Love these little mice!..

Well I still haven't managed to make a new card since my operation- the intention is there but by the time I start thinking about it I feel too tired to do it! Instead I thought I would share a card I made before but had not posted.
I followed a favourite layout using this lovely little Meljens mouse image (I love these mice so much!) and some digi-scrap papers by Scraps n Pieces called 'Ouch!'. I used a Nellies die for the scalloped square and some Joy Craft dies to make the flowers which I finished off with some Candi centers.

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

• Paper Sundaes- Let's get cute
• Make it Monday- Always anything goes
• Passion for Promarkers- die cuts
• Simon says- anything goes
• My Mum's Craft Shop- the great outdoors
• Cute Card Thurs-  animal magic
• CRAFT- animals

More Meljen's mice!...

Don't say I didn't warn you about these cute little mice! There are quite a few of them in my box just waiting to pop onto cards!
The image is another of the super-cute Meljen's mice. (I have been on the Whimsey Stamps website looking for more!) The papers are from the Blogtrain Blog's August train. The sentiment is from Scrap-a-licious Times and the flower which embellishes it was a white one which I coloured with my Promarkers.

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

• Spoon Full of sugar- Happy Birthday
• Totally Gorjuss- Round and round

Cute little mouse...

I am really loving Meljen's little mice at the moment- there are a few more on the table waiting to be made up too!

I followed the great sketch by Paula at Pollycraft for this card. It is such a simple design yet it works so well- I have another card, also made with the same sketch, but I'm just hanging on before posting that as it is in the post!
The papers are from a digiscrap kit which is called 'Ouch' by Scraps N Pieces. I really liked the colours and the slightly faded/shabby chic look. If my friend Helen is reading this- This is the card that I stuck the strip down by mistake when we were on the phone! I had intended to have the sentiment on a tab coming out from under the middle strip but because I was chatting I stuck it down and realised too late that I had not done the tag! Oh well, I quite like the sentiment where it is now!
The flowers were die cut with a Joy Craft die from some of the DP that I had reduced in size with Photoshop. I was having trouble deciding what to use for centers as none of the brads I tried was right then I tried the cream Card Candi- It was perfect for the larger flower but I can't decide if I like it in the smaller ones.

I would like to enter this card for:

• Allsorts- free and easy
• Pollycraft- sketch
• Papertake Weekly- anything goes
• Stampin' for the weekend- spots and dots

Teacher thanks...

School finishes on Tuesday so I have been busy with sorting out thank you cards for Matthew to give his teachers. He wanted 4:- one for his class teacher and one for the class support assistant, one for the PPA teacher who teaches him French and one for Mademoiselle Rollet who is a teacher from France who has been working with some of the schools in our area this school year and is now returning to France.
I used this cute little mouse with a pencil from Meljens for all the cards and made the personal sentiments on my computer.
Matthew chose the papers and he wanted blue, white and red to give a French look- these papers were a freebie from Shabby Princess called 'Celebrating'.

He chose 'Festival', also by Shabby Princess, for his teacher.

Finally he chose 'Happy Mother's Day' by Summer Driggs for the classroom support.

I would like to enter these cards in the following challenges:

• Allsorts- free and easy
• Sisterhood- give thanks
• Simon Says- anything goes

Thank you cards...

I needed a couple of thank you cards for my stash so I printed out a couple of these gorgeous bears from Meljens and decided to use the same layout with different papers. Both the papers are freebies from Shabby Princess...

...this one is called 'Sweet Sprinkles'...

...and this one is called 'Festival'.

The flowers have been cut with Joy Craft dies and the leaves are Crealies dies.

I would like to enter these cards in the following challenges:

• Charisma Cardz- all about flowers
• Allsorts- free and easy

I finally made a tealight box card...

I first saw one of these on Sarah's blog- Rainmac's Place- and I thought it was just beautiful. She included a link to the tutorial she had followed so I immediately bookmarked it and I have finally made my first one.

As you can see, it is a square card with a spine and a box inside that holds 4 tealights.

I started off by trying the instructions out on some scrap card and I was glad I did because I only had a Crafter's Companion Top Score board which is great for all sorts of standard card sizes but I was having to measure, mark and line up on one of the scoring lines for each fold and the box just didn't turn out crisp enough and it was too large so the candles moved about. I decided to invest in a board with measurements on as I would like to have a go at more of this sort of thing. I have now got a Hougie Board which is 12 by 12 and double sided, with half centimeter apart lines on one side and half inch apart lines on the other. It was great and as it has such fine lines I was able to make the box fit the candles perfectly.

For the front I used a sweet little mouse by Meljen's coloured with promarkers and added the dot and dash border with a gel pen to frame it and to link with the dots and squiggles used on the image. I am so in love with these digi papers by Just so Scrappy called 'Think Pink' at the moment.

 I used my Tattered Florals die by Tim Holtz for Sizzix to cut out the smallest flower twice. One from Core'dinations and one from the check DP. I scrunched each petal up a bit with my nails and lightly sanded the Core'dinations before putting it together with a card candy center and die cut leaves. I recently tried to bring some order to my ribbon by sorting it into tubs of the same colours so it was easy to find the lovely organza ribbon. Here are a couple more photos of the inside.

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

• Little Red Wagon- animals
• Paper Cutz- spring
• Allsorts- make your own flowers
• One Stop Crafts- spring flowers
• Crafty Emma's- flowers and flutterbys

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 2...

There were some really great entries for our sketch challenge last time and this fortnight we have a theme for you - 'Let's Party!', so you could make a party invitation or a card for someone having a party. (As usual, it must be for a man or boy of course!) There are 4 digi images of your choice from Meljen Designs for our lucky winner.

The DT were lucky enough to be given some fantastic party digis by our lovely sponsor, Meljen's Designs, and I chose to make my card with this great party cat! It is well worth a trip over to her shop as she has lots of super cute images and loads of great freebies there like the sentiment I used here.

The papers are from the Stuff to Scrap January blog train 'Auld Lang Syne' and if you click on my card to make it larger you will see that the striped paper has silver ticker tape on it which I thought went really well with the confetti in the image! It is mainly coloured with Promarkers but I had to go back to my Whispers Brushmarkers to colour the lettering on the sentiment as they have a really fine detail end to them- my promarkers couldn't cope with that bit as I took the sentiment down to quite a small size LOL! Finished off with a couple of stars cut from silver scraps with an old Sizzlett die of mine. I love this die because it has a really tiny star and heart on it which are fabulous for making your own card candy but I am starting to have trouble with it because I have used it to cut quite thick card and that has squashed the foam so it can be a bit tricky if the star sticks in the die : (

Do please pop over to Cards for Men to have a look at what the rest of the DT girls have made and for more information about our sponsor. The challenge runs until 30th January so there's plenty of time for you to join in!

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

• Craft Your Days Away- anything goes
• Totally Papercrafts- Happy Birthday (also sponsored by Meljen's!)