Home is where the Heart is ....

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

We're in the middle of our school Easter Holidays, so I've had one relaxing week already, and another slightly less relaxing week to come as we'll be moving eldest Bambino back home from Uni at the end of this week. How quickly her second year has flown past!

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!

So, here is my inspiration for you this month:

I think this creation will be finding a new home with a work colleague who has recently moved house!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is Cream Centura Pearl Card which has been cut, scored and folded and then die cut using my largest Die'sire Essentials Hearts die to make a heart shaped easel card.
• 
  Image - is, of course, by Wendy at All Dressed Up Digital Stamps and this one is called Home Sweet Home. I have brought the image to life using a mix of Spectrum Noir and Copic alcohol markers, before die cutting it using my largest Die'sire Essentials Hearts die so that it fitted perfectly over the easel folded base card!
• Stopper - is the word Celebrate which I die cut 3 times from Kraft Card and layered up to look like chipboard
• Flower - is layered flower die from my stash which I used to cut one flower in each of the sizes from Cream Centura Pearl Card. I then shaped and layered each die cut, before adding a clear gem from my stash to the centre of the top flower.

I hope that I have inspired you to dig out an All Dressed Up Digi and come over and join in the fun! However, if you are in need of any further inspiration, please do head over to the All Dressed Up Challenge Blog and check out the gorgeous creations by my ever so talented teamies. Then come back and share your Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image project with us!

I would like to share this project with the following challenges:

• Wednesday Challenge: No Designer Paper at Simon Says Stamp
• Challenge #119 - D is for Die Cuts at Ike's World
• Challenge #134 - Fresh Beginnings at The Cutie Pie Challenge
• April Theme Challenge - Back To Nature! at Catch the Bug Challenge
• Challenge #184 - Pop it up at Inkspirational Challenges
• April Challenge: Wings, Tails or Spring Blossoms at Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday Challenge - think I might have nailed all 3 with this image  😁

Hope you have a lovely and crafty week!

Hugs, Helen x

Lighting up a New Home

Welcome to Monday morning friends and time for a new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs. Before I get to that I would like to welcome my newest follower Annette. Annette makes some really delicious cards, and currently has a Candy Challenge over at her blog.





 
Back to the matter in hand and this week's challenge. This week we're playing Bingo (Tic-Tac-Toe) and using the board below, we're going for a row, column or diagonal of 3.

We've got two lovely sponsors for you  again this week who are both offering amazing prizes.


Our first sponsor is Iva Nova Chest who are offering our first lucky winner this beautiful goodie bag featuring flowers, ribbon and bling in shades of purple.



Our second sponsor is our very own Incy Wincy Teamie Nikki, from Limited Runs Digital Stamps. Nikki is offering our second lucky winner a prize of 3 digis from her store, and she has kindly provided the Design Team with some gorgeous images to showcase this week.




So here is my project for you, featuring the middle row of Punch, Metal Pins and Anything but a Card - a Candle Gift for someone moving into a New Home:

My project recipe is as follows:

• Candle - small unscented block candle in white from Ikea
• Image - This sweet little bird house is called Birdhouse #2 by Nikki at Limited Runs Digital Stamps. I printed the image first onto some thin card before then carefully taping a piece of white tissue paper over the top of the printed image, and then used my Spectrum Noir Pens to bring this little nest box to life.
• Sentiment - computer generated
• Borders - from the Paintbox Poppets Papercrafting CD-Rom. I cut & pasted the borders from the PDF file, and transferred them into my word processing package so that I could lay them out with the sentiment. I carefully cut around the borders and then used a new Heart Border Punch to decorate the border. You can see this design in the picture
• Posh Pins - homemade using silver header pins and beads from a selection pot.
• Twine - from stash and tied into a multi-layered bow using the bow maker on my Ultimate Pro. 
•  Putting the image onto the candle - Once the images were dry, I carefully cut around them and then placed each one onto the candle holding it in place with a piece of Greaseproof Paper. Unfortunately, I didn't get my placing quite right, as the ends of the borders are not at the same level! :o(    I then used my hairdryer to heat this 'sandwich' up and make the image melt into the candle … just be very careful that you don’t burn yourself at the same time. There is a great tutorial on SplitCoast Stampers with a video showing you how to do this!

I think that small candles like these would make great gifts for Teachers or Classroom Helpers, or even as a quick Hostess Gift if you're invited to a party at short notice. 

Do check out the Incy Wincy Designs blog and see the other gorgeous Bingo / Tic-Tac-Toe  projects from my talented team-mates and this month's Guest Designer Sandra.  Don't forget to come back and show us your projects, and make sure you tell us which line you're claiming for Bingo! This challenge finishes on Sunday 20th January 2013.

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

• Week 189 - Dies and Punches at Allsorts Challenges
•  January Challenge - Anything But a Card at Crafter's Companion Monthly Challenge

Hope you have a great and crafty week!

Hugs, Helen x

PS: Not sure what's happening with Blogger this week - just realised that what I thought had posted in English, has actually posted in Arabic or Cyrillic!!!! Have changed it now and apologies to anyone who couldn't read my post!