It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas!

Hello to you, crafty friends.

Apologies for such a long hiatus from my blogging activities - the return to school in September was it's usual madness and things weren't great for me in terms of the workload that I was expected to clear during the day, which in turn was impacting on my work/life balance. Soooo, after much soul searching, I applied for a new job and was successfully appointed! It is with huge sadness and much regret that I am leaving the school after nearly 8½ years, and I will be joining my new team next week.

It might take me a wee while to find my feet in my new job, and that very precious work/life balance, but I'm hoping to be able to rejoin the Design Teams I was previously with and I thank them all for their patience throughout 2017 where I appear to have been such a "flaky" teamie!

So, without further ado, it's new challenge time over at All Dressed Up and, as usual, our theme is Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image.  Wendy has plenty of gorgeous images available in the All Dressed Up Etsy Store. Haven't got any All Dressed Up images? Wendy has very generously provided some freebies here - please send your friends over to ADU for the freebies though, to make sure they're available for other crafters to share!



Here is my inspiration for you using one of Wendy's newly released images Christmas Hair Do:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base card - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver which I have cut, scored and folded following this tutorial to make a Triangle Tri-fold card
  
• Design paper - is from the long-since-retired Party Paws collection by Crafter's Companion. This gorgeous foiled paper was in a pack of papers and die-cut toppers which I found in my stash 😳
• Image - is by the oh-so-talented Wendy who is the artist behind All Dressed Up. This image is called Christmas Hair Do and I brought her to life with my Spectrum Noir Marker Pens (but sadly forgot to record the colours I used) and highlighted bits with my Clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen. I then die cut this cutie using my largest Die'sire Essentials Hearts Die
• Ribbon - is from my stash

I hope you'll come over to All Dressed Up and join in with this challenge. Don't forget that our Dressy teamies over on the All Dressed Up Facebook Page run their own challenge and you can enter both challenges with the same project. Why not play along and increase your chances of winning some of Wendy's gorgeous digis?

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

• November Challenge - Christmas/Winter Theme at I'm a Crafter's Companion Facebook Page
• November Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes at Sweet Stampin' Christmas
• Challenge 46 - Anything Goes at A Snowflake's Promise
• November Challenge - Winter is Coming! at Colouring in Scrapland

I'll be back next week - in the meantime, take care!

Hugs, 

Helen x

Birthday Elegance

Good morning crafty friends and hope this post finds you well.

Our Blue Tit parents are very busy going to and fro the wooded area near us, and when they need a quick fix they hop down to our seed feeders. Their babies can be heard chirping once the parents have flown out of the box and the parents are slightly less timid now when we're in the garden.

It's new challenge time over at Feeling Sketchy and our lovely sponsor for this challenge is Digi Stamps by Lizzy Love who is offering a prize to our lucky winner.

This is the sketch we're playing with this time:

and as soon as I saw the sketch I was inspired to make this Triangle Trifold card:

This card has already gone to my Mother-in-Law who celebrated her Birthday yesterday - I think she liked it 😊!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - a piece of 28.5cm x 9.5cm Snow White Silver Centura Pearl card which I scored and folded using this tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers. I made sure that the pearlescent side of my card was on the front and then die cut the 2 corners opposite the folds using my Die'sire Classiques Lace Corner dies
  
• Design Paper - is a piece of Navy Blue Pearlescent Paper which I cut to make 2 triangles to go behind my die cut corners to make them stand out
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and this was a blog freebie, probably in January 2014. I took the sentiment into my word processing package and recoloured it blue to tone in with my DP before cutting it out using my second smallest Die'sire Essentials Ovals die. I then matted this onto another piece of the navy blue paper which had been die cut using my second smallest Die'sire Essentials Scalloped Ovals die and fixed to one flap of the card with foam pads
• Ribbon - is white organdie ribbon from my stash 
• Inside of card - is a piece of white cardstock which has been matted and layered onto another piece of the navy blue paper

I hope that I have inspired you to come over to Feeling Sketchy and join in with this sketch, however if you're in need of any further inspiration please check out the other wonderful creations by my clever teamies. Then come back and show us your take on our sketch - don't forget you can flip it, change the shapes etc. ... we just need to see that you've been inspired by our sketch! We'll be back with our new challenge on 1st June 2017.

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

• Monochrome at Dragonfly Dreams
• May Challenge - Anything Goes with Ribbon at The Ribbon Girl
• Fold it Fancy at Di's Digi Designs Challenge
• Challenge #172 - Cards with optional Fun Folds at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges
• Challenge #188 - Add a Sentiment at Crafty Cardmakers
• Challenge #248 - Monochrome at The Crazy Challenge
• Challenge #173 - Birthday at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge
• Challenge #1 - Anything Goes Monochrome at Monochrome Magic

Whatever you're up to today, have fun ... I'll be back a little later with another post!

Hugs, Helen x

Poinsettia for Christmas

Hi,

It's another Monday and  it's new challenge time at Lexi's Creations -  this time Susan is looking forward to Christmas ... nice and simple!!!

Our wonderful sponsor this time is Priyanka from My Heart Pieces. The prize that is up for grabs this week is 3 of Priyanka's lovely digital images. Pop over to her blog to check out her cute digis.



Lexi has, once again, let the DT loose in her on-line store again (thanks Lexi!) and this is the card I have made to show to you today using one of her gorgeous digis:



My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Red (originally from a pack of Christmas colours) which is cut, scored and folded into a Triangular Tri-Fold card around 10cm square.
• Image - This beautiful flower is "Layered Poinsettia" and it is just one of the gorgeous images to have come from the pen of Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. I brought it to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in shades CR11,DR1, DG3, DG4, IG1. I then hand stitched a small seed bead as the centre of the flower as I layered up the bracts.
• Sentiment - is from the Christmas Sentiment Tickets set by Debbie at The Crafty Pad . I've coloured the holly brerries and leaves in the same shades as the poinsettia.
• Ribbon - from my stash

Head on over to Lexi's Creations and see the gorgeous creations by my talented team-mates - don't forget to come back and share your creations with us! You've got until Saturday 8th December 2012 to link your cards up.

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

• Delightfully Red and Green at Delightful Challenges
• Challenge #53 - Traditional Christmas Colours at Whimsy Stamps
• More than One Fold at Come and Get It Challenges (Second Entry)
• HIMCR #73 - Christmas! at Hiding in My Craft Room
• Monthly Challenge #27 - Christmas at Little Claire's Designs
• Challenge #1 - It's All About Christmas at Paper Creator's Crafts

Hugs, Helen x