Masculine Valentine

Howdy my crafting buddies! Long time no speak! Hope you are all well and a warm welcome to Adaline, who is my newest follower - hope you enjoy my creations!

Well, despite my hopes on my last post with my new job-share joining the team at school, things didn't quite work out as planned and the lady left after just 2 weeks 😞 Since then however, things have moved on apace and another lady has been appointed, so I now have a "new new" job-share and she started yesterday. Early days yet, but I'm hopeful that this one will stay as she seems to have picked up our ways very quickly whilst I've been training her. Please keep your fingers crossed because I badly need my crafty-time back. 😉

It's new challenge time over at Feeling Sketchy and our prize for you this time is a $10 Gift Certificate to any online store of your choice!

Here's the sketch we're playing with this time, as designed by Michelle:

and here's my card using this sketch as the base for my layout:

I've gone for a monochrome, masculine look for this card limiting my colour palette to black and silver - Valentine's card for Papa Mia sorted 😉!!!!!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver card which I have cut, scored and folded to make a DL sized card base
• Inset card - is a piece of matt black card from my stash which I cut to 20cm x 7.8cm
• Hearts - are from a Leonie Pujol stamp set which is free with Crafter's Inspiration Magazine Issue 13. I've stamped these entwined hearts using my VersaColour Silver Ink Pad, using a stamping mask on the left hand side of the card to make the hearts look layered.
• Banners - are cut from scraps of black and Centura Pearl Snow White Silver using my layered banner die which was in my Crafter's Companion Advent Calendar 2016. I ran the banners through my Big Shot using my Darice Script Background embossing folder before swiping a little silver ink over the black ones to make them stand out a little more.
• Sentiment - is from the Swirly String Sentiments Stamp Set (only available now as a Digital Stamp Set) by Lili of the Valley which I stamped using VersaColour Silver Ink.

I hope that I have inspired you to come along and join in at Feeling Sketchy this time. However, if you're in need of any further inspiration, please do head over to the blog and check out the other wonderful creations by my clever teamies. Then come back and share your creations with us. We'll be back with our next challenge on 15th February 2017.

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

• Challenge #172 - Masculine Projects with a sentiment at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #181 - Love, Love, Love at Crafty Cardmakers
• Challenge #148 - All about Love at Dream Valley Challenges
• Challenge #186 - Hearts and/or Flowers at A Gem of a Challenge
• Challenge #73 - Valentines Card at Crafting with Dragonflies
• All About Love Challenge at Di's Digi Designs Challenge
• Challenge #328 - Love Notes at Tuesday Throwdown

Hope you have a great day!

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

Bebunni Baby

Good evening friends and hope this post finds you well. Before I go any further, I would like to warmly welcome Judy (who is our newest teamie at Incy Wincy Designs) to my crafty musings ... hope you enjoy the journey! I can't believe it's May 1st already - where is the year disappearing too!

I'm sharing a non-DT card this evening as I know it's reached it's recipient! On Tuesday I found some fab news in my FB feed that one of our teachers from school had given birth to a beautiful baby girl. The teacher and I are both in the Staff Band (no, we can't come up with a more inspirational name!) and as Tuesday afternoons are when we practice, I thought it would be nice if we all signed a card to the new "family". So, I set to work creating and this was the result:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a pre-made 14.7cm square base in white
• Paper - is from a retired set from Bearly Mine Designs called "Plain and Simple" - I've used this gorgeous lavender colourway (called Plain 18) to tone in with Bebunni's balloons. The paper is already distressed, but I added some tool distressing too, just to give a bit of texture. This was matted and layered onto dark purple Core'dinations Cardstock
  
• Image - is the gorgeous Bebunni, and this topper comes from the Crafter's Inspiration Magazine 4 (Spring 2014) CD-Rom. I've die cut the topper using the second largest Die'sire Essentials Circles Die and this is matted and layered onto the dark purple Core'dinations Cardstock, cut with the largest Die'sire Essentials Scalloped Circles Die
• Sentiment - is from a stamp set Special Occasion Stamps which was a cover freebie with Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine. Again this was matted and layered onto the dark purple Core'dinations Cardstock, cut with the ticket shaped die from the Die'sire Just the Ticket set.
• Cord - is from a bargain bag which I bought from Hobbycraft, heaven only knows when! It was a thicker and silky cord which I unravelled, and this is just one strand of it.
• Banners - are from another retired Bearly Mine Designs set called "Mixed Media" and this is one corner of paper MM026. I love the extra "texture" it lends to the project in tonal colours. I topped these banners with pearls.

I know the recipient loves this card and I have to say that I was pretty pleased with it too - not bad for a couple of hours work, eh?

I was inspired by and would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Special "Purple Crazy" challenge at CD Sunday
• Sketch #298 at Tuesday Morning Sketches
• Challenge #139 at {PIN}spirational Challenges - I've been inspired by the balloons and pastel colours

Hope you have a great weekend, and enjoy the Bank Holiday if you're in the UK!

Hugs, Helen x

"B" is for Birthday, Bling and a Bow!

Hi,

I've made another birthday card, this time for a friend's daughter who will be celebrating her 10th Birthday next week. I decided to have a go at making a Rocker Card, as I have only made one before ... and that was from a kit! Here is the result:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - Centura Pearl 300gsm card in Snow White which I embossed using the largest scalloped circle on the Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats embossing board, cut and then scored and folded (using my Boxer Board) to a make a rocker card. These boards go with the Ultimate Pro by Crafter's Companion.
• Image is the middle sized cupcake from the Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats embossing board, which I then coloured using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Case - 178, 171, 68
• Icing - 137, 8, 15
• Cherry - 11, 45
• Design finished with a "Happy Birthday" Ticket (downloaded from Stamp Fairy) to which I added 3 small pieces of Bling from my crafty stash. I also added a pink bow using ribbon that I won in The Crafter's Cafe Holiday Open House over Christmas and New Year.

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

• Challenge #157 - The Letter B at The Crafty Pad
• Challenge #89 - Shaped Cards at Sentimental Sundays
• "Happy" Challenge at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #39 - Happy Birthday at Card Makin' Mamas

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Hugs, Helen x