Sketch & Sparkle for my 100th post

Wow! Here I am already at 100 posts ... that has really crept up on me! I was so busy watching my hit counter so I could give a way my 5,000 hits candy, I almost overlooked this milestone. I'm already looking forward to the next 100 posts as I'm well addicted to blogging by now LOL!

Anyway .. onto this evening's card (which I made yesterday evening, but of course had no light to photograph it by). My starting point as so often was a sketch, which immediately put me in mind of making a Christmas card (though of course most things make me think about Christmas cards right now !!) I also started thinking about multi-challenge possibilities, and believe I have managed to tie this one in to 5, as follows:

1. Friday Sketchers #27 - I really had fun with this fab sketch.



2. BasicGrey #10 is glitter: well, my Christmas cards do have a natural tendency to be glittery, and this card certainly delivers on that score. My large diecut snowflake and small centre snowflake are both cut from glitter card; I have decorated the snowflake with a Doodlebug sugar coated brad and glitter yarn fibres; I have used white sparkly lace from Hobbycraft, and put a few Stickle highlights on the snowballs. The BasicGrey element is the base paper which is from the "Dasher" collection.


3. This week's High Hopes Challenge#7 is Sparklemania - which I hope I've already explained above!!

4. Whilst visiting my new fellow DT member Domi's blog I discovered a new challenge called Everybody-Art, where this week's theme is brown and blue. I have done my best to reflect this in the 2 papers and the way I have watercoloured the image.

5. Last but not least, I found that this week's Cuttlebug Challenge #7 is to emboss a diecut. I think this card technically fulfils that challenge rather than the real spirit of it, as I have cut and embossed the large snowflake using the new Cuttlebug cut'n'emboss combo. I must admit I'm a little disappointed with the embossing aspect of this duo, as the embossing lines don't match up terribly well with the diecut outline, but nonetheless it does give the snowflake a bit of dimension.

Image: Sugar Nellie snowman gifted by Cathy, watercoloured with Marvey brushstroke pens
Papers: Basic Grey "Dasher" (base layer) and other paper unnamed from split stack at local craft shop
Brads: sparkly Doodlebug "sugar coated, and Dovecraft snowflake
Lace: Hobbycraft
Sparkly fibres : Cardology
Pearl gems: Create & Craft

High Hopes of a Secret Crafter

I recently received some adorable and unusual cute images of Inca "snow ladies" from Margaret (Arum Lily) at Docrafts; and have been waiting eagerly for an opportunity to use them. When I saw the Secret Crafter Challenge #5 this week was to use a fabby sketch and the colours pink, brown and white, I thought the time had come ... all I needed was some pink Christmas paper! Luckily I spotted some gorgeous Bo Bunny papers in my local craft shop at the weekend, so I was all set! You will notice that I have rather distorted the proportions of the sketch but hope you can still see the basic shape ... I was just sooo determined to use this image LOL!

I would also like to enter this card for this week's High Hopes Challenge #6, which is to make a holiday card in non-traditional colours ... well I hope you'll agree pink is non-traditional.

I also realised pretty last minute that this card is also suitable (I hope) for this week's Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #23, which is sparkle and bling .. so I would draw your attention to the glitter card and gems LOL !

Last but not least, almost at exactly the same time I'm posting this I notice that this week's PTW Challenge is Simply Sparkling .... how could I resist?

I used: main image is Inca "Snow Lady", coloured with watercolour pencils; sentiment by Stamp Away; white gltter card embossed using Cuttlebug Snowflake folder; white felt ribbon by Papermania; pink and brown gems by Paper Studio.