A colourful happy birthday

I was trying out some of my new stamps from my haul and thought this happy little mouse was perfect for a birthday card. I didn't have any particular birthday in mind, but I like to keep a stash of cards for all occasions. Anyone else do that?

I started with the image stamped on white card in black ink, then coloured with watercolour pencils. I fussy cut the tail of the mouse then used the circle die to cut out around the rest of the mouse. (It's easy to do - just feed the tail through to the top side of the die so it won't be cut then run through the die cutter as usual.)

For the background I took some bright patterened paper and cut it to fit the bottom diagonal half of the card base, then covered the join between the paper and the card with some purple ribbon to match the colour of the mouse's hat.
 
I stuck the mouse on with sticky fixers, stamped the sentiment with black ink and stuck on the tiny coloured pearls on the white part of the background and on the top of the mouse's hat.

What I used:

• House Mouse "So Big" stamp
• Coloured paper from Poundland
• "It's your birthday!" stamp from "Everyday in Moonbeam Meadow" set by Crafter's Companion, free from magazine
• Ribbon from The Works
• WHSmith set of 24 watercolour pencils ad Derwent Academy skintones set of 12 watercolour pencils
• Small gems from eBay
• Circle die and Big Shot die cutting machine
• StazOn Jet Black ink pad
• Plus scissors, double-sided tape, tacky PVA glue, foam sticky dimensionals, A6 card blank and envelope

Ballet mouse birthday card

It's one of my nieces' birthdays in September so I thought I'd use one of my new stamps to make a card for her. She likes Angelina Ballerina, so this pretty ballet dancing mouse was perfect.

It looks more complicated that it actually was to make. I took two pieces of pink patterened paper and one piece of white card, all bigger than the card base, then die cut different sizes of ovals in each piece. I layered them together to figure out where the oval would be on the card base then drew around the card base to make sure I cut them to the right size.

Once they were trimmed I layered them up by putting double sided tape around the cut out parts. Then I wrapped the ribbon around the papers and stuck it between the card and the bottom paper layer, stuck all the edges down and fixed it to the card base.

The mouse was stamped on white card, coloured in with watercolour pencils, then fussy cut and fixed on top of the oval cutouts with lots of sticky fixers, including along the tail. For the sentiment I printed it out to personalise it and folded the ends under, then stuck it down with sticky fixers again.

The finishing touches were the gems, and since the card is for a three-year-old there had to be lots of them. I used large gems in various shades of pink around the edges and a row of tiny baby pink pearls along the waistband of the tutu.

What I used:

• House Mouse "Ballerina Baby" stamp
• Patterned papers free from magazines
• White card and ribbon from my stash
• Large gems from Poundland and small gems from eBay
• WHSmith set of 24 watercolour pencils and Derwent watercolour flesh tones set of 12 pencils
• Oval die set and Big Shot die cutting machine
• StazOn Jet Black ink pad
• Plus scissors, double-sided tape, tacky PVA glue, foam sticky dimensionals, A6 card blank and envelope

For the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge #201 HMFMC201 on the theme of anything goes!

Spotty blue, yellow and white House Mouse card

After making the other blue, yellow and white card I had the rest of the 'trim the tree' stamped image left over, so I thought I'd make use of that on another card.

What I used:

• House Mouse "Trim the tree" stamp
• Yellow spotty paper and "Just for you" stamp free from magazines
• Blue and yellow card, ribbon and buttons from my stash
• WHSmith set of 24 watercolour pencils
• Square die, polka dot embossing folder and Big Shot die cutting machine
• StazOn Jet Black ink pad
• Plus scissors, double-sided tape, tacky PVA glue, foam sticky dimensionals, glue dots, A6 card blank and envelope

This time I went with a more fun card instead of the traditional look I went for before. I had the image already stamped on white card so I coloured it with watercolour pencils then die cut it with a square die and mounted it on blue card.

I ran pieces of blue and yellow card through my Big Shot in the spotty embossing folder that came with the machine and layered them off-set on the card, with a piece of yellow and white spotty paper underneath. The picture went on top mounted on foam pads, and I did the sentiment in the same way.

For embellishments I had those cute little buttons in my stash so I decided to use those on the corners of the embossed card and on the sentiment, stuck down with PVA glue, then added a spotty ribbon with a glue dot.

For the 200th  House-Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge

August crafty haul

So I decided to treat myself this month with a big old haul of stamps and other supplies.

I love House Mouse stamps and I have a few Christmassy ones, but nothing really for other occasions, so I splurged on lots of different stamps.

I got the Daisy Float, Baby Blocks, School Supplies, Hopeful Mouse, Stack Of Books, Musical Mice, Cheesy Gift, So Big, Ballerina Baby, Joyful Noise and Potted Mouse stamps. I've already got plans for a birthday card for my niece with the ballerina (she really likes Angelina Ballerina) and a card for my mom, who's a piano teacher, with the Musical Mice one.

I forgot to take a photo of this one, but with my order I got a free gift as well of a Josephine Wall Project Book with CD Rom. I've had a quick flick through the book and it looks quite interesting - very different  to the sort of cards I usually make though! It could be fun to have a play around with them at some point.

I really needed to get myself some more brushes, because I'd been replying on a tiny travel paint palette set brush for my watercolour pencils. I went into the PaperWrite shop in town to look for some and they had these water brushes in, so I thought I'd try them instead.

They are fantastic! They hold a lot of water, they don't leak, and the tips are lovely. You don't have to squeeze them as you go along because there's a reservoir just below the nib. As you can see on the picture, the nibs have picked up some of the colour from the pencils I've been using, but it's stained into the fibres and isn't transferring on to anything I'm working on. I just wish I'd found them six months ago!

I picked up a set of Derwent watercolour skin tone pencils as well, because I didn't really have anything that was working quite as well in my other pencils. It's a nice selection of colours and I have used some of them, but still have more to do. The quality is lovely though (as you'd expect from Derwent).

My final item was a white chalk ink pad, just because I don't always want to stamp my sentiments in dark colours, and I wanted something to show up on darker paper.

Actually I tell a lie, I picked up some PVA glue in a fine tip applicator bottle as well!

Yellow, blue and white House Mouse card

What I used:

• House Mouse "Trim the tree" stamp
• Yellow spotty paper and "Smile and be happy" stamp free from magazines
• Blue and white card, and ribbons from my stash
• WHSmith set of 24 watercolour pencils
• Decorative border edging punch (was given to me so I don't know where it's from)
• Nail art tiny pearls from eBay
• Oval Spellbinders die and Big Shot dies cutting machine
• StazOn Jet Black ink pad
• Plus scissors, double-sided tape, tacky PVA glue, glue dots, A6 card blank and evnvelope, and a blue fibre tip pen

A very simple card to make - stamp the image on to white card and colour with watercolour pencils. Cut out with an oval die and stick to blue card, then cut around with scissors leaving a thin border. (I didn't have the right size die to give a thin enough border using a die.) Distress the edges of the blue oval with scissors and add in the faux stitch detail with a blue pen.

Cut a piece of yellow spotty paper just smaller than the card base and stick down with double sided tape. Cut a strip of white card about an inch wider than the blue card, use the edging punch to create the pattern then stick on to the base and stick the image to the white strip, both using double sided tape.

Stamp the sentiment at the bottom of the white strip, then use two pieces of ribbon, one thick white organza and one thin white satin, to tie a bow and stick down using a glue dot behind the knot.

Add final embellishments of the tiny coloured pearls using PVA glue in a fine-tip applicator. The pearls are the same colour as the coloured in bow, but for some reason they photographed darker.

For the 200th House-Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge :)

WHSmith watercolour pencils

I had a gift voucher for WHSmith this week so I went and mooched through the art supplies. This tin of 24 watercolour pencils was on sale for £4.99 (normal price £9.99) so I picked it up and thought I'd try them out. The main reason I got them was for the pinks and browns - skin tones that I didn't already have - but there's a nice range of colours and tones in the tin with nothing really missing.

When I tried them I was absolutely thrilled with the quality. I'd expected something that would be lower quality for the price they were, especially compared with the Derwent Inktense pencils I've got which cost £1.75-ish each. But the WHSmith pencils were better in almost every way!

The pencils were smooth and easy to colour with, and they look just like normal pencil colours before you put water on them. They blend beautifully, you can get some very intense colours if you pick them up from the lead with a brush, and the range of colours is really good. The only colour I really felt was missing was a bright red, but I have one in my Inktense pencils (chilli red).

I can only think of one negative about the pencils actually, and that's that I don't think they're available as individual colours - I didn't see any in the shop (although it is a small shop in my town) and the pencils themselves don't have any names or numbers on them.

So to sum up:

• Great quality
• Good range of colours
• Easy to work with and blend
• Lovely watercolour look when they're wetted
• Very cheap
• Unavailable in single pencils, only in tins of 24 or 36

Swatches:

Things I've learned so far...

I've only been making cards since January but I've learned a few things since then.

1. Glue dots work better than double sided tape for attaching bows. I don't know why I ever thought double sided tape was a good idea for ribbons.
2. Some tools are worth paying for. I love my Scotch ATG tape dispenser gun and my Big Shot.
3. But some things can be got really cheaply. I have a huge stash of ribbons that I picked up at The Works for £1 for 5 lengths or £1 for a long roll.
4. Don't always think you have to use card-making supplies. I bought a wheel of nail gems from eBay for a couple of pounds and they're perfect for embellishments. There have to be about 1,000 gems in there and they stick down really well with PVA glue and look great.
5. Don't stick things down until you're absolutely certain that's where you want them. The number of times I've stuck something down with tape and then realised I wanted to wrap a ribbon around it is ridiculous!