Getting Guest-y at Sketch Saturday

ETA: Aargh!! FINALLY got this to post... Google problems!! So, a day late, sigh - sorry!  
As you may or may not know I LOVE a good sketch...so when I was asked if I'd like to be Guest Designer for the month of February for the Sketch Saturday challenge I JUMPED at it!!  Of course, I LOVE the sketch, lol

The challenge sponsor is A Day For Daisies, so I got to use one of their fabarooney images...Ive used 'Skirt of Flowers', isn't she gorgeous?!  You can get her here.  I used my trusty Copics to colour... and even though you can't see it... well hardly, if AT ALL... in the pic, I added glimmery flowers with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen and went over all the 'vines' with a green glaze pen... it looks good IRL!

Now here is that all important sketch... told you it was a goodie :-))  I changed the shape of the image panel to a rectangle... mainly because I LOVED the image and she just needed to be rectangular (to show off that skirt of flowers!)  The rest of the sketch has been followed pretty much to a T.
I covered ordinary white card with some 'dull' gold wrapping paper that came around a gift from my son Chris; he always uses fabulous quality wrapping paper so it stood up really well.  As You Like It wants to know if we like Matt or Shiny - I like using Matt papers and adding the shiny as "features".
I cut the mat for the image panel with the largest Nestabilities Fleur de Lis die and the same paper.  The background paper is digital, from The Scrap Girls... this set's retired but there's still a gazillion to choose from  :-))  I really love this sort of colour palette... I had a pad by Prima (Fairy Flora) that got used A LOT for my faves, sadly it's discontinued... at least having this paper as digital means I can print it off any time I want - even though the file's no longer available to purchase... another reason I LOVE digital :-)  Top Tip Tuesday wants to see our favourite colour combo, I'm in! and of course I'll be entering Hazel's Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge to use patterned paper 

The terracotta cardstock is from my stash, I cut the border of the vertical panel with MFT Crotchet Border die added a purple mulberry paper lattice (cut with a Memory Box Tessatina Border die and added some paper twine (from Ribbon Girl I think) for interest.  I cut another of the Tessatina borders in half lengthwise (bit fiddly, it's pretty fine!) to add a strip to each of the banners at the bottom of the card.  
The butterfly was cut with the same gold-ish card, Using a Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punch.  I added some Perfect Pearls to give some depth then added purple rhinestones for the body.  The same rhinestones make an appearance on the Fleur De Lis mat

I used the same basic layout for the inside of the card, adding one of Paulette's fabulous freebie sentiments to the centre of the jotting panel.  I think this card will be going to my friend Jenny, she IS beautiful... through and through, and I don't think she gets told often enough :-) Outlawz Friday Colouring Challenge wants to see a card for a friend, so I'm entering there.
I used a punched flower (could be a Carl punch... could NOT, lol) instead of the butterfly on the corner of the inside panel, I coloured a sticky back half pearl with Copics to tie in the colours for the centre. Gem of a Challenge and Addicted to  Stamps have Lots of Layers challenges so I'm entering there and  Art by Miran, Crafty Calendar, Papertake Weekly, Craft Your Passion, Through the Craftroom Door and Clear It Out all have Anything Goes challenges running so I'm entering there too!
That's it for today, I hope you like my card... I really like it and I don't really know why! I usually like "crisp" looking cards, but this one just appeals - and I found the image a dream to colour, which is always a bonus :-)
Pop over to the Sketch Saturday blog and check out the team's take on this awesome sketch... hope you get to enter the challenge, don't forget the fab Day For Daisies prize on offer - and a sketch is always a good jump off point if Mrs Mojo is MIA as mine has been a bit recently :-)
It's HOT here ... it IS summer, lol, not that conducive to crafting I suppose.  We are experiencing huge bushfires in the South of the state at the moment -  some are the result of lightning strike... we get electrical storms at this time of year... but some are deliberately lit; it makes you wonder about some people!  My thoughts are with all those affected.  The smoke has travelled over 700 kms North... passing through Perth a couple of days ago making hubby and me - and all our fellow asthmatics wheeze for days!
Gotta go, computer issues to solve; I've had to uninstall Google Chrome, clean up a few things and reinstall it... now I have to check "the damage", on top of that we got iPhone 6s yesterday and I've had to repair all our Bluetooth devices... one I just CAN'T get to work... computers, gotta love 'em!  Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Blue and Green.... Can Be Seen Here!

The old saying "Blue and green should never be seen..." doesn't apply at the Less Is More challenge this week, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I bought the papers from Starfish Lane with the birthday voucher my son gave me... I bought a lot of what I call "special" paper, the base is a really rich colour IRL, and very textured.  
The Chiyogami panel is mounted on a strip of micro corrugated gold board, the edge of which is punched with Fiskars Apron Lace punch.  
I used this paper on the card on the left (in this post), isn't it amazing how different it looks when used with a different contrast colour?!  
The sentiment is stamped with Versa Mark clear ink and embossed with gold embossing powder - and was the hardest part of the card!  I was thinking of making a set of these cards as a gift, but as the stamping is so hard to get even on the heavily textured card, I may use stickers (or peel offs) of which I have about a zillion in my stash, lol.

I finished the inside with elements from the front, very simple, to suit the style of the card.  As well as the Blue and Green challenge at  Less is More, I'm entering the Clean and Simple challenge at Cute Card Thursday and the Anything Goes challenges at Craft Your Passion, Papertake Weekly and 2 Sisters Challenge.
I've been colouring some images up, I really have to get some on to cards and out of my embarrassingly-large stash.  The problem is I'm amassing a stash of made cards too;  I've sold some previously, via my son and a friend, but I think I'll have to get some sort of system in place to keep it ticking over... to make room for more, if nothing else :-)  Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Pearls In Her Hair

I have a card today that I made for a friends birthday... then I gave her a different card that's been sitting in my stash, so I suppose this is now a card for my stash!  For some reason, I'm really happy with it... I mean REALLY happy :-)

I've made an easel card, just 'coz I like them!  The image is Pearls In My Hair from A Day For Daisies, I love the ethereal vintage feel of it.  The Paper Shelter has a Vintage or Shabby Chic challenge and Bizzy Becs and Corrosive Challenges have Vintage themes; while this is not Shabby Chic I think it's Vintagey enough, hope so!  The Joanna Sheen challenge is "Remember When", I think this is perfect for it... I hope they do too   :-) 
I also hope the birds in the image make my card suitable for the Bearly Mine Challenge this time around ; the theme is  "Animal Kingdom", the image is listed at ADFD under the Animals category, so I should be alright! I'm sure it will let me in at the Crafty Calendar... their theme is Things With Wings
I coloured with Copics and added (unsurprisingly) some pearls in her hair, they're from my stash.
The papers are from Starfish Lane (where I get my "special" papers from) the patterned paper ("Chiyogami Abstract") is glorious in real life, it has a real vintage/deco feel to it; the gold outlining gives a lovely enamelled effect.  The turquoise and garnet coloured card are heavily textured, they're from Starfish Lane too, as are,you guessed it, the ribbon and the garnet trim I've used as a stop for the easel (birthday gift voucher courtesy of my son, I had a ball picking out all my goodies!) Totally Gorjuss wants us to use  "Something New"... they said it would be an easy challenge, how right they are, lol.
I cut the image panel with an Mpress die (Petal Frames), then distressed the edges with Versamark ink, which I used to stamp the sentiment (embossed with Ruby Glitter EP) The Cutie Pie Challenge is to use dies or punches and 
The flowers and berries are from my stash, so I'm entering Lisa's Waste Not Wednesdays challenge to use Stash.  I bought a bough of the blossoms from Spotlight for $2.49, there were about 15 on it as well as leaves and buds... bargain!  I've inked them up to match and cut a couple of leaves down to suit.  Paper Play Challenges has Double Delight; Use Two Of Something, as does My Time to Craft, I've used two flowers, two leaves and two sprays of berries, so I'm entering there.
Not much more to say about my card :-) Crafty Sentiments, Divas by Design and Simon Says Challenge all have Anything Goes themes, so I'll be entering there.
I've been using my crafting time to tidy up my hard drive, print samples of all my digipapers (very time consuming to make "samplers" up, hope it pays off in the end!) organize my digi images and that sort of thing.  I did manage to print off a couple of images while I was at it, so I hope to get some colouing time in when I have finished repainting my front door (boring "real world" sort of stuff) and reassembled my office after the minor flooding we had in a thunderstorm earlier this evening (it doesn't rain often here, but when it does rain it's often very heavy, lol) On this occasion the water came down one of the office walls where my printer paper was touching... and funnelled straight into the printer itself - I picked the printer up to wipe under it and inky water ran out - can't be good for it, but it still seems to be working :-)  I'll be back in a day or so with the fruits of my labours!  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna