Back to School

Well, I've got another 2 weeks left before I go back to school (for work purposes you understand!) and my girls don't go back for another couple of days after that. However, it's time for a new challenge at Lexi's Creations and this time Susan has set the challenge of Back to School/College.

As well as letting the DT loose in the store again to pick their favourite image to showcase, the lovely Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts is sponsoring this time's challenge - you could win 5 digital images of your choice!

So without further ado, here is the card I've made for you today:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut, scored and folded into a 15cm square.
• Design Papers - are called Orange Paper and Stripes, and they are both from the kit "Boy Oh Boy" by Summer at Summertime Designs.
• Image - This little cutie who looks very smart in his school cap and tie is called Dino Child and it is by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. I used my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours to bring this little chap to life:
  • Dino - BT2, BT4 and I added the spots to Lexi's design using BT5
  • Cap & Tie - TN4, EB5
  • Outline - BG1
• Buttons and Sentiment - are all bottlecap images from the "Boy Oh Boy" kit by Summer at Summertime Designs. I glued 5 layers of each of the numbers and letters together to make mock buttons before mounting them on my card using sticky foam pads. I computer generated the sentiment, superimposing it onto the blank bottlecap that comes with the kit before fussy cutting it out.

Head on over to Lexi's Creations and see what Back to School and/or College creations my creative team-mates have made, and then come back and share your creation with us! You've got until Saturday 1st September 2012 to link your cards up.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges, with a little bit of help from the girls at Feline Playful

• Challenge #135 - Back to School at My Grafico Crafts
• Challenge #124 - Power of Three at Craft Your Passion Challenges (I've made "buttons" using 3 numbers and 3 letters)
• CMIT Featured Designer Challenge - Back to School at CMIT (Creating Memories in Time)
• Challenge #127 - Back to School at One Stitch at a Time
• Challenge #13 - Back to School at Platypus Creek Digitals
• Challenge #92 - Back to School at My Sheri Crafts
• Anything Goes 4 Kids at Send a Smile 4 Kids
• Challenge #109 - Back to School at Raise the Bar Challenge
• Challenge #20 - Back to School at Simply Create Too
• Challenge #230 - Back to School at Cute Card Thursday

Whatever you're doing this week, have fun!

Hugs, Helen x

Snowy Snowmen

Good Morning friends and a very warm welcome to my new followers - hope you enjoy my crafty journey!

It's time for a new challenge at The Crafty Pad today, and the lovely Dawn has set the task of "To Die For" this week giving you the opportunity to dig out your dies and punches.

We have 2 lovely Sponsors for you this week

Our1st Sponsor is Creative Craft World who are offering a prize of a £5 voucher for one lucky winner to spend in their wonderful online shop.

Our 2nd Sponsor is Letraset who are offering our second lucky winner a pack of 5 Neutral Tone Promarkers.

Thank you to both our sponsors for such great prizes!

Here is the card I've made for this challenge:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - Centura Pearl in Christmas Red onto which I embossed the large cracker shape from my Ultimate Pro Embossing Board Snowman Delight and Candlelight. I must confess at this point that I don't actually own a die cutting machine but I find that the large shapes on my embossing boards work quite well! :o) I then cut out my cracker shape, and scored and folded it to make a shaped card.
• Image - Snowmen is just one of the many wonderful images by Debbie at Crafty Pad Designs. I printed it onto card and paper pieced the Snowmen's hats and scarves from design papers from a set by Summer at  Summertime Designs   called Cheers to the New Year. I used my Spectrum Noir Pens in True Black and GB5 for the buttons and noses on the snowmen and then went over the buttons with Glossy Accents, just to make them look more like little lumps of coal! I used Iridescent Embossing Powder on the top on the snow, and finished my image card off with a dusting of pale blue chalk.
• Snowflakes - made from Centura Pearl in Snow White using 2 different sized snowflake punches.
• Sentiment - also by Debbie at Crafty Pad Designs and this one comes from the brand new set of Merry Christmas Sentiments. There are 27 circular sentiments in this set, so there's sure to be the right one for you! Once I'd cut this sentiment out, I gave the outer ring a quick dusting of light grey chalk, just to make the 2 layers stand apart from each other.

Why don't you hop over to The Crafty Pad and see the lovely projects that my "Teamies" have made. Then come back and show us what you can make with your Dies and Punches! You've got until 8pm (BST) on Saturday 25th August 2012 to link your cards up.





I would like to enter this card into the following challenges, with a little bit of help from the girls at Feline Playful

• P is for Paper Piecing at ABC Christmas Challenge
• Challenge #3 - Let's Play Bingo at Chalk 'n' Stock I claim the second row of Punches (snowflakes), Colour (Spectrum Noir Pens, Chalks, DPs), Cardstock (Centura Pearl in red and white), Glue (used a Glue Stick to stick on my paper pieces), Scissors (to cut out my cracker shape, paper pieces, sentiment disc)
• Christmas Challenge at Just Keep on Creating
• Challenge #19 - Punch It at Sparkles Christmas Challenge
• Let's See Those Die Cuts at The Poodles Parlour
• Anything But a Square or Rectangle at Stamping With Dragon Challenge
• Punches and Dies Challenge at Delightful Sketches
• Shape Up - Anything But Square at Moving Along With the Times

Have a good weekend.

Hugs, Helen xxx

Ho, Ho, Ho .....

... and no, this isn't the jolly green giant for those of you who are of certain age and, like me, remember those TV ads!

Hello friends! Once again, this post is scheduled as I'm still away on holiday - I hope Mr Blogger posts this when I've asked!

Debbie from The Crafty Pad is doing something a little different this month. Instead of a New Release, she's asked the DT to showcase one of their favourite Crafty Pad images which she's putting on a special Sale for!!!

Because time was of the essence for me, I chose something that would be quite quick to make but still could be very effective. So, for you today I'm showcasing Santa Ho Ho Ho

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - plain white cardstock onto which I printed the image
• Design Papers - which I've used to paper piece the letters on my image, are from two different digital sets, both by Summer at Summertime Designs.  The sparkly green paper is called Green Flourish  and is from the kit "Holly Jolly Christmas". The other paper is called Snowflakes, and is part of a kit called "Winter Gifts" .
• Image - Santa Ho Ho Ho is by Debbie at Crafty Pad Designs. I cropped the image in my word processing package until I was left with Santa which I then printed out onto Neenah Solar White cardstock. I brought Santa to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens and a gold gel pen before fussy cutting him out and mounting him with foam pads onto the image on my card base.

Above is a close up of Santa and below is a close up of the "Ho Ho".

The design of this image is very clever - you can really go to town with decorating the card or you could fussy cut it out so the tops of the H's make the hinges of the card. On the other hand, I think this is a great design for children as the black design lines are clear enough to guide their colouring. And how thrilled would relatives be having such a gorgeous hand-made card?

My very talented team-mates have all picked their own favourite images to showcase, so do go over to The Crafty Pad and see what they've been up. And then, as our fave images are on sale, why not head on over to The Crafty Pad Designs and treat yourself?

Until next time!

Hugs,
Helen xxx

Love 'n' Sparkles!

Good morning friends!

I hope Mr Blogger is playing nicely today too, as I'm still sunning myself somewhere in the Eastern Med!

Today is the start of a new challenge at  Lexi's Creations and this fortnight we'd like to see your Sparkle and Shine! Our sponsors this time are the lovely team at Joanna Sheen who are offering our lucky winner a £10.00 Gift Voucher to their store!

The equally lovely Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts has given everyone on the DT their choice of image and here is the card I'd like to share with you today:

This challenge coincides with Susan's First Anniversary of running the Lexi's Creations blog (congratulations Susan!) and, as my Wedding Anniversary is coming up in September, I thought I'd make a Anniversary Card.

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl (just check out the gorgeous sheen on the above photo!) in Snow White which I cut, scored and folded into a 10cm square Triangle TriFold card. I saw this card fold on a lady's blog when I was doing one of my DT comments a few weeks ago ... I'm sorry if that's you as I can't remember, but thank you for the inspiration.
• Design Papers - are called Red Polka Dots and Lots of Hearts on White, and they are both from the kit "Dance With Me" by Summer at Summertime Designs.
• Image - This very simple but effective image is called Heart on Wire and it is by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. I altered the image slightly by cropping it so that the dangling heart at the bottom of the large heart wasn't showing. I have coloured this very simply using Red Chalk (both wet and dry to get the colour intensity) and my Spectrum Noir Pens in CR11 (for the small 'strung' hearts) an BG2 (for the outline). I hand-stitched around the wire in backstitch using some silver thread I found in my lace-making stash! I then gave the whole piece a (liberal :o)!) coating of Iridescent Spray and Sparkle
• Charm - Using my word processing package, I cropped and resized the main the image so that I was left with the dangling heart in a larger size. I then traced this onto Shrinkles plastic, coloured it in using my CR11 Spectrum Noir Pen, cut it out & made a hole suitable for getting thread through and then "cooked" it according to the instructions! Once it had cooled, I was able to mount it onto my card so it dangles.
• Sentiment - by Paulette at Create with TLC which I've digitally superimposed onto my DP.

Head on over to Lexi's Creations and see what my "Teamies" have done to Sparkle and Shine and then come back and share your creation with us! You've got until Saturday 18th August 2012 to link your cards up.

Have a great week,

Hugs, Helen xxx

  

Take a Moment ...

Good morning friends!

It's time for a new challenge over at  The Crafty Pad today and I'm so excited as it's the first time I've set a challenge! Because the London 2012 Olympics are now in full swing (I hope you've been able to follow your favourites on the TV even if, like us, you weren't lucky enough to get tickets) I have set this week's challenge with the "Games" in mind and this week the girls and I would like you to Show Some Metal.

We'd like to see something made from metal on your creations this week. You can choose whether your inspiration comes from medals and go for bronze, silver or gold, or maybe you've been inspired by the gorgeous copper cauldron which was unveiled at the Opening Ceremony. Whatever you choose (any other colours are ok too!) dig out your metal beads, wires, charms etc. and we can't wait to see your creations!

We have two great Sponsors lined up for you this week!

Our first fabulous sponsor this week with a super duper prize is Crafty Sentiments who are giving one lucky winner 3 digi images from their shop.

 Our second lovely sponsor is Debbie from The Crafty Pad Designs who is offering our second lucky winner 3 single digi images from the shop.

Thank you to them both!

Here is the card I've made for this challenge:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - pre-made A6 Kraft card
• Design Papers - are called Cream Dots and Blue Stripes from a kit by Summer at Summertime Designs called She Sells Sea Shells.
• Image - Pocket Watch is just one of the many wonderful images by Debbie at Crafty Pad Designs and you can get your own copy of this and the steampunk inspired cog and ruler elements here. I printed it onto card which I had pre-printed Khaki Paper from the She Sells Sea Shells kit and then went over the rim of the design and highlighted the hands using Glossy Accents. I then made a flourish (using part of the flourish from Debbie's Rose & Flourish) set from silver jewellery wire and suspended my pocket watch image onto it.
• Posh Pins - made from the same silver jewellery wire onto which I super-glued some toning beads from a mixed pot of bead that I got a Hobbycraft. I then fixed these to a multi stranded bow which was made in waxed thread from my stash.
• Sentiment - also by Debbie at Crafty Pad Designs and this one comes from the bumper set of Sentiments & Quotes

Why don't you hop over to The Crafty Pad and see the lovely projects that my "Teamies" have made. Then come back and Show us your Metal! You've got until 8pm (BST) on Saturday 11th August 2012 to link your cards up.

 

I'm looking forward to coming round and seeing your projects!

 

Hugs, Helen xxx