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!

A Long Post!

I have to give a warning that this is a long and photo heavy post! I just wanted to share the cards I made for a class I gave in An Siopa Buí in Spiddal on Saturday.



Stamps (Penny Black) - Social Butterfly & Petal Party

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera with me so didn't get to take any photos in the class or of the spectacular scenery in Connemara. On the journey to and from Spiddal I saw three double rainbows, which just shows you the kind of weather we had that day - beautiful sunny spells with lots of downpours too!



Stamp (Penny Black) - Betsy Bluebell

Anyway we got to play with some of the fab new Penny Black stamps. Kerry, who owns the shop, was as hospitable and funny as always and I couldn't have asked for a lovelier group of ladies in the class. I hope they enjoyed the day as much as I did!



Stamps - Puzzle Parts (Penny Black) & Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)

As you'll be able to tell, I couldn't resist doing one of my favourite techniques, emboss resist!



Stamps (Penny Black) - Petal Party & Puzzle Parts

Kerry asked me to show the class how to make a splattered butterfly trail like I had previously made on the first card in this post. So some went with the bold purple background....



Stamps - Social Butterfly (Penny Black) & Birthday Messages (Hero Arts)

...and some with the soft blue background.



Stamps - Social Butterfly (Penny Black) & Birthday Messages (Hero Arts)

Purple is a colour that I don't use very often but I just went for it on this card!



Stamps (Penny Black) - Delicate Pattern & Petal Party

As some of you may have noticed, I love to play with fabric, so at the end of class we made a fabric brooch. You can find a tutorial for making this type of fabric flower here and for the brooch it's just a matter of making a large and small flower and adding a pearl, button or jewel to the centre.



Well done if you've made it all the way through this extra long post! Thanks for visiting:)

Paper Crafts Magazine Publication and a Walk

Well after a little bump on the posting road, I’m back after a two week break!

I’m in the middle of making a lot of cards for a friend and as I’m definitely not a speedy card maker I don’t have a card I made recently to show, instead I have one I made way back in November, which was published in the May/June issue of Paper Crafts magazine.

One of the sections in the magazine is Found Objects for Mother’s Day. So we had to make a gift using found treasure as well as a matching card. Oh I had so much fun rummaging around looking for some hidden treasures! I made a brooch and card using some beads from a broken necklace, a piece of silk a friend had given me and my favourite bit - some fabric which my mum had hand dyed.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Silhouette Grass & Celebrate Everyday

I was so thrilled to have had this project and also one for Father’s Day published in this issue. It really meant so much to me as when I was making my projects, I constantly had my dear mum and dad in mind and included what they love\loved and things that make me think of them.

Below are a few photos from a walk we did a couple of weeks ago up the Sugar Loaf Mountain. I love the walk and the views are spectacular (much better than the photos I took!) and it only takes 30 minutes to get to the top.

Setting out

At the top looking towards Wicklow Head

View of the Wicklow Mountains

View towards Killiney and Bray Head

Well I better get back to making those cards! Hope you all have a great weekend:)

A Gift on a Gift

Yesterday I started making some brooches for a craft fair and thought it might be nice to add one to a gift wrapped present, so that the recipient will end up with a gift on a gift.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Holiday Dolls (snowflakes) & Very Merry Christmas

To make the gift wrap I randomly embossed the snowflakes on a piece of inexpensive (€1.50 for 20m) parcel paper. After wrapping the box and tying with raffia, I added one of the brooches. The tag has the greeting one side and “to” & “from” on the other side. To finish I just added a scattering of gems to the gift wrap and tag. I’m submitting this project into the current Hero Arts Challenge.

I really enjoy making these flowers and making them has been a great fabric stash buster, though I think I’d need to make hundreds of them to make any real dent in my stash!