Keep Calm and ...

Hi,

I would like to give a warm welcome to all my new followers - thanks for joining me on my creative journey!

This was supposed to have been my my second week of being a Guest Designer with the Team A Girls at The Crafty Pad. However, the girls have asked me join their team so I am very honoured and delighted to say that this is my very first post as a DT Member with Team A!

Our challenge for you this week is The Colours of your Country's Flag and/or Sketch. Plenty of choice here then! Either make your card using the colours of your Country's flag, or follow this lovely sketch, or go the whole hog and really challenge yourself by using both the theme and the sketch!

Our sponsors this week are the lovely girls at Joanna Sheen who are offering this week's lucky winner a £10 voucher to spend in their online store!!!!! And remember that they charge no postage and packing (apart from a few items unavailable to non UK customers) for any country in the world providing you spend a minimum of £9. 

Anyone in the UK can't fail to notice that "Jubilee Fever" is high  and that stores are crammed with products coloured red, white and blue. So, I've taken my lead from them and would like to show you my inspiration using this gorgeous image by Debbie who owns The Crafty Pad Store:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - Centura Pearl 300gsm card in Snow White, cut and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Design Papers - by Crafter's Companion and are a now retired collection called A Royal Wedding. These were a Members download in April 2011 to celebrate the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I've used the red gingham paper, and the red, white and blue striped paper with Union flags on it.
• Image - Lulu Blowing Bubbles is by Debbie at The Crafty Pad Store and you can get your own copy of Lulu by clicking here! Don't forget to check out the other lovely images in Debbie's store. I have brought the gorgeous Lulu (and her bubbles!) to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Dress - TB3, TB4, CR10, CR11
• Bow - CR10, CR11
• Shoes - True Black
• Skin - FS2, FS3
• Hair - TN2, TN3
• Outline & Grounding - CG1, CG3
• Bubbles - Holographic Embossing Powder
• Sentiment - made using the online Poster Maker at The Keep Calm-O-Matic and then tweaked it with a pen so everyone knows Lulu is Party-ing! While you're at the site, check out the "Keep Calm" Guide which tells the story behind this very famous poster.
• Flowers - made using the Union flag coloured teabag tiles that came with my Design Paper Collection. I used the flower shapes on the Ultimate Pro Embossing Board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats and cut out 8 of the same sized shapes for each flower. Then for each flower, I sprayed the shapes to make them damp, scrunched them, opened them again and layered them up in a stack. I then made a hole through the stack, inserted a brad as the centre of the flower, and gathered the petals around into a flower shape, then left each one to dry before attaching them to my project.
• Ric-rac Ribbon - from my local haberdashery store.

I love this very patriotic card! Don't forget to head over to The Crafty Pad and check out the fabulous creations by my Teamies on Team A, and our Guest Designer Linda - leave them some love whilst you're there! Don't forget to link up your own creation using the "Colours of your Country's Flag" and / or use our Sketch. You've got until 8pm (BST) on Saturday 2nd June to join us and be in with a chance of winning this great prize from Joanna Sheen.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges (with a little help from the girls at Feline Playful - thanks girls!) :

• Weekly Challenge - Feature 3 Brads at Made Especially For You I've used 3 brads as the centres of my 3 flowers
• Challenge #77 - Dig out the Old at Top Tip Tuesday My DPs have been on the hard drive of my computer since April 2011 and I've not used them before even though they're lovely (ahem ... embarrassed!). I brought my brads from a sale bin at Hobbycraft last summer, even though at that time I had absolutely no idea how to use brads!
• Challenge #3 - Anything Goes! at Great Impressions Stamps
• Challenge #24 - Here Comes Summer at Crafter's Companion
• Challenge #116 - What's Your Colour? at Sassy Cheryl's
• True Colours at Papertake Weekly
• Challenge #58 - Cooking up a Recipe (3 Flowers, 2 Papers, 1Ribbon) at My Mum's Craft Shop
• Challenge #35 - Anything Goes at Little Miss Muffet
• Theme of Red, White and Blue at Willow Sketchie
• Week 21 - Diamond Jubilee at Glitter Geeks

Hope you're having a great weekend.

Hugs, Helen x