Summer Ice Cream

At last, it's Summer! well, fingers crossed anyway, it's all very 'British' this year with umbrellas doubling up as sun shades .. .. but whatever the weather, an ice cream always goes down well!

I have inked up an old stamp by Elisabeth Bell originally designed for the Sweet Ebony range at Sugar Nellie many years ago, so probably no longer in existence.  I've coloured with my Copic pens, hope you will like it - here it is:

Note: I checked Elisabeth's digi store here, but couldn't see this image. And checked the EB stamps at Whimsy Stamps too, some of my old Sweet Ebony designs are now with them, but sadly not this one.

The base is a thick peachy pink pearl card I had in my stash, left over from making my son and dil's wedding invites back in 2010 - there is quite a bit left too!  The paper is a sheet from Marianne Design Butterfly 6x6 pack, not sure if that is still available either .. .. and I've used small snippets of a coordinating paper from the same pack down each side.  Rather than do my usual faux embossed stitching I decided to have a go again at using my distressing tool on the papers .. .. still not sure I have the hang of it though.  I've die cut a fancy label mat for my image then used various Marianne Design die cut pieces for embellishment, along with ribbon and pearls I've coloured with my Copic R30 pen to give me the soft peachy pink shade.

Here's the Marianne Design die list for this card:

chicken wire with the die in the cut and emboss set DF3404

flowers from COL1323

leaves snipped from LR0138

flower stamens from the mini poinsettia set LR0142

peachy swirly fronds from LR0157

butterflies from LR0261

Incy Wincy challenge is called Summer Lovin', and the Allsorts challenge is for pearls and gems, I have quite a few pearls on my card so hope that will qualify.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look at my card, and hope that it's ice cream weather where you are today!

Planted with love

I had this image coloured up on my desk - it's an old Sugar Nellie stamp design by Elisabeth Bell and I've coloured with Copics. I've managed to put this card together for a couple of challenges I've read about: first, the Belles 'n' Whistles blog challenge with the sketch and an Elisabeth Bell stamped image of course, the Corrosive Challenge blog to use turquoise and pink, the One Stop Craft challenge to use stitches - mine are fake, and over on the Papertake Weekly blog it's anything goes.

I've used digi papers from Cuddly Buddly then embellished with ribbon, pearls, a lacy circle die-cut and butterflies by Nellie's Choice, punched flowers and fronds by Martha Stewart and diecut turquoise leaves from Marianne die LR0141.

Thank you for all your kind words of support for me and my family. Dad is still in hospital but hopefully will be able to come home early next week if we can arrange nursing care. I'll be going back to stay on Monday when my sister has to go home, in the mean time I'm visiting on Sunday and trying to rest tomorrow ... ... easier said than done! My GP has given me some sleeping tablets which worked very well last night, so with a couple more nights sleep I should be able to cope with it all again next week.

Daisy Box

This week on the Cute Card Thursday blog our challenge to you is to create something but not to have any text on show. Our sponsor for this challenge is Pink Cat Studio, please stop by the CCT blog to read all about it.

Apologies yet again for the poor picture - believe it or not, this was taken on a bright sunny day by the window in natural light, and I've even had a go at lightening it further in photoshop .. .. I need to figure out this new digi camera soon! As it's my granddaughter's birthday next week I needed a little box to put a gift in so created this pizza box from a sheet of A4 cardstock. The instructions for the mini pizza box are on the Splitcoast Stampers forum and you can find the link on my Crafty Resources page. To create a bigger box you just need to cut a piece of A4 cardstock to 11 inches long, score 1 inch in from each of the long side edges, then do the rest of the scores and make up the box as the original instructions. I've cut pieces of daisy paper from the yellow version of the Cuddly Buddly Cottage digi papers then added Stardust Stickles around the edges before fixing to the lid and sides of my box. The cute Daisy stamp is from Elisabeth Bell's Sweet Art Ebony collection, originally available at Sugar Nellie but now being relaunched at Belles 'n' Whistles, although I don't think Daisy is out with them just yet.

To keep the box closed I have fixed the image and the embellishments to a length of ribbon that slides off and on the box - it's a tight fit over the caramel gems but it does work. I've coloured Daisy with Copics in these colours:

skin tones with E000, 00, 21 & R00 for her cheeks
hair and jeans with E40, 41, 42, 43 & 44
her top with YR20, 21 & 23
the daisy flowers with Y0000 & Y35
the greens with YG11 & 41

I've created the daisy embellishments from Marianne diecuts, LR0106 for the petals and LR015 for the stamen centre, and layered the petals with mini dimensional foam squares so they stand out better. The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch and I just added white sticky back pearls for the bodies. Inside the lid I stamped and cut out the text greeting then added another daisy and a couple of butterflies as the gift didn't quite fill the box!

As the Critter Sketch blog challenge is for punches and dies (at least 2 different ones) I'll enter my little box with them.

Summer Ice Cream

I am scheduling my post for today as I have an appointment with my ME Specialist so will be travelling with hubby to Bodmin Hospital, then all being well stopping off at the Herbery afterwards. I coloured this image a while ago but have only just got around to creating a card with it and I've not got a list of the Copic pens I used - sorry. This is one of Elisabeth Bell's older stamps from Sugar Nellie and I've used the sketch from the Stampavie and More blog for the card layout with a mix of digi papers from Cuddly Buddly. I've embellished with punched flowers and fronds, little butterflies and gems from my stash. My photos don't seem to be coming out very clear and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong - I press the auto focus and get it to fix on the image, but often it's the embellishments that seem to be in focus and the image looks blured .. .. any ideas?

The theme on the Paper Sundaes blog is for childhood memories, what better than summer days eating ice cream with a four legged friend! Totally Stampalicious have an anything goes theme, as long as you stamp of course, and Stamp Something would like to see sassy circles along with the stamping.

Hopefully I'll be able to link up my card when I get home, and catch up with you too.

Daisy Dreams

Copics:

skin: E000, E00, E21 - hair: E31, E33, E35, E37
pinks: RV00, RV21, RV23, RV25
greens: YG21, YG23, YG25, YG97

This is 'Daisy', one of Elisabeth Bell's Sweet Art Ebony images I got from Sugar Nellie several years ago. In my quest to use up the mountain of stash in my craft room, I've dug out a box of Basic Grey dps - not colours I would usually choose, which is why the papers are stuck in the box! After colouring in my image with Copics I inked the background with Pumice Stone Distress Ink, but that didn't look quite right so I added a touch of Spun Sugar, then just on the edge a little Walnut Stain before adding Crystal Stickles and matting with plain pink card. I've also inked the edges of the dps and the punched elements with Walnut Stain to tie things together. For the centres of the flowers, the bodies of the butterflies and the little pearl accents I've used Petal Pink Liquid Pearls. I stamped the Hero Arts 'Thank You' sentiment straight onto the dp with Pearlescent Orchid Brilliance ink. The punches I used were Martha Stewart branch, butterfly, Hydrangea flowers large and small as well as X-cut punch and embossed beech leaves.

Both A Spoonful of Sugar and Crafty Catz challenges are asking for Thank You projects this week so I'll enter this card with them.