House Mouse Challenge and CANDY!!

Hey there, House Mouse fans!! I just love house mouse, but if you come here often, you probably already know that. This is the first time that I participated in a House Mouse Challenge and the first time I tried a business-sized card though, and they are so much fun. There is more space to work, and that was what I needed with this card. I wanted the HM image (stamp is Candlelight vigil and SOTM for Dec 2008), and I also wanted a church stamp or something to relate to the real meaning of Christmas somewhere on the card. I had been working on this all week when it finally came to me one night when I went to bed (does that happen to you too?). The church stamp is from Stampin Up's Silent Night set (long retired but much loved). The House Mouse image was stamped, colored with prismacolor pencils, blended with gamsol, and then clear embossed to add the glow from the candle and the darkness of the night behind them. The blue is a little bit darker in natural lighting than it looks here in the photo. The circles were inspired from a card I saw in the gallery by Knightrone (thanks, Jessica), and the paper on them is patterned with snowflakes and words of the season (peace, love, joy, etc). I added stickles to the church stamp and silver and navy organdy ribbon. The pretty little silver snowblakes were beads/charms from Wal-Mart. Lastly, here is a close-up to show you some of the dimension.

Card Details:
DP: DCWV christmas papers, Glacier (Figgy Pudding collection) from Basic Grey
Ink: chocolate chip, night of navy, barely banana, pumpkin pie, Archival black
Accessories: clear EP, prismacolor pencils, designer label and circle punches, scalloped circle nesties, silver and navy organdy ribbon and snowflake charms.

CARD CANDY -- my good friend, Chris, is having a blogaversary soon!!! Check out her blog for some adorable cards (lots of Magnolias there, ladies), and enter to win the blog candy or tell her Kelly sent ya, so she might add my name again!!! :D LOL

Zindorf-inspired cards

I was busy this past weekend but still didn't get enough finished . . . does everyone have weekends like that (especially this time of year)?

I was next door at my neighbors for a fun workshop this past weekend during which we tried out the Zindorf technique. I just love Michelle Zindorf's cards, and if you haven't seen her blog, you are truly missing out. This beautiful swan is from FireCrackerDesigns by Pamela

We used not quite navy, blue bayou and sky blue for the background colors. I think maybe I should have blended mine a bit more, but I still love the look! :)

This inspired me to create a sponged image with my HM stamp of the month for December. This is just a sneak peek in case one of my girls from our swap group sees it here on the blog before her card is finished. There is a bit of a learning curve, as you can see a bit of the blue still seeped under his nose (the key must be to use LOTS of EP).

Also, last but not least this one has stumped me all week. I really wanted to create a burgundy ball of yarn but mine kept coming out lighter than I wanted. In this photo (not the one I am sending out btw), I used tan flocking on top of the pink -- not really the color result I was going for either *roll eyes* but it does feel nice and fluffy. I do like the design though, and I hope the girls in group 1 do as well, unfortunately their's will not have the flocking though.

All of the images above were colored with prismacolor pencils and OMS, then the swan and HM candle image were both clear embossed so the background could be sponged/brayered. the rest is just basic layering. Any questions, don't be afraid to ask. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stampin N Scrappin **!!

**November's special is 25% of at KLstampinNscrappin.com with the coupon code NOV2008. Most of the orders are in the mail (still awaiting a few Labels One and Labels Two dies). Sorry for the delay.

A WishRAK challenge weekend on SCS

Hey there! Hope you had a terrific weekend. I had quite a bit of fun creating some cards Friday night, one Saturday, and only one Sunday, but . . . I worked too. *sigh* So although the money is nice, I didn't get all of the challenges finished this weekend, but here are some I wanted to show you. You were to use images, paper, ribbon or brads that you received from the WishRAK group.

The first one was created for the coffee, tea, or favorite hot drink category. I just love flavored creamers in my coffee or lattes, so I thought this worked pretty well. I also tried a techniques challenge of using a pretty napkin (supposed to be ironed on piece of waxed freezer paper, but I didn't have any and wax paper itself didn't work -- so I just modge podged mine fast to a piece of white cs then cut carefully).

The next one was to CASE the featured stamper. Well . . . the featured stamper is my good friend, Jessica (Jlazarski), so I had trouble choosing my FAVE from her gallery. Then after I did choose one I duplicated it twice as you can see in the butterfly card and house mouse card shown here. The colors are rose red on one and purely pomegranate on the other, then groovy guava, and river rock.

The next one was for the "Latest dirt challenge," and we could take it literally and create a type of dirt image card or my take was "dishin' the dirt" with a friend at the coffee shop. I have quite a few of these bella images from last year that I still haven't used up.

This next one, I believe, is a Karen Lockhart stamp, and the challenge was to make is sparkly (lots of bling), so I thought of frosty snowmen glistening in the sun. This is being sent out tomorrow to one of my lucky SBS sisters. I sure hope she likes it. The bg is white glossy cs stamped with the snowflake and swirls bg stamp, then white embossed, and then sponged with different blue inks. This was layered on white and ballet blue, then not quite navy. The snowman was colored with my Bic Mark-Its then glittered up with Stardust stickles, as was the tag after it was stamped with Let it Snow (great impressions stamp) in Not Quite Navy and sponged with the ballet blue

The last two are one of my favorite stamp collections from Stampabilities (House Mouse). The pumpkin pie one is layered on chocolate chip and black pieces of scrap with an old sheet of SU pumpkin dp in the background. Details from the last card are mentioned above with the butterfly one. Hope you enjoyed all the pictures! :)

Happy Stampin N Scrappin!!

Hey, stampin' sisters!!!

I finally got a chance to stamp again, and I just had to use my Paper Pretties SOTM (Angel Wings). Isn't she beautiful?! I also think this is the first time I have actually uploaded a sketch challenge on the day it was posted. LOL The sketch is SC201, and the color challenge CC191. I wouldn't usually put pink with red and green, but this doesn't look too bad. The colors were ruby red, old olive and pretty in pink (unless you have the new in colors -- I didn't -- then you were to use Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss).

I started out with the above CS choices, pulled out my BG Sugared dp, and there was the pretties pink and green paper in there. This paper reminded me of the snow dots embossing folder, as there were circles and squares all neatly placed beside one another like a quilt. So . . . had to grab that folder, too. The ruby red was run through my Sizzix with the snow dots folder, then old olive was placed as the second layer at the bottom, and pretty in pink with the dp layered on it. the image was then stamped, colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsoled. I had to add some sparkle to BLING IT UP like my AWESOME friend, Lee would!!!! *wink* and then added the sentiment and some more punched out snowflakes. The sparkly stuff is both Stickles and puffy white paint that had glitter in it. Hope to be back soon with some more great cards/ideas. Stay tuned! :)

Happy Stampin N Scrappin Ladies!!

Btw, I got a few more nestabilities in today!! If you aren't waiting on the Labels One and Two sets, I may be sending you an email about your order being sent. *fingers crossed they are here SOON!*