Splatter on the Double

Well I just knew I was going to have great fun with the Spatter Technique Challenge in the Moxie Fab World!

I remember when we were kids, my sister, my brother and I used to love making splatter pictures. Truth be told, most of the paint probably ended up the table, floor and even ourselves rather than our “artwork”! So doing some splattering yesterday evening brought me right back to when we used to do splattering with paint and stamping with cut out potatoes (didn’t realise I’d get so hooked on stamping at a later stage!). Another favourite was splashing melted candle wax on paper, painting over it and then peeling the wax off. We even dropped splashes of wax on our hands so we’d have monster hands – how we didn’t burn the house down I’ll never know!


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Antique Engravings & Birthday Messages

Anyway after some splattering I ended up with two cards. For the first one I wanted to make a butterfly trail splattered with paint and sprinkled with gems and pearls. So I masked part of the panel and got splattering. The butterfly is embossed on vellum and I just added some gems to it too.


Stamps – Skater Ian (Greeting Farm Stamps) & Clouds (Hero Arts)

For the second card I attempted to make a wall with graffiti, but I soon realised I’d never make a graffiti artist, so my wall turned into part of a skateboard park! I coloured the image with ProMarkers and stamped the clouds with broken china distress ink. Since I had to give up on the graffiti idea I used QuigleyWiggly font from Word for the sentiment.

I’m also submitting the butterfly card into the current Hero Arts challenge. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend:)

Fabric Flowers for Friends

I love making fabric flowers and over the weekend spent time making them for some friends. Instead of just putting the flowers in an envelope, I make a holder for them and also a little card with a tiny fabric flower to match.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Be Happy, Clouds Background, Antique Engravings & Sew Artsy

A tutorial for the fabric flowers can be found here. I applied tumbled glass distress ink to the Clouds Background, lightly spritzed with water and stamped on white card.



The butterflies were stamped on scraps of white card which had barn door distress ink applied. I used some patterned paper for the grass\leaves and a little piece of baker’s twine for the flower stem.


Just to show the size of the tiny flower on the card.

I'm submitting these projects into the Fabric\Felt Challenge at Lily Pad Cards, Creative Card Crew's Hand Made Flowers Challenge, Paper Creations Ink's Show Us Your Flowers Challenge and also the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Happy Birthday Honey

I love the cute little bees from the Be Happy set and decided to use them on my hubby’s birthday card this year.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Be Happy, Clouds, Magical Background, Birthday Messages, Envelope Pattern & Heart Owls

The clouds are stamped with tumbled glass distress ink which had been lightly spritzed with water. All of the hills and the sun came from pieces in my scrap mountain. I coloured the little bees with a ProMarker and colouring pencil. To finish I just added a little diamond stickles to the bees’ wings and Glossy Accents to all the hearts. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the red background is stamped with the Magical Background using VersaMark.

A quick post today, but right now I have a slice of birthday cake calling me!

Congrats on Passing Driving Test

This is a card to congratulate someone on passing their driving test. Here in Ireland learner drivers must have L plates (a red “L” on a square white background) on their cars until they pass their driving test. I’ll never forget how delighted I was years ago when I passed my test and could tear up my L plates! So I wanted to incorporate something about getting rid of L plates on the sentiment.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Going, Clouds, Flourish Background, Type and Small Variety Alphabet.

Using VersaMark, I stamped the Background Flourish on the brown card base. I wanted a bit of texture behind the car so stamped the Clouds Background on a scrap of felt using faded jeans distress ink. A scrap of frayed upholstery fabric was used for the ground.


The car was stamped twice on paper from the Hello Luscious Paper Pad (thanks again, Sharon). The body of the car is layered and covered with a layer of glossy accents.

ATC swap with Marijke

When I was making ATCs for the current Hero Arts challenge, I thought it would be fun if a group of us got together to do an ATC swap. So that’s exactly what a bunch of us did in the Hero Arts Flickr Group. With the random draw it turned out that my ATC swap buddy was Marijke in the Netherlands.

It’s been great getting to know Marijke a bit better through the swap and I was delighted that she was as keen as me to swap quite a few ATCs! We decided to swap six and wanted to surprise each other with our ATCs so didn’t mention a particular theme or stamps. I sent two ATCs I had already made this month – the owls from here and the bees from here.

For the other four I tried to incorporate a bit of both of us and what we like into them. Marijke loves flowers and nature and with her being from the Netherlands I had to include some orange (reminds me of when I see the Dutch football team on tv!). For me I included some of my favourite things – fabric, vellum and patchwork. The typewriter with the Friend Definition background represents all the emails we've sent each other for the swap. Marijke has received her ATCs so here they are:


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Clouds & Big And Small Flowers
The clouds are stamped with tumbled glass distress ink. I paper pieced the leaves\stem and made the fabric flower. Sally kindly sent me the baker's twine I used on the button - thanks again Sally!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy
Using patterned paper I made a little strip quilt pattern for the background. I coloured the sewing machine with watercolour pencils and covered with a layer of Glossy Accents.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Happy Wishes & Old Letter Writing
I applied broken china, faded jeans and shabby shutters distress inks to white card and spritzed lightly with water. Then I white embossed the Happy Wishes image and added touches of diamond stickles here and there. The butterfly was punched from a piece of vellum which had been white embossed with the Old Letter Writing.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Type, Friend Definition & Small Variety Alphabet.
The typewriter was embossed using red embossing powder and the background was clear embossed. I used some letters from the alphabet set to create the message and just added a pearl heart to finish.

If you are still awake after this loooong post, well done!! Hope you all are having a fab weekend!

Rainbow of ATCs

Part of the May challenge on the Hero Arts blog is to make ATCs. I haven’t made ATCs in a while and had forgotten how fun it is to make them. Another bonus to making ATCs is all the scraps I get to use up!

I wanted to make an ATC for each colour of the rainbow so just picked the first stamp that came to mind when I thought of each colour. All stamps mentioned are by Hero Arts.



The Poppy Background was embossed in red and I added some beads to the flower centre.


I applied spiced marmalade distress ink to white card and stamped the Exotic Bloom in black. Then I just added punched butterflies.


I clear embossed the Clouds Background on yellow card. The bees were embossed in black and I coloured them with a yellow ProMarker and added diamond stickles to the wings. Trinh, thanks again for the black & white baker's twine:)


For the background I applied shabby shutters distress ink to white card, using the same ink stamped with the Envelope Pattern and embossed. Froggy was stamped on patterned paper and coloured in places with a ProMarker. To finish I added some leaves and green & white baker's twine (thanks again, Linda!).



On this one I clear embossed the Friend Definition on blue card for the background. The sewing machine was stamped on gingham patterned paper and I just added some thread and a fabric scrap to finish.


I applied some worn lipstick distress ink to white card, clear embossed the Magical Background and then applied dusty concord and faded jeans distress inks. The butterfly from the Antiques Engravings set was embossed in white and some purple pearls (thanks again, Sharon!) added to the centre.


Now I better go catch up on what I should have done yesterday instead of making these!

Thanks a Million Hero Arts and a Ramble

Today is my last day as a Hero Arts Hostess and this is a card I made to say thanks a million for the fantastic and fun time I’ve had over the past three months!

Hero Arts is the most amazing and generous company and I'm so happy that I came across them shortly after I started stamping - I have been a huge fan ever since! So for me it was an honour and an absolute pleasure to be a Hostess.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Clouds, What’s Cooking, Just a Note Bird and Dolls

I applied faded jeans distress ink to the Clouds stamp, spritzed well with water and stamped on watercolour paper. I added an extra branch to the branch image as I wanted to cover up a seam in my sky! The little flowers each represent my sister hosti and friends – Linda, Sharon, Anita and Sally. I white embossed the apron on some pp and pieced the hearts.

I must have had flowers and blue skies in my mind from yesterday. We spent the whole day in Glendalough and enjoyed sunny weather, the company of good friends, a lovely picnic and a ramble – a great way to spend the day.

Some of the views along the route we took - my photos never do justice to the amazing scenery.








A herd of wild goats.


Some of the pretty wildflowers we came across






The ferns starting to unfurl.


On the way to the monastic settlement.


St Kevin’s Church or St Kevin's Kitchen


Glendalough Round Tower which stands 30m high.


Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Card, Treat Holder and Jelly Beans

I’ve wanted to make a couple of projects for the past few days and was delighted to finally get a bit of time to make them today.


The first one is a card I made for Kathy's Colour Throw Down at Lily Pad Cards. I didn’t have the exact colours for the challenge but used colours as close as possible to them. I used a sketch from the current Hero Arts challenge and because of the masculine theme in the challenge went for a card for a little (or maybe not so little!) guy.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Clouds, Going, Envelope Pattern, Magical Background, Be Happy and Birthday Messages.

To start with I applied broken china distress ink to the Clouds Background, spritzed liberally with water and stamped on white card. I coloured the car with Promarkers and applied a layer of Glossy Accents for some sheen. For the sun I applied spiced marmalade distress ink to white card and stamped with the Envelope Pattern using the same ink. On the bottom strip of the card I applied shabby shutters distress ink to white card and stamped the Magical Background using the same ink. The sentiment is embossed.

I made a treat container to go with the card and am submitting it into the Food Wrap Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.




Stamps (Hero Arts) – Clouds, Going, Envelope Pattern & Be Happy.

The cloud background, sun and car were all made in the same way as on the card above. I just added a little peep hole for the jelly beans. Both my kids said they preferred the treat container to the card but I’m wondering if that had anything to do with the jelly beans they had as a result of me making the container!

Birthday Owl

Stamps (Hero Arts)- Clouds, Tree Trunk, Heart Owls, Be Happy, Birthday Messages, Envelope Pattern & Adorable Baby Girl

For a while I’ve been intending to quilt a cloudy sky using the Clouds background stamp and finally got around to it. I stamped white fabric (which has a white pattern) with faded jeans distress ink, placed it on 2 layers of wadding & 1 layer of backing fabric and machine stitched around the clouds. A piece of green paper was stamped with the Envelope Pattern and the grass from the Be Happy set. I paper pieced the leaves and owl, who has a slightly startled expression due to my lack of smaller googly eyes!



I have a couple of busy days ahead and hopefully after that my computer problems will be finally sorted out and I’ll be able to go visiting blogs again - I'm having withdrawal symptoms:(

WELCOME LILLY! - Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop for Paula and Lilly!

Little Lilly aka “Bug” was very excited about meeting her mum, dad and big sis. So she decided to arrive a little bit early and was born on Friday 4th June weighing 7 lbs and 13 1/2 oz. I’d like to send big congratulations and best wishes again to mum Paula, dad Doug and big sis Em! There’s nothing like having a new baby in the house, exhausting at times I know, but just wonderful too!



Back in April, Deborah and Hannah hatched and organised a plan for us to send cards to Paula once “Bug” had arrived. Paula’s friend Helen was also involved in the planning and we all sent cards to her to pass on to Paula. Deborah also put a lot of work into organising today's hop. Oh Paula, the things that have been going on behind your back!


Stamps (Hero Arts):- Adorable Baby Girl & Precious Baby Boy

As Paula is a moderator at the Die Cut Divas group on Flickr, I decided to go a little bit Cuttlebug crazy on both cards and of course being me I just had to put a bit of gingham fabric on the first card!


Stamps (Hero Arts):- You’re the Best, Clouds & Birthday Messages (used back of balloon stamp)

Well Paula as you already have your little cutie Em, I probably don’t have any tips to pass on to you that you don’t know already. But here’s something we used to do when our kids were babies. At the weekend my hubby and I would have a morning each. So whoever was “on duty” would get up when our baby woke (usually very early!) and let the other do what they wanted until 11am/12 noon. It could be sleep (often!), breakfast in bed, go for a walk, read a book, meet a friend etc. Having those few hours was just brilliant for recharging the batteries.

Killarney, Co Kerry, Ireland

Just to finish here are some words of wisdom I’ve come across:-

No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behaviour, and I'm not talking about the kids. Bill Cosby

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out. Erma Bombeck

Be nice to your children, for they will choose your retirement home. Phyllis Diller

Hopefully you will have arrived here from Hannah’s blog in the US and now it's time to hop from Ireland over to Indonesia and Fika’s blog. If you think you have missed any stops on your travels or if there have been broken links in any of the blogs you can go back to Deborah’s blog where you will find the full list of links.

Again, welcome Lilly and congrats to Paula, Doug and Em! Thanks everyone for visiting and hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

PaperPlay Challenge - Sandie's Sketch

This week the challenge at PaperPlay is to make a card using this great sketch designed by Sandie.



The prize this week has kindly been sponsored by Meljen’s Designs.

I made a new home card using one of Meljen’s Designs' adorable digital images called Garden Bird House. Now this is the kind of birdhouse I’d love to have in my garden, little love birds and vines included!



Stamps:- Meljen’s Designs (Garden Bird House), Hero Arts (Flourish Background & Clouds)

I coloured the image with pencils, added glossy accents to the ladybird, gems to the flowers, a heart pearl to "HOME" and touches of diamond stickles here and there. The “tweet home” is a Word font – Comic Sans MS. The Flourish Background is embossed in white on the white background.



I printed off the Garden Bird House image in a few different sizes and for my first attempt at making a little mini book used one on the cover. Instructions on Japanese bookbinding can be found in Lisa's video here on the Hero Arts blog. It’s fun making these little mini books and hopefully next time I won’t have to keep starting and stopping the video as I go along!


Stamp:- Meljen’s Designs (Garden Bird House)


I'm using the book to house information on our home. It contains\will contain information on each room (floor size, window size, amount and colours of paints used etc) so instead of having to measure up and estimate quantities any time we decorate, the info will always be there in this book.

I’m sure you’ll have fun with Sandie’s sketch and am looking forward to seeing your creations!

I Donut Know.....

It's probably because it's Lisa's week on the Hero Arts blog but I seem to be in the mood for making fun cards at the moment. Yesterday I saw Lisa’s adorable French cupcake card again on her blog and had another laugh. So I decided to make another card using Mon’s cute templates.

I Donut Know....., originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps (Hero Arts):- Have a Donut, Clouds & Write Your Message.

I just coloured the donuts, added the moustache and berets, some stickles to the white sprinkles and googly eyes. The rest of the sentiment “what I would do without you” is on the inside of the card along with "mon amour".

At last, a blue sky!!



After a few days of endless rain I was delighted to get up this morning and see this. We've been listening to the music drifting over from Oxegen for the last couple of days and feeling so sorry for the soggy festival goers. At least it looks like they will get a good day today. I think Eminem is one of the acts playing tonight, so the music will be more than drifting over to us, if his last concert here is anything to go by!