It's Holiday Time

Good afternoon crafty friends and hope this post finds you well!

We're now breathing a huge sigh of relief here at Casa Mia as eldest Bambino finished all of her 'A' level exams this afternoon ... it's a long wait now until results day in August to see if she attains enough UCAS points to accept her place at her chosen university. Please keep everything crossed for her! Between us, we've frantically been making cards for her 5 subject lecturers and also her 1 support lecturer.

It's new challenge day at All Dressed Up and, as usual, our theme is Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image.  Wendy has plenty of gorgeous images available in the All Dressed Up Etsy Store. Haven't got any All Dressed Up images? Wendy has very generously provided some freebies here - please send your friends over to ADU for the freebies though, to make sure they're available for other crafters to share!




With the summer holidays in mind, here's my inspiration for you:

Eldest chose this image for her Travel and Tourism lecturer, which I think is exceedingly appropriate 😀and I wanted to go for a vintage style - I'm thinking of an aged photograph here of a beauty enjoying the French Riviera, or maybe even Monaco ... what do you think?

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a premade A5 card in white
• Design Paper - is by Debbie at The Crafty Pad and is in the Chocolate Chip and Cream Delight Paper Pack
  
• Photo Frame - is by Marisa at Pixel Scrapper and it's called Polaroid Frame - Grunge. This is a .png file which meant I could superimpose it over my image which makes my design look like it's a photo in a frame!
• Image - is by Wendy at All Dressed Up. This beauty is called Sea View and she was one of last month's New Release images. I have used a Sepia Technique Class by Alyce at Kit and Clowder and I used my Spectrum Noir Pens in just 5 colours (TN1, TN2, TN4, TN7 and TN9) to bring this scene to life. 
• Sentiment - is a magazine freebie, which I have stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink before die cutting the sentiment using one of the label dies in my Die'sire Essentials - Just the Ticket set

I hope that I have inspired you to come over to All Dressed Up and play along with us this month. However, if you're in need of any further inspiration please do head over to the Challenge Blog and check out the other gorgeous creations by my oh-so-talented teamies and Katrina, who is our Guest Designer this month. YOU could be our Guest Designer in July - just enter our Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image challenge this month, and be sure to enter the initials GDT after your name! The closing date for this challenge is 14th July 2017.

Don't forget that the Facebook Dressies have their own challenge running until 30th June 2017 and the theme this month is Monochromatic. You can enter one project into both challenges for more chances to win some of Wendy's gorgeous images!

If I've inspired you to have a go at colouring in sepia tones but you don't know where to start, I can highly recommend the classes at Kit and Clowder ... although I think I need waaaay more practice 😁. If you decide to sign up to any of Alyce's classes, please be sure to mention my name and let her know that I sent you over - thank you 😉!

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

• Challenge #9 - Monochrome at Daisy Chain Challenges
• June Challenge - Summer at Dare 2B Artzy
• Challenge #128 - Summer Fun at Simply Create Too
• Summer Sun at Whoopsi Daisy

That's it from me for today - whatever you're doing for the rest of the week, have fun!

Hugs, Helen x

Say Cheese!

Good afternoon friends and hope you're well.

I still seem to be hopelessly behind with all my DT makes, so I apologise if this becomes a bit of a post-fest from me in your reading list! I'm gradually getting my crafty time back however, and a huge thank you to all my DT colleagues and team leaders for being so understanding over the last couple of months! It's half term next week here at Casa Mia, so I'm planning to get myself ahead with my makes and posts, and try to stay that way too 😉

It's new challenge time at All Dressed Up and, as usual, it's Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. Wendy has plenty of gorgeous images available in the All Dressed Up Esty Store. Haven't got any All Dressed Up images (and why not?) Wendy has very generously provided some freebies here - please make sure you adhere to the terms of use if you're saving these though, to make sure they're available for other crafters to share!




And here's my card for your inspiration this month:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Snow White Silver Centura Pearl which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card base
• Mat - is Core'dinations Card in this lovely shade of pink from the Roy G. Biv pack.
  
• Embossed layer - is a further square of Snow White Silver Centura Pearl which I have embossed using my Embossalicious Birthday Text folder
• Image - is Smile It's Your Birthday by Wendy at All Dressed Up Digital Stamps. I've brought this arty girl to life using my Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers in the listed shades before fussy cutting her out. I've used another Kit and Clowder lesson from the Skin and Hair Class to create streaked hair. If you're an eagle eyed member of the K&C Facebook page, you will have seen this cutie shielded by a post-it not as I entered her into the "Streaked Hair Challenge" last week - here she is now revealed in her full beauty!
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS4, TN4,  FS8 (Blush)
• Hair - BT3, BT5, JG6, TN3, EB3, EB8, Silver Gel Pen
• Top - IG1, IG2, IG3
• Jacket and Shoes - PP3, PP5, PP6
• Trousers - TB2, TB3
• Camera - IG5, IG7, IG9, Clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen, Silver Gel Pen
• Sentiment - is part of the Smile It's Your Birthday image, which I've inserted behind a film strip frame, from a kit at Pixel Scrapper by Sheila Reid called The Best is Yet to Come. A couple of sparkly gems finished this off.

I hope I've inspired you to play along with this challenge but if you're in need of further inspiration, please do head over to the Challenge Blog and check out the other wonderful creations by my ever-so-talented teamies. Then come back and show us your creations. Don't forget that the Facebook Dressy Girls have their monthly challenge too and the theme is Romance and/or Red.

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

• Challenge #4 - Add a Sentiment at Sweet Stampers Challenge
• Challenge #182 - Add Some Texture at Crafty Cardmakers
• Challenge #71 - One for the Girls at Crafting With Dragonflies
• W2CB #38 - Celebrations at Words 2 Craft By
• Challenge #19 - Anything Goes at World Wide Open Design Team Challenge

In the meantime, have a lovely evening.

Hugs, Helen x

Follow that Star!

Good morning blogging buddies and I hope this post finds you well.

Well today, I can finally share the news I've been bursting to tell you for the last 3½ weeks! I entered the DT call and have been selected to join the Design Team at Feeling Sketchy for the autumn/winter 2015-16 term!!!!!! Regular readers will know that I often join in with sketch challenges, so this probably won't surprise some of you at all :o) ! The team has some old and new faces and all I can say is Wow, some of these girls are totally awesome designers ... you are going to be blown away by their takes on Mich's great sketches.

So, this morning brings the start of Challenge #130 and here is the sketch we'd like you to follow:

This challenge is bring kindly sponsored by Jodie and the team at Bugaboo Digital Stamps: Jodie has supplied some images for the existing DT members to use, but all us new girls had to use this sketch as the basis of our DT Application (great idea Cathy!), so we're not necessarily using sponsor images this time. Don't forget that Jodie offers a Freebie every Friday, so why not head over to her store and check out this week's freebie, plus inspiration using it from the Bugaboo Design Team.

Anyway, here's my card using Mich's sketch as the basis of my design:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is regular lightweight cardstock, which I have cut, scored and folded to around 9cm square. I've then taken my largest Die'sire Essentials Star die and ensured that the top point of the star is well over the fold of my cardstock, and then die cut this to give an opening base card
• Design Paper - is called December Snows Paper 4 and is by Paulette at Create with TLC. This paper was part of Paulette's December 2012 "Club" and has a very elegant navy blue pattern on a dark grey background, with swirling snowflakes.
• Image and Sentiment - are both by Marisa Lerin at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking. The Shooting Star comes from the Outer Space Illustrations Kit, and the Star of Wonder sentiment comes from the Star of Wonder Kit. I digitally merged these 2 items, resized them to fit my card base and printed them out. I coloured the star and it's tail using my silver gel pen before fussy cutting them and I also cut a fish tail banner into the sentiment.

This card was quite quick and easy to make, and I think a few of these little mini cards (it's around 7.5cm square!) bagged together might go down well at my Church's Christmas Fayre next month.

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

• Challenge #235 - Anything Goes at Die Cutting Divas
• Challenge #141 - Let's Get Started on Christmas (with a sentiment) at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #275 - Anything Christmas at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges
• Challenge #164 CAS at Addicted to Stamps and More
• Challenge 6 - Christmas/Winter Theme at A Snowflakes Promise (Second Entry)
• Challenge #264 - Clean and Simple at Tuesday Throwdown

I hope I've inspired you to have a go with Sketch Challenge #130 but if you need further inspiration, please head over to Feeling Sketchy and check out the awesome and varied creations from my team mates. Then come back and share your project featuring our sketch - this challenge closes on Wednesday October 14th 2015.

Hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x