Another Happy Birthday!

Hi,

I've made another Birthday card this week, this time for the Receptionist at work who is celebrating her 50th Birthday on Sunday. I've done another Swing or Flip Flop card ... I just love this style ... and this one is a really bold colour scheme!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - Centura Pearl 300gsm card. This one came from a local store, however Crafter's Companion have the shade Blackcurrant (which is fractionally darker than this) in the Dark Card Pack
• Design Paper and both sentiments are by Create With TLC. The design paper is called Purple Passion Val Paper 7 - both it and the word art montage on the rear of the card were goodies in the current February Club. I tweaked the word art montage slightly by exporting the graphic into my normal word processing program and adding the purple 50 next to the "TH" to make 50th! I hope Paulette doesn't mind! I think the sentiment on the front of the card was offered on a blog as a Challenge Freebie.
• Image is called Nanny Queen and she is, unfortunately, a now retired digi from Kelley Kids, who are no longer operating. However, I think she is a real cutie and I used my Spectrum Noir Pens to bring her to life, together with a silver gel pen for her necklace and tiara to add some sparkle. I added 3 bits of silver bling to the points of the tiara, just to add a further accent. She is, after all, a girl who is going out somewhere! :o)
• Ribbon, bow and flower - black organdie ribbon from my stash. I made the flower and used a small purple bead as the centre of the flower.

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

• Birthday Challenge at Catch the Bug
• New Year Sparkle - use glitter and gems at The Crafty Pad
• Challenge #147 - Texture Please! at Stamptacular Sunday - my textures are a visible texture to my design paper, organdie ribbon (bow and flower), gems, bead
• Challenge 129 - Bold and Bright at Incy Wincy Designs
• Challenge #52 - Bows at Ladybug Crafts
• Buttons, Bows, Bling and Blooms at Papertake Weekly - any combination of these, so I've used a bow, some bling and a flower
• What's your favourite Colour Combo! at My Mum's Craft Shop Challenges - has to be purples and adding black to it is just a classic look!
• Challenge #104 - Bingo at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - my line is the top row of Handmade Embellishment (Flower and Bow), Digi Image, 2 Different Papers (I've taken a slight liberty here because the Centura Pearl card is so pretty I just can't cover it up! So, I'm using this as one of my papers with the other being the purple paper behind my image ... hope this is OK ladies!)
• Celebrations at Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog
• Monthly Contest - Birthday Projects at The Stamping Boutique

Hugs,
Helen x

A Bright Happy Birthday!

Hi!

Last Friday was my Sister-in-Law's Birthday and, as she was the person who inspired me to start making cards I couldn't let her down with a shop-bought card, could I ...? So here is the card I made for her:

This card layout is a sketch challenge over at Catch the Bug and proved to be a challenge for me as I've don't think I've ever really got to grips fully with matting and layering. However I love this layout, and I can see it's one that I will use many times as it's very versatile.

My Card Recipe is as follows:

• Base card - embossed snow white card (250gsm) purchased from a local independent craft shop, and cut and folded to a 15cm (6 inch) square
• Red Mat and Layer card - sooooo old, I think I bought it in the mid 1990s (from a local independent photocopy shop which has probably long since gone) for a Wide Game for Guides!
• White Mat and Layer card - my favourite Centura Pearl Snow White 300gsm which I embossed using 2 different sizes of flowers on the embossing board Springtime Sweets & Cupcakes Treats with my Ultimate Pro - all from Crafter's Companion (one of my fave places!)
• Design Paper and Sentiment are both from Create With TLC (my other most favourite place!) The paper is called Birthday Candy Paper 12 which is a goodie from The February Club. If you're really quick, you could join the club as Paulette has very generously opened it to new members for a few hours more -click here to read about it and, I can promise you, you will not be disappointed with the mail-outs. The sentiment is a TLC freebie which was offered on a blog challenge last month that Paulette was sponsoring.
• Image is called Girl in Pretty Dress and she is a Jellypark digistamp, although I'm not sure she's available in the store (plenty more gorgeous images there to tempt you though!) Claire from Jellypark offered her as a freebie image for a challenge she was sponsoring in The Crafter's Cafe December 2012 Open House. To bring this little cutie to life, I've used my Spectrum Noirs in the following colours:
• Skin - 135, 196, 137
• Hair - 104, 100
• Hairband - 11, 12
• Dress - 11, 35, 33
• Shoes - 96, 91
• Outline - CG1
• Design finished with 3 small pieces of Bling from my crafty stash - I think I've now been making cards long enough to be able to say that now! And, that feels good :o)!!!!

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

• Stella Says Sketch! at Catch The Bug Challenge Blog
• Old Year/New Year Challenge at Jellypark Challenges - Something old is the red mat & layer card & something new is my digistamp.
• Challenge #102 "Somthing New" at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - Something new is my digistamp
• Simon Says ... New Something at Simon Says Stamp! Challenge - Something new is my digistamp
• Happy New Year at Card Makin' Mamas - Showing off my new digistamp
• Challenge #198 "What's New" at Cute Card Thursday - My digistamp is new
• Challenge #34 "Anything (Something Old, Something New) Goes" at Digistamps4Joy - Something old is the red mat & layer card & something new is my digistamp.
• January Anything Goes at Catch The Bug Challenge Blog
• Challenge #38 "Something New" at My Mum's Craft Shop Challenges - Something new is my digistamp
• Challenge #51 "Anything Goes Using Your New Stash" at Ladybug Crafts Ink Challenge - My new stash is my digistamp and design papers
• Birthday Projects at The Stamping Boutique Challenge

The wonderful Paulette at TLC has also showcased my card in one of her Creations Posts. Thanks Paulette!

Hugs, Helen x

Crafter's Companion's New Launch & Leann's Surprise!

Hi,

If you are a follower of the Crafter's Companion Blog, then you'll already know that they're launching a new range of Stamps with an accompanying CD-Rom called Strawberry Kisses. This artwork has been drawn by Sally Hunter, who brought us Humphrey and his family. To celebrate the official TV launch on Friday 6th January, the Crafter's Companion Design Team have been giving a sneak peek of this new range and there is a Blog Hop starting here at the Crafter's Companion Blog.

I've just heard that in addition to this, Leann (from Crafter's Companion) is offering an additional surprise of a pad of Core'dinations So Mod Card to one lucky person who leaves a comment on her Blog.

So, what are you waiting for? You've got to be in it to win it!

Good Luck!

Hugs, Helen x

Design Team Call at TLC - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!

Those of you who read about my creations regularly will know how much I use digital images, word art and design papers produced by Create With TLC. Imagine my joy at the weekend, when I opened up a Blog Update from Paulette saying she's got a Design Team Call on! Here is my application card which uses an image, sentiment and design paper which Paulette has given away on her blog over the last week:

My base card is Ivory Centura Pearl, which has been folded and cut to a DL sized card using my trusty Ultimate Pro, both by Crafter's Companion. The design paper is called Let's Party 3 and I chose it because the colours on it tone very nicely with my base card. The main image is one of Paulette's vintage images and is called New Year in Paris - well, a girl can dream can't she! I printed the image twice: The first was printed onto plain white card, and given a coating of Iridescent Spray and Sparkle. The second was printed onto Neenah Classic Card, and I then chose an area to "Hot Spot" (my Top Tip), cut this small circle out and coloured it using Spectrum Noir Pens in the shades 147, 86, 175 and 42 (as these tone in with the design paper). I matted this circle onto some plain black card from my scraps box, cut it out again with a slight border of black and then layered the mat onto the main image in the right place.

The sentiment is called New Year Square and this was printed onto the Neenah Classic Card and coloured using the same shades of Spectrum Noir Pens as for the "Hot Spot". I embossed an octagonal shape using one of the "nest" of circles on the embossing board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats which fits onto my Ultimate Pro. This shape was then cut out and mounted onto the card. I added a ribbon rosette made from a black organdie ribbon (from my stash) to the sentiment. I completed my card by adding 3 clear gems which, rather aptly, were bought whilst on holiday in France last summer!

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

• Design Team Call at Create With TLC 
• Challenge 67 "Anything Goes" at Top Tip Tuesday - my TOP TIP for making one area on a black & white digi stand out is to "Hot Spot" it by cutting a small circle out of a second print of your image, colour it, mat it onto a slightly larger piece of black card and layer this onto your main image.
• Challenge #3 "Anything Goes" at Card Crafter's Circle
• Challenge #96 "New Beginnings..." (a New Year Card) at Sassy Cheryl's Challenge
• Challenge #88 "Anything Goes" at Digi Doodle Shop Challenges
• Challenge #52 "Rainbow of Colors" (Pink, Green & White) at Do You Stack Up
• Challenge #25 "Anything Goes" at Little Miss Muffet Challenges
• "Anything Goes with the option of New" (a New Year Card) at Papertake Weekly Challenge
• Challenge #166 "Anything Goes" at Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge
• New Year/New Beginnings Challenge at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge Blog

Hugs, Helen x