Wake Up and Smell the Coffee!

Good afternoon everyone and "Happy Hump Day"! We're over Wednesday lunchtime, which means it's downhill to the weekend ...... wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

I know I don't usually do mid-week posts (unless I'm GDTing) but I'd been toying with this card in my mind. And then yesterday, a whole host of challenges popped up in my blog reader and crystallised my thoughts. So this morning I went for a run (OK, if you'd seen me it was more of a waddle ... and then I bumped into 2 students from school, waiting to be picked up to go to their college course; I was looking puce and sweating buckets! Heaven only knows how many sniggers and giggles I'll face tomorrow!) and then went to my yoga class. Came back at lunchtime, knuckled down ... and here's the result of this afternoon's labours:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - pre-made Kraft Card Blank in A6 size
• Design Papers - are from a kit called Comforts of Home by Summer at Summertime Designs.  (I think that's quite appropriate given the image and sentiment don't you!) The bottom layer is called Large Dots Paper and the top layer is called Red Chevron Paper. 
• Image - this lovely image was a digi freebie on The Alley Way Stamps Blog in November 2012
  
  (unfortunately it is no longer available) and I believe it was drawn by Alison Spelman - can't you just smell the coffee? I looks like it probably is now part of a stamp set called Breakfast Club. I die cut around the digi using an oval die before paper piecing it - my TOP TIP here is to make sure your scissors don't have any sticky residue on them which could wreck your fiddly cutting, give them a clean ... I find that a bit of cotton wool soaked in nail polish remover does the trick (and it doesn't involve rummaging in "himself's" shed for the white spirit either!!!!!) The bottom layer and handle are from Small Dots Paper (Comforts of Home kit), the band reminded me of a wrapper you get with a take-away coffee so I paper pieced this from a sheet of Kraft Card and then the heart shape was printed on Red Dots Paper (Comforts of Home kit) - once the heart was stuck on the other layers, I gave it a slick of Glossy Accents to highlight it. I finished the oval off by hand drawing some faux stitching in my metallic Bronze Gel Pen.
• Sentiment -  is by one of my favourite "sentimentalists" and that is Paulette from Create with TLC. This was a recent freebie on her blog ... thank you Paulette. I have put the sentiment into a speech bubble from the Speech Bubbles set, a freebie from Squigglefly. Again, this came under the spell of my trust metallic Bronze pen, and came out the other side with some faux stitching on!
• Ribbon Slider - is made from a length of satin ribbon in sage green and a faux button. This was made from 4 circles punched from Kraft card using my 1.5 cm circle punch which were stuck together, had 2 holes punched through and then slicked with glossy accents which was allowed to dry before threading my ribbon through.

So there you have it - and I'm quite pleased with this afternoon's work! Now I've just got to put the shopping away and cook tea, oh and hide the evidence of this afternoon's crafting session and pretend I've been doing housework :o) !!!!!!!!!

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

• Be Inspired #41 at The Alley Way Stamps
• Challenge #114 - Borrowed Sketch at Top Tip Tuesday - my TOP TIP is above 
• Challenge #73 - Seeing Dots at Little Miss Muffet Challenges
• Get Krafty - Use Kraft Cardstock at Ladybug Crafts Ink
• SFC4513 - Polka Dots at Squigglefly
• Challenge #188 - Add Some Doodling at Craft Your Passion
• #104 - Paper Piecing at Crafty Cardmakers
• Stitching - real or faux at Just Inspirational Challenges
• Challenge #65 - Stitching - real/faux at Crafting for All Seasons

Whatever you're doing this afternoon/evening, have fun!

Hugs, Helen x

Easy on a Sunday Morning

Hi Friends!

I hope you're enjoying your Saturday - we've got blue sky, some 'cotton wool' clouds and it's a lovely day! I'd like to welcome Julie who is my newest follower - thanks for sharing this journey!


I want to share a card with you that I've made for my Dad's birthday tomorrow. It's OK - my Dad doesn't know about my blog, so I'm quite safe posting this up! :o)  I've used the current sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches for my layout, only I've flipped the sketch.

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is a pre-made A5 card blank in Kraft
• Design Papers - are all by Summer at Summertime Designs and they come from a kit called Fathers and Fedoras. The base layer is called Random Blue Paper, the banner is made from Stripes Paper, and the top layer of paper is called Grunge Paper.
• Image - this idyllic Sunday scene is a rubber stamp (I know, I can stamp too!!!!!!!!!) which I won a couple of years ago from Little Claire's Designs. It's called, not surprisingly Sunday Morning and this is only the second time it's been inked ... shame on me! I brought the image to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before using the "out of the box" technique with the smallest rosette from the "nest" on the Ultimate Pro Embossing Board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats to de-boss the shape around the scene. By de-bossing, I could see where the tool was, and knew just when to stop and then start again leaving the table legs, parts of the radio and the top of the cafetiere outside the shape.


• Radio - TB2, TB3, TB4, TB9, Silver Gel Pen
• Cafetiere - EB2, EB8, BT1, Silver Gel Pen
• Mug - EB1, EB2
• Table - TN3, TN4, TN5
• Book - DG1, DG2
• Sign - DG2
• Glasses - Silver Gel Pen
• Outline - GG1
• Sentiment Ticket - is by Debbie at The Crafty Pad Designs (available from Card Making Downloads). This ticket is called Happy Birthday Plain Style. I coloured it using my Spectrum Noir Pen in TB2 and Silver Gel Pen so it goes with main colours of the card and image.

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

• Challenge #206 - Kraft, White, Sky at Cupcake Inspirations
• Sketch #194 at Tuesday Morning Sketches
• Challenge #35 - For the Boys at Eureka Stamps
• Challenge #61 - For the Guys at Love to Create
• Challenge #53 at {PIN}spirational Challenges 
• Challenge #78 - For a Guy at Aud Sentiments
• Inspiration Challenge - Colour Palette at Crafter's Digital Art Center

I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll be back on Monday with my regular DT posts - see you then!

Hugs, Helen x

With Thanks and Love

Good morning my crafty friends and welcome to another Monday! I'm back to school today, after having the week off for half term - I can say that having a quick week's break is enough to refresh me, ready for the 7 week run-in to Christmas!

It's new challenge day at Incy Wincy Designs and today our challenge theme is Giving Thanks. We'd like to see your projects that say "Thanks" or "Thank you" on them.

Our lovely sponsor this week is the superbly talented Krista of Saturated Canary, and she has kindly supplied each of the DT members with their choice of digi to use for this challenge. My challenge was which one of the pretty images to use. I did manage to make a decision (lol!) and here is my card for you today:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Snow White, cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - my base paper is from the Vintage Grunge Postcard Collection by Debbie at Crafty Pad Designs. By loading the image into my word processing package, I have been able to tweak the colour to an aqua shade so that it matches the blue tones in the middle layer on my card. This middle layer is called Red Wallpaper Paper, from the Comforts of Home Kit and it has been designed by Summer at Summertime Designs. I have tool distressed the edges of these two layers
• Image - this totally gorgeous girl is Love Letters and I have brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS3
• Eyes - DG4
• Lips - DR7
• Hair - GB1, GB8, GB10 - I've tried to get some 'shine' in her hair ... not sure if I've managed it or not?
• Top - EB1, EB2, DR7, DG2, DG3
• Trousers - TB1, TB2, TB9
• Envelope - DR7
• Outline - BGR1
• Clouds - Chalk in Light Blue, using this wonderful tutorial on making realistic clouds by Annette. I'm not sure I've got it quite right, but it beats my clip art cloud on a repositionable note hands down! ;o)
• Heart Confetti - don't tell my girls this, but I discovered a little tub of confetti shapes hidden in their 'Art 'n' Craft' box when I was looking for some clay for a school project last week. I thought the little red hearts would be totally perfect and they add a great sheen to the project .... Ssshhhhhhhh!
• Sentiment - is by Paulette from Create with TLC and was one of the goodies in the recent "In Between Club". I've added Holographic Embossing Powder to the text ... just check out that sparkle!!!!!
• Gems - from my stash, but originally came from a french hypermarket in a bumper bundle I bought last year.

 

Do check out the Incy Wincy challenge blog and see the other great cards Giving Thanks which have been created by my talented teamies and this months Guest Designer Paula. Then come back and show us your projects - you've got until Sunday 11th November 2012 to link your creations up.

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

• Challenge #47 - Patterned Paper at Card Crafter's Circle
• Monthly Challenge - Sparkle at Visible Image
• Give Thanks Challenge at Scrappy Frogs
• Challenge #45 - Make it Sparkle at Pile It On
• All That Glitters at Sweet Stampin'
• Challenge #82 - Bold and Bright at My Mum's Craft Shop
• Week 44 - Bright Colours and Sparkle at Polka Doodles

Have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

A Cupcake Recipe

Good morning friends!

This will be a very swift post from me as I didn't get time to write and schedule this over the weekend ... and now I'm writing this in haste as I'm off to train some Guide Leaders in calligraphy today.

Anyway, it's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this week we've got a Recipe for you to follow:

4 Papers, 3 Brads, 2 Ribbons, 1 Image

 

 

We've got two great sponsors this week.

 

Fantastic Ribbons who are giving this week's lucky winner 4 rolls of their scrumptious ribbons

 

 

and

 

 

our very own Nikki from Limited Runs Digis whose gorgeous images have been used by some of the DT.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my card to inspire you for this challenge:

 

I'm sorry the photo is so rubbish ... now the clocks have gone back I'm struggling with the curse of getting decent photos under and electric light!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Snow White, cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - are all by Summer at Summertime Designs from the set Believe. My main paper is called Candy Cane Paper and the three squares (running from top left downwards) are Holly Paper, Snowflakes Paper and Green Dots Paper.
• Brads - I'm afraid I cheated a bit here as I couldn't find my brads and the shops had closed. So I used 3 small pearls to make one of my holly sprigs white berried.
• Ribbons - are both by Fantastic Ribbons and came from a Blog Candy that I won from Annette last autumn. I love the red ribbon which is printed with "Merry Christmas" in gold, and is also flecked with gold. I doesn't show up very well in the photo above. I'll try to get better photos later.
• Image - is by Nikki at Limited Runs Digis who very kindly let me have Holly Cupcake to showcase today. I've coloured this using my Spectrum Noir Pens - I'll be back later to list the individual colours I used.

My Incy Wincy team-mates and Saumya (this month's Guest Designer who is with us for the last time this week) have got plenty of further inspiration for you, so do pop over and check out their creations for this Recipe Challenge. Don't forget to come back and share your creations with us - you've got until Sunday 4th November 2012 to link your cards up.

 

 

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

 

• #117 - C is for Christmas at Ooh-La-La Creations
• Anything Goes at Card Makin' Mamas
• Challenge 137 - Make 1 for Christmas at One Stitch at a Time - Second Entry
• Challenge #29 - Use a Ribbon at The Squirrel and The Fox - Second Entry
• Challenge 77 - Christmas in October at Crafty Ann's Challenge - Second Entry

Until later,

Hugs, Helen x

 

Santa's Letter

Morning friends!

Not sure how this will post as I've scheduled this and the clocks go back tonight. Fingers crossed!!!


It's time for a new challenge at The Crafty Pad and Dawn's chosen this week's challenge. She's encouraging us to beat the last minute rush for Christmas by preparing early because our challenge for you this week is Christmas is Coming!

This week's sponsor is the lovely team at Joanna Sheen who are offering a £10 gift voucher to their wonderful craft store for our lucky winner.

 

As usual, the Design Team are showcasing the delightful images that have come from the pen of Debbie at Crafty Pad Designs, and here is my card for your inspiration:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Snow White, cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - are both by Summer at Summertime Designs from the set Believe.
• Images - by Debbie at Crafty Pad Designs, this little cutie is Christmas Ted posting Letter. I have brought him to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens and my trusty silver gel pen, which seems to be getting ot and about rather a bit!
• Snowflake - punched from Centura Pearl in Snow White
• Ribbon - from my stash

Do head over to The Crafty Pad and see the gorgeous creations by the rest of Team A. Then come back and show us your Christmas is Coming creations! You've got until 8pm (GMT) on Saturday 3rd November 2012 to link your cards up.

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

• Holiday Creature Feature at Jingle Belles
• CIC 62 - All Tied Up at Clearly I Stamp
• October Monthly Challenge - Winter Wonderland at Stamp and Create
• Challenge 137 - Make 1 for Christmas at One Stitch at a Time
• Challenge #29 - Use a Ribbon at The Squirrel and The Fox
• Challenge 77 - Christmas in October at Crafty Ann's Challenge

Hope you have a great weekend.

Hugs, Helen x

Whirling Leaves

Good morning my crafty friends, and I hope you are well this morning. A very warm welcome to both Gail and Asmah who have joined us on my crafting journey ... that makes 50 followers now and I thank you all for your encouragement and support.

 

 

As it's Monday morning, it's new challenge time at at Incy Wincy Designs, and this week it's a very simple challenge for you all ... Anything Goes!

Our sponsor this week is the lovely team at The Paper Shelter, who are offering our lucky winner a $20 Gift Certificate to the store. And with so many great images and design paper packs in the store, I'm sure any crafter would have no problem in spending this voucher!




The Paper Shelter were also kind enough to provide a variety of images for the DT to use this week. As the morning have definitely started to get chilly here on the south coast of the UK I thought I would use this lovely autumnal image:

 

 

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Ivory, which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Design Paper - is the digital background from the Autumn is Coming! set by The Paper Shelter. 
• Image - this gorgeous girl with the autumn leaves is the image in the Autumn is Coming! set by The Paper Shelter. In this set, you get an outline digi stamp and also this wonderfully pre-coloured image. As my coloured could not do this stamp justice, I decided to cheat and use the coloured image which I digitally super-imposed onto the set background. 
• Sentiment - is, of course, by the talented Paulette at Create with TLC and was a freebie she gave away on her blog last month. It is called Fall Spiral Poem. I printed out the label which comes with the Autumn is Coming! set in a large size, before putting it back through my printer so that the sentiment came out onto the coloured paper. I then fussy cut around the petalled shape, and then used Gold Versamark Ink to distress the edges, just to add to the autumnal feel! The Versamark Ink was a bargain ... I bought a sealed bag of what was billed as "Try a New Craft - Stamping" at my Church Fete last month. When I got home and opened the bag, I was amazed to find 2 sealed Ink cubes (gold & silver) 2 pots of embossing powder (also gold & silver) and a pack of 12 small rubber stamps (of which only 2 have been inked up). The princely sum for this bag was just 50p!!!!!!!!!!
• Ribbon - is white satin edged organza ribbon from my stash, which I recoloured using my Spectrum Noir Pen in shade JG6 before tying it in a bow.




I think that maybe my printer needs an ink refill, the camera isn't playing ball or that the light was just rubbish on the day that I photographed this card ... I'm sorry, but these pictures just don't do the card justice :o(
 

My Incy Wincy team-mates and Saumya (this month's Guest Designer) have got plenty of further inspiration for you, so do pop over and check out their creations for Anything Goes! Don't forget to come back and share your creations with us - you've got until Sunday 14th October 2012 to link your cards up.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges, with a little help from the girls at Feline Playful:

• DYSU #92 - Warm Colours at Do You Stack Up
• October Monthly Challenge - Fall at Great Impressions Stamps
• Fall/Halloween Project at Scrappy Frogs
• Challenge #184 - Photo Inspiration at Stamptacular Sunday
• Challenge #43 - Autumn Colours at Card Crafter's Circle
• Fall is Here at Card Makin' Mamas
• R#92 - Lots of Leaves at Crafts 4 Eternity
• Challenge #153 - Autumn at Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge
• Autumn Leaves at Emergency Crafters
• Challenge #23 Autumn/Fall at Simply Create Too

I hope that you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Thank you for the Music

Hi,

Well the end of the academic year here in the UK is rushing to meet me like a runaway freight train (!), and I realised yesterday that I needed two very quick "Thank You" cards for my girls' respective Keyboard Teachers. One daughter has decided (reluctantly) that she's not going to continue with keyboard lessons in September and the other one's teacher is moving onto pastures new. So it was the usual, Mum we need cards in a hurry!

Fortunately, I knew exactly what I was going to make for them! And here are my finished cards (sorry that I forgot to photgraph them together, but they are mini-cards ... honest!):

My card recipes are as follows:

• Base Card - made from left overs of Ivory Centura Pearl 300gsm Card and  Centura Pearl in Dark Chocolate which were cut and folded to make square cards of around 9cm (3½ inches) in size.
• Backing Paper - is Brown and Red Dots Paper from a kit by Summer at Summertime Designs called Apples and Almonds. Even these were printed out onto scraps of paper that were left over from making envelopes!
• Image - this beautiful monogram is called, appropriately enough, M is for Music and was a goodie given away last year by the exceedingly generous Paulette at Create With TLC. I knew when Paulette offered these on her blog that they would prove very useful for cards for music teachers!

So there you have it, 2 very simple but effective cards each conveying a written message inside from each daughter to her music teacher, and my thanks to them as well for sharing their love of music with my girls.

With a little help from the girls at Feline Playful I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

• Challenge #41 - Mini Cards at The Stamping Boutique
• Timeless Tuesday #177 - Sentimental at Flourishes
• Challenge #18 - Anything Goes at Tammy's Scrapin' Corner
• Challenge #153 - Sentimentally Yours at Corrosive Challenges
• Anything Goes at That Craft Place
• Anything Goes at Catch The Bug
• Keep It Clean & Simple at Just Some Lines (2nd Entry)
• Challenge #140 - Spots at Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge
• Monday Challenge #1 at The Crafty Bloggers Network
• Challenge #12 Anything Goes with optional Colour Inspirations at Jackson's Digital Expressions I've picked out the Cherry Red from the colour board

Hope you have a crafty week!

Hugs, Helen x

Give an "Inchie"

Good morning my fellow crafters and I hope you are well today.

The last fortnight has disappeared rather rapidly again, and there's a new new challenge starting today at Lexi's Creations. Our challenge for you this time is For a Friend.

Our sponsor for this challenge is the lovely Lexi from Fairy Dust Crafts who is offering our lucky winner 5 digital images from her store (you should pop over there and see the other goodies she has and, if you spend over £10.00 she offers free postage and packing too!). Lexi has, as usual, given us our free choice of image for this challenge. Here is the card I've made:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Dark Chocolate  cut and folded to a 10.5cm square card.
• Backing Paper - is cream with a pearlised sheen to it. I got mine in a multi-pack of different papers and card.
• Image - This gorgeous scene is called  Butterflies and it is one of the talented Lexi's (Fairy Dust Crafts) creations - pop over to Lexi's store by clicking on the link ... I can assure you that you won't be disappointed! After colouring in the image, I cut it into 9 inch squares, and then distressed the edges of these using brown chalk and a damp cotton bud. I deliberately keep my colour scheme muted and used my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Flower - GB3, GB4, GB5, CG4
• Butterflies - CR11, GB5, EB7
• Grass - CG1, CG2
• Sky - Light Blue Chalk
• Outline - BG1
• Sentiment Tickets - from The Crafty Pad Designs. You can get Fabulous Friend  by clicking here. On the other ticket, I took the image into my word processing package. I then hid the original wording by covering it with a white text box and generated the Get Well Soon  message myself. I hope Debbie doesn't mind that I tweaked one of her tickets!

Head on over to Lexi's Creations and see what my creative team-mates have created For a Friend and then come back and share your creation with us! You've got until Saturday 21st July 2012 to link your cards up.

With a little help from the girls at Feline Playful I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

• Challenge 28 - Friend at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #16 - Anything Goes at Chocolate, Coffee and Cards
• Challenge 224 - Gardener's World at Cute Card Thursday
• Challenge #2 - Get Well Soon at Chalk 'n' Stock
• Challenge #4 - Winged Things at Fashionista Challenge
• Summertime at Incy Wincy Designs
• Challenge #34 - A Card for Someone Special at Addicted To Stamps
• Let's Keep It Clean and Simple at Just Some Lines
• PPA138 - A Colour Challenge (Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso & Cherry Cobbler) at Pals Paper Arts
• July Monthly Challenge - Inchies at Card Making World

Hugs, Helen x

Happy Birthday!

Hi,

Good Morning my crafty friends and a very warm welcome to Katie - my newest follower! Hope you enjoy my creations Katie.

Today is new new challenge Monday at Lexi's Creations and this one is a great challenge! Simply Happy Birthday - easy peasy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o)

This fortnight, we are being sponsored by the lovely girls at Joanna Sheen who are offering our lucky winner a £10 Gift Certificate Thanks girls!

The equally lovely Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts has given everyone on the DT their choice of image and here is the Birthday card I'd like to share with you today:

My inspiration for this card layout came from a Sketch Challenge at  Incy Wincy Designs when I was GDT with them in April (I loved this sketch then and I still do - it's proving to be very useful!), and also by the current colour scheme at The Play Date Cafe.

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Royal Blue (I got mine in a Darks pack from Crafter's Companion but they don't seem to stock this any more) cut and folded to a 15cm square card.
• Design Paper - is called The Courtship Papers 2a, and is by Paulette at Create with TLC. This was one of the goodies she sent out to subscribers of the May Club.
• Image - This gorgeous girl is Roxi (what a pose and I just love the choppy bobbed hair-do!) and she has come from the pen of the talented Lexi from Fairy Dust Crafts - pop over to Lexi's store by clicking on the link ... I can assure you that you won't be disappointed! I embossed an oval shape onto the Royal Blue Centura Pearl using my  Ultimate Pro Embossing Board Snowman Delight and Candlelight, cut this out and then mounted Roxi onto it. Roxi came to life through the nibs of my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Trousers - TN3, TN4
• Top - BT4, BT5
• Belt - TB5, IG1
• Skin - FS2, FS3
• Hair - GB8, GB10
• Outline - IG1
• Aqua coloured Gems - from my stash
• Sentiment - computer generated in my word processing package using a Banner shape, word art coloured aqua to match my card colour scheme and sized to fit in the banner.

I'm delighted with the way this card turned out. Now this card is actually going to be for my eldest daughter who will be 13 next month. She doesn't do "pink, fluffy or girlie" and this image is utterly perfect for her. I think this we'll be seeing "happy tears" when she opens this card! My only challenge will be keeping this post safe for the next 3 weeks ... Hmmmmmmm! :o)

Head on over to Lexi's Creations and see what Happy Birthday projects my "Talented Teamies" have to show you. Don't forget to come back and then show us your creations! You've got until Saturday 23rd June 2012 to link your cards up.

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

• Challenge #135 - Aquamarine, Poolside, Clay at The Play Date Cafe
• Challenge #56 - Any Sentiment for a Child's Birthday at Aud Sentiments - OK so I know she's going to be thirteen ... but she's still my little girl! :o)
• Challenge #114 - Anything Goes at Craft Your Passion
• Week 23 - Happy Birthday / Celebration at Craft Punked
• Anything Goes, using something that's at least 6 months old at Oldie but a Goodie ( 2nd Entry to this challenge) - Well, it's those gems again ... I bought 4 rather large mixed bags (of shapes, sizes and colours) from a French hypermarket last August.

Hugs, Helen x

Keep Calm and ...

Hi,

I would like to give a warm welcome to all my new followers - thanks for joining me on my creative journey!

This was supposed to have been my my second week of being a Guest Designer with the Team A Girls at The Crafty Pad. However, the girls have asked me join their team so I am very honoured and delighted to say that this is my very first post as a DT Member with Team A!

Our challenge for you this week is The Colours of your Country's Flag and/or Sketch. Plenty of choice here then! Either make your card using the colours of your Country's flag, or follow this lovely sketch, or go the whole hog and really challenge yourself by using both the theme and the sketch!

Our sponsors this week are the lovely girls at Joanna Sheen who are offering this week's lucky winner a £10 voucher to spend in their online store!!!!! And remember that they charge no postage and packing (apart from a few items unavailable to non UK customers) for any country in the world providing you spend a minimum of £9. 

Anyone in the UK can't fail to notice that "Jubilee Fever" is high  and that stores are crammed with products coloured red, white and blue. So, I've taken my lead from them and would like to show you my inspiration using this gorgeous image by Debbie who owns The Crafty Pad Store:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - Centura Pearl 300gsm card in Snow White, cut and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Design Papers - by Crafter's Companion and are a now retired collection called A Royal Wedding. These were a Members download in April 2011 to celebrate the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I've used the red gingham paper, and the red, white and blue striped paper with Union flags on it.
• Image - Lulu Blowing Bubbles is by Debbie at The Crafty Pad Store and you can get your own copy of Lulu by clicking here! Don't forget to check out the other lovely images in Debbie's store. I have brought the gorgeous Lulu (and her bubbles!) to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Dress - TB3, TB4, CR10, CR11
• Bow - CR10, CR11
• Shoes - True Black
• Skin - FS2, FS3
• Hair - TN2, TN3
• Outline & Grounding - CG1, CG3
• Bubbles - Holographic Embossing Powder
• Sentiment - made using the online Poster Maker at The Keep Calm-O-Matic and then tweaked it with a pen so everyone knows Lulu is Party-ing! While you're at the site, check out the "Keep Calm" Guide which tells the story behind this very famous poster.
• Flowers - made using the Union flag coloured teabag tiles that came with my Design Paper Collection. I used the flower shapes on the Ultimate Pro Embossing Board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats and cut out 8 of the same sized shapes for each flower. Then for each flower, I sprayed the shapes to make them damp, scrunched them, opened them again and layered them up in a stack. I then made a hole through the stack, inserted a brad as the centre of the flower, and gathered the petals around into a flower shape, then left each one to dry before attaching them to my project.
• Ric-rac Ribbon - from my local haberdashery store.

I love this very patriotic card! Don't forget to head over to The Crafty Pad and check out the fabulous creations by my Teamies on Team A, and our Guest Designer Linda - leave them some love whilst you're there! Don't forget to link up your own creation using the "Colours of your Country's Flag" and / or use our Sketch. You've got until 8pm (BST) on Saturday 2nd June to join us and be in with a chance of winning this great prize from Joanna Sheen.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges (with a little help from the girls at Feline Playful - thanks girls!) :

• Weekly Challenge - Feature 3 Brads at Made Especially For You I've used 3 brads as the centres of my 3 flowers
• Challenge #77 - Dig out the Old at Top Tip Tuesday My DPs have been on the hard drive of my computer since April 2011 and I've not used them before even though they're lovely (ahem ... embarrassed!). I brought my brads from a sale bin at Hobbycraft last summer, even though at that time I had absolutely no idea how to use brads!
• Challenge #3 - Anything Goes! at Great Impressions Stamps
• Challenge #24 - Here Comes Summer at Crafter's Companion
• Challenge #116 - What's Your Colour? at Sassy Cheryl's
• True Colours at Papertake Weekly
• Challenge #58 - Cooking up a Recipe (3 Flowers, 2 Papers, 1Ribbon) at My Mum's Craft Shop
• Challenge #35 - Anything Goes at Little Miss Muffet
• Theme of Red, White and Blue at Willow Sketchie
• Week 21 - Diamond Jubilee at Glitter Geeks

Hope you're having a great weekend.

Hugs, Helen x

A Yellow Birthday

Hi,

Well, it's the weekend again and mine has got off to a wonderful start as I found out on Friday evening that I won Marianne's Blog Candy, which is a copy of the brand new Crafter's Companion Paintbox Poppets CD! Thank you Marianne, and I'm sorry if I got a little excited when I posted my comment on your blog :o) !!!!! March is mad for birthday's in this family, so I've got another birthday card to show you:

This layout is the current sketch challenge at Sassy Cheryl's, which I've rotated through 90° to suit my image. OK, now I know what you're thinking ... I only do sketch challenges, as my Mr Froggy New Home last weekend was also a sketch! However, I like the CAS lines of this sketch and (this might be slightly controversial and I don't want to offend anyone) I think sketch challenges even things up for less experienced cardmakers like me.

My Card Recipe is as follows:

• Base card - shop bought A6 Kraft card
• Yellow Design Paper and Blue 'Ribbons' - both from the talented Summer at Summertime Designs. Summer creates digital scrapbooking kits but I love her papers which easily transfer to the cardmaking world! The blue 'ribbons' are from her brand new kit Comforts of Home and the beautiful golden yellow polka dot paper is from a kit called Golden Sunshine.
• Small piece of Design Paper - from Create With TLC (one of my most favourite places!) and is called Happy Birthday to You 7, and it was a goodie which Paulette sent out in The February Club which I subscribed to. This paper has also got some texture in the print as well as these lovely, spring-like colours.
• Sentiment - another freebie, this time by Gerda at Stamp Fairy. The sentiment is black, so I took it into my word processing package to change the colour to a turquoise blue, so that it match the blue colours on my card.
• Image is called Teenage Girl and she is a Jellypark digistamp. I don't think she's available in the store but there are plenty more gorgeous images there to tempt you though! I think I picked her up as a freebie image that Claire from Jellypark was offering at The Crafter's Cafe. To bring this relaxing teenager to life, I've used my Spectrum Noirs in the following colours (old numbering system):
• Skin - 132, 133
• Hair - 96, 91
• Jumper - 35, 33
• Leggings - 68, 65, 64
• Socks - 120, 33
• Outline - CG1
• Design finished with 3 pale blue gems from my crafty stash.

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

• Challenge #105 - Sketch Time at Sassy Cheryl's
• Challenge 49 - Happy Birthday at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #100 - Anything Goes! at Craft Your Passion
• Challenge #111 - Mellow Yellow at Fab 'n' Funky
• Challenge #136 - Something Old Something New at Incy Wincy Designs (Old - Gems; New - Ribbons from Comforts of Home kit) 
• Challenge #47 - Spring Colours at My Mum's Craft Shop

I hope that you're enjoying the same Spring weather that we've got here on the south coast, and that you're having a great weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

Another New Home!

Hi,

I'm on a roll this weekend - 2 blog posts :o)! This is the second of the cards that I've been commissioned to make for a work colleague. She saw my blog post A New Home and asked me to make a similar card for a friend of hers who has moved house this weekend. So, here is what I came up with:

I've followed the current sketch at Papertake Weekly which, being clean and simple, is right up my street!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - Centura Pearl 300gsm card in Snow White (Crafter's Companion) cut and folded to a 15cm square card.
• Design Papers and 'ribbon' from the Strawberry Kisses CD (Crafter's Companion).
• Image is by The Crafty Pad and was a freebie on the site - thanks Debbie! I brought this little chap to life with my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - 43, 51
• Eyes - 33
• Outline - CG1
• The sentiment ticket came from the February club at Create With TLC which I then tweaked in my word processing package to remove the original sentiment and then added my own fun sentiment.

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

• Sketch #65 at Papertake Weekly
• Challenge #149 - Things that Leap at Digital Tuesday Challenge
• Challenge #110 - Let's Leap into Action at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges
• Challenge #175 - Green for Go at Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge
• March Challenge - Anything Goes with a Crafty Pad image at The Crafty Pad
• Challenge #40 - Let's see some Green at Card Makin' Mamas

Hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Yet another Birthday!

Hi,

Another week brings another birthday! A niece celebrated her 17th birthday earlier this week and here is the card I made for her:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - Centura Pearl 300gsm card in Ivory (Crafter's Companion) cut and folded to a 12cm square card.
• Backing Paper and Sentiment are both by Create With TLC and were goodies the February Club. I can see this sentiment will be getting quite a bit of use and it looks just as good going vertically like this as it does horizontally!
• My gorgeous image is called Saffron and she is Little Miss Muffet image - although I'm not sure she's available in the store, but there are plenty more delightful images there to tempt you! Barbara was offering her as a Follower's Freebie in January. 
• I brought this cutie to life (although I'm not sure I've got the sheen on her hair quite right!) with my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours (original numbering system):
• Hat & Scarf - 68, 65
• Hair - 104, 100, 92
• Skin - 132, 133
• Coat - 96, 91 
• Muffler - 171
• Boots - 91, 98
• Outline - CG1
• I completed my design by adding 3 pieces of Bling to highlight Saffron's hat and also put them under the sentiment.

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

• Anything Goes! at Willow Sketchie Challenge
• Anything Goes (for using a Little Miss Muffet Stamp) at Little Miss Muffet Challenges
• Challenge #39 Happy Birthday (Second Entry) at Card Makin' Mamas

Have a great weekend!
Hugs, Helen x