A bit of sparkle

Wow, my internet is still working, can you believe it? For anyone who hasn't been following along - my broadband connection has been on again, off again (mainly off) for nearly a month and so I've been grabbing internet time here and there in coffee shops. So ... what have I missed sharing with you?

I went to see Laughter in the Rain at the Lyceum last week. It's the Neil Sedaka story and was absolutely excellent. I love musicals anyway but I was most impressed at the energy of the performers, especially the male lead, on what was a really hot and muggy night. Less impressive was the service at the restaurant we went to before the show. We tried Ego, next to the Winter Gardens. Despite having made reservations and explaining that we were going to the theatre, it took an hour to get served, then we waited ages for our puds and nearly missed the beginning of the show. The desserts were delicious but the main courses were rather bland. Won't be going there again.

Friday I had a stand at a local School Fayre and it was also DH's birthday. My mojo has been missing and so he got a Blue Peter card (here's one I made earlier), poor thing. In the evening we went to the Blanc Brasserie in Leeds. It's a Raymond Blanc chain of restaurants and not too badly priced ... until you have starter, main course, dessert, wine and after dinner drinks (and a bottle of french cider to take home for DH as well) and then it adds up a little bit. On the other hand the service couldn't have been better and the food was excellent. They even put a birthday candle on DH's Tarte au Citron, lol. This one we will be going back to again ... when we've saved up.

Well I think that's the fun things caught up now, so on to the cardmaking.

I started this card last night but had to wait for some elements to dry and so couldn't finish it and post until this evening.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Touch of Nature, All a Flutter

Textured Cardstock: Sage Shadow

Plain Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Sage Shadow, Regal Rose, Black Stazon

Punch: Boho Blossoms

Other: Flower and Rhinestone Brad (both Pretties Kit), Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, Crystal Effects, Fine Galaxy Glitter, Medium Window Sheet

I started by dragging my Regal Rose ink pad across the large flower to colour it and then used an aquapainter dipped in Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint to paint it all over. This gives a lovely golden shimmer to the flower and it also changes the shade of pink quite considerably to a more orangey shade. The flower was then left to dry. I stamped the All a Flutter butterfly in Black Stazon onto Medium Window Sheet. (You could use the butterfly from the Touch of Nature set instead but at this stage I hadn't decided on my background and I think I prefer this size butterfly with the flower anyway). This was "coloured in" on the reverse of the stamped window sheet by adding Crystal Effects and Fine Galaxy Glitter in sections, letting each colour dry before adding the next. I used Black for the body and Champagne and Silver for the wings. Once completely dry, I cut out the butterfly leaving a margin all around and a strip at the top for the "dangle". To complete the card this evening I created a 4x4 card blank from textured Sage Shadow. A mat and a scrap of Whisper White were both stamped with the fern from the Touch of Nature set in Sage Shadow. I then punched a large flower from stamped scrap using the Boho Blossoms punch to create the flower centre. A large Rhinestone Brad completed it. The dangle strip for the butterfly was adhered behind the mat before popping up on dimensionals on the card front.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx