SNG - Mon Amie .....

.... Good afternoon.  It's Mother's Day here in the States and that's why this post is rather late!  I should have had it up first thing this morning, but instead I spent some time with my family.  Full story below!!  I've had a super time today and managed to get into my craft room earlier this afternoon to finish this card.  I've used one of Rick's wonderful Randi Dandi images for a card with a tropical feel:

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - Mardi Gras Beads; CAS-ual Friday Stamps - Mon Ami
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Dies: Lil Inkers - Dual Stitched Rectangles #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - Say Aloha; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear

Our weather over the last few days has been distinctly tropical with high temperatures around 30°C, lots of humidity and thunderstorms.  So I had to play with the Mardi Gras Beads image, available exclusively at I Brake for Stamps.  I used the colours in the design paper to colour the image.  I coloured the image with Copic markers, cut it out with a stitched die and then added sparkle with my Wink of Stella brush.  I coloured her mask and the jewellery.  I also added lots of little gems to the necklace and earrings.  Accordingly, I'm submitting this card to this week's Left of Centre Challenge - LOC#77 where the DT would like us to use bling!  On the inside I used another piece of the tropical design paper for a mat layer and on the white panel stamped a fabulous lotus like flower and a sentiment.

I've got a bit of a confession.  This card would have been up first thing this morning, if I hadn't made a really silly mistake.  I have lots of Wink of Stella brushes including the colours.  If you look a the photo below I think you'll see my mistake:

It was really hot this morning and I woke quite early, so I went to my craft room and coloured this image.  I was so pleased how it turned out.  I reached for my clear Wink of Stella and started to add sparkle to the mask and jewellery.  I couldn't work out why the mask suddenly looked really dull - until I realised that I'd picked up the WHITE WOS brush!!!  I couldn't remove the colour and didn't have time to do another image before going out with Kathryn!

That's all for now - Kathryn is cooking dinner for us this evening - so I'm going back into my craft room to play some more!  I hope all my US friends have had a wonderful Mother's Day.