Happy House-Mouse Friday!

Hello friends & followers!  Happy Friday!  Today I have two cards for your viewing pleasure.  The first is in celebration of House-Mouse Designs birthday, this company that sells the cutest mouse, bunny, bear and other assorted creature images.  My friend Lee introduced me to them and I just ADORE them!  So I made this card using their sweet 'Make a Wish' image and Sketch 350 by Roxie over at Splitcoaststampers to make this card for House-Mouse's birthday celebration challenge:

See?  Are the mousies sweet?  (Please click on the photo for clearer resolution).  The mousies are colored with Copic markers, I added some red pearls to the corners and some glitter to the cupcake's frosting for a little extra sparkle to match the pre-glittered papers from the 'Birthday Extravaganza' stack from Hobby Lobby.  This card also fulfills the following additional challenges as well:

• One Stop Craft Challenge Week 148 - food & drink (hey, cupcakes are food!  LOL!), 
• Clearly Inspired Challenge 36 - glitter (there is some on the cupcake & pre-glittered paper), and
• The Crazy Challenge 84 - Birthdays,
• The Stamping Boutique September Challenge - Come Celebrate with us/Birthdays, 
• Totally Stampalicious - Anything Goes (prizes if there are more than 100 entries - so play along!),
• Creative Inspirations Challenge 129 - Anything Goes, 
• Cute Card Thursday Challenge 182 - Anything Goes, and
• Pile It On Challenge 37 - Layer It (8 layers here).

My second card was created using Sweet N' Sassy Stamps' Sweet Stop Sketch 125 and the recipe from Deb Felt's September Release Challenge at Stamp TV: to use at least 4 colors (light blue, deep red, rosey pink, white), 3 embellishments (rhinestones, ribbon, buttons), two punches or die cuts (the big circle by Marvy-Uchida and the scalloped-edge punch) and 1 image (from Gina K. Designs' 'Warm & Cozy Christmas' set) to make one holiday card (holiday card count = 38, behind where I hope to be this time of year, but not abysmal).

(Again, please click on the photo for clearer resolution).  I just love these colors together!  The papers are from one of DCWV's mat stacks, easy coordination!  This card also fulfills the requirements of the following additional challenges:

• Mary's Sweet n' Sassy Stamps' Release Party Challenge 2 at SCS - to make a holiday card, 
• Janette's Sweet n' Sassy Stamps' Release Party Challenge 3 - 'On the Edge' (to decorate the cards edges - I used an edger punch here), 
• Winter Wonderland - Girly Christmas (there is a little girl here and some pink),
• Frosted Designed Fabulous Friday Challenge - punches,.
• Paper Play Challenge Week 37 - punches & dies, 
• Cute Card Thursday Challenge 182 - Anything Goes,
• Totally Stampalicious - Anything Goes, and
• Fab n Funky Challenge 90  - Eyes Down for Bingo:

Embellishment	Button(s)	Stamped image
Digi image	Ribbon	3 papers or layers
Flower(s)	Sentiment	Die cuts

(I went straight across the top row, with embellishments, buttons, and a stamped image).


That is probably all of the cards I have for you today sadly, but I hope to do LOTS of stamping and crafting this weekend so I hope you will stop by again!  Thanks for taking the time to view my creations and read my ramblings.  Have a wonderful Friday!
~Crafty Math Chick

Six on the Seventh

Hello my friends and followers - I cannot tell you how it makes me smile as I see your numbers slowly increasing.  :)  Today I have not one, not two, not even three cards to show you but six.  (I KNOW!)  There are lots of cool challenges on the horizon that have piqued my interest.  The first one is for  Skipping Stones Design Sketch 71:

I used their humorous 'Birthday Donuts' set (the inside says "...sometimes it's best not to count how many you've had") with some Regal Rose patterned paper from one of Stampin' Up!'s retired hostess stacks and this cool chocolate chip morsel DP I found at JoAnn's.   (Someone out there has to come up with some chocolate morsel shaped brads, don't you think?  They would have been awesome on this card!) The donut is embossed using American Crafts' Brownie embossing powder onto Creamy Caramel Cardstock.  I popped the donut up on dimensionals and added a few fun pink & brown ribbons.  Oh yeah, and the brown brads in the corner - do you know how difficult it is to find brown brads?  Not bronze or copper, but brown?  Psst - try Hobby Lobby, they sell them in the combo six packs by Spare Parts and go on sale pretty regularly.  Since this card is humorous, as are several of Skipping Stones Design's sets, it satisfies the requirements of this week's Cupcake Craft Challenge - Comedy Rocks.

This next card I created for Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge 49 - to spotlight an animal.  I have not tried the spotlighting technique before:

...so how did I do?  My friend Lee Murphy turned me on to House Mouse stamps, aren't they cuties?  So I created this birthday card for her using some patterned paper from the 'Birthday Extravaganza' stack by the Paper Studio and layering two of the yummy ribbons she was kind enough to send me in a 'get well soon' care package.   She is a big fan of pink and the meeses, so I am hoping she will like this card.  (Note to self - you do not have a 5/8" or 7/8" circle punches in your collection and, yes, you do need them).  This card also fulfills the requirements of the following challenges:

• Really Reasonable Ribbon's Challenge 21 - to use punches or die cuts and ribbon,
• Paper Play Challenges Week 14 - Critters Galore, and
• Wee Memories Challenge 50 - rainbow inspired - isn't Jenny's inspiration picture GORGEOUS:

Okay, on to my third card, which was created for Verve's 'Color Me Spring' Challenge.  I used the my new 'Egg-stra Special' set that I won during a sneak peek blog hop from Jackie Pedro's Blog (thanks Jackie!) and some patterned paper and ribbon from a past Sell-a-bration Freebie to make this little number:

Believe it or not, I struggled with this one; I am just not a pastel person.  Other than light blue and making an all white and blue or all white and pink baby card, I tend to shy away from my pastels, but I wanted to give this cute little chickie some love.  This card also fulfills the requirements of the following challenges as well:

• The Shabby Tea Room's Challenge 56 - based on this inspirational photo (I thought of the chick hatching from one of these eggs and the pastel colors):
• 
• Tuesday Throwdown 43 - Spring theme, and
• Dutch Dare Card Challenge 107 - Spring has Sprung.

Now for my last three cards, a trio of itty bitty 3 x 3 cards (LOVE this size to include with 'happy mail' packages sent to fellow crafters, because you just can't send something to a fellow card maker without a handmade card in it) for you courtesy of Waltzingmouse's Sketch Challenge 41, which was to make 3 itty bitty cards this week.  I used their 'Sewing Box Hugs' set and made these little cuties:

Again, I used patterned papers from retired hostess packs from Stampin' Up! in Pretty in Pink and Apricot.  The birdie was stamped three times on white, apricot daisies and apricot swirls papers, then cut out and layered, popping up the wing with a dimensional and corner-punching the corners to add pink pearls in some of the corners (discovery - I don't have nearly as many pearls as I do rhinestones!).  Since faux stitching is used in the images of this card is also fulfills the requirements of Challenge 39 by Your Next Stamp - stitching.

That is about it from me.  Tami Mayberry of Gina K. Designs fame is having a HUGE giveaway on her blog if you wish to go check it out, it is pretty spectacular.

I hope everyone has a happy Thursday evening!
~Crafty Math Chick