Friends to the end

A week or so ago I was asked to make a quick card for Amanda to send to one of her best friends who lives in France. Amanda and Laetitia were pen-friends long before email, and even now send letters via snail mail to each other every few months. I have had the pleasure of meeting Laetitia a few times, once when she was here for Amanda's wedding and second when she joined us all on a holiday last year.

I recently purchase the Wild Rose Studio Stamp - Best Friends, and thought it suited them perfectly. I added the little sentiment "Friends to the end" from C.C Designs, as I truly think these two will be friends forever. As this was a quick card I didn't have time to buy any new paper, but I loved using up the last of my purple stash. I added lace and some ribbon with purple hearts, and some tiny pearl embellishments - which are very difficult to see in the photo!

Recipe

Copics used:

Hair: E35, E31, 25

Skin; E000, E00,

Dresses & Shoes: BG10, BG15, & V12, V15

Stamp: Wild Rose Studio - Best Friends

Entered into the following challenges:
Top Tip Tuesday - Make it Girlie
Crafts And Me - Ribbon
Little Darlings Challenges - Girly
Sparkles Forum Challenges - One for the girls


Thank you for looking and for your kind comments as always. I hope your week is fabulous!

Swedish Princess Cake

I personally had never heard of a Swedish Princess Cake (or Prinsesstårta as it's called in Sweden) until the The Lollipop Ladies posted one as inspiration for their latest challenge:

But how yummy does that look? I love the beautiful pale coloured marzipan icing with the dusting of icing sugar and the sweet looking sponge inside. I was very intrigued as to what made this cake so special that it is commonly made for Swedish celebrations so I did some reading and found a recipe on Baking Obession that shows just how complex it really is.  I can image some serious overdosing on cream eating that cake!

The second element of the challenge is to add pearls to your creation.

Here is the card I created in answer to this challenge:

Recipe

Copics used:

Hair: E35, E31

Skin; E000, E00,

Dress: BG10, BG15

Shoes & bag: C03

Stamp: Wild Rose Studio - Night Out

I added the pearls to her hair to replicate a jewelled comb holding up those gorgeous curls. This is my second Wild Rose Studio stamp and my first more 'grown' up girl stamp. The pale yellow flower brads are metal, with a sparkling crystal in the centre - sadly they just don't photograph well.

Entered into the Lollipop Ladies challenge of course!

A Wintery Card for a Wintery Day

How do you fill another rainy weekend? With more card making of course!

I found this red vintage style paper at my favourite crafty shop, and it gave me another excuse to play with my favourite green coloured copics. If you look closely you can see the paper says  "Vintage Fashionista" and I'm sure you'll agree that's just what this little darling looks like. To keep with the vintage look I added some ivory coloured lace and green ribbon and some old-style buttons for embellishments. I'm really happy with the wintery look and feel of this card - perfect for this weather.

Recipe

Copics used:

Hair: E35, E31

Skin; E000, E00, E11, R20

Dress: VG63, VG67

Hat: VG63, VG67, E31

Shoes, E35, E25

Stamp: La La Land Winter Marci

Entered into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Text It
Aud Sentiments - a sentiment to make someone smile
Stamp Something - something embellished
Fabulous Friday Challenge - buttons

Man Card!

A week or so ago I attempted a guy card for my hubby with limited success. I decided stamps for men needed to be added to my collection immediately and was thrilled to find Wild Rose Studio Stamps for Men. There are some fabulous men stamps in the range, and I promptly bought two... and then a bunch of their girly ones too (I am able to always justify additional stamps because if you're paying for postage you should order all in one go - or so I tell myself).

It's my Dad's birthday on the 28th. My Dad loves his beer and the Wild Rose Studio Stamp "Time for a Pint" was perfect!

I bought new copics especially for the occasion - as I really wanted it to look like he was wearing jeans, and a red shirt goes perfect with denim. I was a little daunted by the dark colours, but I am very happy with how it turned out. Some denim and checked paper and bold red and blue card and ta-ta - Man card!

Copics used:

Hair: E35

Skin; E000, E00, E11

Jeans: B93, B97

Shirt: R22, R27, R29, B93

Shoes, Table: E31,E35,0

Paper used:

October Afternoon - Blast Off

Flourish - Jeans

Entered into the following challenges:

Sweet Stampin Challenge - One for the boys
Crafty Creations Challenges - Boyz to Men

Let them eat cake!

I recently made a card for a little girl (another order from Amanda - thank you!). I was asked to use the C.C Designs Cupcake Kiki stamp and to colour her pink. I found some lovely paper with cakes & ice creams on it, embossed some yellow card, added some gingham covered buttons and a cute little sentiment - and this is how it turned out:

Copics used:

Hair: E31, E35

Skin; E000, E00

Jacket, Shoes & Ribbon: RV10, RV13, RV14

Skirt: B00, B02

Entered into the following challenges:

Lollipop Ladies - Fairy Floss
Fab N Funky Challenges - Bakers' Dozen

A very purple card

My friend Amanda asked me to make a card for her Mum this weekend. The only requirements? Use the C.C Design stamp "Coffee Kiki La Rue" to celebrate her Mum's love of hair rollers and coffee.. and make it purple! Kaylene LOVES the colour purple.

I fell in love with this beautiful butterfly paper and purple card combination - I see a lot of purple cards in my future! I also tried out a faux stitching technique I've admired on other cards but I think I need a lot more practice to make it look real.

Copics used:

Hair: E31, E35

Skin; E000, E00

Slippers & Gown: V12, V15, V17

Coffee Cup & Flowers: G00

Entered into the following challenges:
Craft Your Passion - Just For You
Fab N Funky Challenges - Purple Haze

A card for hubby

I have now discovered I am not good at making cards for guys. I think it comes from the fact that my stamps are either very girly or a bit childish, and I haven't figured out how to use digi stamps with copics (I have heard I have to heat seal them so they don't run - and that's all a bit complicated!). I attempted a card for my husband AJ's birthday today - hoping I could go with a cute image and funny message and somehow pull off masculine... I think you'll agree there's nothing masculine about this card though!

Oh well, at least I now have a design that would work for a kid's card and will be spending some serious time looking for men stamps before Dad's birthday in a few weeks!

Entered into the following challenges:

Southern Girls Challenge - Bring out your inner child

Crafts and Me - Birthdays