Framed it!

Afternoon all! Hope everyone is OK out there in "Blog Land".

Well the half term holidays are over, and Casa Mia has returned to normality with school for the Bambinos and me! I did manage to get a fair bit of crafting done last week, and I'll share these bits with you over the coming days. When I wrote my last post, I forgot that my Mother in Law was going into hospital last Wednesday for a total knee replacement ... all went well and she's now home, but I'd forgotten how demanding multiple hospital visits are, plus checking that everything was OK for her at home before she came home. And now we're checking up on her morning, noon and night to make sure that she's still OK!!!! 

Anyway, I thought I'd share the card I made for whilst she was in hospital.

I used the uber-fabulous Sugar and Spice Papercrafting CD-Rom from Crafter's Companion and chose this beautiful Frame Card. This CD-Rom really is my favourite and there are so many gorgeously feminine images and projects to suit all the ladies in my life! It's the first time I've made this style of card and, I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the result. A quick butterfly from the Die'sire Essentials Beautiful Butterflies set completed my project.

That's it from me for now - I'm off to check up on M-i-L. Hope you all have a great rest of the day!

Hugs, Helen x

So Cute!

Hello there blogging buddies - hope you're all having a wonderful St. Valentine's Day! 

Thank you to all of you who sent good wishes after my last post. After 2 meetings with school and a whole bundle of stuff for the year head to follow up, he had very strong words with the boy who was causing such distress to eldest bambino. I'm pleased to be able to say that matters have died down enough for us to have our happy and cheeky bambino back. I won't say they've stopped, as he still thought it was OK to have "a pop" at her yesterday ... grrrrrrrr!  I'm sure you'll understand that I've put a lot of time into preparing our case for these meetings, so crafting took a back seat for a week or so.

But my fingers have been itching to craft, and I'd like to share a little card that I whipped up today for youngest bambino to give to one of her best friends, who is having her 13th Birthday Party (dinner out) this evening. The only stipulation that I had to work to was that the card was purple ... think I managed that one then!!! :o)

I'm resisting the temptation to call this one stinkin' cute, but she is pretty gorgeous don't you think?

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is a 27cm x 9cm piece of Centura Pearl - Snow White, scored and folded to make (when fully closed) a 9x9cm diamond fold card.
  
• Design Papers - are from the Sugar and Spice Papercraft CD-Rom Collection by Crafter's Companion. 
• Image - this gorgeous girl is called #552 - Penny Framed, although I've fussy cut her rather than leaving her in the frame, hence why one of her hair buns is a strange shape ;o) She has been created by Megan Suarez at Dilly Beans Stamps. I brought Penny to life courtesy of my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Face - FS2, FS3, FS6, LV1, BT4, BT5
• Hair - TN2, TN3, TN4, TN5, TN7, TN8, OR1
• Top - LV1, LV2, LV3
• Heart - LV2, LV3
• Outline - BT2
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC. Because I had re-sized and cropped the papers in my word processing programme, I was able to superimpose the sentiment onto the right piece of DP and also to recolour it to purple, so it tied in with the main colour of the card.
• 3D Paper Bow - is also from the Sugar and Spice Papercraft CD-Rom Collection and again, I took this into my word processing package to resize it to suit my card. 

I was struggling to know what colours to put together, and I remembered that this was covered by Leann in the Crafter's Inspiration Issue 4 magazine. Using the colour wheel, I worked out that I could have purple, blue/green and orange together, so I chose purple and turquoise papers, and then the card an orange highlight with the bow. I'm also pretty pleased with how her hair turned out too. Youngest bambino was exceedingly chuffed with my efforts.

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

• Challenge #248 - Always Anything Goes at Craft Your Passion Challenges
• Challenge #131 - Anything Goes! at Addicted to Stamps and More
• Challenge 25 - Anything Goes at artbymiran challenge
• Hearts at The Stamping Boutique Challenge - there's one heart hanging from her hair and also my DP has candy hearts on it ... hope this counts!
• Hearts and/or Arrows at Seize the Birthday
• Challenge 67 - Anything Goes with a Twist ... add a bow at Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge

We're just starting our half term (hooray!), and as we've got quite a few birthdays coming up I will be trying to craft every day. Whatever you're up to for the rest of this weekend, I hope you have a nice time.

Hugs, Helen x

Sugar and Spice

Good afternoon my crafty friends and hope you've had a good week and weekend. Just a swift post from me this afternoon, but firstly I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to Shirley-Anne Barber who is my newest follower - glad to have you aboard and hope you enjoy my creations.

As my regular readers may remember, January has been full of birthdays ... in the Admin Team at the school where I work there have been 8 this month alone!!!!! I've been making hand coloured cards for the special people, but for the others I've been making what I'm calling "Mini Cards" like this one:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 9.9cm square card. The beauty of this card size is that you can make 3 cards out of one A4 sheet of card, and these cards will go flat in a regular DL sized envelope should you need to post them!
• Papers, Image, Sentiment and Buttons - are all from a Card Companion set on the gorgeously girlie Sugar and Spice Papercraft CD Rom Collection. I resized the sheet in my word processing programme, before printing it out, and I then cut out the elements. All the papers are ready matted and layered with the band of ribbon across them, so they just needed fixing to the card base. The image and buttons come in 2 different sizes so I had to choose which ones to use, cut them out and fix them to the papers layer. I used 2 sentiment tags, which I've tied together with a bow, offset them and then raised up the top right hand corner with a sticky pad to give a bit of dimension to the card.
• Twine - is from my "odds 'n' ends" box, so I can't even tell you where it came from! I just about had enough to thread through the holes I punched in the buttons and sentiment tags so that I was able to tie the bows :o)

There is my quick and easy card, but it looks a whole lot more than just a few sheets of card!!!!!!! Here is a pic of another couple of cards I made using the same CD-Rom - these are from the Frame Card section and I superimposed some sentiments from Paulette at Create with TLC onto sentiment tags from the CD-Rom before cutting them out and mounting them. The only additions to these cards were bling/pearls from my stash:

Some beautiful cards for my office buddies!

I would like to enter my Butterfly Card into the following challenges:

• GDT Call at Crafty Sentiments Designs
• B is for Buttons & Bows at The ABC Challenge
• Challenge #243 - Anything Goes at Sentimental Sundays

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a lovely crafty week!

Hugs, Helen x

Feeling Blue?

Nope, not me ... but I think this little cutie might be!

Good evening friends and as promised I'm back with another post as I've managed to have a crafty afternoon. I'd also like to welcome my newest follower, Jacee from Simply Paper Craft Design - hope you enjoy my crafty meanderings!  This is another Birthday card, but this time I'm actually ahead of the game as far as office birthdays go, so this can go in my drawer ready for the right recipient!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a pre-made 5 inch square cream card blank
• Design Papers - are both by Donna at Bearly Mine Designs which has sadly closed its doors. The bottom paper is from a set called "Plain and Simple" and the border paper is from a set called "Mini Dots". I have dry embossed a wavy edge on the border paper using my Ultimate
  
  Pro.
• Image - this gorgeous girls is called Sugar 'n' Spice Doll Saffron and she comes from the pen of Barbara at Little Miss Muffet Stamps. I brought Saffron to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before fussy cutting her:
• Skin - FS2, FS3
• Hair - GB8, GB9, GB10, EB3
• Hat, Scarf, Muffler and Dress - EB1, 1B2, EB3, TB4, TB5, TB6
• Coat - TB3, TB4, TB5
• Boots - EB3, EB4
• Sentiment is by Paulette at Create with TLC and I re-coloured the sentiment to blue in my word processing programme before fussy cutting it.

I'm not totally happy with my colouring this time - I don't find the blue pens the easiest to blend (the colours seem too tonally spread) and then to cap it all, one of the blue pens ran out whilst I was using it and I don't have a refill ink for it (guess what's going on order tomorrow!). Then I couldn't seem to get the texture right in her hair and the more ink I was laying down the worse it was looking .... Anyway, it's done now, and I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Challenge #101 - Something Blue at Little Miss Muffet Challenges
• Challenge #98 - Something New at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge Blog - my papers are new as I bought them just before Donna closed her shop
• Challenge #95 - What Did Santa Bring? at Ruby's Rainbow - Santa didn't exactly bring my papers, but my M-i-L gave me some money and I spent some of that on these papers, and more ;o) Hope this counts!
• January Challenge - Winter Blues at Kraftyhands Blog
• Winter Birthday at The Stamping Boutique - Second Entry
• Challenge #121 - Baby it's Cold Outside at QKR Stampede Challenge - Second Entry

Whatever you're up to this week, I hope you have fun and get some crafting in!

Hugs, Helen x

Christmas Joy

Hello folks - hope you're all OK out there and keeping safe, warm and dry in this weather. 

I know that it's only been 2½ weeks since Christmas, but another one of my New Year goals is to try and make a Christmas card every couple of weeks. As with most things here at Casa Mia there is a story behind this. For the last couple of years, my youngest has helped me run a "Teddy Tombola" at our Church Summer Fete. Last year, we held a Christmas Fayre for the first time and the organiser phoned me and said "Right then Helen, what are you going to do?". I tentatively mentioned that I make cards at which point she nearly snapped my hand off down the phone and that was that ... I was running a hand-made card stall. I nervously went with a very small number of cards that were mostly made from CD-Roms as I didn't want to invest heavily in my time if my cards didn't sell. Well, I needn't have worried ... after a slightly shaky start, I had sold all the cards I took within the first hour! 

So, I'm thinking ahead here as I guess I'll be asked to do this again and it would be good to have slightly more stock to sell. Here is my first offering:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base -  is made using Kraft Cardstock to make a 10.5 cm square card.  My TIP for Top Tip Tuesday is that using this size of card base means that it will fit opened and flat in a regular DL sized envelope. This avoids extra thickness in the envelope and (depending on how heavily you embellish your card) a chance that you will avoid punitive postal costs.
• Image - is a sadly now retired stamp from the Humphrey's Corner Collection called "At
  
  Christmas". I think I got this stamp as part of a bundle during Crafter's Companion Birthday week a couple of years ago and, shame on me, this is the first time it's been inked up! I stamped Humphrey and his friends directly onto the Kraft cardstock using Black Memento Ink before bringing them to life with my Spectrum Noir Pencils (enjoying their third outing!) in the following shades:
• Humphrey's Hide - 001, 112, 117
• Duffle Coat - 024, 027, 033
• Scarf & Mittens - 058, 047, 084, 107
• Clothes - 096, 104, 117, 119
• Reindeer Sledge - 024, 027, 033, 088, 085, 008, 095, 104, 058, 047, 084, 107, 012, 014
• Snow - 001, White Gel Pen
• Sentiment - is from another stamp that I got as part of the Humphrey's Corner Collection bundle; this one is called "Christmas Joy" and I also stamped this directly onto the cardstock with Black Memento Ink. 
• Faux Stitching - Black Gel Pen

This is the first time I've used the pencil blending solution with my pencils and I'm pretty sure that I have never made a card by stamping/printing and then colouring directly onto the cardstock from which my card is made. A lot of firsts ... :o)


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

• Keep it Simple at Top Tip Tuesday - second entry
• A is for Anything Goes (with the optional extra of Antlers) at ABC Christmas
• Challenge #130 - Something Old, Something New at Crafty Cardmakers - Old is my Kraft cardstock which I've had since June 2014 and New is a new technique to me of stamping and colouring directly on kraft cardstock.
• January Challenge - Anything Goes at Spectrum Noir Facebook Page

I may be back to share another card a little later as I'm hoping to have a crafty afternoon. In the meantime, hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x

Birthday Butterfly

Hello friends!


Wow, I seem to have been really busy this week and not just with work. I have also managed to find some time to sit down and craft! Just a well really as there are a plethora of office birthdays in January. This card is for a good friend in the office, so I wanted to do something a little special for her, and it fits in with some challenges too!

My card recipe is:

• Card base -  pre-made A5 card blank in white onto which I've directly printed my DP
  
• Design Paper - is one of the co-ordinating papers from the Kids at Play CD-Rom (part of the Papercrafting Collection Twin CD-Rom by Rachelle Anne Miller
• Cardstock - is plain black card which I've cut 0.5cm smaller all round than my base card, just to show off this pretty heart paper!
• Image - is a die cut butterfly, using the largest butterfly in the Die'sire Essentials Beautiful Butterflies set. My TIP for Top Tip Tuesday is try using the negative cut from your dies like I have to make a focal point on the card, and show off your pretty paper underneath. Although I've left my butterfly unadorned, you could use gems etc. to glam up your die cut space if you wish!
• Sentiment - is from a free set called Oscar the Owl and Pals that came with Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine a while back. I've stamped this directly onto my cardstock using a Versa Color ink pad in Gold.

Hope you like this clean and simple card as much as I do.

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

• Week 205 - Colour Challenge of Black, Metallic plus One at Less is More - black card, gold ink and pink DP
• Keep it Simple Challenge at Top Tip Tuesday
• Challenge #82 - No Circles at Chocolate, Coffee & Cards

Hope you're having a great and crafty week!

Hugs, Helen x

The bringer of Spring

I know that grammatically speaking the above sentence probably isn't correct, and I really hope that no English teachers are reading this, let alone my former English teacher! However when you see today's card, you'll understand why!

Before I get to my card, here is the exciting news I promised you earlier in the week. Regular readers may recall that in February I applied to join the Delicious Doodles Design Team. Unfortunately I wasn't successful, but Teri very kindly offered me a month-long sojourn as a Guest Designer with the team and this is my first week with them!!!!! The ladies who were GDT in March did such an fantastic job with their projects featuring Teri's images - I hope that I manage to inspire you just as much!


This week's challenge is All Seasons in One Day so your project can be anything featuring a season i.e. spring, summer, autumn or winter.


Teri allowed me a free run in her shop to choose one of her awesome designs to showcase for you, so here is my Spring card:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Snow White Silver which I cut to measure 21cm x 13cm, and then scored (along the 21cm edge) at 4cm, 6.5cm, 14.5cm and 17cm to give a "triptych" style of fold. I'm case-ing this card by Glenda, with whom I'm on a design team, although I've changed the dimensions of the folds slightly to give a larger front panel - on Glenda's card, all the panels are the same width.
• Design Paper - comes from the Crafter's Companion "Toread" Papercrafting CD-Rom. This gorgeous graduated design is from the Co-ordinating Papers section (design 4, colourway 4) - aren't the shades dreamy ..... ! Here's another photo, this time before I folded the card so you can see the full colour effects:

• Image - is, of course, by Teri at Delicious Doodles and she is called Snowdrop Fairy. When the snowdrops peek through the cold soil and nod their little heads in the breeze, I know that Spring is on the way, no matter what the weather is doing! I brought this very attentive Fairy and her well cared
  
  for "brood" to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Snowdrops - CG3, CG4, Colourless Blender, IG1, GB5, DG2, DG3
• Fairy - CG3, CG4, Colourless Blender, GB3, GB4, GB5
• Sentiments - are both by Paulette at Create with TLC, regular readers will no doubt know she is my "go-to mistress" of sentiments! The "Nature" sentiment on the left side of the card was part of the February 2014 Nature Blog Hop held by Paulette and her Design Team. The "Beautiful Day" banner was, I think, a blog freebie in June of last year.
• Pearls - from my stash

That's my favourite season in a card! I hope you'll come over to the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog and spend, metaphorically speaking, a year with the Design Team and fellow guests as we enjoy All Seasons in One Day. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations - you don't need to use a Delicious Doodles image to enter the challenge but if you, you get a second entry in the draw to win 5 of Teri's images AND your work may be Spotlighted on the challenge blog! This challenge will end on Thursday 10th April 2014 at 6pm BST (UK time!)

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

• Sketch with Jenny at CD Sunday - the band of hyacinth colour graduation is instead of having an embellishment running across the middle of my DP. I hope you like my "take" on Jenny's sketch! 
• Week 13 - Flower Power at Digi Choosday
• Welcome Spring! at Milk Coffee
• In the Garden at Come and Get It Challenge
• Challenge 207 - Shaped Cards or Anything But Square at Craft Your Passion
• Challenge #89 - Add Wings at Digistamps 4 Joy
• April Facebook Challenge - Floral at Crafter's Companion

Hope you have a great weekend! Catch you next week!

Hugs, Helen x

Sass-i-tude!!!!!

Good morning friends and I hope this post finds you well. Well after the wind, rain and hail this weekend, yesterday evening was dry and clear. I hope this is a precursor to some better weather .... but I'm not holding my breath! My heart goes out to anyone who's been wind or rain affected, and I hope you get sorted soon.

I've had a couple of weeks away from blogging as I hurt my neck and couldn't manage to stay in one position long enough to craft. However, all is well now so I'm back with the launch of the new challenge this morning at Incy Wincy Designs. I'm really looking forward to seeing your creations this week as we want you to go Sassy and Sexy.

We've got 2 amazing sponsors this week who have both offered a prize, so there'll be 2 happy crafters next Monday!

Our first sponsor is My Creative Classroom who are offering our first lucky winner a seat to a Workshop Class of their choice, and here is a little about them:

My Creative Classroom is an online arts and crafts learning center. Our interactive and in-depth courses are instructor led and filled with wonderful projects and techniques to help you get the most out of your supplies.  Our Spring 2014 Semester is under way and will offer well over 100 courses. Along with our Traditional Instructor-led Workshop Classes we have also added Self-Paced Workshops. We've recently added more classes to our Library, which offers retired classes at 40%-50% off regular price.

 We have opened our brand new challenge blog, My Creative Life 2014 , which will issue challenges to help us use all of our supplies this year. Along with that is the companion course with the same title, which is FREE to our newsletter subscribers. Come join in on the fun and test drive MCC.

We are excited to be sponsoring Incy Wincy Designs Challenge. You can view our entire class list on our website at My Creative Classroom. You can also view classes on our Facebook Page too! One lucky winner will receive a free seat to a Workshop class of their choice.....Good Luck!

Our second sponsor is Lindsay at Sassy Studio Designs who is offering our second lucky winner 4 Digital Images of their choice. Lindsay has also very kindly given the DT their choice of image to use for this challenge (Thanks Lindsay!) so if you're spoilt for choice, head over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the inspiration from the DT.

Here is my card for you, featuring Bubble Gum Sassy:

I'm not sure about how sexy she is, but she sure is SASSY!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card. 
• Backing Paper - is from a set by Summer at Summertime Designs called Freedom. I've used a paper
  
  called Stars. 
• Heart Shape - is also from the Freedom kit and I've digitally layered it onto the paper
• Image - this girl with sass-itude is Bubble Gum Sassy by Lindsay at Sassy Studio Designs. I have brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, PP5
• Hair - GB8, GB10
• Top - DR5, DR7
• Trousers - EB1, EB2, Colourless Blender, TB3
• Sneakers - TB3
• Bubble - Craf-T Chalk in Pale Pink
• Outline - BT1, IG2
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC which was a freebie only a couple of weeks ago. When I saw it (knowing I had this image to use) I knew it would be totally perfect!
• Twine - from my stash wrapped around the card 3 times and tied in a handmade bow

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and be tempted to join us on this challenge sharing your Sassy and Sexy projects. This challenge will end on Sunday 16th February 2013.


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

• Challenge #193 - Katrina's Sketch at Sunday Sketch and Stamp - I've flipped the sketch so it suited the direction the image was facing and used a heart instead of the circular shape
• Include a Sentiment Challenge at Whoopsi Daisy Challenge
• Make it Girly at Come and Get It Challenges
• Challenge #27 - One Heart at Challenges and Candies Blog
• Challenge #20 - Showcase (and Explain) Your Favourite Style at As You Like It Challenge - OK, where to start on explaining my favourite style? 
• A square card base - check! 
• Digital Papers from a co-ordinating set, which means I can play with re-sizing, and layering papers/images to get my layout - check! 
• Coloured image, OK so I know my colouring isn't the best (still can't get a 'glossy look' to hair) but I have managed a lighter patch on this girl's trousers - check! 
• Minimal Embellishments, so they don't overpower either the image or papers - check! 
• Sentiment from my "Go To Sentiment Mistress" - check! 
• That must be my favourite style then .... not necessarily CAS but everything showcased to perfection - check! :o)

Have a crafty week!

Hugs, Helen x

Thank you for being my Friend!

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

Hello again friends and welcome to my second post of the day - this time it's for a new challenge at Lexi's Creations. I know our American friends are celebrating Thanksgiving, so Susan has set our challenge as being Thanks or Thanksgiving. If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, you can make a card to say "Thanks" instead!

This week's sponsor is Priyanka from My Heart Pieces who is offering a prize of 3 digis to our lucky winner and the lovely Lexi from Fairy Dust Crafts has also let the DT loose in her store again!

Here is my Thank You card featuring one of Priyanka's images and one of Lexi's sentiments:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Ivory, which I cut scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - are from a kit called Thanks for Giving by Summer at Summertime Designs. The bottom layer is called Cranberry Dots Paper, the next layer is called Jeweled Floral Paper and the top layer is called Torn Green Paper. I have digitally layered these papers, adding a chestnut brown border to them as a faux mat.
  
• Image - this carefree cutie is called Cute Freebie and she comes from the pen of Priyanka at My Heart Pieces - at the time of writing this post (Sunday night) this freebie was still available... just click the link, and please remember to let Priyanka know you came from my blog. The swinging girl was cut out using the second largest Framelits Flowers Die before being brought to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens and Craf-T Chalks in the following colours:
• Girl - GB8, GB10, FS2, FS3, GB2, GB4, GB5, TH7, TN8
• Branch, Flowers, Foliage - OR1, OR2, OR3, DG2, DG4, TN8
• Swing - BGR3, GB4, GB5
• Outline - GG1
• Background - Chalks in Burnt Sienna and Dark Green
• Sentiment -  comes from the pen of Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts and is a very thoughtful way to say "Thank You" to a friend. I also added a faux mat of a chestnut brown to this before cutting it out and fixing it to my card.

I hope you'll come over to Lexi's Creations and say Thanks or celebrate Thanksgiving with us and this week's Guest Designer Silvi - this challenge ends on Saturday 23/11/2013.

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

• PTT#145 - Thanksgiving / Thank You Notes at Party Time Tuesdays
• Challenge #55 - Autumn Splendor at Nutcrafters
• Midweek Papercraft Party 12 - Thank You or Thanksgiving at Handmade Harbour
• Stella Says Sketch Challenge #145 at Catch The Bug
• Challenge #36 - Friends at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge
• Challenge #93 - Feminine at Aud Sentiments
• CMM76 Thankful Tidings at Card Makin' Mamas

That's it from me today! Enjoy your Monday, and we'll catch up soon.

Hugs, Helen x

Away with the fishes ... ?

Good morning friends - hope you are well and stayed safe in last Monday's stormy weather.

The Half Term holidays have come (... and gone!), and I'm back to school today. Scary to think that the next time I'll get some time off is the Christmas Holidays. Eeeeeeeekkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eldest came home from New York safely on Friday - she had an amazing time but was absolutely pooped and slept for 14 hours that night! They only had a delay of an hour flying out which wasn't due to the weather at all, but a medical emergency who had be evacuated from the flight and "de-bagged". I think she's smitten with NYC, and would love to return.

It being a Monday morning, it's time for a new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs, and this week our challenge is for you to use Ribbon, Twine or Fibres. Our sponsors this week are Lindsay and her lovely team from Sassy Studio Designs who are giving this week's lucky winner 4 Digital Images!



Lindsay has also kindly given us some images to "play with" this week (thank you!), and here is my card for you:

Hmmmmm ... this looks like another photo "di-sas-ter". Will get a better shot during daylight hours and post it!

My card recipe is follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Design Papers - are from a kit called She Sells Sea Shells by Summer at Summertime Designs
• Image - this very surprised youngster is called Little Honeys - The Little Mermaid and she comes from the pen of Lindsay at Sassy Studio Designs. My Little Mermaid was brought to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before being fussy cut:
• Hair - GB7,GB8,GB10, CR4, CR5, CR6 (I'm still not sure that I've got the 'light shine' in hair right, but I'll keep trying!)
• Skin - FS2, FS3, CR5, BT4
• Shell Bikini - CR5, CR6
• Fin - BT4, BT5, BT6
• Outline - BT1
• Shell - is an embellishment from the She Sells Sea Shells kit, which I fussy cut and then slicked on some Glossy Accents to make it stand out!
• Ribbon - white organdie with a Satin Trim from my stash

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and look at the other gorgeous creations by my team mates and this month's Guest Designer Sandy together with our Special Guest Designer Annette. Then don't forget to come back and show us your creations featuring Ribbon, Twine or Fibres!

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

• Challenge 14 - Case your Favourite Designer at As You Like It Challenges OK, this probably is not so much casing but more like stalking!!!! This designer's blog was one of the first I followed when I ventured into 'Blogland' and I am always totally blown away by her absolutely wonderful creations. I can only aspire to be able to create "gorgeousness" as well as she does, but now she has started making more C&S creations, I can at least attempt to be as creative as her! The designer I'm casing is ..... Annette 

Have a good week.

Hugs, Helen x

Attishoooo

Good morning friends and welcome to Monday. By the time this post goes live, I'll have been up for about 6 hours and will maybe have gone for an "early bird" swim too! The reason behind this? At the time of posting, eldest should be airbourne on her way west ... to New York City on a Geography Field Trip with school. We had to be at school at 4.45am - groans all round! Let's just hope that her flight doesn't get delayed.

Enough of the domestic notices! It's new challenge time at Lexi's Creations and this one is a great excuse to top up your "card boxes" as we'd like to see your creations for a Birthday Celebration.

Our sponsor for this challenge is our very own Lexi from Fairy Dust Crafts who will be letting our lucky winner choose 5 digital images from her store. Fairy Dust Crafts  is "Your one stop shop for Lexi's Digi images and a growing choice of delicious crafting goodies. Here you can find all Lexi's Creations digital images...also available as clear rubber stamps plus other crafting goodies in store now!"

As usual, Lexi has let us all loose in the store again (thanks Lexi) and here is my project featuring one of her cute images, using the current sketch at Bearly Mine Designs:

I'm sorry that this is a scan of my card - forgot to take a photo whilst it was daylight! Also, I've haven't put a sentiment on this card yet as I couldn't find one that said "One today" that I liked ... I shall have to keep looking on that front!

Anyway, my card recipe is follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Snow White, which I cut scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - are from a kit called Patio Picnic by Summer at Summertime Designs
• Image - this very surprised youngster is called Ellie Blowing Bubbles and she comes from the pen of Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. Ellie was cut out using the second largest Framelits Scallop Squares Die before being brought to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens (I think some of my pens may be having a protest about not being used for a while as they don't seem to be blending very well!) in the following colours:
• Ellie - CG1, CG2, CG3, PP5, PP6
• Bow - DR1, DR2
• Bubbles - EB1
• Outline - CG1
• Sentiment -  none yet, but it will be for a First Birthday which my twin nieces will be celebrating in December
• Ribbon - white organdie with a Satin Trim from my stash

I hope you'll come over to Lexi's Creations and add to your stash of Birthday Celebration cards along with us and this week's Guest Designers Kate and Silvi - this challenge ends on Saturday 9/11/2013.

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

• Challenge #109 - Monthly Sketch Challenge at Bearly Mine Challenges
• Challenge #38 - Child's Birthday at Little Claire's Challenge

Hope you have a great week.

Hugs, Helen x

PS: I'll bring more photo's later today, I hope!

Edwardian Elegance

Good morning friends and welcome to another Monday. So, the longest day has been and gone, the nights are drawing in (!) and the weather is more November than June! Apart from that, all's good here!!! Hope you and yours are well.

It's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs again, and this week's challenge is Tic-Tac-Toe or Bingo! Here's your board, courtesy of the lovely Nikki and the challenge is 3 in a line, any row, column or diagonal (just make sure you tell us in your post which line you're claiming please!):

As usual, we've got some great sponsors lined up for you this week.

Firstly Iva Nova Chest are offering this gorgeous "Blue" goody bag to one lucky winner. Aren't those ribbons and flowers just gorgeous?

Our second sponsors are the team at The Paper Shelter who are offering our second lucky winner a $20 Gift Certificate to their store. 

The Paper Shelter team have also very kindly given the DT some of their images and papers to showcase this week, and here is my creation. I'm claiming the right hand column of Frame, Lace, Use Metal:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card -  is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Image on Paper - is the Composition Page from In the 20s by The Paper Shelter. This image is all pre-coloured, but this cutie does come in a black and white line drawing so you can colour her yourself or a "stand alone" coloured version so you add her to your choice of papers.
  
• Frame - is the Paper Page from the In the 20s Stamp set. I've carefully cut out the green part, which left me with a swirly frame. To get a 3-D effect, I used a couple of layers of thick cardboard strips around the edge of the papers.
• Lace - from my stash and stiched to make a rosette with a little red frosted bead in the middle from Sanctuary Beads
• Posh Pin - is home made, using a header pin and frosted brown beads from Sanctuary Beads. The large brown and medium teal coloured beads came from a "pick & mix" pot by Hobbycraft

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and look at the other gorgeous creations by my team mates and Linda, who has been our fabby Guest Designer all through June. Then don't forget to come back and play Tic-Tac-Toe or Bingo with us!

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

• Pile It On #25 - Vintage or Shabby Chic at Pile It On
• Challenge #46 - Use Something Metal at The Squirrel and The Fox
• Challenge #45 - Steampunk or Vintage at Sparkles Monthly Challenge

Have a great day! Hugs, Helen x

Oh Baby!

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

Morning all and hope you're all well!

What a busy day yesterday was, and I'm sooooo veeeery sorry that I didn't get to finalise my posts and get them up and running on here - second week running that I've been late too. Hmmmm - bad me!!!!! However, today is a new day and I'm hoping to not only get caught up but also to get ahead and try and schedule next week's posts too! Wish me luck :o)

Anyway, there's a new challenge started at Incy Wincy Designs and this one's a fab topic - Butterflies and Bows. 

We have got 2 totally amazing sponsors for you this week ... just a shame I can't enter our own competition!

First, we're welcoming Heather Valentin from Lacy Sunshine Stamps . This is Heather's first time sponsoring one of our challenges, and she is offering one lucky winner a $20 Gift Certificate to her store. And with sooooo many gorgeous images to choose from, I can guarantee that you'll be spoilt for choice. Heather also has a retiring section with a number of her digital images priced at just $1, so there is no excuse for not topping up your stash! 

Our second sponsor is perennial favourite, Krista from Saturated Canary who is offering our second lucky winner 2 digital images from her store.

Both of our lovely sponsors very kindly offered the DT their choice of image to use this week. However a number of my teamies, like me, had sooooooooo much trouble choosing between Heather's images and Krista's images that we had to do one of each! 

So here is my first card for this challenge, and this one features one of Krista's gorgeous images:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Ivory onto which I embossed the largest Butterfly shape from my    Crafter's Companion Ultimate Pro. Once I had cut out this shape, having left 2 hinges at the top of the wings, I then cut the reverse of the card the the same outline.
  
• Image - this beautiful baby is called Butterfly Baby and she comes from the pen of Krista at Saturated Canary. This little cutie has been brought to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Hair - GB7, GB8
• Face - FS1, FS2, BT2, CR3
• Baby Grow - GB1, GB2, GB3
• Wings - LG3, LG4, LG5, LV1, LV2, LV3
• Outline - GG1
• Sentiment -  is of course by my favourite designer, Paulette at Create with TLC. I took this totally apt sentiment into my word processing package, and recoloured it in purple to match the colour scheme on my card, before printing it out in a purple coloured oval. Once the sentiment was cut out, I punched a hole in each side of the oval and threaded through some thread from my stash, which I had coloured using my Spectrum Noir Pen in LV3 so it matched the rest of the project, to make a "Ribbon Slider". I then finished off the slider, by tying a bow around the threads.

There'll be another post from me in a minute, and then I hope you'll head over to Incy Wincy Designs to check out the other gorgeous creations by my team mates and our Guest Designer for June Linda. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations featuring Butterflies and Bows. This challenge ends on Sunday 16th June 2012.

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

• Day 152 - Sweet Baby at 365 Cards
• Challenge #48 - Addicted to Colours at Addicted to Stamps and More!
• Challenge 188 - Hey Baby! at Totally Gorjuss
• June Challenge - Summer at Crafter's Companion Challenge

Catch you in a minute!

Hugs, Helen x