Cards from Trinh and a list.

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything – I nearly had to wipe away the cobwebs to get into the blog! I’ve been busy with non stamping things and also have made cards I can’t show just yet for friends’ upcoming birthdays and Anita’s fun Valentine card exchange.

Today I’d love to show you two wonderful cards that my good friend Trinh, who I got to know through the Hero Arts Flickr group, sent me along with a brilliant array of stamping goodies. Thanks again Trinh! We both thought the package had gone astray in the post as it obviously decided to take a very scenic route and took all of 32 days to get from the U.S. to Ireland! It was well worth waiting for these beauties though.

First up is a gorgeous, gorgeous Christmas card.


I wish you could see it in real life to see the amazing all over shimmer.


The second one is just adorable and just my cup of tea. If you know me you’ll know I love my tea (more about that later) so I love this card with its beautiful design, colours and embellishing. Think I need to make a cup of tea now!




Speaking about the lovely and talented Trinh, during the week she gave me the two awards above. Thanks again Trinh for the awards! I’ve never made up one of these lists before but here goes.

1. I’m more of a morning person than a night owl.

2. When I was a child I wanted to be a window cleaner. I often used to see a window cleaner at our local shopping centre and I thought a bucket of soapy water and a squeegee would be the coolest things to play with for a job. Now cleaning the windows is one of the jobs I’m not really keen on about the house!

3. I love my tea. I always start the day with a cuppa and probably have 8\10 cups a day. It has to be weak with lots of milk so it sort of looks like hot milk with a slight tinge of colour.

4. Foods I don’t like – fish, Turkish delight, beetroot.

5. I have always loved travelling but after a few bad experiences on flights I hate flying. Living on an island I just have to try to get over it as much as I can.

6. My favourite city is Paris and favourite natural area would be a tie between Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. In Ireland my favourite city is Galway and natural area a tie between Wicklow and Kerry. Can you tell I prefer the countryside to cities?!

7. Some of my family call me Head, Heads or Headie.

8. I would spend more time in a craft shop or book shop than I would in a clothes shop.

9. I LOVE chocolate and love chocolate with nuts even more.

10. I started wearing glasses when I was 16. The thoughts of putting in contact lenses makes my eyes water and as for laser eye surgery – aaaagh!!

I’m supposed to pass these awards on to other bloggers. I would love any of you reading this to take these awards. Please let me know if you do - I'd love to read your list:)

Stitched Butterfly and Wild Flowers

This card was inspired by Sally Traidman’s gorgeous fabric flowers on the cover of the 2011 Hero Arts catalogue plus some cute cards on page 16 of the catalogue.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Wild Flowers, Old Letter Writing & Messages.

The red card base has been stamped with the Old Letter Writing stamp using VersaMark. For the panel I frayed a piece of fabric, stamped the wild flowers image with a brown ink and added gems.

The butterfly is made up of three layers - two pieces of fabric with a piece of wadding sandwiched in the middle. I stamped the butterfly on the top piece of fabric and using a sewing machine stitched the outline and some of the details.



Then I trimmed the fabric close to the stitched edging. To finish the butterfly I just added some thread for the antennae and wooden beads on the body. The sentiment is white embossed and the ladybird was coloured with a marker and a layer of Glossy Accents applied for some sheen.

Best Wishes Mike

During the Hero Arts blog hop last week it was mentioned that “This blog hop is in honor of our friend Mike, who is battling cancer. The world is simply brighter with Mike in it, and words can’t express our appreciation to Mike as a business partner and friend. The Hero Hostesses will be sending Mike and his family some of the cards shown during this week’s blog hop”.

Deborah gave details here for those who would like to send a card to Mike. This is a card I made for Mike who really sounds like a very special man indeed.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Designer Woodgrain, Birthday Messages & You're the Best.

I find masculine cards really hard to make and usually end up keeping them fairly simple and plain. To start with I applied shabby shutters and broken china distress inks to a piece of white card and spritzed with water. I stamped the dragonflies on this card and also used it for the bottom part of the background. For the top part of the background light brown card was clear embossed with the woodgrain stamp. To finish I white embossed words from two sentiments and added some machine stitching.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

Moonlight and Dragonflies

This card was inspired by two gorgeous cards on page 11 of the 2011 Hero Arts catalogue.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Wild Flowers, Antique Engravings & Scallop Borders.

To start with I used a circle as a mask and applied distress inks (shabby shutters, broken china and faded jeans) to white card. After the mask was removed I stamped the Wild Flowers image twice and added some beautiful gems which Maureen and Sue had kindly sent me – thanks again girls! The dragonflies were stamped on glossy paper which had been covered with alcohol inks. I silver embossed the scallops on black card and framed the scene. Then I just finished off with a bit of machine stitching.

I'm submitting the card into these challenges:

Hero Arts - Inspired by the 2011 Catalogue & Card Insides.

Moving Along with the Time challenge - Ring out the old Ring in the New. Old stash (silver embossing powder & glossy paper) & new stash (gems from friends)

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 146 - Out with the Old. Old stash - silver embossing powder & glossy paper.

Double Dutch Challenge #59 - Make a Scene (using masking).

Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge - New and Blue (the gems)


Now I'm off to see if the Hero Arts blog hop has started!

Love You Hundreds and Thousands

This month’s challenge on Hero Arts is to make a card inspired by the 2011 catalogue or do some masking or something special with the inside of the card. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve gone through the catalogue admiring the stamps and making up my wishlist!

For this card I was inspired by all the yummy cards on page 27 of the catalogue. Last year Lisa created a scrumptious looking donut card using real ingredients like chopped nuts and salt. So I thought it would be fun to add some colourful hundreds and thousands to my card.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Have a Donut & Ancient Motif

I used scraps for the coffee cup. A little piece of blue card for the sleeve and on the pink piece I had applied worn lipstick distress ink to the Ancient Motif stamp, spritzed with water and stamped on white card. Then I added some Glossy Accents to the “coffee” for some sheen.



I thought the colours in the hundreds and thousands might run if I used Glossy Accents to stick them on the card so I cut heart shapes out of sticky labels and stamped another label with the donut for the topping. Hundreds and thousands are as bad a glitter – I seem to have them everywhere now!



I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Women’s Christmas and Christmas cards from friends

The 6th January, the feast of the Epiphany, is also known here in Ireland as “Nollaig na mBan” or Women’s Christmas. Traditionally on this day men are supposed to do the housework and cooking while women have a lovely relaxing time. Sounds great doesn’t it! The custom dates back to years ago when men never did any housework and were never expected to either. Well thankfully that all changed quite a while ago and most men do their fair share around the house so to be honest I don’t leave my hubby to do everything (nearly but not quite everything!) today.

Today is also the day everyone takes down their Christmas decorations and Christmas cards, so I suppose the men could have a bit of a busy time of it, lol! Even though it’s a bit after Christmas I just thought it would be a good day to show you the wonderful Christmas cards I was lucky to have received from friends I've met through the Hero Arts Flickr group. I’ve linked to their websites so you can see more of their wonderful creations.

Lai-Yoke



Sue


Maureen


Hannah


Isha


Thanks so much ladies for these wonderful cards which I’m going to bring to my part of the playroom now. So all through the year I’ll still have a little bit of Christmas to enjoy in my craft space!

Surrounded by Love

As soon as I saw Lisa’s post on the Hero Arts blog this morning I wanted to make a card. Lisa created an adorable card inspired by her super cute card on page 74 of the catalogue. I love these cards and decided to use them to come up with an idea for my hubby’s Valentine.

Lucy is sharing a sketch and card every day this week on her blog so I decided to use her sketch from Day 2. I may have strayed a bit too far off the sketch though!


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Heart Owls, Designer Woodgrain, Buttons, Flourish Background, Tree Birds & Messages.

The card came together pretty quickly. Most of the pieces on the card were in my pile of scraps - I really have to use more of them! The owls were coloured with watercolour pencils and I perched them on a twig which came from an old Christmas decoration. I made the heart wreath using the cute little heart shaped button from the Buttons set. The buttons were covered with a layer of Glossy Accents and some yarn threaded through the buttonholes. Thanks to Sue for the brown twine I used for the loop on the wreath. One of the scraps I used for the background had been clear embossed with the woodgrain stamp. On the other one I had applied walnut stain distress ink to white card and stamped, spritzed and spattered with water.