Happy New Year!

I just want to wish you all a very Happy New Year filled with.....

...love,


good health,


happiness


and lots of crafting time!

Floral Thank You

After not making anything but Christmas cards for a while it feels a bit strange but great to be making other types of cards again!

I was lucky to have won a prize in a random draw on the Die Cut Divas group and Maureen was very generous and sent me lots of gorgeous goodies including the beautiful Good Thoughts stamp set. Thanks again Maureen!


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Good Thoughts & Dolls.

In the photo the white card has a pink tinge on it which it doesn't have in real life - I hope it's because of the foggy weather we've having here today and not that my camera is about to die!

I stamped the image twice on watercolour paper and coloured the flowers and leaves with watercolour pencils. Then I machine stitched the stems on the leaves and layered some of the flowers. To add some shine I applied a layer of Glossy Accents to all the petals and green leaves. Since I had the sewing machine out I decided to add lines of stitching in green, purple and pink to the background.



Most of the time as I’m making a card I chop and change things as I go along and this one was no exception. After adding the stitching I decided to emboss the background with my Cuttlebug swiss dots folder. I just hoped for the best that the embossing wouldn’t distort the stitching too much but it doesn’t seem to have moved it much at all.

Happy Christmas!

I can’t believe it’s Christmas Eve already! I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and I hope you all have a wonderful time with your family and friends. Thank you so much for visiting the blog during the year and for your lovely encouraging words, I really appreciate them.

As you can see we’ll be enjoying a white Christmas this year. Poor Toby first the leather jacket now the woolly hat! I’m off now to do some more baking, wrapping, visiting and to have some fun in the snow.

Butterflies and Flowers

I'm just posting photos of some cards I sent to friends which I didn't get around to putting on the blog before. I hadn't really thought about it until now but obviously I must love butterflies and flowers!

The Silhouette Grass is clear embossed on fabric and the butterflies are coloured with ProMarkers.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Silhouette Grass & Messages.


A distress ink background with white embossed vellum flower. I just added some glitter to a button and diamond stickles to the petals for some sparkle.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower & Tree, Bird and Messages.


The large flower again!
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower & Tree, Birds and Messages.


Vellum butterflies and the Fabulous Flourish is embossed in white on fabric.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Fabulous Flourish & Antique Engravings


As you can see I love the Antique Engravings set!
Stamps (Hero Arts)- Antique Engravings & Tree, Birds and Messages.


The Wild Flowers are white embossed on fabric and the butterfly coloured with Promarkers.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Wild Flowers & Tree, Birds and Messages.


I love using Crackle Accents!

Cards from Fika, Linda and Maureen

Today I’d like to show you three fab cards I’ve been lucky to receive from three very lovely and talented ladies. It's been brilliant getting to know Fika, Linda and Maureen through the Hero Arts Flickr group and the Die Cut Divas Flickr group.

The first card I received is from Fika (juicyflavor on Flickr). It’s just such a fun and playful card packed with great details. Love the chick having fun skipping and what a perfect sentiment to go with it too!
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Flower Chick, Life is Not Perfect & Stripes Pattern

Linda (scrappinbari on Flickr) sent me this absolute beauty. I love the gorgeous combination of colours and stamps here. The shimmer from perfect pearls and the embossing looks even more beautiful in real life.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Fabulous Flourish, Music Background & Friends

Recently I was delighted to receive this gorgeous card from Maureen (mkmermaid on Flickr). I love the way she has combined the various images and patterns. The card is wonderfully sparkly with lots of glittery goodness.


Thanks again Fika, Linda and Maureen, I love your cards!

Frosty Flowers and Butterflies Wreath

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Large Flower, Antique Engravings.

The idea for this wreath popped into my mind because of all the snowy\frosty weather we’ve had recently and Barb’s challenge to make a Christmas project using non traditional flowers. For Barb’s 90 minute challenge I used my all time favourite stamp, Large Flower by Hero Arts. Here is the card I made for that 90 minute scramble. I’ve used it again on this project as well as my second favourite stamp set from Hero Arts this year - Antique Engravings. It’s one of those stamp sets I reach for again and again.



To start with I cut a ring shape out of a cereal box and covered it with strips of white lining fabric. The flowers and butterflies were white embossed on vellum and I added some diamond stickles to them. I added blue glitter to red foil snowflakes and then added blue gems to the butterflies.



I'm submitting the wreath into these challenges -

Hero Arts Challenge - part of this month's challenge is to add shine to a project.

Moxie Fab World - Glitter is Glam Challenge.

Allsorts - Anything Goes

Top Tip Challenges - Christmas Inspired Challenge

Scrappy Frogs Challenge - Holiday Decor

This year is the first time I’ve ever seen our local canal freeze over and there is supposed to be more cold weather and snow on the way. It looks like we might have a white Christmas after all!

Craft Fair - part 3

To start with today I’d like to show you the gorgeous work of three friends who came together to form Naas Handcrafters.

Ruth Teskey (Tel 087 2604946 avondalehandcrafts@gmail.com) created -

Beautiful crocheted hats.




and fab jewellery. I thought these necklaces were stunning in the beautiful colours Ruth had used and she actually crocheted the wire in making the necklaces.


Deirdre Mellon (087 1273122 naascrafts@gmail.com) created -

A beautiful soft scarf in such a yummy colour.


Wonderful crocheted and knitted bags which were felted.




Beautiful jewellery


Sharon Spendlove (Tel 086 6067726 spendlovesharon@gmail.com) created -

A gorgeous floral scarf


Lovely soft cosy scarves and cowls




Now it’s time to move on to some patchwork. I spent ages and ages looking at Mary McCann’s (Tel 086 2470285 marysquilting@gmail.com) fabulous quilts. Mary teaches patchwork and I’d say it would be wonderful to attend her classes.

Mary and her daughter Gina


Feast your eyes on these beauties








This is a log cabin quilt that Gina is working on at the moment. If you click to enlarge the picture you'll see that she has placed a little sheep at the centre of each block - so cute! I love her fabric choices with the mix of pine cones, little hens and bees.


I tried to get around to take photos of as many stands as I could but unfortunately didn't get photos of three of them - felting, bog oak and knitting. If anyone else has taken photo of these, I'll add them at a later stage. Of course I forgot to take photos of my own stand but sure you know the kind of things I make anyway! I had hoped to do some knitted pieces and some fabric ornaments but I just ran out of time. In the end I made cards, gift tags, corner bookmarks, gift boxes and packages of magic reindeer food (my best seller, lol!). If I get a chance I'll take photos of some of what's left but it mightn't be anytime soon - I've to try and catch up with getting my Christmas shopping done!

Craft Fair - part 2

Next up from the craft fair is some feltmaking, candle making, knitting, crochet and photography.

A couple of years ago I attended a feltmaking workshop. It was really enjoyable but by the end of the week I felt as if my arms would fall off if I did anymore rolling to make felt! After seeing all the effort that goes into making felt I really admire Katrina Hughes’ (Tel 087 7473233 kathrinah@gmail.com) work. Not only is it totally stunning to look at but I can only imagine the amount of time it must have taken to make each piece. Katrina also holds workshops on feltmaking and here are some examples of her work.

A gorgeous brooch – it looks even more beautiful in real life.


Sometimes Katrina mixes silk fibres in with the wool and the beautiful sheen of these fibres look wonderful mixed with the wool. I love this collar – the flower is on the bottom piece and is fed up through an opening on the upper piece to hold the collar in place.


Gorgeous felted bags.


I absolutely love the fantastic texture and colours on this piece.


Sorry for the slightly blurry photo but I just had to show one of the felted flowers that Katrina had made for her Christmas lights and also the beautiful candles made by people of the Grangebeg Camphill Community.


Naas Knitting Group meet in the library every Wednesday. Anyone can join the group from the complete beginner to those who have been knitting for years and years. Eva Kavanagh (Tel 085 1314480 evakavanagh@gmail.com) started the group and she also runs knitting workshops. I’ve attended a couple of Eva’s class and as well as being a great teacher she also had us laughing throughout the class.

Here are some examples of the group’s work.




Mary and Eva modelling knitted and crocheted hats.


Another knitting group in Naas is Treasure Knitting Club http://www.facebook.com/treasureonline http://www.etsy.com/shop/treasureonline . Lianne, one of the members of the knitting group, brought along these examples of the gorgeous work being produced by members of the group.


These mug cosies are so cute!

Finally for today we have the very talented Byrne family - Jackie (Tel 087 9514757 edwardbyrne@eircom.net), her hubby Martin (Tel 087 2077582) and their daughter Becky (Tel 087 6667409 beckybyrne@eircom.net). Both Jackie and Becky create gorgeous fascinators and crochet. In addition Jackie knits and Martin and Becky are photographers. Here is a little taste of their work.











Tomorrow I'll post the rest of the photos from the fair including jewellery, patchwork and some more felting, crochet and knitting.