I'm late for a very important date!

Well in fact I'm not late at all for this date ... I'm bang on time, but the title might give you a teeny clue as to the theme of today's project!

Morning all - hope no-one has fallen off their chair at yet another missive from me this week, but there is a very good reason for this, honest!

About 7 weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be selected as a Top Tipper at Top Tip Tuesday, and my prize was a GDT spot with the team - and today is that day! This morning's challenge is entitled Cut It Out! so I reckon everyone should be able to enter this challenge, as long as there's something on your project which you've cut out.

We're being sponsored this fortnight by Tammy at Shape EZ who is not only going to provide the lucky winner of this challenge with a prize package, but also kindly gave the DT and I our choices of template to use for this challenge.

Before I get to my card, the girls at Top Tip Tuesday asked me if I could come up with a Top Tip for you, so here goes:

If you're using shrink plastic, take the guess work out of sizing it to suit your project and make a "Magic Ruler".

This is simply a piece of "Shrinkles" plastic which I've marked from 0cm to around 12cm (and I've also used my hole making tool to make appropriately sized holes) before following the manufacturers instructions to shrink it in the oven.  So, here goes on how to use it:

Using the "Magic Ruler" measure the length and width of the part of your original design that you want to make in "Shrinkles" plastic - so here, I'm measuring the length of the teapot lid knob (3cm) and width (2cm) - these aren't the actual measurements, but the size that I need to increase the teapot lid knob to.

So here is screen print from my word processing programme, and I've imported the tea pot lid at actual size. The red box measures 3cm x 2cm which is the size the knob needs to be, so I need to increase the size of the lid until the knob fills the red square.

The knob is now the right size, in "Shrinkles World"! Print this out onto a regular piece of printer paper.

Overlay the printer paper with the "Shrinkles" plastic and trace the outline of your design using an alcohol marker pen (I'm using a Spectrum Noir Pen in True Black). Allow to dry.

Turn the "Shrinkles" plastic over, and colour your design using your chosen alcohol marker pens - I've used Spectrum Noir Pens in shades LV1, LV2, LV3. Allow to dry.

Cut around your element carefully leaving a small border around the edge of your design and then heat it according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once cooled it should look like the piece on the right side of the picture below:

It's now ready to be afixed to your project and if you check out the photos below, you'll see my the coloured knob on the teapot lid!

Here's my card, featuring one of Tammy's templates and showing the teapot lid, complete with  "Shrinkles" plastic knob:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - Shape EZ Tea Pot Template printed onto regular lightweight light cardstock and hand cut. I distressed all the edges with Craf-T Chalk in Turquoise and stuck the "crystal" shrinkles knob onto the top of the lid
• Papers - are MM024 from a retired set called Mixed Media by Donna at, sadly now closed, Bearly Mine Designs. I printed these directly onto the paper templates from the Tea Pot Set ... very easy as they're sized to match perfectly!
• Image - is one I was lucky enough to win a couple of months ago and she is called Lucy Loo
  
  "Mad Hatter" by Unky at The East Wind. How much sass-itude has this girl got? I brought Lucy Loo to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours before fussy cutting her out:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS6, LV1, LV2
• Hair - IG1, IG2, IG4
• Hat - BT4, BT5, BT6, LV1, LV2
• Shirt & Cravat - IG1, IG2
• Jacket - DG5, DG6, DG7, TN8, Silver Gel Pen
• Cup - TN2, DR11, Gold Gel Pen
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and once I had cut this out, I distressed the edges with Craf-T Chalk in Turquoise. 

I hope I've inspired you to have a go and Cut It Out! but why not head over to the Top Tip Tuesday Blog and check out all the fabby creations from the DT girls and pop over to the Shape EZ store and see what other great templates Tammy has that you could use? Then come back and show us your cut out projects! This challenge ends at 4pm BST on Monday 22nd June 2015.




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

• Challenge #262 - A Touch of Vintage/Shabby Chic at Sentimental Sundays
• Shabby Chic at Make my Monday
• Challenge #9 - Anything Goes with a Twist of Fantasy at SLSlines Challenge (Second Entry)

Hope you have a good day, and if you use my tutorial please let me know - I'd love to come over and see what you make!

Hugs, Helen

A Fluffy Cloud

Good morning my crafty friends - I hope you are well on this bright Tuesday morning!

Unfortunately, today is the last post of my residency as a Guest Designer at Top Tip Tuesday. :o( Ladies, thanks sooooooooo much for having me the last 4 weeks - I have had a blast! This fortnight's challenge is Numbers and today brings our mid-challenge reminder. As a recap we're looking for numbers on your projects ... perfect for Birthdays and/or Anniversaries, and we'd love to see how creative you can be!

There are two amazing sponsors lined up for the winners of this challenge. Jodie from Bugaboo Stamps is offering one lucky random winner 7 digis of their choice! And Tammy Lousie from Shape EZ is offering our second winner 2 digital shape templates of their choice! And, as if that wasn't enough, you too could be a future Top Tip Tuesday Guest Designer just by leaving a great tip!


Both of our fabby sponsors gave the DT free rein with our choice of which of their products we would like to showcase. Last week I designed with one of Jodie's great images. As promised, this week, I'm showcasing one of Tammy Louise's beautiful card templates:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is the Shape EZ Cloud Card template which I've printed at normal onto lightweight cream card and digitally layered the DPs over. Then I cut out the shapes that make up the template, layered them together, popped a few folds in to make the card stand up and ... hey presto, one Cloud Card! The size of this card printed at this size is just 9cm high by 12.5cm wide, but there are resizeable files included in the download so you can make it your own size.
• Design Papers - are all from the set Just a Number by Krystal Hartley and available at Sweete Shoppe Designs. I've used 3 of the papers in this kit, including the fun numbers paper, and printed these directly onto the cloud template.
  
• Image - this great umbrella is by Nana Vic and is the first image in the current Progressive Freebie Challenge over at Crafter's Digital Art Center (there's still time for you to join in too!). This item does not appear to be for sale in Nana Vic's store, although there is plenty of other gorgeousness over there! I brought this gorgeous brolly to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Main Umbrella Fabric - CR1, CR2
• Spots and Umbrella Trim - DG4
• Umbrella Handle - GB8, GB10
• Metalwork - Gold Gel Pen
• Outline - GG1
• Sentiment -  is of course by my favourite designer, Paulette at Create with TLC. If you're not following her blog, why ever not ... she gives away a free (yes, free) piece of word art every day!
• Bow - made from twine from my stash
• Pearls - are from my stash and here is this week's TOP TIP for you: Take a leaf from garden designers and use embellishments in odd numbers, 3 or 5 or 7. This helps to draw the viewer's eye through your design and makes your project more pleasing as it looks more natural.

The Top Tip Tuesday girls have got some great projects and tips for you, so I hope you'll head over and see their Numbers. Don't forget to come back and show us your creations! This challenge ends on Monday 10th June.

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

• Progressive Freebie Challenge (April-June) at Crafter's Digital Art Center
• Day 148 - Micro-Managed at 365 Cards My three teeny tiny elements are 3 small pearls, 1 small bow, 2 very small stars cut through the top layer of DP (just visible to the left of the sentiment strip)

Have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x

What's your "Magic" Number?

Hello to you all. Hope you had a great Bank Holiday weekend if you're in the UK. I've only got one gripe ... who pinched the sunshine? It's like December here and Hubby's weather station says we've had 1.8cm of rain today. And I guess we'll still have a drought in the summer! Still, the plants we bought yesterday will be happy being "bedded" in to their new homes :o)

I would like to welcome a couple of new followers - a warm welcome to Durga and Desire, and huge apologies Desire for not having welcomed you a couple of weeks ago! I hope you'll both enjoy your visits to my creations.

Today is Post 3 of my sojourn as a Guest Designer at Top Tip Tuesday and this weeks it's new challenge time! This fortnight's challenge is Numbers, so we're looking for numbers on your projects ... perfect for Birthdays and/or Anniversaries, and we'd love to see how creative you can be!

We've got 2 amazing sponsors lined up for you for this challenge. Jodie from Bugaboo Stamps is offering one lucky random winner 7 digis of their choice! And Tammy from Shape EZ is offering our second winner 2 digital shape templates of their choice! Those are magic numbers worth winning me thinks! :o) And, as if that wasn't enough, you too could be a future Top Tip Tuesday Guest Designer just by leaving a great tip! Both of our fabby sponsors have given us the choice of which of their products we would like to showcase and next week I'll be showing you one of Tammy's great card templates. However, this week I've designed with one of Jodie's fantastically quirky images:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut and scored to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - are all from the set Only You by Studio Basic and available at Sweete Shoppe Designs. I've used 3 of the papers in this kit, layered them digitally and put a dove grey faux mat layer around each paper using my word processing programme.
• Image - this great couple are called AKV Love from the great range A Kid's View (Stick People) by Jodie at Bugaboo Stamps. Because this image is soooooo quirky (and the fact that I digitally layered this onto my DPs and my pens won't colour nicely on the card I printed this on!) I continued with the "kids" theme and actually coloured this image using some of my girls' wax crayons!!!!! I tried to keep the palette very simple and these are the colours I used:

• Him - Yellow, Red, Brown
• Her - Red, Brown, Black
• Heart - Red
• Sky - Blue, Red, Orange, Yellow
• Grass - Green
• Sentiments - the bottom sentiment comes from the Only You kit, and is perfect for an anniversary card. The top sentiment is computer generated and, again, digitally put onto my layout by using a text box in my word processing programme and colouring the background to tone in with the DPs. Now, regular readers will know that I craft frugally and don't have a die cutting machine, so here is my TOP TIP for you: Don't worry if you don't have alpha or numeric dies ... in your word processing programme, play around with different fonts and sizes to get something you like - I've used Showcard Gothic in pitch 36. When you're happy, copy and paste it several times and print. Cut the shapes out, and glue them on top of each other to get a 3D effect on your card.

So, I think that makes my Magic Number 20! Just need to find a safe hidey hole for this card (away from my hubby) and, even more importantly, remember in September where it's hidden!!!!! The Top Tip Tuesday girls have got some great projects and tips for you so do go over and see their Numbers. Don't forget to come back and show us your creations! This challenge ends on Monday 10th June.

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

• Challenge 55 - Celebrate at LEJ Designs
• Challenge 11 - For the Fellas at Creative Craft Challenges
• GGSC153 - Graduation, Wedding or Anniversary at Going Grey with Scrap Creations
• SOS#103 - Graduation or Anniversary at Shopping our Stash - the wax crayons I used weren't exactly my stash as they came from my girls' (now 11 &13 years old) arts and crafts cupboard. The crayons hadn't been used for I don't know how long (the girls don't do colouring any more, it's all handheld devices that play games!) and are well over 2 years old ... I think they came in a goodie bag to keep the kids amused from a holiday company eons ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you have a great evening!

Hugs, Helen x

A Little Gift

Hi again ... sorry, but today is going to be a bit of a "Post-fest" as I've got some catching up to do. Life really overtook me at the weekend!

Anyway, enough about me. This is Post 2 of my stint as a Guest Designer at Top Tip Tuesday and it's time for the Mid-Challenge inspiration post.

A quick recap - our challenge is Box Clever, so we're looking for your box-makes or even altering an existing box. Our sponsor for this challenge is the lovely Melissa at MelJen's Designs who is giving a prize of 4 digi images of your choice to the lucky winner of this challenge. Don't forget that you too could feature as a Top Tip Tuesday Guest just by leaving a great tip!


I've made this cute little gift box (with an attached card - OK, I know Samantha said no cards, but I'm hoping that this one's acceptable!) which is just the right size for holding 3 tealights or some small chocolates. This one will be going to a friend who lent me some boots and clothing ideas for my trip last Friday to see the Rocky Horror Show!!!

My project recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Snow White, which I cut, scored and folded following this tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers. Now, here's my Top Tip for you : If you're using a template or instructions you've not used before,make your project out of thin card first....it saves making a mistake and wasting a sheet of expensive cardstock! Luckily I followed my own advice so this is not the voice of experience :o)
  
• Decorative Edge - was done using one of the inbuilt "Decorative Embossing Lines" on my Ultimate Pro
• Embossed Heart Border - was also made using my Ultimate Pro, this time with the additional embossing board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats. This board really is my favourite and I get soooooooooo much use out of it!
• Design Papers - are from the Summertime Luxury Paper Collection which was a magazine freebie
• Sentiment - is another magazine freebie, this time from a Special Occasion Stamp Set. I've stamped this "Thank you" directly onto the cardstock using Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black. It's the first time I've stamped directly onto Centura Pearl, and I'm not sure I've got it quite right as the ink has gone rather blurry. Any tips would be gratefully received!

Anyway, that's my very simple box ... do head on over to Top Tip Tuesday to see what Anda (also a GDT) and the Design Team have come up with for Box Clever and don't forget to come back and show us your makes! This challenge will finish on Monday 27th May.

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenge:

• DDC #63 - 3-D Creation at Digi Darla's
• Challenge #6 - More than One Fold at Hobby Cutz Challenges - Second Entry

Catch you later!

Hugs, Helen x

Fiesta, not Siesta!

Good morning all from a very excited Casa de Crafty Mamma Mia. Why, I hear you ask? Well today is the start of my 4 week residency as Guest Designer at Top Tip Tuesday ... thanks for having me girls!!!!

Today is my  first challenge with the team, and the title of this one is Box Clever - this means make any kind of box. Our sponsor for this challenge is the lovely Melissa at MelJen's Designs who will be giving a great prize to the lucky winner of this challenge. Don't forget that you too could feature as a Top Tip Tuesday Guest just by leaving a great tip! 

Melissa has been kind enough to provide the DT with some images to showcase, and here is my box featuring one of Melissa's 'furry friends':

My project recipe is as follows:

• Box Base - made from Centura Pearl Card in Dark Chocolate which I cut to 10.5cm x 29.6cm (half an A4 sheet longways) and then scored using my Ultimate Pro to make the Wedge Box shape
• Design Paper -is by Paulette at Create with TLC and is called Fiesta Time. This was a goodie on Paulette's blog just last week as Paulette was celebrating Cinco Mayo ... the timing couldn't have been more perfect!
  
• Image - this hot dog is Chili Chihuahua and he is one the cute animal images you can get from  MelJen's Designs. I used the "out of the box" technique with the smallest rosette from the "nest" on the Ultimate Pro Embossing Board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats - rather like a die, as I don't have a die-cutting machine. However, I find this technique works just as well, even if it's slightly more time consuming! I de-bossed the rosette shape around the image before cutting it out and bringing this canine cutie to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Sombrero - CT2, CT3, CT4, TB5, JG2, CR9, CR10, CR11
• Chihuahua - TN3, TN4, TN5, PP2, PP3
• Poncho - JG1, JG2, TB5
• Chillis - CR9, CR10, CR11
• Outline - GG1
• Background - Craf-T Chalk in Light Blue and Bronze Gel Pen
• Ribbon - was recycled having been cut from one of my daughter's jumpers! (Does anyone hook these lengths of ribbon over coat hangers when hanging a garment?)  

I think this box would be great for small Birthday presents (like make-up or hair bits that teenage girls tend to  give each other) or in a different size as Wedding favour boxes ... and it was oh so easy to make too!

I hope you'll come over to Top Tip Tuesday and see the wonderful Boxes made by the rest of the DT - we'll be back with our mid-challenge inspiration next Tuesday.

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

• Challenge #56 - No Squares Allowed at Dream Valley Challenges
• Challenge #35 - Anything But a Card at Delicious Doodles

Hope you have a great day,

Hugs, Helen x