Victorian Style

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

I'm on the tail end of a really nasty cold and, I must say, it has rather taken the wind out of my sails! I can't recall having felt or sounding so unwell for quite a while!





Anyway it being the fifteenth of the month, it's time for our new challenge at All Dressed Up Challenges . As usual, our challenge is Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. Not got any All Dressed Up images? Wendy has plenty of gorgeous images available in the All Dressed Up Etsy Store and has also 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!




My Mother-in-Law celebrated her 80th Birthday yesterday, and as many of the family who could muster on the south coast did so on Sunday to wish her many happy returns. This was the card from us to her, using one of Wendy's gorgeous images:

I love the dramatic look of this card and think that the colours and style slightly resemble the Victorian Auricula Theatres. She liked the card too!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base card - is a 14.8cm square-ish premade card blank in white
• Mat and Layer - is a piece of plain black cardstock
• Image - is the beautiful Jam Jars by Wendy at All Dressed Up Stamps. I have brought this trio to life using a mix of Copic and Spectrum Noir Marker Pens broadly following the tutorials in the Kit and Clowder February 2018 Monthly Class for Markers. Once my image was coloured in, I die cut it using my Die'sire Elegance Stamping Frame die which I ran through my machine a second time to emboss the die details.
• Sentiment - is from my all time favourite set Swirly String Sentiments (now available only as a digital download) from Lili of the Valley ... as an aside, they've got a special offer on until 20th May of 10 digi stamps (including these sentiments I think) for £20!!!! I stamped the sentiment using Tuxedo Black Memento Ink directly above my image.
• Pearls - are from my stash, and were applied using two different sizes to add interest to the corners.

I hope I have inspired you to head over to All Dressed Up Challenges and play along with this challenge. However if you're in need of further inspiration, please do head over there and check out the other gorgeous projects from my exceedingly talented teamies. Then come back and show us your Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image creations - this challenge will end on the evening of 14th June 2018 (UK time). 

For more chances to win some of Wendy's gorgeous images, don't forget that the Facebook Dressy Girls have their own challenge of Embellish It until the end of May!

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

• #211 - No Patterned Paper at Crafty Cardmakers
• Challenge #69 - Lots of Flowers at Get Creative Challenges
• May Challenge #25 - Anything Goes at Classic Design Team Open Challenge
• Challenge #92 - Flower Power at CCC Digi Creations
• Challenge #20 - Flowers at Fabrika Fantasy

Have a lovely evening.

Hugs, Helen x

My Little Japanese Girl

Good evening crafty friends and hope you've been enjoying another lovely weekend.

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 which are going to be perfect for your Spring into Summer projects.

From bottom left going clockwise we have Play Day, Counting Sheep, Oriental Girl and Sassy who was only available as a freebie via the Kit and Clowder Facebook Group earlier this month.

I am using this oh-so-very-pretty Oriental Girl, and here's my card:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is black card which I have cut, scored and folded to make a Free Standing Pop Up Card following this tutorial from SplitcoastStampers
  
• Design Paper - comes from the Kimono Papercrafting CD-Rom
• Image - is Oriental Girl by the very talented Wendy Burns, the artist behind All Dressed Up Stamps. I have brought this gorgeous girl to life using a mixture of Copics and Spectrum Noir Marker Pens. I have used a couple of technique classes from Kit & Clowder to help with my colouring: Skin & Hair Class for the slightly darker skin tone than I normally colour and also a bonus Monochrome Class for the black/grey hair.

I've left this card sentiment free as she's currently destined for my "box" awaiting a recipient!

I do hope that you'll come over to All Dressed Up and maybe treat yourself to a digi or two! And don't forget to enter our challenges. The Blog Challenge is always Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image and on the Facebook Page, the April Challenge is Flora and /or Fauna. Hope you'll be able to join us!

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

• Challenge #4 - Anything Goes with option of Dimensional Projects at Crafter's Castle
• Anthing Goes with Patterned Paper at CraftyHazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge
• April Challenge - Anything but Square at Delicious Doodles
• Challenge #64 - Favouring the Feminine at Scribble Designs Challenges

Have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Happy 40th!

Good afternoon crafty friends - hope you have had a wonderful weekend!

It's been nice to see the sunshine here at Casa Mia, after the grey weather of the last couple of weeks ... let's hope it stays!

It's new challenge time at All Dressed Up Challenges and we're also introducing our new Dressy Girls following the recent DT Call - it wasn't an easy choice, but we hope that everyone will find inspiration from our new ladies who have made some fabulous creations! As usual, our challenge is Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. Not got any All Dressed Up images? Wendy has plenty of gorgeous images available in the All Dressed Up Etsy Store and has also 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!


One of our friends celebrated her 40th Birthday last Sunday, and her husband threw a surprise party for her to which we were invited. This wonderful image was just perfect to mark her special day!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Mat - is a sheet of teal coloured Core'dinations Card which I cut to 14.5cm square
  
• Image - is Happy 40th by Wendy at All Dressed Up (which I have printed onto a 14cm square panel of Neenah Solar White Cardstock.) There are 3 digis in this great value set (the others are Happy 50th and Happy 60th) and not only are they great to help celebrate those big '0' birthdays but they would be fab for big anniversaries too! I can just see this in ruby colours for 40th or gold to celebrate a Golden Wedding Anniversary! Anyway, as my project is for a birthday, I have gone for different coloured flowers using my Spectrum Noir Marker Pens. As I have also followed the Elements of Nature Class by Alyce at Kit & Clowder to colour the Leaves, Rose, Poppies and Gerberas, and then used the Hydrangea tutorial for colouring the small purple flowers, I am unable to share my colour combinations with you. However, you will have to trust me when I say that you will not regret purchasing this class if you wish to improve your colouring ... 😃 The 4 butterflies were coloured using VB1, VB2 & VB3 with a tiny pearl on each for the head. The sentiment was embossed using a VersaMark Watermark Pen and silver embossing powder, although I think I would have been better embossing in smaller portions to get a more even finish.
• Frame - around the heart wreath, has been cut using my Die'sire Classiques Lace Corner dies. For the two upper portions, I cut around the wreath using a sharp craft knife so that these parts would sit on top of the die (like an "Out of the Box" Technique) and not be cut, and would then nestle back down into place once the die (and negative parts) was removed.

I hope I have inspired you to come over to All Dressed Up and play along with this challenge. If you're in need of further inspiration please head over to the blog and check out the other gorgeous creations by my Dressy Teamies and also help us to welcome our new Dressy Girls! Then come back and show us your Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. Don't forget that for more chances to win some of Wendy's gorgeous images, our Facebook Dressy Teamies have their own challenge running until the end of February and their theme this month is Flora and / or Fauna.

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

• April Challenge - Butterflies at I'm a Crafter's Companion Facebook Group
• #387 - Creative Corners at Tuesday Throwdown
• Challenge #137 - Use Die Cuts at Simply Create Too
• #201 - Happy Birthday Aud Sentiments at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #47 - Flowers at Craft Rocket Challenges
• Vibrant Colours at Seize the Birthday
• Challenge #287 - Make Your Mark at Addicted to Stamps and More
• Challenge #334 - Flowers at The Paper Shelter
• Challenge #423 - Dies at Everybody Art Challenge

Well, it's back to work for me tomorrow after the Easter break - I hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Happy Easter!

Good morning crafty friends and a belated Happy Easter to you and yours! If you're in the UK, I hope you're enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend.


It's new challenge time over at Incy Wincy Designs and we're celebrating the fact that Spring is springing (can't say it's exactly sprung!) in the Northern Hemisphere as our topic for you to follow this time is Nature and it's Beauty.


We have two amazing sponsors for you this time.

The first is Naz and her team from Sasayaki Glitter who are offering our first lucky winner 2 Digital Images from her store. And if you head over to the Facebook Group Naz is offering a free image (for 24 hours only starting on 1st April 2018) for the April Progressive Challenge which would be perfect to enter in our challenge!

The second is Alyce from Kit and Clowder who are offering 3 lucky winners a $10AUS vouchers towards a class at Kit and Clowder!! Go and check out the website, where there are even a couple of FREE classes for you to try. The paid for "technique" classes come with individual feedback via the classroom and the Facebook Group has 1000's of members willing to help you  - as well as Alyce (the mastermind behind Kit and Clowder). If you haven't seen Kit and Clowder before, then pop on over ... but be sure to tell them that Incy Wincy Designs and I sent you 😊

Naz has been kind enough to supply the DT with some images to use, but my card features one of the images from the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature Class, which was perfect for turning into an Easter card:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Kraft card which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 5¼ inch square card.
• Design Paper - comes from a kit called Owl Always Love Spring from the now sadly closed
  
  Summertime Designs. I have digitally overlaid 3 brown cords from the same kit over the green dotty paper to co-ordinate with the kraft card.
• Image - is this gorgeous Daffodil which is one of the exercises in the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature Class. I have brought this flower to life using my Spectrum Noir Markers in the class colours using the class instruction book (there is also a video to colour along with too!) before die cutting it using one of the dies in my Die'sire Nouveau Stamping Frame set.
• Sentiment - is from a set called Special Occasion Stamps which was a magazine freebie some time ago. I have stamped this onto a banner shape I cut from an oddment of Kraft card using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink

I hope I have inspired you to  join our Nature and it's Beauty challenge at Incy Wincy Designs, but if you are in need of further inspiration, please head over to the blog and see the other gorgeous creations from my very talented teamies. Then come back and show us your projects!

And if I've inspired you to sign up to a class at Kit and Clowder then do please mention my name in the Referral Box, as you will get a rebate of $5AUS on your new class purchase 😁 and that can't be bad!!!!!!

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

• Week #507 - Pick any sketch from 215 to 506 at Sketch Saturday - I've used Sketch #322 from way back in 2014 as the inspiration for my card
• Challenge #200 - Easter or Spring Sentiment at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #332 - Use a Digital Image at The Paper Shelter
• Challenge #129 - Easter at CAS on Friday
• Do Something Digi Challenge at Daring Cardmakers - I have digitally layered the 3 cords over my DP which is digitally resized. My image is also a digi.
• KBD Aloha Friday Challenge #115 - Spring at Kitty Bee Designs
• Spring Flowers Challenge at Di's Digi Designs Challenge
• Wild Card Week Challenge #434 - CAS at Just Us Girls
• Challenge #276 - Spring or Easter at Brown Sugar Challenge
• Challenge #387 - Easter at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges

That's it from me today - once again I wish you and yours a very Happy and Joyous Easter!

Crafty hugs,

Helen x

Little Dreamer

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

Here at Casa Mia, we're a little over half way through our half term holiday. You see, even though I've left a school based job, our team works so closely with schools that we don't work at full strength through the holidays. So I'm lucky enough to still have the school holiday off!

It's new challenge time at All Dressed Up challenges and it's everyone's favourite which is Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. Not got any All Dressed Up images? Wendy has plenty of gorgeous images available in the All Dressed Up Etsy Store and has also 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!

I'm definitely dreaming of warmer (and drier 😉!) days, so I have teamed this very summery image with the current Sketch Saturday sketch for my inspiration card:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is Snow White Centura Pearl which I have cut, scored and folded to make an A6 size card base
• Design Papers - are all fromthe brand new Vintage Tea Party Signature Collection by Sara Davis available on the CD-Rom in Crafter's Inspiration Magazine - Issue 17 (Spring 2018). I have used Picked Raspberry Distress Ink on the edges of my papers, just to make them "pop" a bit! This also gives a defined edge which means the papers don't need to be matted and layered which cuts down on weight, and postage costs!
  
• Image - is Dreaming of Summer by Wendy at  All Dressed Up and I have brought this cutie to life using a mixture of Copics and Spectrum Noir markers before die cutting into 2 corners using my Scattered Butterflies die which was another goodie from the current Crafter's Inspiration Magazine. Two of the butterflies are "cut in" which means that that their wings are 3D - I have bent these wings back up, and also given them a slick of Picked Raspberry Distress Ink plus a bit of bling!
• Skin - Copics in E00, E21, E11, E04, R20 (Blush)
• Hair - TN3, EB3, EB8
• Dress - PV1, PV2, PV4
• Sprigs of Greenery - CG3
• Butterflies and Bees - EB1, PV2, PV4
• Flowers - DG1, PV1
• Sentiment - is from one my favourite sets, Swirly String Sentiments by Lili of the Valley. Mine are clear stamps, so I inked it up with the Picked Raspberry Distress Ink before stamping it direct onto my image panel.

I hope I have inspired you to come over to All Dressed Up and play along with this challenge. If you're in need of further inspiration please head over to the blog and check out the other gorgeous creations by my Dressy Teamies and this month's Guest Dressy Girl Helene. Then come back and show us your Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. Don't forget that for more chances to win some of Wendy's gorgeous images, our Facebook Dressy Teamies have their own challenge running until the end of February and their theme this month is Red / Romance / Hearts.

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

• Week #500 - Special Celebration at Sketch Saturday
• Challenge #268 - Girl Power at The Crazy Challenge
• Challenge #22 at The Classic Design Team Open Challenge
• February Challenge with Optional Theme of "Cute or Die" at Oddball Stamps - I've used a border die to cut butterflies on my image panel and I think this girly is pretty stinkin' cute!!!! 😊
• Challenge #70 - Girly at Stemplegarten Challenge
• Challenge #17 - Things with Wings at Sweet Stampers Challenge
• Challenge #2 - Anything Goes with the Option to Share your Favourite Distress Ink Technique at Crafter's Castle - Definitely using a foam make up sponge to ink distress my papers edges is my favourite way of using DI. Oh, and also using them to stamp sentiments, because the colours match perfectly!
• February Challenge - 2 or more Layers at Crafty Calendar Challenge

That's it from me for today - I'm off to enjoy a bowl of chowder and a sit down to catch up on all the action from the Winter Olympics! Hope you have a lovely evening.

Hugs, Helen x

Up and away!

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

My poor little blog has been much neglected of late - although I've been creating for my DTs, those creations haven't made it on here 😧 and I'm aiming to change that now, and try to post all those creations I have made over the last couple of months!

This week saw the start of a new challenge over at Incy Wincy Designs and this time our challenge for you is Clean and Simple. Right up my street then, but may be more of a challenge for others 😉

We have two amazing sponsors for you this time.

Our first sponsor is the team at Sticker You who are offering our first lucky winner a $30USD Gift Certificate, and the good news is that you can use this on postage too!!!!!!






Our second sponsor is Maryanne who is the artist behind Createful Heart Digis, and she is offering our second lucky prize winner the 3 images that we have been lucky enough to showcase this time.







So, without further ado, here is my card for you:

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I figured that I would need a card for Papa Mia and, given that we're not a particularly "slushy" couple, these little hedgies fit the bill just perfectly!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Kraft Cardstock which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 12cm square card
  
• Image - is Up, Up and Away! by Maryanne at Createful Heart Digis which I brought to life using my Spectrum Noir Markers in the listed colours before cutting it out as a 12cm high panel to go on the outside edge of my card
• Balloons- PP3, CR2, PP5, CR6, DR5, DR7
• Hedgehogs - TN2, TN3, TN4, TN5, TN7  I used the December 2017 Kit and Clowder Marker's Class (which featured some cute furry mice) as the basis for colouring my hedgies, but I think I might have been a bit heavy handed with my pen flicks! 
• Sky/Clouds - Pale Blue Craf-T Decorating Chalk and a cloud template from my blogging buddy Annette. If you head over there, please be sure to let her know that you came from my blog won't you?
• Sentiment - came with my Crafter's Companion 2016 Advent Calendar and I die cut it twice; once out of red mirri card and a further one from plain black card to act as a shadow.

So there you go, my very clean and simple card to inspire you! 

I hope I have encouraged you to play along with us at Incy Wincy Designs this time but if you're in need of further inspiration, please do head over to the blog and check out the wonderful creations by my amazing teamies. Then come back and show us your Clean and Simple creation!

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

• February Competition - Love, Hearts, Valentine's at I'm a Crafter's Companion Facebook Page
• Challenge #275 - Valentine's Day at Brown Sugar Challenge
• Challenge #126 - Dies at CAS on Friday
• Challenge #143 - Love is in the Air at Pattie's Creations
• "I Heart You" Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge
• Challenge #196 - Valentine or Love Sentiment at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge 64 - Love (St. Valentine's, Wedding, Engagement etc.) at Moving Along With The Times
• February Challenge - A Project for a Loved One at Sasayaki Glitter Challenge

Hugs,
Helen x