Deck The Halls Christmas Mouse

I just love the MFT Harvest Mouse set. I wanted to make the mouse with the basket of cherries into a mouse with a box of ornaments with a few falling out. I got out my I Knead You set and masked off the kitty in the box. I stamped the box in Memento Tuxedo Black and then I masked off the mouse and stamped it below the box. Next I added ornaments and stamped some loose ones using the Ornament Banner set stamping them in Blue Raspberry, Wild Cherry, and Jellybean Green dye inks. I used these same colors plus Kraft to stamp Deck The Halls on the card base alternating  colors repeatedly and created a background. These colors were also used to color my images and add detail using a blender pen. Using the MFT stitched rectangle frame I cut the large from wild cherry, the medium from blue raspberry, and the small from jellybean green which I backed with white. My sentiment is embossed in Ranger White embossing powder.

Naughty Or Nice Peeping Elf

One of the ideas that popped in my head while trying to sleep on a restless night was this card. I knew I wanted to use MFT'S You Gnome Me and turn the gnome into an elf that is hanging upside down peeping in the window to see who is naughty or nice. The first thing I did was stamp the image in Memento Tuxedo Black on Neenah solar white 80lb cardstock.  Then the tuff part drawing a backside for the elf and his shoes. I used MFT'S window Die-namic and cut the center if my card base, the background paper and two sets out of MFT  blue raspberry cardstock. Next I drew a Christmas tree and I used MFT'S Celebrate You to make my presents and fussy cut them out. The last things I did before assembly was cut a piece if wild cherry cardstock using the stitched square frame by MFT, cut a piece of paper that had a village scene to go behind it, and create an embossed banner for the front .

Cool Day

There are some stamp sets that when you look at them you see them in certain colors, this is one of them for me. For the minute I saw it I feel in love with it and new I would use Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs, Barn Door, Tumbled Glass, Weathered Wood, and Pumice Stone for shading. I was at the drag strip when I went to start this and realized in the rush to gather things to work on between rounds I forgot my acrylic blocks. So what's a crafter to do...improvise. I used a lid from a takeout dish. I think I like it better than my blocks.

I started off stamping my images in versafine black ink on Canson watercolor paper being careful to wipe away any parts that would over lap prior to stamping. I started painting his shirt with a mixture of tumble glass and weathered wood thinned with water. I started with less weathered wood in the lighter areas and add more for the shaded parts. The stripes on the pole, the hat, and mug were barn door and shaded with pumice stone. The sign and bear were gathered twigs shaded with pumice stone. I used tumbled glass and pumice stone for the ice, snow and fur on hat. The snow flakes were added using MFT snow cone ink. I mounted this on MFT Red Hot and popped it up on fun foam then mounted it to MFT Snow Cone card stock. Thanks for stopping by.

Ellen Hutson Mondo Poinsettia and distress ink watercoloring

 I have fallen in love with Ellen Hutsons Mondo Poinsettia set. I took a piece of Cannon cold press water color paper and cut it into quarters the taped it down to my work surface leaving a 4x5.25 work area.

                                                                                                                    I then chose antique linen, evergreen bough, pine needles, peeled paint, and forest moss from the Tim Holtz distress inks to stamp and watercolor my images. I used peeled paint first and dabbed it in the center of the flower then carefully added antique linen to the petals and stamped it on the watercolor paper. I did the same thing twice more but wiped away the ink that would overlap my previous image from the stamp before stamping it. Since the stamps are clear you just hold it above where you want it and wipe off a little at a time till you see it won't overlap what you already have. The next step is using the same colors to watercolor your images. I pressed my stamp pad on an acrylic block and add a couple drops of water from my aqua brush. Picking up some of the color I painted where I wanted my shading first then went back an spread the color to the rest of the petals so they would be lighter.i did add just a tad of forest moss to the peeled paint to get my shading color. It's important to let areas that touch dry before painting next to them. After my flowers dried I painted the background using evergreen bough and a little pine needles. I cut my gold frame using blueprints 25 then blueprints 13 frame dies out of  MFT gold shine card stock. Joy was cut from the same paper using Lawn Fawns Scripty Joy. Last but not least I added Little Things from Lucy's cards Caribbean Dream sequins.