Howdy Partner!

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

Good morning friends - hope you are all well today.

It's time for a new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and this week's challenge is to make a card For the Men in Your Life. It could be a Christmas card or, if you're fed up of seasonal makes, it could be a Birthday, Anniversary or a 'just because' card. 

Our sponsor for this challenge is Gerda and her lovely team from Stamp Fairy and they are offering this week's lucky winner a $10 Gift Certificate to their store. Gerda's gorgeous digis combine cuteness with whimsy and with such a large range of images in her store, there's bound to be the one for you! 

Gerda has also kindly supplied us with some of her "male" images for us to use this week (thanks Gerda!) and here is my card for you:

My card recipe is follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Regal Blue (from a pack of Darks by Crafter's Companion) which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square easel card.
• Design Papers - come from the Fathers and Fedoras Kit by Summer at Summertime Designs. I have used the Yellow Paper which I embossed using my Embossalicious Birthday Text Embossing Folder.
  
  The mid-layer is called Random Blue Paper and I have die cut this using the second largest of the Sizzix Framelits Scallop Squares Dies. 
• Image - this cowboy pig is in the set Pigs Cowboys 1 and come from the pen and/or mouse of Gerda at Stamp Fairy. I brought Pig to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours, before die cuttin him using the second largest of the Sizzix Framelits Scallop Squares Dies:
• Skin - EB1, EB2, FS9
• Necker and Band on Stetson - TB3, TB4
• Stetson - GB8, GB10
• Outline - IG1
• Sentiment - is an old favourite called Happy Birthday Flag - this has seen many an outing on a birthday card! It is by Paulette from Create with TLC and was a download from her blog in August 2012. I've recoloured this into a toning blue shade using my word processing programme.

I've only realised as I'm writing this post (and getting the links for you) that Gerda has a freebie text available to download to go with the images in this cowboy set, but as my nephew is celebrating his birthday today it's a bit late to go tweaking my card now! Will my memory banks remember this the next time I use this image I wonder?

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the other 'male' creations by my teamies, Sandy (with her last creation as our Guest Designer for November) and our Special Guest Designers from Stamp Fairy Blog, Céline and Martina - thanks for sharing your creativity with us this week! Don't forget to come back and show us your projects For the Men in Your Life! This challenge will end on Sunday 1st December 2013.

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

• Challenge #17 - Birthdays at Paper Creator's Crafts 2nd Entry
• Anything Goes 4 Kids at Send a Smile 4 Kids

That's it from me ... for the moment. I'll be back a little later with another post for you but, in the meantime, take care!

Hugs, Helen x

Halloween

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

Good morning my crafty friends and I hope you are well. Firstly I must apologise for the delay (again!) in this post going out. We are in the middle of redecorating, and I am down to sharing the computer with the rest of the family in the dining room ... which doesn't help when my other half doesn't know about my Design Team positions!!!!

What an intricate web I've woven, which is perfect for the new challenge that Susan has set over at Lexi's Creations - for this fortnight, our challenge is Halloween.

Our wonderful sponsors for this challenge are the fabby team at Joanna Sheen who are offering a £10 gift voucher to their wonderful craft store for our lucky winner. Now that's a prize worth playing for!

 



Front of Gift Pouch

Now I must confess to not knowing what to create for this challenge as we don't celebrate Halloween! However, on the day when I was sitting down to the week's DT projects I saw a great post on my crafty friend Annette's blog ... and she was faced with exactly the same dilemma. So (deep breath here!) I have cased her gift pouch project and using lovely seasonal image from Lexi's on-line store this is what I've made to inspire you:




Back of Gift Pouch

My Gift Pouch recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is Neenah Classic Crest Card onto which I printed my Gift Pouch Template and Images. I the made masks for the images using repositionable sticky notes which I cut out and put over my images, before running the card through the printer again to print out my background.
• Gift Pouch - is Treat Tent template from WendyBird Designs. This download comes with five different window shapes including a circle. I used a freebie from the Barry Spooky Bats set at Stamp Fairy which is 2 bats, some clouds and a moon. I superimposed this image onto the circular window shape so that the moon became my cut out section. As one bat was flying across the moon, I cut it out and repositioned it on one of the clouds.
• The bats were coloured using my Spectrum Noir Pen in True Black
• The clouds were lightly coloured using my chalks in Grey and Black 
• Design Paper - Summer at Summertime Designs and is called Web Paper from the Happy Halloween set ... this is just perfect for this treat bag as I wanted my girl vampire to really stand out.
• Image - This gorgeous girl is called "Little Minx" and she is one of the newly releases created by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. I brought this cutie to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, PL4
• Hair - EB1, PL4, True Black, Colourless Blender
• Dress & Suspenders - PL4, PL5, Silver Gel Pen
• Boots - True Black, Silver Gel Pen
• Necklace - True Black, Silver Gel Pen
• Stockings - True Black
• Wings - IG4, Silver Gel Pen
• Outline - IG1
• Ribbon - Black Organza ribbon from my stash

Head on over to Lexi's Creations and see how incredibly talented team-mates and our fabulous Guest Designers Carol and her 12 year old Granddaughter Alexis are celebrating Halloween - don't forget to come back and share your projects with us! You've got until Saturday 27th October 2012 to link your cards up.

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

• Challenge 19 - Spooky at Stampin' for the Weekend
• Challenge #39 - Halloween at Creatalicious Challenges
• Challenge #29 - Halloween at The Cutie Pie Challenge
• Fortnightly Challenge 47 - Halloween and/or Autumn at Forever Friends
• Challenge 43 - Halloween at Dream Valley Challenges
• Too Cute To Spook at Di's Digi Designs
• Fall/Halloween Challenge at Scrappy Frogs Challenge - Second Entry
• Challenge #185 - BOO-tacular at Stamptacular Sunday
• Challenge #44 - Black, White and One Colour - Card Crafter's Circle
• Challenge 87 - Things with Wings at Top Tip Tuesday Second Entry My TOP TIP for you here is make your design all on one layer (your base card) by printing out the template and images on your base card. Print this out again onto some spare card with a sticky note (or 2 in the case of my Little Minx image!) over the images making sure that some of the sticky will be there once you cut round your image. Fussy cut round the image prints on the sticky notes and position them over the image prints on your base card. Then run the card through the printer to print out your background. Peel off the sticky notes and, hey presto, your image looks like it's superimposed onto the background!

Hugs, Helen x

Beary Nice!

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

Good Morning All!

Sorry this post is a little late ... I've had rather a hectic weekend doing lots of boring (yawn!) but very essential paperwork, and although I made my card, I didn't get a chance to write the post. Anyway, it being a Monday morning it's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs, and this week it's Bears, Bears, Bears!

Our sponsor this week is the lovely Gerda from The Stamp Fairy, and she is offering this week's lucky winner a $10 Gift Certificate to her store. And with so many great images there, you're sure to be spoilt for choice! Gerda has also provided some images for the DT to use this week and, as it that wasn't enough, we've been joined by Chrissy and Larissa from The Stamp Fairy DT. Gorgeous inspiration ladies, thank you!

So, here is my beary (sorry, I just couldn't help myself!) nice card featuring a Stamp Fairy image:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Snow White, which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Design Paper - is from my The Snowman Papercrafting CD-Rom. I tweaked the colour using the in-built 'Colouriser' function to reach this shade of blue. I then embossed a large star shape which is on my Ultimate Pro onto the paper, and then cut this out.
• Image - This gorgeous little bear is called Toby Everyday Angel 4 and you can get him and other complimentary designs) by clicking here. I have brought Toby to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Bear Fur - BGR1, BGR3
• Bear Nose - IB2
• Bear Halo - Silver Gel Pen
• Outline - IG1
• Wings - TB1, Silver Gel Pen to make hatched lines to give a gauzy effect
• Clouds - IG1, Silver Gel Pen
• Background - Chalks in Light Blue
• Edge lines - Silver Gel Pen
• Sentiment - is by the talented Paulette at Create with TLC and was a freebie she gave away on her blog in August last year. As soon as I saw the image selection, I knew this was the sentiment I would use for this card as it is just perfect! I drew lines around the edge of my sentiment in Silver Gel Pen, so it ties in with my image.

There is bucketloads of wonderful inspiration over at Incy Wincy Designs, not only from my talented team-mates and The Stamp Fairy girls, but we also have Saumya joining us as a Guest Designer this month. So do check out their gorgeous Bears, Bears, Bears projects and leave the girls some blog love! Don't forget to come back and share your creations with us - you've got until Sunday 7th October 2012 to link your cards up.

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

• Challenge #28 - Use a Digi at The Cutie Pie Challenge
• Challenge #136 - Pretty Pastels at Totally Papercrafts (Second Entry)
• Fortnightly Challenge 46 - Anything Goes at Forever Friends
• Challenge #5 - Let's See your Humour at Chalk 'n' Stock - I know it's not side splitting humour, but I think my sentiment is quite amusing in relation to the image!

Hugs, Helen x

Happy Birthday with "Lenny Cupcakes 2"

Hi,

My eldest came home from school last night and said it was her friend's birthday; could I do a card? Luckily I had this topper sat ready to mount on a card, so I quickly finished this card off. I apologise for the poor quality of the photos, but they were taken in great haste before school this morning (and it was quite foggy here so the light levels were not brilliant!).

My base card is 300gsm Centura Pearl in White, available from Crafter's Companion, which I folded to make a 6 inch square card base. The digital image on the topper is "Lenny Cupcakes 2" available from Stamp Fairy. This was the image I won from Karen in July, when the Stamp Fairies organised a Blog Hop to celebrate Gerda's birthday. Thank you Karen :o) !!!!!! It is mounted onto a digital paper from the set Urbanized 2 by Heather Jolly's Digital Scrapping. I've just tried to link to the site from this post but I get a message saying the blog has been removed :o(  I do hope this is just a blogger error, because Heather had some stunning sets on her blog available for download.  The "Happy Birthday" ticket is a freebie from Stamp Fairy. The red organza ribbon came from my stash (it was bought from Hobbycraft) and was tied into a little bow using the bow maker on my Ultimate Pro (from Crafter's Companion).

I used my Spectrum Noirs (Crafter's Companion) in the following colours to bring Lenny and his little friend to life:

Lenny

Fur: 96, 91, 98

Nose: 120

Paws: 33

Hat: 84, 82, 81

Friend

Fur: 104, 100, 92

Nose: 120

Paws: 33

Balloon: 12, 14, 11

Cupcake

Case: 171, 68

Icing: 137, 8

Cherry: 15, 48

I embossed the coloured image and my backing paper using the 2 largest sizes of circular 'nests' on the  Ultimate Pro Embossing Board "Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats" and cut these out so they could be layered. Before I did this I sprayed (quite liberally :D!) my coloured design with Iridescent Spray and Shine (Crafter's Companion again! lol!), although this layer of glitter really doesn't show up terribly well in the photo above - sorry :o(

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

• Glitter Challenge at Stamp Fairy
• Challenge #5 Bears at The Cutie Pie Challenge

I hope you like this card.

Hugs,
Helen x