Christmas in July, again! ;-)

House Mouse & friends monday challenge is having 100th challenge blog-hop celebration! Since I luv our mice (!!), I HAD TO make a card! lol :-) I needed to make a card with "Buttons, Bows and Bling"! First I picked up this heart shaped gingham button which was on clearance section at Joann. For some reason, I really liked it! :-) So, from there, I started to think which house mouse stamp to use, & design of this card! I colored this hot chocolate image. I used sakura gelly roll pen (clear star) for the steam, to give a bit of shimmer. I colored the mice, cut them out, and layered on the image for 3D effect. I used Sizzix embossing folder, coloring the folder with fire brick distress ink, embossed it, and used the same pen to give a bit of shimmer on each petals of poinsettia, and used stickels (red) on the center of flowers. These are all a bit hard to see on the picture though. I'd been wanting to use this banner stamp from lawn fawn for a long time, so I'm happy to use it for the first time! :-) Another christmas card is done. :-) Since I'm one of those stampers who gets panic after thanksgiving, not having many christmas cards done yet, so this is a good thing! lol :-)

I'm also submitting this card to Creative Inspirations Challenge; Christmas in July. :-)

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. I really appreciate your time & comment! Hope you are all having a great evening! :-)

Hibiscus ~ my fav. flower :-)

I luv Hibiscus. When I was in elementary school, my mother used to take me to Tropical islands for summer vacations, and Hibiscus was the one I remembered the most. For a kid, the flower looked BIG & Beautiful! lol. When I think of Guam, I think of plumeria & bougainvillea more but hibiscus has been my most fav. Tropical Flower. Now, of course, we don't have those beautiful flowers here BUT I was very surprised that they SELL these flowers here! I even saw a lady buying a couple of pots of hibiscus at the grocery store where I was. I couldn't resist to take some pictures. And these are the ones. I'm also adding the yellow one which I took a picture at my friends' house a couple of days ago. I know, they aren't by the beach... oh well... Red hibiscus was the first one to remember from my childhood but aren't they all so pretty?? :-)

eek! eek! Missed the deadline!

I loved this sketch when I found it at one stop craft challenge, but I missed the deadline to submit :-( But I'm uploading this here so that my "House Mouse" friends can see my card, using this sketch :-) Since the color of the bird is really blue, I wanted the whole card to be in blue tone. I used cuttlebug embossing folder with birds & branches on Coordination CS & sanded it to get those white color. I used glossy accent to the berry the bird brought for this mouse :-) Inside of the card, it says "the best present". Others are rather self-explanatory. Thanks for visiting my blog today. Have a great weekend! :-)

2011 Women's World Cup in Germany

Until we went out to eat & my friend saw on TV screen that Japan had just won in OT against Germany, I never knew that Women's Wold Cup was going on. Because they beat Germany, they had a game against Sweden a week later, and I could watch the whole game. Then, because they beat Sweden, I could watch the whole game a week later against US for the final. I even didn't know that there was a Women's World Cup! Baseball & Soccer are both very popular in Japan but I remember I watched only MEN's, not the WOMENs'. Japanese always have problems in those games they need lots of energy & speed, like Soccer, running that big field for at least 90 mins, with a bit of break. Just because they are smaller/shorter. Because they eat fish which helps to prolong your life than eating red meat but the meat usually gives boost & energy to young people, for shorter time, like in US, even it isn't healthy in a long run. Many Americans don't know all this but this is what Japanese always say. But maybe shorter people even here in the US have experienced in school, competing with TALL classmates in PE. I heard that Japanese team was the shortest in World cup, and Swedish was the tallest. I saw Swedish players just pushed and Japanese fell a couple of times through the game... That's why Japanese hardly ever win those games, track, etc. which you need speed & lots of energy, but they sometimes win, like gymnastics. So this was a BIG accomplishment for them!! I favored US, BUT I was shocked and CRIED after Japanese team won, because I could feel how All Japanese felt. For US, those people who were involved, winning the world cup is their dream come true too but soccer isn't as popular here, as it is in Japan. Probably most Americans only cared about "winning" the Gold/Cup, as a fellow American. But for Japanese, it's different, not only Soccer is very popular, but esp. this year, after 311. yes, I learned from my mother they call that earthquake & tsunami, "311" in their conversation (like 9/11), cuz the name of that earthquake is long. ... If they didnt' lose over 24,000 (?) people on ONE DAY in that Peaceful country after WWII, I probably didn't cry, but said I was shocked, and still be happy cuz I usualy root for Underdogs. lol. But of course, even US won, I would've been happy too :-) I luv to watch the game as long as it's exciting & very close, and as long as referee doesn't call the penalties wrong. The game was so exciting & very close. As Wambach said in her interview after the game, it looked as if it wasnt' meant to be, after missing several goals in the first 20 mins. or so when US was dominating the game & had numerous opportunities. Watching the first 20 mins., I thought US would win, like everybody expected by 2-0, if not more. Even US won, I wanted SAWA, the captain to score at least ONE to get Golden Boot (as the tournament's top scorer), so that at least, Japan would have something to be happy about. But not only she took World Cup & Golden Boot, she was also named as the Player of the Tournament (Golden Ball)! Many people might've forgotten about 311, but still across Japan is suffering from shortage of power due to 4 reactors aren't working. I heard that the team couldn't practice due to no light at night. I heard that one player lost 4 friends at once. I heard one's best friend working for that damaged nuclear power plants, not knowing what would happen next, and couldn't make it to Germany to cheer for her. Last night (US eastern standeard time), the team returned Japan, being welcomed by so many, incld. their prime minister, and he even said that he was encouraged by them (by those little girls, compared to the prime minister!), to NEVER GIVE UP. :-) I am too. :-) On lighter note, I'm impressed with them cuz Japan is still a MAN's world, NOT women's. My mom always get surprised whenever she sees American Ladies in spot light from Political to financial arena. I don't recall Japanese MEN's soccer team ever went to finals at world cup even they have Professional MEN's soccer LEAGUE in Japan. My mother told me that slowly but steadily she sees more women in business, management, politics. So, me as a woman, I'm also happy with this result! :-) The typhoon is approaching Japan as we speak, and has already hitting the southern part of Japan, with torrential rains... when this happens, the mudslide usually occurs, and people get killed... Japan really needed the emotional lift. Japanese had 25 games against US, and never won before, and they won this World Cup! I even gave up after US scored 2-1, but team never gave up. The winning money will go to the victimes from 311, according to a team member. At least hers, she said. Those victims from home was her biggest motivation. Before I close this post, I just want to add that I was amazed Megan Rapino's footwork when she kept the ball, Hope Solo & Wambach's interviews after the game. They are great girls & great teams! :) Congratulations to Japan, and thank you all for the great game, both US & Japan! :-)

Tilda celebrating Birthday in red, white & blue!

I used the sketch at Mojo Monday #199 , for the front of the card. Because of rather simple front, I ended up making a Easel Card. I'm submitting this card to Delightful Challenge for fancy folding challenge (and this is my 2nd submission there, for this challenge :-)) This card theme is Birthday, and I'm submitting it to Magnolia Mania & Simply Magnolia challenge. For the color challenge of Red, White & Blue, I'm submitting this card to Creative Inspirations, 7 kids college fund & Magnolia-licious challenge. The sentiment is old Hero arts stamp, the balloon is lawn fawn, and cupcakes are also magnolia stamps. The main image & the balloon are attached with pop up glue dots to give some dimentions, as well as cupcakes so that they would hold the front part of the card. I used glitters on the frills of Tilda's dress, glaze on her ribbons, shoes, ribbons on the cupcakes & hearts sprinkles.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Have a great weekend~ :-)

House Mouse Birthday Card for the Swap

I made this card for the swap in the house mouse yahoo group I belong. I'm submitting this card to Allsorts challenge where they are running "FREE" theme (meaning Anything is fine! :-) ) I colored Ice cream in 3 colors! like the one I recently did, to POPSICLE image! LOL! :-) I cut the scallop circle nesties from pink textured & brown CS separately, cut the top of brown one to layer on pink nestie, so that pink sentiment label pops up more on brown color (and used dimentional glue foams, too) I used the glaze pen over the mice hats but doesn't show well on the picture... I used Glitter glue for the flame. Those glitter gems are from my house mouse online buddy, Peggie, from my Bingo winning prize! (thanks Peggie!)
Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Have a great weekend! ~~

Christmas in July! Criss Cross Card :-)

This is the theme at Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Also, "Fancy Fold" is the challenge at Delightful Challenge. I've been making more different "folding" cards this year, as you all noticed?? Because, I got MS's Scoring board this year. How FUN to fold, using the board!! lol! :-) I might make more different "folding" cards for Delightful Challenge before their deadline :-) I've recently made this Criss Cross card using Tilda, but Vertical one. I made Horizontal one this time :-) I've received this PB image from my online friend last year, and had been wanting to color it :-) I used stickles for snow, and for the first time I used very light blue to outline the image (learning from Elizabeth A.! thanks! :-)), instead of light grey I've been using. I've bought this light blue Copic marker at the stamp show I've went last weekend. Inside of the card, I stamped the sentiment & holly and used liquid pearls for berries. For this, you can just put the name on the white part, and when I mail this card, I'll put a piece of white cs in the back of this moss green cs, to write a note to the recipient. I'm also submitting this card to Allsorts challenge where they are running "FREE" challenge (meaning ANYTHING is fine! :-) )

By the way, my best friend called me. She received her birthday card & her daughter's birthday card from me. Their birthdays are only 3 days apart so I mailed them together, in a larger padded envy. She told me that her daughter who enjoys my card very much (she became 10) made a handmade card for her mother (my best friend), getting inspired by ME! :-) I'm tickled :-)

Thank you very much for stopping by my blog today. You'll all have a great weekend!! :-)

House Mouse with Strawberries... Yumm! :-)

I made this YUMMY card for this week's challenge at CardPatterns, using the sketch shown. I rotated it by 90 degrees. It's rather a simple pattern but I thought it's perfect for this house mouse strawberry image! I love anything/anyone with Berries (any kind) images!.. I might've mentioned that before. lol :-) I also made this card,using the color challenge at the Corrosive Challenge; Red & white. Sometimes it's fun to change the colors from the original colors, and it still looks nice. For this card, I punched the leaves out from red glitter papers, instead of green, which I normally would use. After coloring strawberries with watercolor pencil, I used black pen to trace the seeds. Then I traced all the black colored seeds with sakura clear glaze pen to give a bit of shiney look & a bit of texture. Thank you for stopping by my blog today! :-)

Tilda with Summer Flowers!

When I think of "summer flower", I think of Sunflower :-) I used my new hero arts envelope pattern stamp to make a background paper, stamping in yellow first, brown , second, but moved the stamp a bit, and again, I stamped it in yellow, moved a bit again so no stamping image would overlap each other, to make this background paper. Then I distressed the edges. I also colored the white flower with yellow ink to match, cuz I didn't have a yellow flower. I'm submitting this card to Magnolia stamp lover, where the "summer Flower challenge" is going on. Thank you for taking time to visit my blog today! :-)