Autumn Birthday

I wanted to make a card and wrap a gift for a friend using autumn colours and some natural elements.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Antique Engravings, Maple Leaf & It’s a Day for a Cupcake.

To make the wrapping paper and background for the card, I stamped the butterflies on a piece of parcel paper and kraft card, using walnut stain distress ink. I used a variety of distress inks (spiced marmalade, mustard seed, rusty hinge and barn door) on the leaves.



The maple leaf image was inked up and lightly spritzed with water before stamping. Then I cut out the leaves and applied some more ink as needed. Walnut stain was used again to stamp the sentiment on the card. To finish I just added raffia, wooden buttons and some twigs from the garden.



I’m submitting the card into the Focal Point Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, and the projects into the Paper Crafts September Gallery Challenge and the current Hero Arts Challenge (Fall Feast).

Autumn Leaves

I can certainly feel a change in the weather here, with a bit of a nip in the air in the mornings and evenings and suddenly the evenings seem to be closing in a lot earlier. Even so, I love autumn and for my card below included some of the colours we’ll get to enjoy on the trees over the next little while.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Maple Leaf & Birthday Messages

I remember as a kid having so much fun jumping into big piles of leaves in autumn and to this day I still love the rustling sound of leaves as I go on walks at this time of the year. So I thought I’d make my own little pile/path of fallen leaves on this card. To start with I inked pieces of scrap card with various distress inks (spiced marmalade, rusty hinge, mustard seed, tea dye, forest moss, barn door and walnut stain – not only do I love distress inks, I love their names too!). Then I applied the same inks to the leaf stamp and lightly spritzed with water before stamping. After cutting out the leaves I adhered them to a panel which I then trimmed. The sentiment is embossed and I just added some gems to finish.

I’m submitting this card into the Repetition Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, as I used the same leaf stamp for each of the leaves, and the current Hero Arts Challenge – Fall Feast.

Happy fingers, happy feet and a chance to win a trip to Ireland

My fingers are orange and green but, as always, I've had great fun playing with distress inks!

I made this card for the Focal Point Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, Paper Crafts September 2012 Gallery Challenge (natural elements) and the current Hero Arts Challenge (fall feast).



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Earth Flowers, Blossom Art, Designer Woodgrain & Everyday Sayings

On the card base I stamped the woodgrain using antique linen distress. Then I die cut a piece of fabric and stamped the Earth Flowers with tea dye distress ink. The flower and leaves were white embossed and I applied distress inks (spiced marmalade and forest moss). To add some more natural elements I added some raffia and a wooden button.

So you've heard about the happy fingers and now on to the happy feet with some photos from a recent hike in Glendalough. We started the walk from the far side of the lake you can see way down in the valley. You can probably tell from the photo our walking boots have enjoyed quite a few rambles!

On some parts of the trail these railway sleepers have been put down, mainly to protect the mountains but they also provide a good grip on what can sometimes be slippery slopes.

Wish I could capture in photos just how beautiful it is in the mountains,

especially on gorgeous sunny days.

The heather is in full bloom.

But it looks like we were a bit late to try the sweet, juicy fraughans (bilberries) that can be found there.

Coming down through the forest we can across foxgloves. A bee was hovering around them but in each photo I took he had disappeared into the flowers or ended up blurry.

Here we are back down at the lake again and up to the left is where we had been.

I just thought I'd mention a place where I came across a chance to win a trip to Ireland next year from the US. A year long event called The Gathering celebrating Ireland and all things Irish is being held next year. It sounds like it's going to be a brilliant fun filled year. Anyway on The Gathering's Facebook page there is a chance to win the holiday here. Good luck!:)

Shades of Autumn

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:)

September CCC Cards

I love taking part in Deborah’s Card Chain Challenge and because of this month's challenge I received a wonderful card from Kelly in the U.S. and sent Corey, also in the U.S., a card. Deborah is currently taking names for her October Card Chain Challenge (wonderful choice of colours, template and themes) so if you’d like to take part, you can put your name down here to join in the fun!


Stamp (Hero Arts) - Flower Chick

Above is the fantastic card I was lucky enough to have received from the super talented Kelly, along with some lovely goodies - thanks again Kelly! I love the design, vibrant colours and of course the wonderfully coloured chick with Kelly's signature flower in the chick's hair.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Silhouette Grass, Outline Flowers, Scattered Leaves & Messages

The card above is the one I made for Corey. I had read somewhere that she likes chocolate brown so I used brown for the card base and followed Deborah’s colour palette (loosely!) and friendship theme. The Grass Silhouette is embossed in white and I decided to use one of the flowers from the Outline Flower background. I love this stamp but haven't used it recently so thought it was time to ink it up again.



I stamped the flower three times, coloured with watercolour pencils, layered and added dots of diamond stickles to the stamens. The leaves are stamped using a couple of chalk inks and the butterflies are punched from a scrap of card, left over from another project, which had been sponged with spiced marmalade distress inks.

I'm submitting the card into Hero Arts Everything Autumn challenge. I'm really going to have to think about getting a Pro account on Flickr - big difference between photos uploaded from Flickr and straight from the computer! I've had a mad, busy week this week so hopefully I'll do some catching up on blogs and everything over the weekend!

Swirling Autumn Leaves

The starting point for this card was when I saw the Offset Scallop Gallop Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. I really liked the idea of using offset scallops on a card and wanted to use an autumn theme for Jenny’s "Fall into Autumn"challenge and Hero Arts’ “Everything Autumn” challenge.


Stamps (Hero Arts) Scattered Leaves, Flourish Background, Scallop Borders and Messages.

I embossed the Flourish Background in white on a piece of fabric from an upholstery fabric sample book. The leaves are clear embossed on scraps of upholstery fabric. Because the embossing is all over the leaves they didn’t fray when I cut them. Even if they did fray I wouldn’t mind because it would give that tattered autumn look. I clear embossed some pieces of card with a scallop from the Scallop Borders set and layered them. To finish I just added some gems and machine stitching.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

PaperPlay Challenge – Autumn is a Comin’

Julie set the challenge on PaperPlay this week and it is to use an autumnal colour scheme on your card\project. I love all the glorious colours of autumn so I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Simon Says Stamp is kindly sponsoring this week's challenge and the lucky winner will receive $15 to spend in the store. There are so many wonderful goodies to choose from here.



Stamps used (Hero Arts) – Antique Engravings, Scattered Leaves & Flourish Background

I used distress inks (worn lipstick & spiced marmalade) for the sky and stamped the wheat using two brown chalk inks. The dragonflies are stamped on acetate and I added copper stickles to the wings for some sparkle.



I stamped the leaves with shabby shutters distress ink and an orange chalk ink. Then I raided the garden shed for the raffia and snipped some berries off a wreath I have around a candle. For a bit of sheen I covered the berries with glossy accents. I clear embossed the Flourish Background on the cream card and added machine stitching using a dull gold thread.



I’m submitting the card into the current Hero Arts challenge – Everything Autumn.