Magnetic Bookmark and a Ramble

I'm off work this week and as luck would have it the weather is fabulous - warm, lots of sunshine and light breezes.

After lunch I couldn't help but play along again with the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World.



My good friend Trinh recently sent me the gorgeous magnetic bookmark below. She has a great tutorial here on making these type of bookmarks with some more fab examples.



I loved the idea so much that I had to have a go at making one.


Stamp (Hero Arts) - Let the Angels Sing

I found a cute little bird and the musical notes in a Hero Arts Christmas set and added a little twig from the garden so it would all tie in with the Trigger photo. The patterned paper is from Pebbles and the base of the bookmark is a lump of heavy card from a box which would have ended up being recycled.



I'm also submitting this project into the Die Cut Divas Anything But A Card Challenge.

I'm making the most of my week off so at the start of the day I went walking with Toby. We followed one of the Slí na Sláinte walks, it's about three miles long and takes a circular route out by our local canal. It's so peaceful there and most of the time all you can hear is the sound of birds chirping and chattering. I took some photos as we went along so if you'd like to ramble virtually with us here they are:

This is the first bridge we cross on the walk. There must be some wild garlic growing near here as there was quite a strong smell of garlic wafting around in the air at this point.



I haven't a clue what this wildflower is called but it looks so pretty all along by the banks of the canal. It reminds me a little bit of baby's breath, well whatever it is I love the delicate look of it.



There were lots of other pretty wildflowers along the way like these beauties





Finally a wildflower I know! I remember when we were kids holding buttercups under each others chins about an inch away from the skin to do the "butter test". Seemingly if you could see a tinge of yellow on the skin that meant you liked butter!



The hawthorn trees are in full bloom too.


There will be lots of berries this year!



With his black coat, Toby really feels the heat when we're walking on sunny days so a bottle of water and cup always ends up in the rucksack for this walk.



Then we came across these cuties who couldn't quite reach the long grass outside their paddock, so of course I had to stop and hand them bunches of grass to munch on.





Thanks for joining me on my little ramble:)

Make a Wish Card with Hair Clip

Isn't the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World just gorgeous? Love the adorable birds, mix of images and beautiful colour combination.



Every day I enjoy looking at the birds that come to our bird feeders - it makes working at the kitchen sink much more pleasurable! Our visitors are mainly sparrows, starlings, chaffinches, coal tits and pigeons. But occasionally little blue tits decide to dine in our garden and I love to see the flash of their beautiful colours as they fly in to feed. So on my card I wanted to use the colours of the blue tits, the greenery in the garden and the grey from the background of the napkin. Because of the softness of the feathers I included some soft felt.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Leafy Vines & It's Your Day

Dawn and Arlene from The Die Cut Divas kindly invited me to do a tutorial over at the The Die Cut Divas blog and as the May Challenge is Anything But a Card I made a fabric brooch. You can find the tutorial here showing how to make a fabric flower brooch. I used the same method to make the flower on my card.



This time the flower is a hair clip - it's fun putting a little extra surprise on cards.



I'm also submitting this card into the current Hero Arts challenge.

Yesterday I was teaching a class and one of the ladies who was at it showed us a beautiful scarf that she had knit. I had never seen anything like it, it looked like ripples of ribbon so of course when the class was finished I had to pay a visit to our local wool shop.



It turns out that the ribbon yarn (Woolcrraft Desire) has little holes all along the upper edge and each hole is knit into. So I picked up some to knit a scarf for my sister. I did a little bit of knitting this morning and my goodness the scarf really flies up with only five stitches all in knit stitch. I'll definitely have to go shopping again for some more patterns in this ribbon yarn!

Flying By To Say Hi

I've been wanting to ink up some of my new stamps and today had a little time to get inky - bliss! I was inspired by Cath's Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World - love the mix of colours and also the pattern. So I partially used the cutting pattern and added a lot more colours than I usually do to my cards.



To start with I stamped the Map of America and used circle Nestabilities to cut the map into rings.


Stamps - Hero Arts (Map of America, BAM! and Ghostly Greetings)

Then I coloured the map with ProMarkers and adhered it to a panel of black card. The embossed sentiment is from a Halloween set but I thought it would work here. I decided to leave the rocket uncoloured and just popped it on foam pads. To finish I added a trail of gems from the rocket and a heart gem to the centre of the map.

I'm also submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Happy Mother's Day Gift Box with Brooch

This year in Ireland we celebrated Mother's Day on 10th March, but to all those who are celebrating the day today - Happy Mother's Day!

I was delighted to have had a project picked up for the May/June issue of Paper Crafts Magazine. I haven't seen the digital version of the magazine yet, but I think it must be in there somewhere.



As you can see from the cover, part of the magazine is dedicated to ideas for Mother's Day. So to wrap up a gift for mom, I made a gift box with a detachable brooch.


Stamp (Hero Arts) - Celebrate Everyday

The box was made in no time using my Silhouette Cameo and this design. Then I added some ribbon to attach a brooch onto and a sentiment from Hero Arts' Celebrate Everyday set, a set which covers so many special occasions during the year.



The brooch was made using some felt and dahlia Nestabilities. My good friend Linda sent me a fabulous set of rhinestones, one of which I used for the centre of the brooch - thanks again Linda:)

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Enjoy

Until today I hadn't blogged in nearly a month and now I end up with two posts in the one day - I certainly enjoyed some stampy time today! So this time I wanted to play along with Hero Arts’ new Stamp Your Story contest. The challenge is to stamp your story through a card, layout, journal page, mini booklet etc using at least one product from the fab new catalogue. To start with I thought I’d stick with something I make most often – a card.

Part of the story behind this card is my love of fabrics, lace and buttons. If I have a chance, I love to incorporate any or all of these into my cards.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Number Pattern & Picnic

I usually don’t talk about feelings here on my blog (lol I’m sure you’re glad of that!) but I presume none of us has a perfect day every day. If I’m having a not so great day, I’ll always try to make sure to enjoy something from that day. It could be a walk, fun times with family/friends, the beautiful scenery, chatting with friends/family near or far away, a good book or even savouring a little bit of chocolate or a cuppa! So I tried to pull these aspects into my card – hope my story isn’t too much of a jumble!

I picked the Number Pattern from the new catalogue to represent dates and time. The panel was embossed and dried marigold distress ink applied. Then I used a bit of fabric to make the bottom part of the panel and flower. The lace on the flower and one of the lace layers on the main panel is Hero Arts lace ribbon – love that stuff! Big thanks has to go to my good friend Linda for the yummy buttons and rhinestone:) The buttons set Linda sent me triggered the colour scheme for the card.

Hope you'll play along with Hero Arts and stamp your story!

Tuesday Trigger: Pretty Little Petits Fours

I made this card based on the Tuesday Trigger: Pretty Little Petits Fours over at Moxie Fab World.



It was inspired by a number of items from the Trigger photo – the various shades of pink, the woodgrain background and the wavy placement of the the petit fours on the plate.



Stamps Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy & Designer Woodgrain

The background was very easy to make and the idea was borrowed from a quilt I made a long time ago. I cut two rectangles from two different shades of pink card and cut wavy lines in one direction on one rectangle and in the other direction on the other piece of card. Then I just wove them together, trimmed and added stitching.



When I originally saw the Trigger photo I was inclined to a put flower on the card, but because of the background I had made, decided to go with a sewing theme instead. I stamped the woodgrain on kraft card and embossed the thread holder. To finish I added thread and a needle.

Hope you have a great weekend!