Hexagon Christmas Tree

I know, I know, here I go again, it's August and I have another post about Christmas! But Volume 8 of Holiday Cards and More, my favourite magazine, was published last week and I'm feeling all Christmassy and eager to make Christmas projects because of all the wonderful inspiration contained in the magazine.

I'm still pinching myself that I have three project in the magazine - a card, a gift tag and this home décor item

Stamps - Happy Hexagons (Papertrey Ink) & Very Merry Christmas (Hero Arts)
Die set - Geometric Shapes (Hero Arts)

A while ago my good friend Trinh surprised me with the gorgeous Happy Hexagons set from Papertrey Ink (thanks again, Trinh!) and this was the first project I made using them. Along with the hexagons I just used a couple of my favourite things (distress inks and stitching) to make this.

Mmm I wonder how many days do I have to wait before I can put up and decorate our Christmas tree!!

The Trendy Triangles Challenge

After three weeks without rain, we've probably had more than three weeks worth of rain in the past three days. It's another soggy day today, so I decided to get inky while the rain lashed down.

I've been eager to play along with Cath's Trendy Triangles Challenge over in the Moxie Fab World. Today I wanted to make a gift tag for a present for a friend and thought it would be an ideal opportunity to give the challenge a whirl.

My friend is a quilter and her present includes some fabric, so I made a mini quilt for the gift tag.


Stamp (Papertrey Ink) - Boutique Accessories Mini Stamp Set

I punched out lots of tiny squares from scraps, cut them into triangles and made the mini quilt measuring 1¾ inches square. The quilt is hanging on a Maya Road heart hanger - I couldn't resist buying a packet of these cuties! I hadn't bought any Papertrey Ink goodies before so I was delighted when my good friend Trinh kindly offered to order items for me awhile ago. I was like a kid on Christmas morning this week when I received my Papertrey Ink order - thanks again, Trinh:) For this tag I inked up one of the images from the Boutique Accessories Mini Stamp Set. Then I just added some ribbon and attached the quilt to the tag with foam pads.

Rainbow Quilt

Cath's Mixy-Matchy Style Challenge in the Moxie Fab World looked like a fun but also challenging challenge. I usually don't have much of a mix of patterns on my cards, but with six different patterns on this card really gave it a whirl this time!



Stamps - Happy Hexagons (Papertrey Ink) & It's Your Day (Hero Arts)

I love the pretty Happy Hexagons set my good friend Trinh sent me recently - thanks again, Trinh:) So I decided to make a "quilt" with a mix of patterned hexagons in a rainbow of colours. I used distress inks (barn door, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, tumbled glass and dusty concord) to stamp the hexagons, cut them out and adhered the hexagons to black card. I'm hoping the black base helps to tone down the mad mix of colours and patterns! As I had some hexagons left over, I added an edging to try to mimic prairie points sometimes found on quilts.

The rainbow colours are probably very appropriate at the moment. As you can see when I was taking the photo this morning the sun was streaming in the window. Now after a number of showers, one of which included hailstones, there are big dark clouds overhead again. With the mix of sunshine and showers over the past few days, I've already spotted a few rainbows this week. Oh the joys of an Irish summer:)

PaperPlay Challenge - Home

The challenge this week at PaperPlay Challenges is home. So I decided to use this image from Papertrey Ink's Boards and Beams set. I really love the look of these kind of houses but wouldn't like to think of all the work involved in the upkeep of all the wood in real life, so a stamped one will have to do me!

The image is coloured with watercolour pencils. For the background I cut a shape out of white card using the labels 8 set. To get a white outline, I flipped the shape over while still in the die and lightly sponged the area with distress inks (shabby shutters and broken china). The sentiment is embossed in white on vellum and I just added these little heart pearls from Hero Arts and a bead on the door.



Stamp:- Boards and Beams (Papertrey Ink) New House (Anita's)