Growing in Unity - Day Four

Hello everyone,

I'm hoping this Thursday is treating you all well. I have a quick card for you today.

To begin with I made my own background using two distress oxide inks and the packaging technique. If you're unsure what the packaging technique is it is when you smoosh some ink onto a piece of plastic, activate it with water and then smoosh it all around the cardstock. Following this I stamped one of the blooms from the Insightful Meadows set and a saying from the { . . . everything resides in hope} set. To finish off I add some gold Heidi Swapp Colour Shine and some patterned paper and then adhered it to a 5 1/2 inch square card.

Well that's it for today. I'll see you tomorrow with my last creation for the week.

Take care and happy crafting,
Helen xx

Growing in Unity - Day Three

Hello everyone,

Can you believe it, we're halfway through the week already! Time flies when you are having fun or extremely busy.

Today, I'm doing a bit of a comparison as I've made the same card twice but I have chosen different mediums to colour Tess Girl, from the Angiegirl collection, in with.

For the lefthand card I coloured Tess in with Derwent Inktense pencils, which I activated with a water brush as they are watercolour pencils and for the righthand card I coloured her in with normal colouring in pencils. Some patterned paper, gems and an inked wooden word and this simple card is finished.

Which medium did you like the best?

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to leave a comment. See you tomorrow.

Take care and happy crafting,
Helen xx

Growing in Unity - Day Two

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for the lovely comments left on yesterday's post.

Well today I have a birthday card for you. I pulled out my Donna Peony stamp set and stamped the outline peony three times onto smooth watercolour paper. Then using Sugar Plum Twinkling H20 I painted the flowers. After fussy cutting them out I layered them onto 5 1/2 inch square card. When you hold the card on different angles the shimmer in the flowers is so pretty. A couple of hand cut leaves and some inking finishes off this card.

Here I'm trying to show the glorious shimmer in the paint.

That's it for today. I hope you find some inspiration maybe pull out your old pots of Twinkling H2Os and have some fun painting. Don't forget to leave a comment to be eligible to win one of the 2 prizes on offer at the end of the week, courtesy of the fabulous Unity Stamps.

Take care and happy crafting, see you tomorrow!
Helen xx

Growing In Unity - Day One

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my little corner of the cyber world. I am very excited to be the GIU Gal this week and can't wait to share my projects with you. I have loved Unity Stamps for a long time and have quite the collection. I sold a lot of my craft supplies earlier this year, however, I would not part with any of my Unity Stamps! I am starting off my week quick and easy with my little hello card!

I have used an Itty Bitty stamp for this card, it's IB-939 hello Daisy. I love the simplicity of the stamp and I stamped it two times for effect. I coloured it in with colouring pencils and then applied a layer of white colouring pencil to blend it all together. I created the background by covering the card with strips of washi tape.

Well that's it for my first card. Please leave a comment below to go in the running for a prize. at the end of the week I will randomly choose two people from the comments left to win a prize pack from the very generous Unity Stamps.

Thanks for visiting. Take care and happy crafting,
Helen xx

Stick It Down July Challenge

Hello all,

This month we have a sketch challenge over at Stick It Down. This is the sketch:

This is the layout that I made:

I used some items from Pink Paislee Summer Lights and from a couple of Dear Lizzy's ranges. I also used some colours from Twinkling H2O and some Lindy Stamp Gang sprays. I must admit I quite like it.

I also recorded the process and made a video:

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you find some time to craft.
Take care,
Helen xx

One Week of Holidays Done!

Hello everyone,

As the title says the first week of the July school holidays is nearly over and luckily I have managed to squeeze in some scrapbooking plus some couch surfing and school work! I have managed to get a few layouts and videos completed plus the week before the holidays I made a layout for my little friend Daisy. Actually I've scrapped this photo twice already as I made one layout for Daisy and one for me.

Here is that layout I gave Daisy followed by the one I've kept which I used for the latest Studio Challenges DT task.

This week I made my third layout/video for Kitaholic Kits using the June kits - I also made the fourth but can't share that one until next week.

Finally, I made a layout/video for The Crafty Maven Getaway Channel for Sketch It Out Thursday, I used a sketch from the June Page Maps collection and cute photos of my great nephew Noah.

Click here if you wish to watch any of my YouTube videos.

Well that's it for today, I'll be back before the end of my holidays with more sharing.

Take care and happy crafting,
Helen xx

Life Update

Hello everyone,

It's a big day in my household today as eighteen years ago I gave birth to two beautiful little babies and I mean little! They were around 6 pounds each and just pure bundles of joy.

Now my little babies have just celebrated becoming adults, one with the customary beer and the other with a glass of Lift! I am so proud to be their mum.

Happy 18th my darlings, may your future be bright and full of love, laughter and adventures.

Now on to other news, well news for me. Last year I made the goal to start posting YouTube videos and become a design team member for at least one group, now a year and bit on I am currently on 4 design teams and have grown my subscriber numbers to 444! Last May I was so excited to reach 100 subscribers and now a year later I have quadrupled that. I know for some this may not be a big increase but starting out and finding followers is not the easiest thing especially when you work full time in a very demanding job and only have a few hours each week to spend on your hobby. All in all I am chuffed with this, next goal 500 then 1000 subscribers.

Well that's it for me, it's getting late and I need some beauty sleep.

Take care and happy crafting,
Helen xx