Happy St Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day! It's funny even though I'm Irish, I never made a St Patrick's Day card until I joined the Hero Arts Group over on Flickr.

As I don't have stamps of rainbows, crocks of gold, leprechauns etc., I inevitably end up making a card with a shamrock formed from hearts. This year I used one of my older Hero Arts stamps (Ancient Motif) as the pattern reminds me of carvings and floor tiles in some of the old monasteries and churches here in Ireland.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Ancient Motif & Celebrate Everyday

The embossing folder I used for the background is an Xcut one by Docrafts called Swirls. Once the panel was embossed, I stamped the sentiment in mowed lawn distress ink.

Next it was on to making the shamrock. I stamped the Ancient Motif image using mowed lawn distress ink, die cut the hearts and also cut out a stem for the shamrock. Then I lightly applied some more of the same ink to my pieces.

After curling up the hearts at the edges, I stuck them to the card with foam pads. A little green heart gem was added to finish. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp's Lucky Challenge and the Die Cut Divas' Let's Emboss It Challenge.

After a very wet and windy winter, it finally feels like spring has sprung. We've mainly had lovely weather this week with temperatures even reaching the dizzying heights of 15C (59F);) It's great to see buds beginning to form on the trees and, of course, I just love the burst of sunshine that the daffodils have brought to the garden.

I can't wait for the last of the nighttime frosts to be finished with so we can plant some annuals out in the garden.

Toby recently had a hair cut and all his curls have disappeared - he looks like a little puppy again!

Anyway with it being St Patrick's Day and a bank holiday here, we're all off work/school and looking forward to a fun day ahead. Here's a photo of Toby ready to celebrate the day!

Hope you have a fun St Patrick's Day wherever you are:)

Carving possibly of St Patrick in the Cathedral at the Rock of Cashel

An Imperfect Kiss

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!

Love You Hundreds and Thousands

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!

The Honeymoon Continues....

I had so much fun making the raccoons’ honeymoon card the other day that I just couldn’t resist making another one!

Today the happy couple are enjoying a bowl of pasta in another well known city. I decided to borrow an idea from Walt Disney’s “The Lady and the Tramp” where Lady and Tramp start eating opposite ends of a single strand of spaghetti until they meet in the middle. The “spaghetti” started off as white yarn and I coloured it with antique linen distress ink. The ink must have been a little damp when I threaded the yarn so by accident the raccoons ended up with sauce stains around their mouths! I liked it so just left it.

The Honeymoon Continues...., originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps (Hero Arts):- Woodland Creatures, Woodgrain Circle, What’s Cooking, Ancient Motif, Heart Owls.

I used the Ancient Motif stamp for the floor (antique linen distress ink) and the tiles surrounding the scene (clear embossed). Last year Vanessa sent me a gorgeous range of papers as a blog candy prize and I used a piece of one of the papers for the wall in the restaurant. I used the woodgrain circle stamp for the skirting board and window frame. For the sky I applied broken china and faded jeans distress inks to white card and spritzed with water. The racoons and bowl are coloured with watercolour pencils and I added Glossy Accents to the bowl. A scrap of fabric was used for the tablecloth.

The card is for the July challenge at Hero Arts.

I'm so glad it's Friday. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Large Flower with a Sprinkle of Stardust

This morning I wanted to make a card for a friend who loves flowers and lots of sparkle. So I decided to use my favourite stamp (Large Flower by Hero Arts) for the flower.

Large Flower with a Sprinkle of Stardust, originally uploaded by heather maria.

I embossed it in white on vellum and used an embossing pen and stardust embossing powder to add some sparkle to parts of the petals. The flower is layered three times and I added some beads to the centre. For the background I clear embossed Ancient Motif (Hero Arts) on blue card. Then I mounted squares of this on to white card and did some piercing around the edges with my sewing machine. The card is a lot more sparkly in real life, but as usual I can't seem to catch all the sparkle in the photos!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower, Ancient Motif and Messages