Another Wee Florist

Another scheduled post from me - and another version of Sylvia's Wee Florist digi image available from Cuddly Buddly. Just the one picture today as my camera wouldn't focus in close up - one of these days I will get it right! I've gone for summer colours this time, but kept things pretty with the soft lilac papers in the background. I've coloured with my Copics, the usual skin tones E000, 00 and 21 plus a touch of R00 for blush. Her hair is YR21, 24 and E33 with the roses coloured in Y21, 35 and 38. The leaves are YG21 and 25 and her trousers are YG95, 93, 91 and E41. The shoes and bucket are E41, 42, 43 and 44, and the pretty lilac shades are V00, 01, 12 and 15.

I coloured the roses with the pens to match then die cut various Marianne bits and pieces to create the embellishments. The text is another from the Sweet Summer Sentiments set and I finished with a little organza ribbon and golden gem hearts.

The Charisma Cardz blog challenge is for sunshine colours so I'm entering my card with them, and Crafty Catz don't want to see any pink or blue this week - so I'm with them too. I'll have to link back when I get home, if I'm not too tired after a day unloading boxes and playing on the beach!

Wee Sweet Blossom

I'm scheduling this post so fingers crossed Mr Blogger isn't having an off day .. .. I've coloured one of Sylvia's older Wee digi designs, this is Sweet Blossom, and she is certainly sweet. I've also taken a deep breath and cut up some of my pretty Stampin' Up! paper and used Soft Suede to mat it and diecut the scallop circle mat for my image. As the paper has a white core and I didn't want it showing I've inked the edges with brown chalk inks, and inked the edge of the image after I'd finished colouring. It's a simple little card and my embellishments are the pastel amber pearls made with my pearl maker pen, a scattering of punched flowers, a circular embellishment from the Sweet Summer Sentiments and a bow tied with SU! Crumb Cake seam binding.


To keep with the softer vintage feel I've coloured with softer shades. Skin tones are my usual E000, 00 and E21 with her hair and cute companion in E50, 51, 53 and 55. I've used E81 and E31 for her creamy clothing and YG91 and Y28 for the soft green stripes on her tights. For the pink flowers and butterflies I used R81, 83 and 85 with G40 and G85 for the leaves.

I'm not sure if my card fits with any current challenges .. .. perhaps you would let me know and I'll link up later this evening.

I found the Allsorts challenge which is a fee and easy one again this week - so in with them! And the Totally Gorjuss challenge is to use a punch or die - I have die cut my image and mat with Nesties and punched out all the little flowers, so in with them too!

Wee Bunny

Now isn't he the cutest little bunny wabbit you've seen! Sylvia has captured such a cute expression on his face, and doesn't he look smart in his college tie. And I just had to colour with the luscious new Copic shades of raspberry pinks - RV17, RV66, RV63 and RV00 + 000 to shade things out. The green leaves are coloured with the YG 93, 97 and 99 pens, whilst bunny himself is coloured with cool greys. Here's the card .. ..


I've used a couple of the Cuddly Buddly slate cottage collection of digi papers with orchid pink card for matting, a piece of ribbon off a chocolate box (they were very good chocs!) and some of my precious lace. To create the flowery embellishment I coloured a trio of roses with the Copic pens, die cut various Marianne bits and pieces and added snips of pearl string. In real life the ribbon is a better match to the deep pink colour - a perfect RV17 in fact. The circular greeting is another from the new sweet summer sentiments digi collection.

Both Die Cut Dreams and Fab 'n' Funky challenges are for animal antics/magic this week, so I'm entering my cute Wee Bunny with them.

New Wee digis

Sorry I was AWOL yesterday .. .. I will explain why later on. Today though you can get your hands on more new digi stamp designs from Cuddly Buddly's artists - I got to play with a couple of Sylvia's new Wee designs, this first one is the Wee Florist, and isn't she a darling!

I'm showing you the close up of my colouring first - with Copics of course. My usual skin tones of E000, 00, and E21. For her hair, shoes, trousers and the pot I've gone for the E40 range up to E44. The pinks are RV00, R81, 83 and 85 with green leaves in G40, YG41 and G14. The blues are B0000, 000 and 00. The text greeting is a new one from Bits of Ivory's circular sweet summer sentiments and I've used various pieces of digi papers from Cuddly Buddly. My floral embellishment is created with various Marianne dies plus a Nellie's Choice die cut heart and little punched butterflies. Now here's the card in full .. ..

The Allsorts challenge is free and easy again so I can enter with them, while the Papertake Weekly challenge is for cute so I'm with them too.

My reason for going missing, and for being AWOL quite a bit in the coming months, is we are going to be moving. My regular readers will know that I recently lost my Dad and my Mum lives across the other side of Cornwall, which takes a good hour to drive too. We had planned on looking for a home to suit us all, but everything is way out of our price bracket. So, after discussions with the family we have decided to, subject to planning permission, extend her bungalow allowing us all to live together - and just a few miles from the sea! It's going to be a hassle as we are wanting to sell up here asap due to our own predicaments with the business and current economic climate, so we will be moving into Mum's small spare bedroom and garage until the works are complete. It will be a phased build with lots of moving about of stuff as each room gets a make-over. There's a total rewire of the whole bungalow and new heating systems to be installed - and then once the building work is done, I have a blank canvas of garden to develop that's currently just lawn and a few small flower beds. So, although I want to keep a little of my craft stash available to enable me to colour and chill - I'm not sure how many coloured images will be made into cards if everything is put into boxes. Instead of sharing my craft creations with you, you might be seeing pictures of a building site instead!

Christmas in July!

This is one of Kim's new Santa digi designs now available at Cuddly Buddly I've used the sitting Santa and printed him out 3 times so I could do a little bit of cutting and layering up, hardly decoupage but easy to do with these new designs. A little hint, if your cutting out isn't perfect, as mine rarely is, take a black permanent marker and edge your cut outs that way any white bits disappear. I've coloured Santa with Copics, added sparkle to his fur trims and glazed the stars. The paper was a free download from the Cuddly Buddly blog last Christmas matted with textured green cardstock. I found a scrap of gold netting to use as a layer and tied a piece of green gross grain ribbon around the card before fixing my image with 3d foam pads on top. The embellishment is created from a mix of Marianne diecuts and little red gems to finish things off. I'm sorry I don't have a list of the Copic colours I used on this one .. .. the bit of paper has got lost on my desk/floor/bin - it's hard to see where one area ends and the next begins! I must have a tidy up today.

The Creative Craft challenges theme is to 3d it - I have 3d my image as well as the flower embellishments so I can enter with them. The Outlawz forum Copic/Promarker challenge is currently Christmas in July, and Paper Sundaes are also running with a Festive theme. The Cupcake theme is 'wish upon a star' so as I have a star atop the tree and Santa has one on his hat I hope that's enough to enter their challenge too.

Wee Suzi

This is quite a small card, just 12cm square, so I had to make Wee Suzi digi image smaller so she would fit in both the Nellie's Choice die cut circular mat and then onto the card. The papers are some of my precious ones from Stampin' Up!, as is the seam binding, and everything is edged with brown Versamagic chalk inks and Platinum Stickles. I've also die cut a Nellie's Choice heart and added the pearls with the Pastel Amber Waco pearl maker pen - I like this shade for a vintage touch. The little circular text greeting is coming soon at Cuddly Buddly, it's one on a sheet of digi sentiments by Bits of Ivory.

My Wee Suzi image is coloured with Copics, my usual skin tones of E000, 00 and 21 plus a little pink on her cheeks. The pinks I used were R81, 83 and 85 with RV000 when I wanted to fade out on her dress. Her hair is E51, 53 and shade E55 then I've used the pale E50 with E81 for the pot and parcel. The greens are G20, 82 and 94 and I've grounded her with warm greys and shadowed with W0 before inking around the image with Versamagic chalk ink Magnolia Budd to take off the stark white. I use chalk inks rather the distress inks as they don't react to the card I print and stamp onto.

Totally Papercrafts are looking for girlie girls this time around so I think this card fits their theme rather well! A new challenge blog to me is Divas by Design, their theme is for pastel colours, as is the Copic Creations blog challenge.

It has been another challenging weekend for us. On Saturday I learnt that my ex-father in law died. Although we had been estranged since my divorce, I feel for my sons who have lost a grandfather, and within a few weeks of my own father's death. My husband's father died a few years ago too, so now he is the oldest man in our immediate family.

Daisy Chain

I started colouring this image at my friend Wynneth's home a couple of weeks ago, but never got around to finishing it, until yesterday. I've stamped LOTV Daisy Chain with rich cocoa Momento ink to keep things softer and tried to capture summer colours - and there's a whole lot of summer challenges about at the moment! As is always the way when I colour without sorting out papers first, I spent most of the afternoon faffing about before finally settling on a summer yellow gingham matted with Pear Pizzaz cardstock by Stampin' Up! The pretty coral pink is a Coredinations shade called Satin Rose and I used my new Nellie's Choice fancy circle die to cut the circular mat following the Sunday Sketch and Stamp blog design layout. The little buttons are from the same die set and I've used a snip to decorate the top corner and also cut the mat for the small text greeting. The ribbon is from my stash, the butterflies are created with a little Nellie's Choice punch and emboss set, the green fronds are a Marianne diecut and the little flowers are an ancient punch. I've edged the butterflies and flowers with a snow cap Adirondack paint dabber then finished off with a pastel amber pearl maker pen.

As I started colouring the image a while back I can't remember all the Copic colours, but I'm guessing my usual skin tones of E000, 00, 21 and a touch of R00 on her cheeks. Her hair and teddy bear must be E30, 31, 33 and I think 35, but I'm not sure of the exact numbers. Her blue dress and hair bow had to be B91, 93 and 95 with soft peach trim in the R0 series .. .. and I touched up the flowers and teddy's paws with R14 yesterday to darken things a bit. The grass is YG11, 03 and 13 and for the sunshine background I used the Y0000,Y000 and Y00.

And for the summer blog challenges I can enter: Totally Gorjuss, Dream Valley, Fussy and Fancy Friday and Kreative Stamping Friends. I'm also entering the Moving Along With the Times challenge to use your favourite things as there's lots of my favourites on this card - Copics, of course, LOTV image, punches and diecuts and my Waco pearl maker pen.

going round in circles

This week on CCT the challenge is for circles on your creation. We are being sponsored by Simon Says Stamps, do stop by the CCT blog for all the details and to admire the fabulous DT creations!

On my card I've used the cute Christmas with Dawn stamp from Nellie's Choice, but made a birthday card instead - the image works don't you think? I must look out for a 1st birthday stamp as I think that would be the perfect finishing touch. I've coloured with Copics, used a couple of digi papers from my stash then fixed the circular lace ribbon across and finished with an organza bow and the punched leaves and flowers. There's also inked edges, Stardust Stickles and then the pearls are made with my Cream Waco pearl maker pen. My pictures are looking fuzzy again, although at least it's almost straight this time!

Copic colours:
skin tones with E000, 00, 21 and a touch of R00 blush
hair with YR30, 31, 21 and 23
pinks are RV00, 63 and 66
then the rest is the E40 range through to E44 plus E81

I'm going to enter my card with Stampavie and More who have a birthday theme this week, then A Spoonful of Sugar are looking for pink and brown creations, and the Oldie but a Goodie blog are after ribbon and lace.

Frosty Snowgirl

This is the last card I made at the weekend with one of Kim's new Christmas Snow people digi designs now available at Cuddly Buddly, this is Frosty Snowgirl. I've coloured her with my Copics and stayed with a simple layout - just one piece of digi paper on a scalloped base card and a couple of Marianne diecut snowflakes, glittered of course! I've lost my bit of paper with the colour list of pens I used, but looking at the chart I'm pretty sure I used BG10, 11, 13 and 15 for the minty green then B000, 00, 02 and 05 for the blues. Penguin is coloured with BV20, 23, 25 and 29 with YR20, 23 and 24 for his beak and feet, and her carrot nose. I've added a touch of pink to her cheeks and shaded her with C0. The subtle shading around the image is done with BG0000 and B0000, although it doesn't show up too well in the photo.

This week on My Time to Craft the theme is bird watching - well a penguin is a bird so I'm entering with this card! The Digital Tuesday challenge is called 'spellbound' and at first I thought it was going to be for magical images, but when I read the challenge it's to use your Spellbinders or similar die cuts - so as I have die cut my snowflakes I'll join in their challenge too.

Thank you for your well wishes, I'm sort of taking it easy although my garden is crying out to be weeded and there's lots of dead-heading to do .. .. and as for the housework, well just don't come visiting yet a while!

Frosty Snowboy

I was supposed to be going to stay with Mum for a few days, but yesterday I crashed and burned big time and kept bursting into tears. I am so frustrated at not having the physical energy to do what needs to be done around the house and garden, then the brain can't remember the simplest of words and filling in those bl*****y probate forms becomes a nightmare. Mum seems to be coping quite well, better than me in a lot of ways, so I've reluctantly agreed to staying home until I'm feeling better. I feel really guilty about it - and it will mean being strict on myself, no gallivanting about to meet friends and limiting my time on the pc as well as no late night crafting .. .. life stinks!

So here's another of the cards I made at the weekend. This one is the Frosty Snow Boy and I've kept things nice and simple with just a piece of soft snowflake patterned paper and pale blue mats. The flowers are Marianne diecuts topped off with a pearl and to finish I added the pearly stars and the spotty ribbon tied in a bow. I scribbled down the Copic pen colours I used for this one too .. .. B21, 23, 24 and 26 for his coat, hat and scarf with BV01, 02 and 04 for the contrast colour. The little penguin is coloured with BV20, 23, 25 and 29 plus YR21 and 24 for his feet and beak and on the snow boy's nose. I've used a little C0 to shade the snowman blended out with a 0, although that is impossible to see in the picture! The background haze is created with B000 and B0000.

Moving Along With The Times blog theme is for Christmas in July, while the Winter Wonderland blog challenge is to avoid red and green, so here's my entry for them both.

Frosty Snowman

Well it seems that my blogger connection isn't much better today than it was yesterday. I think I only managed to comment on a couple of blogs and that with a lot of persistence and repeating myself! I've managed to load some card pictures for the next few days but keep getting error reports - there's another one popped up now! Is it just me that' fallen out with blogger .. ..?

I'd best keep this short and sweet - this is another of Kim's snowmen and I wanted to try him out with kraft card, but kept to printing the image onto my usual white coated card. The layout is the sketch from the Sketch Saturday blog with a little piece of digi printed paper from the Quilted Holly collection. I've inked the edges of everything with Versamagic Jumbo Java chalk ink as I didn't want the white cores to be showing. The buttons and border are cut with Nellie Snellen dies and I've finished with gold gross grain ribbon, gold twine tied in the buttons and little red gems.

This time I found my scribbled list of Copic colours: the snowman's hat and coat are coloured with E21, E31, 35, and 39. The greens are YG91, 93, 95 and 97 whilst the reds are R05 and E08. For the gold colours I used YR21, 23 and 24 then finished with a haze of BG000, BG0000 and B0000 plus a little sparkle on the snowballs and snow.

I'm busy downloading the government documents for the probate and have to take them with me tomorrow to sort out some things with my Mum; so I'll be away for a few days but fingers crossed Mr blogger will show you the rest of my snowy cards.

Frosty Snowlady

Reposting this as blogger playing up today and the first post disappeared!

Have you heard about the Cuddly Buddly blog Let's Keep Creating digi challenges? There are 2 DT teams alternating each Friday - the cuddly team and the buddly team! This week it's the turn of team buddly and the theme is lace and flowers. In order to enter you must use a digi design by one of the seven designers at Cuddly Buddly, so lots to choose from and a different DT member will be showcasing a designer at each challenge.

I'm not actually entering the challenge as I'm already a Cuddly Buddly designer, but I have made a card with the theme to show you. The digi image is one of Kim's new Christmas designs, this is Frosty Snowlady and she's coloured with Copics. I wanted to create a vintage feel so used subdued colours, but then went totally OTT with the pearl embellishments. When I met up with my friend Marion for coffee on Friday we browsed a couple of shops and stopped in the Warehouse where they had packets of sticky back pearl trims for just 99p! My flowers are created from Nellie's Choice poinsettia punches and Marianne diecut leaves, the text and little candy cane heart are from an old clear stamp set, the lace is from my stash and the patterned paper is from the Quilted Holly digi paper pack.

I'll try to remember the Copic pens I used to colour my snowlady .. .. her scarf and the green bits are coloured with YG93 and 95, whilst the flowers and pink mittens are R81 and E04. Her coat and hat are coloured with E31, 34 and 55, with her pale lace trims in E50 and the toggles in E57. The golden yellow tones are YR21, 23 and 25. I've added a little shading with C0 then coloured the snow and background with B000 and B0000.

Crafty Catz have a vintage challenge this week so hopefully my card will be ok for them.

Drive Time

Fingers crossed Mr Blogger shows you my card today. This is the digi image Furgus MacFluff 'drive time' from Pachela Studios available at Cuddly Buddly, and as usual I've coloured with Copics. The papers are from the denim selection of Portfolio papers and I've inked the edges with Night Sky Versamagic chalk in so the white doesn't show. The texts are freebie stamps with the Papercraft Essentials magazine and to embellish I tied a length of navy blue ribbon around the card and punched out two different sizes of stars from yellow card.

Copic colours I used - rather a lot!
Furgus with E41, 42, 43, 44 and 47
the car with B21, 23, 24, 26 and 29
under the wheel arch, radiator grill and windscreen with BV20, 23, 25, 29
wheels with E40, E81, W2 - W7
bumper and light fittings with C0, 3 and 5
parcels, scarf and lights with Y02, 06, 08, and V06, 09
road surface with E30, 31, 33, 35 and 55
sky with G000, 00, B000, 0000

I don't know of any challenges that I can enter with this one .. .. if you know of any please leave me a comment. The grandchildren are coming around to visit and we hope to take them to the Saltash Regatta, so I will be shattered by tonight! Whatever you are doing this weekend, I hope the sun shines for you and you have fun!

Just checking my blog roll list whilst sipping my coffee and I saw that the Sweet Stampin' challenge is for cute and cuddly this week - well I think Furgus is cute and cuddly even if he is driving a manly fast sports car! And over on the Allsorts challenge the theme is for a free and easy July - well Furgus is certainly taking things free and easy, although I think they mean you can enter any kind of project.

Rose Garden

This is a little folder card, inside there are pockets for holding stamped images or small embellishments, I've made it for a friend and I hope she will like it. The stamp is Emma in the Rose Garden by LOTV, coloured with my Copics. The paper is a magazine freebie but I've distressed the edges with my Snow Cap Adirondack paint dabber, and also edged the punched flowers and butterflies with it as well. The leaves and the swirly white layer behind the image are Marianne dies and I've used my pink pearl maker pen for all the pearl embellishment. The pretty stripy ribbon was a gift from another dear crafty friend and is a perfect match for the paper and soft peachy pink base card.

Copics I used:
skin - E000, 00, 21
hair - E31, 35
hat and shoes - E40, 41, 42, 43
dress - R0000, 000, 00
cardi, hat bow and butterflies - RV10,21, 23, 25
roses - RV000, 00 63
leaves and grass - G40, 12

The Creative Craft challenge is for pretty blossoms and at Charisma Cardz it's all about flowers, while on the Papertake blog the theme is anything goes - I hope they like this one. I'm gallivanting into Plymouth today to meet up with some crafty friends and enjoy a cuppa, and perhaps a cake! I'll catch up and link up when I get back.

It's My Day!

I'm scheduling this one, fingers crossed .. .. it's my DT creation for this week's Cute Card Thursday challenge to include a touch of lace on your project. Please stop by the CCT blog for information about the prizes and to see what the rest of the DT have made.

I've used another of the new Furgus MacFluff digi images from Pachela Studios available at Cuddly Buddly, this one is called 'It's my day' and I've turned Furgus into Fergie! I got a little carried away with the theme, and because I coloured my image then couldn't find any cardstock to match the pinks I used, I didn't bother with any and went all out with the lace, satin ribbon and pearls. To embellish I punched out the little butterflies from pearl paper and created the flower accent from odds and ends in my stash. You can get the pearl string trim at Cuddly Buddly here, I've used the white 2.5mm on this card.

Furgus/Fergie is coloured with Copics E40 - E47 with pinks RV10, 32, 34 and 42 plus E04 for shading them. The greens are G000, 00 and 02, and the shading is done with cool greys.

The Stamp Something blog is having a digi challenge week so I'll enter with them, and the Allsorts challenge is for a free and easy July. Cutie Sunday's challenge is for lace, so I gotta enter with them!

I'm a bit under the weather, hence the scheduling, and need to rest up for a few days. The legal side of my Dad's affairs is causing me a few headaches and I've been getting a bit stressed out with it all so need to retreat. I find colouring helps but the computer makes me tired so I'm not going to be around much until I've got my energy reserves back up again. I do have some more cards to schedule so there will be something for my friends to look at for the next few days - if you want to that is.

All Mine!

I'd like to introduce you to a new character, this is Furgus MacFluff created by Czes Pachela and available as a digi design over at Cuddly Buddly. I did try to keep to a masculine look for my card, but I'm afraid a little pink has crept in, so now I think the card would work for a boy or a girl. I've coloured Furgus with my Copics - don't be put off by the shade lines that the artist has left in on the image, they actually make life a lot easier and I'm sure he would look great coloured with Distress inks or water colours. My papers are from the Lilyboo Pocket Full of papers digi pack and I've matted with a dark brown card from Stampin' Up! As I didn't have any dark brown ribbon I coloured a length of white gross-grain with E49, but thought that was a little too dark so coloured the white paper flower with E77 which is a much better match to the cardstock. As the card was supposed to be for a little boy I couldn't add pretty flower embellishments so rummaged through the button box - but all I could find to match were the little butterflies. Finally, I snipped the last few brown gems hanging around at the edge of my desk for a touch of bling - too much for a boy you think?

Copic pen colours I used:
Furgus with E41, 42, 43, 44 & 47
blues with B00, 02 & 05
pinks with RV00, 02 & 32
shadow and shading with warm greys

The Cuddly Buddly blog have started to run digi challenges each Friday and this week the theme is 'brand new', to interpret how you like using a digi image sold at Cuddly Buddly or one of the free downloads from their shop, perhaps you might like to use this new Furgus MacFluff for your entry.

I'm going to enter my card with the Party Time Tuesday blog for square cards this week, whilst the Digital Tuesday blog challenge is to bling it up.

Nativity

I'm feeling a little under the weather today - and it's raining! Mind you, the garden desperately needs it and they say it will brighten up this afternoon so I hope my mood does too. This is a very simple C6 card that I've made for the Marie Curie appeal run at my local art and craft store. I've coloured up the LOTV Angel Gabriel Nativity image with my Copics then simply matted with kraft card and 3d mounted onto the kraft card base. I've inked the edges with Versamagic chalk inks in Magnolia Bud and then ran Jumbo Java around the edge of everything as the kraft has a white core and I didn't want it to show. Embellishments are little stars covered with a gold pen and gold glitter, then finished off with a double bow tied with Crumb Cake seam binding from Stampin' Up!

The For Fun challenge blog are looking for Christmas in July, as is Our Creative Corner - I do hope they like my CAS style. I coloured up the image some time ago so don't remember exactly which colours of Copic pens I used, but I touched up the sheet on Sunday with B0000, 000, 00 and 02 as it looked a bit wishy washy. The angel's clothing is the paler E40 shades and the little shepherd's are the B90s. For the peachy pink wings and headdress I used the R0s, although looking at the photograph they are very washed out so perhaps I will try touching them up a tad too.

A Magical Birthday Wish

Whilst catching up with the goings on in blogland, I discovered several challenges for things with wings .. .. .. both Truly Scrumptious and By The Cute and Girly, and then the Flutterby Wednesday blog have an open theme to include a fairy or butterfly on your project. So, I had a look through my LOTV fairies and decided to get this cutie inked up, then found the pretty butterfly paper from Cuddly Buddly which gave me a starting point for my Copic colours. As always I took an age deciding on embellishments, finding anything to match being a struggle, but I did have this aqua tinsel so wrapped it around the card and created a 4 looped bow embellishment. My flowers are Marianne diecuts with a couple of aqua gems from my stash, and that's about it.

I used these colours of Copics:
skin - E000, 00, 21 plus R00 blush
hair, teddy shoes - Y21, 28, E30, 31
lilac - B60, BV01, 02, 04
aqua - BG10, 11, 32, 34
ground - cool greys
shadow - B0000, 000, 00

I need to get myself organised so I can hopefully meet up with a couple of crafty friends this afternoon - so catch you all later!

Emma's Presents

I've come to the conclusion that I must be going through life all wonky .. .. the pictures always look square in the camera view frame but by the time I've finished downloading they are always skew-whiff! And a bit of a warning here - my post is a bit longer as I got to musing .. .. you don't have to read it all!

I've coloured in another of my new LOTV little girls, this is Emma with presents, and as usual I coloured with my Copics. I fiddled about with the hat trying to lighten the area where the light would catch the brim, first by going over with the blender then darkening the edges .. .. I'm still not happy with it. The blue shoes are ok, a nice bit of shading on them but I struggle when it's a big area.

Copic pens I used to colour:
skin - E000, 00, 21
blues - B91, 93, 95, 97
pinks - R81, E04
hair and parcels - E70, 71, 74
parcel, socks and shadow - E40, 81 and warm greys

My papers are by Designer Digitals and I've played bingo with Totally Papercrafts going for the diagonal line with brads, flowers and ribbon. Now that my computer is sat at the end of my craft desk I've been tuning into the Create and Craft channel from time to time, and whilst I was making this card they were demonstrating Tim Holtz products - some of the style obviously rubbed off on me as I've inked the edges of the papers and embellishments, although I used a Sahara Sand Versamagic chalk ink and Magnolia Bud around the edge of the coloured image to take off the stark white of the cardstock. I do like getting inky fingers and I like the slightly vintagy feel to this style of card, but when I do a craft fair these cards just sit in the box while the clearer brighter designs get picked. Eventually I have to weed them out and donate to charity.

That brings me on to the question of how I/we like to craft. Obviously it has to be fun and in a style you like. But, if you are crafting to sell your cards then you have to make what your customer will buy, and that isn't always what the blogging world of craft want to see. So a dilemma, create fabulously embellished works of art that get oohs! and ahs! from the blogging community, or go for a simpler style that might just sell at your local craft fair. I tend to do a bit of both, what about you?

Roses for You

Another wonky picture! I've made today's card with my new LOTV Emma with pot plant stamp and coloured her with Copics, although the blue dots on her hat aren't showing up. It took me an age to find paper and put the card together but hopefully in the end it turned out ok. The pretty lace I won some time back on the Lili of the Valley challenge blog, so it seemed appropriate to use it to create a card for their current Celebrations theme. I've added a little round LOTV text stamped in an old Adirondack die ink colour called Wild Plum to pick up the plum pink Copic colours I used. The background paper is from the Pachela Stuidios digi Country House paper pack in Rose available at Cuddly Buddly, matted with orchid pink cardstock. To embellish I've created a floral spray from paper roses and Marianne diecut leaves, and coloured a length of white organza ribbon with RV63 before tying a double bow.

Copic colours I used:
skin - E000, 00, 21
dress - BG70 kissed with 72
hat and bag - E50, 81
pinks - RV00, 63, 66
green leaves - G40, 12
hair, pot and puppy - YR21, 24
shadow with warm greys

I'm also entering my card in the Creative Inspirations and Moving Along With The Times blog challenges, both with a Summer theme and what could be more summery than a big bunch of roses in June (except it's now July).