Mocktail Time!

Good afternoon crafty friends and I hope this post finds you well.

Here in the UK, we are about half-way through our summer holidays and (typically!) the weather has been rather dreary for the last week or so, and likely to remain like this for the rest of the week. I hope the sunshine comes back next week for a couple of weeks - not only is it the last fortnight of my summer hols, but we're having our kitchen ripped out and refitted so I shall be resorting to cooking on the BBQ or (at the very least) our camping stove 😉 !

As it's the fifteenth of the month, it's time for our new challenge at All Dressed Up Challenges . As usual, our challenge is Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. Not got any All Dressed Up images? Wendy has plenty of gorgeous images available in the All Dressed Up Etsy Store and has also 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!

I'm using the holidays to make a batch of Birthday Cards to keep at work. Every member of our office receives a handmade card and gift voucher on her Birthday, but usually it's a mad scramble on my part to get a card made. So, I'm trying to be a bit more organised and this card is going into my "here's one I made earlier" box and save a last minute panic for at least one birthday 😂 ! Isn't this image so "on trend" with it's flamingo "swizzle stick"?

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is a pre-made, 15cm square in white cardstock
  
• Design Papers - come from a Designers' Collabaoration called Sunshine and Lemons at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking. This means that the designers have all used the same colour
  

  

  scheme, so you can mix and match papers and elements from any of the kits in the collaboration, safe in the knowledge that they won't clash on your project! I have used Teal Pattern and Yellow Flowers by Sheila Reid together with Yellow Solid Paper by Janet Scott as my Mat & Layer. I have punched a pretty edge to my border using a now retired Heart Border Punch from Hobbycraft (although they do stock one that is a little bit similar).
• Image - is the super-summery Fruitti Tutti by Wendy at All Dressed Up Digital Stamps. I have brought this mocktail to life using my alcohol marker pens. I have used some of my Kit and Clowder classes to help with the colouring: Elements of Nature Class for the fruit, the February 2018 monthly colouring class Hellebores for the glass and table top, and the April/May 2019 bonus colouring class for monthly members called Tropical Flamingo for the flamingo and parasol. I have die cut this using the largest internal rectangle from my Die'sire Nouveau Stamping Frame die using the "Out of the Box" technique to ensure I didn't chop off either the straw or the parasol 😉

• Sentiment - uses a die cut from an Advent Calendar which uses the Yellow Solid Paper by Janet Scott
• Gems - are from my stash
  

I hope that I have inspired you to play along with our challenge, but if you are in need of further inspiration please head over to the blog and check out the uber gorgeous creations by my talented teamies. Then come back and show us your creations which are Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image!

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

• Challenge #393 - Punches and Dies at The Paper Shelter
• Challenge #516 at Tuesday Morning Sketches
• Challenge #119 - Tropical Vacation at Sparkles Monthly Challenge
• Challenge #7 - Summer Fun at Tales from the Craft Room
• Challenge #35 - Dies and/or Punches at Sweet Stampers Challenge Blog

Challenge #516 

Tuesday Morning Sketches

That's it from me for today - I heading back to pack my kitchen into boxes! Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Hugs, Helen x

#happybirthday #selfie

I don't tweet (or do "witter" as it's called in our house) but this cutie simply required a "hash tag" or two, so I'm hoping I've written them correctly!

Good afternoon friends and hope you're all well. 

It's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this week our challenge is entitled Doodle What? Now, before you head off into a blind panic ('cos I've already done that, tee hee!!!!!) all we want to see on your entries is that you've hand drawn something.

Our sponsor this week is the lovely Emma Canning who is the creator of Flat Friends, where everything has been been hand made by Emma with love. Emma is very kindly offering this week's Random Winner's prize, and she also generously gave each DT member their own choice of image to showcase. 

So without further ado, here is my card for you this week featuring one of Emma's cute images:

I've kept this card very clean and simple as it was for eldest Bambino, who just doesn't "do" frills and frippery but does "do" selfies and online social networking .... so this image was perfect!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a premade 14.8cm square base in white
• Design Paper - comes from the Sugar and Spice Papercraft CD-Rom
• Image - of course comes from the hand of Emma at Flat Friends, and this image is called Girl Selfie. I brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before die cutting her using one of my Sizzix Framelits Ovals dies using the "out of the box" technique. I finished the image off by hand drawing a border around the die cut edge using a silver gel pen.
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS6, CR7
• Hair - TN1, TN2, TN3, TN7 (for once I'm actually pretty happy with this!)
• Phone - HB1, HB2
• Jumper - IB1, IB2, IB3
• Sentiments - are 2 smaller Sizzix Framelits Ovals die cuts onto which I've handwritten my "hash tag" sentiments and drawn a border around the edges using my silver gel pen
• Twine - from my stash which I wrapped around the paper panel twice, and then used another length to fix my sentiment tags

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and marvel at the doodling talents of my wonderful team-mates. Then share and show us your creations which feature Doodle What? - this challenge will finish on Sunday 19th July 2015.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the day!

Hugs, Helen x

Boo .......... !!!!!

I hope I didn't scare you, with something from me suddenly appearing in your blog feed! After 3½ months of being AWOL in Blogland, I'm back! How are you all?

Sorry that I disappeared on you all, however life distinctly got in the way of crafting and (to cap it all) Mr. Mojo cleared off on a very long vacation. Anway, I'm back crafting now and I will be bringing you regular blog posts ... fingers crossed!

Here's a little taster; a card which I produced last week for my youngest's birthday. She saw me making an identical card the week before (which I put into a box of cards to be raffled at my friend Karen's 50 Shades of Pink fundraising Grand Ball - I'll blog these another time!) and asked me if she could have one for her birthday. Well, of course I had to oblige (didn't I?), and here is the result:

Sorry the photo isn't too bright - it's another grey and dreary day here, and this was the best I could do!

My card recipe is follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15 x 10.5 cm simple Z-fold card.
  
• Design Paper - is from a set called Candy Hearts by Goblinmarket.
• Image -  is Nail Polish by Melissa at MelJens Designs and I chose this image following a win earlier in the year at Tuesday Morning Sketches - shame on me that I haven't used it until now!!! I flipped this digital image in my word processing package before cutting it using my new toy (I've treated myself to a Big Shot!!!!) and my second largest Framelits Oval Die. I've used the "Out of the Box" technique just to add a bit of interest to the design, and then brought the image to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Nail Varnish - PL1, PL2
• Bottle and Lid - IG1, IG2
• Charm & "Sparkles" - Silver Gel Pen
• Gem - from my stash
• Sentiment - comes from a set called You're So Sweet (which was a magazine freebie last year), which I stamped onto an additional die cut oval using Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black. I fixed this oval into the middle of the bottom layer of the card, before superimposing my main image over it.

There you have it ... easing myself back into Blogland gently! 

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (with a little help from the girls at Paper Playful - thanks girls!):

• Day 295 - This and That Stamping at 365 Cards
• Challenge # 237 - Anything Goes with the Option of a Sketch at Creative Inspirations
• Anything Goes at Ladybug Crafts Ink
• Challenge #185 - Think Pink at Craft your Passion Challenges
• Colour Pink at That Craft Place
• Challenge #55 - Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness at The Squirrel and The Fox

Hope you have a great day ... I'm off for a quick run and studio class, followed by crafting this afternoon!

Hugs, Helen x

... and Relax!

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

This is my second card for  Incy Wincy Designs this morning. I've done them on separate posts as I'm not sure about putting 2 cards on one post and then entering them into different challenges! Just as a reminder, this week's challenge topic is Butterflies and Bows. 

We have got 2 totally amazing sponsors for you this week ... just a shame I can't enter our own competition!

First, we're welcoming Heather Valentin from Lacy Sunshine Stamps . This is Heather's first time sponsoring one of our challenges, and she is offering one lucky winner a $20 Gift Certificate to her store. And with sooooo many gorgeous images to choose from, I can guarantee that you'll be spoilt for choice. Heather also has a retiring section with a number of her digital images priced at just $1, so there is no excuse for not topping up your stash! 

Our second sponsor is perennial favourite, Krista from Saturated Canary who is offering our second lucky winner 2 digital images from her store.

Both of our lovely sponsors very kindly offered the DT their choice of image to use this week. However a number of my teamies, like me, had sooooooooo much trouble choosing between Heather's images and Krista's images that we had to do one of each! 

So for this card, I'm showcasing one of Heather's delightful designs:

I have made a Flap Card (a new fold for me, but very simple to do by following this tutorial at SplitCoast Stampers), using a palette of colour inspiration from Design Seeds - thanks to the team at Jellypark Challenges for a wonderful challenge this week, as this gorgeous colour scheme was at the top when I popped over to Design Seeds to take a look! 

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Teal which I cut according to the dimensions in the tutorial I then used the largest rosette on my Ultimate Pro Board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats to shape the flap. The rest of the card was re-cut, scored and folded as per the tutorial.
  
• Image - this gorgeous and chilling out girl is called Jillian and she has been designed by artist Heather at Lacy Sunshine Stamps. Unfortunately, I can't give you a link to Jillian as I can't find her in Heather's online store anymore :o( ... and I'm sure I didn't choose her from the Retiring section.  Having carefully superimposed Jillian onto an oval shape and  cut her out using the 'out of the box' technique, I brought her to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS3
• Lips - DR1
• Eye - GT2
• Hair - EB5, EB8
• Top - DR3, DR4, DR5, Silver Gel Pen
• Yoga Pants - IG1, IG2, IG3
• Pumps - DR5
• Outline - GG1
• Sentiment - is another goodie from one of my favourite designers, Paulette at Create with TLC. I've taken the rather appropriate sentiment into my word processing package and changed the colour of it so that it tones in with the rest of the card. Once printed out, I cut the sentiment strip into a banner shape.
• Butterflies - are by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts and the image is called DIY Butterfly. They were perfect for this challenge as I resized them to make them quite small and then paper pieced them using the "Cranberry Dots" paper from the Summertime Designs kit Thanks for Giving. I finished the butterflies off by dotting my Silver Gel Pen for their abdomens.
• Ribbon - is a satin edged, organdie ribbon from my stash which I attached to the top flap of the card (under the image) and tied at the bottom of the card to keep the flap shut.

So, after two posts from me (!) I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs to check out the other gorgeous creations by my team mates and our Guest Designer for June Linda. Don't forget to then come back and show us your creations featuring Butterflies and Bows. This challenge ends on Sunday 16th June 2013.

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

• Color Inspired Challenge at Jellypark Challenges - I've been inspired by the Cocktail Color Palette as shown on the right
• Challenge #185 - Magenta, Teal, Light Gray at The Play Date Cafe
• Challenge #10 - Anniversary Anything Goes at Lacy Sunshine Challenge
  

That's it from me for the moment - hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x

Fiesta, not Siesta!

Good morning all from a very excited Casa de Crafty Mamma Mia. Why, I hear you ask? Well today is the start of my 4 week residency as Guest Designer at Top Tip Tuesday ... thanks for having me girls!!!!

Today is my  first challenge with the team, and the title of this one is Box Clever - this means make any kind of box. Our sponsor for this challenge is the lovely Melissa at MelJen's Designs who will be giving a great prize to the lucky winner of this challenge. Don't forget that you too could feature as a Top Tip Tuesday Guest just by leaving a great tip! 

Melissa has been kind enough to provide the DT with some images to showcase, and here is my box featuring one of Melissa's 'furry friends':

My project recipe is as follows:

• Box Base - made from Centura Pearl Card in Dark Chocolate which I cut to 10.5cm x 29.6cm (half an A4 sheet longways) and then scored using my Ultimate Pro to make the Wedge Box shape
• Design Paper -is by Paulette at Create with TLC and is called Fiesta Time. This was a goodie on Paulette's blog just last week as Paulette was celebrating Cinco Mayo ... the timing couldn't have been more perfect!
  
• Image - this hot dog is Chili Chihuahua and he is one the cute animal images you can get from  MelJen's Designs. I used the "out of the box" technique with the smallest rosette from the "nest" on the Ultimate Pro Embossing Board Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats - rather like a die, as I don't have a die-cutting machine. However, I find this technique works just as well, even if it's slightly more time consuming! I de-bossed the rosette shape around the image before cutting it out and bringing this canine cutie to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Sombrero - CT2, CT3, CT4, TB5, JG2, CR9, CR10, CR11
• Chihuahua - TN3, TN4, TN5, PP2, PP3
• Poncho - JG1, JG2, TB5
• Chillis - CR9, CR10, CR11
• Outline - GG1
• Background - Craf-T Chalk in Light Blue and Bronze Gel Pen
• Ribbon - was recycled having been cut from one of my daughter's jumpers! (Does anyone hook these lengths of ribbon over coat hangers when hanging a garment?)  

I think this box would be great for small Birthday presents (like make-up or hair bits that teenage girls tend to  give each other) or in a different size as Wedding favour boxes ... and it was oh so easy to make too!

I hope you'll come over to Top Tip Tuesday and see the wonderful Boxes made by the rest of the DT - we'll be back with our mid-challenge inspiration next Tuesday.

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

• Challenge #56 - No Squares Allowed at Dream Valley Challenges
• Challenge #35 - Anything But a Card at Delicious Doodles

Hope you have a great day,

Hugs, Helen x

Spring Flowers

This is my first post of the day - please scroll up or come back later for my next post!

Hi,

I'm having to schedule this post as the Easter holidays are now over, and I'm tending to the sick youngsters at school! I do hope Mr. Blogger is playing nicely today and posts this at the time I've requested! :o)

This is my third post as Guest Designer at Incy Wincy Designs and I'm loving seeing the projects you talented crafters are sharing! This week the challenge is Use a Digi and we have been sponsored by Delicious Doodles who kindly gave the DT a selection of Spring images to choose from. I had a really hard job selecting one image to use (honestly!) and this is the card I made:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - 300gsm Centura Pearl Card in Ivory, which was cut, scored and folded to an 11cm Spring Card.
• Design Paper - Flowers and Trees Paper from the Owl Always Love Spring collection by the talented Summer Driggs at Summertime Designs.
• Image - Crocus by the wonderful Teri at Delicious Doodles. Do pop over to her site, as there are so many delicious images to make you open your purse! I brought the crocus to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following shades:
• Crocus - LV1, LV2, GB4
• Leaves - CG1, CG2
• Outline - GG1

I've deliberately left this card without a sentiment because, unusually for me, I haven't made it with a particular occasion in mind. However, I think it would make a great "Thank You", "Thinking of You" or "Get Well" card, as well as a lovely Birthday card.

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

• Challenge 52 - Spring Summer Colours at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge 212 - Spring Flowers at Cute Card Thursday
• PDCC127 - Colour Board of Daffodil...Hydrangea...Kiwi...Cherry at The Play Date Cafe (All the colours are there ... just! The cherry is on my DP)
• Challenge 110 - Anything Goes at Sassy Cheryl's
• April Showers Bring Spring Flowers at Simon Says

Looking forward to seeing your Digis over at Incy Wincy this week. Hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x