The Sugar Bowl challenge 7 -Spring or Easter

This weeks Sugar Bowl challenge from Sugar Nellie challenge is by way of acknowledging the much better weather we've been having! The choice therefore is either Easter or Spring. I liked the idea of Spring as a theme-I feel so much better when the sun shines and am compelled to use pretty and fresh tones. I've never made a card specifically dedicated to the theme of Spring either so why not? There's still time to join in-cards need to be posted on The Sugar Bowl blog by midnight on Wednesday 8th April and you'll be entered into a draw to win some Sugar Nellie goodies. Pop over and have a look-the design team have as always created some amazing items.



Sorry the photo isn't very good. It's a beautiful day so no blaming the weather-I'm just not a very good photographer alas.

Ingredients:
Pink card from stash for card blank & matting
Basic Grey paper-various
Sugar Nellie stamp by Leanne Ellis
Paper flowers from Sarahs cards
Papermania brads
Copics
Flourish made from Basic Grey paper using Maya Road chipboard flourish as a template
Leaf buttons from stash (knew I'd use them one day!)
Butterfly from stash (felt certain I'd NEVER use this so yipee!)
Spring sentiment by Jolees boutique
Ribbon from stash

Your radiance lights up the sky

Apologies for the gloomy photo-it looks like it's going to rain very hard soon-typical as need to pop out! Another Sugar Nellie stamp-how could I resist the little birds? I just had a play with this and had tonnes of fun! I paper pieced the girls dress, top, hair and boots as well as the bow in her hair and bird box. I used Stampin Up markers to do colouring in and attempted rosy cheeks for the first time! I used my Silent setter to make the hole in the bird box, or how would the little birds get in and it's baby birds time soon!

I used up a few things from my stash which I'm pleased with. The gorgeous paper rose and other bloom are as I used on the scrapbook layout for 'The beautiful and very brave Sophie' and from Sarah's cards. The bird brad however, is from Papermania and I've had it an age but it's perfect for this card! I have no idea by the way why Mr Blogger has turned my photo around though I suspect he has an issue with the size of it! I'm not very PC literate so won't try and fix it or I'll end up losing everything. Don't get neck ache though by looking at the photo too long!



The star buttons are also something that have been hanging out in my button jar for ever. I wasn't completely sure about them on this card-not sure if they look a bit 'plasticky' but with the Stampin Up chocolate chip grosgrain I think (hope) the nasty plastic look is diluted at least.



Sentiment wise I used an All Night media stamp which was one of the first stamps I ever bought. I always feel I'm lacking in basic, small sentiments but have a few with really lovely messages and I think this one fits the bill on this occasion nicely.

Other than that my Stampin Up scalloped punch got another outing (are you bored yet?) and the rest of the card is a mixture of utterly gorgeous Basic Grey papers-Sultry and Sugared to be precise. I do have some 12" x 12" theoretically for scrapbooking but in reality more for looking at and going 'ahhh'. I love the 6" x 6" for cardmaking though as the pattern is reduced and so is far more suitable for cards.

My favourite Basic Grey paper set thus far is 'Perhaps' (I LOVE IT!!) but the 12" paper pattern is far too large and overwhelming for cards, whereas the 6" is perfect and I mean PERFECT in every sense of the word!!! This card is bigger than 6" in height but it didn't matter as I layered the papers anyway and for 6" x 4" cards the smaller papers easily cover the card if you choose.I just matted with random bits of card from my stash-no need to use really nice stuff when you only see a millimetre or so so my Stampin Up stuff stayed in it's box for this card! Oh, just fibbed a bit! I did use Chocolate Chip for the girl and sentiment but I don't have any other choclate card!




I had alot of fun making this card and have to say that I'm pretty chuffed with the result. I'm really enjoying my cardmaking again after a horrible mojo drought and my confidence is coming on slowly but surely. Having a nice sunny day helps of course, I'm cheerier as regular readers of this blog will know, but also the light lends itself so much better to cardmaking. It's so nice to be able to see colours accurately and patterns too. I definitely feel like making fresh cards, Spring clearly comes to cardmaking land too!

Ingredients:
Sugar Nellie girl with birds stamp by Leanne Ellis
All Night Media sentiment stamp
Basic Grey papers-Sultry and Sugared
Maya Road ribbon charm
Stampin Up chocolate chip narrow grosgrain ribbon
Stampin Up Chocolate Chip card
Stampin Up scalloped border punch
Stampin Up markers
Blooms from Sarah's cards
Bird brad from Papermania
Star buttons unknown
Europa card
Royal & Langnickel hammered card blank

Cupcake Craft Challenge (28)

I've never done a card challenge before and only ever tried one sketch which as you recall Linda did a few months ago. I don't really understand how sketches work-sometimes people change so much it seems unrecognisable to me, so I have no idea if anything can be changed, if you can add additional elements and so forth!





Nonetheless Jeannette's role as guest designer on Cupcake Craft Challenges has motivated me to try this weeks sketch myself. Last week I did try to do an altered piece but wasn't happy with the finish (to say the least!). This week, I am going to be brave (I think) and send the link off to the challenge blog. Not entirely confident about doing this but it's good to try new things. I just hope I've followed the rules properly and my card doesn't get escorted off the premises! The sketch I need to follow is shown above. The blog states that you can't move the elements around though you can change the size of them. I think I'm pretty accurate regarding the sketch, fear and inexperience means I dare not try and do anything else in case it's not allowed. I like the sketch as it is though and enjoyed doing the angled matting and layering bit as I've never tried that before.

I first saw this Ophelia stamp on another blog a couple of years ago. I adored her at first sight and still do. I searched long and hard for her-there's not many stamps I've seen and wanted more than 'Ophelia'.

As far as I am concerned the stamp does all the talking-there's nothing I can do to make the image any better than it already it and I thought a monochrome card would work really well. I'm quite pleased with the result actually-it's not overly vintage, not overly feminine either, but the striking beauty of Ophelia means that this stamp can be so versatile-I must get her out more instead of being afraid of not doing her justice.

I enjoyed making this card and I'm pleased with the result. I see a great many challenges on various blogs and think I should try and tackle a few more and hopefully gain a bit of confidence along the way.

Ingredients:
Ophelia stamp from Stampsmith
Dream stamp by Anna Griffin
Anna Griffin card
Whisper White card from Stampin Up
Stazon ink
HOTP embellishments
Papermania glitter brads
White textured mulberry paper
Black card
Lace