it should be called "Party Poopers" because the bunny on the left looks annoyed about being forced to wear a hat. I think my husband is bit of a party pooper--now I can't look at the stamp the same way! Oh well, there's one at every party, isn't there?)

The papers and ribbon are all from my stash.  I went with really bright colors--I may have over done it a bit, but birthdays are a time of indulgence, right?  I used stickles and dollar store glitter glue on the hats and the sentiment.  The picture doesn't quite capture how sparkly they are.

This one doesn't either.  But it does give you a little peek at the inside.  (And perhaps the rabbit on the left looks a little more cheerful from this angle?)

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
House Mouse and Friends--"Birthday Celebration"
Papertake Weekly--"Creature Comforts"
Truly Scrumptious--"Clean and Simple" (The colors are a bit bright, but the layout is simple and uncomplicated.)