Flowers for you

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

It's New Release Inspiration Day from the second half of the blog team over at All Dressed Up and Wendy has designed 4 wonderful images perfect for all kinds of card, including those "oh-so-tricky" early teenage boys. Here are the images:

From top left going in a clockwise direction there is Busy Little Bee, Little Squeak, Surfs Up and Summer Time - just click on the image name to be taken straight to it in the shop!

I've used Little Squeak for my card this month (as we have a little squeaky house guest with us, having his own holiday whilst his family are away!) and here it is:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a pre-made card base in A6 size
• Design Paper - is from a freebie Brambly Hedge download by Crafter's Companion way back in May 2013. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be on the website any longer 😞
  
• Image - is Little Squeak created by Wendy at All Dressed Up Digital Stamps Esty Store. I have brought this cutie to life using my Spectrum Noir markers  using some of the techniques for texture in the March 2017 Monthly Class from Kit and Clowder before die cutting it using one of my Die'sire Create-a-Card "Emma" dies
• Sentiment - is by Lili of the Valley and comes from the Swirly String Sentiment Set. As mine is a clear stamp rather than digi, I have stamped it directly onto my DP using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
• Ribbon - is from my stash and tied into a double bow using the bow maker on my Ultimate Pro

I hope that I have inspired you to head over to the ADU shop and treat yourself to some of these images, but do head over to the All Dressed Up Challenge Blog to see the other wonderful creations using these 4 new images.

Don't forget that we're hosting our usual Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image challenge on the Blog and that our Facebook Teamies are hosting their own challenge for August and the theme is Girlz Rule with an All Dressed Up Image.

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

• Favourite Embellishment and Why at As You Like It Challenge - ummmmm, embellishments? They're the things that everyone puts on their cards to make them look gorgeous and if I try the same, mine look like something the dog brought in - right?!!!!!!! 😅 Having said that, even I can make a piece of ribbon look nice courtesy of the bow making prongs on my Ultimate Pro and a big double bow like on this card hides a multitude of sins, including the fact that my die cut has a straight edge underneath the bow - shhhhhh, don't tell anyone will you!!!!!!!
• Challenge #40 - Animal Kingdom at Craft Rocket Challenges
• Week 429 - Forest Friends at Allsorts Challenge Blog
• Challenge #5 - Anything Goes but Feature a Creature at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies
• Challenge #5 - Anything Goes but must have something related to an Animal at Crafty Animals
• Animals at Dragonfly Dreams

And just in case you were wondering about our house guest, here's a pic of Willy the guinea pig enjoying some spinach!

That's all from me for now - enjoy the rest of your week.

Hugs, Helen x

Thanks for being Fintastic!

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

Good afternoon blogging buddies - yup it's another post from me, and another one that's on time ..... whoot whoot!!!!!! 😆 I will catch up with myself, honestly!

It being the fifteenth of the month, it's new challenge time over at All Dressed Up and, as usual, our theme is Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image.  Wendy has plenty of gorgeous images available in the All Dressed Up Etsy Store. Haven't got any All Dressed Up images? Wendy has very generously provided some freebies here - please send your friends over to ADU for the freebies though, to make sure they're available for other crafters to share!



Like a number of the Dressy Girls, I was completely bowled over by Wendy's new images in July and wasn't able to craft with this one at the time. Since then, eldest bambino has (very reluctantly) given up the Mini Swim Squad she's been part of for many years, although she is hoping to continue swimming/swim training once she gets to Uni. She asked if I could make a card to say "thank you" to her Swim Teacher so I showed her this image and she said "Perfect"! I then remembered that the Kit and Clowder May 2017 Colouring Class for Markers featured a Mermaid and a good many hours later, hey presto!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a pre-made A6 white card
• Image - is called Mermaid Kisses  from the pen of Wendy at All Dressed Up Digital Stamps. I have coloured this fin-tastic beauty using my Spectrum Noir Markers and using the Kit and Clowder May 2017 Colouring Class as my guide.

And that's all there is to it; even the rocks were hand drawn! Here's a close-up:

I hope that I have inspired you to join in with in our challenge of Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image but if you're in need of any further inspiration, please head over to the All Dressed Up Challenge Blog and check out the wonderful creations by my exceedingly talented teamies and this month's Guest Designer Vicki. If you would like to be considered to be our Guest Designer for next month's challenge, then just pop GDT after your name. This challenge will end on the evening of 14th September (UK time) and we'll be back with our next challenge the following day.

Don't forget that the Facebook Dressy Girls are also hosting a challege and their theme for the month of August is Girlz Rule with an All Dressed Up Image.

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

• Challenge #141 - Wave at Inkspirational Challenges - well, she's under the waves anyway 😁!
• Challenge 6 - Anything Goes with Option of We are all at Sea at The Fairy and The Unicorn Challenge
• Hand Coloured Image at Star Stampz
• Week 375 - You Don't Bring Me Flowers at City Crafter Challenge
• Challenge #95 - Anything Goes with Option of The Abyss at Ike's World Challenge
• Challenge #24 - Mythical and Magical at Unicorn Challenge
• Simon Says: Nautical at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Until next time, take care!

Hugs, Helen x

On Your Bike

Good morning crafty friends and hope this post finds you well. After a month's hiatus, I'm back - things got a bit hectic as usual as we approached the end of term at school and then we went to France for a camping holiday the evening we broke up (not to be recommended I can assure you!) and although most of my DT creations were made and posted on the respective DT blogs, somehow I didn't seem to get the time to post them here at Casa Mia. However, now the summer hols are here, normal service should be resumed 😄!

We'll kick things off with the new challenge over at Feeling Sketchy which starts today. This month we're being sponsored by Diane from Di's Digi Stamps. Diane is very kindly offering the lucky winner of this challenge a US$12 Voucher to spend in her store - thank you Diane!

Here is the sketch for this challenge:

And here is my take on it:

We haven't been using sponsor products for this challenge, so everything is from my stash. My card recipe is as follows:

• Base card - is a pre-made A6 card base in white
• Paper - is from the Crafter's Companion May 2015 Club Inspire download called Springtime Florals. I have used this pretty sprigged floral paper and inked the edges using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink to add definition
  
• Topper- is also from the Springtime Florals download and again has been edge distressed using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink
• Flowers - are another part of the Springtime Florals download and I have fussy cut them before adhering them to my project
• Border - is embossed using a border embossing folder from the current (September 2017) issue of Cardmarking and Papercraft magazine. I have embossed this onto a piece of yellow Core'dinations card and then (following a raid on Papa Mia's shed ... shushhhh, don't tell him will you 😏 ) carefully sanded the raised part to reveal the white coloured core.
• Sentiment - is another border embossing folder from the September 2017 issue of Cardmarking and Papercraft magazine. I have embossed this onto a piece of Neenah cardstock and cut it into a pennant shape before very carefully going over the embossed lines with my AB2 Spectrum Noir Marker Pen

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

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

• Challenge #87 - Embossing Wet or Dry at Crafting with Dragonflies
• Challenge #5 - Flower Power at SheepSki Designs Challenge
• Challenge #53 - Pretty Pastels at Cardz 4 Galz
• Challenge #490 - Embossing at Cute Card Thursday
• Challenge 47 - F is for Flowers at Sunny Day Crafting
• Challenge 69 - Anything Goes with the option of Girly at The Crafty Addicts
• Challenge #235 - Flowers at Ooh La La Creations
• Flower Fancy Challenge at Di's Digi Challenge

I'll be back a little later with my next DT card - in the meantime, enjoy your Tuesday!

Hugs, Helen x