Wee Suzi

Here is my first card made with the cute and adorable Suzi from Wee Stamps. I've coloured her with Copics, but as the colours were mostly pale they don't show up too well with my new camera, especially the subtle shading I've used. For example, that little ladybird is coloured with R85 and R81 so should be darker, and I've inked the edges of the white leaves and the butterfly with Victorian Velvet DI and that doesn't show up either. Any thoughts on how to fix it? My camera is a Fujifilm Finepix 14 mega pixel, and I'm using all those to take the pictures. Or do I need to change my style and start using darker colours with more contrast - I hope not as I do like the pastels.

The rest of the Copic colours I used were:

skin tones with E000, 00, 21 and R00 - hair with E30, 31, 55
flower pot and gift with E40, 41 and 42
bows on gift and trim on dress with RV91, 93 and 95
roses with R81, 83 and 85
leaves with YG91 and 93
dress with E0000, R0000 and R81

the shadow beneath her feet is done with E40 and 41,
and I've used Y0000 all around her to give a soft golden glow.

For the card layout I've used the Cutie Sunday challenge sketch with Cottage Rose digi papers from Cuddly Buddly and a strip of Martha Stewart deep edge infinity punched lace added to the horizontal layer. I've inked the edges of the papers with Victorian Velvet DI before adding Stardust Stickles, and I've also inked and stickled the edge of the image that I've cut out with a circular Nestie and matted with a plain scallop Nestie circle edged with the DI. I've made the pearls with my Waco cream pearl maker pen, die cut the Joy butterfly, punched leaves and fronds, then added snips of pearl string to the flowery embellishments.

Paper Sundaes have a list of toppings to use this week, I've got the flowers, distressing and pink, and if you count the infinity punched border I have the lace too! The Digital Tuesday challenge is to use a die cut and a digi this week - I have diecut my digi image, the mat and the little butterfly.

Thanks for the enquiries about my health, it's not great but I'm upright! I am getting tired very easily and it seems that my kidneys may have been damaged when I had the bad attack of gout 15 months ago so now they aren't getting rid of some of the things they should be .. .. more tests in the offing but things are better than they were the last time I had the tests. Unfortunately I'd put on a stone in weight since I stopped dieting last summer so I'm back on the diet and have done remarkably well this week with a 5lb loss! I am not expecting to keep that up but at least it's a good start and I'm almost back to the weight I was this time last year, another stone off and I'll be happy, still overweight according to the doctor but at least not obese! I've given up any hope of the hot flashes ever going away, I've tried everything and they are obviously not menopausal as that happened years ago - according to the doc I'm just one of the unlucky small percentage that will get them for life!!!!