Sketch Time!

Good morning crafty friends and if you're in the UK, hope you're enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend! We have a pair of blue tits nesting in our bird box again, and both parents have been very busy bobbing in and out with beaks full of food,so I'm guessing that their youngsters have hatched. The parents are very timid whenever anyone is out in the garden and don't go anywhere near the bird box ... of course it doesn't help when the resident sparrows (who are nesting under the eaves on one side of house) sit at the end of the gutter squawking away 😆!

It's new challenge time at Feeling Sketchy and our lucky winner will receive a $10 Gift Certificate to a store of the winner's choice.






Here's the great sketch we're playing with this time:

And here's my take on it:

Because this card is made mainly from die cuts, it went together really quickly ... under an hour, which for me is a really quick card 😁!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Ivory Centura Pearl which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 10.5cm square card base
• Design Papers - are from a Mixed Media pack by Donna at Bearly Mine Designs, now sadly closed. I have used paper MM006 to give a real shabby chic feel to my card.
• Heart Frame - is made from Ivory Centura Pearl card and the middle 2 dies from my Die'sire Essentials Hearts die set
  
• Flower and spray - are both cut from another sheet of the MM006 paper, so that they blend in with the rest of the card. The flower die is Die'sire Essentials Flowers for all Occasions die and I used the middle sized die to cut 2 flowers. I curled the petals on both flowers and then layered them on top of each other, but offset, before popping a flat backed pear gem from stash in the centre. The leaf spray is from the Die'sire Classiques Delicate Flower set.
• Sentiment - is from the Swirly String Sentiment clear stamp set by Lili of the Valley (available here as a digi set) and I have stamped it using Tuxedo Black Memento Ink

I hope you'll come over to Feeling Sketchy and check out the other lovely creations by my talented teamies. Then come back and show us your creations - don't forget that you can use any shapes you like, we just need to see that you've our sketch as the inspiration for your project! We'll be back with our new challenge on 15th May 2017.


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

• Challenge #187 - Pearls and/or Gems at Crafty Cardmakers
• Make it Square at Come And Get It Challenges
• Challenge #248 - No Image, Just a Sentiment at Brown Sugar Challenge
• The Magic of 3 at A Vintage Journey - I have used 3 different die cuts on this project which has a mixed media paper at it's centre. The dies I've used are hearts, flowers and leaf spray, and  I've also used 3 pearls in a row on the top left hand side. I could also go for 3 layers and 3 words in my sentiment 😉 !
• Challenge #93 - In the Garden at Aloha Friday Challenge - Kitty Bee Designs
• Use Something Digital at Di's Digi Designs Challenge - Second Entry

Hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x

Rustic Charm

Good morning blogging buddies - hope you're all in fine fettle this morning! I can't believe it's November 1st today - where has the year disappeared to?


It's time for a new challenge at Feeling Sketchy ... before I reveal this week's sketch, I'm sure you'll want to know who our sponsor is for this challenge!



We're welcoming the lovely Nikky Hall and her team from Polkadoodles as our sponsors this time. In Nikky's words, Polkadoodles is a UK based creative company specialising in papercraft products. We design and manufacture our own digital CD-rom products, rubber and clear stamps and a number of other products for use in papercrafting which are sold worldwide.

But don't just take Nikky's word for it - why not take a peek at the website and see what a wonderful treasure trove of images, papers, sentiments and inspiration from Nikky's DT using the gorgeous Polkadoodles products!


Now, here's Michelle's sketch for the challenge:

and here's my card using the sketch:

I'm hoping that if I haven't struck shabby chic with this card that I have at least achieved rustic charm, as I seem to struggle with this look! What do you think? Let me know!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is pre-made in white card measuring approx 14.8cm square
• Papers - are from the gorgeous Eden Collection - Paper Heaven 3 which you can get as a digital download from Polkadoodles. I have used Paper 13 for my base layer and also Paper 16 and Paper 18 for the border layers. As I don't have any border dies and only 1 border punch, I decided to use a quilling flower die to make the border so it ties in with my quilled flower! I distressed all the edges of each paper layer using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and my latest "Frugal Crafter" purchase - 20 make-up sponge wedges for £1!!! Seems to have done the job quite efficiently, me thinks! I finished the papers off by wrapping 3 rows of twine around the card base to hide the paper join ;o)
  
• Sentiment - is also from Polkadoodles and is one of the twenty two sentiments (yes, 22!) that come in the Eden Collection - Say It All bundle. I've die cut this using my second largest Die'sire Essentials Squares Die which I left in place whilst I gave a slick of Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the top of it to give a frame effect around the edge. I used the same jute string and the bow maker on my Ultimate Pro to make the multi-layered bow which I fixed to the top of the sentiment frame.
• Flower - is made from a Die'sire Classiques Quilling Flower Die which is called Blossom. I used one length of the Stamen Die to make the centre of the flower and then rolled/quilled 2 lengths of cardstock printed with Paper 18 from Eden Collection - Paper Heaven 3 round the centre. Once finished and the strips were secured, I shaped the petals with a tool, lightly distressed the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and added a pearl to the flower centre, before afixing the flower to the card.
  

Do head over to the Feeling Sketchy blog and see the other wonderful creations using this time's sketch from my talented team mates. Then come back and show us your "take" on the sketch -as usual, you can flip it, rotate it, swap images, shapes etc. ... we just need to be able to see that you've been inspired by our sketch whilst you've been creating! This challenge closes on 14th November 2015. 

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

• Challenge #170 - Flowers at Brown Sugar Challenge

Until next time,

Hugs, Helen x

I'm late for a very important date!

Well in fact I'm not late at all for this date ... I'm bang on time, but the title might give you a teeny clue as to the theme of today's project!

Morning all - hope no-one has fallen off their chair at yet another missive from me this week, but there is a very good reason for this, honest!

About 7 weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be selected as a Top Tipper at Top Tip Tuesday, and my prize was a GDT spot with the team - and today is that day! This morning's challenge is entitled Cut It Out! so I reckon everyone should be able to enter this challenge, as long as there's something on your project which you've cut out.

We're being sponsored this fortnight by Tammy at Shape EZ who is not only going to provide the lucky winner of this challenge with a prize package, but also kindly gave the DT and I our choices of template to use for this challenge.

Before I get to my card, the girls at Top Tip Tuesday asked me if I could come up with a Top Tip for you, so here goes:

If you're using shrink plastic, take the guess work out of sizing it to suit your project and make a "Magic Ruler".

This is simply a piece of "Shrinkles" plastic which I've marked from 0cm to around 12cm (and I've also used my hole making tool to make appropriately sized holes) before following the manufacturers instructions to shrink it in the oven.  So, here goes on how to use it:

Using the "Magic Ruler" measure the length and width of the part of your original design that you want to make in "Shrinkles" plastic - so here, I'm measuring the length of the teapot lid knob (3cm) and width (2cm) - these aren't the actual measurements, but the size that I need to increase the teapot lid knob to.

So here is screen print from my word processing programme, and I've imported the tea pot lid at actual size. The red box measures 3cm x 2cm which is the size the knob needs to be, so I need to increase the size of the lid until the knob fills the red square.

The knob is now the right size, in "Shrinkles World"! Print this out onto a regular piece of printer paper.

Overlay the printer paper with the "Shrinkles" plastic and trace the outline of your design using an alcohol marker pen (I'm using a Spectrum Noir Pen in True Black). Allow to dry.

Turn the "Shrinkles" plastic over, and colour your design using your chosen alcohol marker pens - I've used Spectrum Noir Pens in shades LV1, LV2, LV3. Allow to dry.

Cut around your element carefully leaving a small border around the edge of your design and then heat it according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once cooled it should look like the piece on the right side of the picture below:

It's now ready to be afixed to your project and if you check out the photos below, you'll see my the coloured knob on the teapot lid!

Here's my card, featuring one of Tammy's templates and showing the teapot lid, complete with  "Shrinkles" plastic knob:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - Shape EZ Tea Pot Template printed onto regular lightweight light cardstock and hand cut. I distressed all the edges with Craf-T Chalk in Turquoise and stuck the "crystal" shrinkles knob onto the top of the lid
• Papers - are MM024 from a retired set called Mixed Media by Donna at, sadly now closed, Bearly Mine Designs. I printed these directly onto the paper templates from the Tea Pot Set ... very easy as they're sized to match perfectly!
• Image - is one I was lucky enough to win a couple of months ago and she is called Lucy Loo
  
  "Mad Hatter" by Unky at The East Wind. How much sass-itude has this girl got? I brought Lucy Loo to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours before fussy cutting her out:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS6, LV1, LV2
• Hair - IG1, IG2, IG4
• Hat - BT4, BT5, BT6, LV1, LV2
• Shirt & Cravat - IG1, IG2
• Jacket - DG5, DG6, DG7, TN8, Silver Gel Pen
• Cup - TN2, DR11, Gold Gel Pen
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and once I had cut this out, I distressed the edges with Craf-T Chalk in Turquoise. 

I hope I've inspired you to have a go and Cut It Out! but why not head over to the Top Tip Tuesday Blog and check out all the fabby creations from the DT girls and pop over to the Shape EZ store and see what other great templates Tammy has that you could use? Then come back and show us your cut out projects! This challenge ends at 4pm BST on Monday 22nd June 2015.




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

• Challenge #262 - A Touch of Vintage/Shabby Chic at Sentimental Sundays
• Shabby Chic at Make my Monday
• Challenge #9 - Anything Goes with a Twist of Fantasy at SLSlines Challenge (Second Entry)

Hope you have a good day, and if you use my tutorial please let me know - I'd love to come over and see what you make!

Hugs, Helen

Vintage-y ... I hope!

Hello friends!

I hope you are well. Last week was half term here so it was a week of "no get ups"! Back to the alarm this morning, but there's only 7 and a bit weeks until the summer holidays. :o) Nice to see some sunshine again, although who knows how long it will last!


Anyway, it's new challenge time at Whoopsi Daisy and this week we're giving you the option of style either  Shabby Chic or Vintage ... another challenge for me as I don't make many cards in either of these styles.

As usual, Linnie is offering our lucky prize winner 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 let us loose in the store once more, and here is this week's project, using the current sketch challenge at Little Miss Muffet for the layout, for you:

I was aiming to hit Vintage, but I'm not sure if I achieved it! Anyway my card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Dark Chocolate which I cut and scored to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - are all from a collection by Summer at Summertime Designs called All Is Calm. This is actually a winter kit, but I love the colours of it, which hint at a touch of vintage style. The bottom layer is called Pinstripes, the next layer is called Dots, and the top layer is called Red Damask. I've edged all the papers with Craf-T Chalk and a damp dish sponge (!) in Light Brown.
  
• Image - is one of Linnie's "Little Misses" and she is one of the two images available on Sheet 453. I used the pre-coloured version; I needed to be able to make this card quite quickly as I spent last week out and about with my family. However, there is a line drawing of this gorgeous girl, so you can take your time and choose your own colours. I also edge distressed the oval with Craf-T Chalk in Light Brown.
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and I re-coloured using my word processing package to match the papers. The Banner is home-made, also using my word processing package.
• Pearls - are from my stash and are coloured using my Spectrum Noir Pen in shade DR7 before mounting them onto another Banner shape.

I do hope you'll come over to Whoopsi Daisy Challenge and have a look at the wonderful creations by the other Divas. Then come back and show us your projects which are either Vintage or Shabby Chic. Don't forget that if you're using a Whoopsi Daisy image then you don't have to follow this week's theme!!! This challenge closes on Sunday 9th June 2013.

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

• Challenge #62 - Sketch at Little Miss Muffet I've rotated the sketch through 90 degrees  ... and then added the banners!
• Spots and Stripes at Joanna Sheen

I'll be back a little later with my next post.

Hugs, Helen x