DT Call

Do you like following sketches and, possibly (or definitely in my case!) being challenged by some of them?

Would you like to be able to create with Sponsor Images, although this isn't necessary.

Are you able to meet deadlines?

If so, you may be interested in the DT Call that's being launched today at Feeling Sketchy!

Some of the DT girls are stepping down at the end of this month, so Cathy and Val are looking for some new DT members to join us starting from 1st April 2016 for a 6 month term.

Our challenges go live on the 1st and 15th of each month, and your creations need to be posted to the private DT Facebook group at least 2 days before this. You are able to work ahead, if you're not waiting for a sponsor image, as the sketches up to and including our challenge on 1st September 2016 are available. DT members are required to comment on all challenge entries and then each DT member picks their Top 4 choice once the challenge has closed.

Full details will be on the Feeling Sketchy blog today - go on, have a go!

Looking forward to seeing your entries!

Hugs, Helen x

Blowing Lots of Love

Morning folks!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Casa Mia was the usual round of Mini Squad Swimming, followed by Rookies Life Guards with a Sunday School session as dessert!

This morning sees our new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and this week we're Thankful for You - we want to see your projects that say "Thank You".

We've got 2 great sponsors for you this week. First up is the lovely Emma Canning from Flat Friends Boutique and our second sponsor is our very own Nikki from Limited Runs Digital Stamps. Both ladies are very kindly offering our 2 lucky winners a prize pack, and we have also been given digis by both artists to showcase. 

I was fortunate to meet Sara Davies and Debbie Fisher from Crafter's Companion last weekend at a Hobbycraft store near me, as Sara was demoing her Signature Range. They were both really lovely and only too happy to share their talents with us fans! I have taken Sara's idea (rather badly I might say!) of inking an embossing folder before running it through with card to transfer the ink and embossing pattern onto the card. Sara's card looked gorgeous ... mine definitely looks like a beginner's been at work ;o) !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tee hee.

Anyway, here goes with my card featuring a Flat Friends digi:

I must apologise for the wonky photo - I was trying to photograph it whilst out and about and the batteries in the camera I normally use ran out (typical!) so I was using my phone. The card was on a railway sleeper that lines the car park at youngest Bambino's gymnastics club, I was on my elbows and knees, the sun was shining so I couldn't really see the screen ... I must have looked a very peculiar sight, so I just pressed the button and hoped for the best! 

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a premade white card blank which is about 14.8cm square
• Background - is a 14cm square piece of Neenah cardstock which has been embossed with my Embossalicious Geometric Motif  Embossing Folder (unfortunately, this lovely design is no longer stocked for sale) and Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry  and Peacock Feathers. I have matted and layered this onto a piece of pale pink Core'dinations Card
• Image - is by Emma Canning at Flat Friends Boutique and this lovely girl is called Blowing Kisses. I brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours, before die cutting her (using the "Out of the Box" Technique) with my largest Die'sire Essentials Ovals die.
• Hair - TN1, TN2, TN3, TN6, TN8
• Skin - FS2, FS3, BP2
• Hearts - PL3
• Jumper - BP2, BP3
• Sentiment - was a freebie from the June 2015 Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. I stamped this in pink ink onto Neenah cardstock and then stencilled round the inside of the medium oval die from the Die'sire Tags One set (unfortunately I can't find this one for sale any longer either!). I then die cut the medium oval tag from the pink Core'dinations Card, threaded some twine through it and fixed it all to my card. I added a bow to the side, just for a bit of interest!

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the wonderful creations by my fab team mates ... also, please say farewell to Amy who is leaving us after this challenge :o(  Bye Amy, I shall miss your gorgeous creations.

As a result, we are having a DT Call sooooooo, if you're interested in joining our fun team, please send an email to incywincychallenge@hotmail.com with a link to your site, and tell us a little bit about yourself!!! No DT experience is necessary - we are just looking for HAPPY crafters who like to have a good time. You must be able to work with digital images and be able to create on a weekly basis.

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

• #309 - Use an Embossing Folder at Little Red Wagon
• Girls will be Girls at That's Crafty! Challenge
• No Designer Paper Challenge at The Stamping Boutique
• Challenge #144 - Anything Goes with the optional twist of Use Pink (for Breast Cancer Awareness) at 613 Avenue Create

I'll be back tomorrow with a card featuring one of Nikki's Limited Runs Digis - in the meantime, hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x

Wish me luck .....

.... because I'm entering the Delicious Doodles DT Call!

Teri and her team are asking all entrants to make a new post featuring three samples of work which reflect the applicants preferred style and personality, and to share a little more about the projects. Soooooooooo (very deep breath here!), here goes .........


The first card I'd like to showcase is one I made for my Dad for Father's Day last year - you can read all about it on my post here.

I know that male cards are notoriously difficult "makes", but as my preferred crafting style is clean and quite uncluttered (not necessarily simple though!) I didn't find this too difficult to do. This image is one of Teri's and it's called In The Harbour. I coloured it using my Versamark Pen and Craf-T Chalks using the pen to go over the areas with most shading. This meant it then picked up more chalk, giving a greater depth of colour to those areas. Most of the papers I use come from digital sets and this one is no exception! This set is called She Sells Seashells (in keeping with the nautical theme!) and they were designed by Summer at Summertime Designs. The sentiments were computer generated. I tool distressed the edges of the image and the sentiment tags, just for a little more interest.

The second card I'm sharing is a "just for fun" card. This one came about as I'd had an idea floating around in my mind for this project, and then one day some challenges popped into my blog reader and this card was born!

Here is another unfussy card this time featuring an image by The Alley Way Stamps. This cute coffee cup was a digital freebie and I was able to "play" with it in my word processing programme in order to paper piece the three layers onto the mug. The spotty cup base and red heart were paper pieced using another digital paper set by Summer at Summertime Designs, this time called The Comforts of Home. The band around the middle of the mug reminded me of a 'take out' coffee mug, and so I paper pieced this using some Kraft card. The button is handmade using 4 layers of circles punched from Kraft Card which were glued together before I punched some small holes (to thread the ribbon through) and gave it a slick of Glossy Accents. The digital sentiment is by Create with TLC which I superimposed onto a digital speech bubble by Squigglefly. The two backing papers are also from The Comforts of Home kit and some faux stitching with a gel pen completed this design.

The final card I'm featuring is one of my most recent creations. I was lucky enough to be a random winner at Delicious Doodles last year, and this gorgeous image (Steampunk Fairy) was one of the ones I chose as my winners 'package' and it became a card for my niece's birthday, which was yesterday! 

This was a DT creation for a photo inspiration challenge and I have gone with not only the shape in the photo but also the colours - you can find my full post here. This is the first time I have made a handbag card which wasn't difficult now I've done it once, but very clever and it looks good (even though I do say so myself!). The coloured blocks at the bottom of the bag were put together from another digital paper kit, this one is called At The Beach Distressed Chipboard by DigiTee Designs at Best Free Scrapbooks. I copied and pasted the blocks a couple of times before printing them out onto A4 paper, fussy cutting and adhering to my handbag card base. I added some embossed scrolls from my Ultimate Pro (the shape reflects the fairy's amulet) and I popped some gems in the ones on the handbag's flap. A couple of punched holes in the top of the flap and some recycled ribbon completed this card.

So there we go, three cards which I feel accurately represent my style and personality, as well as my technical abilities to manipulate digital images. Thank you to Teri and her team for considering my application, and I've got my fingers, toes and everything else crossed!!!!

Have a good Friday!

Hugs, Helen x

PS: If you'd like to try out for the DT call, you'll have to get your skates on as it closes at midday (GMT) today, 21st February! Good luck to everyone who applies!

Christmas Stockings

Morning all!

Hope you're well and had a great weekend. I'm sorry, I'm a day and a few hours late with this post ... my crafty days last week got blasted into oblivion by Christmas shopping with "himself" on Tuesday (can't craft with him around ... although he did inadvertently discover one of my crafty hidey-holes whilst trying to hide Christmas presents! Oooooops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and then on Wednesday I got a call from the estate agents to say that the sale of my late Mum's house, which wasn't going to be completed last week meaning I could clear up there over the weekend, was going through for Friday - had to drop everything and shoot over there. I must say I got rather itchy fingers not being able to craft.

Anyway, with apologies to the team, it's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this week we want to see your Christmas Stockings!

We've got 2 wonderful sponsors lined up for you again this week! 

Firstly, Care2Stamp are offering one lucky prize winner a $15 Gift Certificate. 

Our second sponsor is Tamara and her team at The Stamping Chef who is offering our second lucky prize winner a $10 Gift Certificate. 

Thanks to both of them for sponsoring us this week!

Tamara and her team have also been kind enough to give the DT some of Tamara's images to use - here is my card featuring one of Teri's "Smexy Chicks":

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Ivory, which I die-cut (using the largest oval in my Framelits Oval Set, and then scored and folded it to make a rocker card
• Design Paper - is by  Paulette at Create with TLC and was, I think, a blog freebie in December 2012.
  
  It's called Stockings were Hung Papers 5 and I die-cut this using the second largest Framelits Oval Die
• Image - this "Smexy Chick" is called Don't Pout, Just Kiss! and she has been designed by Tamara at The Stamping Chef. I die-cut this expectant one using a smaller Framelits Oval Die (although I'm not quite sure I've got the balance in sizes quite right) before bringing her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, CR4
• Jumper and Leg Warmers - LV2, LV3, CG4, gold Gel Pen
• Mistletoe - EB1, CG4, Gold Gel Pen
• Sentiment -  comes from Paulette at Create with TLC (who else manages such witty sentiments?) and this was part of the 2012 Christmas Club.

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and see the wonderfully stocking-ed creations by my teamies and our December Guest Designer Sue.  Don't forget to come back and share your Christmas Stockings with us - this challenge ends on Sunday 8/12/2013.

If you like the sound of sharing fun with us, we've got a DT Call going on right now!!!!!! We're looking for 4 or 5 crafty ladies or gents who enjoy creating with Sponsor Images to join our fun filled team .... and we do have fun, and we do laugh .... alot!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o) All the details are on this post so do check it out and send us an e-mail. We'd love for you to join us.

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

• Challenge #115 - Christmas Sentiment at Bearly Mine Challenge

That's it from me for today - I'm off to town to do battle with the other Christmas shoppers!

Have a good day.
Hugs, Helen x

Design Team Call at TLC - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!

Those of you who read about my creations regularly will know how much I use digital images, word art and design papers produced by Create With TLC. Imagine my joy at the weekend, when I opened up a Blog Update from Paulette saying she's got a Design Team Call on! Here is my application card which uses an image, sentiment and design paper which Paulette has given away on her blog over the last week:

My base card is Ivory Centura Pearl, which has been folded and cut to a DL sized card using my trusty Ultimate Pro, both by Crafter's Companion. The design paper is called Let's Party 3 and I chose it because the colours on it tone very nicely with my base card. The main image is one of Paulette's vintage images and is called New Year in Paris - well, a girl can dream can't she! I printed the image twice: The first was printed onto plain white card, and given a coating of Iridescent Spray and Sparkle. The second was printed onto Neenah Classic Card, and I then chose an area to "Hot Spot" (my Top Tip), cut this small circle out and coloured it using Spectrum Noir Pens in the shades 147, 86, 175 and 42 (as these tone in with the design paper). I matted this circle onto some plain black card from my scraps box, cut it out again with a slight border of black and then layered the mat onto the main image in the right place.

The sentiment is called New Year Square and this was printed onto the Neenah Classic Card and coloured using the same shades of Spectrum Noir Pens as for the "Hot Spot". I embossed an octagonal shape using one of the "nest" of circles on the embossing board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats which fits onto my Ultimate Pro. This shape was then cut out and mounted onto the card. I added a ribbon rosette made from a black organdie ribbon (from my stash) to the sentiment. I completed my card by adding 3 clear gems which, rather aptly, were bought whilst on holiday in France last summer!

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

• Design Team Call at Create With TLC 
• Challenge 67 "Anything Goes" at Top Tip Tuesday - my TOP TIP for making one area on a black & white digi stand out is to "Hot Spot" it by cutting a small circle out of a second print of your image, colour it, mat it onto a slightly larger piece of black card and layer this onto your main image.
• Challenge #3 "Anything Goes" at Card Crafter's Circle
• Challenge #96 "New Beginnings..." (a New Year Card) at Sassy Cheryl's Challenge
• Challenge #88 "Anything Goes" at Digi Doodle Shop Challenges
• Challenge #52 "Rainbow of Colors" (Pink, Green & White) at Do You Stack Up
• Challenge #25 "Anything Goes" at Little Miss Muffet Challenges
• "Anything Goes with the option of New" (a New Year Card) at Papertake Weekly Challenge
• Challenge #166 "Anything Goes" at Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge
• New Year/New Beginnings Challenge at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge Blog

Hugs, Helen x