The last days of summer....and a winner

A bit of a marathon colouring session took place over the weekend, and I thought I better turn this one into a card before Autumn really sets in....

The image is by Emma Canning for Polkadoodles from the CD Digistamp Heaven.  She is really suntanned, I enjoyed trying to make her look as if she had had a long day on the beach! I decided to use bright papers to represent the sky and sand. The sentiment is an old one by Judikins - I have never used it on a beachy card before, but it jumped out of the drawer and said 'look, I'm perfect'. My Memory Box clouds are my current favourite dies, and I seem to be pulling them out for almost every card I make....

I have had quite a few emails asking how I cut out the intricate dies - some of the Memory Box dies have such tiny little intricate details that some people are having a job getting the cuts clean. I swear by my metal shim plate, quite a few companies make them and if you cut a lot of dies they are worth every penny. It's just a thin metal sheet that you put over your die/paper before putting on the top cutting plate. Perfect cuts every time

We have had a few glorious days here in the UK, but there is a definite Autumn feel to the season now, the leaves are starting to change colour and our tiny garden is littered with acorns from the big oak tree. I notice that all the holly is laden with berries already. They say that is a sign of a hard winter to come, better dig out the thermals

Now to the winner of the Letraset Metallic Markers - thanks to everyone who took the time to leave comments here and on the Letraset blog. The winner is

S Bayles 

Congratulations. Her number was number 1 in the random drawing, and that's what random.org picked, just shows that sometimes the early bird does catch the worm! Send me an email please with your address and I will get them in the mail to you

See you tomorrow, I may have jumped from the beach to December 25th by then.....