Candy Cane Mouse

Happy Friday!

Woo Hoo!  Last day of school before Christmas break!  (Of course I say that NOW but give me 4 days of 24/7 with crazy excited kids ... and crazy excited mom and I'll be counting down the days until January 6th *lol*)

As promised, today I want to share the ADORABLE little Candy Cand treats I came up with last week.  Last week I was sitting, looking at our tree.  It is now 100% decorated with hand-made ornaments.  Most have been made by myself ... but many are made by the girls as well as some from my mom and dad - mom's are knitted - dad's are carved.  I love our tree.  I always wanted a tree with all handmade ornments and now I finally have it :)

One of my all time favorites is one I made about 5 years ago.  They are little felt mice with cany canes for the tails.  I think I found a template through Martha Stewart (this was before the days of Pinterest!)  Here is a picture of one of them:

 Isn't he the cutest little think you've ever seen?? The year that I made these I made about 20 ... the girls helped (as much as they could) and they gave them to grandparents and aunts/uncles for gifts that year.  As I looked at it I realized I could make a paper version using our new Gift Bow Bigz die!!  I ran right downstairs to give it a whirl and came up with this:

Hee hee - she makes me giggle.  LOVE her!  For the body I punched out some Whisper White card stock using one of the Oval Framelits.  I then made the large bow from the bow dau and attached it with my Tombow glue.  I made a bow for her head out of Gumball Green card stock, my Petite Pennants Builder punch and my 1/2" circle punch.  Again, white glue to attach.  Two little googlie eyes (from the dollar store) and a (retired) Rose Red brad for the nose and she was almost done.  I attached a candy cane with my hot glue gun and Wa-low!  An adorable paper version of my favorite ornament.  Don't you just LOVE when you can come up with more than one use for a big-ticket tool?  I do!  I really wasn't convinced I'd ever USE the bow die ... I'm not normally a "bow-on-present" kind-of-gal ... but I DID use it for bows for chocolates ... and then for the paper angels ... and now for my little mice.  Love it!  I think you should get the die!  Page 37 of the holiday catalogue - $40.95.  I think it's an investment worth making!

Pop in again soon ... I AM in the midst of posting about all of the ornaments I have made over the years.  It will be a one-stop place for ornament ideas!  Until then - have a very stampy day :)


Tam