An Easter Card on Good Friday

I've used Simon Says Stamp's pretty Outline Floral Cross die on quite a few Communion and Confirmation cards, but for my first time I'm using it on an Easter card.

To start with I used distress inks and water spritzing to make a rainbow panel, or I should say three rainbow panels on different cardstocks with differing results. After that I die cut the cross and decided which background it looked best against. The cross was adhered to the panel with foam pads and I added a Hero Arts flower gem to finish. I matted the panel on white card and added it to the card base using foam pads.

Die - Outline Floral Cross (Simon Says Stamp) & Distress Inks (barn door, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, tumbled glass and dusty concord) - Tim Holtz Ranger

For the inside I stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts' Celebrate Everyday set, die cut it out and matted it on a piece die cut from one of the other rainbow panels.

Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts), Die - Labels 4 (Spellbinders) & Distress Inks (mowed lawn, tumbled glass and dusty concord) - Tim Holtz Ranger

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

Three Cards for St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day! Again this year it's a very different St Patrick's Day here without the usual parades and celebrations. But we'll certainly enjoy the day off work and school anyway and have our own fun at home.

Today I just have a few more St Patrick's Day cards that I made this year.

The first card came together really quickly using the flip it die. The shamrock, made from hearts, was my way of using up a background that I made using acrylic paints. I didn't like the background I had created with the paints but it looked better cut into smaller pieces. The same background was also used for the shamrock on my third card.

Dies - Scallop Edge Circle Die Flip It (The Stamps of Life) & Heart Die, Embossing Folder - Shamrocks (Darice)

For the second card I made a background of patterned scraps and layered the squares on foam pads for some dimension. The little shamrock was again make using a heart die.

Dies - Scallop Squares (M&C Boutique The Works), heart die, Sentiment Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

For the third card I have the shamrock, cut out from the acrylic paint background I mentioned previously, as my focal point on the embossed background. I added the cross cut out of gold mirror card to celebrate St Patrick.

Dies - Framelits Hearts (Sizzix), Crosses Two (Spellbinders), Labels 10 (Spellbinders), Embossing Folder - Shamrocks (Darice), Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

It's such a beautiful, sunny day here today so I'm finally going to get a chance to enjoy pottering around and tidying up and getting things ready in the garden. Hope you enjoy your day whatever you do!

Scrappy Shamrock

Recently I've been sorting out my paper scraps and what a job it's been! I don't know how I've managed to accumulate so many scraps but I'm going to try to use more and more of them in my cards before the scrap containers burst at the seams.

With so many scraps of green patterned paper on hand, I decided to use some of them on a card I sent to my aunt for St Patrick's Day.

Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts), Embossing Folder - Shamrocks (Darice), Dies - Fancy Tags (Spellbinders) & Framelits Hearts (Sizzix)

I stuck strips of patterned paper onto pieces of light cardstock and die cut three scrappy hearts. The hearts were put together to form a shamrock and I used some of the card left over after die cutting the hearts to make a stem.

The background was dry embossed and the sentiment stamped on a die cut tag.

Here we don't send each other St Patrick's Day cards, so I usually only make one every year for a friend who lives further afield. But because of visiting restrictions this year due to Covid, I made a few more to send, so I'll post those tomorrow given the day that's in it.

Happy Valentine's Day

It's been quite a while since I've blogged, but my good friend Linda told me about a fun challenge at the Die Cut Divas Challenge Blog. So I decided to join in.

This month's challenge is to make a fun fold card. I have to admit I think I've only ever made a couple of fun fold cards before, but after making one for the challenge, I think I'll be making lots of different kinds of fun fold cards from now on. So the card I made, using a z fold design, is a Valentine for my hubby.

Die - Renaissance Heart Fancy Die (Hero Arts), Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts) and Paper - Romantic Patterned Scrapbook Paper (Crelando)

I have a few different heart dies in my stash but one of my favourites is a Hero Arts die called Renaissance Heart Fancy Die. For this card I die cut the heart from silver glitter card and backed it with a light pink pearlescent card.

The z fold base was so quick and easy to make by just scoring the front of the card down the centre and folding it back on itself.

I used paper from a paper pad I found in Lidl over a year ago to cover the card front and inside. I left the centre panel blank so I could write my message on it. The sentiment was heat embossed using Versamark and silver embossing powder.

I thought the sweet little sparkly birds were so cute. There's lots more sparkle on the card but we've had cloudy day after cloudy day here since I've made the card, so I didn't capture it very well in the photos.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! My good friend Linda sent me lots of die cuts and stamped images from Hero Arts' super cute March kit - thanks again, Linda:) I had lots of fun using some of them to make an Easter card for Linda.

I started by adhering the die cut drills and fence to the card base. The sentiment was stamped using mowed lawn distress ink. I used Promarkers to colour the bunny and carrots and added them to the scene.

Supplies - My Monthy Hero March 2017 kit & Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

As this bunny is no ordinary bunny, he is also cultivating some glittery Easter eggs in his garden:)

I'm off now to enjoy my Easter eggs and bunny, including a beautiful dyed egg given to me by a sweet lady in my neighbourhood who hails from Romania and a delicious locally made Lily O'Brien's egg. Hope you have a wonderful Easter!

Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day from the Emerald Isle! I'm just popping in to post a card I sent to my good friend Linda for St Patrick's Day.

Last year Linda sent me some gorgeous shamrock die cuts so I wanted to use one on my card for her. I applied ink to a cream shamrock, added some lovely shimmery clear Wink of Stella and finished the shamrock off with a green gem.



Then I die cut a couple of flourishes from gold glitter card using a die from the beautiful Celtic Flourish set by Docrafts. The sentiment was stamped using the same ink I'd applied to the shamrock.

Dies - Fancy Shamrock (Impression Obsession) and Celtic Flourish (Docrafts)
Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

I'm submitting the card into Simon Says Stamp's Bit O' Green challenge.

Have a look here to see the fabulous St Patrick's Day card I received from Linda. Thanks again, Linda :) :)

St Patrick's Day is a public holiday here so no work or school for us today. We're hoping to spend a fair bit of our long weekend surrounded by green, including visiting one of our favourite places - Glendalough.

Hope you have a fun and relaxing weekend :)

Two Card Makeovers and a Little Recycling

Hero Arts' fun Makeover Challenge gives us a chance to makeover old projects. I definitely have plenty that could do with changes but picked two butterfly cards for makeovers today.

The first card I picked is this one.

I wanted to make a butterfly in the same colours using the same inlay technique but changed the background and used less enamel hexagons. For the background I light applied distress inks (broken china, tumbled glass & shabby shutters) onto white card. Then I inked the background stamp with shabby shutters distress ink, spritzed with water and stamped on the panel. After stamping the sentiment I added one little enamel hexagon to finish.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Tropical Background & Fantastic Birthday
Dies - Butterfly (Hero Arts) & Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

Next in line for a makeover was this card.

With this one I wanted to reverse the colours and add even more sparkle to the butterfly. I inked up the background stamp by dragging Hero Arts' mint julep to emerald green ombré ink pad across and down it. Then I stamped the image on a panel of white card and applied peacock feathers distress ink. Once the panel was dry, I embossed the sentiment.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Tropical Background & Celebrate Everyday
Dies - Butterfly (Hero Arts) & Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

Next it was time to do a bit of recycling to make the sparkly butterfly. I die cut the butterfly from a piece of white glitter card I had saved from a Christmas card. The butterfly was backed with glittered tulle taken from a mini bag I had received a pressie in. After adding a few gems to the butterfly's body, it was adhered to the card with foam pads and I added some sequins to finish.

Have you seen Hero Arts' new website? It looks wonderful, has a fantastic ideas area filled with inspiration and of course there are so many tempting goodies in the shop. I couldn't resist ordering lots of new stamps and dies the other day and thanks to Hero Arts' super speedy service they are already winging their way to me - can't wait!

Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day! I'm just popping in to post a quick St Patrick's Day card that I made this morning - talk about leaving it till the last minute!

Every St Patrick's Day I seem to make cards focusing on shamrocks, but this year I was thinking of some friends who just loved seeing lots of sheep when they were on holidays here in Ireland.

Moll's Gap, Co Kerry

I remember in particular one friend from Germany who got us to stop the car for photos nearly every time we came across sheep in the Wicklow Mountains. Needless to say there were a lot of stops that day! Of course I couldn't resist adding a little shamrock (made from mini punched hearts) to the card too:)



Stamps (Hero Arts) Missing You & Celebrate Everyday

Now it's back to the festivities for me:) Hope you have a fun St Patrick's Day!

Ardmore Beach, Co Waterford

Killarney, Co Kerry

Cliffs of Moher, Co Clare

Cliffs of Moher, Co Clare

Scrap Busting for a Valentine

Happy New Year, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great one but it went by way too quickly.

This year I hope to do as much scrap busting as possible. I have folders full of patterned scraps, plain scraps and distress ink or experimental scraps left over from other projects and hope to reduce the pile considerably by the end of the year. So I pulled out some of my distress ink scraps in rainbow colours to make this card.

Distress inks - barn door, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, salty ocean and dusty concord

Last week I got Hero Arts Renaissance Heart die and couldn't wait to make something with it! So I die cut the heart in black and then in rainbow colours, added a large sticky label behind it and after trimming used the inlay technique to complete the heart.

Dies - Renaissance Heart (Hero Arts), Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)
Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

The stitched background was die cut using the rectangle from Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes and the sentiment is from Hero Arts Celebrate Everyday set. The card is for my hubby so in order to keep it as masculine looking as possible resisted all temptations to add sequins, gems, or any other bits!

As I used something new in my crafty stash I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp's Something New Challenge and a2zscrapbooking's New to You Challenge. I'm also submitting it into The Die Cut Divas Anything Goes Challenge.

Love Tangle

I thought that the antlers on the cute little moose from the Missing You set were calling out for something to be tangled on them. Hopefully for some of my Christmas cards I'll dangle Christmas lights on them, but for the moment the moose is tangled in love.

Today I ended up making two cards, a mini one which is 3 inches square and a normal sized one. They are basically the same card but there's a little difference in the hearts.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Missing You & Celebrate Everyday

To start I stamped the moose and then the sentiments. The moose were coloured with ProMarkers and to make the images/sentiments pop a bit more I went over the outlines with a fine tipped felt pen.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Missing You & Celebrate Everyday

Then I stamped the hearts and added some hand stitching using embroidery thread. To finish I added glossy accents to the eyes and on one heart a bit of colour and some diamond stickles.

I'm submitting these cards into Hero Arts One Layer Challenge and A Blog Named Hero One Layer Challenge.

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

Wreath of Thanks

Between busy times at work and being sick, unfortunately I haven't had a chance to get inky in three weeks. So I was delighted this morning to finally get back into the swing of things and get up to my eyes in ink and paper!

I love Cath's gorgeous Tuesday Trigger photo over at the Moxie Fab World and am definitely one of those people who is enthralled with fall. I do love to see the first green shoots in spring, but for me nothing can beat the splendid display of colours that nature puts on for us in autumn.

My card was inspired by a number of elements from the photo - the gorgeous leaves, the wood in the background and the circular shape of the container.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Scattering Leaves & Celebrate Everyday

To start with I stamped the leaves using Hero Arts shadow inks (pale tomato, butter bar & orange soda), cut them out and then applied distress inks (barn door, spiced marmalade & mustard seed ) to the edges. I embossed the woodgrain background and embossed the sentiment in gold. To finish I just add a few gems.



I'm also submitting this card into The Die Cut Divas Autumn and Animals Challenge.

It’s a bank holiday weekend here so we’ll get to enjoy an extra day off as well as the extra hour in bed we had this morning with the clock going back. Hope you have a great weekend too!

Moxie Fabber and Thanks

Moxie Fab World is one of my favourite places to visit and I can't tell you how surprised and delighted I was when I received a lovely email from Cath inviting me to be a Moxie Fabber of the Week! I would definitely never think of myself as being moxie fab so it was amazing to have been paid that compliment - thanks a million, Cath! If you'd like to see the post, you can find it here.

I have a few thank you cards to make and want to make a variety of cards using the gorgeous Hero Arts butterfly die. Today I only had a chance to make one card, but I suppose it's a start anyway!



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Celebrate Everyday
Die (Hero Arts) - Butterfly

For the background I sanded an embossed panel my friend Linda had sent (thanks again, Linda:)) and added some stitching around the edges. The sentiment is a Happy Thanksgiving one, but I love the font, so often partially ink it to use on thank you cards.



I was trying to mimic the light, papery look of a butterfly's wings so backed the die cut butterfly with a wrinkle ribbon from May Arts. A little baker's twine bow and heart gem completed the butterfly.

Thanks so much for visiting:)

Happy Mother's Day Gift Box with Brooch

This year in Ireland we celebrated Mother's Day on 10th March, but to all those who are celebrating the day today - Happy Mother's Day!

I was delighted to have had a project picked up for the May/June issue of Paper Crafts Magazine. I haven't seen the digital version of the magazine yet, but I think it must be in there somewhere.



As you can see from the cover, part of the magazine is dedicated to ideas for Mother's Day. So to wrap up a gift for mom, I made a gift box with a detachable brooch.


Stamp (Hero Arts) - Celebrate Everyday

The box was made in no time using my Silhouette Cameo and this design. Then I added some ribbon to attach a brooch onto and a sentiment from Hero Arts' Celebrate Everyday set, a set which covers so many special occasions during the year.



The brooch was made using some felt and dahlia Nestabilities. My good friend Linda sent me a fabulous set of rhinestones, one of which I used for the centre of the brooch - thanks again Linda:)

Hope you are having a great weekend!