Hugs and Kisses on St Patrick's Day

Well since it’s St Patrick’s Day and we haven't exactly had parade weather today here in Ireland, with more showers than sunny spells, I thought I’d grab some inky time and make a St Patrick’s Day card.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Four Hearts and Celebrate Everyday

To make the shamrock, I white embossed the hearts and applied shabby shutters and tumbled glass distress ink. Since St Patrick is reputed to have explained the Holy Trinity by using a shamrock, I thought I’d add a little chiffon ribbon cross to the card by layering two bows. I topped this with a gem blossom (thanks again, Linda!) and single gem. I'm submitting this card into the Simon Says Stamp A Bit o' Green Challenge and the Pile It On #11 Challenge - St. Patrick's Day and/or Shades of Green.

Hope you're having a wonderful St Patrick's Day and if you celebrate it wherever you are I’d love to hear what you get up to! I'll just finish up with some photos of my favourite places in Ireland.

Hero Hostesses Blog Hop

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

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


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



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


Inside card

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

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



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



Hero Arts Stamps:
Greetings CG414
Old Letter Writing S4878

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



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


Hero Arts Stamp – Four Hearts CG426

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

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

Fabric Heart Valentine

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


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

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