The Blues

One of my favourite techniques is resist, so when I saw Lily Pad Cards' Resist Challenge, I just couldn't resist making a card.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Exotic Bloom, Starburst Lace & Messages.

I used the sketch from the Square Sketch Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.



To start with I embossed the Exotic Bloom in white on white card and applied a few of my favourite distress inks - tumbled glass, broken china & faded jeans. The butterfly was punched out of a scrap left over from another project (vellum white embossed with Starburst Lace). I also used the resist technique on the sentiment and added a few gems to the card to finish.

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

Bucket and Pillow of Shells

It’s been ages since I posted, but now I’m back from holidays and feeling on track again after a bad cold. I wanted to cover two themes in Hero Arts’ July challenge (summertime and parties), the Fanatical About Botanical Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the Simon Says Stamp and Show Anything Goes Challenge.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Magical Background & Messages

For my kids the ideal summer would include a trip to the beach every day, so when I think of summer, I think of making sandcastles, gathering shells and traisping through the rough grass in the sand dunes. So with this in mind I made these treat containers, which might be suitable for a summer party, and included bits and pieces that I associate with the beach. Then I filled them with chocolate shells - one of my favourites!



For the sand bucket, I covered a coffee cup with sand patterned paper. The handle was made with florists wire and pearls from a cheap necklace. I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card and using the same ink stamped it with the Magical Background. I added a strip of this, some May Arts ribbon, raffia and a stamped shell to the bucket.



For the pillow box I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card, stamped with the magical background using the same ink and die cut a window when the pillow shape was cut out. To finish I just added the shell and raffia.

Now I'm off to have some shells and a cuppa!

Batik Summer Butterflies

This month part of the Hero Arts challenge is summertime, so I decided to go with summery colours and butterflies for this card.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Butterfly Wallpaper, Antique Engravings & Messages

I love the gorgeous Butterfly Wallpaper stamp that Linda kindly sent me – thanks again, Linda! I wanted to try the batik technique I had seen Tami Hartley and Lisa Spangler use on their gorgeous cards here and here. Firstly I embossed the image in white on white card and then applied tumbled glass, broken china and faded jeans distress inks. Then I covered the embossed image with a piece of vellum (usually a piece of copy paper is used) and ironed it. By ironing the image, the embossing is transferred onto the vellum and the original piece of card has a batik look.



Using the vellum was just a little experiment - I had my fingers crossed it wouldn’t melt or get stuck to the embossed image! Well it worked and now I have a piece of vellum with the butterflies image on it which I’ll be able to use on another project. The big butterfly was coloured with a ProMarker and I just added some pearls and black thread to finish. The sentiment was stamped with tumbled glass distress ink.

Card with Flower ATC

This is a card I made for the current Hero Arts challenge (Fabulous Flowers, ATCs or using colouring pencils) and this week’s Play Date Cafe Challenge.



Since I'm sending this card to a dear friend, I'm also submitting this card into Lisa Spangler's Mate-It+Mail-It Challenge #2.


I’m trying to make more cards using colour combinations that I wouldn’t normally use. The PDCC colours this week certainly fit the bill! I had to go rummaging around in my supplies to find some grey card and the nearest I had to lime green was shabby shutters distress ink.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Blossom, Messages & Envelope Pattern

The flower panel is the size of an ATC. For the background I clear embossed the Large Blossom stamp on some grey card. I coloured the flower, petals and stem with barn door and shabby shutters distress inks. The card base was also stamped with barn door distress ink using the Envelope Pattern.

Thanks Patricia & Same Stamp Challenge

Firstly, I'd like to say a great big thanks again to my friend Patricia for the wonderful new banner she sent me. She knows I love owls and this banner is so adorable and perfect for my blog!

Over at the Hero Arts Flick group we have a “use the same stamp” challenge going on. Linda, Anita, Sharon, Sally and I decided it would be fun for us all to make cards using the same stamp. We all love the Antiques Engravings set and decided to go with stamps from that set. We haven’t seen each other’s cards so each day this week we’ll get to see one of the cards. Linda started off yesterday with this gorgeous card here and it’s my turn to post today. You don’t need to have the Antique Engravings set to join in on the challenge - you can team up with someone who has a stamp in common with you. If you’d like to join in on the fun, full details are here.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Magical Background, Earth Flowers, Messages and Old Letter Writing

My card is (loosely!) based on one of the sketches for this month’s challenge at Hero Arts – the butterfly just fluttered away a little bit! For the bottom part of the background I applied faded jeans distress to white card and white embossed the Magical Background. On the upper part of the background the Earth Flowers were stamped using VersaMark. I had a scrap of card (white card with antique linen distress ink applied to it and stamped with Old Letter Writing) left over from another project and used this for the butterfly and sentiment. The sentiment is stamped using faded jeans distress ink. I love this pretty lace ribbon from Hero Arts and ended up using two strips of it on the card. The paper flowers have been in my flower drawer for ages so I’m glad to have finally found a home for them!

Stitched Butterfly and Wild Flowers

This card was inspired by Sally Traidman’s gorgeous fabric flowers on the cover of the 2011 Hero Arts catalogue plus some cute cards on page 16 of the catalogue.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Wild Flowers, Old Letter Writing & Messages.

The red card base has been stamped with the Old Letter Writing stamp using VersaMark. For the panel I frayed a piece of fabric, stamped the wild flowers image with a brown ink and added gems.

The butterfly is made up of three layers - two pieces of fabric with a piece of wadding sandwiched in the middle. I stamped the butterfly on the top piece of fabric and using a sewing machine stitched the outline and some of the details.



Then I trimmed the fabric close to the stitched edging. To finish the butterfly I just added some thread for the antennae and wooden beads on the body. The sentiment is white embossed and the ladybird was coloured with a marker and a layer of Glossy Accents applied for some sheen.

Butterflies and Flowers

I'm just posting photos of some cards I sent to friends which I didn't get around to putting on the blog before. I hadn't really thought about it until now but obviously I must love butterflies and flowers!

The Silhouette Grass is clear embossed on fabric and the butterflies are coloured with ProMarkers.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Silhouette Grass & Messages.


A distress ink background with white embossed vellum flower. I just added some glitter to a button and diamond stickles to the petals for some sparkle.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower & Tree, Bird and Messages.


The large flower again!
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower & Tree, Birds and Messages.


Vellum butterflies and the Fabulous Flourish is embossed in white on fabric.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Fabulous Flourish & Antique Engravings


As you can see I love the Antique Engravings set!
Stamps (Hero Arts)- Antique Engravings & Tree, Birds and Messages.


The Wild Flowers are white embossed on fabric and the butterfly coloured with Promarkers.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Wild Flowers & Tree, Birds and Messages.


I love using Crackle Accents!

90 Minute Scramble and giveaway winners

Tami from Hero Arts has organised a series of speedy card making challenges over at the HA Flickr group.

I had missed a few of these challenges but on Thursday finally got to take part in the great challenge hosted by Karen (froggietalks on Flickr). Karen's challenge was to use kraft, red and black on a card and the card had to be made and uploaded to the group in 90 minutes. The saying "more haste, less speed" is so true and I fumbled with everything - please don't look too closely at my wonky cutting! The card took about 30 minutes to make and it took nearly as long again to get an awful photograph outside at dusk (yuck colours inside from energy saving light bulbs). So I took this photo of it during the day.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Silhouette Grass & Messages

I hadn't got kraft card so ended up using some kraft coloured fabric. I clear embossed it with the Grass Silhouette stamp and cut it with the Labels 8 die. The butterflies are coloured with Promarkers and I added beads to the bodies and thread for the antennae.

These 90 minute scrambles are so much fun to take part in. So far two more have been organised, one on 23rd October and another one on 6th November. Full details are here . I'd highly recommend taking part in them!

Now on to the winners of the little giveaways. Thank you all for taking part and for your lovely comments. I really wish I had something to send to everyone. I picked the winners the old fashioned way by drawing the names out of a hat.

So this is going to to Linda (scrappin.bari)



and this is going to Dawn



Linda and Dawn, I hope you'll enjoy these and I'll email you for your addresses.

September CCC Cards

I love taking part in Deborah’s Card Chain Challenge and because of this month's challenge I received a wonderful card from Kelly in the U.S. and sent Corey, also in the U.S., a card. Deborah is currently taking names for her October Card Chain Challenge (wonderful choice of colours, template and themes) so if you’d like to take part, you can put your name down here to join in the fun!


Stamp (Hero Arts) - Flower Chick

Above is the fantastic card I was lucky enough to have received from the super talented Kelly, along with some lovely goodies - thanks again Kelly! I love the design, vibrant colours and of course the wonderfully coloured chick with Kelly's signature flower in the chick's hair.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Silhouette Grass, Outline Flowers, Scattered Leaves & Messages

The card above is the one I made for Corey. I had read somewhere that she likes chocolate brown so I used brown for the card base and followed Deborah’s colour palette (loosely!) and friendship theme. The Grass Silhouette is embossed in white and I decided to use one of the flowers from the Outline Flower background. I love this stamp but haven't used it recently so thought it was time to ink it up again.



I stamped the flower three times, coloured with watercolour pencils, layered and added dots of diamond stickles to the stamens. The leaves are stamped using a couple of chalk inks and the butterflies are punched from a scrap of card, left over from another project, which had been sponged with spiced marmalade distress inks.

I'm submitting the card into Hero Arts Everything Autumn challenge. I'm really going to have to think about getting a Pro account on Flickr - big difference between photos uploaded from Flickr and straight from the computer! I've had a mad, busy week this week so hopefully I'll do some catching up on blogs and everything over the weekend!

Swirling Autumn Leaves

The starting point for this card was when I saw the Offset Scallop Gallop Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. I really liked the idea of using offset scallops on a card and wanted to use an autumn theme for Jenny’s "Fall into Autumn"challenge and Hero Arts’ “Everything Autumn” challenge.


Stamps (Hero Arts) Scattered Leaves, Flourish Background, Scallop Borders and Messages.

I embossed the Flourish Background in white on a piece of fabric from an upholstery fabric sample book. The leaves are clear embossed on scraps of upholstery fabric. Because the embossing is all over the leaves they didn’t fray when I cut them. Even if they did fray I wouldn’t mind because it would give that tattered autumn look. I clear embossed some pieces of card with a scallop from the Scallop Borders set and layered them. To finish I just added some gems and machine stitching.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Crackled Butterflies

I just love the yummy, refreshing colour combination for this week's challenge at The Play Date Cafe.



So I decided to make a card using them which would also fit with the Hero Arts Keeping in Touch and Back to School challenge.


originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps used (Hero Arts):- Antique Engravings, Wild Flowers & Messages

I stamped the Wild Flowers on a scrap of speckled fabric (linen I think) with shabby shutters and broken china distress inks. The butterflies are coloured with Promarkers and I had to try out a recent purchase on them – Ranger Crackle Accents.



Nothing will be safe from me crackling it now – I was the same with Glossy Accents! I added some thread for the butterflies’ antennae, gems on some of the flowers and a bit of machine stitching. The patterned paper, Heart and Home (Melissa Frances - Amanda), was bought about a year ago and I'm only getting around to using it now.

Hope you are all having a brilliant weekend!

PaperPlay Challenge – Pink It Up.

The challenge on PaperPlay this week is “Pink It Up”. So it’s time for you all to have fun and go crazy with pink!

Bunny Zoe’s Crafts is kindly sponsoring this week’s challenge and I know the lucky winner will have a great time shopping here.

I love using pink, white and black together and decided to “pink up” my card with the background, gems, flower and beads.

Vellum Starburst, originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps used (Hero Arts):- Starburst Lace, Scallop Borders, Lace Background & Messages.

I clear embossed the pink background with the Lace Background stamp and white embossed the Starburst Lace and scallops on vellum. To add another layer to the Starburst, I embossed the flower centre of the Starburst Lace again on vellum, snipped towards the centre and curled the petals a bit. Sue (Stampersuzz) sent me lots of gorgeous goodies recently, including a beautiful ribbon of velvet flowers so I snipped off one of the flowers and added a pearl to the centre. Thanks again Sue! To finish I added pink gems and a sprinkling of beads with a pinkish tinge.



I’m submitting the card into Jenny’s Challenge # 18 which is to use buttons, brads or bling on a card and am also submitting it into Hero Arts’ Keeping in Touch and Back to School Challenge.

I’m looking forward to seeing lots of gorgeous pink creations this week!

Classy & Elegant?!

One of the current challenges on Moxie Fab World, celebrating Card Style Week, is to make a classy and elegant card. This definitely poses a challenge for me but I thought I'd have a go anyway!



Stamps:- Hero Arts Antique Engravings & Messages

I bought the background paper (Autumn Leaves - Jacobean Black) last year because I thought it was gorgeous and then I didn't know what to do with it! So I'm delighted to be finally using it on this card. In real life the paper is more cream than white but it's yet another rainy, dull day here today so the colour isn't coming out true to life. I embossed the bottom part of the panel in my Cuttlebug with the Fleur De Lis folder. The sentiment and butterfly are embossed in gold and the butterfly is coloured with markers. I always save ribbons off boxes of chocolates and that's where these ones came from!

July Card Chain Challenge

I always love taking part in Deborah's Card Chain Challenge (CCC) and today I was delighted to receive this absolute stunner from Marian in the Philippines.



The background looks amazing with the way she inked the hills, sky and sun. It also has a wonderful all over shimmer (perfect pearls maybe?) which I couldn't catch in a photo. The gorgeous embossed tree and butterflies are full of sparkle too.

It's also beautiful on the inside!



Thanks again Marian. I love it!

This is the card I sent to Donna (irishmist2009). As Donna has received the card, I thought I'd post it.



Stamps (Hero Arts):- Leaves Background, Flourish Background, Engraved Flower & Messages.

I used a piece of green fabric for the background (the grain of the fabric is less obvious in real life), clear embossed the Leaves Background on it and added a little machine stitching. The red card base is clear embossed with the Flourish Background. The flower has two layers and is coloured with a red marker and yellow watercolour pencil. I love the little heart pearls from Hero Arts so I had to add one to the card!

If you haven't already tried it, I'd highly recommend taking part in Deborah's monthly challenge. On the last Friday of the month Deborah gives the details of the next CCC on her blog. So you might like to check out her blog on the 30th of July for the August CCC!