Deck the Halls!

Good morning crafty friends ... can you believe it's December already!!!!! Youngest Bambino was very excited to be able to open her advent calendar this morning .... it's been sat on the mantlepiece for a week now (you can tell she's a teen can't you!).

It's been quite a busy time at Casa Mia. Saturday saw the Christmas Fayre at our church and I took along some of my cards. I sold about 6 (the same as last year) but had taken quite a few more. I think people came along for coffee/mulled wine and a mince pie, bought a raffle ticket or two and then disappeared as I didn't see many people going out with bags and even the cake stall had to reduce their goodies to half price! Not sure whether it's worth the effort of doing it next year .... will have to ponder. Last night saw eldest Bambino and her fledging band taking to the stage at a venue in town. It was organised by her college and was a showcase for the bands that all the BTEC level 3 music students have formed. Each group took to the stage and performed a 20 minute set of 4 numbers. Most of the audience was fellow students and press-ganged parents but the show was great. Unfortunately, I think my age was showing this morning as my legs were aching first thing from having been stood around for 4 hours last night! I filmed Bambino's group and showed it to Papa Mia when we got in - to be honest, we're totally amazed at how good she and her bandmates were, especially as they've been together for less than 3 months!  Anyway, enough waffle from Casa Mia ;o)

It's new challenge time at Feeling Sketchy and we're being sponsored this time by Deedee and the team at Deedee's Digis and here's a word or two from Deedee about her images:

Deedee's Digis offers wholesome digital "stamps" and printable digital papers that are the original creations of Deedee Anderson. All of our sets include both outline and pre-colored images, in both JPG and PNG formats. Our products are offered in high 300dpi resolution so that they are fully resizable to meet your crafting needs. We are a Christ-centered company, and you will find that many of our sets include KJV Scripture verses, in addition to encouraging sentiments of all sorts. We feel very blessed to be part of such a talented community of paper crafters, and thank you for allowing us to sponsor this challenge!

Our prize for this challenge is a $15.00 gift code to the store :)

You may or may not be aware that Deedee's Digis will be closing it's doors on 31st December 2015. As a result of this, all the digis in the store (apart from the sale items) have whopping 75% off their prices!!! And if you need any inspiration for using Deedee's pretty digis, check out the Deedee's Digis "blog" where the DT are regularly posting.

So, back to our challenge and here's your inspiration sketch, as drawn by Michelle:

And here's my inspiration for you using this sketch (rotated clockwise by 90º) and a digi set from Deedee's Digis:

Now, I have to confess to having cheated a bit this time as when I was creating for this challenge all my craft stuff was (and still is!) in the boot of my car as a result of Saturday's Fayre!!!!!! So, I have digitally created a card topper, which I will print out and attach to a DL sized card base.

I used the beautiful Ornamental (Icy) set (which has the baubles both coloured and as line art, 4 sentiments and 2 papers) by Deedee at Deedee's Digis to make this creation using my word processing package. 

• I started out with a rectangular shape which was correctly sized for my topper and then inserted each of the 5 pre-coloured digis from the set into my "picture". I resized them and rearranged them until I was satisfied with the layout. 
• I then inserted one of the papers from the set into my "picture" and cropped this until it was the right size and then moved this into place. 
• I brought some of the images into the foreground and then added a shadow to each image. 
• Finally, I inserted a narrow line from the top of the bauble hooks up to the paper to make it look like the baubles are hanging from a decorative strip. 
• My last task was to put a colour border around my rectangle to tone in with the teal green colour of the paper.

I hope I've inspired you to have a go with our sketch and make either a card or a layout for this challenge. If you're in need of any further inspiration, please go over to the Feeling Sketchy blog and check out the other wonderful creations from my clever teamies! We'll be back with our final challenge of the year on 15th December 2015.

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

• Challenge #35 - Christmas - non-traditional colours at Scribbles Design Challenge
• Use a Digi at Melonheadz Friends

Hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Très Chic!

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

Good morning friends and I hope you are well. Welcome to Viv, my newest follower ... hope you enjoy this crafting journey with me! I think I've finally shaken most of the bug that I had last week; unfortunately, I've given it to my family and they are sooooo not impressed with me. Oooops!!!

This morning brings a new challenge over at Whoopsi Daisy, and our theme for you this week is Swirls.

Our lucky winner's prize is (as usual) one sheet of images from the Whoopsi Daisy Store, unless you've used a Whoopsi Daisy Image for your project in which case you can choose two sheets of images. Linnie has also kindly let the DT loose in her store to choose an image to showcase.

I've chosen one of Linnie's newest digis to showcase this week, and here is my card:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Black card which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - the top one is from a paper collection called Emma's Garden which was a magazine freebie last month. I love the gorgeous colour, and the beautiful swirls. The bottom paper is by  Summer of Summertime Designs and comes from her kit Thanks for Giving - it's called "Torn Cream Paper"
• Image - This gorgeous girl is from Sheet 444 and she is just one of the gorgeous digis drawn by Linne at Whoopsi Daisy. On this sheet there are 2 "older" images, but both are included pre-coloured (for when you need a card in a hurry) and line drawning digis so you can spend more time colouring. I've brought this girl to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens and chalk for the background
• Flourish - is also by Summer of Summertime Designs and comes from the Thanks for Giving kit. It doesn't come in black, so I exported the swirl into my word processing programme and digitally re-coloured it to match my project. I also cut a small slit in the swirl so I could slip one corner of the image shape into it, to make it look like the flourish is a die, rather than a digi creation - do you like this?
• Sentiment - is of course by Paulette at Create with TLC and this was a freebie on her blog just last week.

Do come over to Whoopsi Daisy Challenge and see the other gorgeous creations the Divas have made with  "Swirls". Then, don't forget to come and show us your creations - you've got until Sunday 15th April to link your creations up. And, don't forget if you use a Whoopsi Daisy image, then you can make any style of card or project - you don't have to follow this week's theme!

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

• Challenge #36 - Colour Inspiration at Chocolate, Coffee and Cards
• April Monthly Challenge - Pastel Colours and/or Polka Dots at Great Impressions Stamps
• Challenge #41 - Inspired by a Song or Movie at The Squirrel and The Fox - it just has to be the movie "Pretty Woman", although I don't remember Julia Roberts' character wearing anything quite this demure ;o)
• Girly Birthday Challenge at Creative Corner Challenges
• Challenge #166 - Use Any Shade of Pink at Kaboodle Doodles
• Challenge #161 - Birthday Girl in Pink at Totally Papercrafts
• Challenge #41 - Favourite Film at The Cutie Pie Challenge - "Pretty Woman"

Hope you have a great day - Hugs, Helen x

Striding Out

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

Good morning friends and I hop you are well. It's been bitterly cold here all weekend and we've had lots of flurries of fine, powdery snow! Not enough to settle, but when we took our girls to a local theme park yesterday it certainly gives a different viewpoint on rides! :o)

This morning brings a new challenge for the Team A Divas at Whoopsi Daisy, and our theme for you this week is Use a Sentiment - nice and simple, so there can be no excuses for not coming and joining in!

Our lucky winner's prize is (as usual) one sheet of images from the Whoopsi Daisy Store, unless you've used a Whoopsi Daisy Image for your project in which case you can choose two sheets of images. Linnie has also kindly let the DT loose in her store to choose an image to showcase.

I've done something a little different this time and taken my digital layering one stage further to produce a wholly digital card layout:

This can then be printed out, and affixed directly onto a card blank.

My recipe is as follows:

• Design Papers - Design Papers - are from a set by Summer at Summertime Designs called 'Year to Shine'. The base layer is called Modern Circles and the top layer is called Red Floral. Again, I've used my word processing programme to put a border around each layer, so it looks like they're all matted onto black card.
• Image - This gorgeous girl is from Sheet 389 and she is just one of the gorgeous digis drawn by Linne at Whoopsi Daisy. On the sheet there are just 2 different images, but both images come in a black & white format so you can take the time to colour them yourself, or if you need a quick card then the pre-coloured option (as used here) is perfect! I think these images would suit older girls/teens, and I love this girl's look with her ruffled skirt and bows on her wellies!
• Ribbon - also comes from the 'Year to Shine'  kit and is called Ribbon 5. I love the pulled edge look it has to it!
• Sequins - come from another of Summer's (Summertime Designs ) kits, called 'One Year Older'. 
• Sentiment - is by the lovely Annette at Netty's Cards, and she originally designed this sentiment for me, to bale me out of a huge hole! It is now available, together with some other great freebie sentiments on her blog - if you go over there, be sure to tell her that I sent you! I recoloured the sentiment in a red/burgundy colour so it ties in with the rest of my card, before digitally layering the sentiment over a white circle which had a black border - again giving the impression of there being a mat!

I will print the layout and affix it to a card blank, and add photos later so you can see what it looks like on a card. I'll also get a close up of this gorgeous image for you!

Do come over to Whoopsi Daisy Challenge and see the other gorgeous creations the Divas have made "Using a Sentiment". We also have a blog hop running simultaneously with this challenge and you have the opportunity to win the sheet of image featured on each stop of the "Hop"! Don't forget to come and show us your creations. You've got until Sunday 3rd March to link your creations up. Don't forget if you use a Whoopsi Daisy image, then you can make any style of card or project - you don't have to follow this week's theme!

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

• Challenge #4 - Mother's Day or Birthday at Inky Chicks
• Challenge #152 - Use a Digi at One Stitch at a Time
• Layer it Up at Joanna Sheen
• DSC #24 - Anything Goes at Digitally Sweet Challenges
• FYI40 - Photo Inspiration at For Your Inspiration I have been inspired by the colours of the photo, and also the idea of someone needing wellies to "scuff" through all those beautiful fallen leaves!

I'll be back later with my next post of the day. In the meantime, take care.

Hugs, Helen x