Spring has Sprung!

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

Ooops - got rather carried away with life yesterday, and I forgot to post my inspiration for the new challenge at  Incy Wincy Designs. Really sorry girls! Everyone's back to work and school now, and I've got my days off back to myself, sooooo normal service should be resumed!

The challenge topic for this week is Spring is in the Air! Well it certainly is here on the south coast of the UK. We've got wall to wall sunshine today, although a breeze is rather keeping the temperatures down. Our garden is filling out a bit now with the Aqualeigas, Broom, Clematis and Dicentra all in flower.

We've got 2 fabulous sponsors this week ... and you won't want to miss these prizes!

Firstly, Laurie from Doodle Pantry is offering our first lucky prize winner 3 digital images from her store. Here's a little bit from her:

Hello, my name is Laurie.   I'm just a regular Joe crafter.  While trying to find digital images that met my own crafting needs, I decided to draw some of my own, as I had so many unique ideas that I just couldn’t locate elsewhere. I truly enjoy what I do and enjoy sharing the creativity that God has given me in the hopes it will inspire others to create too.  I have a variety of doodling styles and I like to keep a diverse selection at hand.
I hope you enjoy creating to your hearts content with some of my doodles.   I sincerely hope something here inspires you to go create something special that then puts a smile on another's face. ~Laurie

Secondly, Heather from Heather Ellis is offering our second lucky prize winner 3 digital images from her store.

Both Laurie and Heather kindly gave the DT some images to work with this week. Now I love Heather's cutesey images, but as time was of the essence last week (regular readers will know that I spent most of last week being chauffeur and packed lunch chef, as we had our half term holidays and were out nearly every single day!) I'm afraid I cheated a bit and made the following project:

My project recipe is as follows:

• Candle - small unscented block candle in white from Ikea
• Image - pre-coloured flowers from the Spring Song Birdies Color Plus Kit by Laurie at Doodle Pantry. I printd the image out onto white tissue paper and left it to dry. Then, I carefully cut around the image and then placed it onto the candle holding it in place with a piece of Greaseproof Paper. I then used my heat gun (since I treated myself to this, I've got past the stage of needing to use my hairdryer now!) to heat this 'sandwich' up and make the image melt into the candle … just be very careful that you don’t burn yourself at the same time. There is a great tutorial on SplitCoast Stampers with a video showing you how to do this!

Here's a close up of part of the image:

These candles are so quick and easy to make, and look fabulous! With the end of the academic year approaching in the UK, I think these candles would make great, and quite inexpensive) gifts for teachers or classroom helpers.

Linda is our new Guest Designer with us for the month of June, so please head over to Incy Wincy Designs  and see what she and the rest of my teamies have created to show that Spring is in the Air! Whilst you're hopping around blogland, why not visit the Doodle Pantry Blog where some of their DT are showcasing their Spring projects, as well as featuring some of ours too! Don't forget to come back and show us your Spring creations - if you use a Doodle Pantry image, you can join in with their current challenge as well. The Incy Wincy Designs challenge will close on Sunday  9th June 2013.

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

• Anything Goes at Crafter's Digital Art Center
• Challenge #1 - Anything Goes at Crafty Friends Challenge

Hope you have a great day - enjoy the sunshine if you've got it!

Hugs, Helen x

Lighting up a New Home

Welcome to Monday morning friends and time for a new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs. Before I get to that I would like to welcome my newest follower Annette. Annette makes some really delicious cards, and currently has a Candy Challenge over at her blog.





 
Back to the matter in hand and this week's challenge. This week we're playing Bingo (Tic-Tac-Toe) and using the board below, we're going for a row, column or diagonal of 3.

We've got two lovely sponsors for you  again this week who are both offering amazing prizes.


Our first sponsor is Iva Nova Chest who are offering our first lucky winner this beautiful goodie bag featuring flowers, ribbon and bling in shades of purple.



Our second sponsor is our very own Incy Wincy Teamie Nikki, from Limited Runs Digital Stamps. Nikki is offering our second lucky winner a prize of 3 digis from her store, and she has kindly provided the Design Team with some gorgeous images to showcase this week.




So here is my project for you, featuring the middle row of Punch, Metal Pins and Anything but a Card - a Candle Gift for someone moving into a New Home:

My project recipe is as follows:

• Candle - small unscented block candle in white from Ikea
• Image - This sweet little bird house is called Birdhouse #2 by Nikki at Limited Runs Digital Stamps. I printed the image first onto some thin card before then carefully taping a piece of white tissue paper over the top of the printed image, and then used my Spectrum Noir Pens to bring this little nest box to life.
• Sentiment - computer generated
• Borders - from the Paintbox Poppets Papercrafting CD-Rom. I cut & pasted the borders from the PDF file, and transferred them into my word processing package so that I could lay them out with the sentiment. I carefully cut around the borders and then used a new Heart Border Punch to decorate the border. You can see this design in the picture
• Posh Pins - homemade using silver header pins and beads from a selection pot.
• Twine - from stash and tied into a multi-layered bow using the bow maker on my Ultimate Pro. 
•  Putting the image onto the candle - Once the images were dry, I carefully cut around them and then placed each one onto the candle holding it in place with a piece of Greaseproof Paper. Unfortunately, I didn't get my placing quite right, as the ends of the borders are not at the same level! :o(    I then used my hairdryer to heat this 'sandwich' up and make the image melt into the candle … just be very careful that you don’t burn yourself at the same time. There is a great tutorial on SplitCoast Stampers with a video showing you how to do this!

I think that small candles like these would make great gifts for Teachers or Classroom Helpers, or even as a quick Hostess Gift if you're invited to a party at short notice. 

Do check out the Incy Wincy Designs blog and see the other gorgeous Bingo / Tic-Tac-Toe  projects from my talented team-mates and this month's Guest Designer Sandra.  Don't forget to come back and show us your projects, and make sure you tell us which line you're claiming for Bingo! This challenge finishes on Sunday 20th January 2013.

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

• Week 189 - Dies and Punches at Allsorts Challenges
•  January Challenge - Anything But a Card at Crafter's Companion Monthly Challenge

Hope you have a great and crafty week!

Hugs, Helen x

PS: Not sure what's happening with Blogger this week - just realised that what I thought had posted in English, has actually posted in Arabic or Cyrillic!!!! Have changed it now and apologies to anyone who couldn't read my post!

Christmas is a-coming!

Good morning friends and I hope you are well. The weather has definitely turned autumnal here ... damp and drizzly.


We're a little later than usual with this post, but it's New Release time at The Crafty Pad Designs! This time our lovely boss Debbie is giving us the chance to get set for Christmas with these two lovely images which are just perfect for those who like more traditional images for their Christmas crafting.  available from the New Releases part of the store.



As well as asking the Design Team to showcase these 2 new image, Debbie has very kindly let us also showcase the three new-ish coloured bauble sets, and here is an altered candle I have made to show off the sumptous colours from the Teal and Purple set.

My Candle recipe is as follows:

• Candle - small unscented block candle in white from Ikea
• Images - all from the Christmas Baubles Set - Teal and Purple by Debbie at The Crafty Pad Designs. I have used Trio of Baubles, Snowflake Border and a Merry Christmas Sentiment. I printed the images first onto some thin card before then carefully taping a piece of white tissue paper over the top of the printed image. I then put this through the printer, keeping my fingers crossed (As this is only the second time I've practiced this technique, I'm still not convinced that my printer won't gobble my "sandwich" up)
• Putting the images onto the candle - Once the images were dry, I carefully cut around them and then placed my large image of the trio of baubles onto the candle holding it in place with a piece of Greaseproof Paper. I then used my hairdryer (another example of my frugal crafting!) to heat this 'sandwich' up and make the image melt into the candle … just be very careful that you don’t burn yourself at the same time. There is a great tutorial on SplitCoast Stampers with a video showing you how to do this! I repeated this process for the snowflake border and the Merry Christmas sentiment too.

I think that small candles like these would make great gifts for Teachers or Classroom Helpers, or even as a quick Hostess Gift if you're invited to a party at short notice. This was such a quick and enjoyable 'make' I can see that I'll be doing more of these in the run up to Christmas :o)

Debbie is giving one lucky Crafty Pad-der the chance to win the new line drawn images Christmas Pine Cones and Holly and Christmas Tree Trio. For your chance to add these gorgeous images to your stash, all you have to do is head over to The Crafty Pad Challenge Blog and check out the gorgeous creations from my ever so talented DT-mates. Don't forget to leave us a comment on the New Release Post letting us know what you think of these two new images, and your name will go into the draw! For a second chance in the draw either be or become a follower of The Crafty Pad Challenge Blog, and then leave us a further comment letting us know that you're a follower! It really is that easy!!! Commenting will close at 12 noon (BST) on Monday 15th October, and we'll announce the lucky winner on Thursday 18th October. Good Luck!

I would like to enter this candle into the following challenge, with a little help from the girls at Feline Playful: 

• Challenge #39 - Altered/Recycled Item at Pan Pastel UK
• Challenge #123 - Anything Goes plus a Sentiment at Sentimental Sundays
• Sunday Stamper Week 226 - Snowflakes at Ink on my Fingers - I'm hoping that digital stamps are OK ... if not, thanks for looking!
• Challenge 29 - Anything But Square at Crafty Ribbons
• Winter Holiday at Delightful Challenges
• DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge / Linky Party - Anything Goes at DL.Art
• Challenge 45 - Simplicity at Little Miss Muffet Challenges
• Challenge #152 - Black, White and a Splash of Plum at The Play Date Cafe - the black outline around the baubles is not very clear ... sorry! 

Happy Crafting!

Hugs, Helen x

Shining a Light

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

I'm back again - this time it's with the latest challenge from Lexi's Creations and this time Susan is challenging us to Make a Gift / Anything but a Card.

Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is the superbly talented Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. The prize that is up for grabs this week is 5 digital images of your choice! With plenty of images in the store, including the quite new releases, you'll be spoilt for choice!

 

Now I've made a couple of "anything but a card" projects in the last few weeks (a door hanger and a bookmark) so I thought I would really challenge myself this time and make something which I have seen done, looks lovely and surely it really can't be as simple as the tutorials would have me believe? Well it really is that simple and here I've turned a plain candle into a gorgeous gift:

My card recipe is as follows:

· Candle - small unscented block candle in white from Ikea

· Image - This stylised tree is called Bauble Spiral Christmas Tree and it is by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. I printed the image first onto some thin card before then carefully taping a piece of white tissue paper over the top of the printed image. I then put this through the printer, keeping my fingers crossed (imagine explaining this one to "Himself" had it all jammed in there!) and then used my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours to bring the tree to life:

oTree - CG4, DG3

oBaubles - TB5, CR11, CT4

oWire - BGR1

· Putting the image onto the candle - Once the image was dry, I carefully cut around it and then placed it onto the candle holding it in place with a piece of Greaseproof Paper. I then used my hairdryer (another example of my frugal crafting!) to heat this 'sandwich' up and make the image melt into the candle … just be very careful that you don’t burn yourself at the same time. There is a great tutorial on SplitCoast Stampers with a video showing you how to do this!

I think that small candles like these would make great gifts for Teachers or Classroom Helpers, or even as a quick Hostess Gift if you're invited to a party at short notice. This was such a quick and enjoyable 'make' I can see that I'll be doing more of these in the run up to Christmas :o)

For more great and gorgeous Gifts or Anything But A Card ideas, head on over to Lexi's Creations and see the what my very talented team-mates have made. Don't forget to come back and share your creation with us! You've got until Saturday 29th September 2012 to link your projects up.

I would like to enter this project into the following challenge (with some help from the girls at Feline Playful - thanks girls):

• TSG173 - Everyone Loves Presents at There She Goes (This project is the present!)
• Challenge 125 - Favourite Technique at Speedy Fox and Friends 
• Say It With ... 3D Christmas at Annabelle Stamps
• Challenge 17 - Starting Christmas Early at Stampin' for the Weekend
• Challenge #2 at Let's Create ... Anything but a Card
• Challenge #181 - Less is More at Stamptacular Sunday

Whatever you're doing this week, have fun!

Hugs, Helen x