Swing When You're Winning...

I managed to grab a little crafting time yesterday and used one of the images I won at House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge recently. I just love this little guy. It was such a treat to be able to pick this stamp out as part of my prize...

Copics and Prismacolour Pencils were my weapons of choice for colouring.

The sentiment was definitely my inspiration for the card and I think it goes really well with the image. As you can see there's lots of my wibbly sewing too... More practise needed I think...

I thought I'd show you the inside of this card for a change. Not super-exciting, I know, but I really liked the Basic Grey paper I used for the Sentiment. I'll be able to write my message neatly on it and I think it contrasts nicely with the gorgeous Teresa Collins papers I used on the rest of the card.

As it happens, the current theme at A Gem of a Challenge is Animals so I'd like to enter this card.


Right, enough lollygagging for one day. Thanks for dropping by.

Lx

HMFMC#173 - ANYTHING GOES

My last challenge as a Guest Designer at HMFMC and I've had an absolute blast so a big thank you to the regular team of Designers and my fellow Guest Designers.

This week's challenge has been set by Lorraine and is Anything Goes. I've been wanting to design myself a pencil box for my precious Prismacolour Pencil collection and other essential bits and bobs. Here's what I did

I decoupaged the little mouse on the front and used some lovely Maya Road chipboard letters which I coloured with chalk inks

I used some pencils I got in a Christmas cracker (I think) as embellishments for the front

Here is the inside of the box

I made a smaller box to stand my paper stumps in while I'm colouring and made sure I left space to stand my bottle of blending solution next to it. It all tucks away neatly again when I've finished

The little pot of paper stumps is only decorated on three sides. The fourth side has a strip of sandpaper for cleaning my paper stumps (oh yes! the little grey cells were firing on all cylinders that day... ;oD)

My rubber and pencil sharpener are essential items so I attached them with velcro dots to keep them handy

I always keep some paper handy for leaning on so that you don't smudge your work and post it notes are always handy for this job as they don't move about. I also use them for masking so they were a no brainer for my box of colouring staples

My other must have items are cocktail sticks (great for really fine detail, dipped in a bit of blending solution) and cotton buds which are great for so many little jobs. I decided to make a separate little pocket for those mainly so I could squeeze in another gorgeous House Mouse image (love this one with the juggling mouse, which seemed perfect for the job!)

Et Voila! I'm really pleased with it and I know I can grab the box and I've everything I need to get colouring right there in one place.

I can hardly wait to see what everybody else comes up with. Why not scamper on over to House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge and join in the fun

I would also like to enter this into challenges at:

Anything But a Card
Come and Get It
The Pink Elephant - Anything Goes
Eclectic Elapu - Furry Friends

Lx

HMFMC #172 - DIE CUTS

I do love die cutting so this week was perfect for me. I had a ball making this Halloween card with its clever folds and decorative sleeve AND I got to colour in TWO cute House Mouse images - Woohoo!!!

Here's the back

Just enough room to write a (brief) message ;oD

As ever, Copics and Prismacolour pencils for the colouring

Spellbinders for matting and layering and the die cut bats are from a Sizzix decorative strip.

Lx

...and a little bit of nonsense..

What to do with all those teeny tiny scraps of fabric you get... Well how about a cute little rag dolly

I saw the pattern a few weeks ago and HAD to have it. She's by Soudough Dumpling and her name is Sally. Too impatient to wait until I got all the right bits, I raided my stash and managed to cobble together a little friend for Sally when I finally get around to getting the right components. The only thing I couldn't find was something to make pads for the rabbit's feet with but I can always go back to them later.

Love her little pantaloons. They're so cute!

Lx

Going Dotty!

I don't know about you but we've had a real scorcher of a weekend here so the time seemed right to run up this cute summer top courtesy of my Great British Sewing Bee book. Also spotted it on the cover of Sew Magazine this month, and quite right too. It's a snap to make and only takes a metre of fabric.

I got my fabric online for £4.99 a yard and even had enough left over from the metre to make a flower.

In hindsight, I rushed the gathering and it shows, but there you go... Live and learn... Next time I'll take a bit more care.

Lx

HMFMC #171 - LOTS OF LAYERS

The theme this week required lots of layers so I thought of the ultimate layer straight away (and her little mouse-y friends of course) seemed perfect. We keep a few chickens and I confess I have a bit of a soft spot for them so this gorgeous House Mouse stamp was a no brainer for me. I HAD to have it...

Here are some of our girls plotting in the garden

As ever, I coloured my image with Copics and Prisma pencils. I like nice strong colouring and this is a winning combination for me. I tend to do the main colouring with the Copics and go in at the end with the pencils to add detail and shading

and here's my card

I think you'll agree there are LOTS of layers. The card is to give a pal with a few fresh layed eggs, a tea cozy I made with an off-cut of scrummy fabric and a punnet of home grown strawberries (worry not, there WILL be more than two ;oD - I won't pick them until the very last moment for ultimate freshness).

Should make a nice impromptu gift. Hope she likes it. I must admit I'm seriously getting some more of that fabric for a kitchen blind. I love it!

It's been a bit of a week for chickens actually. Hubby and I were in town for a lovely lunch at Gaucho on Monday. Great food; great view and, I might add, a very nice bottle of wine too (slurp!)

Anyhoo, we couldn't manage dessert and felt we needed a bit of a stroll so we wandered through Trafalgar Square on our way to Covent Garden in the afternoon...

Now THAT is one BIG BLUE CHICKEN!!! Wonder where I got my inspiration from... can't think... ;oD

Lx

...a little bit more sewing...

I just can't tear myself away from my sewing machine at the moment. My crew like to wear pyjama trousers to relax in round the house and they're super-easy to make. You can of course buy them in the shops but where's the fun in that? I love the camper van fabric so much that I had to make a matching cushion as well.

Nice and neat on the inside too...

I found a great tutorial for French Seams here at The Little Tailoress and I'm a complete convert.

Lx