Easy Craft Projects Challenge no 8 - a colour theme...

It's time for a new Challenge on the Easy Craft Projects Challenge blog. We are being sponsored by Sunshine stamps and were lucky to be sent some gorgeous digis to play with. I couldn't resist paperpiecing the lovely Easter Egg.


I printed off a selection of papers from the Funky Hand Papercraft factory CD to follow the colour theme set by Lisa. The springtime colours are perfect for Easter.


To make the card, I printed an A4 sheet of card on both sides, cut it into a square card blank then folded one side of the card in half to make the easel shape. I matted and layered card on the base and the front of the card adding a ribbon to the front in a coordinating gingham.

I made a topper by printing the egg on to lilac, orange spotted and blue card then cut out the different pieces of the egg adding glossy accents to the ribbon and gems.
I added a sentiment to act as a prop for the easel, a bow topped with a button and gems finished the card off.
I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge to be in with a chance of winning some Sunshine stamps digital stamps.
Have a lovely weekend.
Jane
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Audrey in Bright Green and Mango!

The colour combination on the Passion for Promarkers blog was too tempting to resist this week, Bright Green and Mango, such fresh Springy colours and great fun to use together. I was lucky enough last week to pick up the free digi stamp of Audrey which was available for a limited time as a Birthday treat on the Greeting Farm blog.

I follow Carol's unusual sketch on her Challenge blog this fortnight, the sketch is quite simple and uncluttered so I thought I would team Audrey with some lovely glittered stripey card from the Citrus DCWV stack. The ribbon and buttons are both by Papermania.

I really love colouring in TGF images, I gave Audrey a Mango hat and Bright Green T-shirt. I added some glittery Sakura pen to her necklace and I am really pleased with the colouring of her jeans!
I added a Hero Arts greeting in a Spellbinders star to finish the card off.

I am so glad it is Friday today! We have a busy Weekend of visiting Family and meals out to celebrate Mother's day so I doubt I will have a lot of time for Crafting.
Have a lovely Friday!

My DT card for the next Willow Sketchie Challenge

It's time for another Willow Sketchie Challenge. This week, we had a play with 'Missy' a lovely new download from Willow Designs. We were working with a sketch by the lovely Rosie and it was a great one!

This week, it was all about the colouring and I had lots of fun with my Promarkers creating a bright and colourful card to match Sharon's papers.

As a finishing touch, I added a sentiment from Hero Arts stamped on to a Stampin up tab shape and some lovely flowers from Prima. The felt ribbon was from Quixotic Paperie and gives a real Springtime feel to the card.
I hope you will be able to join us for this week's Challenge. I would love to see what you do with Rosie's sketch. Make sure you pop over to the Willow Sketchie blog for all the details and to see the rest of the DT's fab creations. If you enter the Challenge you could win a Willow Designs download!
Hope to see you there!
Jane
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An Easter Basket for Susie's Sassy Challenge

Good Morning!

I wanted to say a special Thank you to all of you who visited my blog yesterday and left comments on the photo of my desk. You may be interested to know that I did actually end up going to a Craft shop on my lunch break and bought 3 metres of Pink Organza ribbon! I obviously did not have quite enough :-)

Some of you eagle eyed WOYWWers spotted this Project on my Desk yesterday. This is my DT Project for Susie's Sassy Challenge and the theme this fortnight is Easter. I am on a mission to make as many of these little baskets as I can before Easter so I thought it would be a great idea to make one as my DT project!

For the basket I followed a tutorial on the Magnolia Challenge blog. It looks really complicated is actually quite straightforward and the tutorial is really easy to follow.

I used K+Co paper, Papermania cardstock, one of my New Martha Stewart Punches, pink ribbon and a Heather Ellis image to decorate the basket. The little butterflies were from John Lewis, the 'bling' is Kanban and the flowers are from various places...

I coloured the cute little image with my Promarkers. I am really enjoying using these Pure Innocence images. I seem to have gone digi image crazy lately. There is so much choice out there! I treated myself to the Alice in Wonderland digi set from The Greeting Farm yesterday and can't wait to print them and get colouring :-)
The little Easter sentiment was stamped using the Elzybells everyday greetings set. This set is so handy for every occasion!
I filled the basket with lots of yummy Chocolae eggs and some shredded tissue paper.
I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge and create something lovely for Easter.
Make sure you pop over to the Blog to see the DT's fabulous projects. There is a Guest DT spot for the 8th of April up for grabs for the winner of this Challenge.
Have a lovely Thursday!
Jane
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What's on your Workdesk Wednesday? A mess!

My desk looks a bit different today to this time last week. I took this photo last night after I finished a DT project which I can't show you until tomorrow. It is somewhere on my desk though....see if you can spot it amongst the mess!
The desk is covered in scraps and bits and pieces from a couple of projects and lots of pink ribbon. It took me a while to choose the right one! My Promarkers, Nesties etc are all over the floor so I had enough room to work.


I hope you enjoy having a little nose around my Workdesk. If you want to see more desks and share yours with us, pop on over to Julia's blog for a look at hers and many more interesting Workspaces.
I hope you have a lovely Wednesday!
Jane
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Back to Nature but no Flowers!

It was a bit of a funny day today....I went to PC world to buy a replacement for the chewed laptop power supply at lunchtime. When we got it home, we managed to fit it to the Laptop but it would not charge. Frustrated, we drove back to Reading this evening to return it and try and buy an alternative. We got to PC World only to discover we needed to turn a little dial on the bottom of the Power Supply to make sure it kicked out the correct voltage!! How silly did we feel!! Anyway...the laptop is charged now, we stopped for tea on the way home and Darren and the boys bought me two tops and some jeans while we were out and about for Mother's Day :-) I have been spoilt!
When I got home I faffed about for a bit looking through my paper scraps and digis and made this card.
It's a bit unusual for me as it's all pale and pastelly, I usually go much brighter but I liked this polka dot paper with the lemon DCWV card so I went with it.

The image is a Heather Ellis Pure Innocence Digi. I have three of these now. They are so cute! The Spotty paper is from Inspire me, the ribbon is Papermania as are the gems and the Die cut shapes are all Spellbinders. As the little cutie on my card is going 'Back to Nature' with her little watering can surrounded by Butterflies I am entering this card in to the Passion for Promarkers Challenge which is 'Back to Nature', I am also entering it into the Die Cut Dreams Challenge which forbids you from using Flowers and last but not least I am entering it into the I love Promarkers Challenge which asks for a Shaped card.
I think this is the first time I have combined so many Challenges on one card.
I hope you had a good Monday.
Jane
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Look away now Mum!!! No Peeking!

A quick word of warning before I begin....this post is rather long and there are lots of photos so you may want to grab a cuppa before you start!
I had tasked myself today to make my Mum's and Mum In law's Mother's day cards. I was a bit stuck for ideas this week until I saw Anice on Create and Craft and remembered how fab my Funky Hand Papercraft Factory CD is and then it all kind of fell in to place.

I used the Lavender collection Wordbook and decided to make similar Wordbooks for both. This colour scheme is just fabulous. The green is an amazing shade. It matches so well with the Lilac and Purple and looks really Funky. I printed out all the letters to start and then cut out the pages, trimmed them to size and scored the two top pages. I then stuck the book together and punched the bound edge with my Bind it all.
I tied coordinating ribbons through the punched holes. The ribbons are from various sources. The green ribbon was bought in the sale from Tesco's after Christmas and is a perfect match.
I printed small letters which I cut out with my Nestabilities, inked the edges and mounted them on to the card with foam pads and added a heart gem. I finished the cards off with gems and with Prima flowers. The little purple clips are from Making Memories.
I decided to do something constructive with my scraps and made a couple of gift tags to match the cards.
I cut scalloped circles then cut a circle with a band of coordinating paper through the middle. I printed more letters from the CD, mounted them to the tags with foam pads and added glossy accents. I think the letters look fab finished this way, it gives them a really luxurious feel.
I set an eyelet for the ribbon, added small Making Memories letters, flowers and gems to finish them off. I did make matching flowers for the tags but Charlie, my Puppy, ate one, it has been a day for Charlie eating things he shouldn't, while we were having Dinner tonight, he chewed the end of the Laptop charger! He is not the most popular person in our house right now and I will be making an unscheduled trip to PC World tomorrow!
After I made the cards, I realised this Month's Funky Hand Challenge theme chosen by Dolly is 'Girls Girls Girls' so I am entering them into the Challenge.
Sorry for such a long post! If you are still with me...I hope you had a lovely Weekend :-)
Jane
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A busy day crafting and some ATCs...

I had a lot of unexpected crafting time today. We had our Saturday all planned out...my Hubby was taking a half day from work and I was taking my Son to play football and my Hubby would get to watch him and bring him home, then my Hubby and I were going to go to town while the kids played out and we would all go together to see Alice in Wonderland in 3d this evening.
None of the above happened. My youngest Son started to feel ill yesterday evening and was sick all through the night :-( He is a lot better this evening but is still running a temperature. He is desperate to get better quickly as he is due to go with my Hubby and eldest son to watch their team play in the FA cup quarter finals tomorrow afternoon.
Whilst I was looking after my poorly boy I caught up with a couple of my DT projects but I can't show you those yet. I also had a play with some of Jane's wonderful digi images to make some ATCs.

Paul is running a double swap this month over at the ATC swappers blog. The themes are colour themes. Red and black and Yellow and black. You can either make 4 or 8 ATCs. I missed the February swap as I was ill for most of February and struggled to keep up with everything so I thought I would make all 8.
For my Red and Black ATCs, I used Spike and coloured him in with Promarkers. The spotty background was made with my Hero Arts polka dot background stamp. The sentiment is by Paper Makeup which I purchased from Quixotic Paperie. The heart is a Nesties shape cut from Bobunny Double dot paper.
I added some glossy accents to Spike's eye to give it some dimension.
I was a bit predictable for the black and yellow and went for a bee image also from Jane's Doodles. I printed the image and then stamped an Elzybells sentiment below the image before cutting it out with my Nesties.
The image was coloured with Promarkers and I added Stickles to the wings. The felt flower was from John Lewis and I added a Kanban black gem to the centre.
I love working with Jane's images and it was good fun making the ATCs with them, I really enjoyed the colour themes too. If you fancy joining in with the swap, please check out Paul's blog for more details.
I hope you are having a good weekend. I have no plans for tomorrow so I am hoping to fit in some more crafting :-)
Jane
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My ATCs for the Addicted to ATCs February swap

Here are my ATCs for the Addicted to ATCs February swap. The theme was Valentine's day so I made 3 ATCs out of Kraft and decorated them with K+Co Christmas paper and Spellbinders hearts cut from Kraft and Bazzill card.
I inked all the edges (surprise, surprise!) and added a Hero Arts sentiment, some gems and a heart button tied with string to finish them off.
We announced the theme for March today, we will be making 3 ATCs in Spring colours. If you are interested in joining us why not pop over to the blog for more details or email us to addictedtoatcs@gmail.com.
Jane
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Willow Sketchie DT card.

It's time for another Willow sketchie Challenge and this one is a very exciting one for me as we are using my sketch this week to make cards! This is the first time I have designed a sketch to be used in a Challenge and I have really enjoyed seeing what the rest of the DT did with it and I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

We were very lucky to be able to play with another gorgeous download this week, it is available ready coloured or black and white so I got my Promarkers out this week and had loads of fun!


The download had lots of fun components so it was perfect to build a great card with lots of detail and depth.

All the papers I used are also available from Willow designs and I added some glossy accents to some bits for added dimension.

Here is a copy of my sketch:



I hope you will be able to join us for this week's Challenge. As usual there will be a download from Willow Designs for the winner.

Jane
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I love Digi Challenge no 2 DT card .

It is a fortnight since our first Challenge was set and we have been overwhelmed by the response and the number of entries we received! Thank you so much to everyone who took part, it was great fun looking through your blogs.
This fortnight's challenge is a SKETCH and the theme of CARD FOR MUM.

We had a lovely sketch by Dawny P to follow. I used a freebie digital kit from Two Peas. They have some great kits there, I have downloaded a few to try now and am really pleased with all of them. The image is from Heather Ellis. She has some gorgeous images available at really good prices. This is my first image from her but I am sure it will not be the last! The sentiment is from Elzybells.

You can interpret the sketch as you wish, flip it, rotate it but we must be able to see the original sketch in there along with the added theme.

The sketch by DAWNY P was lovely to follow and I am really pleased with my finished card.

We have a sponsor for this Challenge so you could win a lovely Prize from Lexi's Doodles if you take part.

The DT have made some amazing cards to inspire you and we have DAWN as our Guest Designer for this Challenge. I hope you will be able to join us!

Jane
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WOYWW and some teeny Willow Designs cards

I haven't done this for a while but here is what my desk looks like today! It's nice to be back! There are a couple of new things on my desk. A recycled spice rack holding buttons is one of my favourite additions and there is a patterned overpriced Craft bag which holds all my Promarkers. Very handy as it has a handle and is basically a basket so I can carry it downstairs to do my colouring in. There is a beautiful Get Well card on the button rack sent to me by Petra and a couple of finished Projects are dotted around the desk. I think you can enlarge the project if you want a closer look.

I had a play with one of my Sizzix XL dies today, the shaker box die is fab and I have made a couple of DT projects with it that I can't yet share but I put it to use today to make a box to house some teeny cards and envelopes. The cards measure 5.5cmx6cm and I made envelopes for them making a template from a Paperchase envelope.
I used a download from Willow designs to print on to card to make the box and used another to make toppers for the cards and the box.
I added ribbon to the box to keep it closed neatly. The mini cards fit inside the box perfectly.
I used different shaped Nesties to make toppers for the cards and then matted them on to squares of the patterned card.
I added Hero Arts paper flowers as a finishing touch with some gems for a bit of sparkle.
I hope you are having a good Wednesday. I wll be back tomorrow with some DT cards.
Jane

Ho ho ho? I don't think so!!!

This is my first ever easel card. I know most crafty bloggers have made dozens of these already but I am running a bit behind. I am blogging this card but it was a complete nightmare to make and has lots of flaws and imperfections. There are smudges, uneven edges, uneven stamping, wonky matting and layering, everything that could have gone wrong did! I was totally clumsy at every stage of putting the card together!

This was made with another of my new Greeting Farm stamps. The papers are Basic Grey scraps leftover from Christmas cards and the charm is from Quixotic paperie. I had to use Stickles to hide some smudging on the hat. The wonky ribbon is from my stash.
I hope you have a lovely evening. I won't be touching anymore of my Craft stash to avoid any more crafting mishaps!
Jane
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A Greeting Farm Dahlia card

I haven't been around much lately and haven't really made much apart from DT projects recently as I haven't been feeling myself. I have been off work since we came back from Somerset and have been sleeping a lot and I feel I am steadily recovering.
I ordered some The Greeting Farm stamps a while back and decided to make my first card using Dahlia today.
I love how happy these little characters seem and the Greeting Farm stamps are fast becoming some of my favourites. I ordered another couple today from Elaine at Quixotic paperie as she has a special offer at the moment, I can't wait for them to arrive!
I made a shaped card using Nestabilities as my base card and I coloured the image with Promarkers and cut her out with a border so as not to miss any of the detail. The spotty paper is My Mind's Eye and the pink paper is from DCWV. The flowers are Prima and Making Memories, the ribbon is from my stash and the border punch is Martha Stewart. The sentiment is Hero Arts.
I hope you had a good Monday and I hope to be back soon with more cards :-)
Jane
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A Monster gift tag and gift box

My Best Friend Fiona looked after my cat Patch when we went to Somerset and really helped us out at short notice so I wanted to give her a special little something to say Thank You. Patch had been missing for over 10 weeks and we thought she had found a new home or that something nasty had happened to her but she came strolling back in one evening when my Husband and Son were walking back from Jack's Valentine's disco. She just walked straight in the door, up the stairs and went back to her usual spot on our bed as if she had never been away!
I bought Fiona a nice bottle of Rioja and some Caramacs. Fiona gives up Chocolate for Lent but does have the odd Caramac as a treat...


I made a tag for the wine from a label that some flowers I bought from John Lewis were attached to when I bought them. I covered both sides with some digital download paper from Two Peas. The kit is a freebie and can be found here. I love how bright these papers are and they printed out perfectly on my linen textured card. I added an image from Jane's Doodles which I coloured in with my Promarkers, did a bit of overstamping on the layers with Hero Arts stamps. The finishing touches were ribbon, buttons and a few gems.
I decided to make a little box for the Caramacs to match. I measured the Caramacs and then made a box with my Scoreboard to fit. I used scraps to decorate the top of the box along with a punched border, some ribbon, a paper flower, a button and more stamping.
I have printed off a few more kits to try and I am so pleased with the quality of the freebies from Two Peas so expect to see a few more cards from me made with them!
I hope you are having a good Weekend.
Jane
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New Easy Craft Projects Challenge DT card

It's time for a new Challenge on the Easy Craft Projects Challenge blog.

We want you to create a card, layout, altered piece etc using one (or more) of these projects from Easy Craft Projects as inspiration:
Thank You Card
Quick Mother's Day Cards
House on a Hill Pin Cushion
Button Bracelet
Storage Projects

Sunshine's Stamps is sponsoring this challenge and is offering the winner from challenges #7 and #8 a $20 gift certificate to their store!

Here is the card I made using the Thank you card as inspiration.


I used Kraft card to make a card base and layered up scraps of DCWV, Bobunny and Basic Grey papers.
The blooms are Woodware and Prima tied together with string. The letter stickers are Making Memories.

I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge. Make sure you hop over to the blog to check out some lovely Projects from the DT for inspiration.

Jane
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New Willow Sketchie Challenge DT Project

It's time for a new Willow Sketchie and this one is a gorgeous sketch by Karen. I was really chuffed to be able to have a play Sharon's latest download to create my DT project. The new image is so cute and the papers that go with it are just amazing and were so lovely to work with.
I decided to make a box of notelets as my DT project and used the sketch to decorate the lid.


I made the box using some pearlescent card from Payperbox and my scoring board. I inked each layer to give some extra depth. I am addicted to inking the edges of my card layers at the moment!
I added a sentiment from Elzybells which fitted the theme perfectly onto one of my new Nestie label shapes.

I filled the box with 5 Notecards which I decorated with leftover scraps from my Printouts and more images. I used some precoloureds and coloured the rest with my Promarkers.

Here is an arty close up shot of the box lid :-)


Make sure you pop on over to the blog to see all the other DT projects, the girls have made some amazingly inspirational projects this week. Here is a copy of the gorgeous sketch.


I hope you will be able to take part for the chance of winning one of Sharon's stunning downloads.

I hope you are all ok and having a good week.
Jane
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Susie's sassy Challenge DT card: Aqua and Lilac

It's time for a new Challenge over at Susie's Sassy Challenges. This fortnight, we are following a colour theme set by DT member Lisa. Lisa chose her favourite colours for us to work with: Aqua and Lilac.
I never would have thought of putting these colours together but I love this combo now and will definitely use it again.

This week we have a super sponsor the lovely Roberta from Prairie Fairy Designs. Roberta is offering the winner of the winner of challenge #9 a selection of any 3 digital stamps from her store!!

I loved using this image, it is so pretty! I coloured it with Promarkers and added Stickles to the wings, the sentiment is a free digi stamp available from here.
I used American Crafts and DCWV papers and a Fiskars punch for the border. Most of the flowers are from Hero Arts with some Prima mixed in. The ribbon is from my stash.
Make sure you pop over to the blog and take a look at all the lovely DT cards. I hope you will be able to join us for the chance to win some gorgeous images!
I hope you are having a good week.
Jane
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Is it Spring yet?

I am back from my half term holidays in Somerset with my Hubby, the boys and Charlie. We stayed in a lovely little cottage on a dairy farm near Bridgwater. The weather was pretty awful the whole week but we still had a relaxing time and got out and about a bit in the local area. Charlie loved the beaches and running about in the sand :-)
I made a card today for the first time in ages...actually, I made two but the 1st one was terrible so is going in the bin! I followed the photo given for inspiration on the Docrafts website to make this card. The photo is very Springlike so I used very fresh and bright colours with a Daisy and Dandelion stamp.

The sentiment stamp is from a Honey and Hugs set. The ribbon is Papermania as are the papers and the little buttons.
This card did not come easy, I think I am a bit rusty, hopefully I will get my Mojo back soon as I have lots of DT and other Projects to make!
Jane
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I LOVE DIGI CHALLENGE #1 THINK PINK - DT card

Hurrah! It's finally here! Today is the launch of the 1st 'I love digi challenge' and the theme is :

THINK PINK

The sponsor for this Challenge is THE STAMPING BOUTIQUE and their prize is 5 Digi Images of the winners choice.

For my card I used one of Jane's monsters and coloured her in shades of pink adding little stick on gems to her horns. I cut her out and added her to a shaped card base I had cut with my Nestabilities. The spotty paper is from the latest Funky Hand CD. I printed everything onto textured card as I love the luxurious look this gives. The sentiment stamp is Hero Arts and the button is from Elzybells tied with some ribbon from my scraps box.

Make sure you check out the rest of the DT blogs for more inspiration:

Elaine - Leader

Paul

Callie

Bev

Karin

Dee

Poppy

Mel
and guest DT Jane

Then come on over to the blog and join us for our 1st Challenge!

Jane
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Winner of Jane's digi images

The winner of Jane's images is.......Dolly!
Can you please email me to milliesmarvels@gmail.com and I will
send your details to Jane.
Jane
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Jane's Doodles Release day and some DT news!

It's release day on Squigglefly and Jane has some fantastic new digi stamps available for you to play with.
Her latest release is called Bird Watching and the set has birds, birdhouses and even a worm! This cute little Owl is part of the set and he was so much fun to make into a card for Valentine's day.

I used a Bazzill border strip to edge the bottom of the card and covered the base card with American Crafts checked paper. I cut a frame from green card which I mounted on foam pads over a K+Co cloud circle. I then popped the little owl inside. The lovely sparkly letters are from American Crafts and the little alphas are Making memories. The gems are Kanban and the heart button and felt heart are from my stash tied together with some paper string.
We have welcomed some new DT members to the Jane's Doodles team, make sure you check out new DT members Lucy's and Mariana's blogs as well as the rest of the team for more inspiration and ideas.

Alice
Kelly
Lysa
Sanne
Jane
as well as Guest DT Donna.

Jane is also running a little giveaway to celebrate the new release. Leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner randomly who will receive a set of Jane's new images. I will draw a winner on Monday evening. Good luck everyone!
Jane
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My DT Card for Easy Craft Projects Challenge no6

It's time for another Challenge on the Easy Craft Projects Challenge blog. We are sponsored by Jane's Doodles this month so I used some of Jane's gorgeous Babushka images to make a card following the fab sketch provided by Nan.

I used American Crafts papers, Hero Arts and Prima flowers to make up my design. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and the brown accent strip and Butterflies are from Bazzill.
I finished the card off with some Making memories ribbon and lots of sparkly gems. I had lots of fun colouring in the images with my Promarkers. Jane's images are just wonderful to work with and if you take part in the ECP Challenge this month, you will be in with a chance of winning some of her digis and some of her fabulous handmade buttons! Make sure you check out the ECP blog for more details and for some more inspiration from the DT.
Jane
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