Breaking ALL The Rules !?

Now the title of my post suggests I'm some sort of anarchist, but I'm not really... but you knew that, lol.   I am referring to the fact that a few weeks ago as Guest Designer for Little Miss Muffet Stamps I broke one of the cardinal rules of my youth "blue and green should never be seen..." and today I get to break another; "Don't mix Checks with Stripes" for the Challenge starting at Di's Digis.  To be fair, it's not compulsory to be so daring - you can have Checks and OR stripes, I just thought I'd go the whole hog :-))

I've used the sweet image "Surprise", available here - can you see the fluffy little surprise in the box?  I did the basic colouring with Copics and added the shading with Prismacolor pencils, it's not showing the detail it has in real life; my picture is a bit dark as it was taken in the evening, maybe that's why. Addicted to Stamps wants to see Pastel Colours, I'm in, Cute Card Thursday has Too Cute as their challenge theme - definitely in there, Cutie Pie Challenge has Two's Company, entering there and Allsorts Challenges has Sugar and Spice, so in there as well.

I added pearl pen to the girls ruffles and iridescent sparkle to the gift box.  I added some pearl pen dots to the background of the image too, the jury's out on the success of THAT one, lol.

I followed the sketch from the Digi Sketch Challenge, you know how I like a nice sketch, their theme this time around is It's a Girl Thing, so I'll be entering with the Sketch and Theme.  I cut the image panel and pink and blue mats using my Lifestyle Crafts nesting dies, I love these things as having 21 dies in a set means you can have very small increments.  I stuck some lace (which I slit down to make it "flexible") to the back of the image panel before sticking that onto the pink mat.  I stuck more lace to blue card for the two vertical strips on the sketch.  Bunny Zoes Crafts has a Lace themed challenge so I'm entering there and Papertake Weekly has Repeat Repeat (use two of something) so in there too.

The papers are from DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies 8x8 stack... they're really heavy and nice to work with - the blue/green stripes are really glittery too, not that that's showing in the pic either, sigh.  The ovals on the stripy paper were white, but they didn't tie in with the theme so I coloured them with R81 Copic, which seemed like a fabulous idea... at the start!  Oh, it didn't take that long and it made it match :-)  Simon Says Challenge wants us to Make Our Own Background Paper, I'm not sure this qualifies, but I did make it at least different to what it was so I'm entering, and as I've basically covered my whole card (actually I DID cover the whole card, the blue paper is from the pad I used) I'm entering Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge

I fiddled around with other embellies for ages, in the end I coloured one of my basic white mulberry flowers with R81 and R85 Copics, stuck one of my favourite rhinestone/pearl embellies in the middle and added a couple of "leaves" punched with Martha Stewart's Forest Branches punch. The sentiment is from Craftworks Cards, I'll be entering the Seize the Birthday challenge. Some blue pearls on the corner of the DP panels, done! 

I used the same basic layout for the inside of the card, the stripes go the other way because it was an offcut from the piece I used on the front... and I was DONE with colouring little ovals, lol.  I used a brad in the centre of the flower and some linen textured card for the jotting panel.Catch The Bug, OSAAT, Crafty Girls Challenge, Divas by Design and Through the Craftroom Door have Anything Goes challenges (OSAAT is with a die, which I've used) so I'm entering them.

Well that's about it for today's card, pop over to the challenge blog and check out (did you see what I did there, lol) the rest of the team's inspiration.  Nice easy theme again so I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge, with a super prize from Little Darlings on offer, it's well worth your time!  Don't forget the extra draw if you use one of Di's images too!!

I'll be back soon with another offering, I'm trying to get ahead with DT commitments as I have booked in to have my hip replacement on 3rd October, which isn't very far away really.  I am going to see the surgeon on 19th September, "my" surgeon is on Sabbatical Leave for six months and didn't want me to leave it until he returned (because of the Necrosis, I think) so I have to meet his Locum who is actually his Senior partner, don't know how it all works just want to get on with it now, though I am seriously dreading the process; operation and recovery are quite daunting.

I'll drag one of  the many out of my drafts to keep my blog ticking over, so I'll see you soon- ish! Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna