Whole Herd for Addicted to CAS #266
Italian Minis and England Minis for Paper Players 706

Dancin' Giftin Mouse for Paper Players #705

Happy Saturday.

It's the fabulous Joanne's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and it's a fun one!  Before I get to this week's card, a huge shout out to Stef for standing in for me and running last week's challenge while Lou and I were touring Ireland and Scotland!

Oh, I had such fun with this card.  I used some fabulous polka dot paper and a set of dies I bought on sale ages ago called Dancin' Giftin Mouse from Spellbinders.  Here's a sneak peek:

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This card is another one that is going off to Ronald McDonald!  Oh, and here's Joanne's challenge:

Oh, there were so many ways to go with this challenge and I debated and debated with myself (luckily I didn't do it out loud :-)) Finally, I decided to do some paper piecing to give my little Giftin' Mouse a lovely polka dot jersey.  Now, I'm all for fun Christmas jumpers - especially if they are worn by Colin Firth in Bridget Jones' Diary!  So, I thought why not give our little mouse the same fun treatment.

I die-cut the images from various colors of cardstock and DSP and then assembled him and his present - along with that fabulous bow!  As there was so much going on I decided not to do any shading, but just to leave things as they were.  I paired the image with a wonky stitched rectangle die and added a sentiment from the Dancin' Collection Christmas Sentiments - also from Spellbinders.

Here's my card:

DancinMousePP705

Isn't he fun?  I can see him dressed in all sorts of wonderful outfits.  Oh... and his little legs do move!

As always, our design team have some fabulous inspiration for you:

I hope you will join us and play along with Joanne's challenge.  We would love to see what YOU create.

On a personal note:

Well, Lou and I are back from our little trip to Ireland and Scotland.  We so enjoyed each of the places we visited.  Skara Brae has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember.  Skara Brae is a neolithic development that was covered by sand until 1850 when a major storm removed the sand that covered it.  As you walk towards the ruins, there are stones along the way trying to place architectural moments in a timeline.  It's hard to believe that what we visited is older than they pyramids and pre-dates Stonehenge.  It's over 5200 years old and what an amazing setting it is in.

First of all, here is the bay that it is nestled right next to:

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The development was done it two phases.  The next picture is one of the earliest buildings and you can see that the bed area is built up against the wall of the dwelling.  The central fireplace would have kept the dwelling very warm in winter and the thick walls would have kept out the strong winds.

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The next photo shows one of the later houses, where the bed is no longer against the wall - most likely to keep the inhabitants warmer as it is much closer to the fireplace.

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As I walked around this particular dwelling, I saw the stone that would have been used for grinding - however, over 5000 years later, the local birds were using it for a very different reason.  As you can imagine, this made me smile!

He/she blends in really well - but if you look closely, you can see the little bird at about 10 o'clock

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It was a gorgeous, desolate, peaceful, magical place and I am so pleased we got to spend some time there - oh, and the weather was pretty good, too!

Now that we are back, it's packing time!  Today was rest and relaxation - tomorrow it's down to brass tacks with lots of boxes and tape in my future!  I'll be back later in the week, in the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe:

  • Dies and stamps:  Dancin' Gifting Mouse and Dancin' Christmas Sentiments - Spellbinders

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