Celebrate! We're entering a New Year!

 I fell in love with this wonderful stamp by Ellen Jareckie.  Her little House Mouse is waving a magic wand, creating all sorts of wonderful things.  Perfect, don't you agree, for celebrating the New Year?  I've combined the stamped image with a fun starburst stencil.  All I had to do was mask the little mouse to protect it from the colours of the starburst and go crazy with my blending brush and colours.  I love the results, don't you?

After removing the mask, I used my Derwent pencils and Gamblin Solvent-Free Fluid to colour my image.  I love how well the colours blend using that technique.  Finally, after mounting the finished image to a Basic Gray matte and a base  of Whisper White, I added some Art Glitter glue to the magical lines created by the wands and then added some crystal sparkles.  The finished effect is like a thousand tiny rainbows.  I wish the camera had caught it like my eyes are able to.

I'm linking this card up to the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge #330 - Sparkle and Shine.

A Tangled Winter Tumble

I've used another of Ellen Jareckie's whimsical House-Mouse images for my new card.  This one is called A Tangled Tumble.  As you might expect, it features the adorable Amanda mouse, tumbling through the snow, tangled in some Christmas lights.  Lucky for her, the lights are not plugged in.

I used a Heavy Whisper White base with a matte of Cherry Cobbler cardstock.  Then I added a piece of the wonderful It's Snome Time patterned paper by the Craft Consortium.  I stamped the image on a piece of mixed media paper using my Early Espresso ink.  Since I intended to use my wax-based pencils, I needed a water-based ink.  I used a mixture of colours from both my Derwent my Koh-I-Noor collections. For blending, I used my paint brushes as well as the Gamblin Solvent-Free Fluid which I've used before.  I love that the colours become so smoothly blended with no change to their tone.  If you're wondering why the lights seem to be a sparkly 3-D, I added some clear Nuvo drops to each.  The plug for the lights is a lovely, shiny silver as well, and, especially in the close-up, you can see the sparkle on the snow.

Once finished, I cut out the image using my Big Shot and Stitched Nested Labels dies.  Then I cut an additional piece of Garden Green cardstock for my matte.  The sentiment is stamped using Cherry Cobbler ink and then cut out using a smaller of the same dies.  A Garden Green matte completed it nicely.

Finally I cut  two holly leaves from the same Garden Green and added three Cherry Cobbler "berries".

I love the way the little scene turned out, don't you?

I'm linking my card up to the current House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge since it completes the "option" with both some sparkle and shine.

HMFMC #330 - Anything Goes with an Option of Sparkle/Shine

Keeping Safe at Christmas

 2020 is definitely not what I would call a "normal" year.  Yes, normal is overused and means different things to different people.  But whatever your normal may be, you'll have to admit that this year has been many things other than normal.  

Christmas is coming.  I can't believe it's only 20 days away and counting.  Maybe I should get the gifts bought.  Wrapping isn't actually an emergency yet, but I will need some gifts, whether or not this is a normal year.  But with numbers of cases rising here in Alberta, the outlook for a Christmas where Nana and Grandpa can join the rest of the family for Christmas is bleak.

I love the House-Mouse images and this year Ellen Jareckie brought out a set of true to the moment images where her adorable images are wearing face masks and the sentiments reflect the care we should all be taking.  I've added a Christmas cap to one of those images and have created what seems like the perfect Christmas card for this year.  I hope you agree.

Little Maxwell is sending a hug but urges you to make it a virtual hug, six feet apart.  I've used Derwent watercolour pencils and my Aqua painter to colour him and then added some puffy snow to act as the fur trim to his cap.  

I'm linking my card up for the House-Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge.  

HMFMC#329 - Anything Goes With the Option of Christmas

Winter Wonderland End of the Year Challenge: Anything Christmas Goes