Marshmallows and Mice

Oh, I've missed making cards! I have finally taken enough time out of this weekend to make a card for my friend's birthday that was on Sunday. And I love the way it came out. Yay! :)

I used a bunch of micro-fine glitter and my favorite Hanko paper with a fall design to decorate the front. The stamp is from House-Mouse, and I popped the middle mouse up on foam tape so she actually is in front of the tin. :) Colored with Prismacolor pencils.

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Here's the inside:

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I put some ColorBox chalk inks on the CuttleBug folder before embossing the yellow part. For the purple inside rectangle I just dabbed the chalk ink pad right on there.

To make the glittery pattern (on background), I first put thin double-sided tape on the base cardstock and then masked it with a ribbon that looks like this:

I then put the purple glitter and took the ribbon off. Now, the golden glitter can fill in the area that was masked. :) So, the golden lines are basically what the ribbon looks like. I did the same glitter/masking technique for the diamond pattern that's in the middle. (Except I used a different ribbon and colors!)

Thank you for stopping by! :)

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

• House-Mouse and Friends - #107 (fall)

Products I used:

• Stamps: House-Mouse - Marshmallow bounce
• Inks: Memories - black; ColorBox chalk - rouge, warm violet, rose coral, warm red
• Embossing: CuttleBug - Swiss dots
• Glitter Ritz - purple, sand, lime green
• Ribbon
• Hanko paper

Mouse Pendulum Clock

Hello! :) This project is unrelated to stamping.. It was for one of my classes. But I thought it was cool enough to be blogged about, too. :)

It's a pendulum clock (like a tiny grandfather clock). But it doesn't actually show time, it only ticks for about a minute and stops. You have to wind it up again for it to start ticking again. You can see a video of it here. :)

Here is the front:

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The mouse was inspired by a picture online, and then the wheel and the mouse were cut out from a sheet of acrylic with a laser (on a machine we have at school). It was so cool to watch how a tiny laser light moves around, and the acrylic gets cut where the light passes! :D 

The colored lines were etched (also with the laser) and then filled in with acrylic paint. Eyes and nose were simply drawn on with the paint. :)

And this is the back, you can see the weight midway as it goes down:

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That would be all! Hope you liked the random stamping-less post. :) Thanks for visiting!

A Penguin Western

Hello! :) I haven't posted in a while, been kind of busy with an internship and now school.. But here's my latest project! :) And I feel I should give a heads-up that this is a very lengthy post... Mostly pictures. It is all summarized at the beginning though. The rest are just close-ups of every slide of the accordion. :)

This project is a very belated birthday wish for a friend of mine. Took me a while to stamp and color it and then put it together! It is an Altoids tin with a story inside, on slides that come together like an accordion.

Here are the outside and an overview of the inside:

Top:

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Aren't these Mexican penguins so cute? :D Like always, I colored with PrismaColor pencils. Distressed with Distress inks. Lots of clear embossing powder on the penguins to make their black coats shiny! :)

Inside:

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And here's how it unfolds, in video form!

This is the bottom of the box:

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Side: (the ribbons go all the way around)

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Close-ups of every page in the accordion.. Most of the stamps are from the Cat's Pajamas set It's a Western Thing. It is great for little stories!

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On every page, I tried to highlight a specific detail by mounting it with foam tape. I think it makes reading and understanding the story a little easier... For example, on the following slide, the bank and "Bang!" sign are raised (it's more noticeable in real life) suggesting that some action is taking place at the bank. :) 

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I also put some text in. It's all printed on vellum... Took me more than an hour to fool my printer into printing these out! *whew* Apparently, the Epson Artisan 810 printer isn't vellum-friendly. :( I got it to work by sticking the vellum onto a piece of regular white paper with thin double-sided tape and feeding that to the printer. That fooled it into doing the job! ;)

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The sheriff's nose is Diamond-glazed. :) I used to have a dog when I was little.. An Irish setter. :D His nose was never dry unless he was sick. So I made sure this guy's nose was also wet-looking. :)

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For some reason, this next slide arose some questions when I showed it to friends. It's supposed to be sarcasm coming from the penguins who are already in jail for robbing the bank. :)

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I tried to imply a happy town by this next slide by putting some colorful and glittery music notes all around. :) You can also notice that windows on the saloon all have Diamond glaze on them. Just an extra little detail. :) That's true for every slide, but so tough to capture in photographs.

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This last slide is essentially the greeting. My friend turned twenty-one, so there are twenty-one shot glasses on this page! They are all from transparent shrink plastic. I love that material! It's amazing every time to watch it transform so perfectly. :D The orange color is supposed to indicate tequila.. Thus the cute salt and lime in the corner. :) The salt has some frosted lace Stickles on it to give it appearance of little white crystals and the lime has Diamond glaze to give it some freshness. 

The four shots on the right I intended to appear empty. Up until the moment I actually glued them securely to this page, I couldn't place why they looked weird. Apparently they have a line in the middle that I failed to notice earlier... :/ Tsk tsk, my attention to detail is usually better! But I figured tequila comes in transparent too, and decided it's okay to leave them on. :)

As a disclaimer I should say that I do not expect this friend of mine to actually drink 21 shots of tequila.. That would be dangerous. This is just for decorative purposes. :)

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Sadly, the stamp set It's a Western Thing that I used for most of the project does not include "the End" sentiment... To keep fonts consistent, I carefully inked up and stamped the letters I needed one by one from the "Happy Birthday, Pardner" sentiment I used above. Still, there was no capital "E"... Inking up part of the "B" and stamping it upside-down worked perfectly though! ;)

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Behind the "the End" you can find a hand-written sentiment from me:

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. :)

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:

• Hooked on crafts - #9 (anything but a card)

Products I used:

• Stamps: Cat's Pajamas - It's a Western Thing, Hola Tequila
• Inks: Memories - black, barn red; Distress - vintage photo, spiced marmalade, barn door, peeled paint, broken china; VersaColor - peony, orchid, heliotrope, fresh green, orange
• Stickles: golden rod, lime green, frosted lace, cinnamon
• Embossing powders: Denami - clear; art glitter - 89. martini
• PrismaColor pencils
• Transparent shrink plastic, vellum
• Sakura's gelly roll and souffle pens
• Beacon's 3-in-1 glue, Diamond glaze

ATC

The challenge at House-Mouse is to make an ATC. I'm cutting it pretty close with time, it ends in a couple of hours! But here it is, with its cute little mouse. :)

I had lots of fun making this! Originally, the purple cardstock did not have the embossed design on it. I stamped a border image from "All about borders" by Inkadinkado over and over in clear VersaMark. Then I put clear embossing powder and in some places clear with glitter ("Diamond Sparkle" by JudiKins), so that all the ink was covered. Then I embossed a couple of times, applying more embossing powder time (it sticks to the still-hot embossed image). The top of the ATC has been embossed more times, that's why the lines are fatter. I love the way it came out. :D

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I could not get it to photograph sharply, no idea why.. :/

The string for the balloon is some twine colored with Distress ink, and covered in glue so it's not hairy and sticks well.

Thanks for stopping by!

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

• House-Mouse & Friends  - #101 (ATC)
• ATC Challenges - #8 (anything goes OR wings)

Products I used:

• Stamps: House-Mouse - Party Mouse; Recollections - Doodle birthday
• Inks: Memories - black; VersaMark; Distress - spiced marmalade, worn lipstick
• Stickles: orange peel, lime green, golden rod
• Cuttlebug folder - With love
• Embossing powders: Denami - clear, JudiKins - diamond sparkle
• PrismaColor pencils
• Scotch dot roller, 3-in-1 Beacon's glue

Scenic Postcard

Today I am sharing a postcard. It is very simple - no ribbon, no gems, just a stamped and colored image and glitter. :) And since it's a postcard there's no "inside". I did not decorate the backside, it only has writing and a postage stamp on it.

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You can see coloring really well in the above picture, but I had trouble making the glitter show. So here are some additional pics where you can really feel how much Stickles I put on there. :) It was really fun!

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It really glistens a lot in the sun... But it's pretty tough to capture that on camera! 

Thank you for stopping by. :)

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

• Craft Your Passion - #69 (anything goes)
• Allsorts - #114 (free and easy)
• There She Goes - #118 (summer)
• Creative Inspirations - #65 (summertime)

Products I used:

• Stamps: Northwoods - Forest sunrise and stream
• Inks: Memories - black
• Stickles: fruit punch, lime green, waterfall, golden rod, cinnamon, burgundy, 
• Paper: Bazzill
• PrismaColor pencils
• Scotch dot roller

Marshmallow Overload

This card is a very belated birthday one for a friend of mine. It is also for the House-Mouse 100th challenge celebration and therefore has a mouse on it! :D

Here's the front:

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This cute little thing overate marshmallows! :D

I sprayed the background paper with lots and lots of Tattered Angels glimmer mist (pashmina color). And the piece of green paper with flowers is from Hanko. Lots of ribbon and Stickles here. So pretty much everything on the front shines when exposed to the sun. :) Stickles on marshmallows, too!

Actually, this is a bit of a cheating card.. The front has a big hole in it... (hehe!) And the mouse is on the inside of the card. Like so:

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And there's more ribbon and shimmery paper and some gem thingies! :) The mouse itself was colored with Prismacolor pencils and then I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp over it again, because the grey pencil made the little black hair almost disappear. Took me four tries to get the images match perfectly... But I'm very happy with the way it looks, it was worth it! :)

On the left side, I wrote the message to my friend with a white Sakura gel pen, then used the 3-in-1 Beacon glue to stick the vellum on there. But the glue showed through.. :( So I had to outline it with Stickles, even though that made the vellum uneven.. I didn't that like too much, but it doesn't look bad after all, I don't think. :)

Here's a close-up of all the shimmer:

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That's all for now, thank you for visiting! :)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• House-Mouse and Friends - #100 (buttons, bows, and bling) 
• There She Goes - #117 (a sketch) 
• 4 Crafty Chicks - #48 (get your bling on) 
• Totally Papercrafts - #77 (bling it up)

Products I used:

• Stamps: House-Mouse - Sugar crash
• Inks: Memories - black; Distress: vintage photo
• Stickles: fruit punch, star dust, lime green
• Paper: Hanko, Bazzill, vellum
• PrismaColor pencils; Tattered angels glimmer mist (pashmina)
• Beacon's 3-in-1 glue, Scotch dot roller, foam tape, Diamond Glaze

Penguin - Birthday

I started this card for one of the sketch challenges over at the Peachy Keen stamps blog... But I finished it so late that I didn't have enough time to photograph it well and post it up in time. It's okay though, because I'm really happy with the way the card came out, and that's the most important aspect, I think. :)

I used a Cat's Pajamas penguin stamp, I love those! :) I also used some gorgeous Hanko paper for the background... It's a pastel violet color with a shimmering gold and silver design. 

The red ribbon used to be a Victoria's Secret bag handle.. Yay recycling! And the sentiment was printed from a Word document straight onto the Bazzill paper.

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The inside is simple.. But I am really pleased with the way it came out, and I will probably use this way of decorating often from now on.. with different stamps. ;) The flowers are all the same stamp, stamped with Distress inks and then colored with watercolor paints. 

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That's it.. This was a very simple card. :) Thank you for stopping by! :)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Simon Says ... anything goes
• Paper Pretties - animals
• Divas by design - pastels

Products I used:

• Stamps: The Cat's Pajamas - Hola tequila; Inkadinkado - All about borders, Birthday cupcake
• Inks: Memories - black; Colorit - black; Distress: worn lipstick, peeled paint, barn door, broken china, spiced marmelade
• Stickles: purple, golden rod, fruit punch, orange peel, star dust
• Denami clear embossing powder
• Paper: Hanko, Bazzill, vellum
• Watercolors, PrismaColor pencils
• Beacon's 3-in-1 glue, Scotch dot roller, foam tape, Diamond Glaze

Friend's Graduation

This card is for one of my good friend's college graduation. I used my newest House-Mouse stamp. These mice are just too cute! :)

I made the flower myself with Crinkle ribbon. And like always, the image was colored with Prismacolor pencils. I thought the background paper was very pretty and perfect for this card.. It actually looks shimmery in real life, and you can see it on the close-up that follows. 

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There's a great deal of Diamond Glaze on the bottle to make it look more like glass/that it has liquid in there. And some Fun Flock on the towel to make it feel more.. like a towel. :D Here are the close-ups:

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Here's the inside of the card. Lots of graduation hats made from clear Judikins shrink plastic! It's so awesome... I just love watching how the flat piece of plastic shrinks and thickens under my heat gun. :D Earlier, I've had a problem with the stamped image transferring a little onto the other side of the card after the card has been closed for a while. To prevent this from happening again, I put a thin layer of Diamond Glaze over each shrink plastic hat. :) I really hope it'll work.

The red background paper is also shimmery, and the stamped borders and the book are embossed. The book was colored with Prismacolors. :) Oh and the book and cap are actually both on one rubber stamp... I just separated them for this design. :)

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And I just can't leave out a close-up of a graduation hat... I think they are so cute here! :)

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That's all. Thanks for stopping by! :)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• House-Mouse and Friends - #99 (make a splash)
• Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - summer

Products I used:

• Stamps: House Mouse - Friendly breeze; Inkadinkado - All about borders; Northwoods rubber stamps - Open book with cap
• Inks: Memories - black; Distress - vintage photo; Colorit - black
• Stampendous! - Fun flock
• Denami clear embossing powder
• Crinkle ribbons 
• Judikins shrink plastic
• PrismaColor pencils, Gelly Roll pens 
• Beacon's 3-in-1 glue, Scotch dot roller, foam tape, Diamond glaze

My First Easel Card.. :)

I have been busy with school and stuff, and haven't had time to make cards lately... I'm so behind on all the birthday cards that I was supposed to make this past year! :( But here's one that I actually managed to make in the midst of all these homeworks. :) It's my first card that stands up! :)

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Here's a closer view of how it looks from the front... I love House-Mouse! :) So cute, no? :) Colored with Prisma Color pencils.

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I also really like how the present came out... I has Stickles over the ribbon, and Diamond Glaze on the yellow dots, so they pop. :) 

The inside:

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I did not put much on the inside this time, because the card was meant to be propped up like in the first image. And I made the little drinks with Judikins shrink plastic... It's so cool! :D I'm always so excited to use it :D It's hard to cut stuff out though. Especially since the ink doesn't dry very well (before you heat it... but after that it's impossible to cut it into the needed shape, lol). Here's a close up: 

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That's it for now... Thank you for visiting! :)

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

• A Spoon Full of Sugar - #152 (anything goes)
• Crafts and Me - #35 (anything goes, option - use kraft)
• Truly Scrumptious - anything goes
• Prairie Fairy Friday - #53 (more than one fold)
• Fuzzy Wuzzy Challenges - #9 (babies)

Products I used:

• Stamps: House Mouse - Party animals; Sarah Phelps collection - Make a wish; Inkadinkado - All about borders, Birthday cupcakes; The Cat's Pajamas - Hola Tequila
• Inks: Memories - black; Distress - vintage photo
• Judikins shrink plastic
• Stickles - waterfall, golden rod, purple, turquoise, cinnamon, orange, fruit punch, star dust
• PrismaColor pencils, Gelly Roll pens 
• Beacon's 3-in-1 glue, Scotch dot roller, foam tape

Zoo Birthday :D

My final exams were this past week, and I really should not have spent time making a card last weekend. But it's just too much fun! And I have the excuse that my friend's birthday was past Friday.... :)

I have a few clear stamp sets that deal with nature and animals, and I combined stamps from different sets to create little scenes. And, like always, I couldn't stay away from ribbon and Stickles! :)

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Basically, every image was stamped and colored with Prismacolor pencils. The butterfly also has some glitter Ritz "cool highlights" glitter all over it, to make it shiny. The flower and the gift bag have some Diamond glaze - possibly my new favorite next to Stickles! :) As for the grass, I simply cut some green cardstock with scissors and tried to make it the shape of "grass".. 

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Above is the picture of the whole inside, and below is just the giraffe and mushroom scene. 

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I tied the bow using both ribbons at once and let the ends play the role of a frame for my picture. This time I just drew the grass with some green gel pen. :) I put some Diamond glaze on the mushrooms' white dots, and it really made a difference! 

Here are some close-ups of the front and the inside that I liked. :) You can see the Diamond glaze in them much better...

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The last photo is my favorite.. :) Thanks for visiting! :)

Products I used:

• Stamps: Hero Arts - Woodland creatures; Mindy's zoo by Mindy Terasawa; Recollections - Zoo-licious; Sarah Phelps collection - Make a wish
• Inks: Memories - black; Distress - barn door, worn lipstick, broken china, spiced marmalade, peeled paint
• Stickles - waterfall, golden rod, purple, turquoise, cinnamon
• Glitter Ritz - cool highlights
• PrismaColor pencils
• Scissors - 
• Beacon's 3-in-1 glue, Scotch dot roller, Be Creative tape

Sprrrring :)

Yay! Today I am finally done finals exams for this quarter... :D Happiness! It's spring break now! :) Anyway, here is something I made yesterday: 

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My favorite part is the red pearl pen (used on the candles, cake, and the balloon).. Even after it dries, it is still raised and glossy, as if it was just squeezed out of the bottle. :)

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Thank you for visiting! :)

Products I used:

• Stamps: Recollections - Doodle birthday; Hero Arts - Woodland creatures; Recollections - Zoo-licious, Playful animals; Sarah Phelps - Lucky ladybugs; Inkadinkado - All about borders
• Inks: Distress - worn lipstick, vintage photo, barn red, broken china, peeled paint; VersaColor - canary
• Embossing: Cuttlebug - Swiss dots; embossing powder
• Pearl pen: red
• Stickles - orange peel, purple, turquoise, lime green, golden rod, fruit punch
• PrismaColor pencils
• Beacon's 3-in-1 glue, Scotch dot roller, Be Creative tape

Super-late New Year's

I made this card late last night, but it's a New Year's/Christmas one. :) I was so excited to color this stamp! And put all the glitter on it... :D Here it is:

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The inside is in Russian, with lots of glitter and Stickles... Also, some Liquid Pearls. :)

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A close-up of the front image.. Done with PrismaColor pencils.

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And that's about it.. Thanks for stopping by! :)


Products I used:

• Stamps: main image is from Creative Impressions (I couldn't find the name of the image itself..); sentiment on the front and the wreath are from Recollections - Celebrate the season; Inkadinkado - All about borders; Hero Arts - Create your own (snowman)
• Inks: Memories - black; Distress - barn door, worn lipstick, broken china
• Stickles - orange peel, waterfall, frost white, golden rod
• Glitter Ritz - cool highlights, sand, regal red
• Liquid pearls - white opal
• PrismaColor pencils
• Beacon's 3-in-1 glue, Scotch dot roller, Be Creative tape
• Vellum: Snowflakes