Time to Piece a Piece of Paper at Di's Digi Stamps

Well, as the title of the post suggests, the new challenge kicking off at Di's Digis Challenge Blog today is "Paper Piecing"
I've had very little time to craft but (rather wisely I think) used my DT commitment to make a card for my Mother In Law, whose birthday is tomorrow (Happy 85th, Norma!)

I've made yet another of those "cut away" cards I'm favouring at the moment, using acetate as the bulk of the card front. 
I love the way you get to decorate the inside and outside of the card with basically one lot of paper, all you have to do is make sure anything on the inside lines up well with the outside.
I used the Sweet Sketch Wednesday Sketch this time, love a good sketch and this one lent itself to my acetate idea.
The adorable image I've used is Spring Bonnet, available at  Di's Digi Stamps. My Mums Craft Shop has Just for Girls as their challenge theme, so I'm entering there, Hobbycutz has Beginning with H (Hedgehog) and Delightful Sketches has Include a Critter (again, the hedgehog), so I'm entering there too.

I used floral paper from Bearly Mine Designs, the Spring Blossoms set - I scaled the paper down to suit the scale of the image (I love digis!)  I made the areas of the image that are "dress" transparent (easily done in Photoshop) then placed a cropped down version of the image on a small square of the scaled-down digi paper; then I only had to cut around the outside of the dress and bow all in one piece - not having to cut the tiny fiddly bits around the bow was a real bonus... like I said, I love digis :-)  Allsorts Challenge wants us to use our Favourite Things, (digis and Copics) so I'm entering there.
The apron is also digi paper, I scaled down (in Word, simple) one of the stripy papers from Nitwit Collections Romance and Roses set, then added the bonnet to a small piece of the paper, twisted a copy of the same square a little and added the cropped image of the apron to it to to have  the stripes going more naturally down the apron. Print (all on one piece of paper I might add, including the "blank" image) and a little trimming = DONE!  I added some shadows to the paper pieced parts and coloured the rest of the image with Copics. Cutie Pie Challenge this time around is also Paper Piecing, so I'm entering there.

The image mat (and the mat for the jotting panel inside, come to that) are Nestabilities Fleur De Lis Rectangles.  The pink matting is Kaisercraft and the sentiment is one of Craftworks Cards Oval sentiments cut down, Aud Sentiments  has "Two Words" as their challenge, with extra Brownie points for not using Happy Birthday, which I didn't (close, but still, I didn't!)
The flowers were cream (until I Copic-ed them, lol) and the sparkly centres are self adhesive cachous from Kaiser, I think.  Clear It Out has Theme: Make Someone's Day, Stash: Sparkly, so I'm entering there, and Pile It On has Bling so I'm in there too.  The pearls are also from my stash.

Bearly Mine Challenges, One Stop Craft Challenge, Colour Me Copic, Catch The Bug and Papertake Weekly all have anything goes challenges so I'm in!

That's about it for my card, pop on over to the challenge blog and check out the rest of the team's inspiration - I'm sure you'll love it.  Hope you get a chance to enter the challenge too, why not try going digi as I did - it really isn't hard - easier  than stamping if you ask me :-)  We've got a great prize on offer too, bonus!

Speaking of bonuses, my son Matt came home from hospital today - he was scheduled for a skin graft to cover the amputation site but the Plastics Team (really, that's their title!) decided to leave it to heal itself - it's pretty gruesome to look at at this point but my nurse friend Jenny (who knows about such things, lol) assures me that it is a "good" wound with great potential for healing and skin grafts bring their own set of issues.  

He still has to be immobile with his leg elevated (on a James Leg Elevator, which is a large wedge nearly 3 feet long and about 18 inches high that we couldn't hire to bring home, so bought for him at a cost of $275!!!) As he has to sit and sleep like that for the next seven weeks, we figured it was money well spent, but seriously, it's a bit of vinyl-covered foam, $275??!  

We're sorting out a wheelchair for him tomorrow. He is so glad to BE home with his wife and his babies and we're so glad to have him back at his home, close to us and easy for us to get to to help out personally or with the babies.  We really feel he's on the road to recovery now, we know it won't be easy and there's a lot of rehab to come but he's come a long way from a few weeks ago too.  Suffice to say it's been a difficult four weeks, but the next seven look infinitely easier, at least from here!

I might even get a bit more crafting time, though now it's end-of-the-financial-year time so I may have to spend a bit of time sorting the businesses out (they've been a bit neglected while Matt has been incapacitated and we busy)

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna