Day 1 - Growing in Unity

Hello all,

Welcome to my blog, especially if this is your first time visiting. I'm really excited to be the GIU Gal this week. This is my third time as a GIU Gal and I thought to myself what can I do different this time . . .  lots of thinking later I decided that I was only going to use stamps that had never seen ink before. Actually wasn't that harder of a decision as I realised that I've been more of a hoarder than a stamper. Having said that my Donna Downey stamps have seen ink many many times plus my Angie Girls and a few others but there were still many packets in my collection in their virgin state.

After looking through all the unused ones I came across this girl and I couldn't resist. Here is today's card:

This girl is part of the March 2016 Kit of the Month: A Chance to Change. I coloured her with Copics and then used a stitched die to cut out the card. I layered her on some Amy Tangerine papers and used an acetate flower for embellishment. I hope you like here.

Please remember to leave a comment below for then you will be eligible to go in the draw, at the end of the week, for a stamp pack. I was very lucky and won a prize a few weeks ago and have used one of the stamps which will appear later in the week.

We that's if for now.

Take care and happy crafting,

Helen xx

Latest Layout

Hi all,

Busy, busy here in Helen land. We are almost on school holidays, only a few more days to go, and what a busy term it has been, assembly, market day, swimming carnival and I went on a school camp as bus driver/cook and had a great 4 days in our south west.

At the moment I am getting my projects ready for next week as I am going to be the returning Growing in Unity Girl plus record a video or two. Added to that my mum surprised the boys and I with a holiday to Dunsborough for next week! So I have to be super organised (which is a feat for me!) and have every post, picture, project ready to go before we leave the house on Sunday! I might not sleep much but I will get it done.

Anyway, I tried out unsuccessfully for another design team, really demonstrating perseverance here! This was the layout I submitted. I'm thinking I need to take better photos of my work or maybe make better layouts.

I inked some circles onto the background through a stencil, added some splatters, stitched around some of the patterned paper circles and added other round embellishments. The photos are of my son Ben and I seven years apart.

A close up of one of the embellishment areas.

Well that's it for now, see you all here next week!

Take care and happy crafting,

Helen xx

Sketch Fun

Hi all,

Rather than do the housework today I thought I would play in my craft room. I decided to have a go at Let's Get Sketchy's mid March sketch.

I stayed fairly true to the sketch although I added some extras. I used mainly the Love Always range from Cocoa Vanilla Studios and this is what I created:

Well that's it for now.
Take care and happy crafting,
Helen xx

Let's Get Sketchy 2017 Design Team Call

Hi all,

I'm putting 'my hat into the ring' and having a go at applying for the design team at the Let's Get Sketchy blog. I often join along at this site as they have awesome sketches and great inspiration. To apply I was required to make a page using this sketch:

If you want to check it out yourself then hop on over to their blog and have a go!

That's it for now,
take care and happy crafting
Helen xx

YouTube Time!

Hi all,

One of my goals this year was to make more videos than last year for my YouTube channel. Well this week I added 2 making this year's videos to 4 thus I have already achieved this goal!

The first video is a card video. I went to my friend's house last week with my new stamps that I had ordered from Unity Stamps and Pascale and I decided to use the same stamp and make a video. The stamp we used is: Birthday Treat and it is actually on special this weekend.

Pascale's card video can be found on her YouTube channel Pascale Card

Here is my video:

The second video I uploaded is this month's instalment for "Challenge Your Stash" a YouTube hop group I belong to. This month we had to use a recipe to make our layout.

The finished layout:

The video:

I hope you enjoy them. Well that's it for now.
Happy crafting,
Helen xx

Latest Projects

Hi all,

Well the group of ladies that have asked me to make them each a canvas for their 50th birthdays had their 3rd celebration last week. This time the birthday girl's favourite colour was blue so this is the version of the canvas that I created for her:

 I have a few months before the next canvas needs to be ready!

Here is my latest scrapbook page that I made using some of my supplies that I bought from Hip Kit Club. It also involved some mixed media on the background and a few bits and pieces from my stash.

I just received a few deliveries of new products and some stamps from Unity Stamps so luckily there will be a long weekend here in WA this weekend as I can't wait to play.

That's all for now, take care and happy crafting!

love Helen

Canvas Number 2

Hi all (2nd time tonight!),

Well the second birthday of the 50th club has rolled around and my second variation of the 5 poppies canvas was this:

There was also a quote added after this photo was taken that said: Best Friends are the ones who are there: whenever; wherever; however and most importantly: forever.

The third birthday is in 3 days time so I need to get started asap! Then I have a break until June!

Well that's it for tonight, really is this time!

Take care and happy crafting,
Helen xx