It must be Love ......

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

Half term is beckoning here on the south coast of the UK, and it's lovely to know there are no time pressures like having to rise with the alarm! That said, I've got a few "makes" to get sorted as there are a plethora of family birthdays next week, so maybe I do need to rise with the radio 😂

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!

Now, if you're in the UK you can hardly have failed to notice that yesterday was Valentine's Day! Papa Mia and I don't do anything to mark this special occasion other than exchange cards, and here's the Pop Up Box card I made for him:

As usual, there's a bit of a story with this - this time the photography. So, I rushed home from work to take a photo outside. First photo, bench in perfect focus but not the card 😕. Second photo - wall in perfect focus but not the card 😞. Third photo - other wall in perfect focus but not the card 😡. However, I didn't upload my photos until later in the evening so didn't realise that my photos were, basically, rubbish! Panic!!! Gatecrash teenagers room as she has the best electrical lights in order to take above photo, which still isn't perfect 😂

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base card - is Snow White Centura Pearl which I have cut, scored and folded following this tutorial at SplitCoast Stampers, just having a slightly narrower tuck in flap to account for the sheet of A4 card
• Black card - from my stash which I have embossed using a retired embossing folder called Falling Hearts
• Image - is Love Heart by Wendy at All Dressed Up Digital Stamps. I have coloured this very simply using my Spectrum Noir Alochol Markers (sorry, I didn't make a note of which colours I used!) and a silver gel pen to pick out the word "you", before fussy cutting it out and adhering it to the back of the card
• Hearts - are a variety of sizes from 2 different Crafter's Companion Advent Calendars which have been cut from Snow White Centura Pearl and then stuck onto narrow strips of clear acetate which have then been adhered inside the box so that the hearts wobble a bit!

I hope I have inspired you to head over to All Dressed Up Challenges and play along with this challenge. However if you're in need of further inspiration, please do head over there and check out the other gorgeous projects from my exceedingly talented teamies. Then come back and show us your Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image creations - this challenge will end on the evening of 14th March 2019 (UK time). 

For more chances to win some of Wendy's gorgeous images, don't forget that the Facebook Dressy Girls are hosting their own challenge of All You Need Is Love which runs until the end of February!

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

• Challenge #287 -February 2019 - Love and/or St Valentine's Day at Brown Sugar Challenge Blog
• Challenge 155 - Love, Love, Love at Pattie's Creations
• #220 - Love or Valentine Sentiment at Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog

• 

  Cookie Challenge #110

  Cookie Challenge #110 at If You Give a Crafter a Cookie
• Challenge #407 - Love at Die Cutting Divas
• Romance at Try It On Tuesday's
• Challenge #104 - Love Your Me at The Male Room
• Challenge #425 - Falling Hearts at Tuesday Throwdown
• Challenge #328 - Holiday at Addicted to Stamps and More!

That's it from me for today, but do standby next week as I might just pop up in your Blog feed with a non-DT project!

Enjoy your weekend!

Crafty Hugs,

Helen x

Up and away!

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

My poor little blog has been much neglected of late - although I've been creating for my DTs, those creations haven't made it on here 😧 and I'm aiming to change that now, and try to post all those creations I have made over the last couple of months!

This week saw the start of a new challenge over at Incy Wincy Designs and this time our challenge for you is Clean and Simple. Right up my street then, but may be more of a challenge for others 😉

We have two amazing sponsors for you this time.

Our first sponsor is the team at Sticker You who are offering our first lucky winner a $30USD Gift Certificate, and the good news is that you can use this on postage too!!!!!!






Our second sponsor is Maryanne who is the artist behind Createful Heart Digis, and she is offering our second lucky prize winner the 3 images that we have been lucky enough to showcase this time.







So, without further ado, here is my card for you:

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I figured that I would need a card for Papa Mia and, given that we're not a particularly "slushy" couple, these little hedgies fit the bill just perfectly!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Kraft Cardstock which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 12cm square card
  
• Image - is Up, Up and Away! by Maryanne at Createful Heart Digis which I brought to life using my Spectrum Noir Markers in the listed colours before cutting it out as a 12cm high panel to go on the outside edge of my card
• Balloons- PP3, CR2, PP5, CR6, DR5, DR7
• Hedgehogs - TN2, TN3, TN4, TN5, TN7  I used the December 2017 Kit and Clowder Marker's Class (which featured some cute furry mice) as the basis for colouring my hedgies, but I think I might have been a bit heavy handed with my pen flicks! 
• Sky/Clouds - Pale Blue Craf-T Decorating Chalk and a cloud template from my blogging buddy Annette. If you head over there, please be sure to let her know that you came from my blog won't you?
• Sentiment - came with my Crafter's Companion 2016 Advent Calendar and I die cut it twice; once out of red mirri card and a further one from plain black card to act as a shadow.

So there you go, my very clean and simple card to inspire you! 

I hope I have encouraged you to play along with us at Incy Wincy Designs this time but if you're in need of further inspiration, please do head over to the blog and check out the wonderful creations by my amazing teamies. Then come back and show us your Clean and Simple creation!

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

• February Competition - Love, Hearts, Valentine's at I'm a Crafter's Companion Facebook Page
• Challenge #275 - Valentine's Day at Brown Sugar Challenge
• Challenge #126 - Dies at CAS on Friday
• Challenge #143 - Love is in the Air at Pattie's Creations
• "I Heart You" Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge
• Challenge #196 - Valentine or Love Sentiment at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge 64 - Love (St. Valentine's, Wedding, Engagement etc.) at Moving Along With The Times
• February Challenge - A Project for a Loved One at Sasayaki Glitter Challenge

Hugs,
Helen x 

Bunny and me

Good afternoon crafty friends and happy Thinking Day/Founder's Day to any friends who are current or former members of any Girl Guide Association or the Scout Association!

To those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, today would have been the birthdays of Lord Robert Baden-Powell (founder of the Scout and Guide movements) and his wife Olave who became the first World Chief Guide. Today is the day when Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Senior Section members and all leaders are encouraged to participate in activities to learn more about their fellow Guides and Girl Scouts all over the world. Although I'm no longer in uniform, I have been very lucky to have been chosen to represent Girlguiding UK abroad 3 times and I have to say, there is something very, very special about singing Taps at the end of a campfire with 50 other members from many, many different countries, each young woman singing in her mother tongue but to the same tune. Just writing about it now, is making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! Once a Guide, always a Guide and it is something still special to me.

February sees us celebrating the first new release of 2017 over at All Dressed Up and this month, Wendy has brought us some wonderful images celebrating Love. Of course, Valentine's Day has been and gone for this year, but these delightful images would be a great addition to your stash:

Top left is Love Heart, top right is Some Bunny Loves Me, bottom left is Be My Valentine and bottom right is Little Birdie all available now over at the All Dressed Up Digital Stamps Etsy store.


I have been lucky enough to play with Some Bunny Loves Me, and here's my card:

I've made a K-card which, once made, looks like a variant of a swing card.

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - 2 pieces of A5 lightweight card onto which I've printed my papers which came from the January 2017 Download of the Month at Crafter's Companion and this collection is called Be Mine. The front portion of the card has been scored to make an A6 card base, and the middle portion of the card was scored in a concertina fold. I then used the heart embossing shape on my Ultimate Pro to emboss my K/swing portion, cut half of this out and brought it to the front of my card (if you click on the image closeup photo, you can just see the cut marks around the left edge of the white heart!).
  
• Image - is the utterly gorgeous Some Bunny Loves Me by Wendy at All Dressed Up Digital Stamps. I brought this cutie and her little rabbit friend to life using my Spectrum Noir Alcohol Marker Pens in the listed shades, before embossing round them using the same heart shaped template on my Ultimate Pro, cutting them out and fixing them to the swinging portion of my card.
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS4, TN4, FS8 (Blush)
• Hair - TN3, EB3, EB8
• Bunny and Girl's Bunny Ears - GB8, GB9, GB10, PP3, PP5
• Top - IG1, IG2
• Skirt, Scarf, Hair and Shoe Bows - BT3, BT5, BT9
• Shoes and Belt - True Black
• Pull Along Cart - CR7, CR9, CR11
• Grounding - IG2

So, a really clean and simplish card from me this time; just letting the pretty papers and adorable image speak for themselves 😊

For more ideas using these beautiful images, please head over to the All Dressed Up Blog to check out the other gorgeous creations from my talented teamies and the first half of the Blog Dressy girls showcased these images here.

Don't forget that we've got our current Blog Challenge Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image running until 14th March 2017, and the All Dressed Up Facebook Group have their own challenge of Romance and/or Red - why not combine the two by using one of Wendy's newly released images?

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

• February 2017 Challenge - Anything Goes with bonus theme of Love/Friendship at Spectrum Noir Facebook Page
• Friday Challenge 72 - Any Kind of Hearts at Quick Quotes - there are hearts on my card front on the DP and also my aperture and image are heart shaped!
• Challenge #5 - Have a Heart at Daisy Chain Challenges
• February Challenge - All You Need Is Love at Dare2BArtzy
• February Challenge - Love is in the Air at Crafty Calendar Challenge
• Challenge #108 - Simply Love at The Cutie Pie Challenge
• Love/Romance Challenge at Whoopsi Daisy Challenge
• Challenge #124 - Love at Simply Create Too
• February Challenge - Love/Romance at Craftaholics R Us
• Challenge #56 - Love is in the Air at Paper Creator

Hope you have a great evening!

Hugs, Helen x

Masculine Valentine

Howdy my crafting buddies! Long time no speak! Hope you are all well and a warm welcome to Adaline, who is my newest follower - hope you enjoy my creations!

Well, despite my hopes on my last post with my new job-share joining the team at school, things didn't quite work out as planned and the lady left after just 2 weeks 😞 Since then however, things have moved on apace and another lady has been appointed, so I now have a "new new" job-share and she started yesterday. Early days yet, but I'm hopeful that this one will stay as she seems to have picked up our ways very quickly whilst I've been training her. Please keep your fingers crossed because I badly need my crafty-time back. 😉

It's new challenge time over at Feeling Sketchy and our prize for you this time is a $10 Gift Certificate to any online store of your choice!

Here's the sketch we're playing with this time, as designed by Michelle:

and here's my card using this sketch as the base for my layout:

I've gone for a monochrome, masculine look for this card limiting my colour palette to black and silver - Valentine's card for Papa Mia sorted 😉!!!!!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver card which I have cut, scored and folded to make a DL sized card base
• Inset card - is a piece of matt black card from my stash which I cut to 20cm x 7.8cm
• Hearts - are from a Leonie Pujol stamp set which is free with Crafter's Inspiration Magazine Issue 13. I've stamped these entwined hearts using my VersaColour Silver Ink Pad, using a stamping mask on the left hand side of the card to make the hearts look layered.
• Banners - are cut from scraps of black and Centura Pearl Snow White Silver using my layered banner die which was in my Crafter's Companion Advent Calendar 2016. I ran the banners through my Big Shot using my Darice Script Background embossing folder before swiping a little silver ink over the black ones to make them stand out a little more.
• Sentiment - is from the Swirly String Sentiments Stamp Set (only available now as a Digital Stamp Set) by Lili of the Valley which I stamped using VersaColour Silver Ink.

I hope that I have inspired you to come along and join in at Feeling Sketchy this time. However, if you're in need of any further inspiration, please do head over to the blog and check out the other wonderful creations by my clever teamies. Then come back and share your creations with us. We'll be back with our next challenge on 15th February 2017.

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

• Challenge #172 - Masculine Projects with a sentiment at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #181 - Love, Love, Love at Crafty Cardmakers
• Challenge #148 - All about Love at Dream Valley Challenges
• Challenge #186 - Hearts and/or Flowers at A Gem of a Challenge
• Challenge #73 - Valentines Card at Crafting with Dragonflies
• All About Love Challenge at Di's Digi Designs Challenge
• Challenge #328 - Love Notes at Tuesday Throwdown

Hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x

Love Cupcakes!

Hello friends and good evening!

I'm here with my inspiration post for the new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs and we're helping you to get ready in time for Valentine's Day, which is just around the corner!, as our theme this time is Love is in the Air.

We've got 2 amazing sponsors for you this time:

Firstly our very own Nikki from Limited Runs Digital Stamps, who is offering our first lucky prize winner 3 digital stamps, or 5 digis if you use a Limited Runs digi. 

This is a fun place to sit back and check out our huge selection of images . We have a little something for everyone from calorie free cupcakes and sweets to all your holiday needs, Love Halloween/Christmas we've got you covered . Limited Runs is great place for those on a budget too with 90% of all images $2 and under. You  can also find lots of hidden deals running through out the shop just check out the pull down menus to see them. Pop in Limited Runs and find out what's new, snag a freebie and enjoy a cuppa something while your browse .

Secondly, Nikky and the team from Polka Doodles are offering our second lucky winner a $15USD gift voucher.

I have used a fun image from Limited Runs Digital Stamps to create this card, and my Valentine's Day card for Papa Mia is sorted!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is a pre-made 14.8cm square card in red
• Papers - comes from a sadly now retired collection from Bearly Mine Designs called "Mini Dots". I have matted and layered this onto black card, as well as using the black card for an additional layer across the middle of the card.
  
• Image - is called Love Heart Cupcake and it comes from the desk of Nikki at Limited Runs Digital Stamps. I have brought this tower of yummyness to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours, before die cutting it using my second largest Die'sire Essentials Squares die, and then matting and layering it onto a slightly larger square of black cardstock
• Hearts - CR8, CR11, DR5
• Buttercream - IG1, IG2, IG3, Blender Pen
• Wrapper - IG2, IG6, IG10, Paper Pieced using the Mini Dots paper
• Sentiment - comes from Crafter's Inspiration Magazine Issue 6 and I've stamped this directly onto the black card using Silver Versamark Ink.

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and see what my fellow DT have made for Love is in the Air - then come back and show us your creations. By the way, Nikki has very generously left a freebie for you on the challenge post ..... nudge, nudge, wink, wink!!!!!!!!! We'll be back with our new challenge on Monday 15th February 2016.

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

• Challenge #80 - Red at Addicted to CAS

Hope you have a great weekend!

Hugs, Helen x

I Love You!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to you! Thankfully I'm now over the worst of the fluey bug - phew, it wasn't pleasant and I haven't felt that ill for an awfully long time.

Anyway, in my absence there's been a new challenge launched at Lexi's Creations and this time our challenge is perfect for today. We're asking to see your Love / Valentine creations. 

Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is the fabby team over at Joanna Sheen who are offering a £10.00 Gift Voucher to their store!

Our resident artist Lexi has once again let the DT loose in the Fairy Dust Crafts online store, and here is the Valentine's Card I've made featuring one of her gorgeous digis:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Ivory, which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Design Papers - are from a download on the Club Inspire section of the Crafter's Companion website. The set is called Love is in the Air and it was the download of the month in February 2012. I have digitally put the layout together, so there is little bulk to my card.
• Image - is by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts  and this little sweetheart is called I Love You Bear. I brought this bear to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
  • Fur - EB2, GB6, GB8, GB10 - I had a slight mishap with my colouring on this as both my GB8 & GB10 pens ran out virtually straight away, so I hope the fur doesn't look too messed up!
  • Small Hearts - DR1
  • Large Heart - DR3 & Silver Gel Pen
  • Outline - WG1
• Ribbon and Sentiment Ticket - both from the Love is in the Air download by Crafter's Companion.
  
  

So this is my very simple card to my husband and conveys the perfect message (as said by Take That: eight letters, three words one meaning.)

Do come over and join in the fun at Lexi's Creations with us, and check out the Love / Valentine creations from the other DT girls and our talented Guest Designer Crafting Vicky. And if, like me, you're only just publishing your card to your partner do come back and link up your creations. You've still got a couple of days as this challenge ends on Saturday 16th February 2013.

I would like to enter the following challenge:

• Challenge 54 - Sketch at Little Miss Muffet Challenges
• Day  44 - Word Wednesday "Love" at 365 Cards
• Challenge #103 - Love is in the Air at Tiddly Inks
• Challenge #37 - Valentine's Cards at The Cutie Pie Challenge
• Love at Paper Crafting Journey
• February Challenge - Love is in the Air at Crafter's Companion Challenge Blog

Hope you have a good rest of the day!
Hugs, Helen x

Valentine's Hugs and Kisses

Hi,

Well, Valentine's Day is now over for another year, and hopefully next year will be a better one for us. I've got a streaming cold and my other half has a nasty virus. Amid the pills and tissues, we did exchange cards (we've given up on presents!) and I reckon it's now safe to show you all the card I made for him:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - Centura Pearl 300gsm card in Ivory (Crafter's Companion) cut and folded to a 15cm square card.
• Backing Paper, Calendar Sheet, Tickets, are all by Create With TLC. The calendar sheet came from the January Blog Hop, the rest were from Paulette's February Club. I printed these onto lightweight cream card from my stash, distressed the edges (this was a new technique for me!) and then chalked the distressed edge with Red. The Heart is also by Create With TLC and I printed this onto white card, coloured it (with my Spectrum Noir in shade 11) and then mounted it over the 14th using foam pads.
• The really cute image is also by Create With TLC  and was a goodie from the February club. I brought this gorgeous little girl to life with my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Dress - 1, 3, 5
• Hat - 104, 100, 1, 3, 5
• Skin - 132, 133
• Shoes - 120
• Basket - 92
• Hearts 137, 8
• Grass - 175, 42

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

• Challenge #94 - Square Cards at Robyn's Fetish Challenge (my second entry)
• February Colour Challenge (Real Red, Whisper White, Melon Mambo) at Come and Get It Challenges
• Challenge #11 - Valentine's Day at The Squirrel and The Fox
• Monthly Challenge #18 - Romance at Little Claire
• Challenge #118 - Lurve! at Totally Gorjuss
• February Challenge - Love is in the Air at Joanna Sheen
• Challenge #1 at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge
• Challenge 21 - Anything Goes at Crafter's Companion

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day!

Hugs, Helen x