Magnetic Bookmark and a Ramble

I'm off work this week and as luck would have it the weather is fabulous - warm, lots of sunshine and light breezes.

After lunch I couldn't help but play along again with the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World.



My good friend Trinh recently sent me the gorgeous magnetic bookmark below. She has a great tutorial here on making these type of bookmarks with some more fab examples.



I loved the idea so much that I had to have a go at making one.


Stamp (Hero Arts) - Let the Angels Sing

I found a cute little bird and the musical notes in a Hero Arts Christmas set and added a little twig from the garden so it would all tie in with the Trigger photo. The patterned paper is from Pebbles and the base of the bookmark is a lump of heavy card from a box which would have ended up being recycled.



I'm also submitting this project into the Die Cut Divas Anything But A Card Challenge.

I'm making the most of my week off so at the start of the day I went walking with Toby. We followed one of the Slí na Sláinte walks, it's about three miles long and takes a circular route out by our local canal. It's so peaceful there and most of the time all you can hear is the sound of birds chirping and chattering. I took some photos as we went along so if you'd like to ramble virtually with us here they are:

This is the first bridge we cross on the walk. There must be some wild garlic growing near here as there was quite a strong smell of garlic wafting around in the air at this point.



I haven't a clue what this wildflower is called but it looks so pretty all along by the banks of the canal. It reminds me a little bit of baby's breath, well whatever it is I love the delicate look of it.



There were lots of other pretty wildflowers along the way like these beauties





Finally a wildflower I know! I remember when we were kids holding buttercups under each others chins about an inch away from the skin to do the "butter test". Seemingly if you could see a tinge of yellow on the skin that meant you liked butter!



The hawthorn trees are in full bloom too.


There will be lots of berries this year!



With his black coat, Toby really feels the heat when we're walking on sunny days so a bottle of water and cup always ends up in the rucksack for this walk.



Then we came across these cuties who couldn't quite reach the long grass outside their paddock, so of course I had to stop and hand them bunches of grass to munch on.





Thanks for joining me on my little ramble:)

A Gift Card Hidden in the Snow

The current Hero Arts challenge includes a pocket card category, so I thought I’d make a little card for a gift token I’m giving at Christmas.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Snowy House, Magical Background, Friendly Flags and Very Merry Christmas.

For the front of the card I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card and using the same ink, stamped it with the magical background. The ground was embossed with snowflakes and some stickles added for a bit of sparkle. I coloured the house with a ProMarker and watercolour pencil, layer it and added stickles for yet more sparkle – lol went a bit sparkle mad on this card! I loved the way Kelly Rasmussen used one of the flags from the Friendly Flag set for Christmas trees on this gorgeous pocket card. So I decided to use a flag with a scallop pattern for my tree here. I layered the tree to add some dimension and added some pink gems and a star to finish. The sentiment is embossed in white.


The inside of the card was made in the same way as the outside, except instead of sticking down the snowdrifts I just attached them to the card on three sides using machine stitching.


My little fella is hoping for it to be as snowy here as on the card on Christmas Eve\Day to make it easier for Santa to get here. Although we've had flurries of snow and a cold snap over the last little while, it's supposed to get warmer during the week. Do you think you will have snow in your neck of the woods for Santa next week??

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.

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:)