And Now For Something Completely Different !

And readers of a certain age may well, like me, be humming the theme tune to Monty Python's Flying Circus at this point!

Good evening my crafty friends and hope that this post finds you well.

It's the second showcase of this month's New Release images at All Dressed Up and this time Wendy has outdone herself with 4 fantastic images just begging to go on your Christmas projects! If you missed the first DT showcase of the new images then click here to see the wonderful inspiration we have lined up for you.

I'm thrilled to share Christmas Snow Globe (top left), Christmas Tree Fairy (top right), My First Christmas (bottom left) and the sensational Party Season (bottom right) and just click on the image name to be taken straight to it in the shop. I can tell you that a high number of the DT girls were falling over themselves to play with the gorgeous party girlies first 😉 !!!!!!

I was asked to showcase Christmas Snow Globe and I thought I could do a shaker card but I didn't want to detract from the pretty card Nancy did. Then I thought I could do a rocker card but that didn't look like it was going to work out properly. So then Mr Mojo went into complete overdrive and I found myself unwittingly heading towards my Shrinkles Plastic and this Tree Ornament was the result:

My ornament recipe is as follows:

• Base - is a sheet of Shrinkles Plastic cut to around 13 x 14 cm which I had calculated using my Shrinkles Magic Ruler (my tutorial is here which gives some tips on how to make and use it) would leave me with a finished project size of 4.5 x 5 cm once the plastic had shrunk in the oven
  
• Image - is Christmas Snow Globe by Wendy at All Dressed Up Digital Stamps which I printed out at about 12cm and then I used masking tape to fasten my square of plastic over the printed image. I then used my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours to bring this fawn and her clearing to life, using several techniques in the November 2016 Monthly Markers Colouring Class at Kit and Clowder. I cut a narrow border around the snowglobe, punched a hole in the top to hang it and then "cooked" my plastic in the oven to shrink it as per the manufacturer's instructions
• Fawn - EB2, EB3, EB5, True Black
• Flower Spray - CR8, CR11, DG4
• Trees - DG2, CG4, DG3, DG4, TN4, TN7, TN9 
• Snow - IG1, TB1, TB4
• Snowflakes - TB1 and Glitter Embossing Powder
• Star - LY3
• Outlines - True Black
• Ribbon - is from my stash

I hope I have inspired by to head over to the shop and treat yourself to a new Christmas-y image. Don't forget that once you've coloured your image up you can enter it into the Celebrations with an All Dressed Up Image Challenge over on the All Dressed Up Facebook Page (until 30th November 2016) and/or enter it into the current Blog challenge, Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image (running until 14th December 2016).

Can't wait to see your creations with these fabulous foursome!

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

• Week 390 - O Christmas Tree  at Allsorts Challenge Blog
• CHNC 308 - Cute or Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas at Crafty HazelNuts Christmas Challenge
• Poinsettias or Snow is Falling at Winter Wonderland - I think I can possibly claim both with the floral arrangement on the fawn's head and the softly falling snowflakes (embossed with glitter) coming down !

Hope you have a great week.

Hugs, Helen x

Snow fun!

Well, hello again friends! As promised earlier, here's another missive from me!

This time I'm bringing you the newest challenge from All Dressed Up and, as usual, our theme is Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. 

Don't have any ADU images? Don't panic, you can find plenty in Wendy's Esty Shop and there are even a few freebies over on the Blog so you can "try before you buy" 😉!!!! Our Random Winner of this challenge gets 3 of Wendy's gorgeous images to play with, the DT will be choosing their Top 3 and you could even be in the running to be a future Guest Designer with us!

Wendy has once again let all the DT girls loose in the shop and choose their own image to play with, and here's my inspiration card for you:

I wanted to create a Christmas card for one of my brothers and his family, but good old Mr Mojo pulled a flanker on me and decided to throw a sickie at creation time. I really was unsure as to how this card would turn out, but I'm actually pretty chuffed with it!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is black card stock which has been cut, scored and folded to make a 19cm x 10cm card base
  
• Image - is of course by Wendy at All Dressed Up Stamps and these cuties are called Christmas Penguins (this link will take you straight to them in the store 😊!). I have brought this slipping, sliding trio to life using my Spectrum Noir Markers in the listed colours before cutting my card to an 18cm x 9cm rectangle and doodling a border around the edge with my silver gel pen.
• Fur - IG3, IG5, IG7, IG9
• Beaks & Flippers - FS5, CR1, OR3, TN4, TN8
• Large Penguin's Hat & Scarf - TB2, TB3, Silver Gel Pen
• Middle Penguin's Hat & Scarf - GT1, GT2
• Small Penguin's Ear Muffs & Scarf - HB1, HB2, Silver Gel Pen
• Snow - IG1, IG2, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

I hope I've inspired you to come over to the All Dressed Up Blog and play along with us in our Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image this month, but if you're in need of further inspiration please go over there and check out the other wonderful creations by my very talented teamies! This challenge will end on 14th December 2016.

Don't forget the Facebook Dressy Girls have their own challenge of Celebrations running until 30th November 2016. So have a look at Wendy's New Release as any of these images would be perfect to use  - why not combine your entries to both challenges for more chances of winning 😉!!!!!!

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

• Challenge #2 - All That Glitters at Daisy Chain Challenge

I hope you have a wonderful evening - take care!

Hugs, Helen x

A Frosty Noel!

Good morning crafty friends and I hope this post finds you well. I'd like to welcome Darcy who is my newest follower - hope you find some inspiration here! 

I'm going to head up not one but two apologies! Firstly, today is going to be complete and utter "post fest" as I'm going to be bringing you THREE cards all on the same day! Two of my DTs have new challenges launching today but, and here's the second apology, I'm running more than a tad late with this post .... 😔blushes wildly! We've been madly helping eldest visiting universities and doing her application form (which is a challenge in itself 😉!) but, as her college deadline is the end of this week, she's completed everything and we just need to review her application to make sure there are no glaring errors and then we'll be keeping fingers, toes and everything else crossed that her favoured institutions like her enough to offer her a place!

Last Monday the new challenge launched at Incy Wincy Designs and this time it's a Sketch Challenge.

We've got 2 awesome sponsors lined up this week. Firstly it's the lovely Wendy from All Dressed Up Digital Stamps who is offering our first lucky prizewinner 2 digis from the store.

Our second sponsor is the equally lovely Jodie from Bugaboo Digital Stamps who is

offering our second lucky prizewinner 7 digis from the store.

And even if you aren't lucky enough to win either of these prize packs, don't forget that Wendy has very kindly shared some freebies over at the All Dressed Up Blog and that Jodie has a Friday Freebie each week, as well as discounts on her new releases.

So, back to the challenge - here's the sketch we'd like you to follow this week please ...

... and here's my take on it, using an image from Bugaboo Digital Stamps ...

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base card - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver which I have cut, scored and folded to 15cm square
• Papers - are from an old edition of Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine (possibly from this time last year?) and it was called Christmas Embossing Set designed by Jennifer Ellory. I have used 3 of the 4 papers from the set and chose papers with a cooler colour tone for a wintry/frosty feel.
• Image - is by Jodie at Bugaboo Digital Stamps and is called Noel Snowflake Block. I have recoloured this to grey in my word processing programme and then die cut it using my largest Die'sire Essentials Scalloped Squares before highlighting the lettering and snowflakes with my Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen to try and get a frosty look.
• Corners - are cut from Centura Pearl Snow White Silver using one of the corner dies from my Die'sire Ornamental Flower Frame set.

I hope that I have inspired you to play along with our Sketch Challenge, but if you're in need of further inspiration please head over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the other fabby creations by my talented (and long suffering!) teamies. Then come back and show us your take on our sketch - don't forget you can flip or rotate our sketch, just make sure that we can see that you've been inspired by our projects! This challenge will end on Saturday night and we'll be back with our new challenge on Monday 21st November 2016.

I'll be back to link up to some challenges later - I've got 2 more posts to write and schedule 😊

See you soon,

Hugs, Helen x

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Good morning my crafty buddies! I would like to warmly welcome my newest followers Carole, Helen and Liz to my madcap world - hope you enjoy my creations ladies!

Wow! Can you believe that it's the 1st of November already? That's means Christmas is next month .... eeeeek!!!!!! In the last couple of weeks, I've reached 100 followers and over 60,000 page views ... double eeeeek!!!!! Sooooo, I thought I might offer a little bit of candy to at least one of my lucky followers. Watch this space, as I'll have a dig through my stash and see what goodies I have to share ;o)

Back to this morning though, and it's new challenge time over at Feeling Sketchy.


Our new challenge is being sponsored by the lovely Jodie at Bugaboo Digital Stamps who is offering the lucky winner of this challenge a prize pack. And don't forget that even if you're not picked as our winner, everyone's a winner thanks to Jodie's generosity on Freebie Friday's and she also has regular sales and discounts on New Release Tuesday's. Please head over to Bugaboo Digital Stamps, take a peek at the wide variety of digis on offer, and why not let one or two drop into your virtual basket ;o)!

Here's the sketch we'd like you to take inspiration from, courtesy of our designer Michelle:

and here's my "take" on it:

I think this is a great sketch for making quick and easy cards, particularly if you need a card in a hurry or "batch making" Christmas cards - two squares of papers cut down, one sentiment and "ta daa", you've got a nice card! Or, of course, you can dress the sketch up to make a very special card.

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a pre-made 12.5cm square base in cream card
• Design Papers - are both from the Nordic Christmas CD-Rom, now sadly retired :o( There are a few other items still available in the Nordic Christmas Collection ....
  
• Sentiment and Image - are a cling stamp which was a cover freebie on the Christmas 2016 Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine ... perfect timing! I stamped this using Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black then brought the poinsettia to life using my Spectrum Noir Markers in the listed colours before fussy cutting it out and adhering it to my card.
• Poinsettia Bracts - DR6, DR7, Silver Gel Pen
• Leaves - DG2, DG3, DG4
• Swirls - Silver Gel Pen
• Outline - IG1

I hope I've inspired you to come along and join in with this sketch but if you're in need of further inspiration, please head over to Feeling Sketchy and check out the other wonderful creations by my very talented teamies. Don't forget to then come back and share your creation with us! We'll be back with our new challenge on 15th November 2016.

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

• Challenge #5 - Anything Christmas Goes at The Merry Christmas Challenge
• Week 46 - Anything Goes at Weekly Christmas Card Challenges
• Let's Mark a Start on Christmas at Allsorts Challenge Blog
• CHNC 305 - Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas at CraftyHazelNut's Christmas Challenge
• Challenge #367 - Make the Sentiment the Focal Point at Just us Girls
• Inspired by a Book, Film or a Song at Sweet Stampin' - of course I've been inspired by the traditional Christmas song "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"!

Whatever you're up to this week, I hope you have fun!

Hugs, Helen x