Celebrate with Style and Crafting Ireland

When I saw all the fun challenges for Card Creations Week over at the Moxie Fab World, I thought I'd try to make a card for each of the five categories, but with the deadline looming tonight, it looks like I'm only going to manage to squeeze a card into three of the challenges!



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy, Classic Fabric Background and Birthday Messages

So for this card I went with the Damask and Brocade Challenge. I white embossed the background with the Classic Fabric Background. Then I had some fun making a dress for the dress form using some ribbon, beads and gems. I just added some more ribbon and a big gem to finish.

Recently Nicole Mullen of Crafting Ireland asked if I'd do an interview and pick some of my favourite cards for a feature in the free online magazine. Yikes it was hard to pick favourites and when I was looking back through my cards, I wondered what on earth I was thinking when I made some of them. Yes, the good, the bad and the ugly are all there in my Flickr photostreams and blog! Anyway if you'd like to see some of my favourites, you'll find them in Crafting Ireland Issue 10.



The magazine is brilliant as it's packed full of great tutorials, articles and tips. Also I've realised through reading it how many crafty shops I didn't know existed here - looks like I'll have to plan some more shopping trips!

Love and Laughter Card with Brooch

I love making fabric brooches and as I have been making quite a few recently decided to make one as an embellishment for this card.

I made the flower brooch using various size circles of a couple of different fabrics and some gems.



For the background I stamped some kraft card with white ink. The ink looked very bubbly on the stamp (don’t know if it’s going off or something!) but I liked the textured look it gave when I stamped it, so just left it as it was. I used some of my scraps for the scallop piece. The sentiment is from a gorgeous Christmas set (thanks again Linda!) and I just didn't ink the Christmassy part of it.

I’m submitting this card into the DIY Embellishments Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, the Lily Pad Cards Flower Challenge and the current Hero Arts Challenge.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Classic Fabric Design & Very Merry Christmas (sentiment)

We have had the most glorious weather this weekend and so have spent more time in the garden then my stampy space. Hope the weather is good wherever you are!

Hanging Out on the Lily Pad

I was absolutely delighted when I received an invitation from Deborah and Vicky asking me to be a guest designer over at Lily Pad Cards. I said yes straight away as I love Lily Pad Cards!! There are always fun challenges going on over there and the blog is full of inspirational and fun posts. Lol, my Sunday morning wouldn’t be complete without taking a break to watch Vicky’s latest video with my cuppa and maybe a bickie (edited. Lin, bickie is slang for what we call a biscuit here but you'd call it a cookie) in hand!

So here is one of the cards I made for today using a few of my favourite stamps.



If you’d like to see two more of my cards and the supply list\instructions for the above card, hop over to the Lily Pad where you will find them.

Thanks again Deborah and Vicky for having me over at the Lily Pad, I had a splashing great time there!

Thanks with Kanzashi Flowers

Recently I came across this great video on how to make kanzashi flowers. I'd never heard of these before, but thought I'd give them a go.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Classic Fabric Design, Antique Engravings, Scattered Leaves and Messages.

The petals of the larger flower start off as 2 inch squares and these are folded over a few times. On the smaller flowers the squares are only one inch, so they proved to be a bit more fiddly, especially with slippy fabric!



To start with I clear embossed the Classic Fabric Design on white card and applied shabby shutters and forest moss distress inks. The flowers are made from shot silk and I added some pearls to the centres from an old necklace. The butterfly was stamped with a brown chalk ink and I just added some pearls and thread to finish.

I'm submitting the card into a few challenges:

Lily Pad Cards - Fabric\Felt Challenge
Hero Arts - August Challenge
Creative Card Crew - Hand Made Flowers Challenge
Paper Creations Ink - Show Us Your Flowers

A Big, Big Thank You:)

Below is a card I made for today’s Hero Arts Social Club. Linda, Anita, Sharon, Sally and I were delighted when Tami from Hero Arts asked us to be on the Social Club today and we decided on a theme of thanks. I have so much to be grateful for and have enjoyed every minute of being a Hostess with the talented and fun hostis - Linda, Anita, Sharon and Sally. I’m just sorry that our time as Hostesses has whizzed by so quickly.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Many Petals, Classic Fabric Design, Blossom Art and Dolls.

Thanks to Hero Arts for their wonderful stamps, amazing generosity, inspiring blog and, of course, for the brilliant Hero Arts Flickr group. I am inspired on a daily basis by everyone in the group and never imagined when I joined how much fun I would have and the good friends I would make there. I can’t thank Tami and Libby from Hero Arts enough for all they have done for us over the last three months, they have been absolutely brilliant! If you aren’t already in the Hero Arts Flickr group, I’d encourage you to join right away!



To start with I applied broken china distress ink to the Fabric Background, spritzed well with water and stamped on watercolour paper. Then using white embossing powder I embossed the leaves and flower. I applied broken china and shabby shutters distress inks to the leaves. On the bottom layer of the flower I applied worn lipstick distress ink and spritzed lightly with water. Worn lipstick distress ink was also applied to the upper layer of the flower and I added a selection of beads to the centre. For the sentiment piece I applied worn lipstick distress to white card, spritzed with water and embossed the sentiment in white.

Fresh Inspiration Friday Challenge - Inspiration Off the Wall

Today on the Hero Arts blog there is a Fresh Inspiration Friday Challenge. Inspired by gorgeous pictures in her house, Anita picked the colour combination for the challenge.


Tami from Hero Arts and Hero Hostesses Anita, Linda, Sharon, Sally and I made cards using this yummy colour combination. Links to all of our cards can be found at this post here on the Hero Arts website. The post also includes full details of the challenge - I hope you’ll join in on the fun!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Classic Fabric Design, Envelope Pattern, Exotic Bloom & It’s a Day for a Cupcake

To start with I applied broken china and faded jeans distress inks to the Classic Fabric Background, spritzed well with water and stamped on watercolour paper. Then I used broken china distress ink and the Envelope Pattern to stamp another layer. On the main panel I used the same inks on the Exotic Bloom stamp and this time lightly spritzed with water. The sentiment which was stamped using a chalk ink is from a cute set that Linda sent me last year – thanks again Linda! I just added some twine and a gem to finish.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! It looks like we're going to have another beautiful sunny weekend here so I'm really looking forward to that:)

Crazy in two ways for paper piecing!

Below is a birthday card I made for a quilting friend. I was going to put the birthday sentiment on the outside but with so much going on there as it was, I decided to put it inside instead. I’m submitting the card into the Play Date Cafe Challenge Colour Splash Week and the Moxie Fab World Paper Piecing Challenge. This month’s challenge at Hero Arts includes the theme of birthdays.


To start with I stamped the Envelope Pattern in white on red card. Then I stamped this and two pieces of white card with the sewing machine and paper pieced it – yikes those pieces were tiny but I love paper piecing anyway! On a piece of white patterned fabric I stamped the sentiment and hand stitched it with red thread. Then I just threaded up the pieced machine, added a gem and some machine stitching on the black background.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy, Classic Fabric Design, Large Canvas Stripes, Flourish Background, Magical Background & Envelope Pattern.

For the patterned background I white embossed pieces of black card with the Magical and Flourish Backgrounds and stamped the Classic Fabric Design and Large Canvas Stripe in black on white card. These were then cut into strips. I cut a square of white card into four triangles applied the strips, trimmed and put the square back together again. I think I can safely say this card takes the record for the most time I’ve ever spent making a card but I had great fun making it!



Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend!