Hero Arts Launch Day at An Siopa Buí

I just wanted to share the wonderful day I had yesterday with the lovely Kerry, Linda and Kim from An Siopa Buí, Spiddal, Co Galway. The shop is located two and a half hours away from us on the scenic west coast about 10 miles from Galway. The view from the shop is just spectacular on a clear day but I didn’t get any photos outside yesterday as it was misty and rainy the whole day.

The owner of the shop Kerry , had arranged a day packed with make and takes and demos given by her and Linda. Kerry also kept us fuelled for the day with lots of American style yummies – popcorn, red velvet cheese cakes and snickerdoodles. I’d never tasted snickerdoodles or red velvet cheesecake before but oh wow are they yummy! I’ll have to go looking for recipes for them!

This was my first time to get to a Hero Arts launch party in An Siopa Buí but seemingly each year Kerry arranges for a special cake to be baked and decorated to tie in with the cover of the Hero Arts Catalogue. Look what we enjoyed with a cuppa this year!!

Kerry with the delicious cake to celebrate the occasion!


Looks too good to eat but we managed to demolish it!


So now onto photos of the cards. I didn't manage to get photos of all of the cards but below are the ones I took. All of these cards were made by Kerry or Linda who were full of great ideas, tips and kept us laughing all day!

A pretty make and take card by Kerry


A beautiful card by Kerry. I fell in love with this button cardstock - wish I could find a stamp like it!


This gorgeous masculine card was made before I arrived at the shop so I'm not sure who made it!


Another of Kerry's gorgeous cards - will definitely have to try this design!


Another beautiful card made before I got to the shop - can't wait to receive this stamp in my order from Hero Arts!


One of Linda's gorgeous cards.


A fab card and matching envelope by Kerry


Kerry's romantic looking card.


A romantic card from Hero Arts. I wonder if one of my Hero Hostess pals made this one!


The shop is packed full of stampy goodies and it was great to do some (or should I say a lot!) of shopping there. I picked up a number of the new Hero Arts stamps and quite a lot of other things too!



Can’t wait for my next trip to An Siopa Buí!

Sack and Cereal Box Valentine

I wanted to make another card for the Around the House Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and ended up picking things I never thought I would use on a card - a sack which had spring flowering bulbs in it (lol can you tell I'm a hoarder?!) and a cereal box.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Buttons & Celebrate Everyday

With these materials I thought I'd make a masculine Valentine. To start with I adhered the sacking to white card and die cut circles using my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities. I applied barn door distress ink to the inside part of a piece cut from a cereal box. Then using the same ink, I stamped the heart button on this and two other pieces of cereal box. These were all cut out and adhered together. I added some more distress ink around the edges and poked holes through the "button" with a needle. The sentiment is also stamped with barn door distress ink.



I'm also submitting this card into the Die Cutting Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the current Hero Arts Challenge, Love and Hugs and Kisses.

You Make my World Happy

This is a card I made for my hubby. It’s not for any particular occasion, it’s just to tell him how I feel – sorry, should have given a soppy alert on this post!



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Right at Home & Woodland Creatures

I decided to combine two challenges the Map to Your Heart Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and Hero Arts’ Love & Hugs and Kisses Challenge. CAS cards are a bit of a struggle for me but I’m still trying and I hope this card is sort of CASish!

I stamped the cute picture from the Right at Home set a few times, cut out the centre and coloured the frame with a marker. Then I took an old map and cut out significant places for my hubby and me – where we went on our first date, where we were married and where our boys were born. The map piece on the centre picture is a bit worn at one edge, but I like that because it’s one of the places we love and often visit. So I just hung the pictures with some thread and beads and added a heart gem beside the sentiment.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend:)

Sew a Rainbow

Thank you so much everyone for all the wonderful comments from the Hero Arts Hostesses Blog Hop, I really appreciate them:) If you are here for the blog hop you can find my post here.

My fabric mountain needs to be tackled a bit so I decided to use up some scraps left over from quilt projects on this card.


Stamp set (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy

I foundation pieced the scraps and added some meandering stitching to each colour panel. Also zigzag stitching was added to the outer edges to prevent fraying. The sewing machine was embossed in white and I just added a heart gem and some thread to finish.

I'm submitting this card into the Around the House Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Hero Hostesses Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to your next stop in the Hero Arts 2012 Catalogue Blog Hop with the Hero Hostesses!



You should have arrived here from Anita’s blog. She is so talented and fun, I can’t wait to go hopping myself and see what she has created! If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Club Blog. Also, if you happen to come across any broken links, please report them to Tami.

Don’t forget to leave comments as you hop! Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments. For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop on ANY day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning! Good luck!

The Hero Arts 2012 catalogue is packed full with fab stamps to suit every style you could possibly imagine. I had so much fun getting inky with the stamps the ever generous Hero Arts sent me to play with. Usually I give details of how I’ve made a card, but I’ve omitted that today as my post is quite long as it is, so please feel free to email me if you have questions about any of the cards. Now on to what I got up to with the new stamps!

I love flowers and knew I had to get the Newspaper Tulips K5576 stamp as soon as I saw it. Tulips come in so many colours and I’ve had a great time trying out lots of different colours on the Newspaper Tulips, so quite a few of my family\friends will be recieving tulip cards soon!



Hero Arts Stamps:
Newspaper Tulips K5576
Flourish Background CG119
Four Hearts CG425 (for the punched heart sentiment piece)

Other supplies - inks (dried marigold distress ink, VersaMark & VersaCraft Celadon), white embossing powder, cream card, cotton upholstery fabric, string, gem, heart punch and Labels 8.

I'm submitting this card into the Die Cutting Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the Around the House Challenge in the Moxie Fab World (used upholstery fabric).


Hero Arts have created three new clear stamp sets in collaboration with Operation Write Home. Hero Arts will donate 25% of the profits from these sets to that great organisation – love that! One of these sets is Right at Home CL583 which I love and used on this card along with lots of other Hero Arts stamps.



With all the great elements in this adorable Right at Home set - the house, picket fence, framed picture, kite, cloud and sentiments, I just couldn’t resist it and will be using these images on cards for all different kinds of occasions.


Inside card

Hero Arts Stamps:
Right at Home CL583
Dot Flower Pattern CG335 (wallpaper on inside)
Cloud Background S5215
Be Happy CL377
Adorable Baby Girl CL265

Other supplies – distress inks (tumbled glass, shabby shutters, broken china & antique linen), patterned paper, white & red card, colouring pencils, heart gem and string.



I absolutely LOVE the new Greetings set CG414 and can imagine using both stamps in so many different ways. On this card I teamed the butterfly thank you stamp with a background stamp I use over and over again – Old Letter Writing S4878



Hero Arts Stamps:
Greetings CG414
Old Letter Writing S4878

Other supplies - Ribbon Lace CH231, distress inks (tumbled glass, shabby shutters & antique linen), cream & white card, VersaMark, white embossing powder, pearls, thread, button, seam binding, patterned paper.



I want to send a great big thanks to my favourite company, Hero Arts, for a wonderful new catalogue brim full of fabulous products and for inviting me to take part in this blog hop!


Hero Arts Stamp – Four Hearts CG426

A big thanks too to Tami and Deborah for all that they’ve done in organising the hop and of course the Hero Hostesses for all the amazing projects they have created – girls you’ve been so inspiring and have made my shopping list a lot longer!!

Last but not least, a big thanks to you too for visiting and now it’s time for you to go hopping again. At your next stop you will visit the super creative Tracey! Enjoy the rest of your hopping, I’m off to do some hopping too!

Fabric Heart Valentine

This is a Valentine I made for my hubby and it incorporates themes from a couple of challenges too - the Cutting & Trimming Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the Love & Hugs & Kisses theme for the current Hero Arts’ Challenge.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Four Hearts, Dot Flower Pattern and Celebrate Everyday

To make the background I applied barn door distress ink to white card, and using the same ink, stamped the Dot Flower Pattern. The sentiment is also stamped in barn door distress ink. To make the heart I stamped the heart (again using barn door distress ink) on a piece of fabric and sandwiched thick wadding between it and another piece of fabric. Then I machine stitched the outline of the heart and cut it out slightly beyond the stitched line. I snipped toward the stitched line and frayed the cut fabric to fluff it up a little. To finish I just added a bow and pearl. Before using the wadding I sprayed it lightly with my favourite perfume – it gives a nice scent and also a hint of a perfume I might like to receive on Valentine’s Day!!

Giveaway Winner

Just a quick post to say thanks for playing along with my guessing game:) The winner of my little giveaway is Trinh, who managed to guess correctly who made each and every one of these fab cards! Trinh, congratulations and I'll email you about your prize.

So here are the cards again with names of the lovely ladies who created them.

Card A - Linda


Card B - Paula




Card C - Trinh



Card D Maureen



Card E - Ivy



Card F - Lai-Yoke


Card G - Sue


Card H - Sally



Card I - Barb