I Love Christmas!

Good afternoon my crafty friends - hope you are well and are nearly prepared for the Big Day on Sunday. No? Nor me, having been thrown a flanker by some of the stores I thought would be open for late night shopping last night and they in fact closed earlier than I had thought. So here we are on 22nd December, and I still have a few presents to buy - eeeeeek!

It's the second half of the blog team's turn to showcase this month's New Release images at All Dressed Up and this time Wendy has some fabulous wintery images perfect for your December crafting! I've been lucky enough to have a go with Merry and Bright and here's my card for you:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl Ivory which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 14 x 15 cm card base
• Paper - is from the CD-Rom which came with the Winter 2015 issue of Crafter's Inspiration magazine. It's a shaped card from the Romany Christmas part of the CD and I've given it a bit of a digital "makeover" to have the hessian background on the right hand side of the tree and less on the left
  
• Image - is Merry and Bright by Wendy, the artist behind All Dressed Up Digital Stamps. I have brought this girl enjoying a Christmassy evening to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours, before die cutting her using my largest Sizzix Oval Die and working out which bit of the tree to cut so I could layer it on top of my die cut. Once adhered in place, I then trimmed the bottom and side edges of the die cut to match the edge of the paper.
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS4, TN4, FS8 (Blush)
• Hair - CT1, CT4, GB3, GB7
• Hairband - CR9, CT4, TN3, TN8
• T-shirt - IG1, IG2, CR9
• Trousers - BG1, BG3, BG5, Blender Pen
• Glass - GB2
• Presents - EB1, EB2, PL1, PL2, PL4, PL5
• Grounding - IG1
• Outline - BT1
• Gems - from my stash completed the garlands on the tree

I hope I have inspired you to treat yourself to a new image or two, but if you are need of further inspiration, please head over to the Challenge Blog and see what the other Dressy Girls have done with these fab images.

Don't forget that we have a new Blog Challenge running until 15th January 2017 and it's always Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image, and the Facebook Dressy's have their Challenge running until 31st December and their topic is Sparkle!

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

• 'Twas the Night Before Christmas at CD Sunday - if only I looked this cool and organised on Christmas Eve!!!!!!!!!
• Challenge #146 - Christmas at Dream Valley Challenges
• Time for Christmas at Melonheadz Friends
• Christmas/Winter Holidays at Whoopsi Daisy
• Anything Christmas Goes December at Jingle Belles
• Challenge #184 - Anything Christmas Goes at A Gem of a Challenge
• Challenge #72 - Get your Christmas On at Crafting with Dragonflies

Hope you find some time to join us over the festive period!

Hugs, Helen

The Christmas Tree Fairy

Good afternoon my crafty buddies and we're into our first December weekend - eeeek!!!!!

I must confess that I shared this cutie on Facebook yesterday, but didn't get a chance to blog her as I was on transportation duties for the Bambinos. 

The gorgeous girlie on this card was "behind" the first door in the Kit and Clowder Facebook Group Annual Advent Calendar and our very own "Dressy Artist" Wendy Burns was sponsoring this door and this cutie was the freebie on offer for Day 1. The Dressy Girls were asked to share their inspiration using her with the K&C Facebook Group and also the All Dressed Up Facebook Group.

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - Black card which has been cut, scored and folded to make a 17 x 10 cm (approx) card
• Image - is Christmas Tree Fairy available from the All Dressed Up Esty Store and she has been created by Wendy, the artist behind ADU. I have coloured this cutie in monochrome using a free technique class which Alyce Keegan (the maestro behind Kit and Clowder) gave as a bonus to all members of the November Markers Colouring Class - you can still join this class up to 14th December, so if you fancy having a go at monochrome, why not sign up to the classes? I used my Spectrum Noir Markers together with my Blender Pen and my Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Here's a closer look:

I hope that you'll head over to the All Dressed Up Store and treat yourself to this cutie, even though she is no longer free. Don't forget to the share your creations using her over at All Dressed Up Challenges where it's always Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image (our current challenge ends on 14th December) and/or the All Dressed Up Monthly Facebook Challenge with an All Dressed Up image and the new theme for the month of December is "Sparkle".

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

• December Challenge - Anything Goes with the Bonus Theme of Clean and Simple at Spectrum Noir Facebook Monthly Challenge

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

Stars and Stripes

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

It's 1st December which means Christmas is this month - yikes !!!!!!!! I'll be putting the decorations up in the office tomorrow as we've only got a couple of weeks left at school now and had also better get a wriggle on with our family preparations, although the majority of the present buying has been done - just need to wrap them now 😂 !

Being the 1st of the month, means it's also new challenge time at Feeling Sketchy and this time, Cathy has gone nice and simple for everyone - it's Keep Calm because Anything Goes! As usual we have a sponsor and prize pack for this challenge, so do come over and play along with us!

Now I had a, OK another "senior moment" when creating this card because I made it when we were still debating what we were doing for this challenge. So I have created using a past sketch for inspiration - I have gone back to Challenge #122 back in June 2015 here at Feeling Sketchy and used the following sketch:

And here is my card for you:

I needed a male birthday card for my B-i-L and this seems to have done the job perfectly 😉

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Kraft card which I cut, scored and folded to make an A5 card with the fold at the top
• Papers - are part of the great Just For Men Signature Collection by Sara Davies at Crafter's Companion, however you can try out these papers and some of the elements for free by getting the Rock Star - June 2016 Download of the Month. I've used 3 of the 4 papers in the download (wide stripes, ledger paper and stars for one of my stars!)
  
• File Tab - comes from the Die'sire Essentials Just the Ticket die set and I have cut this out of Kraft card and then popped it under the ledger paper. Although it doesn't show very well, I used some foam pads under the tab to lift it off the card.
• Circles - were created using (and please don't spill your tea/coffee etc. here) an upturned glass tealight holder which was just the right size for my ledger paper 😂. I inked the rim with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and used it to stamp the 4 circles
• Sentiment - comes from a Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners Victorian Floral - Poppy stamp set which came with my Crafter's Inspiration Magazine Issue 7. I again used Memento Tuxedo Black Ink to ink up the sentiment, which fitted inside my circles perfectly!
• Stars - were created from Kraft card and the star paper from the Rock Star Download and my Die'sire Essentials Stars dies in several sizes before being attached to the card, both flat and raised up a bit.

I hope I've inspired you to come along and join in with our Keep Calm because Anything Goes! challenge at Feeling Sketchy, but if you're in need of further inspiration (both seasonal and general) then do head over to the challenge blog and check out the great creations by my wonderful team mates. Then come back and show us your creations. We'll be back with our final challenge of 2016 on 15th December.

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

• Challenge #148 - Something Beginning with T at Cardz4Guyz - My "T" is for tab

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

Hugs, Helen x