Make It Monday #271 - A La Carte

Hello friends.  For this weeks Make It Monday challenge, Papertrey Ink is inviting us to pick one of the challenges from this past year (2016) that we might not have had a chance to play in.  Up until right before Christmas, I had played in every challenge, but then ran out of time!  I would have loved to play in Ashley's picture challenge, but we just don't print pictures anymore...they are all on my phone or online.  Grrrr!  So anyway, I went back through all the challenges, and one that I really liked was from Dawn McVey, who showed us how to achieve more depth to our single stamps with sponging, and it's a technique I find myself using a LOT now!  You can check out Dawn's video HERE.  I was a little late to the party with the Christmas Critters set, but after seeing all the cute cards made with it, I just had to order it...and then of course ran out of time to use it before Christmas.  So I got to thinking...could I make it into a Valentine's card?  What do you think??

I used Dawn's sponging technique on the background circle with Lovely Lady, Hibiscus Burst, & Raspberry Fizz inks, and also on the die cut LOVE from Wonderful Words: Love.  For the mouse's sweater and cup, I used the same technique with Hawaiian Shores & Tropical Teal inks.  Doesn't look anything like Christmas to me and I think it makes a fabulous Valentine's Day card...love it!  :0)

As Darnell would say, I have a "twofer" for you today.  Another set that I just never got a chance to play with before Christmas was the Tiny Town: Gingerbread house.  Spent a few days working on it and just had FUN!  Take a look:

 

I even made a platform for it like my dear friend Birgit did for her Tiny Town buildings.  I wanted to have something to set the fences and tree's on, so the platform worked great!  I just cut a 6" square piece of cardstock and scored at 1/2" on all four sides...so easy to do and then I cut strips of DSP (1/2" X 5") for  all four sides to dress up the platform a bit.  I also used a Darice brick embossing folder for the outside of my house, but instead of actually embossing it, I inked up the inside of the folder and then pressed my two house pieces (one at a time) in it to give the inked look of bricks.  Betsy did such a fabulous job of adding all the little details to this set...the only thing I had to get from another set was the red bows for the fence (Catherine Pooler's Hip Holiday).  Like I said, it took me a few days to make it, working on it here and there, but it was so much fun and I love how it turned out.  I even put a little battery powered tea light in it, and it looks so warm and cozy when lit up!  :0)

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and make sure you check out what everyone else is adding to the gallery for this weeks challenge right HERE.