House Mouse Challenge #28: MEN

As usual...I enjoy all of the challenges...even the card for the men. I almost always make my husband a handmade card for Christmas, Valentine's Day, and His Birthday. He doesn't go nuts over it but I think he really likes them. The bigger challenge was making a masculine card but keep the holiday theme out. Father's day is easy......I chose a card to share with a Friend. The House Mouse Stamp is a new one for me "Autumn Sprinkles". I think anyone who struggles to "nicely" stamp the large stamp images like House Mouse or other's - getting in a weekly challenge definitely improves your skills and you get to read everybodies tips on inks and papers. I nailed this one in one try. I stamped the image on Neenah Cardstock and Memento Dew Drops in Rich Cocoa. I colored the image with Copics in a spring theme vs. fall theme. The cardstock is SU! Naturals White, Baja Breeze, and Basic Grey. The Designer Series paper is SU! but I can't seem to find it in the catalog - may have been in the winter mini. The brads and h/w are SU!. The ribbon is MJ Trimmings - one of my favorites....jeez I need another trip to the Ink Pad, MJ Trimmings, and Dick Blick Art in NYC. The sentiment is an SU! Hostess Set "A is for Adorable".

House Mouse Challenge #27: Chipboard

I'm late and was watching Stickles and Crystal Effects dry last night.... :-(. I was afraid to take pictures for fear of messing up or drips. New HM stamp for me and I LOVE IT. "Birthday Cupcake"!! I stamped the image with Memento Dew Drops. Colored with Copics. Finished with crystal effects on the candles and Diamond Stickles on the frosting. My chipboard - fun buttons from Michaels that I had purchased for the Feb VSN but never used. The sentiment is from the SU! set Upsy Daisy. All cardstock is SU! Kiwi Kiss, Naturals White, Designer Series Urban Garden and the purple is textured Soft Subtles but I'm not sure which one. Finally, the ticket corner punch and the silver twine are from SU! I keep trying to make different color brown mice but in the end they always look the same. I really need to beef up my color collection.

My Copics:

Cupcake: YG01, R20, E21, E43, E53

Mouse #1: E00, YR24, E43, E33, E53, R20

Mouse #2: E00, YR24, E43, E53, R20, E21

3 Clovers Design Challenge #3: Green and Pretty

Hmmmm.....not a lot of green choices in my craft pile. Definitely no stamps in the spirit of St. Patty's Day. But here's my card. All cardstock is Stampin' Up Naturals White, Kiwi Kiss (LOVE IT!!), and Designer Series Urban Garden. My 3 embellishments are Medium Sized Eyelets from Micheals, Corduroy Green Velvet Ribbon from MJ Trimmings, and Aged Copper Hodgepodge H/W from Stampin' Up. The stamp set is also one of my favorites - Pocket Silhouettes. The inks are all Stampin' Up - River Rock, Mellow Moss, True Thyme, and Kiwi Kiss.

Three Clovers Design Challenge #2: B+B+B

Blue, Brown, and Buttons!! I was inspired reading the Three Clovers Blog and looking at the Inspiration Team cards and LOVED the Linus Card. Peanuts are one of my favorites. Just yesterday I was thinking about how soon I could put away my 4 Runner for the winter and pull out my Beetle Convertible. Mine is light blue with a grey convertible top. My "girl" car!! Here is my entry with one of my Stampabilities Peanuts stamps. Two lessons on this card :-( I used SU! Wisper White to stamp the image and wasn't too happy with Copics on Whisper White and I use glue on my letters which was a bad choice on my grosgrain ribbon since it is showing spots. I have tried a XYRON with my Cuttlebug Letters and I wasn't crazy about it - but probably would have been a better choice for this card. My cardstock and designer paper is from Stampin' Up. The image was stamped with Memento Dew Drops Tuxedo Black and colored with Copic Markers. The grosgrain rickrack ribbon is from New England Scrapbook Company. The letters are Cuttlebug Hippie Chick. The buttons are Michaels.

House Mouse Challeng #26: Mother's Day

OK!! I seem to be locked into Pink/Brown/Green. I love the colors and I'm completely hooked on them right now :-). I'm running out so I will have to move on soon. Mother's Day Card. A "first" in this card - I had some chipboard elements from Stampin' Up that were about 2 years old - not one piece has seen the light of day until this card. I colored the chipboard with my copics - very easy. So maybe more chipboard will make it in my world. My House Mouse image was Lip Smackin' Relaxin'. One of my latest stamp purchases that I have fell in love with. I would love some great ideas for the marshmellows - I used crystal effects which highlights them nicely but that doesn't turn them white. I used copics to color the image that I stamped with Memento Dew Drops in Rich Cocoa. My cardstock is a mix of Textured Stampin' Up, Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper Raspberry Tart, and the Paper Source Chocolate Brown. The ribbon and fibers are from Michaels. The rub-ons and brads are Stampin' Up. The flowers are Prima. The bling are ZOOMZ that I purchased online from Stamp Galaxy in the UK. The letters are CuttleBug Hippie Chick!!

Mouse Copics: E21, E33, E00, E43, E53, E21, R20

Coffee Mug Copics: YG01, RV02

VSN Day #2 February 21st with SplitCoast Stampers

My second day on the VSN with Darci. We had a great day and enterred 4 more challenges. I found it to be very challenging to view the challenge and the trick for me was to VERY QUICKLY decide on my paper(s) and stamps. Put the basics of the card together as fast as I could to allow as much time in the 45 minutes to add bling. Lots of fun. I will definitely do it again. My only advice to others....if you have large stores of bling, ribbon, paper and other embellishments - I would not go too crazy with the shopping list. Some of the challenges will require you to have followed the shopping list but many work out just fine with stuff that you have piled in your craft room. Also...there are so many challenges in a VSN, if you miss one due to supplies you will still have more than enough challenges to participate in. All of these cards are shown in my gallery on Splitcoast under labs3vt. All the card details are included in the gallery entries.


FEB09VSNM - Celebrity Crush: Make a Card that represents your celebrity crush. I had to go with it - with the stamps that I had packed up and brought to Darci's house. Not the most creative card for a Celebrity but I am a big fan of Charles Schulz and the Peanuts.



FEB09VSNL - Wee Bit 'O Love: Make a Card with Inchies. Pieces of paper 1"x1".



FEB09VSNK - Long Lost Love: Make a Card with an old favorite stamp or something you have hoarded and not used in a long time. My Long Lost Love was my Hodgepodge Hardware.



FEB09VSNJ - See Thru: Make a Card that is see thru or with see thru materials.

SplitCoast Stampers VSN Friday Feb 20, 2009

First try at VSN last night. I liked it. It was fun to wait for the challenges to pop up. I was happy with my first two cards - but my 3rd card - I was not so happy with due to the time constraint. I will be back at it today. In honor of the House Mouse Challenge - my first card was with a HM stamp :-).

The 7pm Challenge: "USE ONLY NEW"

The 8PM Challenge: "Monochromatic"

The 9PM Challenge: "Split Negative"