Mermaid at play ....

...  Hello!  I hope you are all well, we had a wonderful spring day here in Northville yesterday - pleasantly warm, blue skies, sunshine and birds singing - it was lovely.  I went into town and it was so nice to walk around without an arctic wind blowing.  Anyway, enough of that.  I've got a sweet card for you to today - a birthday card suitable for a little girl, or indeed one not so little:

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - Marvella Mermaid; Stampin' Up! - Sea Street
Inks: SU - Real Red, Night of Navy
Dies: Spellbinders - Labels 10 (S5-022) #4
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Night of Navy; SU DP - Maritime; Copic Markers; Staedtler - Ergosoft Pencils; Wink of Stella - Clear

I'm submitting this card to this week's Left of Centre - LOC#71 challenge where the theme is "Mermaids/Water Theme".  Marvella is one of many super mermaids drawn by Rick St Dennis available at Rick's Zibbet and Esty shops.  I printed her onto white card, coloured the image with Copic markers and Ergosoft pencils, and finished it with lots of sparkle.  I used a Spellbinder die to cut her out.  I covered the card with a some fabulous fishy design paper and a navy mat layer.  I finished the front with a simple birthday sentiment attached with dimensional tape.  On the inside I cut a mat layer from more of the design paper and on the white panel added an octopus and some more little fish.

Here's a close-up of Marvella (out of focus) as it shows all the lovely sparkle and shimmer so much better than when in focus! 

It's Kathryn's last day of school for a week and a bit - she's looking forward to the break.  Mind, I don't think there's going to be much actual school work done today.  I believe it's the annual Student V Teachers Basketball match and then a party for the kids - a fun day!!  That's it for now - bye for now.

Rainbow scales ....

.... Hi!  Do you remember the book Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, about a fish with beautiful rainbow coloured scales?  And do you remember the film Splash, starring Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks? Well my card is based, in part, on both the book and the film.  Here's the card:

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - Sirena; Lil Inkers - Shiny Happy; Stampin' Up! - Sea Street
Inks: SU - Rich Razzleberry, Lost Lagoon, Wisteria Wonder
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU DP - Maritime; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella Brush - Clear, Silver, Blue

Over at Inkspirational - INK#61 they have a word prompt for us - SPLASH.  As soon as I saw the word I was reminded of the film Splash about a mermaid - it was such a fun film!  On Rick St Dennis's Facebook page there is a challenge to use one of his mermaid images, so I'm submitting this one.  I printed off this wonderful mermaid and set about colouring her with Copic markers.  I mentioned the book Rainbow Fish - well the colouring for her tail was inspired by that little fish and his beautiful scales.  I used a number of colours and then blended them all with a very pale aqua pen.  I added some silver scales and a touch of sparkle with my Wink of Stella brushes.  I coloured her hair to co-ordinate with her tail.  To make the card I covered the base with this lovely paper from Stampin' Up! - creating the sea.  I added some little fish and a bold sentiment.  On the inside I cut a mat layer from the design paper and on the white panel, I stamped some more fish and an octopus.  There is no sentiment, just space for a message.

I took a close up photo of her tail so that you can see the shimmer and sparkle, as it doesn't show up in the photo of the whole card.

I'm a very lucky girl!  I got a new computer delivered last week and I've been busy setting it up - you know, transferring photos, documents, etc and adding the programmes that I use.  It's almost done and later this week, I have to dismantle this PC and replace it with the new one.  It has a much bigger memory - good for all the photos - and a lot more RAM too which will make editing so much quicker.

That's all for today. See you soon.

TMR - Sketch ....

.... Good morning!  We had so many fabulous submissions for our Father's Day challenge at The Male Room - thank you all for playing along.  However, it is going to be really, really tough to pick the Top Three.  And now it's time for our new challenge at The Male Room and this time instead of a theme we've got a sketch for you to play with.  Here's my take:

Stamps: Winnie & Walter - The Big, The Bold and The Fun; Stampin' Up! - Sea Street
Inks: SU - Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruit; Archival - Cobalt
Dies: Spellbinders - Squares Sm (S4-128) #5
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU DP - Maritime

The colours I've used are from a Colour Q challenge - cQc#245 which ran a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn't able to play along; they are perfect for this card. I'm also submitting this card to Darnell's new challenge "Never-before-used-schtuff" - NBUS#1 as I've used my new SU Sea Street stamps, the DP Maritime and also my W&W BB&F set.  I die cut a couple of square from the DP and stamped the words onto them.  Before gluing the squares to the card I stamped the fish shoals in Calypso Coral on the card and added a few on the squares too.  I stamped the octopus on white card and fussy cut him out - took a while, but I think it was worth it.  I attached him to the card with dimensional tape.  For the inside I cut a mat layer in the design paper and on the white panel stamped the large word "adventure" across the centre and added the small words in darker ink.    I added a couple of accents - the starfish and lobster.   This is a fun card to send to a guy about to go on holiday or even to send to my son, he might not be on holiday, but he's young and his whole life is an adventure to play, to have fun and to "go. see. do.".

For more inspirational projects using this sketch - check out the blog to see what my team mates have made - don't forget to leave a comment - we all like a comment!

I'm typing this post on Tuesday lunch and am about to go watch the Football.  Playing now are England v Costa Rica (England are simply playing to win a match) and Italy v Uruguay.  So that's all for now.  See you soon.