Hey Babe!

Good morning my crafty friends - hope you all had a good weekend! I would like to warmly welcome Chris, who is my newest follower - thanks for joining me and everyone else on this crafty journey.

Well you should know the drill by now ... as it's Monday morning, it's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs, and this week we're challenging you to make an Easel Card. We've got two awesome sponsors this week, which means (again!) there are two awesome prizes up for grabs!

Our first sponsor is Heather and her team at Lacy Sunshine Stamps, and they're offering our first lucky prize winner a $20 Gift Certificate to their store!

Our second sponsor is Kenny and his "krew" at Kenny K Downloads, and they're offering our second lucky prize winner 4 Digital Images!

Both Heather and Kenny have very kindly supplied us with some images to showcase this week - thanks guys for helping us out this week! 

Without further ado, here is my easel card featuring an image from Kenny K Downloads:

My card recipe is follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Purple which I cut, scored and folded to make a 11.5cm square easel card.
• Design Papers - come from 2 sources. The top paper and the purple mat come from a Card Companions printout from the Strawberry Kisses Papercrafting CD-Rom - these are great because you get a selection of coordinating items (on this sheet were 2 different papers, some ribbon sliders, card candy, buttons and tags) making it oh-so-easy to put a card together! I chose to pair this paper with one I downloaded from Card Making Downloads called Lilac Sparkle ... I know it's turquoise on the card! I took the paper into my word processing programme where I was able to recolour it to this gorgeous shade which contrasts beautifully with the purples don't you think? Unfortunately, I don't think this lovely paper is available any longer :o(
• Image - this girl with attitude is called Ginger Gem and she comes from the pen of Kenny Kiernan
  
  at Kenny K Downloads. I brought Ginger to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours, before fussy cutting her:
• Hair - GB5, GB6, GB7, GB8
• Skin - FS2, FS3, DG4, CR4
• T-Shirt - IG1, Colourless Blender
• Jeans - LV1, LV2, LV3
• Shoes - True Black and Silver Gel Pen
• Outline - GG1
• Ribbon - is white organdie satin edged ribbon from my stash
• Sentiment - is from a set of stamps called Special Occasion Stamps which were a magazine freebie earlier this year. I have stamped the sentiment onto the tag from the Strawberry Kisses Papercrafting CD-Rom Card Companion print.
• Pearls - are from my stash and were coloured using my Spectrum Noir Pens in LV3 and BT4.

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and look at the other gorgeous creations by the other Design Team members and Sandy, who continues as this month's Guest Designer. Then don't forget to come back and show us your Easel Cards! This challenge will end on Sunday 24th November 2013.

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

• Challenge 106 - Purple and Turquoise at A Gem of a Challenge
• Challenge #17 - Birthdays at Paper Creator
• Challenge #57 - Use Violet at The Squirrel and The Fox
• Simply Square at CD Sunday Challenge - I hope that entering a square Easel Card is OK; if not please feel free to delete my entry.

Have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Easter Wishes

Hi,

I'm very proud and excited this month to be working with the fabby team at Incy Wincy Designs as their Guest Designer for April! Thanks for having me girls!!!!! Kaia's projects were stunning last month - I hope you enjoy my creations as much! This week the challenge is "Easter or Pastel Colours" and we have been sponsored by Care2Stamp who have provided the images for us this week.

I have chosen to showcase the beautiful Milton with Lily (from the Wild Rose Studio Collection) for my card this week and I've made a shaped Easel Card:

My card recipe is as follows: 

• Base Card - Centura Pearl 300gsm card in Snow White, onto which I embossed the largest flower shape from the embossing board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats. I then cut and folded this shape to form my easel and embossed a further flower shape to form the front of my card.
• Design Paper (called EasterRoses6) and sentiment are from the Create With TLC April Club. This club has now finished, but you may be lucky enough to pick up some of the goodies from Paulette's store. I love the textured, corrugated effect on the paper! If you don't already follow TLC then you really should - just be sure to tell Paulette that you hopped by from my blog.
•  Image is by Care2Stamp and it is the utterly gorgeous Milton with Lily - I am totally in love with him! If you pop over there you'll find not only the other 6 Milton stamps but a whole host of other wonderful designs too. Taking inspiration from the spring colours in my garden, I brought Milton to life with my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours (old numbering system):
• Lily - 137,  8, 33, 163, 175
• Milton -  104, 100, 169
• Outline -  WG0.5 

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy, check out the gorgeous creations by the DT ladies, and then show us your Easter or Pastel Colours creations. Look forward to seeing you!

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

• Challenge #25 - Easter at Ruby's Rainbow
• Easter / Spring Projects at Catch the Bug
• Challenge #179 - A Shaped Card at The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge
• Challenge #42 - Easter at Craft Your Days Away
• Easter at Card Makin' Mamas
• Challenge #16 - Easter at Card Crafter's Circle
• Challenge 210 - Happy Easter at Cute Card Thursday
• Challenge 9 - Fancy Folds at Chocolate, Coffee and Cards
• Challenge 51 - Happy Easter at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #114 - Easter at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges

Have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Sunflowers for Mothering Sunday

Hi,

I've had a crafty afternoon today, whilst I was waiting for my youngest to return from her school residential trip and I got to play with my blog candy Paintbox Poppets CD that I won from Marianne on Friday. Speedy service from Crafter's Companion (as usual) as it arrived yesterday - Thank you all! Now it's notoriously difficult to buy a card for my Mother in Law at this time of year as (being a former vicar's wife) she likes to receive a card saying Mothering Sunday rather than Mother's Day. This is the result of my afternoon's work:

This is only the second easel card that I've made, and I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out. My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - Centura Pearl 300gsm card in Ivory (Crafter's Companion) cut and folded to a 15cm square easel card.
• Design Papers, Mat and Layer Card under my image and the Design Elements are all from the Paintbox Poppets CD by Crafter's Companion. The mat and layer card and the For You label all came from the section called Stamping Companions. You print off one sheet where everything is coordinated for you, and there is a white area to rubber stamp onto. However, this would have been too tricky to do with my digi image, which I printed separately. The ribbon slider and tag (which I've used as my stopper) all came from the Ribbon Slider section of the CD and, again, came off the same sheet. Using the Verse Writer function, I was able to tailor make the sentiment to suit.
• This wonderful vase of Sunflowers is by Pattie's Creations, and it is available in her shop. I got it from the current Progressive Challenge at the Crafter's Digital Art Center where it is one of the freebies on offer for the current challenge. I brought the flowers to life with my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours (old numbering system):
• Flowers - 92, 35, 33
• Leaves and Stalks - 48, 43
• Water in Vase - 178, 171

I'm sorry that some of the photos are a little blurry - I was photographing with failing natural light, and I hate photographing my cards with flash. I'll take some better photos tomorrow and upload them, but I wanted to get this post done this evening.

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

• Progressive Challenge 13 - PC at Crafter's Digital Art Center
• Mother's Day at Craft Your Days Away
• Spring is in the Air at Joanna Sheen
• Challenge #161 - Mum's the Word at The Crafty Pad
• Challenge #48 - Mum's the Word at My Mum's Craft Shop
• Challenge #30 - Easel, Shaped or Step Card at Little Miss Muffet
• Challenge #60 - Mother's Day at Lexi's Creations

Hope you're having a great week so far.

Hugs, Helen x

My First Easel Card - Wedding Acceptance

Hi,

I decided to extend my knowledge and abilities and have made my first easel card. This is the result, together with an envelobox to go with the card. I also wanted this to be a very special card as it is in response to the Wedding Invitation from my brother and his Fiancée. :0) !!!!!!!!!!

Not only was this my first easel card, but it's also the first time I've coloured in a digital stamp and the first time I've used buttons in a project! I decided that because my stamp was tall and narrow my card should reflect this, so it is a slimline card - the finished size of the card when it was folded for posting was fractionally bigger than A5. The card base is ivory and it looks like it has some form of hammered finish to it, but as it has been a long time in my daughters' craft cupboard I've no idea where it came from!

I used the "Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats" embossing board with my Ultimate Pro (both from Crafter's Companion) to produce the hearts and ribbon border on the left side of the card. My Top Tip for embossing is to rub some soap at the top of my card (I used a freebie guest soap from the bathroom of the ferry we used to travel to and from France on!) and to run my embossing tool in this - it makes your tool run ohhhhhh soooooo smoothly across the card! :0) I used the same embossing on the left side of the envelobox to tie the project together (unfortunately it hasn't come out too well in the photo above!) :0(

The digital stamp is called "Simply Daisies" by Daisy Doodles, available from The Printable Craft Shop at Card Making World. Having printed this onto my Solar White Neenah Card, I coloured it using my Spectrum Noir Pens (from Crafter's Companion) in the following shades:

Flowers: 12, 14, 11, 1
Stems: 48, 43
Water: 171, 68
Grounding under Vase: CG1
I then cut the stamp out and mounted it onto my card using a 3D glue.

The sentiments on the easel part of the card and on the stopper both came from a Crafter's Companion Member's Monthly Download called Luscious Ladybirds. The circular "Thanks" was already on the download, and additionally there was a blank oval. I imported this oval into my normal word processing package, and superimposed a text box with the font Tempus Sans  to produce the additional wording. I printed these out onto card, cut them out and coloured the edges using my Spectrum Noir in Shade 1 to tie these in to the flowers. These sentiments were mounted using sticky pads. I bought a red organza ribbon, some coir fibre and these delightful handmade ceramic buttons in the shape of a heart from Hobbycraft. I fixed the buttons the ribbon by running the coir fibre under the ribbon, threading it through the holes in the button and then finished it with a bow. I think it gives a lovely "Shaker Style" look to the card, don't you?

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

• Challenge #6 All About Easels at Paper Creator's Crafts
• Happy 1st Birthday Challenge - Easel Card / Easel Card Box at Top Tip Tuesday. My tip for smooth embossing is above!

I hope you like this card. Now what am I going to make as a Wedding Card :0∫ !!!!!