Dancing Willow

Hi, it seems quite a while since I last posted. I have had migraine and felt off colour this last week but feel a lot better now! I am so excited. I have finally got some Whiff of Joy stamps. I have wanted some for so long. This is one of them, 'Dancing Willow' - a beautiful stamp!

I made this card for the Whiff of Joy - Challenge No. 98 which is 'Paper Piecing'. I hope that you can see in the close-up that I have pieced some of the backing paper for Willow's dress and shoes to match the background. I also decided to have a go at using my gold-leaf kit which I have had for six months and never opened !!! I painted the Size (glue) onto the handbag and the belt/sash with fine paintbrush. My first attempt was dreadful, but this one (my 2nd attempt) is not too bad so thought I would use it.

'Dancing Willow' - detail

Colouring: 

Hair: Promarkers Vanilla and Tan

Skin: Copics E00 and R20

Necklace and bracelet: Sakura glitter pen

The backing paper is Milton & Co Paper Stack available at Handy Hippo. The gorgeous animal print card is also from Handy Hippo and I cut the shape with a Fiskar Template and Edging to make it look like an animal skin/rug then distressed and inked the edges. I haven't done much distressing - this is only my second go.  I think I might get to like 'distressing' as all that scraping gets rid of a lot of tension if you are feeling stressed!!! LOL. The sentiment is from a Molly Blooms stamp set (freebie with magazine) and mounted on gold card. The black ribbon is from stash. The gorgeous Gardenias are from Wild Orchid Crafts. 

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Whiff of Joy - Challenge No. 98 - Paper Piecing (ends Tuesday 1st March 2011)
Top Tip Tuesday - Challenge No. 23 - Bling It On (ends Monday 28th February 2011)
Creative Inspirations - Challenge No. 53 - Distress (ends Friday 25th February 2011)
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Challenge No. 9 - Spring ... Flowers Everywhere!!! (ends Sunday 13th March 2011)
Simon Says Stamp - Challenge - Coffee and Cream (ends Tuesday 1st March 2011)
Moving Along With the Times - Challenge No. 87 - Fashion (ends Wednesday 2nd March 2011)

Molly Blooms

I hope you all enjoyed Valentine's Day and received lots of nice surprises, and of course - love! I didn't have a secret admirer, but my daughter surprised me with some yummy embellishments for my cardmaking. She's a sweetie! Thanks for all your lovely comments, I really do appreciate you taking the time out to visit my website!

I have been itching to ink up this gorgeous Molly Blooms stamp by Clare that came free with Simply Cards & Papercraft Magazine and I have to say - I love this stamp! You will have to forgive me if it keeps popping up on my cards!! The image is mounted on Nellie Snellen Die Cut Frame.

I am entering The Sweet Stop Challenge and so using this week's sketch which I love!!! I will definitely be using this one again.

The backing paper is Sally Moret paper that came free with Crafts Beautiful magazine and was called Spring Paper Collection. The gingham paper is from Papermania Red Hot Paper Pack. I have only used two design papers and no more than 4 flowers, so it's great that I can enter it into the Creative Inspirations (Wednesday) Challenge 'Plain & Simple'.  The flowers are Petaloo Colour Me Crazy mini delphiniums, coloured with Pastel Blue Promarker. Wavy Scissors were used for edging. The sentiment was made on computer and then mounted on nestability. Pink card was from Papermania Sizzling Red Hot Pack. Bow, pearls and gems are from stash.

Colouring for image:

(Promarkers unless otherwise indicated)

Skin: Vanilla and R20 Copic

Hair: Tan

Scarf: Pastel Blue and G85 Copic

Top and socks: Cocktail Pink

Jeans and Shoes: Pastel Blue & Blender

Gift: Pastel blue and G85 Copic

I would also like to enter this into the Truly Scrumptious Challenge - Swirls and Pearls although I'm not sure if it qualifies for the theme. There are certainly plenty of pearls and I'm hoping that the blue wavy ribbons below count as swirls. I drove myself mad looking up the definition of a swirl. It said moving in a spiralling or twisting pattern. Oh I still don't know if it qualifies or not!! Lol - if not, just delete!

Swirls? and Pearls

I am entering into the following challenges:-

The Sweet Stop - Challenge 'SSS95' (ends 18 Feb)
Creative Inspirations (Wednesday) - Challenge 99 - 'Plain & Simple' (ends 22 Feb 9pm)
Creative Cottage - Challenge 33 - 'Fabulous Florals' (ends 1 March)
Truly Scrumptious - Challenge 51 - 'Swirls & Pearls' (ends 1 March 5pm)

Ooh - Blog Award!

Another nice surprise!  Laurie has kindly given me this award which I shall proudly display in my sidebar!

Now I am supposed to pass this on to 8 people after I've told you 8 things about myself!  Here are 8 things about myself:-

1. I was born on the same day, month, year as Sir Steve Redgrave (Olympic Rower)
2. I was a terrible teen! and once told my mum that I was going on a picnic, when actually I took rope, torch and ginger wine and went caving with friends!!
3. I love Egyptology and would love to see The Pyramids and Sphinx one day.
4. Another hobby of mine is Genealogy and I have traced most of my tree branches back to mid 1700's.
5. I love composing and playing songs (albeit badly) on GarageBand Apple Mac.
6. Queen Elizabeth visited our local park for Silver Jubilee in 1977 and I took a photo of her passing in car. Due to crowds, all you can see is a white gloved-hand waving through the Rolls !!! LOL
7. Aged 15, I went with the school to Mont St Michel, France and along with two friends, got locked in the Monastery. We nearly missed the coach home and the teachers hadn't noticed we were missing!!
8. I love History, especially Tudor Period and have read lots of books on it. I also love the series "The Tudors" (hot totty lol) and contrary to popular belief, most of it is surprisingly accurate!!

I don't know 8 people to pass this on to !!!! sob, but anyway, will pass this award on to the 5 beautiful followers that I have and if they wish to partake then they can do so. Oh no, I can't pass it back to Laurie! I only have 4 followers now, sob, sob, LOL.  Ah well, quality rather than quantity!!

Pat

Sarah 

Laney

Janie

It is fun way of getting to know each other! Thanks Laurie!!

Classic Bentley

Feeling under par at the moment, yet another virus probably. Struggling to do anything but made this card for my Uncle. It's Bentley Bear and one of the free stamps that came with this month's issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft. Paper is from this month's Craft Beautiful. The sentiment was made on computer. Button and ribbon from stash.

The image is digitally coloured. As I feel shaky, didn't want to do colouring, so I stamped the image, scanned it and then coloured it with Seashore on my AppleMac. I had a go at texturing but it doesn't really show up in the photo. You might see it on car tyres. I mounted the image to one side thinking it might create an illusion of speed, but it just looks odd! If I could go back I would centralise it!

Bentley Bear and Friends

I am entering it into the following Challenges:

Dutch Dare - Challenge No. 98 - Buttons, Whose got the Buttons
Cute Card Thursday - Challenge No. 150 - Banish the Blues!
The Crafty Pad - Challenge No. 106 - Something For the Boys