MilkCoffee | VeryBelle

I’m back with another challenge for Sentimental Sundays! This week, we are sponsored by Calypso’s Crafty Things – and there’s a fabulous prize for the lucky winner! The theme for this challenge is “Inside and Out”, another first for me! I always pay a lot of attention to the front of my cards, but I can’t remember ever continuing the theme inside!

I based my card around sketch 60 at From The Heart Sketches. I love to flick through the old sketches when I’m struggling to pin down a design, it’s just packed full with inspiration! So, the details for my card…. The image I have used is a MilkCoffee freebie from a while back – not sure how I have overlooked her for so long!! I coloured her using Pro-Markers as usual. I’ve tried a new hair combo – Ivory, Satin and Tan – and I’m really pleased with the way it’s turned out. The image on the inside of the card is by Patties Creations. I’ve coloured the ballet slipper with ProMarkers, then mounted on a lilac mat before popping it inside the card.

To create the frame on the front of the card, I designed a “ring doughnut” shape in the Silhouette software by laying a smaller circle over the larger circle and the subtracting the top shape. I then welded the letters of my daughter’s name to the outside edge of the doughnut. The banner pieces were also cut from glitter card on the Silhouette, before being hand stitched to the corrugated card with some matching ribbon.

The papers on the front of the card are from the Papermania Spots and Stripes collection; all the other papers are from my stash.

Make sure you pop over to Sentimental Sundays to see what the rest of the DT have been up to this week!

“Cute and cuddly, boys. Cute and cuddly.” Any other Madagascar fans out there? I’ve had Skipper’s voice going round and round in my head since I saw the theme for the new challenge over at Sentimental Sundays! Must spend some time on the sofa with the kids and a DVD this weekend, I think 😉

So, as I mentioned, our theme is Cute and Cuddly, and we were very lucky to be sponsored by MilkCoffee, home of some really cute and cuddly images!! I chose Lola and Bear (I think it may now have been retired) for my card – definitely the perfect image for the challenge!

The backing papers are all from the Harper Finch I’m Yours (Pack 1) digital paper collection. I thought the XOXO paper was just perfect!

When it came to the image, I faux paper pieced the dress with the bluebell paper from the I’m Yours stack on the Silhouette – I love the way the pattern is smaller on the top than on the skirt. I was then torn over how to colour the bear – should I faux paper piece him too? Or should I attempt fur with the ProMarkers….? I headed to Google to find a fur tutorial and came across an excellent tutorial on Ideas To Inspire. I loved the way the inks worked with the watercolour paper, and then remembered I had some in my old stash! I dug it out and set to work using the tutorial as a guide. Firstly, I printed the image, with the faux paper pieced dress on a piece of watercolour paper and then coloured the image with ProMarkers – although it looked a little uneven when the ink was dry, I’m delighted with the blends I’ve achieved. I’ll admit that the image on the card is my second attempt though; I tried browns for the bear in the first attempt, but didn’t like the combination of colours when I put it with the backing papers. I find the grey works much better in this case.

The banner was cut on the Silhouette; the bluebell paper is a larger version of the pattern on the dress from the Harper Finch papers, the two solid colours are just colour matched to the other papers from my stash.

The button was also a bit of an aha! moment! I have some epoxy buttons in my stash, but they’re the wrong colours or wrong sizes for this project. So I adapted a button cut file from my Silhouette library, coloured it in light grey and pink before printing and then cut four copies. I stuck them all together with Mod Podge, then stuck a generous layer of Glossy Accents all over to create a shine! Added to a piece of twine, it finishes the card off just as I hoped!