Large Petal Thank You

World Cup fever has hit the house and all of us are glued to the tv when matches are on. We have a team sweep here at home and in work have made predictions on teams and scores for the final. So even though Ireland didn't qualify to participate, we're all engrossed in what's going on.

I knew I'd be watching two matches yesterday so thought I'd stamp a panel for a card and do bits and pieces of colouring as I watched a match.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Petal Background & Making the World a Better Place

I stamped the Large Petal Background on kraft card and embossed the sentiment in white. As I wanted the sentiment to stand out a bit more on the card I outlined it with black marker. After colouring portions of the panel with a white pen and black marker, I added a black enamel dot to the centre of the large flower. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

Hope you're enjoying a relaxing weekend:)

Killarney, Co Kerry.

Quilted Thanks and Bookmark

I knew it wouldn't be long before I'd want to play again with the Quilt Cuts 2 dies from WPlus9 and this morning used them to make a card and matching bookmark.

Die - Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9), Stamp - Making the World a Better Place (Hero Arts), Papers - Snippets (Studio Calico) & Basics (Pebbles)

After die cutting and assembling the quilt blocks, I layered them on a strip of paper which I had punched with Fiskars threading water punch. The sentiment was stamped with faded denim distress ink. To finish I added a wooden button threaded with twine.

Then I made a little bookmark with another block. I layered the block on a scallop square die cut and sandwiched a large paper clip between this and another scallop square die cut.

I'm submitting these into Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge. Hope you're enjoying the weekend:)

Quilt Block Card Set

I wanted to make a set of cards to include with my Mum's birthday present so pulled out one of the dies from WPlus9's Quilt Cuts 2 set.

Die (WPlus9) - Quilt Cuts 2, Stamps (Hero Arts) - Dolls, Everyday Sayings and It's Your Day, Paper (Studio Calico) - Snippets

Having dabbled in quilting in the past, I just LOVE this set and am looking forward to making lots more blocks in the future, using fabrics as well as paper. It will be a perfect way of using up some of my mountain of scraps.

Die (WPlus9) - Quilt Cuts 2, Stamp (Hero Arts) - Dolls & Paper (Studio Calico) - Snippets

Anyway I still had Studio Calico's Snippets paper out on my desk from making this card the other day so decided to use the same papers again.

Die (WPlus9) - Quilt Cuts 2, Stamp (Hero Arts)- Everyday Sayings & Paper (Studio Calico) - Snippets

After die cutting and putting together the quilt blocks I added little heart gems to the centres. Then using Nestabilities, I die cut scallop squares to use as a border around the blocks. The sentiments were stamped using Hero Arts Cup O' Joe shadow ink.

Die (WPlus9) - Quilt Cuts 2, Stamp (Hero Arts)- Everyday Sayings & Paper (Studio Calico) - Snippets

I'm submitting this card set into Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

Die (WPlus9) - Quilt Cuts 2, Stamp (Hero Arts) - It's Your Day & Paper (Studio Calico) - Snippets

The birthday girl should be here any minute so I'm off to get the cake ready!

Turning Snowflakes into Flowers and a Bit of Blarney

In this post I used the pretty Simon Says Stamp Kate Snowflake die to make a border and today pulled out another very pretty snowflake die from Simon Says Stamp called the Eliza Snowflake, to see what non Christmassy thing I could make with it.



Die (Simon Says Stamp) - Eliza Snowflake, Stamp (Hero Arts) - Be Happy


I thought I'd try to make some flowers this time and cut out the bits and pieces I needed from Studio Calico (Snippets) patterned papers.

After die cutting, I trimmed away the pieces I didn't need and layered two pieces to form a flower.

To finish the flowers I added a little pearl to the centres. The sentiment was embossed on another die cut (Dahlia Nestabilities) and I stuck little pieces, from the snowflake die cut, to the back so that rings peek out between each petal.

I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday Challenge and Simon Says Stamp You Gotta Have Friends Challenge

The past few weeks have been busy, busy here so I'm only getting around to posting some more photos of the little trip Linda and I did around the place. Next stop is Blarney Castle.

A beautiful walk, by a little stream, leads to the castle. It was lovely to hear the babbling sounds of the stream and all the birdsong as we made our way to the castle. We were blessed with the weather that morning, it was absolutely glorious.

Both of us skipped kissing the Blarney Stone. I have to say with my head for heights, dangling backwards out over a castle wall doesn't really appeal to me! But in this photo you can see a lady (beside the man in the red jacket) who is just about lean out and go for it - better her than me:)

I enjoyed the views instead and will just have to do without the gift of eloquence!

After visiting the castle we had a lovely stroll around the grounds. There was a fascinating poison garden beside the castle, but I must have been so intrigued with it I forgot to take any photos! I loved the fern garden which has some of the biggest ferns I've ever seen.

Winding through the walks we could tell the wild garlic was in full bloom - the faint smell of garlic wafting in the breeze was lovely.

Blarney House wasn't open when we visited but I enjoyed seeing it again and....

...spotting the wonderful features like this water spout.

We couldn't have picked a better time of the year for our visit with the bluebells and rhododendron in full bloom.

Hope you enjoyed the little bit of Blarney:)

29 Again and On The Road Again

I just love sending and receiving humorous cards, so as soon as I saw Art Impressions' 29 Again stamp set I had to get it!



I started by stamping and cutting out the images and coloured them with ProMarkers. Then I added some embroidery thread to the balloons and added a layer of glossy accents on them, the earrings and lips. I wanted to emboss the background and thanks to my friend Sally I have a pretty Cuttlebug flower folder called Caramelo that I think goes well with with lady's dress - thanks again, Sally:) After that it was just a matter of adding baker's twine and the sentiment. I used one of the colour combinations from the Die Cut Diva's Challenge for June - Is it Yours, Mine or Ours so am submitting the card into that challenge.

Last week I blogged about the start of my friend Linda's holiday here and now I'll post some more about our little trip around part of the country. Our first stop on our trip was Waterford and the first place we visited there was Waterford Glass. I hadn't visited Waterford Glass since I was on a school tour many, many, many years ago! Needless to say everything had changed quite a bit, including the location. Anyway we went on the tour and here's a flavour of what we saw.

It's hard to imagine this is how a Waterford Glass bowl starts out!

Shaping the bowl in moulds

Marking the design on the piece

Cutting the patterns in the glass

Some of the commissioned pieces

Although it doesn't look like a typical piece of Waterford Glass, below is one of my favourites. The piece was divided into quarters and the etchings on each quarter represented the seasons. Here you can see the flowers, birds and butterflies of summer and beside it the bare trees, acorn and pumpkin for autumn.

After visiting the showrooms in Waterford Glass we had a little walk around Waterford and then headed on our way again. Linda is a big fan of Nora Roberts who set some of her books in the village of Ardmore, Co Waterford, so naturally enough we had to stop there. I don't remember ever visiting Ardmore, so thanks to Linda and Nora I have become acquainted with this gem of a place.

The beach there was beautiful and more or less deserted

We took a stroll up to St Declan's Cathedral and the round tower which are situated on a hill overlooking Ardmore Bay.

An ogham stone in the Cathedral

Hopefully you won't have fallen asleep after this long post! So I'll stop now and post some more photos from our trip another day.

Scrambling and a Trip to Glendalough with Linda

Over at the Hero Arts Group yesterday Jayne hosted a 90 minute scramble. I just loved her scramble theme - use one or more white flowers, use a script or cursive sentiment and also use a gorgeous photo, of what looked like old tiles, for inspiration.

As usual I was all over the place during the scramble, I started off with one idea, didn't like it and scrapped it after 20 minutes. So I started all over again with 70 minutes to go and this is the card I made.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Petal Background & Messages with Flourish

I started by making a card base and embossing the sentiment. Because I was rushing I didn't emboss it perfectly but thanks to a great tip from Donna, I added some white gel pen to the patchy places. Then I stamped portions of the background stamp four times and cut out the images to make a layered flower. To finish I added a dollop of glossy accents to the flower centre and threw on some beads. As the tiles in Jayne's inspiration photo had a distressed look about them, I did some distressing around the edges of the card.

Well now on to the next part of my post for today. Recently my friend Linda came over from the US to visit. I first got to know Linda in 2009 through the Hero Arts group on Flickr. I know a lot of good friendships have been made all around the world thanks to that group. Linda was a big fan of ScrapFest and I thought that sometime I'd go there and get to meet Linda and other friends from the group. But unfortunately ScrapFest is no more, so instead of meeting Linda in the US we got to meet here in Ireland. It was brilliant finally getting to meet Linda. Well I have to say when we met at Dublin Airport, I felt like I was meeting an old friend and we had plenty of time over the next week to chat away to our hearts content. Poor Linda must have been jet lagged but kept going the whole day and we even did a scramble together that evening. It was great fun scrambling side by side with Linda. Lol my scramble card is so awful I won't be posting it here but Linda made an adorable card which you'll find here. Linda completed her scramble card in no time, in fact I was still inking a background and she was done!

So after a sleep, we thought we stay fairly local the next day and headed off to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains National Park and Russborough House. Unfortunately, after an absolutely glorious, warm, sunny day the previous day, the weather let us down a bit and there were drizzly showers every so often during the day. Now I'll stop rambling on and show some photos. Just an advance warning - I love taking photos when I'm out and about so this is a bit of a photo heavy post!

Glendalough Round Tower in the distance

Linda at the monastic settlement in Glendalough

A deer Linda spotted as we were walking along the boardwalk to the Upper Lake. The deer are usually in the more remote parts of the National Park so we were lucky to see this one.

Linda at the Upper Lake in Glendalough

Poulanass Waterfall

We came across this sculpture in the sensory garden that has the same uncontrollable hair as I do!

Lots of wildflowers were in full bloom including the Greater Stitchwort. It was thanks to the Park's lovely wildflower guide that I was able to find out the name of this pretty flower!


If you'd like to see different views of Glendalough on sunnier days, you'll find more in my posts here and here. I can't believe I didn't take any photos of Russborough House, but I've been there so many times and must have loads photos of the place stored somewhere (!) on my pc. Anyway if you'd like to see photos of this stately home built in the 1740s you'll find them on this website.

I think I've shown so many photos today that I'll leave it till another day to show more photos from a trip Linda and I did around the country. Hope you're having a lovely weekend:)