Edwardian Elegance

Good morning friends and welcome to another Monday. So, the longest day has been and gone, the nights are drawing in (!) and the weather is more November than June! Apart from that, all's good here!!! Hope you and yours are well.

It's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs again, and this week's challenge is Tic-Tac-Toe or Bingo! Here's your board, courtesy of the lovely Nikki and the challenge is 3 in a line, any row, column or diagonal (just make sure you tell us in your post which line you're claiming please!):

As usual, we've got some great sponsors lined up for you this week.

Firstly Iva Nova Chest are offering this gorgeous "Blue" goody bag to one lucky winner. Aren't those ribbons and flowers just gorgeous?

Our second sponsors are the team at The Paper Shelter who are offering our second lucky winner a $20 Gift Certificate to their store. 

The Paper Shelter team have also very kindly given the DT some of their images and papers to showcase this week, and here is my creation. I'm claiming the right hand column of Frame, Lace, Use Metal:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card -  is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Image on Paper - is the Composition Page from In the 20s by The Paper Shelter. This image is all pre-coloured, but this cutie does come in a black and white line drawing so you can colour her yourself or a "stand alone" coloured version so you add her to your choice of papers.
  
• Frame - is the Paper Page from the In the 20s Stamp set. I've carefully cut out the green part, which left me with a swirly frame. To get a 3-D effect, I used a couple of layers of thick cardboard strips around the edge of the papers.
• Lace - from my stash and stiched to make a rosette with a little red frosted bead in the middle from Sanctuary Beads
• Posh Pin - is home made, using a header pin and frosted brown beads from Sanctuary Beads. The large brown and medium teal coloured beads came from a "pick & mix" pot by Hobbycraft

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs and look at the other gorgeous creations by my team mates and Linda, who has been our fabby Guest Designer all through June. Then don't forget to come back and play Tic-Tac-Toe or Bingo with us!

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

• Pile It On #25 - Vintage or Shabby Chic at Pile It On
• Challenge #46 - Use Something Metal at The Squirrel and The Fox
• Challenge #45 - Steampunk or Vintage at Sparkles Monthly Challenge

Have a great day! Hugs, Helen x

A Quick Card

Hello friends and hope you're well this afternoon! A very swift post from me.

After the heat of yesterday, today is somewhat cooler here. It keeps threatening to rain, but not the thunderstorms we were forecast!

I made this card in about 20 minutes this morning - I was up early, so filled in my extra time usefully .... !!!!!

OK - I know it's very, very, very CAS - but I like it!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - pre-folded Kraft card base in A5
  
• Images - this cute little bird was a freebie in May from The Alley Way Stamps. I set 3 birds into 3 corners of a square format and then I paper-pieced the birds' bodies with these 3 gorgeous, different coloured, spotty papers from the 14 Days of Valentines kit by Summer at Summertime Designs. I drew over their tail feathers in gold gel pen before tool distressing the edges of the square. I finished the square by doodling round the edges with my gold gel pen. I've never been happy with my doodling before, but this doesn't look tooooooo bad!
• Sentiment - is also a freebie from The Alley Way Stamps and goes with the bird image. I've simply put this into the fourth corner of the square before printing.

Told you this one was quick and simple!

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

• Be Inspired Challenge #30 - Photo Inspiration at The Alley Way Stamps
• Day 169 - White Space at 365 Cards I'm hoping that blank Kraft card counts for this challenge!
• 9th Challenge - Take Flight - Rhedd and Rosie Challenge
• June Challenge - Wings at Bunny Zoe's Crafts
• Challenge #67 - Anything with Wings at Tammy's Scrapin' Corner
• Distressing at Divas by Design

Hope you have a great rest of the afternoon and evening!

Hugs, Helen x

Don't let go!

Good morning all! Hope you are fine and well on this Tuesday morning. The weather isn't quite living up to the weatherman's promise, but we can live in hope!

I didn't quite manage to get this post written last night, so here is a slightly belated second inspiration post for this week's challenge at Incy Wincy Designs. Just to recap, our challenge is for you to Make a Pocket Card, and there are plenty of tutorials if you go to SplitCoast Stampers and type Pocket Card into the Search Resources box on the Tutorials page.

We've got 2 amazing sponsors for you again this week! Firstly, we're welcoming back Janet and the team from Pink Gem Designs who are offering one lucky winner a great prize.



And we're also very pleased to welcome a new sponsor this week - Tamara and her team from The Stamping Chef, and they are offering our second lucky winner a $10 gift Certificate to their store. And here's a bit about them:
The Stamping Chef was born in November 2012, after I (Tamara) decided to switch from the scrapbook community to the crafter side of designing. Drawing is my passion, and my style is fun, cute and doodlish..I think =D.  I love to see images come to life when they're colored by amazing crafters. Creating digital images can be a tedious process, but I love each and every step of it. I have a lovely bunch of ladies standing next to me, creating, giving me advice, and help me everywhere they can. I'm so totally new in this great adventure, but I love it! It's so totally different than I'm used to. I hope I can provide you with loads of cute, happy, funny images you can work with.


Today, I'm showcasing one of the beautiful images from Pink Gem Designs and I have made a Criss Cross Card, which is a twist on a pocket card:

My card recipe is follows:

• Base Card - is 160gsm card in white which I cut, scored and folded following this tutorial to make the criss cross card base.
  
• Design Paper - is from a collection called Emma's Garden, which was a magazine freebie last year (I think!). To make sure the flowers go the same way, I cut two rectangles and ensured that I cut the diagonals so that I had a left side and a right side!
• Card Band - is made from a strip of 160gsm card in white onto which I've stuck another floral paper from the Emma's Garden paper collection. 
• Image - this cutie holding on tightly to her balloon is Chloe with Balloon and she is by Janet at Pink Gem Designs. I have used the pre-coloured version here, but your purchase also includes the line drawing so you can colour her yourself. I've fussy cut Chloe, and then fixed her to the Card Band with foam pads so it looks like she's sitting on the bottom of the band.
• Insert Tag - has been digitally designed in my word processing programme using a stripy paper from the Emma's Garden paper collection onto which I've superimposed a rounded corner rectangle in white, which gives a large area for writing the message to the recipient. I shrunk Chloe with Balloon to quite a small size, and inserted her on top of the white rectangle, again making it look like she's perched on it! I rounded the corners of the paper, before sticking it to another rectangle of 160gsm white card, which also had the corners rounded.
• Sentiment -  is by Debbie at The Crafty Pad Designs and is called Happy Birthday Plain Sentiment (available from Card Making Downloads). This was superimposed digitally onto the Insert Tag before I printed it out.
  

That's it for now ... I hope I've inspired you to try Making a Pocket Card. But before you do, please come over to Incy Wincy Designs and look at the gorgeous creations which my team mates and Linda (our Guest Designer for June) have made to futher inspire you. This challenge ends on Sunday 23rd June 2013.

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

• Challenge #46 - One for the Kids at The Cutie Pie Challenge
• Challenge #12 - Fold It! at Quirky Crafts - 2nd Entry
• P for Pretty in Pink at ABC Challenges
• DSC #40 - Photo Inspiration at Digitally Sweet Challenges I've been inspired by the girly pink colours in the photo. The insert to my project is all digitally layered up - hope this counts, if not please feel free to delete my project.
• Challenge #187 - Let's Go Pink at Crafty Catz

Hope you have a great day - catch you soon!

Hugs, Helen x

For Me?

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

Hello again friends! It's another busy day here at Casa di Mamma Mia ... 

This morning sees the start of our new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this week we've been asked to Make a Pocket Card. Now before you say "Yikes!" (I already did that!!!!!!!!!!), our Team Leader Chris very helpfully pointed us in the direct of the Tutorials section of SplitCoast Stampers - if you type Pocket Card into the Search Resources box, about 9 different Pocket Card tutorials will be shown and you can "fill your boots"!!!!!

Don't switch off at this point, as entering our challenge could be very worth your while ... we've got 2 amazing sponsors for you again this week! Firstly, we're welcoming back Janet and the team from Pink Gem Designs who are offering one lucky winner a great prize.


We're very pleased to welcome another new sponsor this week - Tamara and her team from The Stamping Chef, and they are offering our second lucky winner a $10 gift Certificate to their store. And here's a bit about them:
The Stamping Chef was born in November 2012, after I (Tamara) decided to switch from the scrapbook community to the crafter side of designing. Drawing is my passion, and my style is fun, cute and doodlish..I think =D.  I love to see images come to life when they're colored by amazing crafters. Creating digital images can be a tedious process, but I love each and every step of it. I have a lovely bunch of ladies standing next to me, creating, giving me advice, and help me everywhere they can. I'm so totally new in this great adventure, but I love it! It's so totally different than I'm used to. I hope I can provide you with loads of cute, happy, funny images you can work with.  


Mr Indicisive came to visit again this week, and I just couldn't choose between which of our wonderful sponsors' images to use ... so I made two cards again! Good job Mr Mojo's in residence still :o)!!!!! Here's my Double Pocket Card featuring a gorgeous image from The Stamping Chef:

My card recipe is follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut, scored and folded to make a rectangular card which is a little larger than the double pocket card which was made from 160gsm card in white, cut and folded following this tutorial.
  
• Design Papers - are from a mini scrapbooking kit called You Bring the Sunshine by Eva Kipler. I got this kit from Sweete Shoppe Designs, but they don't appear to stock it any more :o(
• Image - this little sleepyhead (and her rabbit) is called Good Morning Mimi and she comes from the pen of Tamara at The Stamping Chef. I brought this pair to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS6
• Hair - GB1, GB2, GB3
• Hair Ribbons - CG3, CG4
• Nightshirt - CG2, CG3, TB9
• Rabbit - BG2, BG3, GB5
• Outline - GG1
• Sentiment -  is another freebie by my very generous blogging buddy Annette. If you head over there, please let her know that you came from my blog! I coloured the flowers using my Spectrum Noir Pen in shade GB3
• Insert Tag - has been digitally designed in my word processing programme using the gingham paper from the You Bring the Sunshine kit. I also used the frame from the same kit, which I digitally engineered to become a scalloped border ... what do you think? I then used a matching shade of yellow in my programme to outline the tag shape.

I hope you'll come over to Incy Wincy Designs to check out the other gorgeous creations by my team mates and Linda, who is our Guest Designer for June. Don't forget to then come back and show us your Pocket Card creations. This challenge ends on Sunday 23rd June 2013.

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

• Challenge #12 - Fold It! at Quirky Crafts
• For the Girls at Send A Smile 4 Kids
• Girly Girl at Creative Corner Challenges
• Challenge #168 - Use a Digi at One Stitch At A Time

Have a great evening!

Hugs, Helen x

In my "itsy bitsy little polka dot bikini"!

OK ... so it's not me in my itsy bitsy little polka dot bikini you understand. I'm sure there's probably a law against that! :oD!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I hope you're all well today. 

It's new challenge time at Whoopsi Daisy and this week we're giving you the option of style either Fun in the Sun or Summer ... now that's a bit of wishful thinking as our spring/summer weather here in the UK appears to be around for a couple of days and then we get some more cool and dreary weather!

As usual, Linnie is offering our lucky prize winner one sheet of images from the Whoopsi Daisy Store, unless you've used a Whoopsi Daisy Image for your project in which case you can choose two sheets of images.




Summer fun is definitely enjoying the sunshine, preferably at the beach. So for this challenge, I've used one of Linnie's past freebie images which is just perfect for my idea of summer!!!!! And here's my card which, apart from the base card, is made up entirely of freebies!:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut, scored and folded to make a 12cm square card.
• Design Papers - are from the July 2012 Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine. How perfect are these beach hut and "swimmies" papers for a summer card?
  
• Image - this little one dipping her toes into the waves is by Linnie at Whoopsi Daisy and she was a freebie on Linnie's blog in March of this year. If you're not already following Linnie's blog then you really should as she sometimes offers her followers some lovely goodies! I have brought this cutie to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens and Craf-T Chalks in the following colours:
• Skin - FS4, FS5
• Lips - CR5
• Hair - GB8, GB10
• Hair Ribbons - CG3, CG4
• Bikini - CG3, CG4, EB1
• Sunglasses - OR3, FS6
• Outline - BT1
• Sky - Chalk in Light Blue
• Sand - Chalk in Tan
• Sea - Chalk in Turquoise with a sprinkling of White Glitter to get the effect of the sun glinting off the sea!
• Sentiments -  is perfect for this card, and is a freebie by my very generous blogging buddy Annette. If you head over there, please be sure to let her know that I sent you!

So there you have it ... my idea of Fun in the Sun! I do hope you'll come over to Whoopsi Daisy Challenge and have a look at the wonderful creations by the other Divas and come back to show us your Summer-y creations. Don't forget that if you're using a Whoopsi Daisy image then you don't have to follow this week's theme!!! This challenge closes on Sunday 23rd June 2013.

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

• Challenge #38 - Anything Goes With Chalk at Chalk-Ah-Lot Cafe
• June Monthly Challenge - Summer Fun at Stamp and Create
• PNDC #6 - Summer Lovin' at The Paper Nest Dolls
• ABC33 - Summer at 'ABC' Challenges
• Challenge #12 - Bright and Breezy at The Crafty Bloggers Network
• Challenge #176 - Summer at Kaboodle Doodles
• June Monthly Challenge - The Great Outdoors at Lady Anne's Challenges
• June Challenge - Anything Goes with an Optional Twist at Mema's Crafts - I've taken the twist of Summer/Vacation

Hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x

A Safe Haven

Here we go with another "post fest" - I got soooooo behind with my "makes" last week, that I'm all behind with my posts too. Sorry folks! I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to Heather, my newest follower - hope you enjoy my "makes"!

It's new challenge time at Lexi's Creations and this one is very topical for us in the UK as we'd like to see your creations for Father's Day or a Special Male Birthday.

Our wonderful sponsors for this challenge are the fabby team over at Joanna Sheen who are offering our lucky winner a £10 Gift Voucher to their on-line store. And with postage and packing free if you spend over £9 everyone's a winner if you buy in this Aladdin's cave!

Usually I would use one of Lexi's (Fairy Dust Crafts) beautiful images, but this time I thought I would give one of the images I recently won an airing! So here is a card for my Dad for Father's Day:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Ivory which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Design Papers - are by Summer at Summertime Designs and (in keeping with the nautical theme!) are both from her kit She Sells Seashells. The bottom paper is called "Striped" and the top paper is called "Cream Dots".
  
• Image - this lovely scene has been drawn by Teri over at Delicious Doodles and it is called In The Harbour. I have brought this idyll to life quite simply, using my Versamark Pen (which I used on the heavily shaded areas to give more definition) and my Craf-T Decorating Chalks in the following colours:
• Boat on Left - Ruddy Red, Burnt Sienna, Black
• Boat on Right - Turquoise, Burnt Sienna, Black, Light Blue
• Sand - Tan
• Harbour Wall - Dark Brown
• Sky - Light Blue
• Sentiments -  are computer generated using my word processing package and a font called Goudy Handtooled. 

Do come over to Lexi's Creations and see the other wonderfully inspirational male cards which have been designed by the other DT members and our Guest Designer Silvi. Don't forget to come back and link up the creations you've made for Father's Day or a Special Male Birthday. This challenge ends on Saturday 22nd June 2013.

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

• Father's Day at Going Grey with Scrap Creations
• Spots and Stripes at Joanna Sheen Second Entry
• Masculine / Father's Day at Simon Says Stamp!
• Challenge 17 - Father's or For a Male at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge
• Challenge #103 - Masculine at Top Tip Tuesday
• Card for a Male at Crafty Sentiments Designs
• Challenge 12 - We Love You Dad at Creative Craft Challenge

Phew - that's me caught up now! Off to work on next week's DT projects.

Have a great week!

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