A "Pizza" the Action

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

Hello Crafty Friends and, as promised, here is my second post of the day.

Sooooo, did any of you make any New Year's resolutions? I don't, mainly because I normally break them within the first week! But I've got some crafty ones tucked up my sleeve: 

• use some of the many digis in my stash
• finish off my PHD's  ... projects half done 😉
• make cards that are not DT projects
• do my Kit and Clowder classes to improve my colouring
• don't buy more stash, because I've nearly got enough to open a craft store anyway!

Errrmmmmmm ... you'd better wish me luck with these! 😜Have you made any crafty resolutions?

Anyway, back to work!

Today sees the start of our new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and our challenge this fortnight should be a nice and easy one to break you into the New Year gently .... Celebrate! What and how you celebrate is up to you, we just want to see your projects that celebrate anything; birthdays, weddings, graduations, new babies .........

We've got 2 fabby sponsors lined up for you.

The first is new to us and it's the team at Diddybag who are offering a $20 Gift Certificate to one of our lucky winners. Here's a little about them:

Diddybag offers over 10,000 sets of clipart.

We sell vector art and jpg/png. Starting at 99¢ and up.

From Adorable whimsical animals and children to elegant Victorian art.

All CU. No license necessary. All vector sets can be made into cutting files,

although the 99¢ Economy sets are subject to the artist’s terms.

We also have lots of scrapping and outlines for coloring as well.

Join our newsletter and receive news of our new sets, sales and freebies!

Our second sponsor is Naz from Sasayaki Glitter Digital Stamps and Naz is offering our second lucky winner one uncoloured digital image from her store. Naz also has a Challenge Blog and you can find her Facebook Group here.

Both of our sponsors have generously provided us with some digis to showcase, so here goes with my first project, a Pizza Box Party Invitation:

This little box was so quick and simple to put together, once I had played around with the digis and got the topper and invitation designed and printed out, and I thought these would be quite neat to hand out on the playground!

My project recipe is as follows:

• Pizza Box - is a 6 inch x 11 inch piece of lightweight card (I used cream but you could use
  
  white and print a background design onto it, or even kraft card for a more authentic look!) which I scored, cut and folded using my Ultimate Pro and Boxer Board following this tutorial at SplitCoast Stampers
• Topper and Inside Sheet - have been designed in my word processing package to fit in a 10 x 10 cm square, using images from the Pizza Party Set from Diddybag. I used the free font Coffee House for the black text and everything else came from the set! There's room on the back of the inside sheet to add the party details.

I hope that I've inspired you to come over to Incy Wincy Designs and Celebrate! with us, but if you are in need of any further inspiration do head over to the blog and check out the other great creations from my talented teamies! We'll be back with our next challenge on 16th January 2017.

I'll be back a little later to link this project up to some blog challenges.

In the meantime, take care!

Hugs, Helen x

Prom Queen

Good morning everyone!

Hope this post finds you well and, if you celebrate May Day, you are enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend. Hope you've not been affected by the weather madness either ... I am fed up of hail and chilly winds, after all it is May now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's new challenge time over at Feeling Sketchy and I must confess that, although I like the end result of my project this time, it was rather a challenge!

We've got the lovely Jodie from Bugaboo Stamps as our sponsor for this challenge. She has so many amazing digis to suit all tastes that I'm confident our lucky prize winner will have no difficulty in enjoying their prize pack!

So here's Michelle's sketch for this challenge:

And here's my "take" on it:

I have created my very first scrapbook page! And it's wholly digital to boot!!!!!!!!

When eldest Bambino left High School last summer, I promised her that we would work together and scrap memories from Year 11. Well this sketch was just the impetus I needed to start scrapping! She helped me with it by choosing the photos and also the font on the journal card and banner.

My project recipe is as follows:

• Base layer - is Light Gray Flourish paper and it comes from a set from the sadly closed Summertime Designs called Dryer Lint at Tiffany's. I'm a bit of a techno numpty when it comes to PhotoShop, so I've used Microsoft Word to do the whole thing. I inserted the paper into Word as a picture, and then sized it to 15cm square, which will fit the scrapbook Bambino has got.
• Journal Cards - are from Winter Arabesque - Journal Cards kit by Melo Vrijhof at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking. I've used the Banners Journal Card and the Flag Journal Card to which we've added the date and venue by using a text box with "no fill" and "no lines". The font Bambino chose is called Harrington.
• Ribbons - are the Floral Ribbon from Melo's Winter Arabesque - Elements kit at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking
  
• Flower Paperclips - are from the retired Dryer Lint at Tiffany's kit by Summer at Summertime Designs. I've used Paperclip 13 which is a nice dark teal colour, toning in with Bambino's dress.
• Sentiment Banner - is another Word text box, this time with a grey fill and no line. The font Bambino chose is Harrington again.

Using the Word Picture Format tools, I was able to insert a drop shadow behind all the elements to give a 3D impression to the page.

So now all I have to figure out is how to print is out so the photos don't lose any definition, and then we'll pop it into Bamino's scrapbook!

If Michelle's sketch has got you stumped too, please head over to the Feeling Sketchy blog and see the other amazing creations by my wonderful teamies. Then don't forget to come back and show us your take on our sketch for a chance to be our lucky prize winner this time, or in the DT's Top 3! We'll be back with our new challenge on 15th May 2016.

I would like to enter this scrapbook layout into the following challenges:

• Challenge #309 - Always Anything Goes at Craft Your Passion
• Challenge #31 - April Challenge at Not Just Cards
• Challenge #139 - Lots of Layers at Creative Knockouts
• Challenge #2 - Always Anything Goes at Crafting in a Beautiful Mess
• Week 16 - Swirls and Flourishes at Polkadoodles - the swirls and flourishes are on my background

Have a great weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

All Aboard!

Good evening crafty friends!

I hope, like me, that you've been enjoying some very seasonal spring-like weather. My poor washing machine is in a state of shock as I've been doing so much laundry!

It's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this time we'd like you to be Inspired by a Song, Book or Movie. So, make sure your creation represents your favourite and don't forget to tell us what it is!!!

We've got 2 lovely sponsors lined up for you with 2 great prizes and, I have to say, most of the DT will be showcasing both sponsors because (like me) they simply couldn't choose which sponsor's images to use :oD!!!!!!!

Our first sponsor is the lovely Sami from Sami Stamps who is offering a prize pack to our first random winner.

Our second sponsor is new to us here at Incy Wincy, but has been around blogland for a while - welcome to Nikki from Melonheadz Illustrating. Nikki is offering our second random winner a bundle from her store

For this card, I have been inspired by youngest Bambino and my favourite Christmas film of all time .... The Polar Express. Both before Christmas and during the holidays it's our "snuggle up together" film! And like The Polar Express, this card keeps on surprising as it's a "Never-ending" card:

First side:

Second side:

Third side:

Fourth side:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is white cardstock which I've cut, scored and folded, using my Ultimate Pro following this tutorial which I found on SplitCoast Stampers. I will say that the written instructions once the 2 layers are stuck together are exceedingly difficult to follow, however once I'd watched the video the folds made complete sense!
• Papers - are from the Nordic Christmas CD-Rom, which I believe is out of stock or has been retired at Crafter's Companion. I've cut the papers to size for each panel of the card following the tutorial.
• Images - are from the North Pole Express Set by Nikki at Melonheadz Illustrating. I wanted to use the whole set so that my never-ending card told the story of the film, so the children on side 2 are three separate images which I've put together; on side 3 I've put the elf and present together, and also Santa and his sack. These images are all pre-coloured and are also .png files, which means they have no background so can be layered onto something else straightaway. Because I wanted a small white border around each image, I have printed these separately to my papers and then fussy cut each image out.
• Sentiments - the "Believe" sentiment is by Paulette at Create with TLC and was a goodie from the 2011 Christmas Club. The lower sentiment is computer generated using a free downloadable front called Scriptina.

So there you have it, my card inspired by my favourite film. Soon, I will be bringing you a card featuring an image by our other sponsor which has been inspired by one our my favourite songs. 

In the meantime though, do head over to Incy Wincy Designs to see how my very talented teamies have been Inspired by a Song, Book or Movie and then come back and show us your projects. Just don't forget to tell us which Song, Book or Movie you've been inspired by ... otherwise you won't be able to qualify for one of our prizes :o(

We've also got a DT Call on at the moment too - all the details are on this post. Don't forget that you don't have to have had DT experience (we all started somewhere!) we'd rather that you are a fun person who enjoys crafting!

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

• April Challenge - Travelling/Transport at Bunny Zoe's Crafts - this project is based on a journey to the North Pole to see Santa on a train called The Polar Express
• Challenge #102 - Fancy Folds at The Paper Girls Challenge - my fancy fold has been created by cleverly glueing 4 six inch by 3 inch pieces of card together so that unfolding the card never ends!
• H is for Hat (Christmas of course!) at ABC Christmas Challenge - Santa and his elf are "rocking" their hats!
• Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas at Crafty Hazel Nuts Christmas Extra Challenge
• CHNC #278 - Use a Sentiment at Crafty Hazel Nuts Christmas Challenge
• Challenge #01 at Classic Design Team Open Challenge Second Entry

Whatever you're up to this evening, have fun!

Hugs, Helen x

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

Thanks a Latte!

Hi friends!

Hope you are well today and not overwhelmed by the wet weather that seems to have hit the UK. Yesterday, Papa Mia's weather station recorded over an inch of rain in 24 hours ... it's a far cry from the gorgeous sunshine we experienced last week!

As promised in yesterday's post, I'm back today with another inspiration card for the current challenge at Incy Wincy Designs. Just as a recap, this week's challenge is Thankful for you so we're looking for your projects which say "Thank you"!

Today I'm showcasing an image from our second sponsor, who is our very own Nikki from Limited Runs Digital Stamps. In yesterday's post, I used an image drawn by Emma Canning from Flat Friends Boutique. Both ladies are very kindly offering a prize pack, so we'll have 2 lucky winners on Monday! 

For this card I've been inspired by 2 current challenges: the first is the World Card Making Day Special Challenge at Feeling Sketchy (which Cathy invited us DT girls to take part in) and the second is the current sketch at Sketch Saturday which, being CAS, is right up my street!

So, without further ado here is today's card for you:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Kraft cardstock which has been cut, scored and folded to a 9.9cm square card
• Paper - is from the October Club Inspire download from Crafter's Companion which is called Autumn Days. I edge distressed the paper with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, just to make it stand out from the base card
  
• Image - is by Nikki at Limited Runs Digital Stamps and it's called Coffee Addicts #3. I have brought this winter warmer to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before fussy cutting the cup out:
• Cup - GT1, GT2, GT3
• Label & Bands - GB5, GB6, GB7
• Frosting - TN6, Blender Pen
• Sentiment - has been CASE'd from Bugaboo's Coffee Time - Thanks a Latte image and sentiment set. However because Jodi's sentiment didn't fit the sketch layout, I've retyped this in my word processing package using a free font called Coffee House and coloured it to tie in with the colour swatch. I cut the sentiment into a fishtail banner shape, before distressing the edge with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the wonderful creations by my fab team mates ... also, please say farewell to Amy who is leaving us after this challenge :o(  Bye Amy, I shall miss your gorgeous creations.

As a result, we are having a DT Call! Sooooooo, if you're interested in joining our fun team (and we do have fun!), please send an email to incywincychallenge@hotmail.com with a link to your site, and tell us a little bit about yourself!!! No DT experience is necessary - we are just looking for HAPPY crafters who like to have a good time. You must be able to work with digital images and be able to create on a weekly basis.


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

• World Card Making Day Special Colour Challenge at Feeling Sketchy
• Week #381 at Sketch Saturday
• Challenge #161 - Autumn Leaves/Colours of Fall at Eureka Stamps
• Fall is in the Air at Melonheadz Friends
• Monday Challenge - Autum is in the Air at Simon Says Stamp Challenge
• October Challenge - Brown or Kraft at Stamp and Create Challenges

Hope you have a great rest of the week!

Hugs, Helen x 

Sheep Dreams!

Well, howdy folks ... hope you are well today!

It's been a rather busy week here at Casa Mia, and this will probably be my last post of the week, and apologies for this one being overdue too!

In my Monday post, I let you know about the new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs - well the challenge of Old MacDonald Had a Farm is still active, and I'm finally able to share my DT make with you. Just to recap, we're looking for your creations which feature animals and/or objects you would find on a farm!

We're being sponsored this week by the lovely Laurie from Doodle Pantry who is kindly offering this week's prize winner a great prize package. Laurie also kindly offered each member of the DT their choice of image to use for this challenge.

Regular readers will know that some of my creations come with a "back story" and this project is no exception. 14 years ago, we first started camping in southern Brittany with Bambino (now eldest Bambino!) and we used one of the companies who have a tent permanently pitched on a site so all you have to do is "move in". All went well with this holiday, the campsite was full of either very young families or grannies and grandpas, however persuading Bambino to sleep in the evenings when it was light and she could hear people moving around, eating outside etc. was proving slightly difficult. We had a cassette with us which we used to play in the car which was called (if memory serves me correctly) Lavender Lamb on Blossom Farm and there was a different song about each of the animals on the farm (I can only remember Dillon Donkey, but there were quite a few other animals too) as well as songs about the fun the animals had on the farm. Well we played this tape to death I think, because Bambino would only fall asleep with this tape playing in the background - thank goodness for auto-reverse tape players! Anyway, as soon as I saw this image I knew exactly what I was creating ... even though there are no babies in sight at Casa Mia!

My Door Hanger recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Snow White, which is made from one panel of A4 tri-fold. I found the centre of my panel, judged how high I wanted my door handle 'hole' to be and then used a die from the Die'sire Essentials Circles to make an opening
• Papers - are from a kit by Janet Scott at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking called Tiny, but Mighty Solid Papers. I have used the Dark Pink Fabric and Light Green Fabric Papers and digitally sized and layered these before adding the sentiment 
  
• Image - is by Laurie at Doodle Pantry and is called Sheep Dreams. In this gorgeous set you get 2 versions of the lamb and also 3 different sentiments. I have brought my lamb to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours before cutting it out:
• Lamb - PP1, PP3, PP5, PP6
• Grass - CG1, CG2, CG3
• Sentiment - is computer generated using the word art facility in my word processing package and I digitally layered this over the papers before printing

Please come on over to Incy Wincy Designs and see the lovely farm creations made by talented team mates. Then come back and show us your creations which feature things you would find on Old MacDonald's Farm - this challenge ends on Sunday 13th June.

Hope you have a fab day!

Hugs, Helen x

It's a Cat's Life!

Evening all! Hope this post finds you well and if not, gently hugs are winging their way to you.

Today see's the start of a new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and we've got a fabby sketch challenge for you. Here's the sketch we'd like you to follow, but of course you can rotate it or flip it if you wish!

As usual, we've got a lovely sponsor lined up for you, and this week it's Sal from SLS Lines who is offering our lucky prize winner 3 digital images from her store. And here's a little bit about Sal:

I work as a freelance illustrator and creative designer and am the Art Director of ArtTrader Magazine. I love creating comic style art and working in mixed media. I love my wacom pen and tablet! 

And here is my card (I've tried to go for a vintage/cottage-y feel. What do you think?) featuring one of Sal's cute images:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - pre-made card in white approx 14.7 cm square
• Papers - are from a set called Spread Your Wings by Sharon-Dewi Stolp at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking. I have used Polka Dots Paper, and digitally layered Foliage Paper and then Stripes Paper onto this. I put a brown border round these papers as a faux mat. The top layer of paper is called Damask Large Paper and also has a brown faux mat.
  
• Image - is by Sal at SLS Lines and is called Lazy House Cat - click on the link to get your own copy! I brought this feline friend and his comfy cushions to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours, before fussy cutting him out and fixing him to my card.
• Cat - EB1, EB2, EB3, TN2 (not sure I've got the fur texture quite right ... hmmmm!)
• Cushions - JG1, JG2, JG3, PP4, PP5, PP6, EB1, EB2, Gold Gel Pen
• Sentiment - is computer generated in my word processing programme which I layered over a ticket from the retired Tags Labels set which I got from the (sadly now closed) Digi Doodle Shop
• Embellishments - the pale pink organdie ribbon and Pearls are from my stash

Now you've seen my card, please head over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the inspiration from my fabby team mates - how can the same sketch make such different cards! Don't forget to then get creating and come back to play along with us this week - this challenge finishes on Sunday 7th June!

I would like to enter the following challenges:

• Challenge 5 - Always Anything Goes at Simply Papercraft Challenges
• Challenge #264 - Always Anything Goes at Craft Your Passion Challenges
• Photo Inspiration and End of Term Blog Hop at House of Cards - I've been inspired by the pink and green colours and the cushions, though it might take me a couple of weeks to hop through you all and link my card up! ;o)

Hugs,  Helen x

Mum's the Word!

Morning all and hope you are well.


It's new challenge time at Lexi's Creations and this one will get you organised super early as we're looking for your creations for Mother's Day. Your creation doesn't just have to be a card ... a gift, scrapbook page, anything as long as it is something you can give to your Mum on Mother's Day.


Of course everyone likes the opportunity to win a prize, and this fortnight our sponsor is the lovely Lexi from Fairy Dust Crafts who will be letting our lucky winner choose 5 digital images from her store. Fairy Dust Crafts  is "Your one stop shop for Lexi's Digi images and a growing choice of delicious crafting goodies. Here you can find all Lexi's Creations digital images...also available as clear rubber stamps plus other crafting goodies in store now!" Lexi has very kindly let us loose in the store too, and here is my card featuring one of her gorgeous digis:

It's the first time I've made a teepee card, and it's one I think I'll make again, especially as it doesn't quite look like I've coated the card in glue and then thrown my embellishments tin at it!!!!! My uncluttered style remains intact!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is normal printer card in cream which I have cut into 10.5cm squares, and then scored, folded and stuck to make the Teepee card.
• Design Papers - are from a set called Enchanted which are available from a scrapbooking site I've found called Pixel Scrapper. The papers I've used are called Colourful Roses and Wood and were both designed by Sheila Reid. 
  
• Image - this lovely scene is called Butterflies and it comes from the pen of Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. I've brought the image to life very simply using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours before I die cut it using my third largest Framelits Oval Die with an "Out of the Box" technique:
• Butterflies - CR4, CR5, CR6, GB9, GB10
• Flower - LV2, LV3, GB9, JG6, JG7
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment- is digitally put together using 2 elements from the Enchanted kit: the Love Circle Stamp and Purple Stain, both designed by Brooke Gazarek. I've then added a computer generated sentiment to this using the Kristen font in my word processing package to make the sentiment appropriate for my MiL (regular readers may remember that she's a "church" lady, so normal Mother's Day sentiments are no good!). I then printed this out onto the same cream coloured card, before mounting it on a blank side of the teepee.
• Bow - is made using ribbon from a recent "grab bag" purchase (Hobbycraft - £5), a button from an Assorted Bag and finished with a twine bow.

So, there you have it ... an unusual card for my MiL for Mothering Sunday. I hope you'll come over to Lexi's Creations and see the other gorgeous makes from the DT and our Guest Designer Bo, and then come back and share your Mother's Day projects with us. This challenge will close on Saturday 15th March 2014.

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

• March Challenge - One for the Girls at Bearly Mine Inpsiration & Challenges
• G is for Girls at ABC Challenges
• Fun Folds at Sweet Stamps
• Challenge #64 - Something Spooled  at The Squirrel and The Fox - Ribbon and Twine
• Challenge #101 - any Sentiment for a Girl at Aud Sentiments

Hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x