Thrifty crafting?

Good morning crafty friends and hope you are all well today. Well it's the end of the Easter holidays for us, so it's back to school all round at Casa Mia!

It's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this time we're on a mission. We all know that feeling as crafters that we want our projects to look like a million dollars but we only want to spend pennies creating them? Well this week, we're hoping to pool our crafting knowledge with yours and find those fancy and frugal tips as our challenge for you this week is Faux Techniques! Now if you (like some of the IWDT who shall remain nameless!) are thinking "WHAT!!!!!!!", why don't you head over to SplitCoast Stampers and have a look at some of the amazing tutorials their designers have come up with?

Obviously, this effort deserves some reward doesn't it, and this week we've got 2 kind sponsors. The first is Emma Canning of  Flat Friends Boutique and I'll be showcasing an image by Megan of Dilly Beans tomorrow.

Emma has also given the us a selection of images to showcase, so here is my project for you featuring one of Emma's delightful images, and a Faux Button:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a premade 14.8 cm square card base which I have cut, scored and folded to make a centre stepper card
• Papers - the "Gorgeous" paper and the multi-hearts papers both come from the, sadly now retired, Strawberry Kisses CD-Rom which was produced by Crafter's Companion. I have also used a co-ordinating paper from the Vintage Floral CD-Rom, which I printed onto the reverse of the multi-hearts paper, just to add interest with a corner folded over.
  
• Image - is Love is in the Air by Emma at Flat Friends Boutique. Emma has got some really gorgeous images in her store, so please pop over and have a look and treat yourself to one or two! I've brought this sweetheart and her balloon to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before die cutting using the largest die in my Die'sire Essentials Rectangles set:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, TN2
• Hair - GB8, GB9, GB10, EB8
• Dress - BT5, BT6, BT7, Blender Pen
• Jacket - CR4, CR6, CR7
• Boots - TN7, TN8, TN9
• Balloon - CR8, CR10, CR11
• Outline - BT1
• Clouds - Craf-T chalk in Light Blue
• Sentiment - comes from a set called The Wild Ones Birthday Collection which was a cover freebie from Quick Cards Made Easy magazine. This was stamped using Memento ink in black, onto a tab shaped die from the Die'sire Just The Ticket die set before it was adhered to the back of the centre step.
• Faux Button - which I made, more-or-less!, following this tutorial by Leesa, a former teamie at The Crafty Pad. The only differences between mine and Leesa's "buttons" are that I cut mine with my smallest Die'sire Essential Hearts die, I edged with Spectrum Noir Pen EB7 and I slicked a layer of Glossy Accents over my "button" to give it some shine! I love this technique as it means I can make a button to any shape (within reason!) using the papers I've used on my project if I want, I can choose which bit of the papers I want to see as the top of my button. and I can choose how many button holes to have and where they go! Here, I was able to to centre the word "gorgeous" in my button before using my punching tool:

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and check out the wonderful creations by my very talented team-mates. Don't forget to come back and share your favourite Faux Techniques with us - this challenge will end on Sunday 26th April 2015.

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

• 3 of Something at Top Tip Tuesday - I'm using 3 different papers and 3 different shaped die cuts. My TOP TIP for you this time is to use your smaller dies and punches to make faux buttons so that your buttons effortlessly co-ordinate with your project!
• Favourite Alcohol Markers or Distress Inks (and why) at As You Like It Challenge - It's Spectrum Noir (Alcohol) pens all the way for me. Why? I fell in love with the Crafter's Companion brand 4 years ago when I bought my Ultimate Pro and started out making cards. These pens came out a few months later and I bought the base sets (which I've gradually added to), PLUS I don't actually own any Distress Inks .....  !!!!!!!!!!!!! That's pretty conclusive then! ;o)
• Challenge 76 - Anything Goes with a Twist ... Use a Die or Punch at Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge
• Challenge #89 - Use a Die Cut at Chocolate, Coffee & Cards
• Layer it Up with Christine at CD Sunday Challenge

I'll be back tomorrow to share my card using a Dilly Beans image. Until then, have a good day!

Hugs, Helen x

Green Welly Brigade

Good morning friends!


Hope this post finds you well. Mother in Law is getting more confident on her crutches each day and therefore more mobile and more independent ;o) , so the volume of checking up on her is reducing slightly. As well as getting to my studio class and pounding the treadmill this week, I've found time to do a bit of crafting.


In my B.C. crafting days (B.C. = Before Cardmaking!) I was an avid lacemaker, and could regularly be found with my late mother at local fetes and country shows with our pillows and "makes". Some of the time we sported wellies (country shows can be messy affairs!) and yes, mine were green!!! A mutual friend of ours also demonstrated and sported green wellies, and we quickly became known amongst lacemaking friends as the "Lace Trimmed Green Welly Society"! Another friend (who also made lace bobbins) made us all membership bobbins, with a pair of green wellies trimmed with lace on them and my membership number was 4. Sadly, I don't think the "LTGWS" is still going, but I reminded of those happy days when I was going through some of my digis, and this card was born.

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a pre-made 14.7 cm square card in white cardstock
• Design Papers - are from my favourite CD-Rom at the moment ... Sugar and Spice Papercraft
  
  CD-Rom Collection. I have matted and layered these onto Kraft Cardstock
• Image - is called Pattern Wellies and it comes from the pen of Claire at Jellypark. This is a new store for Claire (she had to close her old store down at the end of December thanks to the new EU VAT rules on digital sales) so she is in the process of transferring her many images across - the wellies aren't there yet! I coloured these wellies using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the shades listed, before die cutting them using a Sizzix Framelits Oval Die.
• Outside of wellies - DG2, DG3, DG4, PL1, PL2
• Inside of wellies - EB1, EB2
• Ground - EB1, EB2, EB5
• Outline - CG1
• Sentiment - is a magazine freebie, from Quick Cards Made Easy, and I stamped this directly onto my DP using Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black.
• Some buttons from my stash, and a die cut flower using Die'sire Classiques Delicate Flower edged with a Papermania Hot Pink ink completed this card.

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

• Challenge #289 at Tuesday Morning Sketches
• Challenge #126 - Bingo plus a sentiment at Aud Sentiments Challenge I'm claiming the diagonal from bottom left to top right of two pattern papers, flowers (die cut, on a DP and on the image!) and die cut.
• Challenge #74 - Anything Goes with a Twist - use some buttons at Fan-Tastic Tuesday
• Challenge #98 - Anything Green at Ruby's Rainbow

Hope you have a good Sunday!

Hugs, Helen x