Hmmmmm .... Angel or Devil???????

Hello friends - hope this post finds you well.

It's another glorious day here on the south coast of the UK and in between sorting loads of washing, I'm firstly catching up and then (hopefully) getting ahead with some of my DT makes. I keep saying that this term has to get better, but at the moment it's just not happening! And then to cap it all, Papa Mia's car picked up a puncture on Monday which resulted in not just one, but three new tyres ... needed as it then had it's annual service and MOT yesterday! Definitely will be bread and jam for dinner until the end of October!!!!!!!!!! And no purchasing of crafty supplies either as the two bills were eye-wateringly expensive ;o)

Anyway (belatedly, yet again!) it's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this week we're looking for your projects which feature Pin Up Girls!

This week's sponsor is Cheri Lyn Shull, who is the designer behind Karleigh Sue Digis and she is very kindly offering this week's lucky prize winner 4 digital images! 

She has also kindly supplied the DT with a couple of images to showcase, and here is my card for you this week (if you're easily offended by scantily clad images, look away now!):

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is a 8¼" x 5½" piece of Kraft Cardstock which I have die cut, scored and folded using this tutorial at SplitCoast Stampers to make a Die Cut Swing Card
• Paper - is one of the Co-ordinating Papers from the Nordic Christmas Papercrafting CD-Rom which I lightened by 10% in my word processing programme before printing, otherwise my printer seems to make everything quite dark! I then cut the paper to size (following the tutorial) so it fits the card base.

• Image - is by Cheri Lyn Shull at Karleigh Sue Digis and she is called Naughty or Nice. I must confess that I have struggled a bit with this card as this style of image is not one I'd usually work with, but I have brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before die cutting her using the middle sized Sizzix Framelits Fancy Labels die.

• Hair - TN1, TN2, TN3
• Skin - FS2, FS3
• Knickers - GT1
• Angel Side - BGR1, BGR3
• Devil Side - DR1, DR2, DR3, DR4, DR5, DR6
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment - is an old one (from November 2011) by Paulette at Create with TLC and I think this one was a blog freebie. This was die cut using the second smallest Sizzix Framelits Fancy Labels die and distressed using Festive Berries Distress Ink. I mounted this onto a piece of DP which was cut using the next size up die, before fixing this to the card base.
• Snowflakes - have been made from Centura Pearl Snow White Silver card stock. The large snowflake is the centre of the Die'sire Classiques Christmas Collection Die "Christmas Bauble". This particular die was a magazine freebie, but I see that Crafter's Companion have a very similar Snowflake Bauble die in the same range. I cut the outside of the bauble off, to reveal a "snowflake", before fixing it to my card and adding a gem from my stash. The three smaller snowflakes were made using my older version of this snowflake punch.

I hope I've inspired you to join in our Pin Up Girls challenge, but if you're in need of further inspiration why not head over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the wonderful "makes" by my talented teamies. This challenge ends on Sunday 4th October 2015.

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

• Challenge 2 - Anything but a Square at Karleigh Sue Challenge
• Challenge 6 - Christmas/Winter Theme at A Snowflakes Promise
• Challenge #235 - Anything Goes at Die Cuttin Divas
• Challenge #190 - Let's Get Krafty at Ooh La La Creations Challenge

I'm just heading out to my Body Balance class, then to pick eldest Bambino up from college as Wednesdays are her half days and I'll hopefully get some more crafting in this afternoon!

Whatever you're up to today, have fun!

Hugs, Helen x

It's a P-Arrrrrr-ty!

Hi there friends!

Wow, what a whirlwind the last 2 weeks have been! There was me thinking that once everyone had gone back to school and college, normality would return to Casa Mia. Wrong again!!!!!! It has been soooooo very busy at school that I have been doing nearly half a day again each day, just to keep my head above the water. By the time I've come home in the evening it's been time to cook tea, get things sorted for the next day and then bed .... sadly no time for crafting :o(  Anyway, it looks like things are settling down a little bit - those things that need to be done at the start of a new school year are slowly getting done, and I'm managing to get away from school a little closer to my scheduled finish time ;o)

Monday saw the start of a new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and this week our challenge is for projects featuring Pirates or Princesses. So it doesn't matter what you create, as long as it features either a Pirate or a Princess.

We've got two great sponsors this week.

Our first sponsor is the Creative Team at Fabrika Fantasy who are offering our first lucky winner a prize pack.

Our second sponsor is Lindsay from Sassy Studio Designs who is offering our second lucky winner a prize of 3 digital images. Thanks so much folks for supporting our challenge this week with prizes and by allowing the DT to showcase some of your awesome
images!

As time has been rather tight this week, I've made a gift bag featuring this cute pre-coloured pirate with his blunderbuss:

My project recipe is as follows:

• Gift Bag - made from a 16" x 12" manilla envelope which I've cut, scored and folded to make a gift bag using this tutorial from SplitCoast Stampers. I tweaked the top cut slighty and took off 2½", and then used one of the embossing scalloped edges on my Ultimate Pro to make a border for the top of the bag. Then all I needed to do was to punch a couple of holes in the top of the bag, and pop some white paper ribbon through these to close the top!
• Design Paper - is from a kit by Melo Vrijhof at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking called Arrgh! - Pirate. I've used the Pirate Paper Skulls Kraft which isn't available for individual download (unfortunately).
  
• Image - is Pirate Parrot #2 (in the bonus format) by Fabrika Fantasy. This image came ready coloured on it's background, but it also comes as a black & white digital stamp and also coloured without the background. I digitally layered this onto the DP using my word processing programme, and then put both a border and shadow around the image.
• Sentiment - is computer generated using a site called Cool Text. I've used the Ringbearer font to create my wording, which I then downloaded and superimposed onto my image. Now you may not be aware that September 19th each year is the International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so my sentiment just had to feature "Arrrrrrrrr" me hearties!!!!! :o)

I hope you'll head over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the other lovely projects from my talented teamies. Then come back and show us your creations featuring either Pirates or Princesses. This challenge ends on Sunday 27th September 2015.

Until next time!

Hugs, Helen x

Jumbo Birthday Wishes

Morning everyone and hope this post finds you well. 

Normality should now have returned to Casa Mia with youngest Bambino and I being back at school last week, and eldest Bambino starts college this morning ... eek, that means the next long holiday is Christmas!!!!!!!

It's new challenge day at Incy Wincy Designs and this week we'd like to see your projects For the Boyz ... any masculine makes will be perfect and, I don't know about you, but I sure don't make enough male cards!

We've got a brand new sponsor this week; Krista Heij-Barber from Drawn with Character. And here is a little bit about her:

  I LOVE TO DRAW. THAT ABOUT SUMS IT UP.

It is what I have done since my Dad gave me my first "real art book", lets just say a few years ago. It is all I've ever wanted to do. I was lucky enough to live that dream and work as an Animator for over 15 years. Almost a decade of which I worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida, up until they shut their doors in 2004. I since then, have concentrated on raising my 2 beautifully spirited children, while making a "new" career in illustration and design. It was this new path that let me to cookie decorating. This was a perfect outlet for me, combining my love of baking and my true "need" to create art. 
Once I got into cookie decorating and discovered all the possibilities, I wanted to find more images that I could put on a cookie. This is how Drawn with Character was born. I not only want to provide usable clip art for digital artists but cookie artists as well!

Krista is offering this week's lucky prize winner 3 digital images from her Drawn with Character Store. Krista also has a Drawn with Character Blog too, so please do head over to both sites and leave Krista some love. Krista also very kindly gave the DT a few images to showcase, but before I show you my card I'll just let you know how the background to it came about.

Whilst pottering around on Facebook a few weeks ago, I saw a lovely card shared in one of the crafting groups I belong too. Being intrigued by the background, I went to the lady's blog and she had linked up to this video by Laura Bassen demonstrating the "Smooshing" technique. I had to have a couple of goes before I got this quite right, and got slightly over-excited whilst smooshing, and inked the desk too .... glad I noticed it before Papa Mia did, else I'd have had some explaining to do!!!!!!!!!!!! :oD I think I need to invest in some watercolour cardstock, and also experiment a bit with my heatgun to avoid the card buckling, but I do love the "splatty" result:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is made from Snow White Silver Centura Pearl card, which has been cut, scored and folded to make a 9.9cm square card
• Background - is a piece of Neenah Cardstock onto which I've "smooshed" Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Mustard Seed and Peacock Feather using a piece of acetate, a Travel Spray Bottle containing water, and a Heat Gun. Once this background card was dry, I cut it to a 9.5cm square, to fit onto the base card
  
• Image - is Birthday Elephant sitting with a Cupcake by Krista at Drawn with Character. I wanted to keep the soft effect of both the drawing and my background, so I brought this cutie to life using my Spectrum Noir Pencils in the listed colours, before fussy cutting my image out and mounting it onto the background card so it slightly overhung the edges, as I liked the way this background looked behind the elephant.
• Elephant - 065, 066, 068
• Cupcake - 010, 013, 017, 056, 058, 047
• Sentiment - is from the Sentiment Stamp Set which came with the Crafter's Inspiration Magazine Issue 6 which I stamped directly onto the background using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

I hope I've inspired you to have a go at making something For the Boyz ... please don't forget to head over to Incy Wincy Designs and have a look at what my talented team-mates have made. Then come back and show us your creations! This challenge ends on Sunday 13th September 2015.

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

• Challenge #32 - Boys will be Boys at Scribbles Designs Challenge (Second Entry)
• September Anything Goes at Catch the Bug
• Anything Goes Birthday at Seize the Birthday
• Cute Animal at Moving Along With the Times

Have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x