i {heart} copics - Fabulous Friday #18

TGIF, my friends! I'm having a REALLY fabulous Friday (see the reason why down below!) so it's a good thing that it's time for another Fabulous Friday challenge with the girls from the i {heart} copics team! This week Jana gave us an inspiration challenge, and if you visit the IHC group over at Paper Craft Planet, you can get a glimpse of the photo and play along! We'd love to see what you come up with from the piece!

You'll see some golden/orange tones in the piece, some brown (which I thought very closely mimicked Soft Suede) and some butterflies, and some swirls so I took all of those elements and incorporated them into my card for today!

I was lucky enough to spend some great stamping time last Sunday evening with my awesome friends Beth and Cindy, and Beth happened to have this adorable Tilda stamp available so I stamped her off several times and brought her home with me. I colored her dress using my Copic markers to match the orange and golden tones in the inspiration piece, and thought the swirls out around her were a good match, too. The papers I used is some old My Mind's Eye that I also thought was a good color match, as well as the Soft Suede cardstock base and punched border. (And that punch was a gift from another awesome friend I got to spend time with this week! Thanks, 'Nita!) The crepe ribbon I used is a new addition in the i {heart} papers store and it is SO luxurious! You have to get your hands on some of this stuff! I only had white in the width that I wanted to use, so I sponged Old Paper distress ink on the ribbon to darken it up.

I've never been very good at capturing "bling" in my photographs but hopefully you can see it today! I added some ultrafine glitter to the swirls surrounding Tilda, the spritzed the whole card liberally with some Pssst! Shimmer Spray from Tsukineko. I just LOVE that stuff, and it adds instant glitz and glam to everything! (click on the picture for a larger image!) On her crown I used a silver Spica glitter pen.
Finally, I added some more paper and a punched butterfly inside with this sentiment from Stamping Bella.
OK, are you ready for the big reason why I'm having SUCH a FABULOUS Friday? Remember a few months ago when I decided to step down from the Stamp Simply team (read that post here)? I needed to lighten my load just a little bit so I'd have more time in my day for exercise, and was trying to eat healthier and lose some weight. I started Weight Watchers back on April 2nd, and have been using several forms of exercise (walking, stationary bike, water aerobics) ever since and today I'm very happy to report that I'm officially down 25 pounds! I still have a LOT more to go, but this is a great start so far and I love how good I'm feeling!

I appreciate each and every visit you make to my blog, and your wonderful comments! I hope you'll share in my excitement today, too! Happy stamping!

Stamps: Tilda Ballerina (Magnolia), sentiment (Stamping Bella)

Cardstock: Soft Suede, Tangerine Tango (Stampin' Up!), white (Neenah), designer papers (My Mind's Eye)

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Soft Suede (SU!), markers (Copic)

Accessories: Nestabilities Large Petite Oval (Spellbinders), Pssst! Shimmer Spray (Tsukineko), crepe ribbon (Creative Impressions), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), border punch (SU!), pearls (KaiserCraft).