Sweet treat

I usually start my Saturdays with a crafting session, but today I thought I will just quickly clean my craft room before making more of a mess. Ok, to be perfectly honest, I couldn't push the stuff on my crafting desk any further towards the edges of the desk to make even the tiniest little space, so it wasn't so much of a choice as a requirement. However, it turned out I also sorted through that huge pile of papers that contain all those "I will deal with these any day now" things, found a document I had been looking for for ages, and even kept on cleaning and went through a few of my clothes cupboards. Yes, plural... I managed to gather two large bags of clothes I am taking to a charity shop. I keep dreaming of that simple, 48-piece capsule wardrobe, but when you are a person who has been anything between a size 10 and a size 20 in the last 5 years, it's not so easy, I will tell you. I have formal and less formal dresses in various sizes, and I refuse to get rid of them as I never know what size I will be when I next need one...

I did finally make it to the actual fun part. I was inspired by the Tempting Treats challenge over at Daring Cardmakers, inspired by making cards with sweet things on them after my donut card rocked the Friday mashup. So I turned again to my trusty Sugar Rush stamp set from STAMPlorations. I know I said it before, and I will say it again, but I just love love love love love this set!!! It always makes my mouth water when I take it out for a play. I was also inspired by a card by Maria F. over in the STAMPlorations CASE playground. The funny thing is, I had also decided to play along with the colour challenge over at The Card Concept, which is partly why I was drawn to Maria's gorgeous card. Funnily enough, she also played along with the challenge over at The Card Concept, so I'm not sure if this counts as cheating... In my defence, all I can say is that it wasn't intentional, and at least I'm giving credit where credit is due. I'm also linking up with the STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge. For the layout, I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, and last but not least I'm playing along over at If You Give a Crafter a Cookie where the inspiration pic was pink and red cookies.

I started by die cutting a piece of watercolour card using a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die, and stamped the sundae in Staz-on Jet Black ink. I also stamped the image onto a piece of scrap paper and cut it out to use as a mask. I have been trying to find low tack masking paper, I have seen it used in crafty videos but can't find any. Can anyone help me? In the meantime, I use teeny tiny dabs of Tombow glue, if you let it dry it becomes non-permanent, so it works well for masking.  Just make sure you use absolutely tiny little drops, I like to make them a bit less sticky with my finger before adhering to the card, just to make sure it won't stick too tightly. After masking off the image, I used a watercolour brush to wet the paper, and then created the ombre background using Tim Holtz distress inks in Aged Mahogany, Barn Door, Worn Lipstick and Spun Sugar. I then dried the background using a heat gun, and painted the sundae using the same inks, adding some Ground Espresso for the chocolate sauce. Then I stamped sentiments from the stamp set around the edges, inspired by the layout Maria used for her card. I added a few adhesive rhinestones and sequins, and added Glossy Accents to the glass to make it look a bit more... well, glassy and glossy. I die cut a piece of vellum using a larger stitched rectangle die and adhered it onto the white card base, it doesn't show very well in the image, but it gives a nice finish to the white card. The sun was already setting when I finished the card, so the images are unfortunately a bit on the dark side.

Card: white 300 gsm card, 300 gsm watercolour card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: STAMPlorations Sugar Rush
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-on Jet Black, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Aged Mahogany, Barn Door, Ground Espresso, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Glossy Accents, adhesive gems and sequins from my stash