Friday 30 January 2015

Cards for Men

For some reason I get crafters block when it comes to cards for men and I know I am not alone. I am not sure why, perhaps lack of practice. So when the House Mouse & Friends challenge HMFMC#186 was to 'Make it Masculine' I decided to give it a go and see what happened.

Here is my attempt.The backing card is Tim Holtz Kraft-Core. I used a buttons embossing folder and then sanded the card to get to the core card underneath. The banner was cut out using the Cameo and also sanded. I used an orange/brown card for backing everything and matched that with the striped piece of paper.

The little mouse and strawberry were coloured using Promarkers (please forgive me but I cannot find the colour list I used at the moment). Here is a close up:


Apart from a few gold beads and the sentiment I have left this card as it is so the focus is more on the mouse (I hope that's the case anyway).

Well, last weekend we didn't manage to get out so no beautiful photo's. It did snow again yesterday but it melted pretty quickly. I did manage to do a Scrapbook page which I will show at a later date, so feeling pretty pleased with myself so far because I have never done one before.

Hope you all have a great weekend x


Friday 23 January 2015

Whee Flight

We had snow again this week but it seems to be melting away now. Hoping to go for a walk around a local reservoir near the Peak District this weekend so that I can get some photo's of the snowy landscape before its all gone.

This little mouse stamp was a Christmas present I received and I love it. I am taking part in a challenge on Docrafts (snoflokes challenge) to make one Christmas card a week and this is my first attempt.


I mounted Christmas papers onto maroon card and added Candi and a crafworks Poinsettia flower to it. I didn't want to add too much to it as I didn't want to take the focus away from the image.

The mouse I coloured with Promarkers - Cocoa and Caramel for the fur and soft peach and Tan for the face, ears, paws and tail (I also used these colours on his tummy). The hat was a mixture of reds and burgundy's (sorry but I lost track of the actual colours used here). I used Cool Grey 3 on the furry parts of the hat just to give it some definition.

Here is a close up:


Since taking these pictures I have added fine glitter to the hat and bobble.

Well, I hope you like my first Christmas card of the year and thank you for popping by x


Friday 16 January 2015

This cheeky little mouse is all warm and cosy

It is so cold out at the moment that I could not resist this cheeky little mouse looking really warm and snuggled up in this mug. I bought quite a lot of House Mouse stamps last year but didn't do much crafting. Just after Christmas, while browsing the web I came across the House Mouse Challenge Blog and decided to have a go at their next challenge.

So here is my entry to HMFMC185 - Sketch or anything goes challenge. I decided to go with the sketch:


All the papers are from my stash, some of the edges have been inked and I mounted each piece onto dark brown paper. I stamped the swirl in the top right corner and added Perfect Pearls to it and along one of the edges.

The little mouse and mug was coloured with Promarkers. I used Cool Grey 3 and 4 for the fur and Soft Peach and Tan for the face. I touched the nose up with more Soft Peach just to show how cold it really is.

For the mug I used a combination of Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Caramel. Once everything was coloured in I cut the image out, rounded it slightly and used sticky foam pads to give a 3D effect. I then used a clear gloss to give the mug a shine. Cool Grey 3 was used underneath to give a shadow effect. Three pieces of Candi and a stamped sentiment (from one of the House Mouse stamp sets) finished the card off.

Here is a close up of the little mouse:


I have loved taking part in this challenge and its the first time I have followed a sketch but I have enjoyed it.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and stay as warm as this little mouse x

Friday 9 January 2015

Glass Etching

Last week I mentioned I would show pictures of some glasses I had etched for a friend as part of their Christmas presents.

The initial was downloaded from the SIL store and I added in each name to the centre. These were all printed on vinyl and applied to the glass. This was the difficult bit because the glass was a small shape towards the top and bottom so the vinyl didn't stick properly all over. I had to spend time carefully folding over the vinyl in area's away from the etching area.

Once this was done the etching cream was added and after 15 minutes I had these:


I have really enjoyed doing these so there will be a few more projects in the pipeline. I have an old mirror which was going to be thrown out but now I think I will re-do the frame and add some kind of vine design to the glass.

So, on to my crafting resolutions.

Project 52 (make one card a week) - I am pleased to say that I have completed one card and nearly finished a second so well on track with this one. Will be posting pictures soon.

Well, if you got this far thank you so much for visiting and hope you all have a good weekend x

Friday 2 January 2015

Happy New Year - 2015

Happy New Year to everyone, wishing you all health and happiness x

I decided to make a couple of crafting New Years resolution and thought if I blogged about them it would serve as a reminder to me. These will all start from Monday 5th Jan 15.

1 - Project 12 - I take a lot of photo's but very rarely do anything with them, they don't even get printed out. For this project I am going to try and do a Scrapbook page for one photo taken each month of the year.

2 - Project 52 - Make one card a week (as a minimum).

3 - Design one new cutting file a month for the Cameo and share it with everyone.

4 - Blog on a more regular basis.

Has anyone else made any crafting resolutions?

I stopped blogging for a while last year as we lost another one of our cat fur babies. Bobo was put to sleep on the 28th November which was 12 weeks after his sister. They had been so close in life and he wasn't coping too well without her but it was a tumour in his stomach that resulted in us making the decision. This time we were both there to say goodbye and while it wasn't easy I am so glad we were there for him.

Here is my little guy


On a crafting note - In December I tried my hand at glass etching. I cut the templates out of vinyl on the Cameo and used 'etchall' cream. It was so easy to do and I loved the results. I practised first on a cheap glass biscuit jar (£1 from Morrisons).

The etching on one side is a Kingfisher:



And on the other side is a Fairy with butterflies:


I have also done a few designs on glasses which I gave to a friend for Christmas and I will show them at a later date.

Well, hope you all have a fantastic weekend and thank you for visiting x