It's coming up Daisies!

Ooooo, good morning folks and happy April Fool's Day. We're in the middle of our Easter holidays here at Casa Mia, so I'm hoping that there will be no pranks from the Bambinos! Have you been fooled today at all? I'd like to warmly welcome Kevin, my newest follower, to my blog - hope you enjoy the ramblings from Casa Mia and my crafty journey!

It's new challenge time at Feeling Sketchy and this week we are not having a sponsor ... however, we do have a $10 Gift Certificate to your favourite online scrapbooking store up for grabs!!!!!!! We've also said "Farewell" to a few of the girls who have stepped down from the team at the end of their term - sorry to see these ladies go, and I'll miss their awesome inspiration.

Here's the sketch that we're working with this week:

With no sponsor images this time, I had a great trawl through my, ahem, accumulated collection of images (I cringe every time Papa Mia says that we're running out of space on the hard disc, because some most of it's my stuff ... although I tell myself that his music doesn't help ;o)! ) and I found one that would suit this sketch perfectly, as long as I flipped the layout! So, here's my card created using the sketch:

Regular readers will know that I always struggle on Mother's Day for a suitable card for my M-i-L (a retired clergy wife) as the day is known as Mothering Sunday in the church calendar - the day when servant girls were released from their duties in the big houses to return to worship at their "mother" churches and to see their own families. These girls would often pick flowers from the hedgerows on their way home, hence why little posies of spring flowers are often given to mothers in church on this day!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base card - is a pre-made card base in white, about 14.8cm square
  
• Design Paper - is from the Mixed Media Collection by Donna at Bearly Mine Designs, now sadly closed :o( I inked around the edge of the papers using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.
• Image - is Daisies and Butterfly Frame by Teri at ArtiDoodles (Delicious Doodles). I've brought this lovely spring scene to life using my Spectrum Noir Pencils (Original) in the listed colours, before fussy cutting the image, both inside and outside the frame. A light dusting of Vintage Photo Distress Ink softened the edges of the frame and behind the butterfly's antennae.
• Daisies - 010, 013, 017, 046, 049, 054, 103
• Butterfly - 041, 030, 105
• Frame - 086, 092, 103
• Sentiment - is computer generated using my word processing package and a free font I found on-line called Shorelines Script Bold. I cut the strips using my Tonic Studios Sculptured decorative scissors - I think these were a magazine freebie as I can't seem to find them on the internet at all. I inked around the edge of each strip using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.
• Twine - from my stash, which is tied around the frame and finished with a bow

I hope I've encouraged you to come over to Feeling Sketchy and play along with this sketch, but if you're in need of further inspiration please do head over to the blog and check out the other wonderful creations by my teamies! Then come back and share your project using our sketch. We'll be back with our new challenge on 15/4/2016.

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

• IIC March Challenge - Let's hear it for the Girl! at Inky Impressions Challenges
• Challenge #187 - Make your Mark at Addicted to Stamps and More!
• Challenge #318 - Girlie at My Time To Craft Challenges
• For the Girls Challenge at Di's Digi Designs Challenge
• In the Garden at Come and Get It Challenges
• Challenge #128 - Girlie at Dream Valley Challenges
• Challenge #12 - Anything Goes at Lemon Shortbread
• Challenge #01 - Anything Goes at Classic Design Team Open Challenge

Have a great weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

Mark that page!

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

Good morning friends and welcome to another week! Hope this post finds you all well, and suitable rested after the weekend ... even though it wasn't the best weather wise here on the south coast of the UK! The eagle eyed among you may notice that I've added a new following option. You can subscribe to follow my crafty adventures by e-mail, and that's just what Sharon (my newest follower) is doing!!!! Welcome Sharon!

It's time for a new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and this time we'd like to see Tags and/or Bookmarks! There was a bit of a debate in "IW Towers" about the title of this, so we decided that you can do one or the other ... the more adventurous could choose to do both!


We've got two lovely sponsors for this challenge. The first is Teri from Delicious Doodles who is offering one lucky prize winner 4 digis from her store and the second sponsor is Digital Delights who are offering our second lucky prize winner a $5 Gift Certificate to their store.

I opted to make a bookmark (I'll post a tutorial on this style and more pics tomorrow, but the sun has gone down now and lightbulbs give everything a yellowish tinge) using one of Teri's fab images (OK so regular readers may realise that I'm being slightly biased here, having just GDT'd with the Delicious Doodles team during April!):

My project recipe is as follows:

• Card base -  is Centura Pearl in Snow White Silver measuring 16cm x 6cm which I scored and folded  at 8cm and again at 8.2cm (ish!) to make folded card. 
• Image - is Haunting Moon by Teri at Delicious Doodles and it conjures up memories of The Highwayman by Tennyson (I know there wasn't a loch involved it!) or some of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. I have brought this scene to life using my Craf-T Chalks in the following colours:
• Hills - Dark Green, Green
• Loch - Dark Blue, White
• Sky - Royal Blue, Turquoise
• Moon - White
• Shore - Dark Grey, Black
• Highlights - White Silver Gel Pen

I will give this bookmark a suitable quote on the reverse .... I need to be able to borrow my eldest's "HP" books to find one!

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and see the other great Bookmarks or Tags that my wonderful team-mates have made. Then come and share your projects with us - this challenge will end on Sunday 4th May 2014.

I would like to enter this project in to the following challenge:

• April Challenge - Hills and Mountains at Craft a Scene
• No DP at Sweet Stampin'

I'll be back a little later with my next DT post - in the meantime, take care!

Hugs, Helen x

Pretty in Pink

... or perhaps this post should read "Pretty Pink"!

I'm sooooooo sorry - I'd scheduled this post, but naughty Blogger hasn't posted it! "Hanging head in shame here cos it means this post is late :o( Hope this post finds you well. Yesterday was my first day back at work after the Easter break and boy, what a day it was. I came down from my holiday cloud with a bump yesterday morning!

This is my last post as a Guest Designer for Delicious Doodles :o( - very sad face being worn here! The month of April has flown by, and I would like to thank Teri and her Design Teams for having me this month - I have had a blast!!!!!! I hope that the Guest Designers for May have as much fun creating with Teri's images as I have had!


If you read last week's post at Delicious Doodles, you'll know that we're raising Breast Cancer Awareness and this week we'd love to see your creations that are Pink and Girly!


Teri again opened the doors to the Delicious Doodles Shop and allowed me to choose some digis to show you this week, so here goes with my second "pink" card (although I'm not sure it's 100% girly!):

This will be another card for the box of cards I'm making as a raffle prize for the Shades Charity Ball that my friend Karen is organising in October - the proceeds from this will go to MacMillan Cancer Support.

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Snow White Silver which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 16cm square card. 
• Design Papers - are both part of the April "Blog Train" at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking. The pink leaves paper is by Whispy Willow Lane, and the white paper with the floral and flourish border is by Designs by Magnolia. As usual, I resized the papers to my requirements using my word processing package, and digitally put a faux mat and layer around them in a rich pink colour.
  
• Image - is by Teri at Delicious Doodles and it is the utterly gorgeous Celtic Fairy and I have brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours (click on the pic to supersize it, and check out the sparkly pink hair and wings!):
• Hair - BP2, BP3, BP4, BP5, White Glitter
• Skin - FS2, FS3, PP3, BP2
• Jewellery - Silver Gel Pen
• Dress - BP1, Colourless Blender
• Wings - BP1, Silver Gel Pen, White Glitter
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment - is by Teri at Delicious Doodles and it is the heart from the Awareness Ribbon Set. The ribbon set is a freebie (thanks to Teri's generosity), so why not treat yourself to another digi as well .... 2 for the price of 1! I imported the heart into my word processing package three times, and lined up a text box over each heart to write the sentiment. I then coloured these using my Spectrum Noir Pens in colours BP1, BP5, BP7 and Colourless Blender, trying to get an ombre effect!
• Ribbon - is recycled from, I think, a toiletries package. It's been lurking around for a while, and I think this is the perfect project for it!
• Buttons - are from  a "grab bag" of mixed bright buttons I picked up at Hobbycraft a few months ago.

I hope you'll come over to the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog and enjoy the wonderful Pink and Girly creations from Teri's talented Design Team and my fellow guests. 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 do, 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 1st May 2014 at 6pm BST (UK time!) 

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

• Bingo at Catch the Bug - I've chosen the far middle vertical line of Hot Pink, Players Choice (Glitter and Button) and Recycled Item (Pink Ribbon was part of the wrapping on some toiletries)
• Challenge #208 - Square Cards at Robyn's Fetish
• White + 1 at Papertake Weekly
• Monday Challenge #134 - Shake it On! at My Craft Spot
• Sparkle! at Crafty Boots Challenge
• Favourite Item to Recycle and Why at As You Like It - Oh ladies! I am sooooo with Annette .... ribbons are my favourite item to recycle. You get them in all types (satin, grosgrain, sheer, printed) on various purchases and gifts. The one in this project came from a gift pack of toiletries, but I also save them from clothes, presents (as part of the gift wrap) and even from an enamel jug of flowers (the flowers have died, the jug now holds some fake blooms, and the ribbon's in my stash!!!!)

That's it from me today - hope you all have a great weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

Flower Power!

Good morning friends and I'd like to wish you all a Happy Easter weekend. The weather here on the south coast has been fabulous all week- hope you've enjoyed some sunshine too. It may be Good Friday, but as long as the weather stays fine "himself" will be repainting "T' Shed" so the girls and I are off out - they'll swim and I'll hit the treadmill!

This is my third post during my sojourn as a GDT for Delicious Doodles, and again it's time for a new challenge. After some topical challenges, this one will encourage your feminine side, as well as raising awareness for Breast Cancer. So, we'd like to see your creations that are Pink! 

Teri again opened the doors to the Delicious Doodles Shop so that I could help myself to another gorgeous designs. If you're a regular reader, you may be pleased to know that Mr Mojo is still recovering from last week's creation (I'll let you know next week how well it was received by my M-i-L!) so this week's card is back to a more normal style :o)

Regular readers may recall that last year I designed a piece of artwork for Karen, a friend and colleague was organising a Grand Ball entitled 50 Shades of Pink - you can find the post here. Karen is holding another Grand Ball this autumn and I'll make her a box of handmade cards that she can use as a raffle prize ... this is the first card!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Fresh Pink (from the Pastels multipack at Crafter's Companion) which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card. I then embossed the front of the card using my Embossalicious "Floral Stitch" embossing folder. I carefully masked round each raised embossed square (part of the design is "de-bossed") using Post-It notes, and then swept a Versa Color Ink Cube in Silver across the raised "stitches". I'm not sure I've got this swiping quite right,  as there are some traces of silver ink in the squares. Still, when you look at it from the side, it makes the embossing pop!
  
• Images - are both by Teri at Delicious Doodles and they are Floral Elegance - Wild Rose and the butterfly from the Awareness Ribbon Set. The ribbon set is a freebie (thanks to Teri's generosity), so why not treat yourself to another digi as well .... 2 for the price of 1! I printed 2 copies of them both and decoupaged some of the flowers, and also lifted the second butterfly's wings to give more depth to the images. I brought these gorgeous images to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:

• Roses - CT4, PP3, PP4, PP5
• Foliage - CG1, CG2, CG3
• Butterfly - PP1, PP2, PP3, GB8, GB10, Silver Gel Pen
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment - is by my generous blogging buddy Annette and this is one of her freebies. If you head over there to take a look, please let her know that you came via my blog! I recoloured this using my word processing programme to a shade of green to tone in with the foliage.

I hope you'll come over to the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog and enjoy the wonderful Pink creations from Teri's talented Design Team and my fellow guests. 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 do, 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 24th April 2014 at 6pm BST (UK time!)

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

• Challenge #212 - Flower Power at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges
• Challenge #202 - Embossing (Wet or Dry) at Sentimental Sundays
• Challenge 173 - Use Ice Cream Colours at Penny's Paper Crafty  My favourite ice cream flavours (preferably made by our local ice cream manufacturer!): Pistachio, Strawberry and, not shown here, Ginger, and Toffee Crunch. 
• April Facebook Challenge - Floral at Crafter's Companion Third Entry

I hope that you all have a blessed and joyous Easter and that the Easter Bunny is kind to you and yours!

Hugs, Helen x

Easter Blessings

Good morning friends - hope you are well! I can't believe that we're already half-way through the school Easter holidays :o( I've been having fun with my girls, and fitting in some crafting time too :o) I have scheduled this post, so I hope all goes well - had major internet connection issues yesterday afternoon ... grrrrrrr!!!!!

This is my second post as a GDT for Delicious Doodles, and it's time for a new challenge this morning. This one is nice and easy - with the Easter weekend looming, we'd like to help you get prepared and see your Easter creations!

Teri has once again allowed me a free run in her shop so that I can showcase her awesome designs ... Mr Mojo has been on an overactive spurt (again! And without consulting me ... again!!!!) and decided that he (OK, we) would like to produce a diorama card! Teri very kindly allowed me to pick 2 of her digis which I put together with another which I already have safely stashed on my hard drive, and this is the result:

My card recipe is as follows:

Top Layer:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I have cut to 23cm x 18.5cm. Along the 23cm edge,I have scored 5cm in from each end which I then folded to make a flap. In the centre of the middle panel I used the largest arch shape on my Crafter's Companion Ultimate Pro to emboss the shape, which I then cut out to reveal an arch shaped aperture.
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and this one was part of April 2012 club. I have die cut this using my fourth largest Framelits Oval Die.

Middle Layer

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I have cut to 18cm x 18.5cm. The flaps on this layer are 2.5cm in from each end along the 18cm edge. Again I used my Crafter's Companion Ultimate Pro and this time embossed the smallest arch shape in the centre of the middle panel which I cut out to reveal a smaller arch shape.
  
• Images - are both by Teri at Delicious Doodles and they are Daffodils and Crocus, of which I printed 2 copies (one which I flipped in my word processing package) before bringing them to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours - the shading details on Teri's images makes it really easy to know where to use a darker colour!:
• Daffodils - GB3, GB4, GB5, JG3, JG4, BT1
• Crocuses - HB1, HB2, Colourless Blender, GB3, JG1, JG2, BT1

Base Layer

• Card base - is Neenah Solar White onto which I've directly printed my image, after a little bit of twiddling in my word processing package to get the placement right so that the image appears through the windows of the card! 
• Image - is, of course, by Teri at Delicious Doodles and this one is called Gothic Church Window. This image is so reminiscent of the windows at my own church, that I have tried to recreate them here using my Spectrum Noir Pens in TN1 and TN2 to try to recreate the warmth of the stone. The sky through the window is BT1.

I hope you'll come over to the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog and enjoy the gorgeous Easter inspiration from the Design Team and my fellow guests. 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 do, 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 17th April 2014 at 6pm BST (UK time!)

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

• Challenge #206 - Easter at Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog
• Challenge #64 - Easter at Card Mania Challenges
• Easter at Crafty Boots Challenges
• CWLC 79 - Easter at Created With Love Challenges
• Challenge 79 - Easter at Dream Valley Challenges
• Monday Challenge #132 - Happy Easter! at My Craft Spot
• April Challenge - Spring Flowers at Stamp and Create
• April Challenge - Easter or Spring at Sunflowerfield Designs
• Easter at Sweet Stampin'
• April Facebook Challenge - Floral at Crafter's Companion Second Entry

I'm off to firstly give Mr Mojo a good slap (!) and then I think I need a lie down in a darkened room with a mug of tea!

Hope you have a great weekend!

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

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!

Handbags and Gladrags

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

Hello again friends,

It's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this one definitely challenged us on the DT. Chris chose this lovely bag as our Photo Inspiration. 

Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is Teri at Delicious Doodles who is very kindly offering this week's lucky winner 4 digital images of their choice, and with such a varied range of images on her site there is definitely something for everyone! Teri has also kindly given the DT some of her gorgeous images to showcase this week, although I'm using an image which I chose as part of my winning package at the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog in May last year.



Mr Mojo exercised his over-active imagination (once again!) and here is my card for you featuring one of Teri's "delicious" images:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is Centura Pearl in Ivory. I used my Ultimate Pro (and the instructions on The Ultimate Pro DVD!) to cut, score and fold the cardstock to make a 21cm x 10cm handbag card, before using one of the wavy shapes built into the Ultimate Pro to emboss borders (which look similar to the fairy's amulet) onto the card. This handbag card is a new fold for me, and it went together so well, I'm sure I'll be making more!
• Design Papers - are from a set called At the Beach - Distressed Chipboard Styles by DigiTee Designs (available from Best Free Digital Scrapbook - thanks to my Incy Wincy Teamie Jenny for her tip-off about this site!). I have used them in the brown, orange, tan and teal colourways and, with the help of my word processing programme, turned them into blocks, to resemble the blocks on the bag in the photo. I copied and pasted the block design twice, before printing it, fussy cutting it and adding it to the bottom of the card.
  
• Image - is called Steampunk Fairy and she comes from the pen of Teri at Delicious Doodles. I've not tried steampunk before, and I'm not sure if I've got it quite right, but this gorgeous girl was brought to life (with the assistance of Teri's wonderful shading as a guide) using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours before I tool distressed the edges:
• Skin - FS7, FS9, CR5
• Hair - EB6, EB7, EB8
• Dress - TN5, TN6, TN7
• Wings - BT5, BT6, Bronze & Gold Gel Pens
• Jewellery - Bronze & Gold Gel Pens
• Outline - BT1
• Ribbon - recycled from a box of toiletries I received at Christmas, and nearly a perfect match!
• Gems - from my stash

If you'd like more inspiration, head over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out how the rest of the DT girls have been inspired by this photo. Don't forget to come back and show us your wonderful Photo Inspired creations - this challenge will end on Sunday 23rd February 2014.


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

• Challenge #75 - Ribbon and Bling at Delicious Doodles Challenge
• Challenge #5 - Embossing at Scrappy Hands
• Challenge 17 - More than One Fold at Flat Friends Challenge
• February Challenge - Embossing at The Crafting Cafe
• Challenge #200 - Use a Digi at One Stitch at a Time

Hope you have a great week!
Hugs, Helen x

A Safe Haven

Here we go with another "post fest" - I got soooooo behind with my "makes" last week, that I'm all behind with my posts too. Sorry folks! I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to Heather, my newest follower - hope you enjoy my "makes"!

It's new challenge time at Lexi's Creations and this one is very topical for us in the UK as we'd like to see your creations for Father's Day or a Special Male Birthday.

Our wonderful sponsors for this challenge are the fabby team over at Joanna Sheen who are offering our lucky winner a £10 Gift Voucher to their on-line store. And with postage and packing free if you spend over £9 everyone's a winner if you buy in this Aladdin's cave!

Usually I would use one of Lexi's (Fairy Dust Crafts) beautiful images, but this time I thought I would give one of the images I recently won an airing! So here is a card for my Dad for Father's Day:

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.
• Design Papers - are by Summer at Summertime Designs and (in keeping with the nautical theme!) are both from her kit She Sells Seashells. The bottom paper is called "Striped" and the top paper is called "Cream Dots".
  
• Image - this lovely scene has been drawn by Teri over at Delicious Doodles and it is called In The Harbour. I have brought this idyll to life quite simply, using my Versamark Pen (which I used on the heavily shaded areas to give more definition) and my Craf-T Decorating Chalks in the following colours:
• Boat on Left - Ruddy Red, Burnt Sienna, Black
• Boat on Right - Turquoise, Burnt Sienna, Black, Light Blue
• Sand - Tan
• Harbour Wall - Dark Brown
• Sky - Light Blue
• Sentiments -  are computer generated using my word processing package and a font called Goudy Handtooled. 

Do come over to Lexi's Creations and see the other wonderfully inspirational male cards which have been designed by the other DT members and our Guest Designer Silvi. Don't forget to come back and link up the creations you've made for Father's Day or a Special Male Birthday. This challenge ends on Saturday 22nd June 2013.

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

• Father's Day at Going Grey with Scrap Creations
• Spots and Stripes at Joanna Sheen Second Entry
• Masculine / Father's Day at Simon Says Stamp!
• Challenge 17 - Father's or For a Male at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge
• Challenge #103 - Masculine at Top Tip Tuesday
• Card for a Male at Crafty Sentiments Designs
• Challenge 12 - We Love You Dad at Creative Craft Challenge

Phew - that's me caught up now! Off to work on next week's DT projects.

Have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Spring Flowers

This is my first post of the day - please scroll up or come back later for my next post!

Hi,

I'm having to schedule this post as the Easter holidays are now over, and I'm tending to the sick youngsters at school! I do hope Mr. Blogger is playing nicely today and posts this at the time I've requested! :o)

This is my third post as Guest Designer at Incy Wincy Designs and I'm loving seeing the projects you talented crafters are sharing! This week the challenge is Use a Digi and we have been sponsored by Delicious Doodles who kindly gave the DT a selection of Spring images to choose from. I had a really hard job selecting one image to use (honestly!) and this is the card I made:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - 300gsm Centura Pearl Card in Ivory, which was cut, scored and folded to an 11cm Spring Card.
• Design Paper - Flowers and Trees Paper from the Owl Always Love Spring collection by the talented Summer Driggs at Summertime Designs.
• Image - Crocus by the wonderful Teri at Delicious Doodles. Do pop over to her site, as there are so many delicious images to make you open your purse! I brought the crocus to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following shades:
• Crocus - LV1, LV2, GB4
• Leaves - CG1, CG2
• Outline - GG1

I've deliberately left this card without a sentiment because, unusually for me, I haven't made it with a particular occasion in mind. However, I think it would make a great "Thank You", "Thinking of You" or "Get Well" card, as well as a lovely Birthday card.

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

• Challenge 52 - Spring Summer Colours at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge 212 - Spring Flowers at Cute Card Thursday
• PDCC127 - Colour Board of Daffodil...Hydrangea...Kiwi...Cherry at The Play Date Cafe (All the colours are there ... just! The cherry is on my DP)
• Challenge 110 - Anything Goes at Sassy Cheryl's
• April Showers Bring Spring Flowers at Simon Says

Looking forward to seeing your Digis over at Incy Wincy this week. Hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x