House Mouse Birthday - Tuesday 6th December

Good Morning Friends,

Yesterday Tom and I had the day off work, but not to relax...first thing was a dental check up for both of us...for some reason we still attend the dental practice I went to as a child, which is in Bristol. We had to be there for 9am: it should take 45 minutes at that time of morning with the traffic, but one of the villages on the way was snarled up for some reason and it took an hour and a half (good job we left early)..we got there bang on 9am. Tom was fine, but I knew I'd lost a bit of a filling, so I have to go back in December :( - expensive!

Then we went to the  shopping mall to buy a washing machine because ours is on the brink of going to kitchen appliance heaven...even more expensive!!

After that we had to rush home for a visit from a gas engineer to quote for a new boiler, as that too is sadly getting in need of retirement....too much expense in one day (and at this time of year)!!! Why does it all come at once???

Goodness it's scary how much money you could part with in one day through necessity isn't it? I broke it to the hens that their meal worm allowance was being cut :) 

Well on to a much more cheering subject...crafts! I didn't get to look at all your blogs until after the shock of the boiler cost last night, but you had all been making such lovely cards and boxes..you are all so talented!

My project for today is a commissioned card and a topical image for November as it features a poppy. This is a House Mouse image from Joanna Sheen's project book. Those of you who have been following me for a while, will know that I'm a big fan of the House Mouse designs. Earlier this year I was thrilled to be a guest on their blog Design Team and it's one of the challenges I love to enter but sadly don't get a lot of time.

House Mouse to me usually means rubber stamps - I'm first and foremost a stamper - and I'm also not a fan of decoupage. But when Joanna Sheen brought out the project book, I had to treat myself to it for several reasons...

To begin with, I can adapt the projects to use with stamps and use the backing papers; I can't possibly buy every stamp that I'd like to, so to have quite a few images readily available on CD is a bonus and I don't have to decoupage them!

Having bought the book and CD, I do really like it - even just to look at, the photos and projects are gorgeous. I'm going to spend some of my stash money on the Christmas one (don't tell Tom or he'll want it towards the washing machine...lol :))

This card is 8x8 and is one of several ordered by a long and highly valued customer and quite often she says she'll go with whatever ideas I have. Of course I recognise names and know that I have been making cards for certain recipients for a number of years, so the challenge is to be different.

Well, who couldn't love these little meece? I adapted the card from a project in the book but I only added one layer to the poppy and the mouse, just to make it stand out. There is only a hint of glitter, but drat on these short days, I had to use flat and it makes it look like there is more than there is!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

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