Kool Kidz

Hi folks! Hope this post finds you well!

We're nearly at the end of half term here at Casa Mia and the whole week has virtually been spent with hot lemon and honey drinks (yuck, I hate honey!) and a box of tissues in tow ... yup, I succumbed to the dreaded "the-holidays-are-here-so-let's-jump-the-school-staff" bug!!!!!!! ;o) At least yesterday evening found me well enough to accompany Mother in Law and PapaMia to an Aled Jones concert (yes he of Walking in the Air fame, and he can still manage the first few lines of the song some 30 years later!) at Portsmouth Guildhall. We were treated to a very entertaining evening of wonderful music (a mix of choral, musicals and pop) and Aled was a very engaging and amusing speaker between the numbers! At least nobody told me to "Shushhhhhhh" so I can't have been coughing too loudly :oD

And now I feel much, much better today, so I'm able to bring you my card for the current challenge at Feeling Sketchy. Our sponsor this time is the lovely Heather Valentin from Lacy Sunshine Stamps who is offering a prize pack to the lucky winner of this challenge.

Here's the sketch we'd like you to use as your inspiration this time:

and here is my take on it using a sponsor image:

Now I have to confess to having had rather a "senior" moment with this project. I chose this image as I thought it would be perfect for our nephew who will be 12 later this summer - a basketball dude with a graffiti wall behind? Perfect! Only when my image arrived did I look more closely at it and see that on his t-shirt is a "No Bullying" slogan. Don't get me wrong ... I most definitely don't have a problem with that (heaven knows I've had to pick up the pieces at the end of a school day for many, many, many years so I know how devastating it can be not only to the victim, but to their families too) but I wasn't sure how right this was going to be for my nephew! Oooooops!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a wonky rocker card cut out of black cardstock using my Ultimate Pro together with the largest wonky "circle" from the nest on my Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats Embossing Board which I then handcut, carefully! Once cut, I scored and folded the "circle" so that it had 2 scallops on the bottom as "feet" to make my rocker base.
• Image - is the very cool Kyle - Kidz Street as drawn by Heather at Lacy Sunshine Stamps.
  
  Once I'd realised that the whole image on this card base size was going to be far too small for me to colour, I decided to do a close up which I then debossed using the circle which fits inside the wonky "circle" from the nest on my Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats Embossing Board and then cut it out by hand. I coloured the image using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS4, FS3, FS9, TN4, FS8
• Hair - TN3, EB3, EB8
• Basketball - OR2, TN6, TN4, TN8
• T-Shirt - EB1, EB2, EB6, EB8
• Trousers - BT3, BT4, BT6, BT7, BT0
• Baseball Cap - OR2, TN6, TN4, TN8, True Black
• Sentiment - is one of the Graffiti Words from the image which I imported into my word processing package and then cropped in tightly to the word. I coloured the image using my Spectrum Noir Pens in OR2, TN6, TN4, TN8 (to match the basketball). I love the ombre effect these colours give, don't you?

I hope you'll come over to the Feeling Sketchy blog and check out the other fabulous creations by my talented teamies, and then don't forget to come back and show us your take on our sketch. We'll be back with our next challenge on 15th June 2016.


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

• June Challenge - One for the Guys at Dragon's Lair Designs Challenges
• Aloha Friday Challenge #73 - Masculine Cards/For Dad at Kitty Bee Designs - This card is for my teenage nephew when he celebrates his birthday next month
• Challenge #11 - Shaped Card at Morgan's Artworld
• Week 22 - One for the Boys at Polkadoodles Crafting Challenge

In the meantime, hope you have a great weekend and take care!

Hugs, Helen x

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas!

Good morning crafty friends and I hope you are well today!

It's been a rather madcap week or so here at Casa Mia, so we're looking forward to the end of next week when it will be half term ... whoopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - not that I'm excited you understand!

It's new challenge time at Feeling Sketchy and there's another great sketch for you courtesy of Michelle. Plenty of scope for creativity with this one, I feel:

As usual, we've got a lovely sponsor for you. This time, it's Heather Valentin from Lacy Sunshine who is kindly offering our lucky winner a prize pack. Heather also offered the DT their choice of image to showcase for this challenge - thank you Heather! So, without futher ado, here is my card for you featuring one of Heather's pretty images:

I'll apologise now as this post is going to be VERY photo heavy ... this Pop Up Box card was not the easiest thing in the world to photograph, so I've got plenty of pics from plenty of angles to show you! Tee hee!!!!! :oD

Just in case you were wondering about how my card fits the sketch layout, I imagined the foliage to be the sentiment, the goblet to be the pocket, and the girl as one of the tags coming out of the pocket. The box sides and back provide the card shape. This is the first time I've made a Pop Up Box card, and it may well be the last. The air wasn't quite blue, but I wasn't terribly ladylike ........ ooooops!!!!!!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Sheena Stamping Card which has been cut, scored and folded to make a lower box of 2¼ inches x 3 inches, with the top flaps being 2¼ inches x 2½ inches. I followed this SplitCoast Stampers Tutorial, but then completely messed the sizing up!
• Papers - are by Paulette at Create with TLC and I think these were a blog freebie in December 2012. They are called Chritmas Mist Papers 4 and I used them on all the external box sides. For the internal box sides, I again tried the technique of inking an embossing folder which I had seen demo'd by Sara Davies of Crafter's Companion. I'm much happier with the result this time which I did on smaller pieces of Sheena Stamping Card. I used the Vintage Christmas "Snowflake Flutter" embossing folder for this together with a pearlescent blue Brilliance ink pad. This embossing folder was one of the goodies which came with Issue 5 of the Crafter's Inspiration magazine.

• Image - is White Smores Delight by Heather at Lacy Sunshine. I have brought this girl and her S'more to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours, before fussy cutting her out.
• Goblet - FT1, GT2, BT5, JG6
  Gingerbread - GB8, GB10, EB5, True Black
  Foliage - DG2, DG3, DG4, DR3
  Bow - PL1, PL2, PL3
  Clothes - PL1, PL2, PL3, IG2, IG7, White Glitter, True Black, Silver Gel Pen
  S'more & Topping - IG2, White Glitter, EB1, EB2
  Skin - FS3, FS4, TN3, CR4, EB3
  Hair - EB6, EB7, EB8

I added a layer of the "topping" to one of the bars inside the card, just to give the image some depth. It didn't quite work out how I had planned it, but ....

• Sentiment - is from a promotional set of stamps from Sara Davies' Signature Collection which I got when Sara was doing her Demo afternoon at our local Hobbycraft store. I've stamped this sentiment in the same pearlescent blue Brilliance ink  onto a label which I embossed from the Ultimate Pro embossing board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats and then cut out and fixed to the rear portion of the box.

Please do head over to the Feeling Sketchy challenge blog and see the other wonderful inspiration from my incredibly talented teamies. While you're there, take a peek at the Special World Card Making Day Challenge where the inspiration is beautiful autumnal colours and there are some great prizes on offer too!

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

• U for Unusual Christmas Colours (not red, green or gold) at ABC Christmas Challenges
• Challenge 333 - Christmas at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge
• Challenge #112 - Bags and Boxes at Crafting for all Seasons
• Challenge #311 - Tags at Little Red Wagon
• October Challenge - Anything Goes using Loose Glitter at Sparkle 'n' Sprinkle
• Challenge 7 - Anything Goes with a Winter/Christmas Theme at A Snowflake's Promise

With this card, I'm also throwing my hat into the ring and trying out for the DT Call at ABC Christmas Challenges. I have entered previous cards this year into your challenges: a little Humphrey's Corner card for letter A, a fun, flying fairy card for letter G and a Santa tag for letter L.

That's it from me for today - hope you have a great day, whatever you're doing.

Hugs, Helen x

Always carry a Unicorn!

Good morning fellow crafters - hope you are well this morning and are having a nice weekend.

I'm scheduling this post as right now I am leading my Church's Sunday School group, so I'm hoping Mr Blogger behaves!

I'm super excited this morning as 2 weeks ago, I was chosen by the lovely Audrey to be the Guest Designer for the new challenge at Lacy Sunshine Challenge Blog!!!!

This week's challenge is "Wild about You" and we would like to see your creations featuring either animals or animal prints ... or you could go the whole hog (ooops, sorry for the pun!) and include both on your project. If your image doesn't include an animal, then you must use papers or embellishments which have an animal print on them please.

Heather has given me free run in her store to choose an image to showcase for this challenge, so here is my inspiration for you featuring one of Heather's oh-so-sweet images:

As soon as I saw this image, I knew that I had to use it as youngest Bambino is absolutely MAD about unicorns. Luckily one of her favourite clothes stores is featuring unicorns this season, so she's a very happy person. I'll be putting this card away safely for her Birthday in October and hoping that a) I remember where that safe place is and b) that she doesn't stumble across either this post or the card in the meantime!

Anyway, my card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which is cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Papers - come from a set called Garden Party by Janet Scott at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking. I've used the Yellow Butterflies and Solid Orange papers, and then added the green lace border from the same set. I've digitally put these papers together, including cropping the orange paper with a diagonal and tilting the lacy border.
  
• Image - of course comes from the pen of Heather Valentin at Lacy Sunshine Stamps and is called Rory's Magical Ride. I die cut Rory and her Unicorn using my largest Sizzix Framelits Fancy Label Die before bringing them both to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours:
• Rory  
• Skin - FS2, FS3, CR4
• Hair - OR1, OR2, OR3
• Dress & Hair Bow - CG1, CG2, CG3
• Shoes - OR1, OR2, OR3
• Unicorn
• Mane & Tail - GT1, GT2, GT3, PL2, PL3, Bling, White Glitter
• Body - PL1, PL2, PL3, Blender
• Hooves - PL1, PL2, White Glitter 
• Flowers - were made using the Purple Solid paper from the Garden Party set, and I then die cut 2 different sizes of flowers using my Die'sire Essentials Flowers for All Occasions set. I bent the petals slightly before adding some bling (from my stash) to the centre of each flower
• Sentiments - are both by Paulette at Create with TLC and have both been cut using one of my Die'sire Essentials Just the Ticket dies. The Happy Birthday sentiment is a past freebie from Paulette's blog, and the Unicorn sentiment is part of the Life is Short set. I've cut off part of the sentiment as I just wanted the bit that said "believe in unicorns" - hope you don't mind Paulette?
• Bling and Glitter - from my stash

I just want to say "Thank You!" to the Lacy Sunshine Girls for having me as your GDT this time, and don't forget to come over to the blog to see their wonderful makes and then show us your creations which are "Wild about You"!

I have been inspired by and would like to enter the following challenges:

Cosmic Colours Challenge #14

• Challenge #14 at Cosmic Colours Challenge
• Sketch #303 at Tuesday Morning Sketches

I would also like enter the following challenges:

• June Challenge - Add Some Sparkle or Bling at Spectrum Noir Facebook Group
• Challenge #376 - Summer Colours at Cute Card Thursday
• For The Girls Challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids
• HIMCR #202 - Summer Colors at Hiding in my Craft Room
• JUGS #296 - Word Week - Summer at Just us Girls
• Challenge #9 - Anything Goes with a Twist of Fantasy at SLSlines Challenge

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's ........

.... my weekly post for Incy Wincy Designs! It's new challenge time and this week we're helping our crafty friends in the US and Canada spoil their Mum as our challenge this week is Mom's the Word. 

We're being sponsored this week by the very lovely Heather Valentin from Lacy Sunshine who is offering a prize of 3 of her gorgeous digis to our lucky prizewinner! Heather also very kindly gave each DT member their choice of image to use for this challenge. Back to the post title then ... Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's Glitter Girl Superhero - perfect for all those superhero Mums out there!!!!!!!

Now I'm in a bit of a pickle - firstly, my Mum is no longer with us and secondly we've already celebrated Mothering Sunday here in the UK .... so I've just gone for a very "girly" card in the hopes that it inspires you to make a creation for your Mum/Mom!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is a pre-made white card base, around 14.7cm square
• Papers - the Paisley Print paper is from a set by Summer at Summertime Designs called Angel Mother. The lovely Medium Pink glitter paper comes from a set at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking called Glitters by Dreamn4ever Designs - I think this set must be retired now, as I can't find it on the site. I've digitally added a brown border to both papers to give a faux mat and layer.
  
• Image - this very sparkly one is called G3 Glitter Girl Superhero and she comes from the pen of Heather at Lacy Sunshine Stamps. I've brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before die cutting her using one of my Sizzix Framelits Ovals
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS6, EB5, DR7
• Eyes - GB10 DG2, Blender Pen
• Hair - GB8, GB10, EB5, EB8
• Clothes - PP4, PP5, PP6, DG2, DG3, DG4, DR1, DR3, Silver Gel Pen, GB3, GB4
• Bag and Boots - PP1, PP3, Silver Gel Pen
• Glitter Cascade - Silver Gel Pen, White Glitter
• Sentiment - is by my favourite sentiment designer, Paulette at Create with TLC and was diecut using a die from my Die'sire Essential Rectangles set. Some "bling" in opposing corners finished this off.
• Ribbon and button - are from my stash and both came from separate "bargain grab bags" from Hobbycraft some time ago. I've attached the button to the bow by way of some silver thread from my (languishing) lacemaking stash!

I'm not 100% happy with this card (hence why I'm a bit late joining in with this week's challenge), but it's done now! I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the fabulous creations by my lovely teamies, and while you're there please give Judy (our newest teamie) a warm welcome. Then come back and show us your creations for Mom/Mum. This challenge closes on Sunday 10th May.

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

• Cook Up a Creation - Recipe Challenge of 1 Digi, 2 Papers, 3 Embellishments (Bling, Bow & Button) at Moving Along With The Times
• Aloha Friday Challenge #46 - Girly Cards at Kitty Bee Designs
• Buttons and Bows at Digi Sketch Challenge - I'm following the Theme only with my button topped bow.
• Challenge #14 - For the Ladies or Mother's Day at Get Creative Challenges
• Add Sparkle at Melonheadz Friends
• May 2015 - Anything Goes (with loose glitter, embossing powder and/or flocking) at Sparkle 'n' Sprikle Creative Challenges

If, like us, you're suffering with strong winds and heavy rain showers I hope you stay safe! And if you're celebrating Mother's Day this weekend, I hope you get spoilt by your loved ones!

Have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Warm & Snug

Hello there my crafty friends! 

Another post from me and so far I'm keeping up with my New Year Goal of making at least one card each week. This week I have exceeded my goal as there are a plethora of birthdays this month, both family and work. I made this card for my Sis-in-Law whose birthday was earlier this week, so I reckon I'm OK in posting it now!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base -  is a pre-made A5 white card blank 
• Design Paper - is from the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady Twin CD-Rom which I treated myself to in October, but have only just "cracked" the cellophane! :o) I love these bare trees, and it's just right for a winter birthday! I imported the paper into my word processing programme, resized it to suit the card, and  put a brown border around the paper as a faux mat.
• Image - This beautiful lady out for a stroll is called Winter Emily (Emily Winter Wonderland) and she comes from the art desk of Heather at Lacy Sunshine. I die cut an oval using the 3rd smallest oval in my Sizzix Framelits Ovals die set before bringing brought Emily to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, BGR3, 
• Hair - TN2, TN3, TN5, TN7, TN9
• Cape, Muffler & Umbrella - BGR1, BGR2, BGR3, BGR4, BGR5, White Glitter, Silver Gel Pen
• Dress - EB1, EB2, EB3
• Snow & Outline - IG1, White Glitter
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and I have recoloured the sentiment in my word processing programme so it fits with my blue and brown themed card. 
• Gemstones - on the top right hand corner of the card and on Emily's muffler, but I've just realised they're not showing terribly well in the photo .... ooops!

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

• Bling it up at Jellypark Challenges
• Winter Walks at CD Sunday Challenge
• Winter Birthday at The Stamping Boutique
• Challenge #49 - Sparkly and New at Lacy Sunshine Challenge  - the glitter and gems are sparkly and the CD-Rom I used is new
• Challenge #121 - Baby It's Cold Outside at QKR Stampede Challenge
• Tic Tac Toe at Polkadoodles Challenge -  I'm claiming the top horizontal line of  Sentiment, Image, Die Cut

Hope you have a great weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

... and Relax!

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

This is my second card for  Incy Wincy Designs this morning. I've done them on separate posts as I'm not sure about putting 2 cards on one post and then entering them into different challenges! Just as a reminder, this week's challenge topic is Butterflies and Bows. 

We have got 2 totally amazing sponsors for you this week ... just a shame I can't enter our own competition!

First, we're welcoming Heather Valentin from Lacy Sunshine Stamps . This is Heather's first time sponsoring one of our challenges, and she is offering one lucky winner a $20 Gift Certificate to her store. And with sooooo many gorgeous images to choose from, I can guarantee that you'll be spoilt for choice. Heather also has a retiring section with a number of her digital images priced at just $1, so there is no excuse for not topping up your stash! 

Our second sponsor is perennial favourite, Krista from Saturated Canary who is offering our second lucky winner 2 digital images from her store.

Both of our lovely sponsors very kindly offered the DT their choice of image to use this week. However a number of my teamies, like me, had sooooooooo much trouble choosing between Heather's images and Krista's images that we had to do one of each! 

So for this card, I'm showcasing one of Heather's delightful designs:

I have made a Flap Card (a new fold for me, but very simple to do by following this tutorial at SplitCoast Stampers), using a palette of colour inspiration from Design Seeds - thanks to the team at Jellypark Challenges for a wonderful challenge this week, as this gorgeous colour scheme was at the top when I popped over to Design Seeds to take a look! 

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Teal which I cut according to the dimensions in the tutorial I then used the largest rosette on my Ultimate Pro Board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats to shape the flap. The rest of the card was re-cut, scored and folded as per the tutorial.
  
• Image - this gorgeous and chilling out girl is called Jillian and she has been designed by artist Heather at Lacy Sunshine Stamps. Unfortunately, I can't give you a link to Jillian as I can't find her in Heather's online store anymore :o( ... and I'm sure I didn't choose her from the Retiring section.  Having carefully superimposed Jillian onto an oval shape and  cut her out using the 'out of the box' technique, I brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS3
• Lips - DR1
• Eye - GT2
• Hair - EB5, EB8
• Top - DR3, DR4, DR5, Silver Gel Pen
• Yoga Pants - IG1, IG2, IG3
• Pumps - DR5
• Outline - GG1
• Sentiment - is another goodie from one of my favourite designers, Paulette at Create with TLC. I've taken the rather appropriate sentiment into my word processing package and changed the colour of it so that it tones in with the rest of the card. Once printed out, I cut the sentiment strip into a banner shape.
• Butterflies - are by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts and the image is called DIY Butterfly. They were perfect for this challenge as I resized them to make them quite small and then paper pieced them using the "Cranberry Dots" paper from the Summertime Designs kit Thanks for Giving. I finished the butterflies off by dotting my Silver Gel Pen for their abdomens.
• Ribbon - is a satin edged, organdie ribbon from my stash which I attached to the top flap of the card (under the image) and tied at the bottom of the card to keep the flap shut.

So, after two posts from me (!) I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs to check out the other gorgeous creations by my team mates and our Guest Designer for June Linda. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations featuring Butterflies and Bows. This challenge ends on Sunday 16th June 2013.

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

• Color Inspired Challenge at Jellypark Challenges - I've been inspired by the Cocktail Color Palette as shown on the right
• Challenge #185 - Magenta, Teal, Light Gray at The Play Date Cafe
• Challenge #10 - Anniversary Anything Goes at Lacy Sunshine Challenge
  

That's it from me for the moment - hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x