I Love the Rain!

Well I don't mind the rain as it is what keep's this country nice and green, but according to Papa Mia's weather station we've already had 2.6cm of rain this month ... and I think most of that fell last week when we had some torrential downpours!

Hello crafty friends! Hope this post finds you all well ... if not, hugs are winging their way to you.

I'm a wee bit tardy in posting this, as Mr Blogger's gremlin friends decided that they wouldn't let me put photos into my post - how dare they! Fingers crossed that it all works this time! Anyway, you're not too late to be joining in with the new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs this week, which finds us celebrating The Great Outdoors. Plenty of scope for some fabby projects me thinks!

As ever, Chris has lined up a wonderful sponsor for this challenge and we've teamed up with Sami Siemers Ratliff from Sami Stamps who has offered a lovely prize to this week's lucky winner. Even if you don't win the prize, Sami has some totally beautiful digi stamps in her store and, while you're there, go and check out the "Deals" section and treat yourself to some gorgeous-ness which won't break the bank! 

Sami has very generously given each DT member their own choice of digi to use for this challenge, and here is my card for you this week featuring one of Sami's oh-so-pretty images:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - pre-made 14.7 cm square card blank in white which I've scored and folded to make a twisted easel card. I've also used a square of Snow White Silver Centura Pearl to make my easel panel.
• Papers - are from a kit by Marisa Lerin at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking called Rainy Day Mini Kit, and they're perfect for this image don't you think? I've used Rainy Day Paper 01, Rainy Day Paper 02 and Rainy Day Paper Floral 03. I put a digital border to give a faux mat around the raindrops and umbrella papers and, to continue the rainy theme as I thought this looked the ripples in a puddle, I used one of the built in embossing borders on my Ultimate Pro to create the wavy line on the floral paper, which I then cut out by hand. 
  
• Image - has been beautifully drawn by Sami at Sami Stamps and she is called I Love the Rain. Unfortunately, I can't give you a direct link to her in Sami's store as she appears to have been retired ;o( I've brought her to life very simply using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours, before die cutting her using a die from the Die'sire Essentials Squares set.
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS6
• Hair - GB8, GB10, EB5 (I think my hair skills definitely have room for improvement!)
• Dress - TB1, TB3
• Umbrella - paper pieced using the Rainy Day Paper Floral 03 paper, Silver Gel Pen
• Raindrops - Silver Gel Pen
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and this was a freebie on her blog in March. I've cut this out using a die from the Die'sire Essentials Rectangles set.

I hope I've inspired you to create a project celebrating The Great Outdoors and don't forget to head over to the Incy Wincy Designs blog and check out the fabulous projects by my very talented teamies. Then come back and show us your creations - this challenge will end on Sunday 17th May.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Challenge #144 - More than One Fold at A Gem of a Challenge
• Challenge #25 - Anything Goes at Sami Stamps
• Challenge #58 - Monochrome at Lacy Sunshine Challenge
• Digi Stamp Challenge #5 at Little Claire's

Hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x