House Mouse Sleepy Stocking: some treats for a birdie friend

Hello and thanks for stopping by :-)

I made another Christmas card using one of the images from my House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' set.  LOTS of colouring on this mage which I love - it did take a while though.  It was coloured with Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils and OMS, and I added some Polar White FlowerSoft using Aleen's tacky glue to the cuff on the stocking.  Because there was so much going on in the image, I kept the rest of the card pretty low key so it didn't make the card look 'too busy' - plus I wanted the image to take centre stage.  Here is a little close-up of the FlowerSoft:

I haven't a clue who made the designer paper - it has been in my stash for years and there is no name on it.   If you do know, please drop me an email or a comment so I can edit my post.  In any case, I would imagine that it is long retired.

The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements, and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.  Isn't the ribbon GORGEOUS?!  I picked it up at Coles Supermarket on Friday in amongst all their Christmas stuff.  I am a ribbon-aholic, so for me, it was like finding buried treasure!  They had some other beautiful rolls of ribbon too which somehow danced their way into my shopping basket.  I only went in to get milk, and came out with ribbon and NO milk - whoops.......!  Anyway, it was nice to have something good happen - I hadn't been having a good week and wasn't feeling well either + my mojo all but disappeared - and just before I went into Coles, I had been in Target doing some Christmas shopping and knocked over a snowglobe onto the floor which smashed into a zillion pieces.  And it sounded so LOUD - like I had dropped a truckload of them!   I never knew a snow globe had so much water in it - it looked like I had tipped a bucket of water onto the floor!  I called a staff member over to the mess - she was lovely and didn't make me feel bad - but I felt so stupid and embarrassed nonetheless.  I moved a large piece of glass that had scattered quite a way so no-one would walk on it and promptly cut my finger open.  Sheesh....... so finding the nice ribbon at Coles cheered me up!

I tied some gold cord through the sentiment tag hole then tied this around the red ribbon, and glued the bow on top of that.  Lastly, I added the 3 red pearls.

Challenges:

I am popping this card into two Challenges.  The first is the House Mouse and Friends Challenge #82 which is "You gotta have friends" - of course, the little mouse is sharing the stocking filled with food with his birdie-friend.  

The second Challenge is the Crazy 4 Challenges C4C63 Challenge of "A Christmas card or item".  Nice and easy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' JSHM006

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Designer paper:  K & Company Holly Vine embossed paper

Accessories:  FlowerSoft Polar White, Aleen's Tacky glue, Ribbon - Coles Supermarket, gold cord, Bow Easy, Fray Stop, Kaiser Pearls SB795 red, Cuttlebug, Spellbinder: Rectangle, Scalloped Rectangles, Circle, Petite Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, Cardstock:  Christmas red, Evergreen, KW Doggett "Knight" white, Odourless Mineral Spirits (OMS), Prismacolor pencils, Derwent Coloursoft pencils, paper stumps

Punches:  Carl CP-1 3/16" circle punch (for punching hole on tag)

House Mouse Sleepy Stocking: Clean and Simple Christmas Hat

Hi and welcome to my Blog :-)

I made a clean, quick and simple card using just the hat and one of the sentiments from my House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' set:

I coloured the hat with Prismacolor and Derwent Coloursoft pencils plus OMS, then added some Polar White FlowerSoft - I LOVE the texture that the FlowerSoft adds - it is such cool stuff!!

The main image panel is up on 1mm mounts (dimensionals).  The ribbon is a much brighter green IRL - more like Irish Green - but being sparkly, it was rather difficult to photograph.  The green and red cardstock underneath the main image panel is also a bit brighter IRL.

The embossing on the white cardstock is a Cuttlebug Embossing folder called:  Season's Greetings  although my cardstock was smaller than the folder, so some of the writing isn't on my cardstock.

Lastly, I added a green pearl either side of the sentiment, and a red pearl to the diecut snowflake on the ribbon.

Although I have already made a card for the SCS Inspiration Challenge IC253 - see this link for the deets - I was so inspired by the John Lewis Department Store, that I made another card.  This card was inspired by a red and white Christmas ornament.  I really liked the red & white combo and the red border, which made me think of my new Eyelet Nesties and how I could layer some red cardstock underneath to make a border.  I did end up adding the green cardstock layer and the green ribbon - the card ended up needing a little "pizazz".  I would love to get the round Eyelet Nesties one day - I think I would use them alot - in fact, I would love to see similar Nesties but with snowflakes or stars instead of the circles.  Oh well, it's nice to dream.......

Thanks again for stopping by - hope to see you again soon!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  House Mouse Sleepy Stocking JSHM006 unmounted rubber set

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Snowflake #2 die, Season's Greetings embossing folder, Spellbinder Eyelet Nestabilities, sparkly green ribbon, Bow Easy, FlowerSoft Polar White, Aleen's tacky glue (for FlowerSoft), 1mm mounts, Prismacolor pencils, Derwent Coloursoft pencils, OMS, paper stumps, Kaiser pearls:  red and green, Cardstock:  red, green, KW Doggett "Knight" white

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse: House Mouse Sleepy Stocking

Hi and welcome to my Blog :-)  

I was going to upload this card yesterday, but the weather turned all dark, windy and stormy so I couldn't take a photo until today:

I decided to start a Christmas tradition a few years ago that I would read the poem by Clement C Moore - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas - to my DD just before bedtime on Christmas Eve in the loungeroom where we have our (real!) Christmas Tree with just the Christmas tree lights on.   Ahh, it makes me feel so happy just thinking about it!!   The first part of the poem reads (which probably most people would know):

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

So when another Design Team Pack arrived in the mail this week from Fat Cat's Card Corner - including one of the cutest Christmas stamp sets - this House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' set - I immediately thought of this poem.   Isn't this set just adorable?!!  It comes as unmounted rubber which you simply attach to EZ Mounting Foam then cut out.  These stamps are very finely detailed and stamp beautifully, plus they come with a colour picture which is helpful for colouring.  

I coloured the image with OMS and Prismacolor pencils as well as Derwent Coloursoft Pencils.  Upon the advice from an on-line buddy that these Derwents blend with OMS like Prismas, I bought myself a set - and they blend beautifully.  They don't feel as 'waxy' as Prismas when you are colouring, but they blend just as well as Prismas with the OMS, and it has been nice to fill in some of the gaps in my colour range of Prismas.  Plus I have a few Prisma pencils that don't blend very well at all - don't know why - but I'm a happy camper now.  Anyway, enough waffle, and onto the card.........

I added some yellow chalk around the image to simulate the 'glow' from the Christmas light, then lightly shaded around the image.  I also added some Crystal Lacquer (same stuff as Dimensional Magic) to the light to make it shine - see this closeup.  Doesn't it look cool?!!

The holly and berries in the top LH corner were cut out from the Designer Paper.  I LOVE this new Kaisercraft 'Be Merry' paper - LOVE the colours.

The sentiment tag was diecut with my Cuttlebug using one of the Tiny Tags dies, then layered it onto scarlet cardstock.  The tiny hearts are the leftover punchies from my EK Success Arrows border punch - if you are a regular visitor to my Blog, you know I always have to add them to my cards somewhere..... LOL!

The bottom holly border was made with a Martha Stewart Holly Leaves punch (comes as a Punch Around the Page combo set).  Not sure if you can see, but I added a score line just above the holly using my Martha Stewart Scoring board. 

Both panels are up on mounts (dimensionals). 

Thanks again for stopping by - and thanks for all your encouraging comments - they really make my day :-)

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' JSHM006 unmounted rubber set

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Designer paper:  Kaisercraft 'Be Merry' Collection 6" x 6" paper pad

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Tiny Tags die set, green ribbon, Bow Easy, mounts (dimensionals), red button, red sewing thread, Martha Stewart Scoring Board, Crystal Lacquer, OMS, Prismacolor pencils, Derwent Coloursoft pencils, paper stumps, Kaisercolour chalks, Cardstock:  green grass, scarlet, KW Doggett 'Knight' white

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner, Martha Stewart Holly Leaves Combo Around the Page, EK Success Arrows Border