Magnolia Doohickey Dies - Paris Night Xmas theme

I do love the simple features of this Magnolia die and when I thought about using it for a Xmas card all I had to do was search through my Cottage Cutz dies to find a suitable Santa hat and wreath.  I found the hat in Santa Down the Chimney and the wreath is from Deer w/Wreath.

The star border punch is a Martha Stewart one and I think the sentiment is a JustRite one but not entirely sure.  It is punched out using the SU Word Window punch.

Punch Art - Xmas Pud

I must confess to having cased this Xmas pud from a craft blog but cannot for the life of me remember where.  I seem to recall it was a Stampin Up demonstrator and as I did not have the correct SU punches I had to use Spellbinders Classic Circles Large with the SU Scalloped Border punch.

The holly is a Cottage Cutz die called Holly Berry and I used the Spellbinders Pinking Circles Small for the outside of the circle.  The embossing folder is a SU one and the sentiment is from the JustRite set called Happy Everything Card Making set - this was one the mouse did not eat !!

Update

Well, it appears the mouse left the house whilst we were away but not after eating some of my cards and projects.  It also tried to make a nest in one of my drawers housing some acrylic and JustRite rubber stamps.  I think the stamps are able to be salvaged and the damage could have been a lot worse.

My craft area is upside down. I have found a large plastic container and tossed everything that was in the drawers that could be eaten into it.  Who knew a little mouse could cause that much chaos !!  A huge thanks to our friend and dogsitter who methodically went through my mountain of craft supplies to hunt the mouse down.  She definitely prevented more damage, which I am most grateful for.

Well, all that means no projects for this week.  I will use the weekend to restore order to my craft area and hopefully tackle a few cards.  By Monday I am hoping to have my voice back to full strength, after 3 weeks I really need to talk again !!

In the meanwhile why not take a look at some super simple Xmas cards on The Penny Black Blog.

Another Apology

No posting this week, I'm afraid.  Am still struggling with  my cold and no voice plus we are away for the first part of the week.  I have been unable to get to my craft table as we have a mouse in the house and he has decided to take up residence in my craft stash - or so DH informs me.  I am rather afraid of mice, especially since this one is quite bold and I decided to give my craft area a wide berth this weekend.

We are back later in the week and I hope the mouse will have then left the house and I can get back crafting.  We are off to a farm to see the tigers so all the fresh air should clear my head.

No project today

Apologies, but I have a dreadful cold and laryngitis so unfortunately I am unable to post a project for today. Hope to see you Monday.

House-Mouse Designs - Birthday Cake

Although I have a couple of House-Mouse stamp sets I cannot recall having used them.  Their designs are very distinctive and I am not sure whether or not I like them.

For this stamp I decided to use Copics to colour it in only because I was wanting to fade the pink on the waterlily leaves - the outer row under the water.  I used Distress Ink for the water.  The image is framed with a Nestabilities Labels Four die and then matted onto a Labels Seventeen die in pink cardstock.  Under that is a Martha Stewart border punch in cream.  The background paper is from my stash and was a little too bright so I toned it down with a layer of vellum.  The corners are from an EK Success punch, the flowers are from my stash with the leaves being from a Martha Stewart punch.  The sentiment is from a Clear Dollar set called Something to Crow About and it was punched out using a SU punch called Word Window.

PaperArtsy - Noel 6

When I was looking through my Xmas stamps I found this PaperArtsy set I had not yet used.  They stamp really well and are easy to hand cut out.

The baubles were stamped using Maroon Archival Ink and placed on a cream background which was embossed with a SU folder called Textured Impressions.  The sentiment is from a Whimsy set called Vintage Christmas and it was die cut using Clear Dollar Tabs and Tags.

I have been looking for a Xmas card I can mass produce and think I have found it with this one.

Punch Art - Cute Xmas Teddy

I usually start with where I copied the idea or design from - not this time !!  I made this dear little chap up all by myself !  The teddy punch art list is as follows :

Head - 1¾" SU Circle

Ears -   ¾"  SU Circle and ⅜" Circle - dark brown - cut 2 of each

Antlers - Cottage Cutz - Santa w/Reindeer

Body -  Nestabilities Classic Circles Large - 4th largest approx 2⅜".  Cut 2nd one in patterned paper and trim.
Hands - 1½" circle,  ¾" circle in dark brown - cut 2 of each.   ⅛" circles - punch 6 in dark brown.

Sleeves - in patterned paper using Nestabilites Classic Circles Large - the smallest die.
Feet  -   1" circle, ⅝" circle in dark brown - cut 2 of each.  ³⁄16" Crop-a-dile circles - punch 6.
Cheeks - I punched out a circle of just under ⅜", tossed out the circle and used the balance as a template.  I used Distress ink, Tattered Rose, and added 3 white dots with a gel pen.
Face  -  Peachy Keen Stamps PK 135 Medium Bear Facial Features for the eyes and nose.  The mouth was from PK 754 Critter Faces Set A Medium - it was part of a face so I blocked out the part I did not want and extended the line between the mouth and the nose with a black pen.
Fence -  Woodware Peeking Over stamp set, coloured with a variety of Distressed inks until I found the right colour.

A word of warning here - I have used only metric for the past 40 odd years so my understanding of inches is fairly limited.  I have to count the little stripes to try and work it out, so if the above looks wrong please alter it.  Normally DH helps but with me having no voice it is annoying to have to bbm him for every little thing. 

For the background I could not find the right paper so I looked through the embossing folders and came across this Craft Too one.  I used Momento Ink - New Sprout on the folder and was delighted it worked first time round.  The sentiment is from the JustRite Christmas Mini Sentiment set and it was punched out using SU Word Window punch.

Kraftin' Kimmie - Stella Strawberry

I have had this stamp for a while now not knowing what medium to use for colouring in.  I chose Copics but felt I could have done a better job.  Blame it on a dreadful head cold and no voice.  Most frustrating !

The card and the image were die cut using a Go Kreate set, the sentiment comes with the Kraftin' Kimmie set and I used a Clear Dollar Design Label die to frame it.  The scallop design on the edges is from a Martha Stewart punch.  I used Antique Linen Distress ink to shade the white cardstock the image is stamped onto.

Just Rite - You are my Anchor

I was looking to make a male birthday card in a hurry and came up with this simple one.

The background stamp is a Tim Holtz one called Air Travel and the centre stamp is from a Just Rite set called You are my Anchor.  I used a Nestabilities Circle to cut out the compass, sponged it with Antique Linen Distress ink and lightly coloured it in using a combination of Stampin Up and Aquamarkers.  I thought the pinking circles (yes, I used them again !) finished it off and I used rises to pop it onto the background.  I also used Distress ink on the background.

Cute Xmas Wallet

When I came across a tutorial on this cute wallet over at Stamping Addict I immediately saw the potential for changing it to a Xmas theme.  The original wallet, or billfold as it is called in the US, was for a Father's day project but one could also use it for a male birthday as the inside can hold store gift cards as well as money.

For the outside of the wallet I embossed one of them with a Sizzix folder and the other with a Cuttlebug Xmas folder.  The circles are Nestabilities, the label on the green wallet is from a SU punch and on the blue wallet it is a Nestabilities one.  The reindeer is the last of my Cricut ones I have been using.  I used SU cardstock for the wallets as it is quite sturdy and decided to use a velcro sticky dot to close it. 

On the inside I found the bottom section a bit bare hence the snowflakes.  The labels are from Go Kreate and the To / From sentiment is from Kaszazz with the Xmas wishes sentiment being from SU.

Xmas Money Holder - Peachy Keen Penguin Doll

I happen to rather fond of penguin images so when I found this Peachy Keen / Cottage Cutz die in my stash, I was delighted.  These little chaps were cut out of scraps and on the 2 outside ones I used the face stamps provided with the die but on the middle one I remembered I had a Peachy Keen Winter Faces stamp which I used.

The shape of the purse was hand cut and I used a CB Xmas tree embossing folder for the middle section.  It opens up as :

The opening was too tight fitting so I scored half way down the back and only sealed it up to that point.  This way the back flips open and the gift money can be slotted into it.  The label used on the top to seal the purse is from Go Kreate.  I was at a bit of a loss on how to close it so after trying a few options I went for an easy one, a ribbon.