It's a good year for the Roses

Good morning crafty friends!

Can you believe it's September already? Is it me, or is there just a slight autumnal nip in the air creeping in first thing in the morning? Here at Casa Mia, we're winding down to the end of the summer holidays: today is the last day of my long hols as I'm back to school on Monday, youngest Bambino returns on Wednesday but eldest Bambino has another couple of weeks at home before we drop her off at her new Uni in the middle of the month.

It being the 1st of the month brings a new challenge over at Feeling Sketchy and for this fortnight our sponsor is the lovely Tracey and team from Fred She Said Digital Designs. Tracey is offering our lucky winner a US$10 Gift Card to their store. Tracey also very kindly gave each DT member their choice of image to use for this challenge.

So, here is the sketch we're playing with this time:

And here is my take on it, using an image from Fred She Said Digital Designs Store:

I have flipped the sketch to suit the rose spray and leaves and added more swirly bits for good measure ... and then realised once I had photographed my card that I had forgotten to add a scatter of something across the top of it ... doh 😝!!!!! Never mind 😁!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base card - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card base
• Background layer - is a 14cm square piece of black cardstock
  
• Image - is Rose Spray from the gorgeous Hearts and Roses Digi Set which not only includes this image but also Hearts and Roses (where the spray is inside a heart shape), 3 different sentiments and 2 printing sheets with multiple copies of the images to maximise the use of your cardstock. I have brought this image to life using my Spectrum Noir Colouring System Markers and followed the Roses Tutorial in the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature Class before fussy cutting it and sticking it to the background layer. This is the first time I've coloured roses using this tutorial and I'm pretty pleased at how they've turned out - they almost have a velvet-like sheen to them!
• Flourishes - have been die cut from Centura Pearl Snow White Silver using one of my Die'sire Leaf Swirls dies. I then cut the swirl into 3 pieces (not that you would guess looking at it would you?) before tucking these behind the image.
• Sentiment - was stamped directly onto the black cardstock with Silver VersaColour Ink using one of the cover freebie stamps from the January 2017 issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft.

I hope that I have inspired you to come along and join us with this sketch, but if you are in need of any further inspiration please head over to Feeling Sketchy and take a look at the gorgeous creations by my very talented teamies! Then come back and show us your version of our sketch - don't forget that you can always flip or rotate the sketch, amend the shapes of elements ... as usual we just need to see that you have been inspired by our sketch! We'll be back with our new challenge on 15th September 2017.

I will be back a little later to link up to some challenges.

In the meantime have a lovely day!

Hugs, Helen x

Elegant in Cream

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

Good morning crafty friends and a Happy New Year to you all!

I hope you had a fantastic festive season - here at Casa Mia we had a lovely, if slightly quiet, time as some of our engagements were cancelled due to others succumbing to the dreaded cold and flu! However, every cloud has a silver lining and ours was that the Bambinos wanted to play family games. So we've spent most evenings round the dining table with either Cludeo, Mousetrap or Scattegories out and had a fab time. Back to earth tomorrow with a bump though as school starts again 😃

We're running a day late over at Feeling Sketchy as Cathy has been away for New Year, but we're delighted to bring you our first sketch of 2017. We don't have a sponsor for this challenge, so Cathy will be arranging a Gift Certificate for our lucky winner. 

And here's the sketch we're playing with, as drawn by Michelle:

And here's my take on it:

Sadly, I had need for this card and it should already be with it's recipient 😢

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - black cardstock which I cut, scored and folded to make DL size with the fold at the top
• Layered card - is Ivory Centura Pearl which is ½cm smaller all round than my DL card base
• Papers - are from the March 2012 Crafter's Companion Club Inspire Download Rose with Love. I used the cream coloured Rose paper from the download and die cut  these using my smallest wonky square from my Die'sire Elegance Stamping Frame Die. I cut a small slit into the bottom right square so I could insert the tags.
  
• Sentiment - is part of the cover gift from the January 2017 issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine which I stamped onto a tag which I had embossed using my Ulti Bags Ultimate Pro Embossing Board
• Flourish - is another old Die'sire Die, this one is called Leaf Swirls and I cut this from the same black cardstock as the base
• Small Tags and Dragonfly - are dies which came from my Crafter's Companion Advent Calendar 2016. I cut these both from Ivory Centura Pearl and curled the dragonfly's wings to give it a bit of dimension. I also added a small Silver Gem from my stash.

I hope I've inspired you to have a go and play along with this sketch, but if you're in need of further inspiration do head over to the Feeling Sketchy Blog where my talented teamies are showcasing some great creations. Then come back and show us your take on our sketch. We'll be back with our next challenge on 15th January 2017.

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

• It's all New at Whoopsi Daisy - my Sentiment is brand new as are the 2 small dies from my crafty Advent Calendar!

I'll catch you a bit later, as I have another blog post going live today.

Hugs, Helen x

A Jar of Love

Hello again friends!

This week seems a bit like "blog post fest", as my two DT's coincide with having new challenges launching!

This time, I'm sharing the new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and this time we'd like to see your creations that say Get Well or With Sympathy. 

We're being sponsored this time by the lovely Tammy from A Day for Daisies, who is offering the random winner of this challenge a $12 Gift Certificate to the store. And even if you're not the lucky winner of this challenge do drop by the store as Tammy sometimes has some freebies on offer .... ;o) ! And there's always plenty of inspiration from the ADFD Design Team at A Day for Daisies Blog.

Tammy has also kind been enough to give each member of our DT their choice of image to showcase for this challenge, so here's my With Sympathy card, featuring an image from A Day for Daisies:

I don't know about you, but I always find sympathy cards the hardest to create and they take me a really long time. Maybe it's because I'm trying too hard to make something that's right for the occasion. I've kept this one really uncluttered and I shall keep it stashed safely so that the next time I need a sympathy card, I'll be able to send it straight away instead of being a day or two late whilst I create!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver which I've cut, scored and folded to make a 6 inch square card base. I've then embossed directly onto this using my Embossalicious Geometric Motif embossing folder, sadly no longer available from Crafter's Companion.
  
• Image - is Jar of Wild Poppies by Tammy at A Day for Daisies which I have brought to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed shades together with a tutorial from the Elements of Nature colouring class from Kit and Clowder before die cutting it with my largest Sizzix Framelits Scalloped Square Die.
• Poppies - CR6, CR11, DR5, DR7
• Stems - DG2, DG3, DG4
• Jar - IG1, IG3, IG5, CR11
• Sentiment - comes from a set by Kris at Imagine That Digi Stamp called Thoughts and Prayers Sentiments which I was lucky enough to win from their blog earlier this year. I've cut the sentiment into a fishtail banner, and then very lightly run my CR11 Spectrum Noir Pen around the edges of the banner for definition.

I hope I've inspired you to have a go at making either a Get Well or With Sympathy project. If you're in need of further inspiration, then do head over to Incy Wincy Designs and feast your eyes on the projects which have been made by my fabbie teamies. Then don't forget to come back and share your creations with us. This challenge ends on Saturday 3rd September 2016 and we'll be back on Monday 5th September 2016 with our next challenge.

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

• Challenge #44 - Mason Jars at Scribbles Designs
• Hip to be Square Card Challenge at Cards in Envy
• Challenge #50 - Keep it Simple at Paper Creator's Crafts
• L is for Love at Alphabet Challenge
• Challenge #327 - Embossing (Heat or Dry) at My Time to Craft
• Week 33 - Anything Goes at Digi Choosday

Whatever you're up to today, I hope you have fun!

Hugs, Helen x