Thanks a Million Hero Arts and a Ramble

Today is my last day as a Hero Arts Hostess and this is a card I made to say thanks a million for the fantastic and fun time I’ve had over the past three months!

Hero Arts is the most amazing and generous company and I'm so happy that I came across them shortly after I started stamping - I have been a huge fan ever since! So for me it was an honour and an absolute pleasure to be a Hostess.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Clouds, What’s Cooking, Just a Note Bird and Dolls

I applied faded jeans distress ink to the Clouds stamp, spritzed well with water and stamped on watercolour paper. I added an extra branch to the branch image as I wanted to cover up a seam in my sky! The little flowers each represent my sister hosti and friends – Linda, Sharon, Anita and Sally. I white embossed the apron on some pp and pieced the hearts.

I must have had flowers and blue skies in my mind from yesterday. We spent the whole day in Glendalough and enjoyed sunny weather, the company of good friends, a lovely picnic and a ramble – a great way to spend the day.

Some of the views along the route we took - my photos never do justice to the amazing scenery.








A herd of wild goats.


Some of the pretty wildflowers we came across






The ferns starting to unfurl.


On the way to the monastic settlement.


St Kevin’s Church or St Kevin's Kitchen


Glendalough Round Tower which stands 30m high.


Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

A Big, Big Thank You:)

Below is a card I made for today’s Hero Arts Social Club. Linda, Anita, Sharon, Sally and I were delighted when Tami from Hero Arts asked us to be on the Social Club today and we decided on a theme of thanks. I have so much to be grateful for and have enjoyed every minute of being a Hostess with the talented and fun hostis - Linda, Anita, Sharon and Sally. I’m just sorry that our time as Hostesses has whizzed by so quickly.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Many Petals, Classic Fabric Design, Blossom Art and Dolls.

Thanks to Hero Arts for their wonderful stamps, amazing generosity, inspiring blog and, of course, for the brilliant Hero Arts Flickr group. I am inspired on a daily basis by everyone in the group and never imagined when I joined how much fun I would have and the good friends I would make there. I can’t thank Tami and Libby from Hero Arts enough for all they have done for us over the last three months, they have been absolutely brilliant! If you aren’t already in the Hero Arts Flickr group, I’d encourage you to join right away!



To start with I applied broken china distress ink to the Fabric Background, spritzed well with water and stamped on watercolour paper. Then using white embossing powder I embossed the leaves and flower. I applied broken china and shabby shutters distress inks to the leaves. On the bottom layer of the flower I applied worn lipstick distress ink and spritzed lightly with water. Worn lipstick distress ink was also applied to the upper layer of the flower and I added a selection of beads to the centre. For the sentiment piece I applied worn lipstick distress to white card, spritzed with water and embossed the sentiment in white.

Bee Friends

A rare happening - two posts in the one day from me! The Hero Hostess Inspired By Challenge is in the post below this one.

Lisa Spangler is having a fun challenge, “Make-It + Mail it Challenge” on her blog. I made this card to send to a friend so I’m submitting it into Lisa’s challenge. I have loads of tissue paper and wanted to make another card for the Tissue Paper Magic Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. Though with the small amount of tissue paper I used on this card and my other card for the challenge, I haven’t used up much of my stash! I am also submitting the card into the Simon Says Emboss It Challenge.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Be Happy & Envelope Pattern

I was trying to come up with interesting ways of using tissue paper on a card and what struck me was that I could use it for the wings of some kind of insect. So out came Hero Arts’ super cute Be Happy set. I embossed the bees in black on white card and coloured them with a ProMarker and watercolour pencil. Next I crumpled some white tissue paper (didn’t have to crumple it too much as I’d recycled it from a pressie I had received!) and black embossed the bees on it. Then I cut out the tissue paper wings, adhered them to the bees which had been coloured and applied some diamond stickles.


For the background, I applied mustard seed distress ink to white card, spritzed lightly with water and stamped the Envelope Pattern using the same ink. Then I cut out lots of little hexagons and put them together to hopefully make something that resembled a honeycomb! To finish I embossed the sentiment and bee trails in white.



I couldn't get a great photo of the wings but they are semitransparent and sparkly in real life.

Inspired by Anita - Hero Hostess Inspired By Challenge

As this is our last week as Hero Arts Hostesses (the time went by way to quickly:(), we have planned one final challenge – “Inspired By”.

I’ve been so inspired by all my hosti sisters and everyone in the Hero Arts Flickr group. So for our challenge each of the current Hostesses has made a card inspired another Hostess, in order of the Hostess announcements. That means I’ve made a card inspired by the super talented, super fun and super sweet Anita and my good friend Linda has made this amazing card inspired by me. For my card inspired by Anita I tried to make a masculine card for this month's Hero Arts Challenge.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Silhouette Grass, Large Canvas Stripes, Flower Text and Birthday Messages.

I’ve noticed from Anita’s photostream that she seems to love a blue, green & brown colour combination, buttons and stripes so I tried to incorporate all of these into my card. For the top portion of the card I applied faded jeans distress ink to white card and spritzed with water. Then I applied shabby shutter distress ink to the Silhouette Grass stamp, spritzed lightly with water, stamped on the background and then over stamped with a brown chalk ink. I stamped the green patterned paper at the bottom of the card with the Large Canvas Stripe using shabby shutters distress ink. The butterflies were punched from a scrap left over from another project (the Flower Text stamp had been embossed on white card with shabby shutters applied). The sentiment is embossed and I just added some buttons, a crimped brown strip and some twine to finish.

Anyone who would like to take part in the challenge can create a card\project inspired by any member of the Hero Arts Flickr group - there are 3,627 members to choose from! Full details of the challenge are here. I hope you'll join in on the fun:)

I am submitting this card into the Simon Says Emboss It Challenge.

Love You in Triplicate

I made this card for the Tissue Paper Magic Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, the current Hero Arts challenge and the Simon Says Emboss It Challenge. As I tried to make a masculine card I wanted to keep it fairly plain and simple. It only took about 10 minutes to make, which is definitely a record for me, lol!


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Type and Small Variety Alphabet

On this card I used the tissue paper as sheets of carbon paper in the typewriter and also as a background (adhered to a piece of black card to give strength). I learned to type on a manual typewriter and now think it’s funny how we used to correct our mistakes and make duplicate documents. I had to explain to my son this morning what carbon paper was and why we used it in typewriters – I felt really ancient, lol! The typewriter is embossed in red and I just added a couple of beads to it and my favourite embellies – Hero Arts heart pearls. The baker’s twine, which unfortunately I can’t get here, was part of a lovely package of goodies that my friend Trinh sent me – thanks again Trinh:)

We’ve been spoiled rotten here with a glorious week of sunshine and temperatures around 21C\70F. Hope it’s sunny wherever you are and that you all have a wonderful weekend:)

Thanks Patricia & Same Stamp Challenge

Firstly, I'd like to say a great big thanks again to my friend Patricia for the wonderful new banner she sent me. She knows I love owls and this banner is so adorable and perfect for my blog!

Over at the Hero Arts Flick group we have a “use the same stamp” challenge going on. Linda, Anita, Sharon, Sally and I decided it would be fun for us all to make cards using the same stamp. We all love the Antiques Engravings set and decided to go with stamps from that set. We haven’t seen each other’s cards so each day this week we’ll get to see one of the cards. Linda started off yesterday with this gorgeous card here and it’s my turn to post today. You don’t need to have the Antique Engravings set to join in on the challenge - you can team up with someone who has a stamp in common with you. If you’d like to join in on the fun, full details are here.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Magical Background, Earth Flowers, Messages and Old Letter Writing

My card is (loosely!) based on one of the sketches for this month’s challenge at Hero Arts – the butterfly just fluttered away a little bit! For the bottom part of the background I applied faded jeans distress to white card and white embossed the Magical Background. On the upper part of the background the Earth Flowers were stamped using VersaMark. I had a scrap of card (white card with antique linen distress ink applied to it and stamped with Old Letter Writing) left over from another project and used this for the butterfly and sentiment. The sentiment is stamped using faded jeans distress ink. I love this pretty lace ribbon from Hero Arts and ended up using two strips of it on the card. The paper flowers have been in my flower drawer for ages so I’m glad to have finally found a home for them!

Card, Treat Holder and Jelly Beans

I’ve wanted to make a couple of projects for the past few days and was delighted to finally get a bit of time to make them today.


The first one is a card I made for Kathy's Colour Throw Down at Lily Pad Cards. I didn’t have the exact colours for the challenge but used colours as close as possible to them. I used a sketch from the current Hero Arts challenge and because of the masculine theme in the challenge went for a card for a little (or maybe not so little!) guy.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Clouds, Going, Envelope Pattern, Magical Background, Be Happy and Birthday Messages.

To start with I applied broken china distress ink to the Clouds Background, spritzed liberally with water and stamped on white card. I coloured the car with Promarkers and applied a layer of Glossy Accents for some sheen. For the sun I applied spiced marmalade distress ink to white card and stamped with the Envelope Pattern using the same ink. On the bottom strip of the card I applied shabby shutters distress ink to white card and stamped the Magical Background using the same ink. The sentiment is embossed.

I made a treat container to go with the card and am submitting it into the Food Wrap Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.




Stamps (Hero Arts) – Clouds, Going, Envelope Pattern & Be Happy.

The cloud background, sun and car were all made in the same way as on the card above. I just added a little peep hole for the jelly beans. Both my kids said they preferred the treat container to the card but I’m wondering if that had anything to do with the jelly beans they had as a result of me making the container!

Easter Bunnies Let Loose

The themes for Hero Arts April challenge are masculine projects, a sketch and stamp layering. So for this card I did a little bit of stamp layering.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Flower Wreath, Bunny Basket, Decorated Egg & Celebrate Everyday

I stamped the wreath, eggs and bunnies and coloured them with watercolour pencils and Promarkers. Then I layered the leaves and flowers and added gems. The sentiment is embossed in white and for the background I used a dotty embossing folder which kind of reminds me of Easter eggs. If you're like me and love peeking bunnies, you’ll find loads of cuties through links on Virginia’s adorable card here.

As you can probably tell from the photo it's a gorgeous sunny day here today so I hope it continues that way for the weekend. Hope you all have a great weekend wherever you are!