CraftMad card swap

Most months I participate in a swap on CraftMad - of late it has mostly been sewing the blocks for the CraftMad Family quilt, but last month I signed up for the card swap - mostly because the theme - black & white with a splash of another colour.

Easy ............ or so I thought!  What with one thing or another, I simply lost track of the month and it was the end of the month before I knew it.

I had received some GORGEOUS cards from my partner, Kaye  

Please visit her blog and see her wonderful creations ;-)    

Kaye and her hubby, Ron, make the most BEAUTIFUL Miniatures together ;-)

Photos stolen borrowed from Kaye's Blog

Sooooo, in an effort get my cards out to Kaye, I raided my stash for suitable cards.

I love working with black & white, so the first card I picked was this one - the other colour being BLUE

one of my fave House Mouse images hand coloured, layered with blue cardstock on white card with a black & white ribbon

Here is a black & white card with silver as the main highlight - balloon images heat embossed in silver and silver stickers used on die cut

my fave colour combination - black, white and red.  

Inkadinkado cupcake image hand coloured and highlighted with Kindy Glitz, bling added to paper flowers and black and white scrapbook papers used.  Red cardstock embossed with swiss dots embossing folder in the Cuttlebug to match the black and white polkadot scrapbook papers

Flashback Friday 13.0 - shaped card

Over on Flashback Friday they are asking you to re-post your first shaped card.

Well, back in March 2009, I posted this

This card was for the  House Mouse Challenge and we had to make a card that was not square.

I had just got some Spellbinder Nesties and had a play.  I am not sure I would mix ovals and circles together again, but I still like it.

Original post is HERE

House Mouse #47 White on White

Over on HouseMouse the current challenge is white on white.

I quote from the blog - "White on White! I know this sounds somewhat misleading; but trust me, it is super-super easy! Actually, it is a total flip from last week's challenge. Last week, you were asked to create a card/project in which you could not color your adorable images...this week, you are to color your images, but everything else MUST be white...white papers, white embellies, white everything EXCEPT for your House Mouse, Happy Hoppers or Gruffies image. Sounds easy, right? Now, it is time for you to create your House Mouseterpiece And don't forget, HAVE FUN!!!"

This idea really appealed to me, so I went off to have a play. Let me say, it was a bit more difficult than I first thought!

So I settled on using three different textures of white cardstock - textured, wove and smooth. House Mouse make a wish was stamped on the smooth cardstock and coloured in with watercolours and ofcourse the obligatory kindy glitz ;-). Cuttlebug was used to cut out deckled rectangles. Rectangles were then heat embossed with silver (hope that doesn't count as a colour :-( ) and mounted in two layers using 3D foam tape. White organza ribbon with sparkles was laid across the middle and affixed using vellum tape. Happy Birthday sentiment is a rub-on.

I really like the clean simple lines of this card. Thanks House Mouse Challenge Blog - another great challenge that got the creative juices going!

Stamptacular Sunday Sketch #15

Over on StamptacularSundayChallenge another sketch appealed to me.

White square cardbase was used, black & white ribbon placed across middle. House Mouse image watercoloured and rub-on sentiment layered on Bazzil bling. left over bits of stickers used to highlight corners.

Cupcake highlighted with kindy glitz.

Stamp Something Pink

I am so enjoying my discoveries in 'blog land'. I have come across another blog Stamp_Something .

I think I will be visiting this blog a lot!

So here is the card I am submitting for this challenge.

House Mouse image watercoloured using three different pinks and highlighted with kindy glitz. Image layered on bright pink card and highlighted with corner stickers. Rub-on birthday sentiment added. I am just getting the hang of this watercolouring - I think I got this one a bit too wet, as the card buckled a bit. ;-(

I love the way the kindy glitz takes on the colour of the area it is placed on.

House Mouse Challenge #33 - multiples & TECC61

The challenge this week over on House_Mouse is to make a card using multiples.

I have picked my favourite stamp for this one. Although, with only 2 house mouse stamps, I could just as easily say the other stamp is my favourite as well!

I stamped the image twice, coloured it in twice and then separately layered the candle, little mouse and the icing & mouse on top of the base image. Image was highlighted with kindy glitz and chalks. Image was then mounted on dark purple cadstock, handmade paper and bazzil were layered over soft purple background paper. Paper flowers highlighted with bling. Layout for this was from Taylored Expressions Card Challenge TECC61

House Mouse Challenge 32 - sweet

this week's house_mouse_challenge is for something sweet - how nice is that!

This was a fun one for me - I ended up doing a card that was simple and not too fussy.

White textured card was run through Cuttlebug using Swiss Dots folder. Black & white ribbon was attached across the middle with three brads each side. Oval shapes made using Cuttlebug and nesties. House Mouse image was coloured in with water-colours and highlighted with Kindyglitz/Stickles. Image was highlighted with gold border sticker, sentiment 'make a wish' from Hanna Stamps.

House Mouse Challenge 30

Here is my card for the House Mouse Challenge. This week we had to make a card that was not a square. Let me say, I have enjoyed this challenge. I wasn't too sure about mixing ovals with circles, but I think I like the way it has turned out.

I used a circle shaped card, with a small section levelled off on the bottom so that it would stand up. I have covered the card with patterned paper and used cuttlebug with oval nesties to cut out ovals on white & purple cardstock. Image was stamped on white cardstock & coloured in with watercolours and highlighted with kindy glitz. Paper flowers were attached and highlighted with bling & kindy glitz, sentiment has been attached with mounting tape. Outer edge of card has been highlighted with silver border stickers.

House Mouse Challenge #28 - men

The House Mouse & Friends challenge blog hold a weekly challenge here

Challenge #28 is for men - we are required to make anything for a male, not the young kind cause that would be too easy but for the grown up kind most of us struggle to make cards (or anything else) for.

I always find men's cards a challenge, so I decided to take part in this one. My challenge level was increased, as I only have two House Mouse stamps - but I think I am happy with the way the card turned out. I would be happy to give it to one or two of my male friends.

Bottom half of card layered with striped paper, embellished with brown ribbon. Pumpkin coloured cardstock was put through cuttlebug using tiny bubbles embossing folder. I coloured in stamped image with water colours - leaving it very simple - and highlighted the cake with stickles/kindy glitz. I then layered the image on black/brown cardstock, made sentiment tag using Make a Wish stamp and corner punches.

I am enjoying taking part in these challenges - I have so much to learn!

TECC#25

This is a card I made inspired by Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #25.

I just love this House Mouse stamp! The cardstock used was SU, the polka dot paper was just a piece in my scrap stash!

I was quite pleased how this card turned out.

I did not actually submit this card as I came across the challenge quite some time it was issued.