#takeaselfie

Good morning crafty friends and hope you are well. Can you believe that we're half way through July already! In a little over a week, schools in our area will have broken up for the holidays and I for one, can't wait!

It's new challenge time over at Feeling Sketchy which means it's time for a new sketch. Andrea from SheepSki Designs is sponsoring us for the whole of July (thank you Andrea!)

It's new challenge time over at Feeling Sketchy which means it's time for a new sketch. Andrea from SheepSki Designs is sponsoring us for the whole of July - thank you Andrea! She has also very kindly given the DT some of her gorgeous images to use as inspiration for this challenge, and we showcased these in our last challenge. Some of the DT have swapped images so that you can see how different people use the same image.

Here's the sketch we're following this time:

And here's my take on it, using a SheepSki Designs image which I was lucky enough to win earlier this year:

Regular readers will know that my eldest Bambino celebrated her 18th at the beginning of the month, and this is the card I made for her from Papa Mia and I. And this image was perfect for Bambino as, like many other girls of her age, she's permanently attached to her phone and can often be caught in a similar pose 😁!!!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver which has been cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card base
  
• Image - is the totally mesmerising Selfie Obsession by Andrea at SheepSki Designs which I have coloured using my original Spectrum Noir Markers in the listed colours before die cutting her using my largest Die'sire Essentials Hearts die
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS4, FS6, TN4, FS8 (Blush), DG4 (Eyes)
• Hair - BG5, BG7, BG9
• Dress - VB1, VB2, VB3
• Phone - IG1, IG2, IG3
• Heart Frames - are made from Silver Glitter Paper which I have die cut using my 2 smallest Die'sire Essentials Hearts dies to make a frame
• Sentiment - comes from 2 separate dies and was cut from Turquiose Glitter Paper. The Happy Birthday die was in my Crafter's Companion Advent Calendar 2016 and I used the "th" portion of this die to cut again from the turquoise glitter to go with the numbers. The "1" and "8" both come from the Diamond Press Whimsical Alphabet collection
• Glitter Domes - are from my stash

I hope that I have inspired you to have a go with this sketch, but if you're in need of any further inspiration then please head over to the Feeling Sketchy blog where you can see the other great projects by my clever teamies. Then come back and show us your creations - don't forget you can flip or twist the sketch, change the shape of the elements ... we just need to see that you've been inspired to create using our sketch! We'll be back with our new challenge on 1st August 2017.

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Helen x

The Butterflies and the Bee .... !

Good morning crafty friends, and no this is not going to be a biology lesson ;o) !!!!!!

Hope that this post finds you well. Given that it is now the 1st of July, can anyone in the Northern Hemisphere please explain where summer has disappeared to? I know that the tennis at Wimbledon has started and that this usually heralds rain, but I've resorted to jeans and jumpers again this week. Much more and the heating will have to go back on!

It's new challenge time at Feeling Sketchy and we've got another fabby sketch in store for you. 

We've also got a fabby sponsor and this time it's the lovely Jodie from Bugaboo Digital Stamps and she'll be offering a prize pack to our lucky winner. Having been lucky enough to have had a couple of recent wins on challenges that Jodie has sponsored, I know that the prizes she offers are great! And don't forget that even if you don't win the main prize, everyone's a winner with Bugaboo's legendary "Friday Freebies"!

So, here goes with the sketch created as usual by Michelle:

And here's my take on it, using images from Bugaboo Digital Stamps:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is made from Centura Pearl Snow White Silver which I cut, scored and folded to make a 12.5cm x 15cm card base. To make sure the card base shape matched the die cut shapes, I scanned the die and then increase the size to suit. I printed out the resulting shape and used this as a template to cut my card base with a craft knife and ruler.
• Mat & Layer - is made from plain black card and I created a further template to ensure this was the correct size by measuring in 0.5cm on each edge of the card base template and then ruling the lines. I cut along these lines, and used the resulting shape as my template.
  
  
• Images - are the lovely Rose Block Trio by Jodie at Bugaboo Digital Stamps. These come in monochrome and are set into squares. However, I wanted to use these pretty Diamond Press Stitched Hexagon Dies which came with Crafter's Inspiration Magazine Issue 10, so I increased the size of the blocks. Once the roses had been die cut, I laid them out in this lovely offset pattern. I then stamped the sweet little bumble bee (from the stamp set included with Crafter's Inspiration Magazine Issue 10) twice in Versamark Ink (the second time I masked the little bee, so it's only the trail that shows) and then heat embossed this using Silver Embossing Powder.
• Flowers - are die cut from Centura Pearl Snow White Silver using the middle and smallest dies in the Die'sire Essentials Flowers for all Occasions set. I die cut these and then ran them back through my machine to emboss the details. Before removing the flowers from the dies, I applied my Versamark Pen to the raised areas, then quickly removed each flower from the die, applied Silver Embossing Powder and heated to highlight the centre of the petals.
• Butterfly - is also die cut from Centura Pearl Snow White Silver using a die from the Die'sire Essentials Beautiful Butterflies set. The silver accents were added exactly the same way as for the flowers.
• Sentiment - comes from the Swirly String Sentiments set at Lili of the Valley. Again, this was stamped in Versamark Ink and heat embossed this using Silver Embossing Powder.

I hope that I've inspired you to have a go with this sketch but if you're in need of any further inspiration then please come over to Feeling Sketchy and have a peek at the fabby creations made by my clever teamies. Then come back and show us your take on our sketch - don't forget, you can change the shapes, rotate the sketch etc. ... we just need to be able to see that our sketch was the inspiration for your project! We'll be back with our next challenge on 15th July 2016.

I'm off to the Year 11 Prom this evening straight from school as our Staff Band is playing. But I'll be back in the morning to link up to these challenges:

• Anything Goes with the Additional Topping of Birds, Bees or Butterflies at Seize the Birthday - I've got some butterflies and one bee on my project
• Challenge #305 - Anything Goes at 4 Crafty Chicks
• Challenge #148 - All about the Flowers at Creative Knockouts

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Hugs, Helen x