Way down deep in the middle of the Jungle ...

... I discovered some these friends having great fun!

Good evening crafty friends and it's All Dressed Up New Release Inspiration day! Wendy has again produced 4 stunning images, and us Dressy Girls have been falling over each other to use them!

I'm delighted to share with you Bon Voyage (top left), Jungle Friends (top right), Sea View (bottom left) and Strawberry Patch (bottom right) all available in the All Dressed Store now!

I have been playing with Jungle Friends and here's my project for you, a fun new baby card:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base -  is Centura Pearl Ivory made into a "wonky circle rocker" card using the largest rosette from the "nest" on the Ultimate Pro Embossing Board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats which I used as a die, embossing, cutting, scoring, and folding the rosette.
  
• Image - is Jungle Friends by Wendy at All Dressed Up Digital Stamps. I have coloured these cuties using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours, before die cutting them using an "out of the box" techniques using my largest Die'sire Essentials Circles die.
• Tree and Leaves -CG4, LG5, CG3, TN3, TN7
• Elephant - HB2, HB2, HB3, IB2
• Birds - IB1, IB2, PP6
• Giraffe - CT1, CT3, OR1
• Flowers - PP4, PP6
• Sentiment - is by Debbie at The Crafty Pad (available at Card Making Downloads) and is called Handle with Care which I've cut out and added to the back step of the card.

Do head over to the All Dressed Up Store and treat yourself to one of these beautiful new images and don't forget to check in on the Blog and Facebook Page for more inspiration from the Dressy Girls using these fab images. Our challenges are still running too: on the All Dressed Up Blog we've got our Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image challenge and our teamies on the Facebook Page have got their own challenge running until the end of the month and their theme is A World in Bloom. Hope you'll be able to join us!

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

• Challenge #2 - Anything Goes at Crafty Animals
• Tic-Tac-Toe at Whoopsi Daisy - I'm claiming the top row of Digi, Sentiment, Embossing
• Challenge #2 - Anything Goes with a Critter at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies
• Challenge #88 - Include an Animal at Creative Craft Cottage
• Challenge #73 - Shaped Cards/Projects at Dies R Us Challenge
• Challenge #92 - Four or More Legs at Sparkles Monthly Challenge
• Challenge #81 - Animals at Crafting with Dragonflies Challenge
• Challenge #122 - Fun Folds at Cut It Up! Challenge
• Challenge #95 - Animals at Aloha Friday Challenge - Kitty Bee Designs

Have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Birthday Elegance

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

Our Blue Tit parents are very busy going to and fro the wooded area near us, and when they need a quick fix they hop down to our seed feeders. Their babies can be heard chirping once the parents have flown out of the box and the parents are slightly less timid now when we're in the garden.

It's new challenge time over at Feeling Sketchy and our lovely sponsor for this challenge is Digi Stamps by Lizzy Love who is offering a prize to our lucky winner.

This is the sketch we're playing with this time:

and as soon as I saw the sketch I was inspired to make this Triangle Trifold card:

This card has already gone to my Mother-in-Law who celebrated her Birthday yesterday - I think she liked it 😊!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - a piece of 28.5cm x 9.5cm Snow White Silver Centura Pearl card which I scored and folded using this tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers. I made sure that the pearlescent side of my card was on the front and then die cut the 2 corners opposite the folds using my Die'sire Classiques Lace Corner dies
  
• Design Paper - is a piece of Navy Blue Pearlescent Paper which I cut to make 2 triangles to go behind my die cut corners to make them stand out
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and this was a blog freebie, probably in January 2014. I took the sentiment into my word processing package and recoloured it blue to tone in with my DP before cutting it out using my second smallest Die'sire Essentials Ovals die. I then matted this onto another piece of the navy blue paper which had been die cut using my second smallest Die'sire Essentials Scalloped Ovals die and fixed to one flap of the card with foam pads
• Ribbon - is white organdie ribbon from my stash 
• Inside of card - is a piece of white cardstock which has been matted and layered onto another piece of the navy blue paper

I hope that I have inspired you to come over to Feeling Sketchy and join in with this sketch, however if you're in need of any further inspiration please check out the other wonderful creations by my clever teamies. Then come back and show us your take on our sketch - don't forget you can flip it, change the shapes etc. ... we just need to see that you've been inspired by our sketch! We'll be back with our new challenge on 1st June 2017.

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

• Monochrome at Dragonfly Dreams
• May Challenge - Anything Goes with Ribbon at The Ribbon Girl
• Fold it Fancy at Di's Digi Designs Challenge
• Challenge #172 - Cards with optional Fun Folds at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges
• Challenge #188 - Add a Sentiment at Crafty Cardmakers
• Challenge #248 - Monochrome at The Crazy Challenge
• Challenge #173 - Birthday at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge
• Challenge #1 - Anything Goes Monochrome at Monochrome Magic

Whatever you're up to today, have fun ... I'll be back a little later with another post!

Hugs, Helen x

Sketch Time!

Good morning crafty friends and if you're in the UK, hope you're enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend! We have a pair of blue tits nesting in our bird box again, and both parents have been very busy bobbing in and out with beaks full of food,so I'm guessing that their youngsters have hatched. The parents are very timid whenever anyone is out in the garden and don't go anywhere near the bird box ... of course it doesn't help when the resident sparrows (who are nesting under the eaves on one side of house) sit at the end of the gutter squawking away 😆!

It's new challenge time at Feeling Sketchy and our lucky winner will receive a $10 Gift Certificate to a store of the winner's choice.






Here's the great sketch we're playing with this time:

And here's my take on it:

Because this card is made mainly from die cuts, it went together really quickly ... under an hour, which for me is a really quick card 😁!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Ivory Centura Pearl which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 10.5cm square card base
• Design Papers - are from a Mixed Media pack by Donna at Bearly Mine Designs, now sadly closed. I have used paper MM006 to give a real shabby chic feel to my card.
• Heart Frame - is made from Ivory Centura Pearl card and the middle 2 dies from my Die'sire Essentials Hearts die set
  
• Flower and spray - are both cut from another sheet of the MM006 paper, so that they blend in with the rest of the card. The flower die is Die'sire Essentials Flowers for all Occasions die and I used the middle sized die to cut 2 flowers. I curled the petals on both flowers and then layered them on top of each other, but offset, before popping a flat backed pear gem from stash in the centre. The leaf spray is from the Die'sire Classiques Delicate Flower set.
• Sentiment - is from the Swirly String Sentiment clear stamp set by Lili of the Valley (available here as a digi set) and I have stamped it using Tuxedo Black Memento Ink

I hope you'll come over to Feeling Sketchy and check out the other lovely creations by my talented teamies. Then come back and show us your creations - don't forget that you can use any shapes you like, we just need to see that you've our sketch as the inspiration for your project! We'll be back with our new challenge on 15th May 2017.


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

• Challenge #187 - Pearls and/or Gems at Crafty Cardmakers
• Make it Square at Come And Get It Challenges
• Challenge #248 - No Image, Just a Sentiment at Brown Sugar Challenge
• The Magic of 3 at A Vintage Journey - I have used 3 different die cuts on this project which has a mixed media paper at it's centre. The dies I've used are hearts, flowers and leaf spray, and  I've also used 3 pearls in a row on the top left hand side. I could also go for 3 layers and 3 words in my sentiment 😉 !
• Challenge #93 - In the Garden at Aloha Friday Challenge - Kitty Bee Designs
• Use Something Digital at Di's Digi Designs Challenge - Second Entry

Hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x