After years of posting neglect, here are a couple of cards I made recently, with the Stampin' Up sets, Beauté Parisienne and Timeless Tropical. The white piece under the Eiffel Tower card is the envelope. I almost feel as though it weren't winter piled deep outside my windows.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

 The Nativity figures are up, snow has finally arrived, and I'm nearly ready for Christmas. I'll be spending it with my younger son in Montréal. We'll be Face Timing with my older son and family in South Carolina.










As you can see, the House Mouse mice are
on their way to a Christmas Eve celebration at church, braving a snowstorm, candles lighting their way.









Here's my Christmas card for you, with wishes for a beautiful Christmas, surrounded--even if from afar--by those you love.

Autumn Light

Autumn brings the beauty of pied colour, but also shortening days, morning frost and a change in the quality of sunlight. Even on a clear day, one senses the retreat of the sun in its diluted rays. Darkness comes too soon in the afternoon, and lingers too long in the morning.

In this northern city of Québec, the sun does get a bit of reinforcement on clear, sub-zero winter days, when its rays reflect off the snow, dazzling light-hungry eyes, giving the illusion of warmth. It is an illusion, but one that recalls the true warmth of summer, giving us a smile and a hope.

                                  

                                  Winter Hearts

                   

                             Winter hearts fear not

                             The death of leaves

                             Nor the prophecies

                             Of ice and snow.

                             Winter hearts believe

                             In Spring.

                                      Kathleen Chabot

Think Pink!

In November 1944, when my mother died of breast cancer at the age of 35, the diagnosis of any cancer was a death sentence. Treatments were experimental, and detection was almost always too late. If it was detected, the only way to deal with breast cancer was to remove the breast.

Great progress has been made in the treatment and detection of breast cancer, but there's still a lot of room for improvement in the detection and treatment, and prevention is a challenge.

House Mouse and Friends honours Breast Cancer Awareness Month with their new Challenge HMFMC205 "In the Pink", http://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/in-pink-for-house-mouse-challenge.html

This card features Amanda--House Mouse Sweet Scent stamp--doing her best to help us adopt a Pink Attitude. She's coloured with Stamping Up watercolour crayons, applied with a Stampin' Up Aquapen. The sentiment is a digital image from CS Designs, lightly sponged with SU Blushing Bride ink. The pink layer is SU Blushing Bride card stock, dry-embossed with the SU folder, Elegant Bouquet (retired). The base is SU Whisper White thick card stock.

Who's Afraid of Ghosts, Goblins and Ghouls?

 In spite of their disguises, the House Mouse mice won't scare anyone. Sorry, guys!

I loved putting on a costume and Trick or Treating as much as the mice do. After supper was the best time; just dark enough to lend atmosphere and populate the neighbourhood with imagined ghosts and ghouls, but still safe for visibility. A cup of hot cocoa on my return was always a welcome accompaniment to my hoard of treats.

Years later, I relived Halloween memories as I accompanied my two sons from house to house. I had the chance to accompany my older granddaughters once--a special treat!

The three cards in this post were all made with House Mouse stamps. From top to bottom: Tweet Treats for All, Gettin' Spooky, and Incognito.

The yellow card stock on the first card was embossed with Branches with Leaves, by Ellison.The third card was reverse-masked to make the moon before it was stamped with Trees Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms. Stampin' Up Night of Navy was then sponged over the image. The little ghostie was stamped and cut out before being added to the card with  Stampin' Dimensionals.

Watercolouring was done with Stampin' Up Watercolour Wonder crayons.

The third card will be entered in the Fall/Halloween/Anything Goes challenge at http://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.ca

On a Magic Carpet

It's time for another House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge, The subject is Bingo or Anything Goes. This card is for Bingo, and I chose the vertical middle squares; orange, yellow and green. The green is subtle, because the leaves have put on their autumn colours, and only a little summer green remains on the veins and the stem.

The stamp is House Mouse Floating on a Leaf, coloured with Stampin' Up watercolour crayons (retired, alas!); the background paper comes from my stash and has been there for ages, the base is discontinued Stampin' Up Marigold Morning.

I'm drawn to the House Mouse mice because of their irrepressible joy. They take delight in everything, and their--or rather Ellen Jarecki's--inventiveness in using everyday objects for mousy mischief and fun is inspiring. Their mischief is never harmful or mean, and they cherish their friends and each other. Here they're using a couple of leaves for a magic carpet. I think I'll grab that leaf stem and sail along with them. Want to join me?

Back to School...in the rain!

The new House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge is Back to School. A card or other project must feature any of the House Mouse & Friends, Gruffies, or Happy Hoppers, and Anything Goes is the alternate subject.



Maxwell, Monica, Mudpie, and Muzzy are on their way to the first day of school. They don't seem bothered by the deluge, semi-protected as they are by the last of the summer's flowers. Mudpie seems a little hesitant about getting his feet wet, while Monica is happily splashing, Muzzy is soaking his tail, and Maxwell is leaping from rock to rock.

The scene reminds me of my first days at kindergarten. My house was not far from school, so after a couple of days being accompanied by my Grandmother, I was to walk there and back--an adventure in itself--and had a shiny new pair of red rubber boots for rainy days. When the first rainy day came, I set out, joyfully splashing in every puddle I could find. I was later told I was to avoid the puddles, which totally boggled my mind, because I couldn't see the point of boots if one was to avoid puddles.

I remember, too, my two sons' back to school days. I always saw them off reluctantly, because it meant the end of more relaxed time together. They were a joy to be with, not perfect, but full of energy, ideas and thoughts that could surprise and amaze. To keep them entertained during family vacation trips, while my husband did the driving,  I made up stories, which the boys haven't forgotten.  It's not so much the stories themselves, I'm sure, which stay in their minds, but the feeling of the four of us being woven together by the magic of imagined worlds.

Rainy Days and Back to School, what treasured, bittersweet memories!

The card base is Stampin' Up Lovely Lilac, overlaid with SU Sheer Perfection Vellum. The stamp is House Mouse Rainy Daisy Day. To watercolour, I used various SU watercolour crayons, markers, and ink. I used Judikins Diamond Glaze on the raindrops.