Thanks, Carole!

Carole sent me a bunch of the adorable, larger UK Elzybells images in a sweet RAK after I had the baby. She left a comment on my last card saying she had given me an "assignment" to actually color at least one of them! So of course when my stamping idol tells me to leap, I say how high?! Actually I was just sorely in need of a little stamping time to myself tonight, it's been a fairly stressful week. So this is what happened when I sat down at my desk! I'm a bit rusty in the stamping department so of course I turned to the challenges for inspiration! Since I was using an image from Carole, I decided to go with the the color challenge which she hosted a couple weeks ago (SC158 - Kraft, Orchid Opulence & Sage Shadow). And I also took a quick peek at her blog tonight and she told me to try Jen del Muro's Sketch For You To Try, so I went with that as well. It always makes me happy to sit down with my Copics and do a little coloring!! I also got to try out a new toy that had been sitting unopened ever since I first saw it on Rainy's awesome blog and just had to run out and buy it (and of course when I say "run out" I really mean run to the computer and order it online!!) - the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder - LOVE IT!! This Elzybells image was actually too large to work with Jen's sketch, but I was determined - so I *gasp* chopped off the bottom part of the image! It was just some water and grass. But there was a silly looking bit of cattail still there, so that's why I decided to add the photo corners - to hide that unsightly bit on the bottom right. The flowers are primas I colored with my Copics to match - love that you can do that. It's also a bit of a test - a while back I made a card and colored a flower from my SU Pretties kit with an SU marker - it looked great at the time but now the color has totally changed and gotten quite funky, sort of like it bled. So this is my test to see if the Copics work better (which means I can't mail this card, oops, break my new year resolution yet again...). I also colored some white brads to make them match the Kraft paper. So cool. Not sure I love the bling I added to the brads, but oh well. It matches little froggie's crown, and not sure if you can tell but the princess-to-be also has the same bling on her finger. Yes, the frog prince has just proposed to the lucky gal, hence her expression. She better hurry and kiss him and turn him back into her prince! :-) Ok time to get a tiny bit of sleep before Courtney wants to nurse - thanks for stopping by today.

BTW, someday soon I am going to photograph all of the adorable RAKs I've received in recent weeks (oops, scratch that, MONTHS!) and get them posted on here, including the super cute cupcake card Carole sent with the images. Thanks again Carole!!

Oh and look over to the left - it's nearly my Blogoversary!!! Stay tuned, I'll have to do something fun to celebrate!!!

• Stamps: super cute Elzybells UK image
• Paper: Kraft, Orchid Opulence, Sage Shadow, White
• Ink: black of some sort
• Accessories: Copics, Primas, Bazzill white brads, A Muse bling, photo corner & corner rounder punches, Cuttlebug & Swiss Dots embossing folder, Making Memories Twistel (remember this stuff? found it deep in my stash!), straight pin that matches Orchid Opulence perfectly!