Afternoon Tea Birthday Box Card

My sister and I put together an afternoon tea on our Mam's birthday. I just took a quick photo as we were starting to put everything out on the table, so lol it's definitely not artfully arranged for a photo, but it's the only photo I got of some of the spread before we started to eat! Anyway I thought it would be a nice idea to use the afternoon tea theme on the birthday girl's card.

Die - Docrafts Flower Doily (under the mini teacup and saucer candle)

A little while ago my friend Linda gave me a pretty die which was perfect for the card - thanks again, Linda! The die is Afternoon Tea by Joy Crafts which I've already enjoyed using over and over again. To make the box card base I used a die I bought recently, Lawn Fawn's Scalloped Box Card Pop-up die - love it! I made my first ever box card a few weeks ago using instructions I found online, but I have to say this die by Lawn Fawn means I can make box cards so quickly and easily.

Dies - Scalloped Box Card Pop-up (Lawn Fawn), Afternoon Tea (Joy Crafts) and Advent Drawer Deco (Tonic Studios)

The tea set was cut out from a scrap of patterned paper and the little hearts were cut from the tiny scraps I had left over using the hearts die from the same Lawn Fawn set.

To finish I cut out numbers from glittery gold card using Tonic Studio's Advent Drawer Deco die set.

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

Yarn Bombing and Emoji Card

June Fest is on again in our neighbouring town Newbridge. We happened to be in Newbridge one glorious sunny evening and came across the yarn bombing in Liffey Linear Park. It was so enjoyable strolling through the park and taking in all the fun and funky knitted and crocheted pieces that decorated trees, lampposts, railing, benches etc.

Because it was so sunny and bright and I had to take photos on my phone, unfortunately, my photos don't do justice to the installation, but here goes anyway!

The first hint of what was to come was the way the swan statue at the entrance to the park was bedecked in colourful knits.

Well done to whoever yarn bombed this life sized angel!

Crochet flowers were trailing from the flower basked on this lamppost

and the trees along the pathway were full of colour.

There was even a little bit of Christmas to be found with this gingerbread man on his bike

and a snowman was tucked away in a tree decorated with candy canes.

I loved this fun couple

and the aquatic pieces on this lamppost.

If you want to take a breather, near this teacup lamppost with cupcakes and donuts

there is a fabulous bench under a shady tree.

After a little break how about shooting some hoops

or taking a stroll to the end of the park

where some colourful mushrooms had sprouted at the base of this tree?

Flowers, bees and sea life were out in force on the banks of the River Liffey.

I couldn't think of a better placement for this poo emoji

and there were lots more emojis to be found on this lamppost.

After coming home I thought I really must make a card using an emoji die set I picked up on a fun shopping trip last year with my friend Linda.

Die - Emojis die set (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Woodland Creatures (Hero Arts)

I just wanted to make a quick and simple card using one of the emoji dies and because of the way all the trees were decorated in the park I wanted to use some kind of woodgrain on the card. In the end I recycled a piece of card I had saved from packaging.

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek at some of the yarn bombing in Newbridge. It's well worth a visit if you happen to live nearby or even not so nearby :)

Rainbow Flower

I love the theme of this week's Wednesday challenge over at Simon Says Stamp - Showers and/or Flowers and had fun today playing along with the challenge. For my card I decided to have silver sequins representing the rain and, as a rainbow is always a great bonus after a shower, made a rainbow background for the card.

Dies - Tudor Rose Collection (Spellbinders), Curvy Leaves (Elizabeth Craft Designs) and Thanks Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts)

I started by applying distress inks (barn door, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, salty ocean and shaded lilac) to white card, spritzed with water and repeated the process. Once I was happy with the background I matted it top and bottom with black card and adhered it to a white card base. As the background was so colourful I decided to die cut my flowers and leaves from white card. When the flowers were layered, I added a silver sequin to the flower centre.

The sentiment was die cut twice from black card and layered for some dimension. A sprinkling of silver sequins finished the card.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! My good friend Linda sent me lots of die cuts and stamped images from Hero Arts' super cute March kit - thanks again, Linda:) I had lots of fun using some of them to make an Easter card for Linda.

I started by adhering the die cut drills and fence to the card base. The sentiment was stamped using mowed lawn distress ink. I used Promarkers to colour the bunny and carrots and added them to the scene.

Supplies - My Monthy Hero March 2017 kit & Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

As this bunny is no ordinary bunny, he is also cultivating some glittery Easter eggs in his garden:)

I'm off now to enjoy my Easter eggs and bunny, including a beautiful dyed egg given to me by a sweet lady in my neighbourhood who hails from Romania and a delicious locally made Lily O'Brien's egg. Hope you have a wonderful Easter!

Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day from the Emerald Isle! I'm just popping in to post a card I sent to my good friend Linda for St Patrick's Day.

Last year Linda sent me some gorgeous shamrock die cuts so I wanted to use one on my card for her. I applied ink to a cream shamrock, added some lovely shimmery clear Wink of Stella and finished the shamrock off with a green gem.



Then I die cut a couple of flourishes from gold glitter card using a die from the beautiful Celtic Flourish set by Docrafts. The sentiment was stamped using the same ink I'd applied to the shamrock.

Dies - Fancy Shamrock (Impression Obsession) and Celtic Flourish (Docrafts)
Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

I'm submitting the card into Simon Says Stamp's Bit O' Green challenge.

Have a look here to see the fabulous St Patrick's Day card I received from Linda. Thanks again, Linda :) :)

St Patrick's Day is a public holiday here so no work or school for us today. We're hoping to spend a fair bit of our long weekend surrounded by green, including visiting one of our favourite places - Glendalough.

Hope you have a fun and relaxing weekend :)

January Noel

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions (as I inevitably break them!) but I do hope this year to make more Christmas cards than usual throughout the year. So if you don't like seeing Christmas cards in January it might be an idea to look away now:)

The Merry Monday Challenge Blog is always a great place to find a theme and inspiration for Christmas cards. This week's challenge is to have the word "Noel" and/or a Scandinavian feel to the card. I decided to go with a red and white colour combination and add texture with an embossing folder that has a cosy knitted look.

Die - Christmas Tree (Docrafts)
Embossing Folder - Cable Knit Pattern (Docrafts)

I started by embossing a card panel and added it to the card base using foam pads. Next I die cut the Christmas tree three times. The top layer was cut from white card and the other layers from red card. I applied barn door distress ink to the white die cut and adhered the trees together. To finish I added a small bow to the tree. An added little bonus is a panel I have from when I applied the distress ink to the die cut and the die cut acted as a mask. I'll make another card from that over the weekend.