stamping and stitching

Card in Paper Crafts Magazine

2012-02-21T11:37:00.015Z

Well never in a million years did I think I’d have the above title on one of my blog posts!!

I hadn’t thought about submitting anything for publication, but last year, after a lot of encouragement from my dear friends Trinh and Linda, finally decided to give it a go and submit something to Paper Crafts’ submission call for the March/April 2012 issue.

Little did I think the first card I’d ever submit would be picked! I can’t tell you how over the moon I was when I received a lovely email from Susan Opel. Lol I had to read it a few times just to make sure it really was for me! So here is my card.

Stamp (Hero Arts) – Everyday Sayings

I love this post about A Day in the Life of a Paper Crafts Card and it's fun to think that my little card went on a similar journey. I'd encourage anyone to submit for publication - you never know what might happen:)

After having an op last week, I’ve been taking a little break from making anything (or doing much of anything really!) but hopefully I’ll be back again very soon.

Woodgrain and Flowers

2012-02-12T11:32:00.015Z

Don’t ask me what it is, but for some reason I love cutting paper or fabric and find it very relaxing. So I thought I’d do a bit more cutting for the Cutting & Trimming Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. I’m also submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Stamps (Hero Arts) Designer Woodgrain, Everyday Sayings & Large Flower Background

I started by embossing the Large Flower Background in white and cut around the outside of the image leaving a small border. Then I just cut around the flowers and leaves to my heart’s content! When I started making cards I didn’t have a craft shop anywhere near me. I needed a scissors to cut out images and came across a curved nail scissors in a local chemist and that’s what I use to this day.

After all that cutting I was left with a framed image of the flowers which I then watercoloured using dried marigold and shabby shutters distress inks. I applied walnut stain distress ink to a piece of white card and using the same ink stamped the woodgrain background. As the white border was around the image, I just adhered the border to the woodgrain background so the flowers are floating free. I only had to use one tiny foam dot to keep one flower in place. The sentiment is stamped with walnut stain distress ink.

Hope you are all having a brilliant weekend:)

Fabric and Flowers

2012-02-08T11:30:00.013Z

The gorgeous new Hero Arts Large Flower Background stamp reminds me of some William Morris wallpapers and fabrics so I thought I’d use the stamp with some upholstery fabric.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower Background & Everyday Sayings

I stamped the background on upholstery fabric using walnut stain distress ink. Then I embossed the background image in white on white card and cut out the pieces I wanted to use. Distress inks (worn lipstick, spun sugar & shabby shutters) were applied to the flowers\leaves using a paintbrush and some water. I embossed the sentiment and pulled some fibres from the upholstery fabric to attach the sentiment piece.

I’m submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge as well as the
Around the House Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the Cutting & Trimming Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Hero Arts Launch Day at An Siopa Buí

2012-01-29T11:31:00.041Z

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

2012-01-25T15:15:00.011Z

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

2012-01-22T10:59:00.010Z

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

2012-01-17T17:49:00.011Z

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

2012-01-13T11:39:00.010Z

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

2012-01-10T13:06:00.009Z

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

2012-01-08T21:35:00.012Z

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

Christmas cards from friends, a little giveaway and Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T16:08:00.035Z

I’ve always loved receiving Christmas cards, but since I joined the Hero Arts Flickr Group and started receiving cards from friends there, my delight in receiving Christmas cards has increased tenfold! There really is nothing like a handmade card and even though I’ve oohed and aahed over countless cards I’ve seen on various websites and blogs, there’s nothing like holding one in your own hands and being able to truly see the amazing detail and work that has gone into creating it.

Anyway scattered through this post are the beauties I was so lucky to receive this year.

Card A

They were sent to me by these very lovely and talented ladies (in alphabetic order) - Barb, Ivy, Lai-Yoke, Linda, Maureen, Paula, Sally, Sue and Trinh – thank you so much ladies, I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to receive these wonderful Christmas cards from you!

Card B

I thought it might be fun to have a little game and giveaway with them. All you have to do is guess who made each card!

Card C

Just post your guesses in the comment box or email me by 11.59pm PST on Saturday 7th January.

Card D

If you sent me one of these cards, please email me your guesses using my email address, Flickr mail or by using the contact me button on the sidebar, otherwise it might make it too easy for everyone!

Card E

Whoever guesses all or the most correctly will win a little prize. It there's a tie, I'll do a draw. I’ll send a surprise (at the moment it’s a surprise for me too as I’ll only get to my LSS next week to buy the goodies!) and also make a brooch like the one in this post, in whatever colour you'd like.

Card F

So have fun guessing and I’ll post the answers and winner on Sunday 8th December.

Card G

To finish up I just want to say a great big thanks to everyone for visiting over 2011 – I know I haven’t exactly been great for posting, especially in the last few months!

Card H

I really appreciate your visits and the lovely and encouraging comments you have left.

Card I

Hope you all have a fun time celebrating New Year’s Eve and I wish you all of the very best for 2012:):):)

Happy Christmas!!

2011-12-24T14:28:00.009Z

I just wanted to pop by and wish you all a very Happy Christmas! Hope you all have a fantastic time with your family, friends and of course furry family members!

Toby Claus

I just have a couple of Christmas cards to share today. Anita is brilliant for organising fun card swaps and I was delighted to take part in the one she put together for Christmas over at the Hero Arts Flickr group. The card below is the one I sent to Greta about 4,500 miles from here. I was in such a hurry to get Greta's card to her that I forgot to take a photo of it, so Greta kindly took one for me - thanks again, Greta!

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Stunning Snowflakes, Decorative Ornament & Very Merry Christmas

In the exchange I received this wonderful card from Ivy! Thanks again Ivy, I love it:)

As well as receiving a gorgeous card in the swap, it has been great getting to know Greta and Ivy a bit more. Now I'm off to watch one of my favourite Christmas films, Home Alone with the lads and I think there might be some hot chocolate, popcorn and chocolate involved - yummy!

Happy Christmas everyone!

A Gift Card Hidden in the Snow

2011-12-18T08:33:00.009Z

The current Hero Arts challenge includes a pocket card category, so I thought I’d make a little card for a gift token I’m giving at Christmas.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Snowy House, Magical Background, Friendly Flags and Very Merry Christmas.

For the front of the card I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card and using the same ink, stamped it with the magical background. The ground was embossed with snowflakes and some stickles added for a bit of sparkle. I coloured the house with a ProMarker and watercolour pencil, layer it and added stickles for yet more sparkle – lol went a bit sparkle mad on this card! I loved the way Kelly Rasmussen used one of the flags from the Friendly Flag set for Christmas trees on this gorgeous pocket card. So I decided to use a flag with a scallop pattern for my tree here. I layered the tree to add some dimension and added some pink gems and a star to finish. The sentiment is embossed in white.

The inside of the card was made in the same way as the outside, except instead of sticking down the snowdrifts I just attached them to the card on three sides using machine stitching.

My little fella is hoping for it to be as snowy here as on the card on Christmas Eve\Day to make it easier for Santa to get here. Although we've had flurries of snow and a cold snap over the last little while, it's supposed to get warmer during the week. Do you think you will have snow in your neck of the woods for Santa next week??

Santa Mitten

2011-12-15T15:23:00.006Z

Yikes it’s been quite some time since I posted, but here I am back again after a fun but busy time for the craft fair.

After a very mild November the weather has changed here with a bit of snow this week and decidedly colder weather. So it’s back to the gloves, hats and scarves again. This reminded me of a pair of mittens I knitted a few years ago for a friend’s little one, which she always called her Santa mittens. Now she’s all grown up (12 1\2!) and I hope she likes her Santa mitten Christmas card.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Holly Flourish, Stunning Snowflakes and Small Variety Alphabet.

For the background I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card and using the same ink stamped the Holly Flourish Background. On another piece of white card I white embossed the snowflakes, applied barn door distress ink and cut out a mitten shape. For the top of the mitten I knitted a piece in single rib pattern using wool left over from making the original mittens - I really shouldn't hoard things! I made a little pocket at the back of the mitten to hold the gift card and attached the ho ho ho sentiment (stamped in barn door distress ink) to it so the gift card could be pulled out.

Hopefully it won't be another month before I post again!

A Gift on a Gift

2011-11-16T11:02:00.006Z

Yesterday I started making some brooches for a craft fair and thought it might be nice to add one to a gift wrapped present, so that the recipient will end up with a gift on a gift.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Holiday Dolls (snowflakes) & Very Merry Christmas

To make the gift wrap I randomly embossed the snowflakes on a piece of inexpensive (€1.50 for 20m) parcel paper. After wrapping the box and tying with raffia, I added one of the brooches. The tag has the greeting one side and “to” & “from” on the other side. To finish I just added a scattering of gems to the gift wrap and tag. I’m submitting this project into the current Hero Arts Challenge.

I really enjoy making these flowers and making them has been a great fabric stash buster, though I think I’d need to make hundreds of them to make any real dent in my stash!

Blinged Up Butterflies Gift Box

2011-11-14T13:07:00.005Z

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I posted anything so I had to clear the cobwebs off the cobwebs on the blog this morning!

Part of this month’s Hero Arts Challenge is to bling up a project so I went a bit bling crazy on the butterflies for this gift box!

Hero Arts Stamps (Flower Dot Pattern & Antique Engravings)

To start with I made a small opened topped box – instructions on this post. Then I added white Label 8 die cuts to the front and back of the box. The Flower Dot Pattern was embossed in white on watercolor card and I applied broken china and tumbled glass distress inks.

The butterflies were embossed in white on vellum and blinged up with lots of Hero Arts gems.

Recently I’ve been busy with work and the craft fair so hopefully in December I’ll be back to blogging as usual again.

Loved up Christmas

2011-10-06T13:40:00.003+01:00

I can't believe I've actually made my hubby's Christmas card and it's only the 6th of October!

My friend Linda sent me a wonderful package of goodies including the Very Merry Christmas stamp set and embossed images of the Flower Dot Pattern - thanks again, Linda! I've been admiring the Flower Dot Pattern for a while and was delighted to get to play with it. I know the sentiment set is going to get a lot of use in the lead up to Christmas and also throughout the year by using only parts of the sentiments.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Flower Dot Pattern and Very Merry Christmas

To start with I applied barn door distress ink to the embossed image and sprayed liberally with a water and perfect pearls mix. I love the wonderful shimmery effect of the perfect pearls but just not when I'm trying to take of photo of it! The snowflake is covered with white glitter and the chipboard heart is encrusted with red gems including a couple of heart shaped ones.

The sentiment is stamped with barn door distress ink. I'm submitting this card into the Lily Pad Cards Bling Challenge , the Textured to Perfection Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Just showing the shimmer of perfect pearls in this photo.

My blogging is probably going to be a little bit patchy over the next little while (and it already has been for a while!), as at the moment I'm helping with organising a Christmas craft fair and trying to get some bits and pieces made for it - just need a few more hours in the day!

Happy Christmas from the Snow Drifts

2011-10-02T18:10:00.012+01:00

After many weeks of thinking I must get started, I finally made my first Christmas card! For my first card I couldn’t resist playing with this cute car with Christmas tree image that my friend Linda sent me.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Stunning Snowflakes, Car With Tree and Celebrate Everyday

For the background, I white embossed white card with the snowflakes, applied distress inks (broken china & faded jeans) and spritzed lightly with water. The embossed snow drifts are on foam adhesive pads for dimension and are topped with diamond stickles. I coloured the car and tree with ProMarkers & watercolour pencils and coated the car with Glossy Accents. It’s questionable whether anyone would be going through snow drifts with a fully decorated Christmas tree on top of their car, but that’s one of the great things about card making, anything is possible, lol! The sentiment is stamped with barn door distress ink.

I’m submitting the card into Lily Pad Cards Bling Challenge

Hanging Out on the Lily Pad

2011-09-29T10:15:00.003+01:00

I was absolutely delighted when I received an invitation from Deborah and Vicky asking me to be a guest designer over at Lily Pad Cards. I said yes straight away as I love Lily Pad Cards!! There are always fun challenges going on over there and the blog is full of inspirational and fun posts. Lol, my Sunday morning wouldn’t be complete without taking a break to watch Vicky’s latest video with my cuppa and maybe a bickie (edited. Lin, bickie is slang for what we call a biscuit here but you'd call it a cookie) in hand!

So here is one of the cards I made for today using a few of my favourite stamps.

If you’d like to see two more of my cards and the supply list\instructions for the above card, hop over to the Lily Pad where you will find them.

Thanks again Deborah and Vicky for having me over at the Lily Pad, I had a splashing great time there!

ATC swap with Barb

2011-09-09T10:47:00.035+01:00

Barb and I decided we'd like to have an ATC swap and sent each other three ATCs. It's only now that I'm uploading the images that I realise how similar our choices were!

Above are the absolute beauties I received from Barb. I was so delighted when I opened the package and saw the gorgeous ATCs she had sent me. Thanks again Barb, I really enjoyed our swap and thanks again also for the lovely goodies you sent:)

These are the ATCs I sent to Barb.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Hydrangea, Exotic Bloom and Antique Engravings.

On the first one, the background started as white card and I applied distress inks (broken china and faded jeans) and stamped an image in VersaMark (it was a while ago and now I can't remember which image I used!). The hydrangea was coloured with ProMarkers and I just added some diamond stickles to the flower centres. The second one has a background of spiced marmalede distress ink and after stamping the image I added a couple of punched butterflies. On the last one I used a piece of paper from a gorgeous stack of paper which my friend Trinh sent me a while ago. The butterfly was coloured with ProMarkers.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend:)

Owl book gift card holder and bookmark

2011-09-08T13:24:00.027+01:00

Something my friends and I do more often in the autumn is read. So I made this little gift card holder which has a pocket inside for a book gift card and bookmark.

To start with, I white embossed some white card with the Friend Definition stamp and applied spiced marmalade distress ink. For the woodgrain pieces I applied walnut stain distress ink to white card and stamped the Woodgrain Background using the same ink.

Stamps (Hero Arts ) - Friend Definition, Heart Owls, Designer Woodgrain and Flourish Background

The green background started as white card and this was white embossed with the Flourish Background and some shabby shutters distress ink applied. The little owls were coloured with colouring pencils. I just added some googly eyes, leaves (May Arts ribbon) and glossy hearts to finish.

I'm submitting these into this month's Hero Arts Challenge and the Resist Challenge at Lily Pad Cards. Now I'm off to tackle a mountain of ironing which I should have been doing this morning instead of getting inky!

Shades of Autumn

2011-09-04T17:41:00.016+01:00

I really love the glorious range of colours on trees in autumn. This week on the way to work, I've been enjoying the beautiful displays nature has on offer, glowing in the early morning sunlight. So with these colours in mind, I made this card for the current Hero Arts Challenge and the Lily Pad Cards Resist Challenge.

Stamp - Flower Text (Hero Arts)

To start with I embossed the image in white on white card and applied spiced marmalade and rusty hinge distress inks. I embossed the image again in white on white card and applied distress inks (walnut stain, barn door, mustard seed and shabby shutters) to the flowers and leaves. Now I really have inky multicoloured hands! I pieced the flowers and leaves and added gems and buttons to finish.

Hope you are all having a great weekend:)

The Blues

2011-08-29T17:51:00.012+01:00

One of my favourite techniques is resist, so when I saw Lily Pad Cards' Resist Challenge, I just couldn't resist making a card.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Exotic Bloom, Starburst Lace & Messages.

I used the sketch from the Square Sketch Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

To start with I embossed the Exotic Bloom in white on white card and applied a few of my favourite distress inks - tumbled glass, broken china & faded jeans. The butterfly was punched out of a scrap left over from another project (vellum white embossed with Starburst Lace). I also used the resist technique on the sentiment and added a few gems to the card to finish.

Sending U Warm Fuzzies

2011-08-25T21:08:00.011+01:00

Today I wanted to make a card with a mix of textures and materials. It started out because I was doing a sort out of my kids’ clothes and saved pieces of worn out jeans. Bits and pieces of these will probably end up on a patchwork bag but I took a little bit of denim for the card below.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Everyday Sayings & Envelope Pattern

For the denim card base I adhered a piece of denim to a piece of card and die cut a scallop circle. The flowers were die cut from the denim and some pink felt. A “u” was also die cut from a little scrap of the felt. I had only one button with a check pattern on it, so for the smaller button I used a plain blue button and white embossed the envelope pattern on it. Appropriately enough, the sentiment was stamped using faded jeans distress ink.

I'm submitting the card into the following challenges:

Moxie Fab World - Fabulous Felt Challenge
Lily Pad Cards – Felt\Fabric Challenge
Creative Card Crew - Hand Made Flowers
Paper Creations Ink - Show Us Your Flowers

Thanks with Kanzashi Flowers

2011-08-22T14:17:00.016+01:00

Recently I came across this great video on how to make kanzashi flowers. I'd never heard of these before, but thought I'd give them a go.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Classic Fabric Design, Antique Engravings, Scattered Leaves and Messages.

The petals of the larger flower start off as 2 inch squares and these are folded over a few times. On the smaller flowers the squares are only one inch, so they proved to be a bit more fiddly, especially with slippy fabric!

To start with I clear embossed the Classic Fabric Design on white card and applied shabby shutters and forest moss distress inks. The flowers are made from shot silk and I added some pearls to the centres from an old necklace. The butterfly was stamped with a brown chalk ink and I just added some pearls and thread to finish.

I'm submitting the card into a few challenges:

Lily Pad Cards - Fabric\Felt Challenge
Hero Arts - August Challenge
Creative Card Crew - Hand Made Flowers Challenge
Paper Creations Ink - Show Us Your Flowers

Fabric Flowers for Friends

2011-08-16T10:47:00.013+01:00

I love making fabric flowers and over the weekend spent time making them for some friends. Instead of just putting the flowers in an envelope, I make a holder for them and also a little card with a tiny fabric flower to match.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Be Happy, Clouds Background, Antique Engravings & Sew Artsy

A tutorial for the fabric flowers can be found here. I applied tumbled glass distress ink to the Clouds Background, lightly spritzed with water and stamped on white card.

The butterflies were stamped on scraps of white card which had barn door distress ink applied. I used some patterned paper for the grass\leaves and a little piece of baker’s twine for the flower stem.

Just to show the size of the tiny flower on the card.

I'm submitting these projects into the Fabric\Felt Challenge at Lily Pad Cards, Creative Card Crew's Hand Made Flowers Challenge, Paper Creations Ink's Show Us Your Flowers Challenge and also the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Happy Birthday Honey

2011-08-10T19:09:00.008+01:00

I love the cute little bees from the Be Happy set and decided to use them on my hubby’s birthday card this year.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Be Happy, Clouds, Magical Background, Birthday Messages, Envelope Pattern & Heart Owls

The clouds are stamped with tumbled glass distress ink which had been lightly spritzed with water. All of the hills and the sun came from pieces in my scrap mountain. I coloured the little bees with a ProMarker and colouring pencil. To finish I just added a little diamond stickles to the bees’ wings and Glossy Accents to all the hearts. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the red background is stamped with the Magical Background using VersaMark.

A quick post today, but right now I have a slice of birthday cake calling me!

Coffee and Cream Hydrangea

2011-08-08T07:50:00.006+01:00

Every time I’ve looked at the examples of botanicals at the Fanatical About Botanical Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, I’ve been drawn to all the gorgeous fabrics. So I thought I’d have a rummage through my stash of upholstery fabrics to see if I could use any of them on a card. I had decided on coffee and cream colours and found a couple of fabric pieces that I could use.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Hydrangea, Old Letter Writing and Every Day Sayings

I stamped the Hydrangea on a piece of frayed fabric, added liquid pearls to the flower centres and once dry added some diamond stickles (unfortunately, I can't seem to catch the sparkle in a photo). The sentiment was stamped on cream card with walnut stain distress ink and some antique linen distress ink was applied around the edges of the tag. I stamped the punched butterfly with the Old Letter Writing using antique linen distress ink and made a little bow from some Hero Arts lace.

Flying Around in Circles

2011-08-07T10:04:00.006+01:00

I wanted to try something a little bit different with the Antique Engravings set for the Fanatical About Botanical Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the current Hero Arts challenge.

Stamp (Hero Arts) – Antique Engravings

Because I really enjoyed using the cracked glass technique the other day on the card here, I decided to use it again a little bit on this card. I applied distress ink (spiced marmalade, broken china or walnut stain) to circles of white card, spritzed lightly with water and then stamped with the butterfly or dragonfly.

Then I clear embossed the circles. In the case of the orange circles I clear embossed them four more times (really need to find a shop here with UTEE!) and cracked them. To finish I just added some gems. The butterfly\dragonfly circles are added to the card using different heights of adhesive foam pads.

Hope you are all having a brilliant weekend!

Froggy You're So Special

2011-08-04T19:59:00.014+01:00

This is a card I made for a special little boy and I'm submitting it to Lucy’s Lovely Lines Challenge at Lily Pad Cards and the current Hero Arts Challenge.

My original intension was to make a CAS card but I just can’t seem to keep myself from adding bits and pieces! The little frogs are stamped on patterned paper and I added some extra colour to them with ProMarkers as well as glossy accents. For the green background I applied shabby shutter distress ink to some light green card and embossed it.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Froggy & It’s a Day for a Cupcake

The sentiment was stamped with broken china distress ink. The twines were a yummy pressie from my friend Linda – thanks again Linda:) I was lucky to have won a fab prize at Lily Pad cards for this card and was amazed with the wonderful box of ribbon I received from May Arts. The green leaf ribbon, which I love, was part of the prize. As for the big red heart I haven’t a clue where it came from – maybe a Christmas cracker or something!

Cracked Bird Collage

2011-08-01T15:29:00.015+01:00

I made this card for a couple of challenges, the Fanatical About Botanical Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the August Challenge at Hero Arts.

I love the look of collage cards but have never tried making one. So I got the Collage Bird stamp a little while ago to ease myself gently into something that isn't my usual style. I wanted an aged look on the Bird Collage image so I stamped it on cream card, coloured with ProMarkers and applied antique linen and pumice stone distress inks. After that I clear embossed the whole image about 5 times and had some fun cracking the embossing for a more distressed look.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Bird Collage & Old Letter Writing

My friend Trinh sent me the gorgeous background paper. Sometimes I find it hard to cut into gorgeous papers (or fabrics) so I just braced myself and went for it here! The flower embellishment is all thanks to my friends – my mum for the button, Sally for the seam binding (applied antique linen distress ink to it), Linda for the cream flower (applied antique linen distress ink and stamped the Old Letter Writing with walnut stain distress ink) and Trinh again for the green flower (applied copper stickles to the edges) – thanks again everyone:)

Bucket and Pillow of Shells

2011-07-27T19:42:00.022+01:00

It’s been ages since I posted, but now I’m back from holidays and feeling on track again after a bad cold. I wanted to cover two themes in Hero Arts’ July challenge (summertime and parties), the Fanatical About Botanical Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the Simon Says Stamp and Show Anything Goes Challenge.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Magical Background & Messages

For my kids the ideal summer would include a trip to the beach every day, so when I think of summer, I think of making sandcastles, gathering shells and traisping through the rough grass in the sand dunes. So with this in mind I made these treat containers, which might be suitable for a summer party, and included bits and pieces that I associate with the beach. Then I filled them with chocolate shells - one of my favourites!

For the sand bucket, I covered a coffee cup with sand patterned paper. The handle was made with florists wire and pearls from a cheap necklace. I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card and using the same ink stamped it with the Magical Background. I added a strip of this, some May Arts ribbon, raffia and a stamped shell to the bucket.

For the pillow box I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card, stamped with the magical background using the same ink and die cut a window when the pillow shape was cut out. To finish I just added the shell and raffia.

Now I'm off to have some shells and a cuppa!

Happy Birthday Mark!

2011-07-04T07:26:00.010+01:00

This is a card I made for my son Mark who celebrates his birthday today. Happy Birthday, Mark! Since Mark’s birthday is on the 4th of July, I decided to go with a red\white\blue colour combination and some stars and stripes.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Canvas Stripes, Friendly Flags and Clouds Background

To start with I applied barn door distress ink to the stripes stamp and spritzed lightly with water before stamping. The clouds background was stamped in the same way using tumbled glass distress ink. For the blue flags, I applied broken china and faded jeans distress inks to white card and embossed the flags in white. I used a scrap of the stamped canvas stripes for the birthday flag.

Happy 4th of July to all you who celebrate it too:)

Aagh!

2011-07-03T23:52:00.013+01:00

Now that we’re enjoying warm summer evenings, it’s lovely being out in the garden quite late. I love having candles outside so decided to stamp a vase to hold a large candle.

Stamp (Hero Arts) – Antique Engravings

Of course when I was doing this I didn’t take into account having to photograph it! I had so many problems with reflections, trying to capture the sparkle of glitter and also because the butterflies are stamped all the way around the vase, in the photos it looks like some of the images overlap – aagh! The photos aren’t great but I gave up on getting good ones!

Using white StazOn, I stamped three different sized butterflies from the Antique Engraving set on the vase. We have ivy on parts of the garden walls so there is always a plentiful supply to make ivy rings. So I white embossed a number of butterflies on vellum, added diamond stickles, gems and attached them to the ivy ring.

Batik Summer Butterflies

2011-07-03T09:35:00.027+01:00

This month part of the Hero Arts challenge is summertime, so I decided to go with summery colours and butterflies for this card.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Butterfly Wallpaper, Antique Engravings & Messages

I love the gorgeous Butterfly Wallpaper stamp that Linda kindly sent me – thanks again, Linda! I wanted to try the batik technique I had seen Tami Hartley and Lisa Spangler use on their gorgeous cards here and here. Firstly I embossed the image in white on white card and then applied tumbled glass, broken china and faded jeans distress inks. Then I covered the embossed image with a piece of vellum (usually a piece of copy paper is used) and ironed it. By ironing the image, the embossing is transferred onto the vellum and the original piece of card has a batik look.

Using the vellum was just a little experiment - I had my fingers crossed it wouldn’t melt or get stuck to the embossed image! Well it worked and now I have a piece of vellum with the butterflies image on it which I’ll be able to use on another project. The big butterfly was coloured with a ProMarker and I just added some pearls and black thread to finish. The sentiment was stamped with tumbled glass distress ink.

Congrats on Passing Driving Test

2011-06-30T18:56:00.010+01:00

This is a card to congratulate someone on passing their driving test. Here in Ireland learner drivers must have L plates (a red “L” on a square white background) on their cars until they pass their driving test. I’ll never forget how delighted I was years ago when I passed my test and could tear up my L plates! So I wanted to incorporate something about getting rid of L plates on the sentiment.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Going, Clouds, Flourish Background, Type and Small Variety Alphabet.

Using VersaMark, I stamped the Background Flourish on the brown card base. I wanted a bit of texture behind the car so stamped the Clouds Background on a scrap of felt using faded jeans distress ink. A scrap of frayed upholstery fabric was used for the ground.

The car was stamped twice on paper from the Hello Luscious Paper Pad (thanks again, Sharon). The body of the car is layered and covered with a layer of glossy accents.

Glittering Wedding Wishes

2011-06-29T19:32:00.013+01:00

My last wedding card was in muted colours so this time I wanted to use bolder colours and try to keep the card plain and simple.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Heart Winged Butterfly & Warmest Wedding Wishes

I love using the Heart Winged Butterfly on wedding cards and started by white embossing the butterflies on vellum.

To emphasise the hearts on the image I embossed the image again, cut out some of the hearts and covered them (and myself!) with a layer of red glitter. The sentiment was also embossed in white and I just added some machine stitching to finish.

Ribbon Bandage Dress

2011-06-20T17:08:00.010+01:00

I just thought I’d squeeze in another card before I go back to work, so two posts today but it will probably be a while before I post again! This is a congrats card I made for a friend who is a big movie buff and big into fashion. I thought I’d make her my version of an Oscar statue in the form of a bandage dress.

I embossed the tailor’s dummy in white on black card and made the “dress” with thin ribbon and some gems. The sentiment is also embossed in white and I just added some gems and gold yarn to finish. One of my kids asked me if I was making a mummy when he saw it, hopefully it doesn't look too much like a mummy!

I’m submitting the card into a few challenges – Lily Pad Cards Ribbon Challenge, the I’m Sew! Excited Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, the current Hero Arts Challenge and Lisa Spangler's Make-It + Mail-It Challenge.

Fuzzy Quilt Card

2011-06-20T11:32:00.007+01:00

When I saw Cath's I'm Sew Excited! Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, I just had to make something! The challenge is to use sewing icons on a project. I love quilts so I wanted to incorporate something to do with quilts on my card and used this sentiment because I thought it would go with the idea of being snuggled up in a quilt.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Everyday Sayings & Sew Artsy

I had patterned paper (Tulip by Andrea Jayne) left over from some baby cards and cut these into squares and circles for the scallop edged “quilt”. The pieces were randomly put together and machine stitched with a small zigzag stitch. The base of the pin cushion was coloured with watercolour pencils. I cut the top of the pincushion out of a scrap of felt and added the Hero Arts heart gems (thanks again, Anita) to the tops of ordinary pins. The “fuzzies” letters were also cut out of felt scraps using an X-cut alphabet die.

I love Lisa Spangler’s Make-It+mail-It Challenge so I’m also submitting the card to her challenge as it will be on the way to a friend very soon.

Wedding bits and pieces and gift box tutorial

2011-06-17T12:54:00.050+01:00

Since I went back to work recently, I haven't had much time (or for that matter, energy!) to make anything. So I was really delighted to get the chance to play and make this wedding favour box, place card and candle for the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Blossom Art & Small Variety Alphabet

I white embossed the flowers on white card, applied shabby shutters & tumbled glass distress ink and spritzed lightly with water. Then I added some Hero Arts lace, pearls (thanks again, Sharon) and heart gems to the favour box and place card. A quick tutorial for the box is further down the post.

Then I decided to make a wedding candle.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Blossom Art & Small Variety Alphabet

The flower is made in the same way as above. For the flower centre I embossed the couple's initials on a circle of kraft, lightly applied white chalk ink to the edge and added a couple of Hero Arts heart pearls.

Now to the gift box tutorial. I hadn't realised my writing is so small but you can click on the photos to get a clearer view! Cut two pieces of card 14cm x 14.5cm. Score at 3.5cm on three of the sides as in the photo below.

Cut out the two 3.5cm squares at the base of the pieces of card. Then adhere the two pieces of card together.

Flip the piece of card over and apply double sided sticky tape as shown in the photo below.

Adhere one side of the box together...

.. and then the other side.

When the box has been completed adhere a die cut piece of card to each side. I used the second biggest die from the Labels 8 set for my box but you can adjust the size of the box to fit any of these dies.

Hopefully it won't be as long till I post again! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend:)

Wedding Card

2011-06-04T19:22:00.005+01:00

I’ve been really busy with a few things recently and it feels like forever since I posted anything! This month part of the challenge on the Hero Arts blog is to make something to do with weddings. So I decided to make a wedding card.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Warmest Wedding Wishes & Lace Background

On the upper part of the background I embossed the Lace Background in white on ivory pearlescent card. The sentiment is embossed in gold. For the flower I wanted to use items that could possibly make up a wedding dress – taffeta, tulle and pearls.

To make the flower, I cut six varying sized circles out of taffeta and another six of out tulle. I wanted a bit of frayed look on the flower, so even though I ironed the fabric before cutting out the circles, I ended up scruching them up and rolling them around between my hands to get a more distressed look. After stacking the circles, I stitched them together with a couple of stitches in the middle and added some pearls. The ribbon is recycled off a box of chocolates (the things I eat for craft supplies, lol) and I added some Lace Ribbon from Hero Arts.

I really enjoyed making the card, and the excuse to play with fabric, now all I need is a wedding to go to! Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Fabric Flower Tutorial

2011-05-23T12:45:00.024+01:00

A few people asked me how I made the fabric flower on this ATC:

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Clouds & Big And Small Flowers

I thought it would be easier to explain in pictures how I made it, so put together a little photo tutorial on the process. The flowers are really easy to make and can be made with just small pieces of fabric - I hope you give them a try!

Cut 5 circles of the same size out of fabric. I used my Cuttlebug which made it really quick.

Fold each fabric circle in half.

Fold in half again.

Using a running stitch sew along the curved side, a little bit down from the raw edge. I would usually use a matching thread but went for white thread this time so the stitching would be more obvious in the photos.

Add the next petal to the length of thread using a running stitch.

Continue adding petals with the running stitch until all five petals have been added. As you can see you don't have to be fussy about doing even stitches!

Holding the two ends of the thread, pull tightly to gather the petals together and knot 3\4 times.

Snip the ends of the thread and add a button, large gem or yo yo to the centre to cover up the raw edges.

Lisa Spangler's Card Photography Series

2011-05-22T18:30:00.032+01:00

I love making cards but sometimes (well often really!) find it so hard to take good photos of them. So I was delighted when I read on Lisa Spangler's blog that she is doing a Card Photography Series. I have so much to learn in so many areas so I'm thoroughly looking forward to all of Lisa's tutorials.

Usually I take photos in the morning in a sunny room at the front of the house. I've given up on taking photos outside as there always seems to be gusts of wind ready to blow over the cards. Also when I crouch down to take a photo Toby thinks it's play time and starts jumping up in front of the camera!

Lisa's first assignment was to download and print her cute card and photograph it in different locations using the auto white balance and other white balance settings. I didn't even know that I had a white balance mode on my camera - I'm terrible for not reading manuals! It was only later today that I discovered where it is and how to change it. My camera has been on direct sunlight mode since I bought it!

Photo taken early this morning when it was very cloudy. I seem to have a real problem photographing white against white. This photo is sooo bad! It also shows a problem I sometime have with cards - the light seems to be much brighter on the bottom right of the card. White balance - direct sunlight.

Photo taken at the same time and in the same place as the first photo but with different backgrounds. White balance - direct sunlight.

Photo taken in bright room but out of direct sunlight. The white background is further away than in the first photo and this seems to make a difference. White balance - direct sunlight.

The next three photos were taken this evening in a bright room but out of direct sunlight. White balance - auto.

White balance - shade.

White balance - cloudy.

I'm finding it slightly difficult to do this exercise as I'm working with a laptop (hopefully only for a little while longer) and any tilt of the monitor makes such a difference to the photos. I think photos 2 & 3 look better than the others and the last photo is the whitest looking one in that set of three taken this evening.

ATC swap with Marijke

2011-05-21T15:03:00.021+01:00

When I was making ATCs for the current Hero Arts challenge, I thought it would be fun if a group of us got together to do an ATC swap. So that’s exactly what a bunch of us did in the Hero Arts Flickr Group. With the random draw it turned out that my ATC swap buddy was Marijke in the Netherlands.

It’s been great getting to know Marijke a bit better through the swap and I was delighted that she was as keen as me to swap quite a few ATCs! We decided to swap six and wanted to surprise each other with our ATCs so didn’t mention a particular theme or stamps. I sent two ATCs I had already made this month – the owls from here and the bees from here.

For the other four I tried to incorporate a bit of both of us and what we like into them. Marijke loves flowers and nature and with her being from the Netherlands I had to include some orange (reminds me of when I see the Dutch football team on tv!). For me I included some of my favourite things – fabric, vellum and patchwork. The typewriter with the Friend Definition background represents all the emails we've sent each other for the swap. Marijke has received her ATCs so here they are:

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Clouds & Big And Small Flowers
The clouds are stamped with tumbled glass distress ink. I paper pieced the leaves\stem and made the fabric flower. Sally kindly sent me the baker's twine I used on the button - thanks again Sally!

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy
Using patterned paper I made a little strip quilt pattern for the background. I coloured the sewing machine with watercolour pencils and covered with a layer of Glossy Accents.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Happy Wishes & Old Letter Writing
I applied broken china, faded jeans and shabby shutters distress inks to white card and spritzed lightly with water. Then I white embossed the Happy Wishes image and added touches of diamond stickles here and there. The butterfly was punched from a piece of vellum which had been white embossed with the Old Letter Writing.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Type, Friend Definition & Small Variety Alphabet.
The typewriter was embossed using red embossing powder and the background was clear embossed. I used some letters from the alphabet set to create the message and just added a pearl heart to finish.

If you are still awake after this loooong post, well done!! Hope you all are having a fab weekend!

Thanks a Million

2011-05-19T21:07:00.000+01:00

This is a card I made recently using a lot of my favourite things – the particular stamps, hand dyed fabric and some stitching.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Scallop Borders, Thank You and Envelope Pattern.

To start with I stamped the butterfly on a piece of hand dyed fabric. Then I sandwiched a piece of wadding between it and another piece of the same fabric. I added some tight machine stitching to the butterfly and trimmed close to the stitched outer edges.

The bottom part of the panel was stamped with the Thank You and Envelope Pattern backgrounds using tumbled glass distress ink. The Scallop Borders were also stamped with the same ink and attached to the card with some machine stitching.

I'm still without my usual pc so hope the photos are okay!

Critters in Love ATCs

2011-05-15T10:17:00.010+01:00

I had so much fun making my last set of ATCs and couldn’t resist making more for the current Hero Arts challenge. This time it’s critters in love. I’ve uploaded the photos from a laptop (pc in for repairs:( ) and it’s a really cloudy day here, so sorry if the photo is terrible!

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Adorable Baby Girl, Heart Owls, Designer Woodgrain, Be Happy, Envelope Pattern, Woodland Creatures & Clouds Background.

Ladybirds card
For the sky I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card and spritzed lightly with water. Shabby shutters distress ink was applied to white card and one of the hills was stamped with the Envelope Pattern. The tree was coloured with watercolours pencils and the hearts coloured with a ProMarker and covered with Glossy Accents.

Owls card
I applied distress inks (pumice stone & walnut stain) to white card and stamped the woodgrain using walnut stain distress ink. The owls were coloured with watercolour pencils. I stamped the leaves on patterned paper and the hearts were coloured with a ProMarker and Glossy Accents applied. For the background I applied shabby shutters distress in to white card and stamped with the Envelope Pattern.

Raccoons card
The grass was stamped on patterned paper and the clouds stamped on white card. I coloured the raccoons with watercolours pencils. The hearts were coloured with a ProMarker and I applied Glossy Accents to them.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Rainbow of ATCs

2011-05-09T10:55:00.025+01:00

Part of the May challenge on the Hero Arts blog is to make ATCs. I haven’t made ATCs in a while and had forgotten how fun it is to make them. Another bonus to making ATCs is all the scraps I get to use up!

I wanted to make an ATC for each colour of the rainbow so just picked the first stamp that came to mind when I thought of each colour. All stamps mentioned are by Hero Arts.

The Poppy Background was embossed in red and I added some beads to the flower centre.

I applied spiced marmalade distress ink to white card and stamped the Exotic Bloom in black. Then I just added punched butterflies.

I clear embossed the Clouds Background on yellow card. The bees were embossed in black and I coloured them with a yellow ProMarker and added diamond stickles to the wings. Trinh, thanks again for the black & white baker's twine:)

For the background I applied shabby shutters distress ink to white card, using the same ink stamped with the Envelope Pattern and embossed. Froggy was stamped on patterned paper and coloured in places with a ProMarker. To finish I added some leaves and green & white baker's twine (thanks again, Linda!).

On this one I clear embossed the Friend Definition on blue card for the background. The sewing machine was stamped on gingham patterned paper and I just added some thread and a fabric scrap to finish.

I applied some worn lipstick distress ink to white card, clear embossed the Magical Background and then applied dusty concord and faded jeans distress inks. The butterfly from the Antiques Engravings set was embossed in white and some purple pearls (thanks again, Sharon!) added to the centre.

Now I better go catch up on what I should have done yesterday instead of making these!

Card with Flower ATC

2011-05-03T09:06:00.018+01:00

This is a card I made for the current Hero Arts challenge (Fabulous Flowers, ATCs or using colouring pencils) and this week’s Play Date Cafe Challenge.

Since I'm sending this card to a dear friend, I'm also submitting this card into Lisa Spangler's Mate-It+Mail-It Challenge #2.

I’m trying to make more cards using colour combinations that I wouldn’t normally use. The PDCC colours this week certainly fit the bill! I had to go rummaging around in my supplies to find some grey card and the nearest I had to lime green was shabby shutters distress ink.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Blossom, Messages & Envelope Pattern

The flower panel is the size of an ATC. For the background I clear embossed the Large Blossom stamp on some grey card. I coloured the flower, petals and stem with barn door and shabby shutters distress inks. The card base was also stamped with barn door distress ink using the Envelope Pattern.

Thanks a Million Hero Arts and a Ramble

2011-04-30T13:58:00.041+01:00

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:)

2011-04-28T13:00:00.022+01:00

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

2011-04-25T18:15:00.023+01:00

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

2011-04-25T09:23:00.023+01:00

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

2011-04-22T14:00:00.009+01:00

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

2011-04-19T10:40:00.023+01:00

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

2011-04-12T16:37:00.023+01:00

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

2011-04-08T13:30:00.000+01:00

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!

Birthday Owl

2011-03-30T19:59:00.016+01:00

Stamps (Hero Arts)- Clouds, Tree Trunk, Heart Owls, Be Happy, Birthday Messages, Envelope Pattern & Adorable Baby Girl

For a while I’ve been intending to quilt a cloudy sky using the Clouds background stamp and finally got around to it. I stamped white fabric (which has a white pattern) with faded jeans distress ink, placed it on 2 layers of wadding & 1 layer of backing fabric and machine stitched around the clouds. A piece of green paper was stamped with the Envelope Pattern and the grass from the Be Happy set. I paper pieced the leaves and owl, who has a slightly startled expression due to my lack of smaller googly eyes!

I have a couple of busy days ahead and hopefully after that my computer problems will be finally sorted out and I’ll be able to go visiting blogs again - I'm having withdrawal symptoms:(

Wild Flowers with Flower Brooches

2011-03-27T23:09:00.044+01:00

After watching Kelly Rasmussen make fabulous fabric flowers and use them in brilliant ways in a video on the Hero Arts blog, I just had to give it a go. So I made quite a few the other day using different colours and fabrics. I'll add them to cards, bags, tops and like Kelly did use them for hair accessories.

I love the gorgeous colour combination for the Play Date Cafe Challenge this week and made a couple of the flowers using these colours. The flowers have pins on the backs so can be used as brooches.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Wild Flowers and Birthday Messages

I applied broken china distress ink to the Wild Flowers stamp, spritzed with water and stamped on watercolour paper. Then I lightly distressed the edges to go with the slightly frayed flowers and added some gems. When I have very small scraps left over from projects, I often punch butterflies from them and keep them in a jar for another time. The butterfly here is one of these and had been from a project where I used dusty concord distress ink. I just added the little heart pearl to the body.

Below are some of the flowers I made – I won’t bore you with them all! All the stamps mentioned are by Hero Arts.

Denim from an old pair of jeans stamped with the Magical Background (the pattern is more obvious in real life) using faded jeans distress ink.

Gingham with the button stamped with the Envelope Pattern using worn lipstick distress ink

Hand dyed fabric stamped with the Envelope Pattern

Another hand dyed fabric

Cotton on the bottom layer (stamped with Old Letter Writing)......

.... with a layer of organza petals on top

When I folded each petal in half, I didn’t fold them perfectly but offset them a bit to get a more ruffled look.

If you'd like to make these kind of fabric flowers you should watch Kelly's brilliant video.

Fresh Inspiration Friday Challenge - Inspiration Off the Wall

2011-03-25T11:48:00.020Z

Today on the Hero Arts blog there is a Fresh Inspiration Friday Challenge. Inspired by gorgeous pictures in her house, Anita picked the colour combination for the challenge.

Tami from Hero Arts and Hero Hostesses Anita, Linda, Sharon, Sally and I made cards using this yummy colour combination. Links to all of our cards can be found at this post here on the Hero Arts website. The post also includes full details of the challenge - I hope you’ll join in on the fun!

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Classic Fabric Design, Envelope Pattern, Exotic Bloom & It’s a Day for a Cupcake

To start with I applied broken china and faded jeans distress inks to the Classic Fabric Background, spritzed well with water and stamped on watercolour paper. Then I used broken china distress ink and the Envelope Pattern to stamp another layer. On the main panel I used the same inks on the Exotic Bloom stamp and this time lightly spritzed with water. The sentiment which was stamped using a chalk ink is from a cute set that Linda sent me last year – thanks again Linda! I just added some twine and a gem to finish.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! It looks like we're going to have another beautiful sunny weekend here so I'm really looking forward to that:)

Hero Hostess Takeover!

2011-03-18T11:20:00.003Z

It’s Hero Hostess week on the Hero Arts blog this week and we’ve had such a fun time making birthday cards and projects for the blog!

Linda and Sharon were first up on Monday with wonderful cards for a friend and a guy. On Tuesday Sally shared a stunning gift box which she had created and is sure to make a present extra special. Wednesday saw Anita with her very first video tutorial and she created a gorgeous card with wonderful instructions on how to make twisted ribbon flowers. So Friday is finally here and I’m sharing some gift wrapping ideas.

Stamps (Hero Arts) Antique Engravings, Blossom Art, Large Flower & Birthday Messages

I often make my own wrapping paper and embellishments for gifts. I love choosing the stamps and colours to make these and had great fun going through my Hero Arts stamps to wrap these particular gifts. Full instructions on how I wrapped the gifts are here on the Hero Arts website so I’ll just give the short version now. I stamped a butterfly randomly over pieces of some blue craft paper using VersaMark.

To decorate the parcels I white embossed the butterflies and flowers on vellum and added a selection of gems – thanks again Joy for some of these! The bottom layer of the sentiment was also white embossed on vellum with the top layer white embossed on a scrap of the blue paper.

The blue paper I used was from a roll which is 70m long and cost the same as a single sheet of wrapping paper. So I’ll be able to wrap lots of presents from this roll and will be able to customise them to suit the recipient’s tastes. The other day I wrapped a present for a friend using different paper and stamped embellishments. She told me that she has saved the embellishments so that she can make her first cards using them – hopefully she’ll get hooked on card making too!

I'm submitting this project into The Shabby Tea Room "Party Time" Challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday Challenge.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T07:56:00.047Z

Happy St Patrick's Day everyone! I just thought I'd share some photos from our little ramble in County Wicklow yesterday. As you'll see from the photos it was a beautiful sunny day but a bit hazy at the same time.

Blessington Lakes

Mark and Adam heading away from Turlough Hill

One we want to climb in the summer! All the dark brown vegetation on the mountain is heather so this area is full of purple during the summer.

Time for a break and a little peek in the Hero Arts catalogue!

Toby decides to have a little break too!

View of the valley on the way to Glendalough

The lower lake at Turlough Hill. During non-peak hours the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) uses excess electricity to pump water from this lake to the lake at the top of the hill and releases it downwards through huge turbines inside the mountain to create electricity in times of maximum demand.

Time for another break along the way!

Blessington Lakes again...

...wish I could sandwich these two photos together and that the photos looked as good as real life - the view is just gorgeous!

Hope you've enjoyed your little trip to Wicklow!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Dotty Butterflies

2011-03-12T14:11:00.016Z

This is another card I made for the Moxie Fab World Paper Piecing Challenge, this month’s Hero Arts challenge and Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge and . It's great that because of these challenges I’m getting lots of birthday cards ready in advance for family and friends rather than rushing at the last minute as often happens with me!

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Antique Engravings, Magical Background, Envelope Pattern and Birthday Wishes.

For the top part of the background I applied broken china distress ink to white card, spritzed with water, stamped the Envelope Pattern using the same ink and white embossed with the Magical Background.

I white embossed the butterflies on vellum, added beads and paper pieced some scraps of vellum which had alcohol inks applied. I had been messing around with vellum and alcohol inks after seeing Sue’s wonderful video here. The sentiment was stamped using broken china distress ink (can you tell that’s my favourite one?!) and I just added some machine stitching and string to finish.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend:)

A Little Layering

2011-03-10T13:39:00.021Z

This week on the Hero Art Blog, Shari shared some amazing cards and a brilliant video showing her technique for making layered stamped backgrounds. I don’t usually do a lot of layering of stamps on my cards so I thought I’d give her technique a try.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Exotic Bloom, Earth Flowers and Envelope Pattern

To start with I dabbed faded jeans and broken china distress inks here and there on a large acrylic block, spritzed with lots of water and stamped on watercolour paper. Then I stamped this background with the Envelope Pattern using antique linen distress ink and white embossed the Earth Flowers. Unlike Shari, I didn't walk and wiggle (you'll have to watch Shari's video to see what I'm talking about!) but applied dusty concord distress ink on the Exotic Bloom image, spritzed with water, stamped once on scrap paper and then stamped on the panel. I applied dusty concord distress ink to a scrap of white card, spritzed with water and once dry punched out a butterfly, added Crackle Accents and some gems. Unfortunately my photo of the card isn't great, in real life it doesn’t look so dull and the Envelope Pattern looks more subtle because of the texture of the watercolour paper which isn’t being picked up in the photo.

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

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been fairly busy with a few things so have become the worst in the world for visiting blogs. Hopefully from today on that will change and I can’t wait to catch up on what I’ve missed out on:)

Crazy in two ways for paper piecing!

2011-03-06T13:13:00.045Z

Below is a birthday card I made for a quilting friend. I was going to put the birthday sentiment on the outside but with so much going on there as it was, I decided to put it inside instead. I’m submitting the card into the Play Date Cafe Challenge Colour Splash Week and the Moxie Fab World Paper Piecing Challenge. This month’s challenge at Hero Arts includes the theme of birthdays.

To start with I stamped the Envelope Pattern in white on red card. Then I stamped this and two pieces of white card with the sewing machine and paper pieced it – yikes those pieces were tiny but I love paper piecing anyway! On a piece of white patterned fabric I stamped the sentiment and hand stitched it with red thread. Then I just threaded up the pieced machine, added a gem and some machine stitching on the black background.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy, Classic Fabric Design, Large Canvas Stripes, Flourish Background, Magical Background & Envelope Pattern.

For the patterned background I white embossed pieces of black card with the Magical and Flourish Backgrounds and stamped the Classic Fabric Design and Large Canvas Stripe in black on white card. These were then cut into strips. I cut a square of white card into four triangles applied the strips, trimmed and put the square back together again. I think I can safely say this card takes the record for the most time I’ve ever spent making a card but I had great fun making it!

Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend!

Thanks Patricia, I'm tickled pink:)

2011-02-25T12:41:00.007Z

My very talented friend Patricia (aka Scrapflower on Flickr) surprised me this morning with a wonderful gift of this new banner for my blog and a super cute watermark for my photos. So as you can see I've gone all pink and girly on my blog! I absolutely love this new banner with the gorgeous flower, buttons and of course all the yummy stitching!! Now I'll have to work on getting the watermark onto my cards. Thank you so much again Patricia, you've made my day and also made my blog a lot prettier:)

This hardly ever happens but this is my second post for the day. A post about the Hero Hostesses Cooking Challenge is further down.

Hero Hostess Cooking Up Challenge

2011-02-25T07:07:00.035Z

The Hero Hostesses in the Hero Arts Flickr group are hosting a Cooking Up Challenge. Each of us has cooked one of our favourite recipes and is sharing a project inspired by our cooking. I baked a carrot cake and gluten free carrot cake buns. Both recipes are at the bottom of the post.

I love carrot cake and my hubby loves it too but since he was diagnosed as a coeliac a few years ago I usually make the gluten free version. Sometimes gf baked goods like scones and pastry can taste quite dry, but because carrot cake is moist the gf version is as nice as the one using ordinary flour. Normally I’d never put both of these on the same plate in case some gluten got on the gf version but just did so for the photo – it meant an extra bun for me too! If you’d like to take part in the challenge the details are here. I’ll be sending a prize out to a winner picked by a random drawing. The prize will include the cookbook in the photo, "101 Cupcakes and Small Bakes", plus some other small goodies that I'll get when I’m shopping over the weekend.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – What’s Cooking, Envelope Pattern, Scallop Borders and Raindrop Background.

When I'm cooking, I usually sling on an apron which is mainly black and has touches of hot pink and white, so that's what inspired my projects. The recipe card is in the form of a card so that it will stand up when I’m baking. On one side there is the ordinary recipe and on the other the gf recipe. I paper pieced the bowl and whisk, added Glossy Accents, the cute Hero Arts heart pearls and lots of faux stitching. I came across a wonderful tutorial on making corner bookmarks here and have made lots of different ones - it's a great way of using up scraps. The apron, bowl and whisk are paper pieced and I added Glossy Accents to the bowl. The scallops and sentiment are embossed in white. I just added lots of faux stitching and the pearl hearts to finish.

I'm submitting these project to the Paper Piecing Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients
140 ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
200 g dark brown sugar
300 g grated carrots
100 g sultanas
50 g chopped walnuts
180 g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp mixed spice
250g cream cheese
50 g butter
1 tsp lemon juice
275 g icing sugar
1. Beat the eggs then add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, sultanas and chopped nuts.
2. Sift the flour, spices and salt into the mixture. Mix well.
3. Pour the mixture into an oiled loaf tin and bake at 150C for approx 1 hour 5 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
4. After taking it out of the oven allow it to cool for about 5 mins before removing from the tin. Cool on a wire rack.
5. Icing: beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until well combined. Add the icing sugar and lemon juice. Mix until the icing is smooth and thick. Spread the icing over the cake.
********************************************************************************************************
Gluten Free Carrot Cake Buns

Ingredients
4oz dark brown sugar
6oz grated carrots
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ pint water
8oz gluten free self raising flour (I use Odlums Tritamyl)
6tbsp clear honey
6oz sultanas
3oz chopped walnuts
4oz margarine
2 eggs
7oz low fat cream cheese
1tsp lemon juice
1. In a saucepan mix together the sugar, carrots, spices, water, honey, sultanas, walnuts and margarine.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins. Pour into mixing bowl and leave to cool.
3. When the mixture is cold beat in the eggs and fold in the flour. Mix together well.
4. Put mixture into bun cases and bake at 180 C for approx 15 minutes (until the bun centres spring back up when lightly pressed).
5. Cool on wire rack.
6. Beat the cream cheese and lemon juice together and spread over tops of buns.
7. Top with a walnut.

A Valentine from Joy and blog awards

2011-02-22T21:20:00.052Z

This is the wonderful card which I received from the lovely and talented Joy though a Valentine swap organised by Anita in the Hero Arts Flickr group. I love Joy's gorgeous design and the beautiful colours she has used.

Her colouring is gorgeous and I love the sprinkling of pearls. Joy, thanks again for this beauty and for all the lovely goodies you sent along with it. Unfortunately the Valentine which I sent to Amy seems to have gone astray so I’ll be sending another card to her. I won’t post my first card here just yet in case it eventually turns up.

A little while ago I was delighted to be given blog awards by two very kind and talented ladies - Dawn and Rosemary.

This is the award from Dawn

To accept this award I need to do a few things:

1. Thank the person who gave it. Thank you so much Dawn for the award and lovely compliment!

2. Copy the award and put it on your blog.

3. List three things which you love about yourself (this is the hard bit!). I hope these will do!

a) I love that I’m lucky to have wonderful family and friends.
b) I love that I feel life has been kind to me and that I’m a very happy person.
c) I love that I’m always ready for a good laugh.

4. Post a picture that you love.

My favourite photos are of my kids and hubby but I’m not sure that they would want to be on my blog. So here’s a photo of the hairy guy in my life – Toby. This is from last summer when we dropped down to Kilkenny (love that city) for the day. Toby loves coming on day trips with us and I took this photo just after we finished a picnic in the grounds of Kilkenny Castle.

5.Pass this award to 5 people--in no particular order

Trinh - She is so creative, kind and is a great and fun friend.
Linda - Another great friend who is talented in many ways and is full of the joys of life.
Sue - A genuinely lovely friend who has the most amazing talent.
Sue - Another very talented lady whose cards I admire very much.
Lin - She’s so talented, kind and thoughtful. Love her style.

Now on to Rosemary's, award. Firstly Rosemary, thank you so much for this award and for your lovely words that went with it.

I have to pass the award on to 5 bloggers and tell you 5 things about me.

Libby – I always love visiting Libby's blog to see her wonderful cards, yummy recipes and her fun postings. She is so funny and I often end up giggling right the way through her posts.
Patricia – I love visiting Patricia’s blog for her fab and fun creations. I’m always amazed by her colouring skills – I need to take a trip to Spain for some lessons.
Maureen – A really lovely and talented lady who is so kind and encouraging.
Deirdre – She is such a talented and sweet lady and has been a great help tipping me off about where to shop for crafty supplies here in Ireland.
Virginia – A really lovely lady with a great sense of humour who has a wonderful blog covering her gorgeous creations, lovely family and yummy food.

Thanks to all you ladies, it's been great getting to know you and see your fab creations:)

So here are five things about me – be prepared for a snoozefest!

1. We have a dog called Toby as you can see above and a goldfish called Bubbles. My son Mark had his name drawn out in a raffle and could choose either a chocolate cake or a goldfish. He loves chocolate cake so much but Bubbles it was!
2. I used to always put brown sauce* on my dinners and bring a bottle of it on holidays. One time for a bet I ate some on chocolate cake – it actually tasted really good! Now I don’t eat it at all.
3. I met my hubby in work.
4. I’ve no head for heights.
5. Years ago I lived in Florida for a year. I can’t believe I actually missed our changeable Irish weather when I was there!

* I had a couple of questions about brown sauce - it's a kind of steak sauce made from malt vinegar, tomatoes, dates, tamarind extract, sweetener and spices.

Phew, sorry for the extra long post today!

Friendship Flowers

2011-02-19T11:28:00.021Z

I’ve been looking forward to playing with the new Flower Text stamp from Hero Arts. For my first time to ink it up I’ve used the striking colour combination from the Play Date Cafe Challenge #69, elements from the gorgeous CASE Study Challenge #27 card by Eva Dobilas and am also submitting it into the Moxie Fab World paper piecing challenge.

Stamps (Hero Arts) Flower Text & Friends Definition.

I embossed the Flower Text in white on black card, green patterned paper and red patterned paper (the paper was originally pink and I applied barn door distress ink to it). I don’t know what it is but I love cutting out little bits of paper or fabric and putting them back together again so I really enjoyed paper piecing the flowers and leaves here. The butterflies were punched out of a piece of white card which had been stamped with the Friend Definition. To finish I just added some buttons to the flowers and gems to the butterflies. The card was framed using an EK punch.

Hope you all have a great weekend! I’m off to do a mountain of ironing and will get back to enjoying the weekend after that!

An Imperfect Kiss

2011-02-17T11:41:00.029Z

As soon as I saw the photo above on Moxie Fab World I wanted to make a card inspired by this gorgeousTuesday Trigger. The elements that inspired me were the wonderful mix of blues and white, the distressed wood, the flowers, all the textures, the grid pattern on the couch and the square cushions. I also thought it looked like a comforting snuggle place so made a get well card and used vellum because of the light airy feel due to the sunlight and colours.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Poppy Background, Ancient Motif and Envelope Pattern

I wanted to try out the stamp kissing technique which is part of Hero Arts challenge this month. I have never tried this technique before and decided to start with the poppies and ancient motif images. I applied broken china distress ink to the poppy image and faded jeans distress ink to the ancient motif image. After a bit of kissing went on I stamped on white card. The first time I didn’t manage to kiss the images fully but did on the second attempt. In the end I decided to go with the first image as I liked the look of the imperfect kiss.

I added some beads to a couple of the flower centres and the sentiment is white embossed on vellum. Then I found a button with a little square pattern on it, added a yarn bow which had been coloured with broken china distress ink and one of my favourite Hero Arts embellishments – a pearl heart. The card base was white and I applied broken china distress ink and stamped the envelope pattern with the same ink. I don’t usually do a lot of distressing but went a bit distressing crazy on this card I think!

Butterfly Friends

2011-02-14T22:49:00.009Z

This is another card I made for this month’s challenge (love, friendship or stamp kissing technique) on the Hero Arts blog.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Fabulous Flourish, Scallop Borders, Tree Birds and Messages.

I clear embossed the Fabulous Flourish on kraft card. The butterflies were stamped on white card and coloured with ProMarkers. For the scallops I coloured some white card with the same green marker I had used on the butterflies and embossed the scallops in white. The sentiment is also embossed in white and I lightly inked the edges of the sentiment panel with white ink. Then I added some blue gems to finish.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Valentine's Day!

My Fuzzy Valentine

2011-02-10T11:29:00.007Z

I thought it might be fun to have a soft and fuzzy heart on a Valentine and the tutorial further down in the post explains how I made this faux chenille one.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Old Letter Writing & Tree Birds and Messages

For the top part of the panel I embossed the Old Letter Writing in white. I spotted a heart in a scrap of patterned paper (sorry it was only a scrap so I don’t have the name of it) and thought it would be nice for the bottom part of the panel. Then I added lots of buttons which had been recycled off old blouses\shirts. The buttons had been threaded with twine or white yarn (coloured with antique linen distress ink). Hopefully the yarn “x”s on some of the buttons look like little kiss signs! The sentiment is stamped with barn door distress ink.

I'm submitting the card into -

Double Dutch Challenge #61 - Love is in the Air.
Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #35 - Buttons
Fab'n'Funky Challenge #59 - Tempting Texture

So here’s a tutorial for the heart. Cut 5 assorted pieces of red\pink cotton fabric to the desired size.

Stack the fabrics and tack together (I skipped the tacking bit!) to prevent them shifting while sewing. Then stitch a diagonal line across the middle. I didn’t bother marking lines but you can do so if you wish.

Stitch lines 3/8 inch apart on the diagonal across the whole surface.

Cut through the top 4 layers in the middle of the channels between the stitching.

To fluff up the fabric you can either wash the panel or if you’re keen to go like me fray the raw edges by scraping along them with your fingernails.

Pin one of the heart templates by Shari Carroll from Hero Arts to the fabric and machine stitch around the heart with a very small stitch.

Cut the heart out by snipping as close as possible to the stitched outline without cutting through it.

I was able to cut out two large hearts and two small hearts from the panel I made. I’ve order this Hero Arts sentiment set and will probably use the other hearts with the “sending warm fuzzies” sentiment.

Hero Hostess Good Friends

2011-02-05T12:33:00.014Z

Over at the Hero Arts Flickr group all the new Hostesses have happily donned their new colourful aprons – Linda (purple), me (green), Anita (hot pink), Sharon (aqua) and Sally (pink).

Sarah came up with the brilliant idea of a colour combination challenge based on the apron colours. Here’s a quick card I made this morning to celebrate becoming a Hostess with these wonderful ladies. I'd love if we could all meet in real life as we did on this card, well just not on a tree branch!

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Clouds, Heart Owls, Tree Bird and Messages

I ran out of the smaller size googly eyes so my little owl has the same surprised and excited look as I did when I received Tami's email about becoming a hostess!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Wild Flowers and Butterflies

2011-02-03T11:12:00.023Z

This month the challenge on the Hero Arts blog is to make a card, page or project with the theme of love or friendship or else to use the stamp kissing technique. I love making cards for friends and it’s great to send a card to a friend without a particular occasion in mind.

Stamps (Hero Arts) Wild Flowers, Old Letter Writing & Tree Birds and Messages

To start with I applied faded jeans distress ink to white card and using the same ink stamped with the Old Letter Writing. For the main panel I applied shabby shutter, broken china and faded jeans distress inks to white card and spritzed with water. Then I embossed the Wild Flowers in white and added some gems.

To make the butterflies I embossed the Old Letter Writing in white on vellum, punched out four butterflies, layered and added gems. The sentiment is embossed in white.

I'm submitting the card into these challenges -

ABC Challenge - N is for Nesties.
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - In the roll of a die.
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Whateva!
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturday - A Punchy Challenge

Hero Hostess and Friends : )

2011-02-01T13:00:00.022Z

I still can’t quite believe this is happening, but I have just become a Hero Hostess!! I’m so excited and feel honoured to have been invited to be a Hostess by Hero Arts. I would like to say a big thanks to Hero Arts, my absolute favourite company (as you can probably tell from my blog!), for everything so far and for what promises to be a fun three months ahead.

Hero Arts is such a generous company and I love the fantastic quality and amazing range of their images\products. Nearly everything I’ve learned about card making has been through the artists on the Hero Arts blog and the members of the Hero Arts Flickr group. As well as learning and enjoying the fun aspects of the blog and group, one of the brilliant and unexpected benefits for me in joining the group has been the wonderful friends I’ve made within the group. I know a lot of other great friendships have also been formed because of the group. My good friend Linda donned her apron yesterday and I’m so happy we’ll be sharing this great adventure together. I can’t wait till you “meet” the rest of the hostesses during the week – you’ll love them!

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Scattered Leaves, Antique Engravings, Clouds Background, Big and Small Flowers, Music Background, Tree Birds and Messages

Tami from Hero Arts gave us the great theme of friendship to work with for our cards for the blog this week. The blocks on my card represent some of the wonderful friends I’ve made in the group and have had great chats and laughs with. A detailed description of how I made the card can be found here on the Hero Arts website, but here is a brief description. I applied various distress inks (Shabby Shutters, Mustard Seed, Broken China, Spiced Marmalade, Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans and Barn Door) to panels of white card and spritzed some with water. Using the same inks I stamped the images on each panel, the exception being where I used white ink for the Music Background. The sentiment was embossed in white and the completed panels were then machine stitched to the card base.

To make the flowers I stamped a piece of red fabric and a piece of yellow fabric with the small flower from the Big and Small Flowers set. Then I put together three layers - a piece of unstamped fabric on the bottom, wadding in the middle and on the top the piece of stamped fabric face up. Using a tiny stitch setting on my sewing machine, I stitched all the layers together by stitching the outlines of the petals. The smaller details were hand stitched and I sewed some beads to the centre. Then I cut out the flowers trimming close to the stitched edge without cutting through the stitches.

Cards from Trinh and a list.

2011-01-29T10:02:00.052Z

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything – I nearly had to wipe away the cobwebs to get into the blog! I’ve been busy with non stamping things and also have made cards I can’t show just yet for friends’ upcoming birthdays and Anita’s fun Valentine card exchange.

Today I’d love to show you two wonderful cards that my good friend Trinh, who I got to know through the Hero Arts Flickr group, sent me along with a brilliant array of stamping goodies. Thanks again Trinh! We both thought the package had gone astray in the post as it obviously decided to take a very scenic route and took all of 32 days to get from the U.S. to Ireland! It was well worth waiting for these beauties though.

First up is a gorgeous, gorgeous Christmas card.

I wish you could see it in real life to see the amazing all over shimmer.

The second one is just adorable and just my cup of tea. If you know me you’ll know I love my tea (more about that later) so I love this card with its beautiful design, colours and embellishing. Think I need to make a cup of tea now!

Speaking about the lovely and talented Trinh, during the week she gave me the two awards above. Thanks again Trinh for the awards! I’ve never made up one of these lists before but here goes.

1. I’m more of a morning person than a night owl.

2. When I was a child I wanted to be a window cleaner. I often used to see a window cleaner at our local shopping centre and I thought a bucket of soapy water and a squeegee would be the coolest things to play with for a job. Now cleaning the windows is one of the jobs I’m not really keen on about the house!

3. I love my tea. I always start the day with a cuppa and probably have 8\10 cups a day. It has to be weak with lots of milk so it sort of looks like hot milk with a slight tinge of colour.

4. Foods I don’t like – fish, Turkish delight, beetroot.

5. I have always loved travelling but after a few bad experiences on flights I hate flying. Living on an island I just have to try to get over it as much as I can.

6. My favourite city is Paris and favourite natural area would be a tie between Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. In Ireland my favourite city is Galway and natural area a tie between Wicklow and Kerry. Can you tell I prefer the countryside to cities?!

7. Some of my family call me Head, Heads or Headie.

8. I would spend more time in a craft shop or book shop than I would in a clothes shop.

9. I LOVE chocolate and love chocolate with nuts even more.

10. I started wearing glasses when I was 16. The thoughts of putting in contact lenses makes my eyes water and as for laser eye surgery – aaaagh!!

I’m supposed to pass these awards on to other bloggers. I would love any of you reading this to take these awards. Please let me know if you do - I'd love to read your list:)

Stitched Butterfly and Wild Flowers

2011-01-18T13:48:00.023Z

This card was inspired by Sally Traidman’s gorgeous fabric flowers on the cover of the 2011 Hero Arts catalogue plus some cute cards on page 16 of the catalogue.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Wild Flowers, Old Letter Writing & Messages.

The red card base has been stamped with the Old Letter Writing stamp using VersaMark. For the panel I frayed a piece of fabric, stamped the wild flowers image with a brown ink and added gems.

The butterfly is made up of three layers - two pieces of fabric with a piece of wadding sandwiched in the middle. I stamped the butterfly on the top piece of fabric and using a sewing machine stitched the outline and some of the details.

Then I trimmed the fabric close to the stitched edging. To finish the butterfly I just added some thread for the antennae and wooden beads on the body. The sentiment is white embossed and the ladybird was coloured with a marker and a layer of Glossy Accents applied for some sheen.

Best Wishes Mike

2011-01-16T14:56:00.024Z

During the Hero Arts blog hop last week it was mentioned that “This blog hop is in honor of our friend Mike, who is battling cancer. The world is simply brighter with Mike in it, and words can’t express our appreciation to Mike as a business partner and friend. The Hero Hostesses will be sending Mike and his family some of the cards shown during this week’s blog hop”.

Deborah gave details here for those who would like to send a card to Mike. This is a card I made for Mike who really sounds like a very special man indeed.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Designer Woodgrain, Birthday Messages & You're the Best.

I find masculine cards really hard to make and usually end up keeping them fairly simple and plain. To start with I applied shabby shutters and broken china distress inks to a piece of white card and spritzed with water. I stamped the dragonflies on this card and also used it for the bottom part of the background. For the top part of the background light brown card was clear embossed with the woodgrain stamp. To finish I white embossed words from two sentiments and added some machine stitching.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

Moonlight and Dragonflies

2011-01-10T10:28:00.020Z

This card was inspired by two gorgeous cards on page 11 of the 2011 Hero Arts catalogue.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Wild Flowers, Antique Engravings & Scallop Borders.

To start with I used a circle as a mask and applied distress inks (shabby shutters, broken china and faded jeans) to white card. After the mask was removed I stamped the Wild Flowers image twice and added some beautiful gems which Maureen and Sue had kindly sent me – thanks again girls! The dragonflies were stamped on glossy paper which had been covered with alcohol inks. I silver embossed the scallops on black card and framed the scene. Then I just finished off with a bit of machine stitching.

I'm submitting the card into these challenges:

Hero Arts - Inspired by the 2011 Catalogue & Card Insides.

Moving Along with the Time challenge - Ring out the old Ring in the New. Old stash (silver embossing powder & glossy paper) & new stash (gems from friends)

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 146 - Out with the Old. Old stash - silver embossing powder & glossy paper.

Double Dutch Challenge #59 - Make a Scene (using masking).

Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge - New and Blue (the gems)

Now I'm off to see if the Hero Arts blog hop has started!

Love You Hundreds and Thousands

2011-01-08T11:59:00.013Z

This month’s challenge on Hero Arts is to make a card inspired by the 2011 catalogue or do some masking or something special with the inside of the card. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve gone through the catalogue admiring the stamps and making up my wishlist!

For this card I was inspired by all the yummy cards on page 27 of the catalogue. Last year Lisa created a scrumptious looking donut card using real ingredients like chopped nuts and salt. So I thought it would be fun to add some colourful hundreds and thousands to my card.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Have a Donut & Ancient Motif

I used scraps for the coffee cup. A little piece of blue card for the sleeve and on the pink piece I had applied worn lipstick distress ink to the Ancient Motif stamp, spritzed with water and stamped on white card. Then I added some Glossy Accents to the “coffee” for some sheen.

I thought the colours in the hundreds and thousands might run if I used Glossy Accents to stick them on the card so I cut heart shapes out of sticky labels and stamped another label with the donut for the topping. Hundreds and thousands are as bad a glitter – I seem to have them everywhere now!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Women’s Christmas and Christmas cards from friends

2011-01-06T09:05:00.039Z

The 6th January, the feast of the Epiphany, is also known here in Ireland as “Nollaig na mBan” or Women’s Christmas. Traditionally on this day men are supposed to do the housework and cooking while women have a lovely relaxing time. Sounds great doesn’t it! The custom dates back to years ago when men never did any housework and were never expected to either. Well thankfully that all changed quite a while ago and most men do their fair share around the house so to be honest I don’t leave my hubby to do everything (nearly but not quite everything!) today.

Today is also the day everyone takes down their Christmas decorations and Christmas cards, so I suppose the men could have a bit of a busy time of it, lol! Even though it’s a bit after Christmas I just thought it would be a good day to show you the wonderful Christmas cards I was lucky to have received from friends I've met through the Hero Arts Flickr group. I’ve linked to their websites so you can see more of their wonderful creations.

Lai-Yoke

Sue

Maureen

Hannah

Isha

Thanks so much ladies for these wonderful cards which I’m going to bring to my part of the playroom now. So all through the year I’ll still have a little bit of Christmas to enjoy in my craft space!

Surrounded by Love

2011-01-03T15:35:00.019Z

As soon as I saw Lisa’s post on the Hero Arts blog this morning I wanted to make a card. Lisa created an adorable card inspired by her super cute card on page 74 of the catalogue. I love these cards and decided to use them to come up with an idea for my hubby’s Valentine.

Lucy is sharing a sketch and card every day this week on her blog so I decided to use her sketch from Day 2. I may have strayed a bit too far off the sketch though!

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Heart Owls, Designer Woodgrain, Buttons, Flourish Background, Tree Birds & Messages.

The card came together pretty quickly. Most of the pieces on the card were in my pile of scraps - I really have to use more of them! The owls were coloured with watercolour pencils and I perched them on a twig which came from an old Christmas decoration. I made the heart wreath using the cute little heart shaped button from the Buttons set. The buttons were covered with a layer of Glossy Accents and some yarn threaded through the buttonholes. Thanks to Sue for the brown twine I used for the loop on the wreath. One of the scraps I used for the background had been clear embossed with the woodgrain stamp. On the other one I had applied walnut stain distress ink to white card and stamped, spritzed and spattered with water.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T16:54:00.013Z

I just want to wish you all a very Happy New Year filled with.....

...love,

good health,

happiness

and lots of crafting time!

Floral Thank You

2010-12-30T10:16:00.016Z

After not making anything but Christmas cards for a while it feels a bit strange but great to be making other types of cards again!

I was lucky to have won a prize in a random draw on the Die Cut Divas group and Maureen was very generous and sent me lots of gorgeous goodies including the beautiful Good Thoughts stamp set. Thanks again Maureen!

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Good Thoughts & Dolls.

In the photo the white card has a pink tinge on it which it doesn't have in real life - I hope it's because of the foggy weather we've having here today and not that my camera is about to die!

I stamped the image twice on watercolour paper and coloured the flowers and leaves with watercolour pencils. Then I machine stitched the stems on the leaves and layered some of the flowers. To add some shine I applied a layer of Glossy Accents to all the petals and green leaves. Since I had the sewing machine out I decided to add lines of stitching in green, purple and pink to the background.

Most of the time as I’m making a card I chop and change things as I go along and this one was no exception. After adding the stitching I decided to emboss the background with my Cuttlebug swiss dots folder. I just hoped for the best that the embossing wouldn’t distort the stitching too much but it doesn’t seem to have moved it much at all.

Happy Christmas!

2010-12-24T10:00:00.015Z

I can’t believe it’s Christmas Eve already! I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and I hope you all have a wonderful time with your family and friends. Thank you so much for visiting the blog during the year and for your lovely encouraging words, I really appreciate them.

As you can see we’ll be enjoying a white Christmas this year. Poor Toby first the leather jacket now the woolly hat! I’m off now to do some more baking, wrapping, visiting and to have some fun in the snow.

Butterflies and Flowers

2010-12-22T16:09:00.063Z

I'm just posting photos of some cards I sent to friends which I didn't get around to putting on the blog before. I hadn't really thought about it until now but obviously I must love butterflies and flowers!

The Silhouette Grass is clear embossed on fabric and the butterflies are coloured with ProMarkers.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Silhouette Grass & Messages.

A distress ink background with white embossed vellum flower. I just added some glitter to a button and diamond stickles to the petals for some sparkle.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower & Tree, Bird and Messages.

The large flower again!
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower & Tree, Birds and Messages.

Vellum butterflies and the Fabulous Flourish is embossed in white on fabric.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Fabulous Flourish & Antique Engravings

As you can see I love the Antique Engravings set!
Stamps (Hero Arts)- Antique Engravings & Tree, Birds and Messages.

The Wild Flowers are white embossed on fabric and the butterfly coloured with Promarkers.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Wild Flowers & Tree, Birds and Messages.

I love using Crackle Accents!

Cards from Fika, Linda and Maureen

2010-12-21T16:53:00.027Z

Today I’d like to show you three fab cards I’ve been lucky to receive from three very lovely and talented ladies. It's been brilliant getting to know Fika, Linda and Maureen through the Hero Arts Flickr group and the Die Cut Divas Flickr group.

The first card I received is from Fika (juicyflavor on Flickr). It’s just such a fun and playful card packed with great details. Love the chick having fun skipping and what a perfect sentiment to go with it too!
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Flower Chick, Life is Not Perfect & Stripes Pattern

Linda (scrappinbari on Flickr) sent me this absolute beauty. I love the gorgeous combination of colours and stamps here. The shimmer from perfect pearls and the embossing looks even more beautiful in real life.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Fabulous Flourish, Music Background & Friends

Recently I was delighted to receive this gorgeous card from Maureen (mkmermaid on Flickr). I love the way she has combined the various images and patterns. The card is wonderfully sparkly with lots of glittery goodness.

Thanks again Fika, Linda and Maureen, I love your cards!

Frosty Flowers and Butterflies Wreath

2010-12-18T12:33:00.029Z

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Large Flower, Antique Engravings.

The idea for this wreath popped into my mind because of all the snowy\frosty weather we’ve had recently and Barb’s challenge to make a Christmas project using non traditional flowers. For Barb’s 90 minute challenge I used my all time favourite stamp, Large Flower by Hero Arts. Here is the card I made for that 90 minute scramble. I’ve used it again on this project as well as my second favourite stamp set from Hero Arts this year - Antique Engravings. It’s one of those stamp sets I reach for again and again.

To start with I cut a ring shape out of a cereal box and covered it with strips of white lining fabric. The flowers and butterflies were white embossed on vellum and I added some diamond stickles to them. I added blue glitter to red foil snowflakes and then added blue gems to the butterflies.

I'm submitting the wreath into these challenges -

Hero Arts Challenge - part of this month's challenge is to add shine to a project.

Moxie Fab World - Glitter is Glam Challenge.

Allsorts - Anything Goes

Top Tip Challenges - Christmas Inspired Challenge

Scrappy Frogs Challenge - Holiday Decor

This year is the first time I’ve ever seen our local canal freeze over and there is supposed to be more cold weather and snow on the way. It looks like we might have a white Christmas after all!

Craft Fair - part 3

2010-12-16T10:44:00.075Z

To start with today I’d like to show you the gorgeous work of three friends who came together to form Naas Handcrafters.

Ruth Teskey (Tel 087 2604946 avondalehandcrafts@gmail.com) created -

Beautiful crocheted hats.

and fab jewellery. I thought these necklaces were stunning in the beautiful colours Ruth had used and she actually crocheted the wire in making the necklaces.

Deirdre Mellon (087 1273122 naascrafts@gmail.com) created -

A beautiful soft scarf in such a yummy colour.

Wonderful crocheted and knitted bags which were felted.

Beautiful jewellery

Sharon Spendlove (Tel 086 6067726 spendlovesharon@gmail.com) created -

A gorgeous floral scarf

Lovely soft cosy scarves and cowls

Now it’s time to move on to some patchwork. I spent ages and ages looking at Mary McCann’s (Tel 086 2470285 marysquilting@gmail.com) fabulous quilts. Mary teaches patchwork and I’d say it would be wonderful to attend her classes.

Mary and her daughter Gina

Feast your eyes on these beauties

This is a log cabin quilt that Gina is working on at the moment. If you click to enlarge the picture you'll see that she has placed a little sheep at the centre of each block - so cute! I love her fabric choices with the mix of pine cones, little hens and bees.

I tried to get around to take photos of as many stands as I could but unfortunately didn't get photos of three of them - felting, bog oak and knitting. If anyone else has taken photo of these, I'll add them at a later stage. Of course I forgot to take photos of my own stand but sure you know the kind of things I make anyway! I had hoped to do some knitted pieces and some fabric ornaments but I just ran out of time. In the end I made cards, gift tags, corner bookmarks, gift boxes and packages of magic reindeer food (my best seller, lol!). If I get a chance I'll take photos of some of what's left but it mightn't be anytime soon - I've to try and catch up with getting my Christmas shopping done!

Craft Fair - part 2

2010-12-15T06:45:00.045Z

Next up from the craft fair is some feltmaking, candle making, knitting, crochet and photography.

A couple of years ago I attended a feltmaking workshop. It was really enjoyable but by the end of the week I felt as if my arms would fall off if I did anymore rolling to make felt! After seeing all the effort that goes into making felt I really admire Katrina Hughes’ (Tel 087 7473233 kathrinah@gmail.com) work. Not only is it totally stunning to look at but I can only imagine the amount of time it must have taken to make each piece. Katrina also holds workshops on feltmaking and here are some examples of her work.

A gorgeous brooch – it looks even more beautiful in real life.

Sometimes Katrina mixes silk fibres in with the wool and the beautiful sheen of these fibres look wonderful mixed with the wool. I love this collar – the flower is on the bottom piece and is fed up through an opening on the upper piece to hold the collar in place.

Gorgeous felted bags.

I absolutely love the fantastic texture and colours on this piece.

Sorry for the slightly blurry photo but I just had to show one of the felted flowers that Katrina had made for her Christmas lights and also the beautiful candles made by people of the Grangebeg Camphill Community.

Naas Knitting Group meet in the library every Wednesday. Anyone can join the group from the complete beginner to those who have been knitting for years and years. Eva Kavanagh (Tel 085 1314480 evakavanagh@gmail.com) started the group and she also runs knitting workshops. I’ve attended a couple of Eva’s class and as well as being a great teacher she also had us laughing throughout the class.

Here are some examples of the group’s work.

Mary and Eva modelling knitted and crocheted hats.

Another knitting group in Naas is Treasure Knitting Club http://www.facebook.com/treasureonline http://www.etsy.com/shop/treasureonline . Lianne, one of the members of the knitting group, brought along these examples of the gorgeous work being produced by members of the group.

These mug cosies are so cute!

Finally for today we have the very talented Byrne family - Jackie (Tel 087 9514757 edwardbyrne@eircom.net), her hubby Martin (Tel 087 2077582) and their daughter Becky (Tel 087 6667409 beckybyrne@eircom.net). Both Jackie and Becky create gorgeous fascinators and crochet. In addition Jackie knits and Martin and Becky are photographers. Here is a little taste of their work.

Tomorrow I'll post the rest of the photos from the fair including jewellery, patchwork and some more felting, crochet and knitting.