Southern Girls Challenge - Earn Your Stripes

I have been doing a lil' happy jig ever since Louise asked me to join the Southern Girls Challenge Design Team. I love this Design Team, because I get to hang out with a bunch of incredibly inspiring talented ladies, some of whom are from my end of the world. Woop woop! I am honoured and humbled to be in your midst.

Here's the first challenge that I get to 'play along' with since I joined the DT, and it's a fun one. One of our sponsors is the awesome Emerald Faerie Garden, whose stamps I have loved for years now. I have quite a little collection going on. But for this challenge, I've used one of their newer stamps, the very sweet 'Pip'. You can visit older makes of mine here and here using their gorgeous stamps.

I've coloured Pip with my favourite medium, my trusty Promarkers. I wanted to do something a wee bit 'different' with her, so I've given her 'candy floss' hair! I think it looks really cute. Whatcha reckon? I've added Stickles Star Dust to her wings for a bit of sparkle and all the water drops and the puddles have been given a splash of Glossy Accents to add to the watery effect.

Our challenge is all about stripes, and when I think about stripes, I think of my best Swedish pal. It's been a running joke between us how many stripes exist in our two households! We've had a LOT of stripes in my kiddos wardrobes since meeting my lovely Swedish pal. It's a Polarn och Pyret thing! So I knew I wanted to make this card up for her. She's just moved house, so it's a 'congratulations on the new move' card. I thought this image was apt, as the last thing you want when you're moving house is rain! I actually stamped the sentiment inside the card. I forgot to take a pic, but it reads - "Grattis... Wishing You Rainbows & Sunshine'. Grattis is Swedish for 'congratulations'. I picked up the Grattis stamp from Bildmalarna and the Rainbows & Sunshine stamp is a Magnolia sentiment.

Here's a little montage of the embellishments on the card. The lovely butterfly die, is a Joy Crafts die which I really love. I've added just a hint of glitter here and there on the die, but it sadly doesn't show up well in the pics. I didn't want to put it all over, just a few highlights. The lovely corner die is from Marianne Design who are also one of our sponsors for this challenge. It's from a 2 die set of corners. I have a huge number of Marianne Design dies. They have such a fantastic range and if you've not discovered them before click the link above and have a look through their vast selection. The lil' snail, who snuck in there at the bottom is a Memory Box die and finally, the pretty blooms, I can't recall exactly where I bought them, but I think they are Prima flowers. I didn't want to use pink blooms, as my pal, loves green, but is not such a 'pink' girly. So I tried to tone down the pink by using daisies. I've tucked in a couple of strands of pearls and some extra leaf swirls too.

The pretty double bow is made from organza ribbon and is thanks to a fabulous tutorial by Jak Heath. I think the double bows look so pretty, but have never known how to do them, until I found Jak's tutorial. It's brilliant and so easy to follow! So give it a go if you've never tried. 

The scalloped edge on my card base was cut with a Grand Nestabilities Scalloped Square die and embossed with the large embossing folder that came with my eBosser. Finally just the papers to mention. It's hard to see the lovely houndstooth strip that runs along the centre of the card behind the image, but I really loved that paper, just a hint shows. That and the fabulous striped paper are from a My Minds Eye paper pad from the Vanity Fair collection. I matted both papers with a green core'dinations paper from the Nostalgia set of their Super Assortments.

If you made it to the end of my post, yay you! (Have you noticed I like to talk?!) Thanks for popping in on my wee corner of the blogisphere. Awesome to have you visit. Do pop into the Southern Girls Challenge Blog and check out what my fantastically talented team mates have been up to. Better still, why don't you pull out your stripey papers and join in the challenge. We have three amazing sponsors for this challenge, Emerald Faerie Garden, Artfull Crafts and Marianne Design. So three prizes up for grabs. Come on over and join in the fun! Hugs, Wends x

Challenge Entries:
Inky Chicks: #26 ~ Butterflies
Divas By Design: Easter/Spring
Papertake Weekly: Spring Has Sprung
Crafty Catz Challenge: #225 ~ Springtime
Sister Act Card Challenge: #51 ~ Anything Goes
Crafts & Me Challenge: #147 April Challenge - A Sketch
Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenges: #70 ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar Challenge: April ~ Things With Wings & DT Call