Phindy's Place Challenge #71 - anything goes using a Phindy's Place image

And now for something completely different...  the first challenge of the month at Phindy's Place is always Anything Goes, so long as you use one of Phindy's images.  This means there is always time to plan ahead so I did something I've been thinking about for ages, which is to use a digi image to make something in fabric.  It needed to be digi not rubber so I could get the size I wanted and chose Summer Bare which is one of my favourites from the new releases. 

I printed it out and traced onto Bondaweb, simplifying some of the detail.  The bikini strings were too fine to add in so I hand stitched on some twine.  I bought a lovely bag pattern at Festival of Quilts from a lovely lady on the Monkey Buttons stand, it's called African Basket.  I strip pieced the background and yes, all the panels are different and the stripes were not meant to match up!  I put together my applique image on one of the panels and followed the pattern for the bag which was straightforward to make.  It's ages since I've sewn anything other than a card, what do you think of my Phindy bag?
I'm entering my bag for the following challenges:
Paper Pretties - anything but a card
Die Cut Dreams - make a gift box or bag
My Craft Spot - sewing somewhere on your project - yup!
Victorine Originals - summer
Just some lines - anything but a card
Secret Crafter - in the sea
Totally Papercrafts - not a card
Charisma Cards - anything goes
Simon Says - anything goes hop

Summer Snooze

I coloured up this little mouse while I was on holiday and I'm really pleased with the way the poppy turned out, I've found this difficult before and I think I've over-complicated it by trying to use too many reds.  This week House Mouse & Friends celebrate their 100th Challenge so I thought I'd make him up into a card to enter - do check it out - they have some amazing prizes and candy!  I've followed Sketch'n'Stash's layout, using Memory Box Brioche DP.  The sentiment is also House Mouse, I've added tiny bits of bling to the dots of the I and the exclamation mark as well as bling in the corners.  The tiny buttons have thread knotted in them and the seam binding bow matches the length of it around the card square.  Didn't add it to the length as I didn't want to obscure his little tail!  Congratulations and best wishes to all those lovely ladies (and gentlemen) at House Mouse & Friends, they are one of the best teams for commenting on entries, thank you!
My card is for the following challenges:

House Mouse & Friends - buttons, bows and bling
Sketch'n'Stash - sketch
Stamptacular Sunday - animal antics
Papertake Weekly - getting cute
Fuzzy Wuzzy - animal + punches
Creative Stamp Friends - summer
Die Cut Dreams -animal antics
I Did it Creations - animals
One Stitch at a Time - flowers
Scrappy Frogs - summer flowers

Golden Years

 This is a very clean and simple anniversary card, made using the new Fred She Said Hearts & Roses digi set.    You'll see that I have removed the wording "I love you" from the image and added my own wording.  It's the first time I've ever tried this and really, it couldn't be easier!  I've used the pre-coloured digi but there is also a set for your own colours available.   I've printed out, cut out and layered 2 further rose sprays onto the heart.  The heart was put through my Swiss Dot embossing folder and then inked with Scattered Straw Distress Ink.

The sketch is from this week's Midnight Madness.  The DP is Bearly Mine, one from the Simply Dots download and one from the Designer Extreme I CD.  Donna at Bearly Mine has a new  challenge blog and I'm hoping she'll accept this as an entry to the recipe challenge this week:  3 flowers, 2 papers, 1 image.  The image IS the flowers, though, so fingers crossed lol!  I was lucky enough to win the CD in a recent challenge, thanks Donna!

I've gold embossed an Elusive Images swirl in the corner of each DP and added some pearls, if you click on the picutre you can see them better...    There still seems quite a bit of open space, don't know if I will tinker about with this card a bit more...

I'm entering the following challenges with my card:
Midnight Madness - sketch
Bearly Mine - recipe
Flourishes - go big (this is a 5 x 7 card)
My Time to Craft - spots & dots
Papertake Weekly - ribbons and pearls
Diecut Dreams - use a digi and a rubber stamp