A Snowy Reindeer

Good morning friends and I hope this post finds you well. We've had some dry and sunny weather this weekend (makes a change from the wind and rain!) ... hope some sunshine came your way.

It's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs this morning, and this one might require you to use the 'little grey cells'. We want you to Add Texture to your creations.

Our wonderful sponsors for this challenge are Jodie and the team at Bugaboo Digi Stamps who are offering this week's lucky prize winner a whopping 7, yes seven!, digital stamps. If you're not our lucky winner, don't worry as everyone's a winner with Freebie Fridays at Bugaboo. Jodie has also very kindly offered the DT their choice of image for this challenge, thank you Jodie!, so without further ado here is my card:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is some black card I had in my stash which I cut, scored and folded to make a 10cm square card. This is my last sheet of this card :o( ... think I'll have to invest in some more!
• Background - is made from homemade texture paste and a stencil made out of a cereal packet (good old Blue Peter "makes" ... they set you up for most things!). The texture paste is made to a recipe in this month's Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine using PVA glue, talcum powder, Pearl White Acrylic Paint and a little water, which I mixed together with a coffee stirrer (now I know what that good reason was when it jumped into my handbag last time I was at  Coffee Shop!) in an old mustard jar with a lid. The stencil was made by using my small Snowflake Punch to make a random snowflake pattern in the card. I then used an old plastic club membership card to smear the texture paste across
  
  the stencil, so that the shape of the snowflake came out on my base card. I then sprinkled some White Glitter onto the snowflakes and then left it all to dry overnight.
• Image - is the utterly gorgeous Snowflake Reindeer Silhouette by Jodie at Bugaboo Digi Stamps. I have simply printed this onto white card, cut round  and mounted it onto my snowy, night sky  ... OK, so a little imagination may be needed here!
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC which was a goodie in the December 2011 Club. I know that the line "Dashing through the snow" relates to a horse-drawn sleigh, but I thought it highly appropriate for this image too, given the number of snowflakes on the Reindeer image and my background.

So, that's it for my card with texture - why don't you head over to Incy Wincy Designs and see how my teamies have Added Texture. Don't forget to come back and show us your projects with texture - this challenge will end on Sunday 19th January 2014.

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

• A is for Anything Christmas at ABC Christmas Challenge
• Challenge #1 - Use New Toys or New Technique at Open Minded Crafting Fun - new technique is using Texture Paste, which I had to make first! :o)
• Challenge #70 - Film or Song Title at Ruby's Rainbow - I've been inspired by Run, Run Rudolph by Chuck Berry ... yup, I'm still in Christmas mode! ;o)
• Monochrome at Winter Wonderland
• January Theme Challenge - Winter Wonderland at Catch the Bug Challenge
• Challenge 105 - Monochromatic at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge
• Challenge #194 - No Patterned Paper; Cardstock Only at Robyn's Fetish Challenge
• Challenge #61 - Show off your New Stuff at The Squirrel and The Fox - new technique of making and using Texture Paste!
• DTBS #211 - Creative Technique at Sassy Studio Designs - my creative technique is the snowflakes made from texture paste behind my image

Hope you have a good and crafty day!

Hugs, Helen x

Winter Wishes

This is my second post of the day - please scroll down to see my first post

Hello again friends!

It's new challenge time at Lexi's Creations and this one will ease you into the New Year gently as it is Anything Goes! Our sponsor this fortnight is Priyanka from My Heart Pieces and our lucky winner for this challenge will get to choose some of Priyanka's sweet digis!

The lovely Lexi has opened the 'doors' to Fairy Dust Crafts and allowed us in (thanks Lexi!), and here is my card for you featuring one of Lexi's gorgeous images:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is Centura Pearl Snow White with hint of Silver which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - are from a kit called All Is Calm by Summer at Summertime Designs. My base layer
  
  is called Branches and Berries Paper, the next layer is called Blue Snowflake Paper and the top layer is Blue Brown Checkered Paper. I sized the papers using my word processing programme so that I was able to put a dark brown border around them to make a faux mat. Then I cut each layer out and mounted them onto each other. To add an extra bit of sparkle I highlighted all the visible red berries to make them a bit glossy and frosty by popping a blob of glue onto each one and then giving them a liberal dusting of White Glitter! You can just catch the glittery bits in the photo, and I think it makes the paper look like shop bought glittered papers.
• Image - is called Kiri and she comes from the pen of Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. This gorgeously glamourous girl was die cut using my second largest Framelits Fancy Labels die, before being brought to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens and Cra-T Chalks in the following colours before I gave all the "fur trims" a liberal coating of White Glitter:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, TB2, PP5
• Hair - GB8, GB10
• Parka - TB2, TB3, TN7
• Jeans - TB5, TB6
• Boots - TN7, TN8
• Background - Craf-T Chalk in Light Blue which I dotted with a cotton bud/q-tip
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and this was a blog freebie in November 2013. I took this into my word processing package and recoloured it blue so it tied in with the rest of my card
• Gems - from my stash

I hope you'll come over to Lexi's Creations and see the other wonderful creations by my teamies, our regular Guest Silvi and our Special Guest Designer Caroline. Don't forget to come back and show us your wonderful creations - remember it's Anything Goes! This challenge will end on Saturday 18th January 2014.

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

• Challenge #76 - Sketch at Little Miss Muffet Challenge - I've added a row of gems just to give my design a bit more sparkle!:o)
• Challenge #18 - All that Glitters at Creative Knockouts
• Challenge 18 - Your Favourite Colour and Why at As You Like It Challenge - this cool blue colour is perfect for Winter Birthdays as it alludes to snowy and frosty weather ... quite unlike the wet and windy we're experiencing in the UK at the moment!
• Challenge #97 - Blue with Bling (Winter) at Love to Create Challenge
• Make It Girly at Whoopsi Daisy
• Challenge #69 - Layer Up! at Delicious Doodles

Whatever you're doing this week, have fun - if you're in the UK or in the weather affected parts of the US and Canada, please stay safe.

Catch you soon!

Hugs, Helen x

... these are a few of my favourite things!

This is my first post of the day - please scroll up to see my second post

Happy New Year to you all! Did you have a great Christmas and New Year holiday? Of course, I ate and (probably!) drank too much ... and didn't craft anywhere near enough to satisfy me over the break! So it's good to be back :o)

After our fortnight long break, it's time for the first challenge of 2014 at Incy Wincy Designs - we've said farewell to Nikki F, Samatha and Sheryl (Bye girls!) and we're welcoming 4 new girls to the DT; Larissa, Lynne, Michelle and Sarah. Welcome girls! (Please go and leave them some blog love.) We're also be welcoming some new sponsors along the way as well as some favourites!!! So let's kick off with the details of this week's challenge. We're easing you back into things gently, as we'd like to see projects featuring Three of your Favourite Embellishments.



We've got 2 sponsors lined up this week, which means two lucky crafters will receive prizes! Our first sponsor is Ken and his team from QKR Stampede who are offering our first lucky prize winner 5 Digital Images from their store. Their website says: "Ken has a unique, somewhat quirky, style with lots of humor and character" so you're bound to find the right image for your needs here.




Our second sponsor is Wendy and her team from Digital Delights, and they are offering our second lucky prize winner a $5 Gift Certificate to their on-line Store. Here's a little about them: "Welcome to your one stop shop for all your digital stamps, paper piecing and digital products which are instantly downloadable. We also have a wide range of digital papers and cut files for all your crafting projects. Our low prices reflect our belief that crafting should not only be fun but affordable too!!"



Both Sponsors have very kindly given the DT some images to showcase, and here is my card featuring a delightful image from QKR Stampede and using three of my favourite embellishments which are Heat Embossing, Twine and Faux Buttons:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is some black card I had in my stash which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Background - is stamped using the Starburst Border from this A6 Basic Borders Stamp Set which I
  
  stamped three times across the card using a Versamark Stamp Pad and Holographic Embossing Powder and then I heat set it - I love this sparkly finish, don't you?
• Image - is the uber cute Patchwork Moon by Ken at QKR Stampede. I wanted to do something a little different, so I paper pieced him using papers from the Hello Sunshine Digital Paper Pack by Zoe Pearn, available from Sweet Shoppe Designs. The moon himself is done from a cream coloured textured paper and then I used 4 different patterned papers from the pack, before using my Silver Gel Pen to add some highlights.
• Faux Buttons - are made using the circle and star shapes which are part of the Patchwork Moon image and this fab tutorial by my former Crafty Pad teamie Leesa ... never again will you struggle to find buttons that match the colours of your project! I printed my "buttons" onto paper from the Hello Sunshine pack before cutting out, assembling (I didn't add any embossing powder to these) and threading them onto the twine.
• Twine - from my stash which I fixed to the moon's hat, but have left loose at the bottom so that the buttons give some movement to my project.
• Sentiment -  is by Paulette at Create with TLC.

Come on over to Incy Wincy Designs and give our 4 new girls a very warm welcome. Whilst you're there check out the wonderful creations by my very talented teamies and see what their Three of your Favourite Embellishments are. Don't forget to come back and show us your embellished creations, and make sure you tell us in your post what your favourite 3 are! - this challenge will end on Sunday 13th January 2014.


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

• AC175 - Sketch It at Annabelle Stamps
• Challenge #75 - Use Ribbon or Twine at Brown Sugar Challenge
• Challenge #193 - Use a Digi at Robyn's Fetish Challenge
• Challenge #60 - Anything Goes at The Squirrel and The Fox
• CMM78 - Anything Goes at Card Makin' Mamas

Hope you have a good day.

Hugs, Helen x