Just for Dad

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

Morning again folks!

Its new challenge time from Lexi's Creations this morning, and this time we'd like to see your creations that are for The Man in your Life. This can be for anyone who is special to you, as long as he's male!!!!!

Our sponsor this fortnight is our very own Lexi  from Fairy Dust Crafts and our lucky prize winner this time will get to choose 5 wonderful digis from Fairy Dust Crafts! However, Lexi doesn't stop at digis, she stocks embellishments, ribbons, charms, Promarkers etc. so her on-line shop is well worth a visit.

I have chosen to make a Father's Day Card so I'm actually organised come June, rather than scrabbling around as usual! I have used the current sketch at CAS - Colours and Sketches and rotated it for my layout (great sketch, thanks!) and chose this fun image which reminds me so much of my Dad when Papa Mia and I had our first house .... spookily, this chap even looks a bit like my Dad! :oD  

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base -  is Centura Pearl in Snow White Silver which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card. 
• Design Paper - is from the Paintbox Poppets Papercrafting Collection CD-Rom and I have used a paper from the Co-Ordinating Papers section (Design 1 Colourway 3).
• Image - is by Paula at, the sadly now closed, Pollycraft. I know that Barbara at Little Miss Muffet
  
  Stamps has taken on some of Paula's images, but this one doesn't appear to be listed there. He's called Mr Fix-It and I have brought him to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Hair - BG1, BG2, BG4
• Skin - FS2, FS3
• Jumper - DG2, DG3
• Dungarees - TB2, TB3, TB4, OR1
• Belt - TN8, Gold Gel Pen
• Tools - CR11, CT4, Silver Gel Pen
• Shoes - TN8, EB5
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment - is from the Special Occasion Stamp Set which was a magazine freebie last year and I have stamped this in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. And yes, my Dad is the Best Dad!!!!!!! :o)

I hope you'll come over to Lexi's Creations and see the wonderful projects by my talented team-mates for The Men in their Life. Don't forget to come back and show us your creations! This challenge will end on Saturday 10th May 2014.

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

• Challenge #71 - Sketch at CAS - Colours and Sketches I hope that using both a cling stamp and digi stamp are OK for your challenge. If not, please feel free to disregard my entry.
• Challenge #174 - One for the Boys at Penny's Paper-Crafty
• Challenge #84 - Anything Goes at Little Miss Muffet
• For Someone Special at CD Sunday
• Challenge #204 - Clean and Simple at Sentimental Sundays

Hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Mark that page!

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

Good morning friends and welcome to another week! Hope this post finds you all well, and suitable rested after the weekend ... even though it wasn't the best weather wise here on the south coast of the UK! The eagle eyed among you may notice that I've added a new following option. You can subscribe to follow my crafty adventures by e-mail, and that's just what Sharon (my newest follower) is doing!!!! Welcome Sharon!

It's time for a new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and this time we'd like to see Tags and/or Bookmarks! There was a bit of a debate in "IW Towers" about the title of this, so we decided that you can do one or the other ... the more adventurous could choose to do both!


We've got two lovely sponsors for this challenge. The first is Teri from Delicious Doodles who is offering one lucky prize winner 4 digis from her store and the second sponsor is Digital Delights who are offering our second lucky prize winner a $5 Gift Certificate to their store.

I opted to make a bookmark (I'll post a tutorial on this style and more pics tomorrow, but the sun has gone down now and lightbulbs give everything a yellowish tinge) using one of Teri's fab images (OK so regular readers may realise that I'm being slightly biased here, having just GDT'd with the Delicious Doodles team during April!):

My project recipe is as follows:

• Card base -  is Centura Pearl in Snow White Silver measuring 16cm x 6cm which I scored and folded  at 8cm and again at 8.2cm (ish!) to make folded card. 
• Image - is Haunting Moon by Teri at Delicious Doodles and it conjures up memories of The Highwayman by Tennyson (I know there wasn't a loch involved it!) or some of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. I have brought this scene to life using my Craf-T Chalks in the following colours:
• Hills - Dark Green, Green
• Loch - Dark Blue, White
• Sky - Royal Blue, Turquoise
• Moon - White
• Shore - Dark Grey, Black
• Highlights - White Silver Gel Pen

I will give this bookmark a suitable quote on the reverse .... I need to be able to borrow my eldest's "HP" books to find one!

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and see the other great Bookmarks or Tags that my wonderful team-mates have made. Then come and share your projects with us - this challenge will end on Sunday 4th May 2014.

I would like to enter this project in to the following challenge:

• April Challenge - Hills and Mountains at Craft a Scene
• No DP at Sweet Stampin'

I'll be back a little later with my next DT post - in the meantime, take care!

Hugs, Helen x

Pretty in Pink

... or perhaps this post should read "Pretty Pink"!

I'm sooooooo sorry - I'd scheduled this post, but naughty Blogger hasn't posted it! "Hanging head in shame here cos it means this post is late :o( Hope this post finds you well. Yesterday was my first day back at work after the Easter break and boy, what a day it was. I came down from my holiday cloud with a bump yesterday morning!

This is my last post as a Guest Designer for Delicious Doodles :o( - very sad face being worn here! The month of April has flown by, and I would like to thank Teri and her Design Teams for having me this month - I have had a blast!!!!!! I hope that the Guest Designers for May have as much fun creating with Teri's images as I have had!


If you read last week's post at Delicious Doodles, you'll know that we're raising Breast Cancer Awareness and this week we'd love to see your creations that are Pink and Girly!


Teri again opened the doors to the Delicious Doodles Shop and allowed me to choose some digis to show you this week, so here goes with my second "pink" card (although I'm not sure it's 100% girly!):

This will be another card for the box of cards I'm making as a raffle prize for the Shades Charity Ball that my friend Karen is organising in October - the proceeds from this will go to MacMillan Cancer Support.

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Snow White Silver which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 16cm square card. 
• Design Papers - are both part of the April "Blog Train" at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking. The pink leaves paper is by Whispy Willow Lane, and the white paper with the floral and flourish border is by Designs by Magnolia. As usual, I resized the papers to my requirements using my word processing package, and digitally put a faux mat and layer around them in a rich pink colour.
  
• Image - is by Teri at Delicious Doodles and it is the utterly gorgeous Celtic Fairy and I have brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours (click on the pic to supersize it, and check out the sparkly pink hair and wings!):
• Hair - BP2, BP3, BP4, BP5, White Glitter
• Skin - FS2, FS3, PP3, BP2
• Jewellery - Silver Gel Pen
• Dress - BP1, Colourless Blender
• Wings - BP1, Silver Gel Pen, White Glitter
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment - is by Teri at Delicious Doodles and it is the heart from the Awareness Ribbon Set. The ribbon set is a freebie (thanks to Teri's generosity), so why not treat yourself to another digi as well .... 2 for the price of 1! I imported the heart into my word processing package three times, and lined up a text box over each heart to write the sentiment. I then coloured these using my Spectrum Noir Pens in colours BP1, BP5, BP7 and Colourless Blender, trying to get an ombre effect!
• Ribbon - is recycled from, I think, a toiletries package. It's been lurking around for a while, and I think this is the perfect project for it!
• Buttons - are from  a "grab bag" of mixed bright buttons I picked up at Hobbycraft a few months ago.

I hope you'll come over to the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog and enjoy the wonderful Pink and Girly creations from Teri's talented Design Team and my fellow guests. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations - you don't need to use a Delicious Doodles image to enter the challenge but if you do, you get a second entry in the draw to win 5 of Teri's images AND your work may be Spotlighted on the challenge blog! This challenge will end on Thursday 1st May 2014 at 6pm BST (UK time!) 

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

• Bingo at Catch the Bug - I've chosen the far middle vertical line of Hot Pink, Players Choice (Glitter and Button) and Recycled Item (Pink Ribbon was part of the wrapping on some toiletries)
• Challenge #208 - Square Cards at Robyn's Fetish
• White + 1 at Papertake Weekly
• Monday Challenge #134 - Shake it On! at My Craft Spot
• Sparkle! at Crafty Boots Challenge
• Favourite Item to Recycle and Why at As You Like It - Oh ladies! I am sooooo with Annette .... ribbons are my favourite item to recycle. You get them in all types (satin, grosgrain, sheer, printed) on various purchases and gifts. The one in this project came from a gift pack of toiletries, but I also save them from clothes, presents (as part of the gift wrap) and even from an enamel jug of flowers (the flowers have died, the jug now holds some fake blooms, and the ribbon's in my stash!!!!)

That's it from me today - hope you all have a great weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

Cute Animals

Good morning friends - hope this post finds you well and if you've just celebrated Easter, I hope it was a joyous one for you! I'm scheduling this post as we're heading out for the day, so I hope Mr Blogger behaves!

It being a Monday morning means there's a new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and this time we'd like to see your projects featuring your Furry Friends!

We've got another fabby sponsor for you this week ... it's Veronica and Pedro from The Paper Shelter. When you buy an image from The Paper Shelter, you're really buying a pack of goodies! Each image comes both as a line drawing so you can use your own colour scheme, or it comes pre-coloured for those makes you need in a hurry. You also get a paper design, and a composition with the coloured image on the paper for those times when you need a card like yesterday!!!!! :o)

Veronica and Pedro have very kindly given the Design Team a couple of packs to showcase this week, and here is my project for you - 2 mini cards:

I think I'll make a batch of this sized card, and then leave them in my desk drawer at work. Then, when I get into work and someone says "Don't forget it's ********* Birthday today" at least I'll have a card sat there that I can whizz out!!!!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I have cut and scored to make two 10 x 10.5cm cards
• Images - are by Veronica at The Paper Shelter and they are called The Most Adorable Raccoons and The Most Adorable Cavalier. I have used the composition for both of these, so it was just a case of resizing the design to fit my card, layering over the sentiment (as appropriate), pressing the print button and cutting the design out!
• Sentiment - on the Raccoon card is by Paulette at Create with TLC, and this was (I think) a freebie in March 2014.
• Pearls - from my stash

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the other wonderful creations featuring Furry Friends by my very talented team-mates. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations. This challenge will end on Sunday 27th April 2014.

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

• #33 - Furry or Feathered Friends at Creative Knockouts 

Hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x

Flower Power!

Good morning friends and I'd like to wish you all a Happy Easter weekend. The weather here on the south coast has been fabulous all week- hope you've enjoyed some sunshine too. It may be Good Friday, but as long as the weather stays fine "himself" will be repainting "T' Shed" so the girls and I are off out - they'll swim and I'll hit the treadmill!

This is my third post during my sojourn as a GDT for Delicious Doodles, and again it's time for a new challenge. After some topical challenges, this one will encourage your feminine side, as well as raising awareness for Breast Cancer. So, we'd like to see your creations that are Pink! 

Teri again opened the doors to the Delicious Doodles Shop so that I could help myself to another gorgeous designs. If you're a regular reader, you may be pleased to know that Mr Mojo is still recovering from last week's creation (I'll let you know next week how well it was received by my M-i-L!) so this week's card is back to a more normal style :o)

Regular readers may recall that last year I designed a piece of artwork for Karen, a friend and colleague was organising a Grand Ball entitled 50 Shades of Pink - you can find the post here. Karen is holding another Grand Ball this autumn and I'll make her a box of handmade cards that she can use as a raffle prize ... this is the first card!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Fresh Pink (from the Pastels multipack at Crafter's Companion) which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card. I then embossed the front of the card using my Embossalicious "Floral Stitch" embossing folder. I carefully masked round each raised embossed square (part of the design is "de-bossed") using Post-It notes, and then swept a Versa Color Ink Cube in Silver across the raised "stitches". I'm not sure I've got this swiping quite right,  as there are some traces of silver ink in the squares. Still, when you look at it from the side, it makes the embossing pop!
  
• Images - are both by Teri at Delicious Doodles and they are Floral Elegance - Wild Rose and the butterfly from the Awareness Ribbon Set. The ribbon set is a freebie (thanks to Teri's generosity), so why not treat yourself to another digi as well .... 2 for the price of 1! I printed 2 copies of them both and decoupaged some of the flowers, and also lifted the second butterfly's wings to give more depth to the images. I brought these gorgeous images to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:

• Roses - CT4, PP3, PP4, PP5
• Foliage - CG1, CG2, CG3
• Butterfly - PP1, PP2, PP3, GB8, GB10, Silver Gel Pen
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment - is by my generous blogging buddy Annette and this is one of her freebies. If you head over there to take a look, please let her know that you came via my blog! I recoloured this using my word processing programme to a shade of green to tone in with the foliage.

I hope you'll come over to the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog and enjoy the wonderful Pink creations from Teri's talented Design Team and my fellow guests. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations - you don't need to use a Delicious Doodles image to enter the challenge but if you do, you get a second entry in the draw to win 5 of Teri's images AND your work may be Spotlighted on the challenge blog! This challenge will end on Thursday 24th April 2014 at 6pm BST (UK time!)

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

• Challenge #212 - Flower Power at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges
• Challenge #202 - Embossing (Wet or Dry) at Sentimental Sundays
• Challenge 173 - Use Ice Cream Colours at Penny's Paper Crafty  My favourite ice cream flavours (preferably made by our local ice cream manufacturer!): Pistachio, Strawberry and, not shown here, Ginger, and Toffee Crunch. 
• April Facebook Challenge - Floral at Crafter's Companion Third Entry

I hope that you all have a blessed and joyous Easter and that the Easter Bunny is kind to you and yours!

Hugs, Helen x

Simply ... Easter

Good evening friends - this will be a very swift post from me as I would like to catch some challenges. This is a very quick Easter Card I made today:

My card recipe is:

• Card Base - a pre-made A5 card in marbled grey
  
• Image - this egg was a digi in the April 2012 Club from Paulette at Create with TLC. I took the egg into my word processing programme 3 times, and then designed the layout of the card by rotating the images and sizing them to suit before printing the whole card out
• Sentiment - is a cling stamp which was a Cardmaking and Papercraft freebie (from last year I think). I stamped this using a Versa Color Ink Cube in Silver and then immediately stamped again (without re-inking) to get the shadow.

Quite a simple card ... but it looks very effective!

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

• Easter Challenge at Milk Coffee
• Happy Easter Challenge at Jellypark Friends
• Easter Challenge at Hobbybook Designer Challenge
• Week 167 - One Layer Card with Shadow Stamping at Less is More

Have a great evening!

Hugs, Helen x

Perfect Sentiments

Hello again friends!

I'm back, this time with the new challenge from Lexi's Creations. For this fortnight we'd like the words to take centre stage on your projects as our theme is Focus on the Sentiment.

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 sentiments:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a pre-made A5 card in Kraft which I have used in a landscape format
• Design Papers - are both downloads from Pixel Scrapper. The bottom paper is by Merisa Lerin and is called Blue 2 from her kit called Country Wedding Glitter Papers. The top paper is called Teal Giraffe Paper and it comes from a kit called Tiny but Mighty by Janet Scott. I hand cut both papers to make these "fishtail" banner shapes. 
  
• Sentiment - is by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts and it's called Slugs 'n' Snails sentiment. I had in mind that this would make an unusual new baby card, but I have seen some fun boy-ish images out there in blogland that this would be equally appropriate for! In case you were wondering, yes there is a "girly" version and you can see one of my projects featuring it here! I die cut the sentiment using my second largest Framelits Fancy Labels die before mounting it on my card using foam pads.

I hope you'll come over to Lexi's Creations and check out how my talented team-mates Focus on the Sentiment. Don't forget to come back and show us your creations! This challenge will end on Saturday 26th April 2014.

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

• Monday Challenge #133 - Tags and Banners (Use both or just one) at My Craft Spot

That's it from me today - have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Oh, Bauble!!!!!!

Morning folks! How are we all today! Hope you had a great weekend - I think Spring has finally sprung here as the weather has been glorious!

It's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this one is right up my street. We want to see your Clean & Simple projects!

We have 2 great sponsors:

MelJen's Designs are offering our first lucky winner a prize of 4 digital images from their store.






Iva Nova Chest are offering our second lucky winner a Goodie Bag from their
store and here is a little more about them:

**"Iva Nova Chest" is online store with great choice of Charms, Pendants and Other Jewelry Findings in Malaysia. More than 400 designs of charms and pendants in Antique Bronze, Copper, Antique Silver, Silver, Antique Gold and Gold colours you can find here. Our assortment is growing every week. Welcome and Happy crafting!**







The DT have been lucky enough to have some images from MelJen's Designs to showcase, and here is my CAS card featuring one of Melissa's cute digis:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Snow White Silver 
• Image - is by Melissa at MelJen's Designs and he is called  Ornament Mouse. I have  die cut round him using the "out of the box" technique for the hook using my second  largest Framelits Oval Die, before bringing this cutie to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens and Gold and Silver Gel Pens
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC, and this one was part of the Christmas Club: The Sequel in November 2011.

Here's a close-up of the swinging mouse, and I'll be back later with a full list of the pen colours I used  -have temporarily lost it!

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the other wonderful Clean and Simple cards by my very talented team-mates. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations. This challenge will end on Sunday 20th April 2014.

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

• Challenge 25 - Favourite Stitching, Real or Faux? at As You Like It Challenges - Have only tried real stitching (by hand) once on a card and wasn't really that happy with the result. So, it's definitely Faux stitching for me .... normally with my sparkly metallic gel pens which  give a great sheen to the stitches! 
• Challenge #207 - Must Have a Hat in the Image at Robyn's Fetish

Take care,

Hugs, Helen x

Easter Blessings

Good morning friends - hope you are well! I can't believe that we're already half-way through the school Easter holidays :o( I've been having fun with my girls, and fitting in some crafting time too :o) I have scheduled this post, so I hope all goes well - had major internet connection issues yesterday afternoon ... grrrrrrr!!!!!

This is my second post as a GDT for Delicious Doodles, and it's time for a new challenge this morning. This one is nice and easy - with the Easter weekend looming, we'd like to help you get prepared and see your Easter creations!

Teri has once again allowed me a free run in her shop so that I can showcase her awesome designs ... Mr Mojo has been on an overactive spurt (again! And without consulting me ... again!!!!) and decided that he (OK, we) would like to produce a diorama card! Teri very kindly allowed me to pick 2 of her digis which I put together with another which I already have safely stashed on my hard drive, and this is the result:

My card recipe is as follows:

Top Layer:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I have cut to 23cm x 18.5cm. Along the 23cm edge,I have scored 5cm in from each end which I then folded to make a flap. In the centre of the middle panel I used the largest arch shape on my Crafter's Companion Ultimate Pro to emboss the shape, which I then cut out to reveal an arch shaped aperture.
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and this one was part of April 2012 club. I have die cut this using my fourth largest Framelits Oval Die.

Middle Layer

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I have cut to 18cm x 18.5cm. The flaps on this layer are 2.5cm in from each end along the 18cm edge. Again I used my Crafter's Companion Ultimate Pro and this time embossed the smallest arch shape in the centre of the middle panel which I cut out to reveal a smaller arch shape.
  
• Images - are both by Teri at Delicious Doodles and they are Daffodils and Crocus, of which I printed 2 copies (one which I flipped in my word processing package) before bringing them to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours - the shading details on Teri's images makes it really easy to know where to use a darker colour!:
• Daffodils - GB3, GB4, GB5, JG3, JG4, BT1
• Crocuses - HB1, HB2, Colourless Blender, GB3, JG1, JG2, BT1

Base Layer

• Card base - is Neenah Solar White onto which I've directly printed my image, after a little bit of twiddling in my word processing package to get the placement right so that the image appears through the windows of the card! 
• Image - is, of course, by Teri at Delicious Doodles and this one is called Gothic Church Window. This image is so reminiscent of the windows at my own church, that I have tried to recreate them here using my Spectrum Noir Pens in TN1 and TN2 to try to recreate the warmth of the stone. The sky through the window is BT1.

I hope you'll come over to the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog and enjoy the gorgeous Easter inspiration from the Design Team and my fellow guests. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations - you don't need to use a Delicious Doodles image to enter the challenge but if you do, you get a second entry in the draw to win 5 of Teri's images AND your work may be Spotlighted on the challenge blog! This challenge will end on Thursday 17th April 2014 at 6pm BST (UK time!)

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

• Challenge #206 - Easter at Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog
• Challenge #64 - Easter at Card Mania Challenges
• Easter at Crafty Boots Challenges
• CWLC 79 - Easter at Created With Love Challenges
• Challenge 79 - Easter at Dream Valley Challenges
• Monday Challenge #132 - Happy Easter! at My Craft Spot
• April Challenge - Spring Flowers at Stamp and Create
• April Challenge - Easter or Spring at Sunflowerfield Designs
• Easter at Sweet Stampin'
• April Facebook Challenge - Floral at Crafter's Companion Second Entry

I'm off to firstly give Mr Mojo a good slap (!) and then I think I need a lie down in a darkened room with a mug of tea!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

3, 2, 1 - Cheers!

Hello friends! How are you doing this week? I would like to warmly welcome Teri (my newest follower) to this madcap world of crafting at Casa Mia ... you're very welcome hon, and I hope you enjoy my projects! 

I running more than a little late with this card - we went away for the weekend straight from school on Friday afternoon and didn't return until mid-evening on Sunday, so unfortunately "creation time" was taken up with packing time and now unpacking, washing and being taken out by my girls as it's now our Easter Hols :o/ !!!!!! We had a lovely weekend in Lincolnshire with my M-i-L, enabling her to catch up with many of her old friends and this meant that Papa Mia was able to show the girls and I some of his old "haunts"!!!!!!

Anyway, I digress - yesterday saw the launch of this week's challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and this week we've got a 3, 2, 1 Number Recipe for you. We want to see 3 of something, 2 of something else and 1 of a third item on your projects.

We've got a great sponsor again this week - Lindsay from Sassy Studio Designs is offering this week's lucky winner 4 digis from her store. And with so many digis there (including the new sentiments) there's bound to be something there for everyone!


Lindsay has also very kindly given each member of the DT their choice of image for this challenge.Those of you who are regular readers may recall that I'm an ex "Martini girl" , having worked at their head office (when it was located near to where I live) for a number of years. Soooooo, it will come as no surprise when you see the card I've created as inspiration for this challenge featuring one of Lindsay's "Sassy Girls":

I have used 3 Gems, 2 Design Papers and 1 Image!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Snow White Silver 
• Design Papers - come from the Crafter's Companion "S.W.A.L.K." Papercrafting CD-Rom 2 which I treated myself to as it is currently on sale. The yellow musical notes paper is one of the Design Sets (design 11, colourway 1) and the pink floral paper is from the Co-ordinating Papers section 2 (design 1, colourway 3).
• Image - is, of course, by Lindsay at Sassy Studio Designs and she is called Martini Sassy. I have  die cut round her (using the "out of the box" technique for her leg ... nearly cut her leg off, so maybe this
  
  wasn't such a good idea!) using my third largest Framelits Oval Die, before bringing this party girl to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, CR4, GB10
• Hair - GB8, GB9, GB10
• Dress & Gloves - PL1, PL2
• Earring - Silver Gel Pen
• Shoes - True Black, Silver Gel Pen
• Glass - BT1, DG4, GB8
• Outline - BT1
• Gems - from my stash

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the other gorgeous 3,2,1 Recipe creations by my very talented team-mates. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations ... and don't forget, you need to tell us in your post what you're using 3 of, 2 of and 1 of! This challenge will end on Sunday 14th April 2014.

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

• Something Beginning with D at CD Sunday Challenge - D is for Die Cut
• Challenge #102 at {PIN}spirational Challenge - I've been inspired by the bright pink and yellow colours
• D.T.B.S.T.#223 - Sketch It Up - at Sassy Studio Designs
• Week 14 - Ovals at Digi Choosday 

Hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

The bringer of Spring

I know that grammatically speaking the above sentence probably isn't correct, and I really hope that no English teachers are reading this, let alone my former English teacher! However when you see today's card, you'll understand why!

Before I get to my card, here is the exciting news I promised you earlier in the week. Regular readers may recall that in February I applied to join the Delicious Doodles Design Team. Unfortunately I wasn't successful, but Teri very kindly offered me a month-long sojourn as a Guest Designer with the team and this is my first week with them!!!!! The ladies who were GDT in March did such an fantastic job with their projects featuring Teri's images - I hope that I manage to inspire you just as much!


This week's challenge is All Seasons in One Day so your project can be anything featuring a season i.e. spring, summer, autumn or winter.


Teri allowed me a free run in her shop to choose one of her awesome designs to showcase for you, so here is my Spring card:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Snow White Silver which I cut to measure 21cm x 13cm, and then scored (along the 21cm edge) at 4cm, 6.5cm, 14.5cm and 17cm to give a "triptych" style of fold. I'm case-ing this card by Glenda, with whom I'm on a design team, although I've changed the dimensions of the folds slightly to give a larger front panel - on Glenda's card, all the panels are the same width.
• Design Paper - comes from the Crafter's Companion "Toread" Papercrafting CD-Rom. This gorgeous graduated design is from the Co-ordinating Papers section (design 4, colourway 4) - aren't the shades dreamy ..... ! Here's another photo, this time before I folded the card so you can see the full colour effects:

• Image - is, of course, by Teri at Delicious Doodles and she is called Snowdrop Fairy. When the snowdrops peek through the cold soil and nod their little heads in the breeze, I know that Spring is on the way, no matter what the weather is doing! I brought this very attentive Fairy and her well cared
  
  for "brood" to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Snowdrops - CG3, CG4, Colourless Blender, IG1, GB5, DG2, DG3
• Fairy - CG3, CG4, Colourless Blender, GB3, GB4, GB5
• Sentiments - are both by Paulette at Create with TLC, regular readers will no doubt know she is my "go-to mistress" of sentiments! The "Nature" sentiment on the left side of the card was part of the February 2014 Nature Blog Hop held by Paulette and her Design Team. The "Beautiful Day" banner was, I think, a blog freebie in June of last year.
• Pearls - from my stash

That's my favourite season in a card! I hope you'll come over to the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog and spend, metaphorically speaking, a year with the Design Team and fellow guests as we enjoy All Seasons in One Day. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations - you don't need to use a Delicious Doodles image to enter the challenge but if you, you get a second entry in the draw to win 5 of Teri's images AND your work may be Spotlighted on the challenge blog! This challenge will end on Thursday 10th April 2014 at 6pm BST (UK time!)

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

• Sketch with Jenny at CD Sunday - the band of hyacinth colour graduation is instead of having an embellishment running across the middle of my DP. I hope you like my "take" on Jenny's sketch! 
• Week 13 - Flower Power at Digi Choosday
• Welcome Spring! at Milk Coffee
• In the Garden at Come and Get It Challenge
• Challenge 207 - Shaped Cards or Anything But Square at Craft Your Passion
• Challenge #89 - Add Wings at Digistamps 4 Joy
• April Facebook Challenge - Floral at Crafter's Companion

Hope you have a great weekend! Catch you next week!

Hugs, Helen x